The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-06-24
General Butler a Failure.

We had great hopes of General Butler in
Congress after his clever management of the
impeachment prosecution against Andy john
son. We thought for some time after that
affair that Butler was the man to take the place
as ''the great commoner" and leader of the
House, left vacant by 'Old Thad Stevens"
After fair trial, however, he must, as an
aspirafK for this position, be pronounced a fail
ure. He is keen lawyer, he has all
the points, all the authorities, all the
precedents aud all the quirks and
bubbles Of the law at his fingers ends. He
proved his efficiency as lawyer all through
the war; and if he was ''bottled up" as a
soldier it was perhaps, because he undertook
to manage his own army and the army opposed
to him in the field according to the rules of
law laid down by Blackstone as superior to the
military ideas Of Napoleon. Butter, in short,
maneuvred against Beauregard as lawyer,
and so Beauregard ''bottled' him In Con-
gress, however, where solid ability and the
tricks of the law and parliamentary strategy
and tactics carry the day, we had expected
Butler to achieve the first position. Schenck,
however, by hard labor and self-possession
has got ahead of him. and Bingham, too,
always watching for his opportunity, is getting
ahead Of ''the gentleman from Massachusetts,"
We have seen, ovef aid 6vsr again, that in
regular pitched battle in the House, or in
sudden skirmish, with sharp-shooters blazing
away all round him, Butler, if he can only
contrive to keep cool, is equal to the emergency
and match for the best of them. We have
seen, however, from time to time, as in the
late affair with Farnsworth, that Butler cannot
always keep cool that, in fact he is too apt
to fly off the handle and spoil his case by get
ting into fit Of ridiculous indignation, which
trips him up and lays him out fat as a
founder.
From this weakness we have been dsap-
pointed in our ''great expectations" Of Butler
yea grievously disappointed. He fails to
come up to the mark Of sold Thad Stevens"
He can't begin to do it. What a tremendous
old fellow was "Old Thad" ia his quiet way
by the nose, because he knew how to govern
himself. He was a man, too, of strong pas
sions, and terrible in his wrath but he was
not the mau to get up a tempest in teapot,
with himself in the teapot. He knew how to
disarm his antagonist in the iercest attack by
turning the laugh upon him, as Butler himself
dd-on one happy occasion-with his ''shoo
fly" It seems strange that an elderly, big
headed and bald-headed Massachusetts law
yer, like Butler, should not be equal to this
sort of thing on all occasions. But he isn't
Farnsworth catches him mapping, and he
becomes on his dignity fddesticks- fussy
and ferOciOus as fre-eater, or as a school
boy caught with contraband watermelon.
We are sorely distressed at this affair. 1t
places our champion, Butler, in the dilemma
Of General Scott, when he was ''caught with
his breeches down." What are we to do? 81
am afraid" as honest Old Abe is credited
with saying of another man, 81 am
afraid that our man is not as big as our
measure, and that we must take him down a
peg or two" Accordingly, we agree that But
Ter, incompetent to control himself is, with all
his great capabilities, reduced in Congress to
the grade of an irresponsible bushwhacker,
whose only safety, as at Bermuda Hundred,
is under the wing of General Grant.