The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-09-18
H,t,er,s nconsistencies

YJn,,e3 States few months before the war,
In e hich he became the noisest OF Repub-
Iicsns. the most yindictiye persecutor OF the
South, and vile plunderer and thiei. The
people he desires now to disgrace by De-
coming the Governor OF their Common
wealth are put to the task OF canysssing his
merits, which gives them no trouble at ali
II is his dement's that devolve upon them
the duty that is impossible Of performance.
General BUTLER, ike General MALONE,
concentrates his ambition and his efforts
upon the Office OF Governor OF bis State.
In Massachusetts, now he takes precisely
the opposite ground from that he formerly
occupied on the subject OF the currency,
and merely because lie thinks his new opin-
10 Is more popular with the people than
those he once favored.
The Boston Herald OF Monday recalls
BUFFERS speech in october, 1857, upon the
panic that then prevailed. We quote the
Herald:
He asked then why the merchants ships
were rotting at their wharves; why the
looms OF Lowell were stopped; why were
stalwart mechanics walking about tue streets
in search for labor. Almost the same words
he uses now IN opening his remarks. But
what do YOU suppose was his answer to these
questions In 1851? Was it contraction OF
the currency that had caused all the trouble?
Was it that Government bonds were not
taxed; that mortgages did not go down with
real estate; that n tax on matches oppressed
the poor people because it takes more
matches to light a poor mans pipe than
rich mans cigar This argument in New
York q few weeks; that the State is
governed by commissions; thas we had
not currency which is non-export-
able? No; be mentioned none OF these
causes then. This was his reason for bust
ness depression in 1857: i" The conStttu-
tional currency of hard money has been
srept u,cdp, and ne no,o haze q currency Of
RAGS, sareds, and patches, and THIS IS Me
cause Of our present financial CRISIS" lie
then went on to develop his remedy. lie
favored as the first step the withdrawal OF
all bank notes under $40, then all under
$40, land so on until all payments under
$50 mast be made in specie" "Thls sys-
TEN has worked well in France and EnS-
land" said he, "where financial panics
never affect the laboring ciasses,V and he
argued from data, which be read, that the
business Of Massachusetts, can be cen
Quoted on specie basis, and dH pd1lics
like the present be AVOIDED" The Speaker
then went on to argue that hard money
was especially beneficial to the labor
ing man, quoting Webster: "0f all the
contriyances for cheating the laborlng
classes none have been SO successful rs the
expansion OF paper currency" He also
quoted from Andrew Jackson and George
Washington to the same end. These doc
triDes, he said, are, and always have been,
Democratic. This was Butler on bard
times, trying to make political capital out
OF the depression OF business, twenty-on
years ago. He now says that the cause OF
all our trouble is the contraction OF the
irredeemabe currency. the effort TO get pack
TO hard money, or what is worth its lace IN
hard money. In effect, he says that the
Ben. Butler or twenty-one years ago was
what his friend Kearney would call
"slab-sided, bung-eyed hyena," or a "iop-
cared mackerel"-in short, blathering
idiot.
What monstrous tleachcry to BUFFERS
old Democratic opinions is here disclosed.
But Inconsistency is so far from being sur
prising in such unprncipled, conscience
less men as BUTLER that everybody expects
it of them. They could not move or bulge
an inch without it. We look for it as GER
tain. He could not prolons the agitation
.of bis claims without changing his political
base.
Upon that beautiful compromising princi-
pie OF providential law INSCRIPTIONS poll
ticians who shift their politics, and eat up
their own words for the sake OF catching
an imaginary breeze with which to swell
the sails OF their ambition, have to pay the
forfeit OF public reprobation, which comes
in sharp and lasting reverse upon thcir un-
worthy ambition.
Buffers change Of opinion bears with
striking directness upon him. His former
views and principles were precisely against
those with which he now seeks to reach the
highest position in his State. He could not
be presented in light more marked by
treachery and depravity. And so it is with
almost all ambitious and unprincipled men.
They cannot win the applause OF excited
and ignorant people without becoming the
advocates OF monstrous views at variance
with the proper and prudent opinions and
principles which most men are inclined TO
adopt In the early days Of their manhood.
Youth is disposed to generous and honest
ideas. It's when men are in the third stage
Of manhood-When they are soured by dis
appointments and made passionately anX-
ious for honors and PROTESTANT they begin
their strategies for promotion in public
houors and their schemes for money
making and acquiring political power; and
then we should put little faith in them.
They cannot be prudently trusted, because
their personal ambition and their capricious
ideas of their best plansto accomplish their
personal objects, whatever they may be,
govern their acts and their views. BUTLER is
one Of the most noted and the most unprinci-
pied and unscrupulous examples OF this
order OF man now living upon this conti-
nent. Massachusetts takes the lead; but
every State has its pattern OF similar kind.
Massachusetts has the championship. Other
States there are which are not far behind
her, ind we regret to be compelled by facts
to enter Virginia as competitor that is not
to be distanced in the contest.
-
Colonel FAUNTLERoY, Of Winchester, is
announced as, candidate for Congress in
opposition to the regularly-nominated Con-
sentative candidate, General ErPA Hun
TON. We have looked to his coming out
since his exploits as a forcible readjuster