35. Lincoln’s Gadfly Meets an Odd Death
Clement Vallandigham (1820 – 1871) was a contrarian – and not of the good kind. An Ohio politician, he served two terms in the US House of Representatives and led the treasonous faction of anti-war Democrats known as Copperheads during the Civil War. In 1863, a court-martial convicted him of sympathizing with those in armed rebellion against the US, and exiled him to the Confederacy.
He headed to Canada, and ran for governor of Ohio from exile, but lost the election. He returned a year later, but while Union authorities monitored and kept tabs on his activities, they otherwise left him be. After the war, he advocated against suffrage and equality for blacks, and made a living as a lawyer while at it. It was in that capacity as an attorney that death caught up with Vallandigham in an Ohio courtroom in 1871, when he accidentally shot himself in the stomach during a trial.
