Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1877-06-06
BEN. BUTLER.
Apscullarly Sarcastic Letter From
Him TO Marshal Pltkln, Of
loulotanA.

II
WASHINGTON, May 29.-Ben. Butler
has written the following conciliato-
ry letter to ex-Marshal Pitkin, Of
Louisiana:
WASHINGTON, May %, 1S77.-MY
DEAR PITKIN.-I have yours of the
10Th inst. informing me that when
you were in Washington, both the
President and Mr., Devens, Attorney |
General, gave you substantial assn
rance that you would not be disturb
ed in your Office as marshal. Being a
native of Louisiana and good Re.
publican, and against whom no Off
cial malfeasance or personal derelic-
ton from the path Of right had been |
shown, and who therefore came with
in the provisions of civil-service re-
form, which is the cornerstone, as
understand it, of our republican adj
ministration, am certain that the
President and Attorney General
would never have asked your resig-
nation as marshal, as you say they
have done, in contravention of their
assurance and disregard Of the prin-
ciples of civil service reform. I am
bound, therefore, from what know
of both of these gentlemen, to believe
that they intend in good faith to car
ry out their assurances and preserve
their honor. One fault which find
with your letter, is that you do not
make sufficient allowance for polite
al necessity and the entanglements by
which good men are compelled to do
that which they would rather not do.
It is an open secret here, as am in
formed, that Col. Wharton, your com.
petitor, aided Mr.. MACY cigh, one Of
the commissioners at New Orleans,
very largely in getting portion of
the members in the legislature to
abandon Packard and 60 over to
Nicholls, by which returning board
legislature was put under counte-
nance of Nichols, and then that leg
islature enabled the committee to adj
wise that as the legislature had recog-
nized the Nichols government the
President was bound to withdraw the
troops. 1t is said that $1,000 was to
be paid to the leading deserving leg
islators and only 500 to the others,
disguised in the latter case in the
shape of mileage, 80 that Mr.. john
son, colored man, speaking in the
innocence of his heart, said that all
he wanted was to get his mileage
1t is also asserted that Col. Wharton
being the instrument selected by Mr..
MacVeigh to do this piece Of BUSH
ness, had his promise Of being made
marshal ifhe successfully accomplish
ed it. Now, Wharton performed his
part of the bargain, and think you
are very unreasonable in Directing
that the administration should carry
out their side of it. or at least do the
best they can. You ought to satisfy
Wharton that they have asked you to
resign and that yon won't do IT.
Therefore they have done the best
they could to make good the Mac
Weigh bargain, and as they cant
Wharton ought to be satisfied, pre-
cisely like my friend Gen. Garfield,
who having done his best and sue
ceeded in electing Mr.. Stanley Mat
thews to the Senate, at the request of
the President, on an agreement that
the President would make him Speak
er of the House of Representatives,
will have to be and ought to be, sat-
islled with fair, honest, and hearty
endeavor on the part of the President
to do ali he can to make him Speaker,
and If he fails Garfield will have no.
body to blame but himself, that q
bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
Now, my dear Mr.. Pitkin, I call upon
you by the love that you bear to the
republican party and its principles,
in memory of the many sacrifices you
have made during and since the war
as union man in Louisiana, for the
safety Of the country, and not for the
sake Of holding al Office under the
United States, not to throw any i'm
pediment in the way of the President
fulfilling all the bargains which his
subordinates found necessary in in
augurating his southern policy, which
is to be Of SO great and incalculable ad-
vantage, not only to the party you
love so well, but to the unity and pac-
ifcation of which you have given the
best days of your manhood. write
this to you because I thought detect
ed in your note to me what seemed to
be an unreasonable tone Of complaint
that you are thus to be sacrificed
Remember that Abraham was about
to sacrifice his only son Isaac, the
child OF his old age, to what he be-
lieved to be the will of God and the
necessities of his people, and the good
book does not make mention of
unreasonable complaints or outcries
from Isaac on that account, and so
when you find that the President in
obedience to the call of his country
and public exigency for its pacifica-
ton deems it necessary to sacrifice
you and take away your office and
give it to one who wore tho gray,
You ought not to kick and squirm
any more than Isaac did when he Law
upon the altar under the knife of his
father. l am sorry that can't write
you any other words of comfort and
consolation, but "such as Ihave give
unto YOU" / am yours truly,
BENZ. F. BUTLER.
j. G. pitkin, ESQ.,, United states Mar
II shall, New Orleans Ia