The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-05
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EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
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DAY FOR THE EvANINe TELEGRAPH.
BUTLER ON THE FALLEN BRAVE.

W.
From the &. y World.
Buffers threnody at Gloucester the other
day was very characteristic of its author The
election of Butler for the eulogist of dead
patriots was not particularly creditable to the
good taste of the persons who made it. One
can imagine that it would have embittered
the pangs of dissolution to many an Union
soldier if he could have foreseen that the
Doctor would be chosen as the exemplar and
exposition of the heroic virtue which took him
TO the field But if the friends of the Massa-
chusetts soldiers do not object, why should
we? and, indeed how can we with any face
when we have had Siclles doing a similar
service for ourselves? Butler, by-the-by,
has the grace TO distinguish the dead soldiers
from himself in the most emphatic manner
in claiming for them that they entered the
service without ''hope of reward save the re-
ward of well doing The staple of Buffers
oration is the same as those of the similar
etfusions which have been dropping for
&everal days past from eloquent lips al
yer the country It's lush tropicality emu
I pies the bloom and the odor of the literally
4 oral tributes which were dropped at the
anne time on the same graves. In the main,
is the same sort of sophomorical verbiage
hat every orator is expected to exude on such
\ occasions; and it winds up, of course, with a
anza, which happens to be the most hack
eyed verse of ''NIarco Bozarris."
But Buffers oratorical powers are not our
anne And though it is not an inspiriting
pectacle to see Butler declaiming in praise
+ II bravery, and integrity, and self-sacrifce,
et, if he had done nothing more, we would
r lave let him alone. The restless itch of the
nan for nOtoriety breaks out, at the end of
lis cheap rhetoric, into vehement appeal for
vengeance against England, to be executed at
he very first opportunity. The appeal is
uch as would be indecent from the speakers
eat in Congress-: and what shall be said of it
when its hoarse denunciation is made to
angle, in the interests of the vulgar vanity
f pushing demagogue, upon the utterances
bf sacred sorrow?
But Butler could not help it. 1t was not in
his nature to let an occasion pass for saying
Bomething spiteful, or, still more some sen
& Bational" thing without reference to any
hing but his own craving for notoriety. This
S the key of the mans whole careeT.Es.He has
certain reputation for 'smartness, of
which this feeling is at the bottom 1t does
not matter to him whether a measure is poll
4 ic or impolitic, whether it is really for his
advantage and the advantage of his party or
not. If it will only make him talked about,
he urges it with all his might and main,
utterly regardless of the ultimate con.
Sequences, even to himself His con-
duct IN the mattef OF lnpeacnmenG SHOWS now
little sagacity he really has. A man of rea
brains would have known that the attempt
could not result otherwise than disastrously
But man of Buffers brains could see that
the advocacy of impeachment would make
him conspicuous. And SO Butler went into
1t headlong Such has been his course all
along, and the fact shows how much over
rated his ability has all along been both by his
allies and his antagonists
In fact the career of this man illustrates
how apt people are to associate egregious
moral delinquency with egregious mental ca.
pacity. 1t has been remarked that burglars,
pickpockets, and swindlers are often ad-
dressed by judges and spoken of by papers
and people with a sort of pity for the inge-
nuity they are thought to have displayed and
the talents they are supposed to have per
yerted, when, in fact, their viciousness alone
makes them seem clever, and, being scoun
drels, they are imagined to be shrewd by mer
who, if the scoundrels had been honest men,
would at once recognize them to be block
heads. Such is the predicament of Butler
People see him to be entirely uninfiuenced b,
any moral motive and utterly unscrupulous
and they are led to conclude that, as he i
evidently without principle, he must be gov
ened by peculiarly acute perception of hi
interest. But the fact is not 50. Butler hal
never produced any traceable effect upon ma
hOnal politics. because he has never had th
ability to. If he had either more virtue o
more sense of shame, he would be set dow
for what he is-a fifth-rate politician.