St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-10-03
Ben. Butler.
WESTERN BIRD's-EYE VIEW OF THE
CLAIMANT AND HIS CAMPAIGN.
+1,o Cl,;co m Trihune

WESTERN BIRD's-EYE VIEW OF THE
CLAIMANT AND HIS CAMPAIGN.
From the Chicago Tribunel
Gen. Butler has the best regulated
machine of any man in the business OF
politics. Even the great and good Ros-
coe, his only competitor in Vaccination,
is obliged to stick to his wheel and let
the pent-up Utica confne his powers
while the mill is running; but Ben
iamin winds up his machine like an
eight-day clock and cheerfully goes
abroad over the Western prairies, among
the agricultural fairs and horse-races,
dropping words of wisdom on universal
suffrage and the national currency at
Rockford and Milwaukee, and exhibit
ing in odd moments the very choicest
specimens of profanity which two CEN
turtles and half of civilization In Massa-
chusetts have been able to produce,
well knowing what grists will come to
Boston and to Worcester while he is
away, and that the sound OF the grind
ing will never once be low.
Gen. Butler is philosopher, In that
he adapts his means to the end he has
in view. The end is always bad, and
the means are always bad but neither
is inconsistent with the other. Last
year, when he wanted to be governor,
he deliberately hired gang of ruffians
to take possession before day break of
the hall in Worcester where the deme-
cratic convention was called, and hold
it until he himself had been nominated
by mob and had sent the doleful
minority of respectable democrats, who
i IL Of re
have controlled the convention, off to
Boston to hold subsequent meeting
of their own. This year he was on
hand with a new device. He got Tar
box of Lowell, who is sort of last
years democrat, and Simmons of Bos-
ton, who is sort of last years repub-
lican, and Usher, who is a sort of Me-
gatherian manager, into a room to-
gether, and laid out a plan for the cam
paign. Then Benjamin sailed away in
his yacht up toward the coast of Labra-
dor, and the other fellows ran the ma
chine. ..
If the Stockbridge Indians were ex-
tant, and could poll thousand votes
in the states, Butler would get himself
nominated by convention of abOrigi-
mes on a platform of aid to the POncas ;
| if it were necessary to secure the vote
of Cape Cod, he would get nominated
as fisherman on the issue presented
by the refusal of the Blue Noses to let
the Yankees dry their fish ashore; and
if women could vote he would get a
nomination from the Smith sisters, or
the one of them that is left. His nom
mating machine never wears out, and
his platforms are cut and made to order.
Gen. Butler is by no means a stationary
politician. He moves around. Strangers
don't always know exactly where to
find him. He does not forget that a
rolling stone gathers no moss, but moss
is not what he is after. 1t is office that
he wants. He is a many sided man,
and each side is trying to get to the top,
and that makes him roll. About TWEEN
ty years ago he was running for gov
ernor of Massachusetts as Il secession
Breckenridge democrat against Doug
las man. About half dozen years ago
he was running for the republican nom
ination for governor at Springfield
against Washburn, who got it and was
elected. Before the rebellion Butler
was a rebel when the war came he
saw butter on the other side of his
| olOeiu, anu SttiitthoiJ iSu " oih''ih 60 III y
down the shore to where, as Gen. Grant
expressed it, he got "bottled up" with
Confederate commander sitting on
the cork. After the war he was ire
mendous republican, and during the
Ethiopian exodus into the Houses OF
Congress, when it was said that negroes
were cheaper in Washington than they
had ever been in Richmond, he COM
manded the colored cohorts and had
their votes for every scheme he chose
to put his hand to. 1t is greatly to his
credit that he never got caught. 1t
may safely be said that all through the
"era of corruption in Congress there
was not single "job" of any great
magnitude Investigated that did not
show all the footsteps pointing directly
to Buffers front door, but when the
Investigators got there they invariably
saw his coat-tails just going round the
corner. He was not at home, and he
never has been at home very much
since.