"I Saw John Wilkes Booth Shoot Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1965)"

While in Canada, Vallandigham met with Jacob Thompson, who was a representative of the confederate government. He talked to Thompson about plans for forming a Northwestern Confederacy, consisting of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois by overthrowing their governments. He requested money for weapons from the confederates. Vallandigham refused to handle the money himself and it was given to his associate James A. Barrett.

Ah, so you're for punishing Vallandigham in May 1863 for crimes he might commit in the future? What might you be guilty of in the future? Pay up now for that speeding ticket you will get in 2014. Ack! What might I be guilty of in the future?

If you will remember, I stated the following qualification in Post 193 (my bold below):

Did Vallandigham levy war against the United States? No, at least not at this time.

So anyone can reasonably argue that miscarriages of justice are always possible in our legal system, ...

Amen. Vallandigham was tried unconstitutionally by a military court in a state not in insurrection where the civil court system was functioning. Lincoln was guilty of that crime. As Governor Morton pointed out to Lincoln at the time, the trial was against the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863.

The record shows the court believed Vallandigham did express sympathy for the enemy and he was, per General Order #38, exiled for it.

Remember, this was a military court set up under the auspices of General Burnside who issued General Orders No. 38. Can you imagine one of the staff on the military court saying, "No, General, you're wrong." And the general responding with, "Off to the guard house with you, Major."

rusty from post #177 arguing that Lincoln was guilty of a crime in trying former Congressman Vallandigham by military court: "I am also reminded of the ruling of the Supreme Court in Ex Parte Milligan (1866). "

rusty: "Ah, so you're for punishing Vallandigham in May 1863 for crimes he might commit in the future? "

Ah, so you're for punishing Lincoln because of a Supreme Court decision delivered after Lincoln was dead, but you think Vallandigham's behavior after the summer of 1863 was irrelevant to his actions a few months earlier?

I'm only saying the court decided Vallandigham had violated a lawful order (#38), and his punishment was eventually changed, as specified in that order, to exile in the Confederacy.

Of course, Vallandigham was a highly visible political figure, equivalent in his day to, oh, say, a Senator John Kerry in ours.
The difference, if I dare say so, is that people in those days had less difficulty seeing the difference between friends and enemies.

But Brown did not publicly oppose the Confederacy, or the war -- just the opposite.

From my above link on Brown:

the hallmark of his wartime administration was his resistance to the authority of the central Confederate government, a policy that was soon copied by some other Confederate governors and that helped to undermine the overall war effort. Governor Brown's opposition surfaced in many fields. He opposed the army's impressments of goods and especially slave laborers. He frustrated Confederate efforts to seize the Western and Atlantic Railroad and to impose occasional martial law. He bitterly criticized Confederate tax and blockade-running policies.

Brown was more effective against the Confederacy's war effort than Vallandigham was against the Union war effort.

I have to be away from the threads for a while. We are going to have 50 guests in our house in a little while. Ciao.

rusty: "Brown was more effective against the Confederacy's war effort than Vallandigham was against the Union war effort."

Brown was a public official, Vallandigham a private citizen, albeit quite famous.

Brown's personal efforts as Georgia's governor contributed far more to the Confederate war effort than Vallandigham possibly could.
Brown simply disagreed on strategy and tactics with Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
We today consider Brown wrong-headed, and Davis as representing the only viable path to victory.
But at the time Brown's efforts were very popular with his own voters, and not considered necessarily detrimental to the Confederates' overall war effort.

By contrast, Vallandigham contributed nothing and criticized much in the Union war effort.

Bottom line: Vallandigham broke the law, Brown never did.
Can you cite a case of actual Confederate law-breakers dealth with by Confederate authorities more humanely than Vallandigham in the North?

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