Clement Laird Vallandigham

Biography

Clement Laird Vallandigham was an Ohio politician and lawyer who emerged as one of the most controversial figures of the American Civil War era. A Democratic congressman and vocal critic of the Lincoln administration, Vallandigham became the leading voice of the Copperhead movement, which opposed the war and advocated for immediate peace negotiations. His inflammatory speeches and writings, which many viewed as seditious, led to his arrest in 1863 and subsequent exile to the Confederacy, though he eventually made his way to Canada and later returned to Ohio.