Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-13
ATTACK ON BUTLER.
A Blast Against ButIer-His Raid
ON the Radical Platform,

ON the Radical Platform.
lFrom the Buffalo Commercial (RadicaD. July IL
The political position occupied by Gen .
Butler never was matter of any special
Importance to the Republican party. 1t is
less so just at present than ever before.
Politically, that strabismio individual has
always carried a free lance, and acted as a
guerilla. As leader of the Democracy
prior to 1861, he owed his influence chiefly
to his supposed capacity for mischief, and
to the concessions which he constantly
forced from his party in the interests OF
harmony. His action at Charleston, in
1860, was controlled by personal considera-
tions far more than it was by principle.
The same thing may be said of his political
action ever since-and therein we include
his whole military career as being essen
TALLY political.
Recently, General Butler has taken up
his old role this time i'm defense of his Re-
publican orthodoxy, which has seriously
been called in question. The Salem Gazette,
q prominent Republican journal published
in his own district, and which by the way
steadily opposed impeachment as policy,
recently took rather tart exceptions to Mr..
Buffers late action in Congress. Speaking
of the poStponement of the tax bill, it said !:
1.-The only apology for this postponement
is that the members wish to be at home
pulling the wires for their own re election.
The effect is disastrous to the country, and,
what some would think of more import
ance, must be disastrous to the Republican
party, which will be made responsible for
1t. If General Butler was striving to
avenge himself upon General Grant by
weakening the Republican party, he could
hardly adopt more effective measures for
doing so than those in which he has been
the leader, namely-the breach of the ma
tion's faith to its creditors; the impeach-
ment, and the hurrying home of Congress,
leaving the most needed business OF the
country unfinished"
This hot sfire in the rear" promptly
brought the General out in reply, and he
sent a very characteristic letter to the Ga
xette in self-defence. He says, in effect,
that, fearing that the whole Tax bill could
not get through Congress at the present ses-
sion, he proposed that two great sources
of revenue frauds, whiskey and tobac-
CO, should be reported in separate bill in
order, ''that the whiskey ring might surely
had proved too strong for the Government
in the impeachment trial"l! This certainly
is very characteristic way of stating a
falsehood and certifying it by false hy-
pothesis. Impeachment was not beaten by
whiskey ring; neither was the defeat of
impeachment the defeat of the Govern
ment. No one knows this better than Gen
eral Butler himself.
With regard to his financial policy, Gen
eral Butler is equally tricky in his defence.
He saws that he accepts the Chicago plat
form, and desires TO see the public debt paid
according "to the letter and spirit of the
contract" He says that he agrees with the
Senate Finance Committee, and with all
but twenty-eight of the Republican mem
bers of the House, that 'the letter and spir-
it" of the contract was and is that the pub
lie debt should be paid in greenbacks! !!
Here, again, we have the same unfair way
of stating things which we pointed out
above. The General says he accepts the
Chicago platform, and then interprets that
platform to suit himself, assuming that
it favors his own greenback theory! This
Is the merest logical chicanery imaginable.
Not only the Republican party, but the
Chicago Convention as its accredited rep
resentative, emphatically repudiate the
financial policy of Pendleton and Butler,
and intended so to express themselves in
the platform. In using the formula which
it did, the Convention expressed its sense
of the true intent and meaning of the acts
creating the national debt, and secuted the
legal bubbles of such men as Butler. 1t
is, therefore, grossly impudent in him to
undertake to twist those words to meet his
own notion.
So, too, with regard to the sentiments of
the Republicans in the House of Represent
atives. Mr.. Butler equivocates when he
asserts that only twenty eight of them hold
that our national bonds are payable BY
buelT IcIHo III Soio. 1nO foGo W WHICH he
refers was on the Funding bill, and did not
involve the point which he states. Gen.
Butler says when Congress adjourns he is
going home to discuss this financial theory
with his constituency. We apprehend
that he will find uphill work. and that he
will hardly make converts of Massachusetts
capitalists. He might meet with greater
success with the Democrats, and we think
he will, for he is still Democrat in his
convictions and Sympathies. The Salem
Gazette was right in saying that Gen. But
ler's recent action i'm Congress has been
fraught with mischief to the Republican
party and to Gen. Grant-mischief which
is none the less deprecated and denounced
because it has been, as yet, unsuccessful.