The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-02-24
GEN. NJ. C. BUTLER.
Distinguished Family Antecedents Of tho
South Carolina Senator.
Correspondence Ne,u York Graphic.

Distinguished Family Antecedents Of tho
South Carolina Senator.
Correspondence New York Graphic.
WASHINGTON, February 8.
To see the galleries crowded for the
first time in weeks to hear Conkling reply
to Senator Butler shows that the gladia-
torial appetite is still strong in this city
Of affrays, where Sumner was beaten,
where Sam Houston beat Congressman
Stanton, where Sickles shot Key and
Groves killed Cilley. The Butler family
now, as in 1856, is the subject of all ply
sical notice.
STORY OF THE BUTLERs.
Senator Butler, of South Carolina, is
probably clear descendant of Walter the
Butler, who went with Henry II. to the
conquest of Ireland, was made Chief
Butler, and whose descendant soon after.
wards adopted the name of LIE Botiller,
the bother or the butler. Had Ireland
come to like independence with Scot
land, the royal line Of the Buffers might
have cut. as widea swath historically as
the line of Walter the Steward, which
became the Scotch and English Stuarts.
The Buffers, as Dukes of Ormond, rose
to the highest dignity in Ireland, and
though Oh NORMAN origin, became more
Irish than the:Irish." While the Stuarts
were fighting for their crown the crest
Butler Ormond was his Viceroy in Ire.
land, and at the expulsion of the Irish
from all their country east Of the Shan.
non, Pierce Butler, hunted like beast,
-made~his way to Cromwell in person and
was forgiven Like all aristocratic fami-
lies. the. Butler name was adopted by q
Z large tenantry, yet it is pretty distinct
lively Irish. Buffers were with the Tory
Johnsons of New York and with the
patriot settlers of Wyoming, and Pierce
Butler, Major Of British regiment in
B0eton, joined the Americans, operated
Sin South Carolina, and, having assisted
to make the Constitution, became the
first Senator from that State, and lived
till 1922.
When the Constitution was under de-.
bate this Major. Butler was a leader in
extending the foreign slave trade to 1908
significantly the end of Jeferson's
Presidential term-and he was the author
of the fugitive slave law of 1888, though
fair and reciprocal on other questions.
The Buffers OF Pennsylvania and Ken
tucky also kept the name of Pierce, and
came from Kilkenny ;; one of them was
the Democratic candidate for Vice.P Presi-
dent with Cass. In 1910 Samson II.
Butler. of South Carolina, made q speech
in Congsess defending slavery on Scrip
tural grounds. Andrew Pickens Butler
was the most celebrated Of the family,
and was born at the Irish settlement of
Edgefeld, the most lawless and duelling
point of South Carolina, in the year
1896. This was. the man against whom
Sumner leyeled bis speech on the Bar.
barism of-Slayery.'' He was educated
at the celebrated South Carolina College,
at Columbia, where free trade was first
taught by Cooper, of Pennsy ylyauia, the
English son.in.law of Joseph Pnestley.
Calhoun seized on the party cry of free
trade to elect himself President, and the
nnllifying laws were therefore passed
against the Federal protective duties. 1t
Wonld seem that all South Carolinians,
Unionists as we'll as Nulliiers, were free
traders. Andrew P. Butler became a
Judge at forty, aud 80 remained twelve
years, until George McDufie died, when
he was appointed United States Senator
about 1S47, and IVES in the Senate till his
death in. 1857. His father had been
regular army surgeon and Congressman,
and his brother William was also Con-
gressman, and married the sister of Com
modore Perry, grand-aunt. of Mrs. Bel
mont, of New York. Recollecting the
friendship between Belmont and Tom
Bayard and the recent correspondence
between Bayard and Senator Conkling,
You will see a possible analogy between
it and Senator Buffers outbreak. He is
the posterity of Miss Perry and a cousin
of Perry Belmont, Congressman elect.
Another Butler, Pierce NJ, was Governor
of South Carolina in 1886, and was killed
leading his regiment on the field of
Cherubusco. The regiment marched to
Mexico nearly 1900 strong, and returned
with only 300 men and few of its officers,
and to it the Palmetto tree monument at
Columbia. is raised. The Pierce Butler
who married Fanny Kemble and resided
at Philadelphia was Of slight relation to
any of the public men foregoing, though
it Is suggestive that through;the Kembles
the Buffers are connections of.General
Grant, whose daughter married thes son of
Fanny Kemble Butler's sister.
In the dispute over, carrying slavery
into Oregon, 1848, Senator A. P. Butler
said che would tell his constituents to 60
into the territories with arms in their
hands and settle Fat all hazards. y
am ready to embark in the boat with
my State and trust it to the care of
Heaven"
One month after Charles Sumner was
elected to the United States Senate he
presented New England petition to re-
peal the Fugitive Slave law, and in the
excited debate which followed he chose
the old veteran Senators of the South,
Butler and Mason, as the representative
agents of slavery extension. Butler
asked if Mr.. Sumner would send back
fugitive slaves if the law was repealed.
cts thy servants dog that he should do
this thing?n replied Sumner. "Then
you tell me in my presence as co-equal
Senator that it is a dogs Office to execute
the Constitution of the United States p
So began the exasperating animus be-
tween the Southerner of fifty6ve years
of age and the Massachusetts champion
of forty. Summers appearance in that
Senate created as much curiosity and dis.
gust as Cadet Whitaker did 80 years
afterwards in the military aristocracy of
West Point. The father of Thomas Bay
ard cast in his lot with the radical South
ern element, though he had married in
Philadelphia. There was an old feud
between South Carolina and Massachu.
sets, made personal by the mission of
the father Of George Hoar to Charleston
as the State agent 20 protect the freedom
of Massachusetts colored sailors, and the
debate between Webster and Hayne,
when Sumner was only nineteen years of
-. L,l onoaorod n mako theaa two