New-York tribune., 1878-06-12
GEYERAL BrrLERs MISTlKE

1t has CALLED the keen intellect Of Butler,
no doubt, to see his Democratic associates
flonndering about day after day in the
muddv and bottomless ditch of mire into
which they plunged when they introduced
confessed periurer as their chief witness.
Bntler has sense enough to know that an in
vestigation of that sort will cover the inves-
tiqators with disgrace. There are partisan
lunatics who make a great ado, as If
something of Importance were proved,
whenever champion liar tells an easily re-
futed falsehood, but Butler knows the lunatcs
do not represent the country. He comes TO
the front, hoping to rescue the inquiry from
public contempt by the production of evidence
showing some sort of bargain between the
President and Southern men, effected prior to
the completion OF the Electoral count and
carried out by the Administration afterward.
The appointment of Mr.. Key and the Worm
lev Hotel conference seem to Butler matters
worth investigating.
General Buffers Democratic associates can
not see that the assertions of pcTjurers and
the guesses Of men like McLin are worthless
as evidence. He himself cannot see that the
disposition of patriotic Southern members to
avert civil war, and the desire OF the
President to settle the Southern question,
to promote good feeling, and to give
the best men at the South fair chance to
do their best for the public good, involved
no corrupt bargain, but only an honorable
understanding on either side OF the firm pur-
noses and sincere motives on the other. The
President wished only to know that there were
Southern men, in sufficient number, who
would save the country from anarchy by
regarding its welfare rather than the behests
Of q party caucus. Honorable Southern men
only wished TO be assured that the President
would adhere firmly Notwithstanding pressure
from partisans, to his public declarations of
conviction and purpose in regard to the use
of troops at the South. Very properly and
patriOtically, Southern men gave proof OF
their purpose before the Inauguration or the
Wormley conference. Very properly the Presi-
dents friends made it known that he would
be found faithful to his public declarations in
regard to the settlement of the Southern
question Very properly, and with strict
fidelity to his convictions of duty, the
President afterward pursued precisely the
course which had been anticipated from
his public declarations as candi-
date. 1t requires hlgh degree OF per-
yerted ingenuity to find in all this the
slightest trace of dishOnOrable bargaining.
But there are some persons so corrupt who
cannot conceive that anybody else acts from
unselish, conscientious and patriotic motives
General Butler proceeds to advertise the fact
that, to his mind, concord for the public good
necessarily involves some secret and corrupt
bargain for private advantage
Senator Hill has made a timely revelation,
which knocks the bottom out of the inquiry
contemplated by Butler. over forty Southern
members gave to each other pledge Of
honor, weeks before the WOrmley conference,
that they would defeat any attempt to pre-
vent by flibustering the inauguration of the
candidate declared elected by the Electoral
Commission. The record proves that they
kept the pledge, not only in the House but
in Democratic caucus THE TRIBUNE gave
to these members high credit for their