The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1866-12-28
Ben. Butler the Au hor of the Rebellion.
EXTRAORDINARY REVELATION.

Alexander +. Pratt, editor of the Plain
Dealer, published at Waukesha, Wiscon-
sin, Douglass delegate to the Charleston
Convention, in 1860, and man who has
known Benjamin +. Butler intimately
from his youth, publishes some extraordi-
nary revelations concerning the part that
notorious incendiary took in the Charles
ton Convention, the efforts be put forth to
bring about secession, and the promises of
help from the North, which be made in
the name Of Northern Democrats when
secession should be accomplished in
fact.
Mr.. Pratt says: "Butler had been sent
to the convention as VIC were, instructed
to vote for Stephen A. Douglass but
during the whole of that struggle, which
lasted some two weeks, he voted persist
en,ly for the nomination of Jefferson
Davis.
DAT that time" continues Mr.. Pratt,
"secession was openly advocated, and was
as plain to us in the distance, as it is now
to all, in THO background. Six or eight
well-drilled, and well-armed and equipped
companies were then daily parading the
streets of that city. One by one were
our National delegates led into the pri-
vate room of St. Afdrew's Hall by Butler
and others, where they were met by such
men as Slidell, Mason, and others, who
had their millions in gold to purchase the
nomination Of Southern nan. How
much Butler received we neither know or
care, but as we said before, tho last speech
We ever heard from Butler, and twill
remain the last, unless we may have the
good fortune to hear him sbeak upon the
gallows, was at secret meeting held one
evening after he and the Southern dele
gates had seeded from our Convention.
We obtained admittance that evening
through friend from Alabama, and for
noarl y an hour listened to speech from
Butler to Admiral Palmer.
"lu this speech Butler assured them
that We, the Douglass Democrats, were
free soilers, that he and others repre-
sented the Buchanan, the Simon Pure
Democracy of the North--that 10 case of
q collision of arms between the North and
South, that the genuine Democracy would
be found defending the rights of tho
South. And when firing upon Fort
Sumter, they had as much faith in the
belief that Butler and the Northern DEM
ocrats would sustain them as they had in
their powder iguitiug when they applied
the fro to it.
"There is no one more willing to par
doc and forgive than we are; but when
we reflect upon the past, and consider the
human suffering caused by the late war,
the mountains of human bones bleaching
on Southern soil, the rivers of human
blood that have drenohed that soil, to.
gethcr with the home scenes of destitute
orphans and widows, and the thousands of
cripples who are hobbling limbless about
our town, and cities; knowing as we do
of our personal knowledge, that Ben. But
Ter done more than all other Northern
men put together to bring on the war, we
cannot but hope that we may yet live to
hear his last speech made from more
elevated platform, and where he will DO
listened to by better Union men, surroun-
ded by the officers of justice, sworn to do
their duty. When that time arrives,
treason will be made odieus.'"