The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-03
General Butler.

From The National I,ateLtigencer.
We are not surprised to learn that General
Benjamin 4. Butler has been renominated for
Congress by the Republicans of Massachu-
sets. The nomination is one eminently fit to
be made by that party. In every particular
but one he is their best representative mar
the type Of their morals, their political prin-
ciples, the agencies they employ their cruelty,
their cowardice, their mean hatreds, and the
keen rapacity which never loses sight Of its
object. In only one respect does the type fail.
Not statesman, not versed in the higher
theory and walks of politics, shallow alike in
history, constitutional law, and knowing,
caring nothing at all of the means whereby a
State may be made great, powerful, enduring,
and prosperous, Butler is nevertheless smart,
cunning, tricky, and armed with sort of
low wit that elevates him far above his Con-
gressonal associates; and these give him an
Intellectual pre- eminence among them which,
however annoying to the vanity of persons
like Bingham and Schenck, is nevertheless an
indspu,able fact. 1t is by him and men
smaller than he, and not less base, that the
country has been governed for years, and
will continue to be governed if the Republi-
cans triumph in the Presidential election. The
election of Grant means simply perpetua-
tion of the ruinous dynasty of Butler, sumner,
Wilson, Ashley, Schenck, Bingham, Don
nelly, and Wsshburne.
During the last year Mr.. Butler, or General
Butler Ono matter which), has steadily risen in
influence among the radicals, until in their
most distinctive and important party measure,
viz, the impeachment OF the President he be-
came not only leader, but manager of the
party. He owed this even less to his own au-
dacity than to the incapabiity of his associates,
whose resources fell so far short of their ambi-
ton that there was nothing left for them to do
but to let Butler take the lead. In many re-
spects that we could mention Butler is the best
type of the Republican party that we can now
think of. This party constantly parades its
services and sacrifices during the late war;
but it is written in the memory of all that
the most these leaders did was to put in
substitutes, make fat contracts with the
Government, and to invest in Government
loans at forty cents gold to the hundred, on
| which bonds they now demand not only six
| per cent interest in gold but also ask viola
| tion of the express terms of the contract,
stipulating pay ment in lawful money. 1t was,
| on their part, safe sort of patriotism, and
consisted chiefly in making money and egging
| on others to the front. Now, who better than
the hero of New Orleans and Fort Fisher to
exemplify this sort of patriotism {? Again,
| Butler was violent Breckenridge man in 1860;
he voted steadily for JEFF. Davis at Charleston
| as the most ultra Southerner he could find;
and when, in October, 1860, he was satisfied
| that Mr.. Lincon's election was foregone
| conclusion, he predicted, eulogized, and de-
tended, in this city, the secession of the
| South, exultingly asserting that it would
| lead to the utter destruction and ruin of
what he was pleased to term the "Black
Republican party Such are the 'loyal"
| antecedents of this loyal candidate for Con-
| g1ess, and who, we demand, could better illus
trate the hypocrisy of party which hugs
| Holden, Hunnicutt and Joe Brown-all viO-
| lent secessionists-to its bosom? Again, look
| at the whole man, his entire moral nature and
see if there be any man whose utter destitu-
| tiCn Of moral principle, whose utter indiffer-
ence even to the opinions of mankind, render
him so fit to lead a band of leaders who are
| confessedly without shame, whose stock in
| trade is agitation and stirring up of hatreis,
| conflicts, and war of races Who filter than
he to head an organization whicn, as it only
lives and fattens by public disorder, naturally
| cherisbes and uses the powers OF government
to perpstuate that condition of affairs, without
which it would, as many of its supporters
have admitted, cease to exist as party9 The
| presence and predominance of men like Butler
in the public councils mark the decadence OF
public virtue. The age OF gold has given
place to an age OF brass, days of insolent
vice, a rapacious cruelty that vaunts itself
loyal without blush, and spurns the Consti-
tuition on all occasions, save only as the mere
stepping stone to the Offices by which plunder
is to be wrupg from the people. II we are
ever to escape from this shameless degeneracy
and prostitution Of the public morals which
this nomination serves so fitly to exemplify, it
is by the utter defeat of the Republican party,
and the advent to power Of men pledged to
reform. VIII any man tell us that this is to
be secured by the election OF Butler, Donnelly,
Ashley, Colfax, and Grant, or any of their set 7