Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-01-27
Gsssx County A,rald.
ISLAND POND, JANUARY p. 1898.
THE BEiST Is DEAD"

SiOns
Old Ben Butler is dead Early yester-
tlay morning the angel OF death acting
under the devils order took him from
earth and landed him in hell. In all
this Southern country there are no tears,
no signs and no regrets. He lived only
too long. We are glad he has ut last
been removed from earth and even pity
the devil the possession he has secured.
When Grant died, it was with the res
iect and esteem OF the Southern people.
When Sheridan died all the harm he did
our cause during the bloody contest of
more than quarter OF century ago
was forgotten and his seeming cruelty
had grown to be held as love OF country
and his terrific assaults as great general
ship. When old Tecumsch Sherman
passed away, the people whom he de-
vastated and robbed OF property and
precious lives were pleased to forget the
bonfires he made OF our cities, the path
OF death he cut to the sea, and they now
hold him up as one who loved we'll his
country and was cruel only to be true.
But with Ben Butler it is different. His
stay III the South was 4 curse to our
people and hrs dead body cannot shake
the estimate formed of his character when
he sat i'll Ne " Orleans as military sat
rap upon the lives and property OF de-
ienselcSs men and women.
We have no love tor hun, and praise of
any kind, solely because he is at last
dead, would be the veriest ny pOcrsy
from Southern people.
There is nothing in his whole life to
excite our admiration. When it is said
that he was possessed OF great intelli-
gence and undaunted energy all that is to
his credit has been SAID.
He was a trucking dcmaSogue whose
SeltishnesS amounted to pollution; he
was an autocrat who used power to
wreck personal revenge; he was mean
and malignant, a hangman from preju-
dice, the mSultcr OF women, a bragSa-
,doclo, a trickster and scoundrcl whose
heart was as black as the smoke from
the Goals that are now Scorching his soul
II there he 4 future OF peace i'll store for
Ben Butler after his entrance upon eternity
then there is no heaven and the Bible is a
Ale. If he'll be only as black as the good
hook describes it then there are not the
degrees OF punishment i'll which some
Christians so firmly believe. He has
gone, and from the sentence which has
already been passed upon him there is no
appeal. He Is already 50 deep down in
the pit of everlasting doom that he
couldn't get the most powerful ear trum-
pet conceivable to scientists and hear the
echoes of old Gabriel's trumpet; or fly
million kites and get message to st.
Peter who stands guard at heavens
gates.
In our statute books many holidays
are decreed. 1t was an GORGEOUS over
sight that one on the occasion of the
death of Ben Butler was not loreordained.
1t should be a dav OF mcrrv-making. The
Beast" is dead. The tymbals should
beat and the tin horn should get in its
exultant work. Butler has gone where
be can issue no more orders making the
rape Of Southern women gala pastime.
= He h IS gone where there are no more
spoons to be stolen. He has gone where
1T is not in his power to order hanged
Southern gentlemen for alleged treason
against Butlerism.
GOODBYE, Ben! You strutted through
few temporal triumphs; now rest il
you can in the birthstone glare OF hell
lire. You laughed twenty years ago,
when you branded your offensive per
Sonaiity upon the memories of your SUI
pcriors now smile If YOU can " hen DOW
erless and sunk SO low as to be beyond
the sympathy of even Christian men and
women.
If expression had been given to
such sentiments in the time of
the war, when mems passions
were worked up to the boiling
point, when men were frenzied
with rage, some excuse could
perhaps be framed. They sound
more like the rawlings of a lunatic
than the sayings of a sane man,
and yet they are claimed not to
be the sentiments of any one man,
but the sentiments of the South
ern people generally. That Ben
Butler had his faults no sensible
man will deny. Show us the man
that has no faults! His greatness
made his faults conspicuous. Go
to Lowell, Mass, and ask the
poor people what they think of
Uncle Ben! Ask the working man
what he thinks of B. F. Butler.
He was the friend of the poor,
the outcast, the down-trodden.
Yea, even from this intellectual
pigmy,. this craven that has not
spark Of manhoodleft in him,
is wrmg. the admission that
Butler was intellectually great,
and that he had undaunted en-
ergy.
. Is. +, Butler was intellectually
a great man. He had the cour-
age of his convictions. He was
loyal to the core. He believed in
the Union. He loved the flag.
He insisted on the supremacy OF
law, and that law the law of the
NATION. He demanded that that
law should be obeyed, and re-
spect shown to the old flag. For
these sins-if sins they are-he is
condemned to the torrents of
the damned by this would be
champion of the South; this man
who dared not whisper while the
old hero lived. The consummate