Vallandigham, << vuh LAN dih guhm, >> Clement Laird (1820-1871), an Ohio politician, criticized President Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War policies. Vallandigham was one of the best known of the northern Copperheads or Peace Democrats. He favored compromise with the South, and was arrested and convicted of treason in 1863. President Lincoln banished him to the Confederacy, but he escaped to Canada.
Vallandigham was born on June 20, 1820, in New Lisbon, Ohio. He served in the Ohio state legislature in 1845 and 1846, and in the United States Congress from 1858 to 1863. During his exile in 1863, Ohio Democrats nominated him for governor, but he lost the election. Vallandigham returned to the United States in 1864, but he never regained political prominence. He died on June 17, 1871.
