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When Albany Challenged the President 31 WHENWHEN ALBANYALBANY CHALLENGEDCHALLENGED The President B Y FR A NK J. WI LL I A M S k k The arrest of an Ohio Democratic congressman who opposed Lincoln’s 1862 suspension of the writ of habeus Lincoln is depicted as a phoenix rising corpus led Albany Democrats into an impassioned from the ashes of the Constitution in exchange of letters with the president. But it would take this British cartoon. a century and a half for the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY/MANUSCRIPTS AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS this executive assertion of authority. www.nysarchivestrust.org 32 necessary to reunite the nation. had given while in Congress Congressman On September 24, 1862, that had gained considerable Clement L. responding to the grave publicity. Vallandigham Vallandigham political and military climate, had charged Lincoln with Lincoln issued a proclamation the “wicked and hazardous declaring martial law and experiment” of calling the authorizing the use of military people to arms without tribunals to try civilians within counsel and authority of the United States who were Congress; with violating the believed to be “guilty of Constitution by declaring a disloyal practice” or who blockade of Southern ports; “afford[ed] aid and comfort with “contemptuously” to Rebels.” defying the Constitution by This was only the begin- suspending the writ of habeas ning. The following March, corpus; and with “coolly” Major General Ambrose coming before Congress and Burnside assumed command pleading that he was only of the Department of the “preserving and protecting” Ohio. Burnside took command the Constitution while at his headquarters in demanding and expecting the Cincinnati, where wholesale thanks of Congress and the criticism of the war was country for his “usurpations rampant. Agitated by such of power.” anti-administration speeches, Learning that Vallandigham General Burnside responded was to speak again at a on April 13, 1863 by issuing Democratic meeting in Mount General Order No. 38, which Vernon, Ohio, Burnside LIBRARY OF CONGRESS authorized imposition of the dispatched two captains in death penalty for those who civilian clothes to listen to aided the Confederacy and Vallandigham’s speech. As who “declared sympathies for anticipated, Vallandigham the enemy.” lambasted President Lincoln, referred to him as a political y mid-1862, nearly A “Wily Agitator” tyrant, and called for his two bloody years had Among those who particularly overthrow. Vallandigham passed since the irked General Burnside was proclaimed, among other onset of the Civil War. former Ohio Democratic things, that “the present war Political conflicts roiled Congressman Clement L. was a wicked, cruel, and Bthe nation, driving both sides Vallandigham, the best-known unnecessary war, one not to fight fiercely for a cause in anti-war Copperhead of the waged for the preservation NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY which each strongly believed. Civil War and perhaps Lincoln’s of the Union, but for the Despair cast a dark cloud over sharpest critic. Active in purpose of crushing out liberty the country, and casualties politics throughout most of and to erect a despotism; a would reach over 200,000 by his life, Vallandigham was war for the freedom of the the start of the next year. elected to the House of blacks and the enslavement Throughout the crisis, President Representatives from Ohio in of the whites.” Abraham Lincoln remained 1856, 1858, and 1860. With General Order No. 38 proactive, knowing that General Burnside knew him as justification and at General extraordinary measures were well from several speeches he Burnside’s direction, 150 Union NEW YORK archives • WINTER 2009 33 soldiers arrived at the Copper- Threatening the protest the case, which they head’s home in Dayton at Constitution? believed was a “crime against 2:40 a.m. on May 5, 1863. Vallandigham’s arrest, military the Constitution.” People Agitated by such When Vallandigham refused trial, conviction, and sentence arrived in droves, and by 8 p.m. anti-administration to let the soldiers in, they aroused excitement through- on May 18 the broad walk broke down his front door out the country. The “wily leading to the Capitol steps speeches, General and forced their way inside. agitator,” as Lincoln later and the adjacent grounds was Burnside responded They arrested him and escorted obliquely described him, found packed with citizens. him to Kemper Barracks, a many supporters for his views Although unable to attend on April 13 by issuing military prison in Cincinnati. in New York––particularly in the public meeting, New General Order No. 38, Although he was a United heavily Democratic Albany. York’s Democratic Governor States citizen who would Sentiment in Albany held Horatio Seymour forwarded a which authorized ordinarily be tried in the civilian that Vallandigham’s arrest letter that was read aloud to imposition of the court system, Vallandigham was arbitrary and constituted the spirited crowd of 3,000. was brought before a military an effort to exert military Like many New Yorkers, death penalty for tribunal a day after his arrest. censorship of public discourse. Seymour was outraged at what those who aided the Vallandigham, an attorney, One newspaper reported that he believed was a depredation represented himself before the arrest was an experiment of civil liberties. He wrote: Confederacy and who the military officers who conducted by the Lincoln The transaction involved a “declared sympathies presided over his case and Administration to test how series of offences against protested that the commission much the public would toler- our most sacred rights. for the enemy.” had no authority to try him. ate. Many New Yorkers felt It interfered with the His protestations fell on deaf that Vallandigham’s arrest freedom of speech; it ears, however, as the case was a very real possibility for violated our rights to be before the tribunal proceeded. them, too. The Albany Atlas secure in our homes Vallandigham was found and Argus, an anti-adminis- against unreasonable guilty of violating General tration Democratic newspaper, searches and seizures; it Order No. 38 and sentenced reported those fears: “[T]he pronounced sentence to imprisonment for the blow that falls upon a citizen without a trial, save one duration of the war. of Ohio to-day, may be which was a mockery, Vallandigham then applied directed at a Democrat of which insulted as well as to the United States Circuit New York to-morrow. The wronged. The perpetrators Court sitting at Cincinnati for blow, therefore, is a threat at now seek to impose a writ of habeas corpus—a every Democrat.” Days later, punishment, not for an procedural method by which the paper drove home this offence against the law one who is imprisoned can sentiment: “[T]he State of but for a disregard of an seek to have his imprisonment New York, and every citizen invalid order, put forth reviewed—but the writ was of the State, is equally in an utter disregard of denied. He later sought a writ threatened[.] We must make principles of civil liberty. of certiorari (an order by a common cause with the higher court directing a lower citizens of other States, or Fiery speeches criticized court to send the record in a we, too, are lost.” General Burnside for his given case for review) from Democratic New Yorkers, action against Vallandigham. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS the United States Supreme incensed by Vallandigham’s Among those who spoke Court, which was likewise arrest, then organized what were Judge Amasa J. Parker, denied, on grounds that the the Atlas and Argus described United States Congressman court was without jurisdiction as “[o]ne of the largest and Francis Kernan, and the to review the military tribunal’s most respectable meetings Honorable John W. Murphy. Major General proceedings. ever held at the Capitol” to Orator after orator expressed Ambrose Burnside www.nysarchivestrust.org 34 president “with the assurance administration’s infringement of this meeting of their hearty of the “most sacred rights and earnest desire to support of American freemen.” Mass the Government in every meetings occurred in Utica, Constitutional and lawful Troy, and Waterloo, while in measure to suppress the Brooklyn a subcommittee of existing Rebellion.” The the Democratic General resolutions drove home the Committee was appointed to point that those who attended “consider the subject of the the meeting regarded recent arbitrary arrests by Vallandigham’s arrest and the Government, and draft imprisonment as illegal and resolutions expressive of the unconstitutional. In the sense of the Union Democratic Albany Democrats’ opinion, General Committee.” [the] assumption of power These meetings were by a military tribunal, if challenged, however, by successfully asserted, not those loyal to the Union and only abrogates the right the Republican administra- of the people to assemble tion. In Albany, hundreds and discuss the affairs of assembled on May 20, 1863 Government, the liberty of “to give expression to their speech and of the press, patriotic loyalty, and to the right of trial by jury, vindicate the Capital of the the law of evidence, and State of New York from the the privileges of Habeas imputation of indifference to Corpus, but it strikes a fatal the results of the war and NEW YORK STATE ARCHIVES to the integrity of the Nation.” Lincoln wrote a twenty-page blow at the supremacy outrage against the allegedly The pro-administration Albany response to Albany Democrats of law, and the authority defending his suspension of arbitrary actions of the of the State and Federal Evening Journal described the writ of habeas corpus. administration. But not every- Constitutions. the previous assemblage of The photo was taken on one in attendance criticized Albany Democrats as “a August 9, 1863. those actions. Several soldiers On May 19, only a day after meeting to justify a bad man, who had just returned from this extraordinary meeting, and to denounce those who the battlefield displayed great Albany’s former Democratic sought to punish him…to dissatisfaction with the rally’s mayor (and former U.S.
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