resistance to drafting," &c., and yet, in a subsequent part of your answer, after speaking of certain disturbances which are alleged to have occurred in resistance of the arrest of deserters and of the enrollment preparatory to the draft, and which you attribute mainly to the course Mr. Vallandigham has pursued, you say that he has made speeches against the war in the midst of resistance to it; that "he has never been known, in any instance, to counsel against such resistance;" and that "it is next to impossible to repel the inference that he has counselled directly in favor of it." Permit us to say that your information is most grievously at fault.

The undersigned have been in the habit of hearing Mr. Vallandigham speak before popular assemblages, and they appeal with confidence to every truthful person who has ever heard him for the accuracy of the declaration, that he has never made a speech before the people of Ohio in which he has not counselled submission and obedience to the laws and the Constitution, and advised the peaceful remedies of the judicial tribunals and of the ballot-box for the redress of grievances and for the evils which afflict our bleeding and suffering country. And, were it not foreign to the purposes of this communication, we would undertake to establish to the satisfaction of any candid person that the disturbances among the people to which you allude, in opposition to the arrest of deserters and the draft, have been occasioned mainly by the measures, policy, and conduct of your Administration, and the course of its political friends. But if the circumstantial evidence exists, to which you allude, which makes "it next to impossible to repel the inference that Mr. Vallandigham has counselled directly in favor" of this resistance, and that the same bas been mainly attributable to his conduct, why was he not turned over to the civil authorities to be tried under the late acts of Congress? If there be any foundation in fact for your statements implicating him in resistance to the constituted authorities, he is liable to such prosecution. And we now demand, as a mere act of justice to him, an investigation of this matter before a jury of his country; and respectfully insist that fairness requires either that you retract these charges which you make against him, or that you revoke your order of banishment and allow him the opportunity of an investigation before an impartial jury.

The committee do not deem it necessary to repel at length the imputation that the attitude of themselves or of the Democratic party in Ohio "encourage desertions, resistance to the draft, and the like." Suggestions of that kind are not unusual weapons in our ordinary political contests. They rise readily in the minds of politicians heated with the excitement of partisan strife. During the two years in which the Democratic party of Ohio has been constrained to oppose the policy of the Administration, and to stand up in defence of the Constitution and of personal rights, this charge has been repeatedly made. It has fallen harmless, however, at the feet of those whom it was intended to injure. The committee believe it will do so again. If it were proper to do so in

this paper, they might suggest that the measures of the Administration, and its changes of policy in the prosecution of the war, have been the fruitful sources of discouraging enlistments and inducing desertions, and furnish a reason for the undeniable fact that the first call for volunteers was answered by very many more than were demanded, and that the next call for soldiers will probably be responded to by drafted men alone.

The observation of the President in this connection, that neither the Convention in its resolutions, nor the committee in its communication, intimate that they are conscious of an existing rebellion being in progress with the, avowed object of destroying the Union," needs, perhaps, no reply. The Democratic party of Ohio has felt so keenly the condition of the country, and been so stricken to the heart by the misfortunes and sorrows which have befallen it, that they hardly deemed it necessary by solemn resolution, when their very State exhibited everywhere the sad evidences of war, to remind the President that they were aware of its existence.

In the conclusion of your communication you propose that, if a majority of the committee shall affix their signatures to a duplicate copy of it, which you have furnished, they shall stand committed to three propositions, therein at length set forth, that he will publish the names thus signed, and that this publication shall operate as a revocation of the order of banishment. The committee cannot refrain from the expression of their surprise that the President should make the fate of Mr. Vallandigham depend upon the opinion of this committee upon these propositions. If the arrest and banishment were legal, and were deserved; if the President exercised a power clearly delegated, under circumstances which warranted its exercise, the order ought not to be revoked, merely because the committee hold, or express, opinions accordant with those of the President. If the arrest and banishment were not legal, or were not deserved by Mr. Vallandigham, then surely he is entitled to an immediate and unconditional discharge.

The people of Ohio were not so deeply moved by the action of the President merely because they were concerned for the personal safety and convenience of Mr. Vallandigham, but because they saw in his arrest and banishment an attack upon their own personal rights; and they attach value to his discharge chiefly as it will indicate an abandonment of the claim to the power of such arrest and banishment. However just the undersigned might regard the principles contained in the several propositions submitted by the President, or how much soever they might, under other circumstances, feel inclined to indorse the sentiments contained therein, yet they assure him that they have not been authorized to enter into any bargains, terms, contracts, or conditions with the President of the United States to procure the release of Mr. Vallandigham. The opinions of the undersigned touching the questions involved in these propositions are well known, have been many times publicly expressed, and

The idea that such a pledge as that asked from the undersigned would secure the public safety sufficiently to compensate for any mistake of the President in discharging Mr. Vallandigham is, in their opinion, a mere evasion of the grave questions involved in this discussion, and of a direct answer to their demand. And this is made especially apparent by the fact that this pledge is asked in a communication which concludes with an intimation of a disposition on the part of the President to repeat the acts complained of. The undersigned, therefore, having fully discharged the duty enjoined upon them, leave the responsibility with the President.

M. BIRCHARD, 19th Dist., Chairman.
DAVID HOUK, Sec'y, 3d Dist.
GEO. BLISS, 14th Dist.
T. W. BARTLEY, 8th Dist.
W. J. GORDON, 18th Dist.
JOHN O'NEILL, 13th Dist.
C. A. WHITE, 6th Dist.
W. E. FINCK, 12th Dist.
ALEXANDER LONG, 2d Dist.
JAS. R. MORRIS, 15th Dist.
GEO. S. CONVERSE, 7th Dist.
GEO. H. PENDLETON, 1st Dist.
W. A. HUTCHINS, 11th Dist.
A. L. BACKUS, 10th Dist.
J. F. MCKINNEY, 4th Dist.
J. W. WHITE, 16th Dist.
F. C. LEBLOND, 5th Dist.
LOUIS SCHEFFER, 17th Dist.
WARREN P. NOBLE, 9th Dist.

The Case before the United States Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON, February 15, 1864. The case of Mr. Vallandigham, ex parte, was decided in the Supreme Court of the United States to-day. The petitioner asked that the writ of certiorari be directed to the Judge Advocate General for a revision of the proceedings of the Military Commission which tried him, the jurisdiction of which was denied as extending to the case of a civilian, and the object being to have the sentence annulled, on the ground of illegality. The Judge Advocate, Col. Holt, had responded in a written argument that the Court might with as much propriety be called upon to restrain, by injunction, the proceedings of Congress, as to revise by certiorari and reverse the proceedings of the military authority in time of war in the punishment of all military offences, according to the usages of civilized nations and the power given by the Constitution and laws of the United States for the common defence and public safety.

Justice Wayne to day delivered the opinion of the Court, refusing the writ, on the greund that even if the arrest. trial, and punishment of Vallandigham were illegal, there is no authority in the Court to grant relief in this mode, and that there is no law by which any appeal or proceedings in the nature of an appeal from a Military Commission to the Supreme Court can be taken.

His Letter on "Retaliation."

WINDSOR, C. W., March 7, 1864. Messrs. HUBBARD AND BROTHER, Dayton, Ohio: GENTLEMEN: I read, several days ago, the telegraphic

No legal nor military punishment is ever inflicted upon the immediate instruments. Retaliation, therefore, is the only and rightful remedy in times like these. I speak adno avail to announce the falsehood that "both parties convisedly, and recommend it in all cases hereafter. It is of demn it," after the destruction has been consummated The time has gone by for obedience without protection. I speak decided language; but the continual recurrence of these outrages-frequently attended with murder, and always without redress-demands it. They must be stopped, let the consequences be what they may. Repri law and order. sals in such cases are now the only way left for a return to Very truly, C. L. VALLANDIGHAM.

Mr. Vallandigham's Return and Address. 1864, June 15—Mr. Vallandigham returned to Ohio, and that day addressed the Democratic Convention at Hamilton, Ohio, as follows:

MEN OF OHIO: To-day I am again in your midst and upon the district which for ten years extended to me the highest the soil of my native State. To-day I am once more within confidence, and three times honored me as its Representa tive in the Congress of the United States. I was accused of no crime against the Constitution or laws, and guilty of none. But whenever and wherever thus charged upon due process of law, I am now here ready to answer before any civil court of competent jurisdiction, to a jury of my countrymen, and in the meantime to give bail in any sum which any judge or court, State or Federal, may affix, and you, the 186,000 Democrats of Ohio, I offer as my sureties.

Never for one hour have I remained in exile because I recognized any obligation of obedience to the unconstitutional and arbitrary edict. Neither did personal fear over restrain me. And to-day I return of my own act and pleasure, because it is my constitutional and legal right to return. Only by an exertion of arbitrary power, itself against the Constitution and law, and consummated by military force, I was abducted from my home and forced into banishment. The assertion or insinuation of the President that I was arrested "because laboring, with some effect, to prevent the raising of troops, and to encourage desertions from the army," and was responsible for numerous acts of resistance to the draft and to the arrest of deserters, causing “assassi nation, maiming, and murder," or that at any time, in any way, I had disobeyed or failed to counsel obedience to the lawful authority, or even to the semblance of law, is absolutely false.

I appeal for the proof to every speech I ever made upon Commission by the trial and sentence of which I was outthose questions, and to the very record of the mock Military raged. No; the sole offence then laid to my charge was words of criticism of the public policy of the Administration, addressed to open and public political meetings of my fellow-citizens of Ohio, lawfully and peaceably assembled. they call treason, worship I the Constitution of my fathers. And to-day, my only "crime" is, that in the way which But for now more than one year, no public man has been arrested, and no newspaper suppressed within the States adhering still to the Union, for the expression of political opinion; while hundreds, in public assembly and through the press, have, with a license and violence in which I never indulged, criticised and condemned the acts and policies of the Administration, and denounced the war, maintaining even the propriety and necessity of the recognition of southern independence.

Democratic party of my native State at the late elections, Indorsed by nearly two hundred thousand freemen of the and still with the sympathy and support of millions more, I do not mean any longer to be the only man of that party who is to be the victim of arbitrary power. If Abraham Lincoln seeks my life, let him so declare; but he shall not again restrain me of my personal liberty except upon "due process of law." The unconstitutional and monstrous "Order 38," under which alone. I was arrested thirteen months ago, was defied and spit upon at your State convention of 1863, by the gallant gentleman who bore the standard as your candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and by

every Democratic press and public speaker ever since. It is dead. From the first it was against the Constitution and laws, and without validity; and all proceedings under it were and are utterly null and void and of no effect.

The indignant voice of condemnation long since went forth from the vast majority of the people and presses of America and from all free countries in Europe with entire unanimity. And more recently, too, the "platform" of an earnest, numerous, and most formidable Convention of the sincere Republicans, and still further, the emphatic letter of acceptance by the candidate of that Convention, Gen. John C. Fremont, the first candidate also of the Republican party for the Presidency eight years ago, upon the rallying cry of "Free speech and a free Press," give renenewed hope that at last the reign of arbitrary power is about to be brought to an end in the United States. It is neither just nor fit, therefore, that the wrongs inflicted under "Order 38," and the other edicts and acts of such power, should be any longer endured-certainly not by me alone.

But every ordinary means of redress has first been exhausted; yet either by the direct agency of the Administration and its subordinates, or through its influence or intimidation, or because of want of jurisdiction in the civil courts which no American in former times conceived to be possible here, a l have failed. Counsel applied in my behalf to an unjust judge for the writ of habeas corpus. It was denied; and now the privilege of that writ is suspended by act of Congress and Executive order in every State. The Democratic Convention of Ohio, one year ago, by a resolution formally presented through a committee of your best and ablest men in person, at Washington, demanded of the President, in behalf of a very large minority of the people, a revocation of the edict of banishment.

Pretending that the public safety then required it, he refused; saying, at the same time, that "it would afford him pleasure to comply as soon as he could by any means be made to believe that the public safety would not suffer by it." One year has elapsed, yet this hollow pretence is still tacitly asserted, and to-day I am here to prove it unfounded in fact. I appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States; and because Congress had never conferred jurisdiction in behalf of a citizen tried by a tribunal unknown for such purpose, to the laws, and expressly forbidden by the Constitution, it was powerless to redress the wrong. The time has, therefore, arrived, when it becontes me as a citizen of Ohio and of the United States, to demand, and, by my own act, to vindicate the rights, liberties, and privileges which I never forfeited, but of which, for so many months, I have been deprived.

treasonable or "disloyal" in its character, affiliated with the South, and for the purpose of armed resistance to the Federal and State Governments. Whether any such ever existed I do not know; but the charge that organizations of that sort, or having any such purpose, do now exist among members of that party in Ohio or other non-slaveholding States, is totally and positively false.

That lawful political or party associations have been established, having, as their object, the organizing and strengthening of the Democratic party, and its success in the coming Presidential election, and designed as a countermovement to the so-called “Union Leagues," and, therefore, secret in their proceedings, is very probable, and however objectionable hitherto, and in ordinary times, I recognize to the fullest extent, not the lawfulness only, but the propriety and necessity of such organizations-for "when bad men combine good men must associate." But they are no conspiracy against the Government, and their members are not conspirators, but patriots; men not leagued together for the overthrow of the Constitution or the laws, and still less, of liberty, but firmly united for the preservation and support of these great objects.

There is, indeed, a conspiracy" very powerful, very ancient, and I trust that before long I may add, strongly consolidated also, upon sound principles, and destined yet to be triumphant-a conspiracy known as the Democratic party, the present object of which is the overthrow of the Administration in November next, not by force but throu, h the ballot-box, the election of a President who shall be true to his oath, to Liberty and the Constitution. This is the sole conspiracy of which I know anything; and I am proud to be one of the conspirators. If any other exist, looking to unlawful armed resistance to the Federal State authorities anywhere, in the exercise of their legal and constitutional rights, I admonish all persons concerned, that the act is treason, and the penalty death.

But I warn also the men in power that there is a vast multitude, a host whom they cannot number, bound together by the strongest and holiest ties, to defend, by whatever means the exigencies of the times shall demand, their natural and constitutional rights as freemen, at all hazards and to the last extremity.

Three years have now passed, men of Ohio, and the great issue-constitutional liberty and free popular governmentis still before you. To you I again commit it, confident that in this, the time of their greatest peril, you will be found worthy of the ancestors who for so many ages, in England and America, on the field, in prison, and upon the scaffold, defended them against tyrants and usurpers, whether in councils or in arms.

June 17-He is reported to have thus spoken in response to a serenade, in Dayton:

MY FRIENDS: I greet you to-night as you greet me, and I can truly say, that from this demonstration it is evident you are determined to support those principles which I have advocated and have suffered for. To me, this demonstration was unexpected, and I appear only to make my renewed acknowledgment to you for this continued expression of

He would make no threats, but he did not come from a foreign country without a deliberate calculation of the cause and the consequences, and a deliberate preparation to meet them. He could be taken by any due civil process, by any crippled constable, but without that no force could do it. Three hundred men, armed to the teeth, would not again find him in his house after the door had been buttoned down, but they would find him the next day and not far off, [immense cheers,] and if any military commander of the President were to undertake such an arrest he warned them that in this town the persons and property of those instigating such a proceeding would be held as hostage. He should urge an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, so help him ever living Jehovah.

He appeared, not to speak upon questions of politics, he said, nor to add to what he had said the day before.

He had come, he said, for the purpose of living at home with the wife of his bosom and his child, to live in his own home from which he had been torn thirteen months before, and to receive in quiet the calls of his friends. He did not expect to be again molested unless by men in this city, and the former scenes revived. "If this be done," he said, “ I warn them that the result will be such as compared to it, the other was but dust in the scale."

no disturbance, and believed there would be none. He did not believe there would be any attempt to arrest him again, but should there be, he repeated his warning, not, as he said, in a spirit of bravado, but to let his friends know that he and his friends were prepared for any emergency. This he several times repeated.