New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-23
THE ANNU1L MASSACH USETIS SCARE.


THE ANNU1L MASSACHUSETTS SCARE.
1t will be a great disappointment to the
general public it, as is intimated in our
Boston letter this morning, Mr.. Butler, in a
clearer discernment of the signs of the times
than is usual with that statesman. should
decline to be a candidate for the Guberna-
torial nomination in Massachusetts this year.
1t has come to be regular entertainment
now, and the people have right to EXPECT 1t.
1t is hardly fair in Mr.. Butler to refuse To
play when 80 many people are waiting to see
him. We suspect that the Massachusetts people
themselves will be disappointed if the show does
not come Off For two or three years past they
have attracted considerable attention, and 1t
is but fair to say that they seem to have en-
joyed the unusual sensation immensely. Mas
sachusetts politics have been somewhat one
sided for q great many years, 80 that caucus,
convention, and election have passed off in
calm, unimpassiOned way without attracting
the least notice outside the State, and only
barely exciting the voters in the State SUI
ficiently to draw them to the polls to
deposit with goved hands the regular
ticket. Mr. Butler came along with
"a a statesman, his intimacy with the Presi-
dent, his command of Federal patronage,
and his experience as criminal lawyer, ana
has really quite enivencd Them flock OF
high stepping Shanghai ROSTERS on sheet
iron floor with a split-wood fire under it could
not have furnished more amusement to an
intelligent community than the very respect
able citizens of Massachusetts have afforded
the country when Mr.. Benjamin f. Butler has
kinded under them the blaze of his ambition.
That spectacle will be sorely missed if the
veteran Snowman retires. The people OF Mas
sachusetts are not fond OF Mr. Butler, but
they cannot help being grateful for the fun
he has furnished them. In the two raids he has
made upon the State he has given them
great number of political meetings they would
not otherwise have had, and has furnished
small towns that are passed by the ordinary
circus and menagerie, with moral and
intellectual entertainment which,, though it
lacked the element of horse, by
no means destitute of the higher human at
fractions of gymnast, tumbler, and clown. In
short he has fired the Massachusetts heart, and
been the means of making several Massachu-
sets newspapers quite readable. This is what
could do, and his services in this regard should
not be forgotten. 1t has been most encOur-
aging and celebrating sight to the country at
large on the previous occasions when Mr..
Butler has reached out his long, large hand
for the Governorship, to see the men,
women and children in that patriotic old
State rush into the streets and fields with
drums, tin pans, fish-horns, shovel and tOngs,
poker and broom, and all the instruments of
martial music that could be improvised from
the domestic hearth, to scare him Oif. 1t
showed good feeling and served to keep up
the interest In musical matters that had been
nursed by Mr. Gilmore and fostered by Colos-
seums, Jubilees, and Anvil Choruses.
1t will be observed, however, by the letter
of our Boston correspondent, that 1t is not
certain that Mr. Butler will refuse to appear.
To the dislnterested spectator his chan ces of
success seem small but there is no telling
how they may appear to him. 1t is possible
that he may yet decide to make his third and
last raid upon the State. His plans have not
all succeeded as he could have wished, and
some of those which have seemed success
full have not only failed to strengthen
but have in fact weakened him. An instance
though it may have given him official influence
and to a certain extent the command of Gov
eminent patronage, has excited SO strong and
bitter an opposition that its general effect
upon his fortunes has been adverse. Whether
he will apprehcnd the situation, or, apprehend-
ing it, will stand from under, is an open
question.
Seriously, though, we do not consider Mr..
Buffers candidacy, under the circumstances,
as unfortunate or undesirable. Massachusetts,
Republicans have had no conception of politi-
cal corruption, intrigue, and dishonor, except
as he has embodied them. Corrupt politics
they opposed in a loose, indefinite way the
whole business was an abstraction to them;
their hostility was expressed in the empty
phrases of platforms and political speeches
they never had grappled with it for
dusty and disagreeable tussle, and
when other localities and other States had
their Tom Murphys and Caseys and other such
tokens of interest and affection from the
Administration, it never occurred to the Mas
sachusetts gentlemen that it was anything to
them. They went right on supporting the
Administration, Mr.. Butler concreted it FOR