Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1865-05-11
Speech of General B1tler on the Ma.
tional Calamity.

! We invite attention to the following speech O.
( General Butler, AT meeting held in Washington,
relative to the assassination of the President:
General B F. Batter said that while it was too
early To examine with care, 80 as to speak with
Dropriety of the acts of Mr.. Lincoln through the
period of the eventfu four years, and TO show how
great was his connection with the important acts
,f that period, We all know enough Of that history
20 be able to dimlv discern some OF the lessons
which the special providence ofhis death seems
calculated to teach the milton He had fulfilled all
the part that seemed designed for him 20 do bv
the acts of life; and nothing of his lie, great as
were his services. was OF more use to his country
than would be the effect of his losing il.
| The coincidence of time seemed to point US to
ono OF the great lessons Of his death. On the four
teenfh day of April. eighteen hundred and sixty
one, the malice and hate of the rebels in South
Carolina caused them to fire upon Fort Sumter,
and by the blow to unite the North as one man,
ls they stood hesitating to jump into tho gulf of
bloodshed which stood before them, to arrive at
the extingui.hment Of great national sin.
1 The parricidal act of striking down the a ". the
symbol of government, caused every true hearted
man in the government on that day to come to-
gether. and joining hands, to swear TO cease
their efforts until that greatest of SINS slavery,
vas extinguished, the authority OF the Union re-
stored, and the authors of the great wrong to the
nation punished
| We had gone through four years, spending mil
lions Of money. and almost millions Of lives, and
had succeeded in fully eradictatng the national SIM
/ and by force OF arms in sustaining the national
authority BY discriminating the armies of the re
beIion.
| In our JOY at our victories and the success OF
our arms. the nation had begun to he divided upon
the question whether should punish the treas
enable authors Of our cslamitcs, and whether we
should not receive back the authors of the rebel
lion. and extend to them the hand of friendship as
brothers.
But the sumo madness Of hate which impelled
the rebels in sixty-onc to precptate unprepared
into a war, and to unite US in its prosecution, on
the 18th ofApril, 1865, by the murder Of our be-
loved President, prevents from making q too
precipitate peace, and from forgetting our vow
that these national PARTICLES should be punish
ed.
The shot at Sumter and that from the assassn's
pistol at Lincoln, were but the carnations of the
rebellion which we're needed to unite the North
then. now, one man. in the full determination
that Slavery should be rooted out that slavery should
be extnguished, and that perjury and treason
should be punished.
Another les son to be drawn from the sad death
of the President was that the people of the rebel
lious States were not vet fitted in spirit to be ad
mitted their old position in the Union; that the
soul of the rebellion had not been subducd; that
their hate had not been extinguishcd,
We had begun to talk of receiving them back
on an equality with ourselves. Two experiments
had been made in taking back rebellious States,
one in Louisiana the other in Virginia.
Bv the first we were warned that the people were
not fit to become part of the government Of the
United States. by the attempted murder Of dstin-
guished member of Congress for words spoken in
debate, BY one Of the Representatives of the re-
turning State and when President Lincoln attempt
ed to recall Virginia into her practical relations
with other States, he was answered by the assas.
sins bullet, sped to his death, under the war cry
of the motto Of that State.
We had begun to talk Of the noble magnanimity
of the rebel General. We had seen that On the
very day of the murder Of the President, he and
his staff had been received with cheers in the citv
of Richmond; and by portion of the people he
uras hoId ,,-, -. :. Iii. y L.no. IL 60,
whose example was worthy Of imitation.
IL was impossible to understand this. 1t was
imp cssibs to understand chivalric treason, mag