Upon learning that leading Democrats in Ohio had drafted resolutions condemning Lincoln for arresting Vallandigham and other agitators, Lincoln wrote to Birchard and other delegates to the Ohio State Democratic convention. He expands and elaborates upon the justification proffered to Erastus Corning (see selection 24). Vallandigham was finally freed and ordered banished behind Confederate lines for the duration of the Civil War.

Washington, DC June 29, 1863

Gentlemen:

The resolutions of the Ohio Democratic State convention which you present me, together with your introductory and closing remarks, being in position and argument, mainly the same as the resolutions of the Democratic meeting at Albany, New York, I refer you to my response to the latter,1 as meeting most of the points in the former. This response you evidently used in preparing your remarks, and I desire no more than that it be used with accuracy. In a single reading of your remarks I only discovered one inaccuracy in matter which I suppose you took from that paper. It is when you say “The undersigned are unable to agree with you in the opinion you have expressed that the constitution is different in time of insurrection or invasion from what it is in time of peace & public security.” A recurrence to the paper will show you that I have not expressed the opinion you suppose. I expressed the opinion that the constitution is different, in its application in cases of Rebellion or Invasion, involving the Public Safety, from what it is in times of profound peace and public security; and this opinion I adhere to, simply because, by the constitution itself, things may be done in the one case which may not be done in the other.

. . .