The Birchard Letter (June 29, 1863), was a public letter from
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
to
Matthew Birchard and eighteen other
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
Democrats in which Lincoln defended the administration's treatment of antiwar agitators, and offered to release
Clement Vallandigham
Clement Laird Vallandigham ( ; July 29, 1820 – June 17, 1871) was an American politician and leader of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms for Ohio's 3rd congressional district in t ...
if a majority of those to whom the letter was addressed would subscribe to three pledges in connection with the prosecution of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.
Background and Result
On May 5, 1863, Ohio Democrat
Clement Vallandigham
Clement Laird Vallandigham ( ; July 29, 1820 – June 17, 1871) was an American politician and leader of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms for Ohio's 3rd congressional district in t ...
was arrested under the authority of
General Order Number 38, issued by Union General
Ambrose E. Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the Civil War and three times Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successful inventor ...
. Controversy erupted over the arrest of a Democratic politician by military authorities.
On June 14, 1863, Ohio Governor
David Tod
David Tod (February 21, 1805 – November 13, 1868) was an American politician and industrialist from the U.S. state of Ohio. As the 25th governor of Ohio, Tod gained recognition for his forceful and energetic leadership during the American Civi ...
sent a telegram from Columbus, Ohio to Lincoln. Tod stated "Allow me to express the hope that you will treat the Vallandigham Committee about to call upon you with the contempt they richly merit. The Vallandigham faction will be annihilated at our coming election".
On June 25, 1863, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury
Salmon P. Chase
Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, a ...
sent him a note advising him that a delegation from Ohio was in Washington. Chase advised Lincoln "that what is said by them or replied to them should be only in writing". Lincoln met with the delegation the same day.
On June 29, Lincoln replied to Birchard in writing. Lincoln wrote "I certainly do not ''know'' that Mr. V. has specifically, and by direct language, advised against enlistments, and in favor of desertion, and resistance to drafting. We all know that combinations, armed in some instances, to resist the arrest of deserters, began several months ago; that more recently the like has appeared in resistance to the enrolment preparatory to a draft; and that quite a number of assassinations have occurred from the same animus. These had to be met by military force, and this again has led to bloodshed and death. And now under a sense of responsibility more weighty and enduring than any which is merely official, I solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance, of the military, including maiming and murder, is due to the course in which Mr. V. has been engaged, in a greater degree than to any other cause; and is due to him personally, in a greater degree than to any other one man."
There was draft resistance in Ohio and other states of the Union.
The three pledges Lincoln asked for in exchange for a revocation of his deportation order of Vallandigham to the confederacy were:
1. That there is now a rebellion in the United States, the object and tendency of which is to destroy the national Union; and that in your opinion, an army and navy are constitutional means for suppressing that rebellion.
2. That no one of you will do any thing which in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase, or favor the decrease, or lessen the efficiency of the army or navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion; and,
3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the officers, soldiers, and seamen of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided and supported.
[Lincoln, Abraham. "Letter to Matthew Birchard and Others by Abraham Lincoln." ''Teaching American History.'' June 29, 1863. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=2509 (accessed October 22, 2012).]
On July 1, 1863, Birchard replied to Lincoln. His letter concluded with a reply to Lincoln's offer of subscription to certain pledges: "they have asked the revocation of the order of banishment, not as a favor, but as a right due to the people of Ohio".
[Birchard, Matthew. "Matthew Birchard, et al. to Abraham Lincoln." ''The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress.'' July 1, 1863]
The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
(accessed October 25, 2012). In his letter, Birchard cited
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
. On September 15, 1863, Lincoln made a proclamation suspending habeas corpus.
Prior to the Birchard letter, Lincoln also sent a letter to
Erastus Corning
Erastus Corning (December 14, 1794 – April 9, 1872) was an American businessman and politician from Albany, New York. A Democrat, he was most notable for his service as mayor of Albany from 1834 to 1837, in the New York State Senate from 1842 ...
regarding the Vallandigham controversy on June 12, 1863.
References
Primary sources
*
Sources
* ''Dictionary of American History'' by
James Truslow Adams
James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 – May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian. He was a freelance author who helped to popularize the latest scholarship about American history and his three-volume history of New England is well r ...
, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940
{{Abraham Lincoln
Ohio in the American Civil War
Politics of the American Civil War
American Civil War documents
1863 in Ohio