The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-10-10
Hon. N. G.. Butler.

The following sketch of Senator Butler
is from the pen of Ex-Governor B. F.
Perry, in the last issue of the Greenville
Enterprise and Mou,ltaineer:
General Mathew Calbraith Butler is
native of Greenville District, and was
born at his fathers homestead on Pixies
Mountain, four or FIVE miles east of the
city of Greenville, where he was reared
and spent his boyhood till the removal Of
his father and family to the State of Mis-
souri,. His father, DR.. William Butler,
was surgeon in the United States Navy
during the war of 1872, and afterwards
Representative in Congress from the
Districts of Greenville, Laurens, Ander-
son and Pickens. He was 4 high-toned
gentleman, of pure and unsullied honor
and patriotism, cordial in his manners
and warm in his friendship, possessing a
tall and strikingly handsome person, and
very popular with the people. All of
these virtues and graces his distinguished
son has inherited.
There are fewer men in South Carolina
who can boast prouder family inherit
ance than General Butler. For three
generations his ancestors and relations
on both sides of the house have been dis
tinguished in public service, as naval
and army officers, Judges, Governors and
United States Senators. His paternal
grandfather, General William Butler,
was o gallant officer of the American
revolution, and for many years Repre-.
sentative in Congress from the Edge6eld
District. His sons, the uncles of the
subject of this sketch, we're all men Of
ability and distinction. Andrew Pickens
Butler was for many years Judge of
our State courts and United States Sena-
tor. Pierce Mason Butler, was an officer
of the United States army and Governor
of the State of South Carolina. He
served with distinction in the Florida
war, and was killed at the head of the
Palmetto Regiment in Mexico.
On his mothers side, General Buffers
ancestors and relatives were no loss dis
tinguished. His maternal grandfather,
Christopher Raymond Perry, of Rhode
Island, was a Captain in the United
States Navy, and gallant officer on sea
and land during the whole of the Ameri-
can revolution. His SONS, the brothers
of Mrs. Jane Tweedy Butler, mother of
General Butler, were Oliver Hazard
Perry, the brilliant, immortal hero of
Lake Erie, and Matthew Calbraith Per-
ry, q Commodore in the United States
Navy and Commissioner to japan.
Commodore Rodgers, another gallant
naval hero of the war of 1872, married
the sister of Mrs. Butler. and daughter of
Captain Christopher Raymond Perry.
The descendants of these distinguished
naval heroes are now holding high Offices
in the United States Navy.
General Mathew Calbraith Butler,
named after his uncle, Commodore Perry,
returned to South Carolina with his
mother and family after the death of his
father in Missouri. He was graduated at
the South Carolina College, and COM
menced the practice of his profession at
the Edgefield bar. He was, very soon
after his admission to the bar, elected
member of the Legislature from Edge
field District. This was in 1860, and in
1861 our civil war broke out. He imme-
diately raised company of cavalry and
Joined Hampton's Legion. He served
through the whole of the war, and rose
to the rank of Major General of cavalry
in the Confederate army. At the des-
perate battle of Brandy Station in 1863
he lost a leg, but he now walks without
a stick, and very few persons would no.
tice his lameness. We will not attempt
to give sketch of his military services.
They are matter of history and known
to his country. But we will say that no
officer of the Confederate army was more
gallant or heroic. In the invasion of
Pennsylvania, under Lee, the scrupu-
lously honorable conduct of Gen. Butler
towards the citizens of the country
through which the Confederate army was
passing drew from them the highest ad-
miration, and since the war he has re-
ceived their grateful thanks.
At the bar Gen. Butler has shown in
the argument of his cases great learning
and the most brilliant talents as an ad-
vocate. In celebrated libel case tried
at Greenville some time since, his speech
was said to be, by competent judges, the
most forcible and finished argument they
have ever heard in the court of justice.
Persons who had witnessed similar
trial at Anderson, in which Gov. Nc
Duffie made one of his greatest efforts,
say that Gen. Buffers speech was greatly
superior in every respect; more brilliant,
more logical, more eloquent, more learn
ed and more conclusive.
In the Senate of the United States,
where General Butler has just been seat
ed, he is destined to make his mark and
sustain the high reputation which South
Carolina has had in the councils of the
republic for more than century past.
He is comparatively young man, strik-
ingly handsome in his person, courtly
and polished in manners, punctilliously
honorable in his character, aud wins
popular favor wherever he goes, even in
Radical Senate.
General Butler married the daughter
of Governor Francis w. Pickens, and
lives in Edgefeld, the home of the But
lers for more than q century past. But
we know that he hes strong attachment
for his native district, Greenville, where
lie the remains of his honored and noble