Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-16
THE TWO BuTLER,s.

his gentleman mas Dee0 elecUeu ny |
the Legislature of his State to repre-
sent South Carolina in the Senate of
the United States, a circumstance
alone sufficient to enlist the hostility
ofsuch Radical sheets as the Chicago
Times. The following is an extract
from that journal in relation to Gen.
NJ. G. Butler as Senator elect, en-
to criminate him as the
author of the Hampton massacre so
called:
A Washington telegraph states that at
tempts are making to secure the indictment
of NJ. c. Butler, the Hampton South Caro-
lima Senator, for alleged completely in the
Hamburg massacre. 1t is TO be hoped that
this man will be indicted, and dealt with as
he deserves, and with regard to the fact that
the Hampton Legislature chose to make
him Representative of the state National
Senate. 1t may be said that a State has a
right to choose any one, no matter how base,
has right to reject criminals, and the right
of State TO choose any one it pleases does
not include the right to free criminals from
the grasp ofjustice and thrust them into the
highest councils of the nation.
Time was when the chivalry of South Car
DINA would have scOrned to send such man
pie of South Carolina We're too proud to send
such a man to the highest Legislative cham
Der in the land. That Butler was largely re-
sponsible for the Hamburg butchery, probab-
" nobody doubts. The habits and pursuits of
his life peculiarly qualified him for the COM
mission of so horrible crime. In the days
before the war he lived on high hill on the
South Carolina side of the Savannah river,
opposite Augusta. He owned the estate he Oc-
cupied, but how he came to own it is one of
the questions about which the South CARROLL
nian will not care to inquire too curiously.
It is said that he was overseer before he was
owner, and that he owned something besides
the plantation. He owned pack of Russian
blood hounds and followed the enObling
profession Of slaVe-hunter. In those days
the naughty CarOlinian would not have
sent man engaged in that profession TO the
Senate of the United States. Although he
was glad enough to have his runaway chat
ties caught for him, he depised the man who
did the business. Now they are disposed
10 honor such men-men who, as slave-hun-
ters, schOOled themselves for the kind of
work that was done in the neighborhOod of
Hamburg.
The Senate has a right TO admit such a
man to a seat. 1t also has right to notify
Mr.. Hampton's Legislature that 1t had bet
ter choose more respectable representative.
The President has right to give him pri-
Vate audiences, but he would best consult
his own dignity by refusing him adm1ttance
to the White House, and he would best sub
serve the interests of the country by letting
the law take its course with this man and all
his brother butchers. The country Is walt
ing 20 see how the second part of the South
ern policy will be carried out.
All this SANDER is briefly and dis
painfully disposed of by Gen. But
Ter in the following letter, to which
we need add nothing:
1t is scarcely to be supposed that a paper
| like yours would wantOnly and willingly
misrepresent any one, however, much you
might differ from them, and therefore as
in
/ procuring the facts upon which the 1orego-
/ ing statement is made.
There is not a word of truth in the whole
| statement, so far as it relates to me, except
that have been elected to the United States
/ Senate.
| 1t is true that have been charged with in
| stigating the Hamburg riot, by those who
had political end to accomplish by so
| charging me, but had no more to do with
| instigating that riot than you had, and no
| more to do with killing the negroes than you
/ had.
No effort has been made, that am aware
| of, "tO induce the President to discontinue
| the prosecutions against the Hamburg
/ butchers" On the contrary, the persons
| charged have been trying for nearly year
| to have indictments issued against them,
and referred to the grand jury, with view
| to a full and thorough investigation, and so
| far have failed: therefore no effort could
| have been made to have discontinued what
/ was never undertaken or begun. have new
/ er lived ION high hill on the South Carolina
/ side of the Savannah river, opposite Au-
| guSEa.' nave never owned an estate
| there, and never ''owned pack of Russian
blOOd-hOundS," or hounds of any kind or
description. l was never ''an overSeer" nor
a "slave-hunter," and never had slave TO
have lived the greater portion of my life
| at Edgeheld Courthouse, tWenty-three
miles from Hamburg, in very unpretend-
/ ing, unObtrusive manner, as L always
| thought, devOting myself to the practice OF
| law, and trying to attend to my own bust
/ ness so that either YOU or your informant
|
| for your facts. You have undoubtedly been
/ grossly imposed upon, and have done me
/ publishing this letter? Why any human
| being should endeavOr to thus wantOnly in
| iure another, by such wholesale SANDER, and
/ falsehOOd is beyond my comprehension.
! Very respectfully your obedient servant,
| NJ. c. BUTLR.
AS for the Hampton affair. it is
with that as it is with the PinkstOn
story and the bogus assassination OF
Gov. Packard instead of trying to
hush it up the Democratic party
have been trying ever since the Oc-
currence of these OutrageS to drag
them to the light and have their
true inwardness exposed, while the
Radical party have persistently re-
sisted any legal action on the subject
after once they had used them in
sensational editorials for electiOneer-
ing purposes. While they were in
power Outrages were sedulously pro-
NOTED and never prosecuted, being
the stock in trade of the party, and
even now the real opposition to the
exposure of the Hampton disturb
ances arises from Radical sources in
the immediate locality of the trans
action.
But now for the other General
Butler, the irrepressible Benjamin
F. Benjamin is rabid just at pres
emit; a week or two ago ne publish
ed a venOmous letter in which the
principal object of attack was Mr..
Wayne McVeigh, one of the inves-
tigating committee who were sent to
Louisiana by the President prior to
Withdrawing troops from that State.
He charged that gentleman with
wholesale bribery for the purpose OF
corrupting the Packard Legislature,
inducing them to desert and join the
Nichols Legislature. Mr.. McVeigh
answers him by saying that hehad
no public funds entrusted to him;
still less had he any private means
applicable to such a purpose. He
| limited that Gen. Buffers own eX-
perience in New Orleans during the
war made it natural for him to
suppose that executive commission
ers there had unlimited OppOrtuni-
ties for commanding the needful,
but that the times are changed and
he had to go to work in a much more
modest style.
Meantime he called upon Gen. b.
o. b. to furnish proof for his inju-
riOus allegations.
Ben. had no atom Of proof; reck-
less assertion was his line of bust
ness, and he had always disdained
the slavish rules by which ordinary
mOrtals are tied down in the way of
evidence, but fOul-mouthed scurrili-
ty in abundance made up for the
. ,l - L