Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-04-09
GEN. ButIer I'm New Work.

We have already briefly alluded to the
reception of Gen. Butler in New York /
last week. We now make room for some
extracts from his speech made on that oc-
easlon, addressed to an audience, ii IS said,
of FIVE thousand people and where was
manifested a determined and enthusiastic /
spirit in behalf of the cause, unsurpassed .
since the breaking ont of the rebellion. /
j Whether or not AT Of Gen. Buffers views
enuncated in that speech viii command
the assent of every loyal man, the speech |
was characterized thro ghout by great
force and an advocacy of thorough and
vigorous measures against the rebels, and
the whole Of it is worthy Of careful pc
rusal by all. He took the ground and ar
gued the point at length, that, having re-
pudiated the constitution, and entered up
ON war to destroy it altogether, the rebels
had voluntarily placed themselves in aposl-,
ton Of alien enemies, and were to be treated
and conquered as such. In this view he
insisted that we had the right to contiscate
their property, to dispose of their slaves
as we saw ft--set them free or otherwise
and TO arm the blacks to fight for us.
He said:
If the States are alien enemes,~lssthere
any objection that you know OF, II 50 state
it, to our arming one portonot the toreign
cohatry against the other while they are
fighting us z ( Applause, and cries f"No,'
eNo.nl Suppose that we were at war with
England Who would get up here IN New
York and say we must not arm the irish,
lest they should hurt ssme Of the English {
[Applause At one time not very fan
gone all those Engllshnien were our grand
fathers brothers. But we are now sepa-
rate nations There can be no digestion
for another reason, because there is no ln-
ternqtional law or any other laT.of gov
ernmental action that | know Of which
prevents the country from arming any
portion of its citizens and If the slaves do
not take part in the rebellion, they become
simply our citizens residing in our terrific
nv which is at present usurp6d by oGr en-
emies. [Appiause.l At this waning
hour do not propose to discuss but mere
" to hint at these various subjects.
fCres of go on.'I There is one ques-
ton | am frequently asked-"Why, Gen.
Butler, what is your experience? Will
the negroes fght?' To that | answer, !
have no personal experience, because
left the department of the Gulf before
they were fairly brought into action. But
they dld fight under jackson at Chalmers
More than that. Let Napoleon Ill an
swer, who has hired them to do what the
veterans of the Crimea cannot do-to Wbll
the Mexicans Let the veterans OF Ma
poleon /, under lie Cleve, who wer
whipped out at st. Domingo, say whether
they will fight or not. What has been th'
demoralizing effect upon them as a race
by their contact with white men / know
not, but cannot forget that their father
would not have been slaves, but that they
> were captves in war. And if you wan
to know more than that L can only ad
wise you to try them. Great applause.
Gen. Butler made concise statemen
of his manner of dealing with rebellion
III Nlrtilu3 III ' ii anu III L'ouloi'iio
He gave protection to everything and ev
erybody that was loyal; dsloyalty h
crushed out. And that was the way the re
bellon must.be put down. He said his pc
icy was not simply TO restore the Union as
was, but to make it better than it was, b
= conquering an honorable and lasting peac
leaving no poison in the system of th
body polite to create future convulsion
and possible decay and death. The Ger
eral continued as follows:
/ desire now te,say single word upo
the question, what are the prospects
this war? My oplrion would be ne bet
ter than that of another man; but let M
show you the reason fer the faith that IS i
lme that this war is progressing steadily t
"a successful termination. Compare tn
state of the country on January |, 1863
Hgith the state of the coantry on Januar,
1. 1862. and tell me whether there has no
been progress. At that time the Unio.
armies held no considerable portion o
Missouri, of Kentucky, or of Tennessee
one,ef Virginia except Fortress Monro
and Arlington Hights none of North Car
0lina save Hatteras, and none of Soutl
Carolina save Port Royal. All the res
was ground of struggle at least, and al
the rest furnished supplies for the rebels
Now they hold none of Missouri, none O
kentucky, none of Tennessee, for any
valuable purpose of supplies, because The
western portion is in our hands and the
eastern portion bss been so run over by
the contending armies that the supplies
are gone. They hole no portion of Vir-
ginia valuable for supplies, for this is eaten
out by their armies. We hold one-third
of Virginia and half of North Carolina.
We hold our own in South Carolina; and
hope that before the llth of thi. month
we shall hold little more Applause. I
We hold two-thirds of Louisiana in wealth
And n.,ni,.c Wa hold oil Ar,