A lesson from the past:
On this day in 1871, Clement Vallandigham (D-OH) accidentally shot himself to death. Defending an accused murderer in court, he was trying to show the jury how the victim could actually have shot himself. Mistakenly assuming that the pistol was unloaded, Vallandigham aimed it at himself and pulled the trigger.
The result was, of course, inevitable.
But Vallandigham was more that just an inept criminal defense attorney, he was also a traitor:
During the Civil War, Vallandigham lost his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives due to his sympathies for the Confederate rebels. He soon began calling for draftees to refuse to be conscripted. He also urged U.S. troops to desert. President Abraham Lincoln ordered him expelled to rebel-controlled territory. While hiding out in Canada, the Ohio Democratic Party nominated him for governor, but he was defeated by a Republican patriot.
He returned to the U.S. to attend the 1864 Democratic National Convention. Having received $50,000 in gold from the Jefferson Davis regime, Vallandigham wrote the “peace plank” of the 1864 Democrat platform, calling for President Lincoln and the Republican Party to admit defeat and allow the rebels to win the Civil War. After the war, Vallandigham was the Democrat candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, losing both races.
Proving once again that bad political choices are seldom rescinded by the people who are clearly in the wrong.
