ssed its sympathy with him. President Lincoln met
one of their committees, and agreed with them that Vallandigham's arrest
was unusual, but he quaintly added: He could not be persuaded that the
government should not take measures in time of war which must not be
taken in time of peace, any more than he could be persuaded that a sick
man must not take medicine which was not good food for a well one.
So thought the great majority of the Ohio people, who duly chose John
Brough, a War Democrat, for their governor in October. Vallandigham
remained in Canada until 1864, when he returned to Dayton, where he was
warmly received by his friends, and not molested by the authorities. But
he had never afterwards any political importance, in spite of his great
abilities and the peculiar charm of his manner for all kinds of people.
After the war was over, he accepted its conclusions with earnest good
faith, and three years later he met his death by a curious accident.
He was showing a friend, in behalf of a client in whom he was greatly
interested, how a pistol might go off in a pocket and cause a mortal
wound such as his client was accused of inflicting on another. The
pistol in his hand was really discharged; Vallandigham was fatally
wounded and died shortly afterwards.
XXIII. FAMOUS OHIO SOLDIERS
First among these I count the great chief Pontiac, who led the
rebellion of the mid-western tribes against the English after the French
had abandoned them, and who was born in Auglaize County. I count
the renowned chief Tecumseh, too, that later and lesser Pontiac, who
attempted to do against the Americans what Pontiac tried to do against
the English.
It was some time before the great white men of Ohio began to be born
here, but in the meanwhile there were those born elsewhere who, like
General Harrison, became Ohioans, and so did what they could to repair
the defect of birth. There is no reason to think that such men were
shaped by Ohio influences, but it is the habit of our generous Ohio
state patriotism to claim as Ohioans not only those who were born here,
and those who came to live here, but those who were born here and then
went to live elsewhere.
Valiant and able generals came from the different parts of Ohio, and
from the different races which settled there. But the Scotch race,
descending through New England, has the highest place in our soldiers'
ancestry, and the county of Clermont has the deathless glory of bein
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