Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-10-11


Few men in the Union have gained more
notoriety by their connection with the STIR
ring scenes through which our country has
passed during the last twenty years than
Benjamin Franklin Butler, Governor OF
Massachusetts,, and the Democratic nominee
for reelection to that position.
He is native Of New Hampshire and
was born on the 5th of November, 1918. He
received a collegiate education, graduating
from Waterville College when he was twen-
ty years of age. He read law, and on being
admitted to the Bar, he began practice at
Lowell, Massachusetts,. He soon arose to
prominence in the legal profession, and at
tained wide ereputation as Il successful
criminal lawyer.
His first entrance upon public life was in
1853, in which year he was elected a men,
Der of the House of Representatives. He
was also delegate to the Constitutional
Convention of that State, in the same year.
In 1859 he took his seat as State Senator.
His affiliations were with the Democratic
party, and at this period of his public life
he was regarded by the ultra Southern wing
of the party as their most faithful Northern
ally. Nor did he disappoint them in their
expectations, so far as bonbastic action and
empty words could 60 in eXemplifying his
adherence to the pro-slavery party of the
Union. He secured the position Of delegate
from Massachusetts to the National Demo-
cratic Convention held in Charleston in
1860 and on this occasion distinguished
himself by voting sc times for Jefferson
Davis as worthy the nomination for Presl-
dent of the United States. In explanation
of this course he has recently said that he
supported Davis with the view of avertlng
the civil war which he then saw was inn
pending, without some cOnciliation to the
South, and he was willing to grant it,
even to the nomination of the most pro-
nounced State rights and pro-slavery man
in the party-a man, too, upon whom ne
thought all divisions of the party, North,
South and West, would'unite, thus securing
his election over the nominee of the Re-
publcans of the North and of the National
Whig party, which in the South was then
beginning to dissolve; it itbecoming eyident,
even with the nomination of Bell, OF, Ten
nessee, and Everitt, of Massachusetts, that
the honored old Whig party of the South,
modelled after the political creed of Henry
Clay, would have to soon align itself with
the Republicans Of the North, or, to pre-
serve the "peculiar institution" in which
it's members had a common interest, go bOdi-
ly over to the Democratic ranks. Looking
back over the events Of the tWenty-three
years that have elapsed since the stormy
scenes in the fruitless Convention at Char
lesion, Governor Buffers explanation may
be said to have the merit Of plausibility,
if his political ken foresaw these things
then as they may be now described; though
it will hardly be gainsayed that if Buffers
cOncilating and compromise policy in the
Charleston Convention had prevailed, it
would only have delayed the evil day for a
bare presidential term. AS events have
proved, both sections Of the country were
only too willing for an arbitrament by arms,
though the crisis was fastened by the sue
cess of the Republican party in that memo
rable canvass.
Here the services of "Mr Butler, Of
Massachusetts," ;" to the National Democratic
party ceased for the time. To the conster-
nation of the parlOr soldiers Of the South,
who expected to fight the battles of the
country before breakfast and return home
victorious for early dinner, no sooner was
the tocsin of war sounded than their Massa-
chusctts champion, to whom they looked at
least for moral encouragement, dOnned his
war paint and declared that 1.-THE Union
must be preserved" And as zone renegade
is worse than ten Turks" so did Butler prove
to be the most inveterate foe to the South.
Political influence and position had much to
do with military promotion in the Union
army, as was lamentably shown to be the
case at our own doors, and Butler cOmmen-
ced his military career in March, 1861, as
Brigadier- General. In the following month
he was commissioned Il Major-General, ana
he served throughout the war.
His record as a soldier does not place him
alongside of the white plumed Bayard, nor
as military strategist will his achievements
compare with those of Il Wellington or Ma
poleon. But as a satrap or military ty-
rant, clothed with "a little brief authority"
he was Il decided success. He was first as
signed to duty at Baltimore, and afterwards
at Fortress Monroe. In 1862, in connection
with the naval forces under Farragut, he
assisted in the capture of New Orleans, of
which he was afterwards military governor.
He held this position until some time in
1868, and it was while exercising his pre-
negatives as military governor OF the rebel
creole city, that he committed acts himself
or permitted the commission OF them, that
will hand his name down to pOsterity as an
execrable tyrant and being lacking the
essential qualities of true manhood, no mat
ter how contrite he may hereafter become,
or how penitently he may confess his faults
to an outraged people, or how earnestly ne
may seek forgiveness from that Power be-
fore which nations tremble. The public
hanging Of poor young Mumtord, by the
mere verbal order of Butler, on the day
New Orleans fell, can never be forgotten,
the offence of the victim of this mlnlon OF
military power being only derision of the
American flag, which then was regarded by
Southern men as the symbol of oppression
and tyranny. Mumford was young man,
impulsive, and indiscreet to rashness. He
derided the American flag when it took the
place of the Confederate cOlOrs on the Gus
tom House, not concealing his sentiments,
which pervated the entire population of
the fallen city, and for his indiscretion he
was consigned by Butler to an ignominous
death without an hours preparations!
But that net, by which human life was !