days, and the judgment of the court was given on the morning
of the 16th. Judge Leavitt refused the writ on the ground that,
civil war being flagrant in the land, and Ohio being under the
military command of General Burnside by appointment of the
President, the acts and offences described in General Order No. 38
were cognizable by the military authorities under the powers of war.

General Burnside had awaited the action of the court, and now
promulgated the sentence under the judgment of the military
commission. Three days later (May 19th) the President commuted the
sentence by directing that Mr. Vallandigham be sent "under secure
guard, to the headquarters of General Rosecrans, to be put by him
beyond our military lines, and that in case of his return within our
line, he be arrested and kept in close custody for the term
specified in his sentence." This was done accordingly. The
Confederate officials adopted a careful policy of treating him
courteously without acknowledging that he was one of themselves, and
facilities were given him for running the blockade and reaching
Canada. There he established himself on the border and put himself
in communication with his followers in Ohio, by whom he was soon
nominated for the Governorship of the State.

The case, of course, excited great public interest, and was, no
doubt, the occasion of considerable embarrassment to the
administration. Mr. Lincoln dealt with it with all that shrewd
practical judgment for which he was so remarkable, and in the final
result it worked to the political advantage of the National cause.
Sending Vallandigham beyond the lines took away from him the
personal sympathy which might have been aroused had he been confined
in one of the casemates of Fort Warren, and put upon him an
indelible badge of connection with the enemies of the country. The
cautious action of the Confederates in regard to him did not tend to
remove this: for it was very apparent that they really regarded him
as a friend, and helped him on his way to Canada in the expectation
that he would prove a thorn in Mr. Lincoln's side. The President's
proposal to the leading politicians who applied to him to rescind
the sentence, that as a condition of this they should make certain
declarations of the duty to support the government in a vigorous
prosecution of the war, was a most telling bit of policy on his
part, and took the sting entirely out of the accusations of tyranny
and oppression