onstitutional, but is withal a great mercy."
No other man in our history has so fully possessed the power of
presenting an argument in concrete form, overthrowing all the logic
of assailants, and touching the chords of public feeling with a
tenderness which becomes an irresistible force.

The Democrats of Ohio took up the arrest of Vallandigham with
especial earnestness, and were guilty of the unspeakable folly of
nominating him as their candidate for governor. They appointed an
imposing committee--one from each Congressional district of the
State--to communicate with the President in regard to the sentence
of banishment. They arrived in Washington about the last of June,
and addressed a long communication to Mr. Lincoln, demanding the
release and return of Mr. Vallandigham. They argued the case with
ability. No less than eleven of the committee were or had been
members of Congress, with George H. Pendleton at their head. Mr.
Lincoln's reply under date of June 29 to their communication was
as felicitous, as conclusive, as his reply to the Albany Committee.
He expressed his willingness in answer to their request, to release
Mr. Vallandigham without asking pledge, promise, or retraction from
him, and with only one simple condition. That condition was that
"the gentlemen of the committee themselves, representing as they
do the character and power of the Ohio Democracy, will subscribe
to three propositions: _First_, That there is now a rebellion in
the United States, the object and tendency of which are to destroy
the National Union, and that in your opinion an army and navy are
constitutional means for suppressing that rebellion. _Second_,
That no one of you will do any thing which in his own judgment will
tend to hinder the increase or favor the decrease or lessen the
efficiency of the army and navy while engaged in the effort to
suppress that rebellion. And _Third_, That each of you will in
his sphere do all he can to have the officers, soldiers, and seamen
of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress the
Rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided for and
supported."

Mr. Lincoln sent duplicates of these three conditions to the
committee, one of which was to be returned to him indorsed with
their names as evidence of their agreement thereto, the publication
of which indorsement should be of itself a revocation of the order
in relation to Mr. Vallandigham. If the Ohio gentlemen s