East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1866-11-29
Ben. Butler and the Rebellion.

II =. lASCAs tSAbASA tla tAO ItCbOlliOl.
! Alexander Il. Pratt, editor of the
fPdm Dealer, published at Waukesha,
1 Wisconsin, a Douglas delegate to the
| Charleston Convention in 1860, and a
man who has known Beniaman Il.
Butler intimately from his youth, pub
fishes some extraordinary revelations
concerning the part that notorious in
lcendiary took in the Charleston
Convention, the efforts he put forth to
bring about secession, and the prom
ises of help from tho North, which he
made in tho name of Northern Dem
ocrats when secession should be ac-
complished in fact. afi e'ef ! 7sd
I MIR. Pratt says: "Butler fhadl been
sent to that convention. as we were,
instructed to yoto for Steven A. Doug,
las; but during the whole Of that
fstruggle, which lasted some two weeks
he voted persistently for the nomina-
ton of Jefferson Davis. rr
"At that fine" continues Mr.. Pratt
"secessisn was openly advocated, and
was plain to us in the distance, as it
is now to all, in the background. Six
or eight well drilled and well armed
and equipped companies were then
daily parading the streets Of that city,,
One by one We're our delegates led in
to the, private room Of st. Andrews
Hall by Butler and others, where they
were met by such men as Slidell, Ma q
son and others who bad their millions
in gold to purchase the nomination of
a Southern man.. How much Butler
received We mother know or care, but 2
as we said before,the last speech We
ever heard from Butler, and il proba-
bly, will remain the last, unless we
have the good fortune to hear him
speak upon the gallows, was at se-
.cret meeting held one evening after
he and the Southern delegates had
seceeded from cur Convention. We
obtained thatentrancct through friend
from Alabama, and for nearly an
hour listened to speech frQm Butler
to Admiral Palmer.
"In this speech Butler assured them
that'we, the Douglas Democrats, were
"lree- -soilers,". that he and others rep
resented the Buchanan, the "Simon
Pure" Democracy Of the North = that
in case of collision Of arms between [
the, North and South, that the genuine i
Democracy would be found defending (,
the rights of tho South. And firing
upon Fort Sumter, they had as much
faith in the belief that Butler and the
Northern Democrats would sustain
them as they had in their powders
igniting when they applied the fire to
it. .5Ti -
''There is no one more willing to
pardon apd forgive than we are; but
when we reflect rpon the INST. and
CONSIDER the human suffering caused
by the late war, tho mountains Of hu-
man bones bleaching on tho South
ern sell, the rivers of human blood
that have drenched that soil, together
with tho home scenes Of destitute or
phsns and widows, and the thousands
of cripples who are hobbling limbless
about our towns and cities; knowing
as we do Of our personal knowledge,
that'Ben. Butler did 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 be listen
ed TO by better union men, surround,
ed by the officers Of justice" sworn to
do their duty. When that time ar
r:vos, treason will be made odious."