Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-17
BENJAMIN f. BUTLER.

he attempt MADE TWO years ago by
the political harlequin, whose name APP
pears at the head of this article, to steal
the Governorship of Massachusetts,
should put the freemen of the old Bay
State upon their guard against similar
attempt again inaugurated for the COM
ing campaign in that State. We speak
advisedly when we say there is danger
from the hero of Fort Fisher, for those
qualities of unscrupulous cunning, and
unprincipled energy, which enabled
Butler to retain his standing with the
Democracy of the north, after having
voted in national convention tifty-seven
consecutive times for Jefferson Davis as
the candidate of his party for President
of the United States, are always ele-
ments of danger in political strife, and
many times impose upon the credulity of
people who do not see far below the
surface of things. We know something
about General B. F.; we went soldering
with him when he was bottled up at
Bermuda Hundred, and we had occasion
to see him in all his glory, as conceited
tyrant, a cunning demagOgue and an in
competent commander. We have looked
into Dutch Gap Canal, and we cheered
with the whole army Of the James, over
the terse order from the War Depart
ment, to him to report by letter from
Lowell, Mass, after the failure of the
6rst Fort Fisher eyDpditiOn
ON the Fourth of July last cclebra-
ton was held at South Framingham, and
Butler was the orator of the day. The
occasion was a temperance picnic, and
| the General was asked to express himself
| freely upon the great temper anCe reform
and to discuss the best legislative meas
urcs that could be adopted to make pro-
! hibition successful He put himself in
the way of this invitation, and made a
! bold attempt to ignore the subject he
was invited to speak upon, but plunged
| into the railroad war, denounced rings,
and opposed the construction or running
Of railroads by the State. He then made
! a bitter and uncalled-fo for attack upon the
administration of Gov Washburn, and
! defined his views of what a governor
/ should be and rs the Massachusetts pa
pers put it. made his bid for the temper
ance vote. But we trust that he made
the demagogue so apparent that he gained
no strength by his effort. And we COM
mend the plan adopted by the committee
as worthy of imitation in other quar-
tiers, for when it became apparent what
the drift of the orator was, new fea-
ture in the programme was adopted, and
the General was asked to sign the pledge
and to define his position on the subject,
which that gathering had assembled to
hear discussed; but the cunning Of the
sneaker saved him from making any
committal upon that subject by his old
Joke: THAT asking questions of fourth
of July orator was like whistling at a
funeral" and he succeeded in getting
aboard the cars before he was obliged to
refuse to sign the pledge.
The republican papers denounce Ben
iamin, and say there is no danger OF his
. !
happen. But they ought to profit by
experience, and the safe course for them
is to feel that something may happen,
and that it requires some effort to so in
troduce the member from Essex that the
people will all know him well enough
not to be imposed upon by his cunning
and astuteness. They have only to
spread out his record and the danger is
past. We only suffer injury from mis-
placed confidence, when we trust those
whose character we do not know thor
oughly; but when we can look over the
record of a long public life, devoted to
the main chance, and see what chicane
and deception have been successfully
used in the past, we usually know when
to lock up the spoons.