The Portland daily press., 1863-01-05

Democracy: at Charleston he voted IN con-
yention. with Caleb Cushing, for Jefferson Da-
Wis: at Baltimore he lelt the convention with
the seceders. aud assisted to nominate John Z.
Breckenridge, for whose success he labored up
TO the day Of the election, and was himself the
candidate of the Breckenridge democrats for
Governor OF that state. Against his fidelity
and devotion TO the south suspicion was
never breathed up TO that time, but when the
men OF the south with whom he had been po-
litically associared, inaugurated war against
one common flag. Butler was found auIong
those who were willing to forget party and
rally round the old flag for the defense of the
Union. His history need not be rehearsed in
this connection. His superior executive abi-
ties were displayed at Baltimore and again at
New Orleans. In taking leave of the latter ci-
", and in turning his command over to Gen.
Banks, he issued the following Farewell Ad-
dress, to which we ask the careful attention OF
his old democratic friends; and we ask them,
lifting themselves far above all party atmos-
phere, to answer to their own hearts, and to
their most sacred instincts, as in the sight of
Almighty God, If, in relation to this thing of
slavery, Gen. Butler is not right,
Citizens of New Orleans 1T may rot be
inappropriate, as it is not nopportune in occa-
sion, that there should be frw words at par
ting, by one whose name is to be indissoluDly
connected with your city.
I shall speak In no bitterness, because am
not conscious of single personal anlinosity.
Commanding the Army OF the Gull, l found
you captured, but not surrendered; conquered,
but not orderly; relieved IRON the presence OF
IL. Oh nfxv
selves. SO far from 1t. yon mad called upon
foreign legion to protect you from yourselves
restored otder, punished crime, opened com
merce. brought provision to your starving peo-
Pile, reformed yonr currency, and gave you
quiet protection, such as you had not enjoyed
for many years.
While doing this my soldiers were subjected
to obloquy, reproach and insult
And now, speaking TO you, who know the
truth, here declare that whoever has quietly
remained about his business. offering neither
aid nor comfort 20 the enemies OF the United
States has never been nterlered with by the
soldiere Of the United States.
The men who had assumed to govern you
and TO defend your city in arms having fed,
some of yonr women flouted at the presence
of those who came to protect them. BY a
simple order, (No. 2Sl called upon every sol
der of this army to treat the women of New
Orleans as gentlemen would deal with the SEX
with such effect that now call upont he Just
minded ladies of New Orleans to say whether
they have ever enjoyed so complete protection
and calm quiet for themselves and their fami-
lies as since the advent of the United States
troops
The enemies of my country, unrepentant
and implaeable | have treated with merited
severity. l hold that rebellion is treason, and
that treason persisted in is death, and any pun
ishment short of that due traitor gives so
l.. H. IL 80
the government. Upon this thesis ihave l adj
minsteredythe authority of the United States,
because of which | am not unconscious of
complaint do not feel that [ have erred in
too:much harshness. for that harshness has ev-
er been exhibited to disloyal enemies of my
country, and not to loyal friends. To be sure
/ might have regaied you with the amenities
of British civilization, and yet been within the
supposed rules of civilized warfare. You
might have been smoked to death in caverns,
as were the Covenanters Of Scotland by the
commann of a general of the royal house of
England: or roasted like the inhabitants of
Algiers during the French campaign; your
wives and daughters might have been given
over co the ravisher as were the unfortunate
danes of Spain during the peninsula war; or
you might have been scalped and tomahawked
as our mothers were at Wyoming by savage
allies of Great Britain during our own revolu-
ton; your property could have been turned
over to indlscriminate loot like the palace
of the Emperor of China: works of art which
adorned your buildings might then shave been
sent away, as the paintings of the Vatican; =
your sons might have been blown from the
mouths of cannon, like the Sepoys at Delhi;
and yet all this would have been within the
rules OF civilized warfare as practiced by the
most polished and the most hypocritical ma
tions OF Europe. For such acts the records of
the doings OF some OF. the inhabitants of your
city toward the friends OF the Union. before
my coming, were different provocative and
Justification.
But have not so conducted On the con-
trary, the worst punishment inflicted, except
for criminal acts punishable By every law, has
been punishment with labor TO "A barren island,
where encambed my own soldiers before
marching here.
1t Is true hrye levied upon the wealthy reb-
ell, and paid ont nearly half u million OF dollars
to feed forty thousand of the starving poor of
all nations assembled here, made so by this
war.
saw that this rebellion was war of the
aristocrats against the middlng men: of the
rich against the poor: a war of the landowner
against the lab1rer; that it was struggle for
the retention Of power in ths hands of the few
against the many: and found no conclusion
to it save in the subiugation of the few and the
disenthrallment of the many therefore felt
no hesitation in taking the substance of the
wealthy, who had caueed the war. to feed the
innocent poor who had suffered by the war.
And shall now leave Won with the proud
consaionsnass tba, 7 o,rry ,,;.h mo ,ba hlas