Author Frank L. Klement (with tongue firmly in cheek) once told an audience that there were only two imortant central figures in the Civil War: Lincoln and Clement L. Vallandigham; the subject of this disputable biography. One must understand that Frank L. Klement is a revisionist historian with 62% of his 221 published items anti-Lincoln. Attacking Lincoln, the most sacred icon in American history, for blatant illegalities in violation of civil liberties caused a sensation in the histrorical community when it was first introduced. Klement's contention that the Copperhead movement was not a threat to the union has generally been accepted by major Lincoln scholars including James Macpherson. The question remains how far can civil liberties be protected before they endanger national security. In the case of Clement Vallandigham the outer limits were reached in a time when many, including Lincoln, felt that constitutional liberties would lose the nation. Klement's thesis has gained more respectability since the dissent of Viet Nam, but the problem presented by Vallandigham has really never been resolved. Vallandigham won two out of eight elections for congressman from Ohio. Preaching preservation of the union with slavery intact, he believed the South could not be coerced into reentering the union. The Ohio congressman was the spokesman for many in the midwest who favoured agriculture over industry, opposed equality for blacks, and wanted to continue the balance of power the midwest played in the rivalry between North and South. Had this been all to Vallandigham he would have been written off as a hopeless reactionary. But the Dayton congressman was also a liberal, speaking out against arbitrary arrests, executive usurpation, as well as supporting abolishment of capital punishment, Jewish rabbis as army chaplains and free trade. The Ohioan was also-according to James Horan-a child prodigy learning the alphabet at age two and learning to speak both Latin and Greek at age twelve. (see Horan's CONFEDERATE AGENT,PA.18). No physical coward, Vallandigham courted martyrdom by defying federal authorities. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment by General Burnside (upheld by the court in EX PARTE VALLANDIGHAM). Wisely, Lincoln dumped him over the border into Dixie, ignoring the gadfly wdhen he attended the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1864. Klement's Vallandigham comes across as an insufferable self-righteous prig who was neutralized by Lincoln. But Vallandigham-the faithful son of a Calvinist Huguenot minister-always believed he would be vindicated by history. While defending a client in a murder case Vallandigham grabbed the wrong pistol and killed himself. He has largely been forgotten by posterity. The bullet that ended Lincoln's life, on the otherhand, made him immortal. Such is the verdict of history.