The weekly standard. (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1865-1867, 1866-02-24
Defense of Gen. Butler.

- 1%~~ - - - It~esA1
to be earnest in IFS defense of the late
Major Gen. Butler, thus relieves him
from some of the foul aspersions which
have been heaped upon his ''honora-
bic" and s'honoredp name:
''Gen. Butler is. said to have declared
recently in substance. that he would
rather his name should ego down To-
posterity on the tongues of men, all
covered with infsmy. than. have it
perish utterly on the way; in other
words, that he would rather it should
forever ''fester in the infamy of years, "
than that it should be unheard in after
ages-that he would rather leave
name to after times,
Linked to no virtue and thousand crimes,
than leavei it aspotless legacy to OBJ
livion. This sublime sentiment is an
attribute of true greatness, and few
men living are capable of so lofty an
aspiration.
aBut we take issue with the world
upon that point in its opinion of Gen.
Butler, which attributes to this senti-
ment the true inspiration of all those
deeds which render q part of his mill
tary career so memorable among the
former owners of silver-plate and yalu-
able furniture in the city of New Or
leans.
I'VE profess to be ajudge of char
acter, and to comprehend at glance
the motives which impel men to ac-
tion, and we are far more than satis-
fed that, in both the conception and
the achievement Of the deeds il ques-
ton, Gen. Butler was actuated far less
by an ambition to live eternally IN
death, than by desire to live luxuri-
ously IN Lowell.
ut is asserted too that while Lord
Elgin expended his time and tin in the
collecting of Grecian marbles, and Bel
zonia gathered up from the dusty cat
acombs the crumbling deyotees of Isis
and Osiris, the archaeological research
es of Gen. Butler in New Orleans re-
suited only in a vast accumulation q
spoons spoons, too, the sole attrac-
ton of which lay not in their antiquity
but merely IN their intrinsic value.
1T is asserted that Gen. Butler die
not conduct himself with the conspic
uous gallantry Of a Coeur de Leon o.
a Chevalier Bayard at the affair of The
larger Bethel-that he did notseem OF
that occasion to be impelled SO mucE
by a heroic desire to attain the spot
where glory waited him as by an ina
petuous desire to find the thinnest O
the fight and there impress upon tht
minds of his astonished soldiery tht
great classic maxim that seH-preserya
ton is the first law Of nature.
In replyto this charge, which. j
not entirely destitute Of trnth, can la,
/ no valid claim to poetry, it is only ne.
cessary to rem nd a just andlntelligenf
public that even the good Homersome
times mods.
"Mr. Burke, in his great speecl
against Warren Hastings, declared
that the latter had made even the riv
ers of India blush for the honor of tn,
British name. And in the imitation Q
. this gorgerous flower of rhetoric, SOM
of the traducers of Gen. Buffers char
acter have said his treatment of tn
ladies Of New Orleans would hav
made the Mississippi blush for the hon
or of the Federal flag, had not tn
Fathers of Water been an original sc
eessionist and believed that there coul'
be little honor to blush for in the par
ticular piece of bunting which Gen
Butler had made the aegis of privat
rapine and plunder. We leave thi
contemplate charge to therefutation
, history.
! aLieut. Gen. Grant, with an ineffect
ually. concealed desire to
-s Build his fame
: Upon the ruins Of another's name
. accuses Gen. Butler of having sufere
s himself to be bottled and eorked u
e somewhere below Richmond. # Ger
Grant had been there seconding Ger
: Butler in his efforts to take care ofhin
! self, instead of sfoo1ing awayhis tim
in listening to Gen. Lees mourEft
t ballad of Get out Of the Wilderness,
: be would have known, as everybod
g else knows, that the botthng to Whic
!. he refers was done without Gen. Bui
t ler's consent, and contrary to his Wisf
q es. Besides, it is well known to h
: country at large that more than ia
!, the responsibility of this business res
q upon the shoulders of Gen. Beatlr'
gard, who happened to be in the neigl
i borhood at the time, and taking az
3. vantage of Gen. Buffers inexperiens
" e.,<4 41ye4ssr,actirfr ,aaf41re. induced hll