The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-01-18


The following editorial from the New
York Tribune, though at the expense OF
prediction OF ours we still adhere to, Is 80
full Of humor that we cannot refrain from
copying 1t:
.'HE DOESN'T KNOW BENJAMIN"
II man who had enjoyed opportunities
through many years Of personal observa-
ton and occasional periods of intimate ac-
quaintance and association for finding out
the friskiness. uncertainty. and ubiquity OF
the flea should deliberately and gratui-
tously, in mixed company contemplating
the saltations OF some particularly lively
flea, risk his reputation on positive pre-
diction that the flea would not make his
next appearance on the bald head OF the
most remote and inaccessible spectator. we
should say that either he was himself unac-
countably fresh, or that he utterly failed
TO appreciate the pervasiycness and uneX-
pectedness Of the bird in question. What,
then, shall we say Of Democratic newspa-
per published in Richmond, Va, which,
after years OF opportunity for becoming
acquainted with Governor Benjamin +.
Butler and his unique gifts and graces, sits
positive prediction as TO where that profes-
sor OF the hop, apostle of the skip, and
high priest OF the jump, will not appear
nexti Is the Richmond Dispatch &erely
too fresh when it says in y hali-oracular
manner: "GovernOr Butler might as
well learn first a. last that nei-
ther party will ever nominate him for
President or is it possible that after all
fofl to
statesman's wondrous gifts whereby he
forever ehIdes the thumb OF investigation
and pursuit. and steals up the sleeve OF his
pursueri We suspect that it does not
know him. It certainly does not know
him as they do in Boston. Should wager
be offered in that tangled town that Gov
ernOr Butler would be found some fine
morning sitting in his night-shirt on the
spire OF the Old South church there would
be no takers. And no Boston man would
ever 20 10 his days work without looking
at the stceple Of Old South TO see if Benia-
min had got there yet.
And yet the Richmond Dispatch has the
assurance TO undertake 10 forecast his Iu-
ture, 80 far as TO say that he can never
be nominated for President by eitherpar-
ty. Obviously it doesn't. know him.
Why, when this man goes for nomina-
ton OF any sort he means business. 1t
isn't any Fort Fisher rackct-blowing
up a lot Of powder and going away. He
never did that but once. Now, when he
wants a nomination he sticks TO it till
he gets it, and if he doesn't get it from
one party he does from the other. 1t
makes no difference with him which
he gets 1t from. It's all the same so
he gets ii. If direct assault fails. he lays
siege; he trenches and mines and APP
proaches by zig-zags and multitude OF
indirections, as he did during the success
sion of years in which he sought the Repub-
lean nomination for Governor OF Massa-
chusetts. All these failing, he simply sends
out Il scaling party with ladders to enter
the convention OF the other party by
third-story window and capture the nOmi-
nation by surprise. No flea, even under a
galvanic-battery, could make liyelier work
than this. One moment the large, heavy
thumb OF Massachusetts RepublicaniSm
drops heavily on the spot where he is sup
posed to be, and naturally ought to be;
the next he winks at you from the eX-
tremely bald head and sensitive scalp
OF the exceedingly respectable Massa-
chusettS Democracy. Reached 1t partly
by saltation and partly by ladder. a year
previous persons who knew the General
only by his abortive attack on Fort Fisher
and his unsuccessful siege of Worcester,
and had never seen HIM IN his great grass
hopper act, would have laid heavy odds
that he could never be nominated for Gov
ernor OF Massachusetts,. They would have
laid still heavier that lie would never be
nominated 10y Democrats, and would have
laughed any man to scoTn who suggested
the possibility that he would lie the Demo
cratic candidate within year. But he
was, all the same. He isn't safe man to
lay wagers on or prophesy about.
The Richmond paper manifestly does not
know him. Massachusetts does. SO does
Boston. And so. to an unusual degree,
with knowledge born of hard knocks,
does the Hon. Frank Bird. All, for how
many successive years did Frank Bird and
"Sam" Bowles and "Bill " Warrington
Robinson, and the Hoar brothers, and the
rest, sit together in a mllsty room in the
Bay State House, at Worcester, on the eve
OF the State Convention, working up the
opposition to Butler and devising barriers
between him and the Republican party
And the most detected and melancholy
Bird in the whole flock over the possibility
Of Butler was Frank. Tired ont at last
with fighting Butler, he went over to
the Democracy. "The villain still pursued
him." lie had hardly struck the roost
when Benjamin was beside him. Worse
still, he got the regular Democratic nOmi-
nation for Governor, and Bird was obliged
to signalize his entrance into the party by
boiling regular nomination. Nobody
who knew Bird well and Butler not very
well would have hesitated at that time TO
have laid a wager OF say million dol
lars against Il nickel that Frank Bird
would never he found voting for
Butler for Governor. But lie was,
all the same. And what is more,
and must have made Bowles and Robin
son turn over in their graves, he has
since then been attending dinners in honor
Of Butler, and publicly expressing con-
iidence in him. The Richmond paper
clearly does not know Mr. Butler. Let
il fasten its mind little more friendly
upon his character aud career, beginning.
say, with his vote for Jefferson Davis in
the Charleston Convention OF 1860. and
coming down by easy stages to the pre-
sent time. II after careful consideration
OF his character and qualities it is pre-
pared to risk the prediction that it will
not itself he found urging Buffers nomi-
nation for the presidency in 1854, we
shall-wait and see.