Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-08-24
Butler ON rre.ident GRANTS Policy
Special Correspondence Baltimore Gazette. j

Special Correspondence Baltimore Gazette.l
WASHINGTON. August 16.
1t is out of the question to ignore the
doings and undoings of the President, in
writing from this point. For although
he does not spend a quarter of his time
at the seat of Govern ment, his few acts,
while here, are breeders of all sorts OF
disorders and complications. This is my
excuse for so frequently referring to
him. ft. r.r III. ..
General Grant said in his inaugural
that he had mo policy" that whatever
he did or said must be paid very little
attention to, as he intended land gave
due notice beforehand) to unsay and
undo, as occasion might require. Gen.
tlemen of the Radical party should have
remembered these fundamental "layings
down of the principles" when prema-
turely complaining of the statesmanship
of their chosen chief.
When Ben. Butler heard of Grants
completely with Senter and Walker, and
Dent aud Hamilton, to get up Grant
party" at the South, he wrote here that
the General was ambitious of another
term, and should be watched When
livery recently it turned out that the
President threw away this chance at the
command of such pigmy as Boutwell,,
and threw up his military cap for Stokes
and Alcorn and Wells and Davis, Butler,
shrewdly enough, wrote emphaticslly
that he was I'D fool, and needed
no watching any longer" Grant has
irretrievably split his party at the South,
and although he is now under the lead
ing strings of Chandler, of Norfolk, who
wants to come to the Senate from Vir-
ginia, and will, doubtless, illegally turn
out of the Legislature of that State the
very men he did more than any else to
elect, still the real mischief is irremedi-
able. The whole South is gone
Another aneedote of General Butler:
At the time OF the famous Yerger COM
PROMISE" the General was in town
Il mean in this city,. Addressing fel-
Radical, he said 1" don't blame
Grant for this; he doesn't see his agree.
ment substantially surrenders the ques-
ton of jurisdiction, and places the Su
preme Court beyond Congressional legis-
lation. He has agreed to suspend judg-
ment until the Court decides. Cases
will arise Of which he knows nothing of
the hearing. In surrendering what he
has (so far as he can do), he has disrup-
ted the Republican party. | don't blame
him for this, however, (as | have said);
he knows no more of law or statesman
ship than Boutwell, himself. But he
should have known better than to have
appointed ninnyhammer to the Attor-
ney-G -Generalship-one of the most i'm
portant posts in the American or any
other Government.
Bearing in mind these observations,
the following purport of what Butler said
after the news had reached him that
General Grant had ordered the Marshal
of New York to resist with military
force the sacred writ OF habeas corpus,
will be better understood: :" have
given HE Excellency credit for all the
negative virtues, and have excused his
action in his brief career as best could
but in this matter, sir, can find but one
excuse, sir-he must have been half-seas
over, sir There we're so many ways to
avoid this direct issue besides making
the Government the insurrectionary
party Pierrepont will fix it. He is a
lawyer. The man can be strung up
without putting the country by the ears
Let them employ Bingham J.
The President has a rough road before
him, and very few friends since he has
turned off the Dents (if he has really split
from them). These gentlemea are hon
est men. Making inquiry, ind the stock
was originally from Maryland. But
branching from thence they now may be
found in great numbers in almost every
State in or out of the Union. Beyond all
this, hear they are gentlemen indeed,
and not by courtesy, a proof of which
may be found in the fact that they, to q
man, denounce the rotten Radical party.