The Portland daily press., 1884-08-19
General Butler

General Butler.
General Buffers address ITO My Constitu-
ents" will be published to-day in such papers
as have space and inclination to print what
would I'LL about page of the PRESS written
by the most notorious and least respected
demagogue in politics. If in this land of ours
there has ever been another man capable of SO
much falsehood, treachery, selfishness, and
Drazen defiance of every motive of honor as
this man Butler, Providence has kindly pre-
vented his having an opportunity to develop
his demoralizing talents. He is a lawyer,
whose professional fame has been won in
serving great capitalists and great criminals ia
manufactures whose mills have paid larger
dividends to their owners in proportion to
the wages of their workmen than most 9TH
ers; ia monopolist whose competition is cruel ;
counsellor for sailors whose fees, as in the
Farragut bounty cases, have been extortion-
ate; trustee of public institutions who de-
posted the public money in vast sums to his
private account and refused to produce his
deposit books on the ground that it would
reveal his private business; a soldier whose
successes were those of chief of police and
sutler, and whose military operations were
the conspicuous failures of the war, who in
arguing cases for fees has belittled and denied
the achievements he had claimed for his own
command in his reports, who was distrusted
in a critical command because the enermy
was being fed through his lines at great profit
to somebody, and was finally dismissed from
service in the field by the peremptory order
OF General Grant; a politician who for twen-
ty years, and until their power was broken,
was the subservient tool of the slave masters
In efforts to perpetuate and extend a curse
most hostile to the prosperity of free labor,
and who has been the swift advocate of ev-
cry doctrine and delusion adapted to deceive
the Ignorant, and win their votes; finan-
cier who taught that stamped leather was as
good as gold and that intrinsic value could
be conferred by the fiat of the government;
Congressman who voted for back pay, de-
Tended the Credit Mobilier, made the San
ford and Jayne contracts possible, and was
never known to favor less appropriation
when greater could be obtained; a Cover
nor who conspired with convicts, tramps and
harlots to scandalze the administration of
his State; delegate to national conventions
who betrayed the constituents who trusted
him; self-nominated candidate for various
offices, whose methods of electioneering are
as demoralzing as they are shameless =
this man upon whose good-faith in poll
tics no party ever yet depended without be-
ing betrayed, now issues an address So
Letting the working men to vote for him for
President.
The motive Of this address unquestona-
bly, is to crafty his revengefulness toward
the Democratic party, or, to use his favorite
expression, to get even with it, for declining
to nominate him as its candidate. 1t is alto
gether probable that he will be able TO make
its defeat certain, but it will not be more GER
tain, nor more overwhelming, nor more hui
initiating, than it would have been if he had
been nominated. Butler is pitch that can
not be touched without defilement. Both
parties are purer and more trustworthy be-
cause he has withdrawn from them, and he
will withdraw from and set himself in oppo-
sition to the conglomerate pretence of a par
ty with which he now acts as soon as it re-
fuses TO appease his in Unsuitable selfish
ness by prostrating before him as If he were
God.
The stories that have been set afoat by
malevolent persons to the effect that some
sert of alliance has been entered into be-
tween General Bntler and the Republican
candidate are not to be believed. They are
inspired by the sagacity which perceiyes
that Buffers candidacy will ruin Cleye-
lands chance. If it could be supposed that
the managers of the Republican campaign
had assumed any obligations to General
Butler, it would produce revolt that would
surprise the responsible parties to the bar
gain. Butlerism is the convenient and Just
word to designate all that sound and
patriotic men feel must be reformed out of
politics. 1t comprehends every phase of
selfish, perverse and corrupt interest in
public affairs. The choice between an adj
ministration dominated by the Democratic
party as we have known it for twenty-five
years, and a Republican administration SUBJ
ject to the appreciation of General Butler as
we have known him for twenty-five years,
would not be worth copper.
If such bargain were acknowledged
Republicans by the thousands would 90 to
the support of Grover Cleveland and it
would not be easy to blame them. If such
a bargain were made and the evidence ap-
peared only in the conduct of the admins
tration it would rend the party in pieces as
soon as the truth dawned on the apprehen-
sion of the public. The Republican party
which has once discarded Butler cannot take
up with him again and respect itself. He
must be let alone, and let go his own way.
II he wants to be candidate for President
there is no law against 1t, and no way of
preventing certain order of intelligence
and character from being duped by his pro-
fessions. All kinds of charlatans find VIC
tins and political charlatons get their full
share; but there is no tolerabe code of poll
tical ethics which excuses honorable men for
setting up an imposter in business and
sharing the profits. Therefore Republicans
should have nothing to do, and will have
nothing to do, with abetting the present en-
terprise of General Butler. Nor will they
acknowledge any obligation to him for the
success which was possible and probable in
arhv nvant