Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12
STURDY BEN BUTLER.
Ex-Chief Clerk Lloyd's Estimate of
the Somewhat Erratic Man.
WAS PRE-EMINENTLY A FIGHTER.
Nothing Suited Him Better Than Mighty
Storm in the House.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE PRESIDENT
WRITTEN FOR THE pIspATcH.1

L
which I write who occupied larger space
in the public attention than General Butler;
then in the prime of life and in the full ex-
ercise of the remarkable faculties with
which nature had so literally endowed him.
He is man of exceptional qualities, and
has fought his way to prominence against
obstacles which would have been insupera-
BILE in weaker men, but which have probably
been the very means of making Butler what
he is. To man of his naturally pugnacious
and combatative disposition obstacles are
the rounds of the ladder by which he mounts
to fame.
General Butler never attained as high
political position as his natural abilities
warranted, perhaps because of his too erratic
disposition, and lack of singleness of pur-
pose and steadiness of aim. He is a natural
member of minority party; too arbitrary
for party leader, and far too independent
to be follower. He always seemed to take
| pleasure in advancing some novel idea, or
| making some startling announcement, yet
it deserves to be said that he always gave
| ingenious, if not wholly satisfactory reasons
for whatever he did.
He Might Have Been President
There was time when it would have re-
quired but little effort, rightly directed, to
have given him the nomination for the
Presidency, and his hold at that
time upon. the masses, who were de-
lighted with his boldness and dash,
and saw in him many of the qualities
which they most admire, would have elected
him with hurrah. But the opportunity
passed, never to return. He was always
bold, courageous, daring and original, and
took his cue from nobody, and seemed to
take special pleasure in any contest where
| the odds were against him; willing on all
occasions, as he once expressed it on the
floor, "to take the field against all comers. "
! He is man of inexhaustible mental re-
sources, and was always ready, in every
emergency, to enter the arena of debate;
never asking for time for preparation to
make an attack, or gather materials to resist
one, and always came out of the conflict
with the conviction that he had at least
killed as many of the enemy as they had of
him. He was possessed of an intense
personality, and had such unbounded
Confidence in His Own Powers
as led him to disdain help from any quar-
ter. He never sought to accomplish an end
| by conciliation, combination, or compro-
mise. He had no love or desire for
| its cost, and the magnitude of the struggle.
He evidently believed that sand was better
| than oil, and that he could catch, or at least
| kill, more flies with vinegar than molasses.
He was the steam engine of the House;
always fred up and ready to start at a
| moments notice, and when he did start it
| was down grade, with full head of steam;
| brakes loose and the throttle wide open,
and notice out to everybody to get off the
track when the bell rung, ard if they didn't
| he had no sympathy to waste over the fate
| which their own foolhardiness had invited
And he took delight apparently in provok-
the bull ring he loved to prod
his enemy into rage, in order to
exhibit the more strikingly his own prowess
It was amusing to watch him in an exciting
debate, when the more hubbub and noise he
could stir up the better he seemed to like
it. Attacked at times on all sides, he
would turn from one to another and snap
them up or fling them aside like big mastiff
does lot of rat terriers. The more they
snapped at him the more he enjoyed it.
How He Took Defeats.
And it is only fair to him to say that
what he meted out to others he was willing
they should measure to him, and took de-
feat, if it came, with sublime serenity. He
pened to have been. born in France instead of
America he would probably have been one
of the reddest of red Republicans, and the
idol of the Sans Cullottes. He delighted
in storm and tempest, and when the winds
raved, and the skies grew dark, and the thun-
der roared, and ''the lightning's red glare
painted hell on the sky" and dire confusion
reigned supreme, Butler was in his ele-
ment-the veritable storm god.
His sympathies were always with "the
under dog in the fight" and his preference
whether prompted by the spirit Of chivalry,
or love of the notoriety which it gave
him, it is difficult to decide. What are
termed moral considerations probably in
fuenced him but little. He seeks an end,
and adopts the means which he thinks most
likely to aid in its attainment He is re-
lentless in his animosities; never gives any
| quarter to an enemy nor asks for any, but is
always in the ring to fight to a finish with
iron gloves or brass knuckles, and never in
ambush, but always in the open, giving his
enemy the choice of ground and weapons,
and excelled all men have ever known in
his ability to seize his antagonists weapons
and turn them against him.
How He Could Turn . Point
A good illustration of this was found dur
dent johnson. His counsel had moved for
an extension of time, to which the man.
ayers on the part of the House objected,
| and one of the Presidents counsel COM
| planned that "there seemed to be a DISPOSE
| tion to rush the case through with railroad
| speed
"Why not?" cried Butler 'It won't do
| to ignore the fact in judicial investigations,
any more than elsewhere, that there are
| such things as railroads and telegraphs,
which can be, and ought to be, pressed
| into service on such occasions. They are
| elements in the transactions of all other
| kinds of business, why not in courts of
| Justice as well?''
The same method was used in his argu-
ment before the Supreme Court of the United
States on the question of the legality of
military commissions to try offenders out,
side the lines of military occupation. Gar
field, who was on the other side, opposed
their legality on the ground, among others,
that they were governed by no fixed rules or
limitations, and, like an earthquake, were
all-compelling in their nature. Butler, in
reply, said: 81 accept the gentleman's
illustration; military law is from necessity
all-compelling. 1t is like an earthquake,
and say to the gentleman that, If an earth
quake was now to shake this Capitol build
ing in which we are assembled, the EARTH
quake would be the law of the case for the
time being, and he could not resist it or
prevent it by any constitutional objections
he might make against it."
AThrust at Judge Black.
In the same case Judge Black, in the
course of his argument, had said that there
were only three ways by which the Govern
ment could be endangered-by foreign ag-