The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-19
Tha New Londer I'm Congress.

OF Jersey signally failed, and the next thing
we hear is that Butler in Congress has uu-
horsed Fitzpatrick. This develops in Batter
one of the strong points Of General Jackson.
With the first opportunity he settled his out
standing accounts. Secondly, of all the enc
mics of Andy Johnson, the mercless impeacher
Butler was considered the most implacable
till last New Years day, when he went up TO
the White House and smoked the pipe of
peace with Johnson and drank the toast of
Rip Van Winkle-"H9re's to you and your
family, and may you all live long and pros
per-" Here, in the courteous gallantry OF
Butler, is another strong point of character,
challenging the admiration OF the South
Carolina ohivalry. General Quattlebum has
preached it, but Butler has practised it.
"Let us have peace" is the motto of General
Grant and of all the notices Of the days of
chivalry there is none to surpass these four
little words in simplicity and grandeur. 1t was
supposed, however, that after the bottlng up
of Butler by Grant there could be no peace
between these men. Bat horse fauoier, who
knew the strong and the weak points ofGraut
aud Butler as he knows the point of horse,
found no difficulty in uncorking the bottle and
in effectng a reconciliation. Behold the re-
suit! Butler, the stone which the radical
builders rejected, accepted by Grant, has be-
come the head of the corner. Thus, to change
the figure, Butler, as by common consent in
Congress, steps into the high-quartered shoes
of "0ld Thad" and lays down the law TO the
Republican party. On the Tenure-of-Ofiice
repeal forty seven bewildered radicals fl off
at tangent; but they are out in the cold.
The promised land, flowing with milk and
honey, lies in the other direction. On Butler's
grand financial theory Congress, Wall street
and Chatham street are all bewildered; but
Rome was not built in day. Andy Johnson
holds, they say, that the public mind in two
years will grow up to his simple and effective
policy of taking the interest of the national
debt to pay Off the principal. And why, then,
should not public opinion expand to the
flexible system OF Butler3 Make paper the
basis of values and gold will soon come down.
This is better than the plan of the editor
of the radical organ of resuming specie pay
ments without the specie though the flexible
paper system may puzzle the "blOated bond
holders"
At all events, assuming that this financial
system of Butler will take some time to ripen,
we may say that rs a mau OF great political
ideas and OF great tact and energy in fighting
them, he will still hold his ground in the COM
ing Congress. In the Charleston Convention
of 1860 he voted ffty-seven times for jeff.
Davis and kept up the fight on that line till
the Democratic party was broken TO pieces.
But what then? He cut loose from the whole
concern, and at Baltimore, as the Union gene
raj in command, TO the disgust of Davis, very
soon settled the right Of way to Washington.
Next at Newport News, on the James, he first
opened the eyes of President Lincoln and
Secretary Seward t1 the grand idea that negro
slaves captured or fugitives from the enemy
were "contraband5.' Before that, very ab-
surdly, such property had been returned in
obedience to the Fugitive Slave law. We had
been shooting white men and delivering up
their negroes according to the Constitution.
Butler introduced the laws of war. But it
was in his military civil government of New
Orleans that he most distinguished himself.
Here his skill as lawyer and politician, and
his resolute and energetic character as a die
tator, proved him to be the very man to bring
law and order out of chaos, and to make the
LATEST, flthiest, and most pestilential, the
busiest, oleanliest, and healthiest city of the
South.
We say nothing of Big Bethel, Bermuda
Hundreds, and Fort Fisher. They were not in
General Buffers line. But the force Of charac-
ter and the peculiar qualities displayed by him
in the civil affairs of Baltimore and New
Orleans during the war are the very qualities
required in the leader of the House of Repre-
sentatives. Hence we think that Butler is the
man to take the place of Stevens. We think,
too that having assumed the position, he is
the man to hold it; but we dare say that
among the wrapglipg factions he will have
something like his New Orleans experience
over again from and after the 4th Of March.
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