Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/253

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VALINIERE
VALLANDIGHAM

sailed for twenty days, and discovered many isl- ands. To the northwest of the entry to the straits he discovered a promontory formed by high pyra- midical rocks, and, on landing, found natives clad in furs. Through the northern mouth of the straits. nearly 100 miles wide, he entered the Pacific ocean again, and, judging that his commission had been fulfilled, he returned to Acapulco. Having vainly waited for several years for the just recompense of his services,he left the Spanish colonial service, andafter his return, about 1596, he spoke of his discovery, in Venice, to an English officer, John Douglass, who afterward gave Fuca's diary, " Relacion del viaje de Juan de Fuca y descubrimiento del estrecho de Anian," to Michael Locke, formerly English con- sul in Aleppo, by whom it was published (London, 1604). This account of his voyage was mingled with such romantic and improbable tales that it was generally disbelieved and taken for a skilful imposition, until the trading vessels that frequent this coast in the fur-trade rediscovered the inlet and proved the general correctness of Fuca's de- scription. His name was given to the strait which connects the Pacific with the Gulf of Georgia. An account of Fuca's exploration is also given in the 3d volume of Purchas's " Pilgrimes." Duflot de Mo- f ras, in his " Explorations de l'Oregon et des Cali- fornies " (Paris, 1844), and Navarrete in his " His- toria de la Nautica," also mention Fuca's discovery.


VALINIERE, Pierre Huet de la (vah-leen- yare), Canadian clergyman, b. in Brittany in 1732 ; d. in Canada in 1806. He entered the Sulpitian order and went to Quebec, where he was ordained priest in 1757. After the English conquest he excited the hostility of the government, and was sent as a prisoner to England, where he remained eighteen months. He then returned to France, but was received coldly, and went again to Canada. He was advised to leave the country by his supe- riors, who feared complications with the govern- ment. He then travelled on foot to New York, and became pastor of the French and French Canadians in that city. Shortly afterward he spent several years in travelling through Louisi- ana and part of Spanish America. In 1790 he settled among the Canadians at Split Rock Bay, where he built a church and residence. His ec- centricities excited so much hostility among his flock that, in order to force him to go away, they burned his house and church. He published an account of his travels in verse, entitled " Vraie histoire, ou simple precis des infortunes, pour ne pas dire persecutions qu'a souffert et souffre encore le Rev. P. H. de la V." (Albany, 1792).


VALLADOLID, Bernardino de (val-yah-do - leed), Mexican linguist, b. in Valladolid, Yucatan, in 1617; d. in Merida in 1652. He entered the Franciscan order and became noted for his elo- quence and knowledge of the Maya language, so that his early death by a fall from the stairs of the College of Merida was generally deplored. His works are " Dioscorides en Lengua de Yucatan " (Mexico, 1647) and " Conclusiones Teologicas en Idioma Mavo " (1650).


VALLANDIGHAM, Clement Laird (val-lan - de-gam), politician, b. in New Lisbon, Columbiana co., Ohio, 29 July, 1820 ; d. in Lebanon, Warren co., Ohio, 17 June, 1871. He received an academi- cal education, and from 1838 till 1840 taught at Snow Hill, Md. In 1840 he returned to Ohio, and in 1842 was admitted to the bar. In 1845-6 he was a member of the Ohio legislature, and from 1847 till 1849 edited the Dayton " Empire." He belonged to the extreme state-rights wing of the Democratic party. He was a member of the Na- tional Democratic convention in 1856. In 1857 he was a candidate for congress against Lewis D. Campbell, and, though declared defeated, contested the seat and won it, serving from 25 May, 1858, till 3 March, 1863. During the 37th congress he be- came conspicuous for his bold utterances against the acts of the administration in the conduct of the war, and on 5 Dec, 1862, offered a series of reso- lutions in which he declared " that, as the war was originally waged for the purpose of defending and maintaining the supremacy of the constitution and the preservation of the Union, . . . whosoever should attempt to pervert the same to a war of subjugation, and for overthrowing or interfering with the rights of the states, and to abolish slavery, would be guilty of a crime against the constitution and the Union." These resolutions were laid on the table by a vote of 79 to 50. On 14 Jan. follow- ing, Mr. Vallandigham spoke to the resolutions of Mr. Wright, of Pennsylvania, defined his position on the war question, and said : " A war for Union ! Was the Union thus made f Was it ever thus pre- served? History will record that after nearly six thousand years of folly and wickedness in every form and administration of government, theocratic, democratic, monarchic, oligarchic, despotic, and mixed, it was reserved to American statesmanship in the 19th century of the Christian era to try the grand experiment, on a scale the most costly and gigantic in its proportions, of creating love by force, and developing fraternal affection by war; and history will record, too, on the same page, the utter, disastrous, and most bloody failure of the experiment." After his term in congress expired, Mr. Vallandigham returned to Ohio and made nu- merous speeches, in which he attacked the admin- istration with great violence and bitterness. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, then commander of the De- partment of the Ohio, regarded these demonstra- tions of Mr. Vallandigham and his friends as in- tended to afford aid and comfort to the enemy ; and, as the city of Cincinnati, as well as southern Ohio and the adjacent states, was in some peril from the raids of the Confederates, he deemed it his duty to suppress these demonstrations, and ac- cordingly issued an order declaring that persons within the lines that were found committing cer- tain specified acts for the benefit of the enemy should be tried as spies and traitors, and also said that the habit of express- ing sympathy for the enemy would no longer be toler- ated in the depart- ment. Mr. Vallan- digham replied to this order on 1 May in a defiant speech, and Gen.

Burnside ordered

his arrest. He was taken to Cincinnati, and, though he issued an appeal to his adherents, was tried by court-martial, convicted, and sentenced to close confinement during the war. President Lincoln changed the sentence to a banishment across the lines. This affair occasioned much discussion both in public assemblies and in the press. Without exception, the Democratic journals denounced the whole transaction. The organs of the admin-