| The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War Revised Edition Contributor(s): Klement, Frank L. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0823218902 ISBN-13: 9780823218905 Publisher: Fordham University Press OUR PRICE: $90.25 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: January 1999 Annotation: Every American war has brought a heated debate over the extent to which national security will permit protesters to exercise their constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression. The most famous Civil War case was that of Clement L. Vallandigham, the passionate critic of Lincoln's policies. No more controversial figure ever walked than Vallandigham. In the great crisis of his time, he insisted that no circumstance, even war, could deprive a citizen of his right to oppose governmental policy freely and openly. The consequence was a furor which shook the nation's legislative halls and filled the press with violent vituperation. The ultimate fate for Vallandigham was arrest, imprisonment, and exile. However, the burning issues raised by his case remain largely unresolved today. In this book, the first full-length study of Vallandigham's Civil War career, Frank L. Klement reassesses the man and history's judgment of him. Adored by the Democratic "Butternuts" of Ohio and abhorred by his Republican opponents, Vallandigham epitomized the midwestern conservative. He opposed the revolution taking place within the war -- the emergence of "a new nation", the ascendancy of industry over agriculture, the emancipation measures, and the restriction of rights and freedoms -- and popularized the slogan "The Constitution as it is, the Union as it was". Mr. Klement follows here the tragic irony of Vallandigham's life. A brilliant thinker, an eloquent orator, and a hard campaigner, Vallandigham nevertheless met with little success in politics -- he lost more campaigns than he won. His forthright views did not please even the peace-at-any-price men of his own Democratic party, and political arrest,which he invited and which had won political victory for another Ohio dissenter, failed to bring him the coveted governorship of Ohio. At the Philadelphia convention of 1866, the symbolic reunion of North and South, Vallandigham alone was unwelcome. And history, which he always believed would vindicate him, has judged him harshly. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) |
| Dewey: 973.710 |
| LCCN: 98047502 |
| Series: North's Civil War |
| Physical Information: 1.03" H x 6.06" W x 9.16" (1.52 lbs) 352 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Topical - Civil War |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Frank L. Klement reassesses Clement L. Vallandigham, the passionate critic of Lincoln's policies, and history's judgment of him. |