Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-03-17
Butler on the Condition Of the south.

Dy MI. Butler, giving HIS TeaSOHS lot TeIuSlnp 10
serve on the committee to investigate the cond-
tion Of the south.
To the Republicans Of the House of Representa-
tires:
Having been appointed against my wishes,
expressed both publicly and privately, by the
speaker as chairman OF a committee to investi-
gate the state of affairs in the south, ordered
to-day by the democratic vote, against the most
earnest wish of more than two-thirds majority
CT the republicans of the house, and certainly
against the almost unanimous wish of the re-
pubicans of the states whom it most specially
concerns, my selfrespect and Difference to your
good opinions requires me to explain to you,
and through you 10 the country, why | shall
not serve on that committee being convinced
as | am that no good, but harm only, can come
of it to the republican party. First, because
this committee was forced upon the republicans
by the nearly unanimous vote of the democrat
ic party in the house, aided by some twenty or
thirty republicans only, against the decision of
majority of that party in a duly-called caucus
of the members of the house; second, because
the committee was raised by combination of
the high-tarif republicans with the democracy,
the one class willing to permit the slaughter
and determination of their political friends
in the, south if the tariff could be saved,
even for nine months, by an early
adjournment of congress, and the de-
mocracy acting with them in pun uance of
lief, to murder and outrage enough Union men
of the south to overcome by fear, intimidation
and injury the republican majority there at the
next presidential election,-they well knowing
that this committee can do them no harm, and
that it will furnish an excuse for the tariff re-
publicanS to vote for ali adjournment without
legislation to protect Union men in the rebel
states; third, because such committee would
be wholly powerless for any good purpose.
Sitting in the vacation, it can have under par
liamentary law no power to compel the attend
ance of single witness who does not choose to
come, or any answer from one when he does
come; as the only method by which witness
can be brought before congressional commit
tee and made to answer when unwilling is, the
house being in session, by its order Of arrest and
imprisonment for his contempt during the seS
sion only. So that any unwilling witness cam
not be compelled to testify to anything, and the
witnesses willingly coming before tie commit
tee TO testify to anything against their kukluX
neighbors would be killed on their way home
from the committee-room, | do not therefore,
propose to make myself accessory before the fact
to the murder of every faithful Union man of the
south who shall be brought before the commit
tee and give truthful evidence of the state of out
rage and wrong which know to exist there
fourth, because my service as chairman of the
committee, would furnish the best electioneer-
ing document that could be placed in the hands
of the democracy in the coming contest in
| this-that the report OF the COMMITTEE would be
wholly nugatory, illusory and useless to show
| the exact state of things at the south. When
| ever and wherever the committee would go
| there would be sunshine and peace, and we
should be compelled so to report. Where we
were not and could not be, banded murder, rob
berry, arson would stalk abroad at night, to be
disbanded by the rising sun. Besides, have
not the slightest doubt but while serving on
your committee in the southern states l should
be treated with the highest and most distn-
i. a. I
in the furthest degree polite, and southern men
understood politics. | fully believe | can go
anywhere through any portion of the south,
alone and unattended and a fOrtiOri when, as
the head of a congressional committee on inves
tigation, without personal harm orinSult. There
fore, when republicans should claim in the cam
vass that it was necessary to maintain the re-
publican party in power to have peace at the
south, and to protect our loyal friends there,
they would be answered on every democratic
huStings, You are not to believed when you
say that the law cannot be executed at the
SOUTH and mems lives and property are in dam
ger there, when you see that Gen. Butler, the
man who hanged one of their rebel brethren,
the man who brought New Orleans into sub
lection, the man who is more hated and Wilt
fed in the south than any other,
can go through it untouched and unframed"
| have no intention Of aiding the democratic
cause, and breaking down the republican party
by furnishing in my own person any such argyll
ment with no countervailing good; fifth, be-
cause with the views | hold of the efficiency and
powers of the committee, my services would be
useless, and am not accustomed to undertake
to do that which feel that have no power sue
cessfully to accomplish; and it is a parlia-
mentary practice which has lately been illus
trated in single instance in the senate, that the
chairman of a committee should be in harmony
with the majority who constitute it, and there is
no element of harmony between me and that
democratic pOOnOcp6 nf cciO
lists, old wings and know-nothingS who are the
majority that constitute this committee; sixth,
because this committee was brought into being
by legislative trick, and not a creditabe one
at that, by which the wishes of the republican
majority of the house have been thwarted by a
republican minority by the aid of democratic
voters, with which proceeding, as a republican,
l desire most effectually to divorce myself;
seventh, because the very resolution which au-
thorlZed the committee was so framed and, in
my belief purposely in the interests of the DEM
ocratic party, that such committee cannot re-
port under the rules of the house in the
face of the democratic opposition, and by their
permission in more than a year from
this time, the usual power not being inserted in
it, Ito report at any time,) and, being a special
select committee, it cannot, under the rules of
the house, be called in its time until after all the
standing committees have been called, which, in
the last house Representatives took more than
a year; so that without the leave Of the demo-
Gratis, such committee could not even make
report and have it printed until after the end of
the next presidential campaign; eighth, because
the passage of the resolution is a seeming dis
courtesy to the other branch of the legislature,
the senate having taken up an investigation
through its own committee, having proceeded
to very considerable extent in it, and made
report, in part which certainly to every republi
can mind shows a state of crime and horror
sufficient to justify legislative action. The
mouse is made TO say to the senate, You are
not competent 10 perform the work you have
undertaken; we will take it out of your hands"
l nave no fear that you, my republican friends,
VIII think for moment that any considerations
looking to the labor and fatigue of such an I'M
dertaking in the heat of summer and the height
OF the yellow fever season in the southern
states, or the fact that / should be
drawn fro m my home TO carry on the
investigation during those months after
laboriouS and arduous service for more than
four months, would deter me, if believed any
good could arise to the country from the labor
or the exposure. ! have spent more than one
summer under the southern sky to give what aid
could in preserving the life of the country, and
if any good could come of it, would be quite
willing to spend another, although, when there
before, ! was master of the rebellion within my
reach, and the scarcely less deadly and venom
GUS yellow fever. | am compelled TO take this
mode to address you in declining to serve, be-
cause the announcement of the committee was
not maze by tue speaker until alter the vote OF
adjournment had been taken, and Immediately
th9reupon his hammer fell, by which he ad.
journed the house so as to preclude the possibility
of resigning the place thus attempted to be
forced upon me at the time. l believe can
demonstrate, even if a majority of parliament
airy body can force a Massachusetts man off a
committee at its pleasure, that it is quite an
other thing for the speaker to force another on a
committee against his consent
have the honor to be very truly your friend
and servant, BENZ. F. BUTLER.
The MAID OF SARAGossA.-Augustina the
celebrated Maid Of Saragossa, was a handsome
d. z