Evening journal., 1893-05-31

old Ben Butler. He went about the
country a long time with his vile tongue
and .villainous mind. He was smart,
shrewd and unscrupulous But, at last,
at the suggestion, perhaps, of an enemy,
he wrote book. In that he villifed
pretty nearly everybody he mentioned.
and he mentioned nearly everybody
whom he had injured. That included
nearly every public man prominent dur
ing or since the war
He had injured General w. F. Smith
more seriously perhaps, than any other
man; hence his book devoted a great
deal Of attention TO General Smith. In
that the old callumniatcr made a mis-
take, for General Smith happens to be in
possession of the facts not sufficiently
only to deny .all Of Buffers structures,
but to prove that the old fellow was
either lying from malice or Incidence.
A recent reviewer says, General Smith
has, in his book, dealt also with some
specific assertions Of General Butler re.
garding the facts Of the Petersburg cam
paign or the personal relations of the
parties. He shows conclusively that the
attacks made upon him by Butler in the
Book are contradicted by the evidence
Of letters Of the latter written during
the campaign and long after. and by
statements made by Butler TO common
friends. He shows that Butler is
grossly inaccurate in historical facts I;
that he has been careless in using official
records, If not willfully perverting them d"
1t is not at all unlikely that General
Butler was both careless and willful in
the perversion of facts. General
Smith considers the specific charges Of
Buffers book seriatim and shows that
they are $50 absurdly in contradiction
with the facts that we prefer to regard
them as reckless distortions Of memory
warped by passion rather than purposed
misstatements. for Butler was far too
shrewd TO ignore the comparison with the
record which was sure TO come. His
whole book is full Of marks Of the
Incidence Of one to whom careful inves.
tigatlon is distasteful, but whose pas
slonate advocacy carries him away into
any assertion which occurs TO him as
likely to hurt his opponent, and blinds
him to his own blEnders and inconsis
tencies."
It Is really charitable to ascribe the
malicious misstatements Of Butler tc
laundering and Inconsistency. In one
sense Butler may have been blum
derer, that is in the sense of always
being dishonest, when honesty is the
best policy. But he was not incon
sistent. He was mean. selfish, vulgar
insincere, pettifogging tricky anC
scoundrelly in everything. That was hil
history Those terms, indeed, would
compose his biography.
Continuing, the same reviewer says
General Smith has done his worl
thoroughly, and it reaches further thar
his own vindication. BY his efficient ex
posure of the methods of Buffers Book
and the character Of its author, he ha
done much TO vindicate also the
numerous distinguished men who were
like him, the target for Buffers ibels
Most Of them were dead before the
Book appeared but no candid reader oi
this little volume can avoid the judg
ment that there was never a case II
which the maxim, Falsus in uno, falsu
in omnibus, more fairly applied The
weakness Of the whole structure Il
shown when one Of its chief corner
stones is found to crumble at q touch
Instead of being a monument of great
ness and patriotic services, the Book L
likely rather TO be a standing proof tina
no self exposure is so complete as that o
the man who imsgines that the reckles
sophistries of the demagogue haranguin
upon a street corner can be made to d
duty as pages Of permanent history"