The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-01-22
THE CASE OF srAeeK

The case Of Stage, in Portland, Or, re-
calls one OF the very meanest and most
vindictivs actions which disGgured the
public career Of the late Benjamin T. But
Ter. When Butler was governor of Massa-
chnsetts he removed from Office and pub
Iicly denounced on the stump Q venerable
man named Clarke, who for more than
fifty years had led an exemplary life and
had occupied q number of positions Of i'm
portant financial trust.
When Clarke was under % years of age
he had served short term in the psni-
tertiary for q breach Of trust TO his en-
p.oyers. Ii was his first lapse from in.
tegrity and his last. On his release from
prison be devoted himself 90 the work Of
zens by the unfinching and unbroken
uprightness OF his life. He xas . young
man Of intelligence, Of respectable pa
rents, and he =as 80 successful in his
efforts at well-doing that he was given
honorable and responsible employment.
He married, and his daughters and sons
were exemplary people and married into
excellent families. When Mr.. Clarke was
IS years of age, and had Q record Of more
than fifty years Of honorable life behind
him, Gen. Butler was mean enough TO IN
earth the record Of his first and only
lapse from integrity and publish it to the
world that knew nothing of it.
Butler did this because Clarke had al
ways been identified with the political OPP
position to Butler in Massachusetts,. But
Ter not only removed this old man from
public Office upon the brutal ground tina.
more than fifty years before when under
% he had been convicted of a penal
offense and served q short term In
the penitentiary. but on the stump he de-
nounced this venerable man as violently
as If he had been q professional criminal
instead of an Old man. who had shown the
sincerity Of his repentance by more than
fifty years of exemplary life and conduct.
The old man was driven from a small Office
he had held for many years; his estimable
wife and bis married daughters were
deeply wounded and Inundated by But
ier's brutal and vindictive publicity Of the
youthful trausgression Of Mr.. Clarke. The
decent newspapers OF both parties pro-
tested against Buffers act as one of inex-
cusable inhumanity and Satanic vim
dictiveness. IL was consistent with
Buffers whole career, for more
revengefui, unscrupulous, ungenerous en-
envy in public and private life never lived
than Ben Butler. A man who could in
violation of military law, imprison Gull
tivated gentleman and scholarly clergy
man of the Episcopal church In the "bull
pen" at City Point, who could without
any warrant of law place two subaltern
officers in the chain gang at Dutch Gap
canal. such a man Of course would be as
heartless in peace and civic life as he was
brutal and despotic when welding mill
tary authority.
The men who have pursued Stagge so
vindietively are of the Ben Butler breed !:
they are OF that pitiless sort who say TO
every Young man who bravery tries after
punishment TO regain his reputation
where he lost IL: "He who once suffers
legal punishment for wrong-doing will
always have his shame thrown in his face /:
he who once enters q prison leaves all
hope behind" One Of the most pitiful in
eidenis in Dickens "Dombey and Son" il.
the story OF John Carker, whose life of
integrity never atones for his early act Of
emheEalemsnt; for his brother always
throws IL IN his face, and but for the ten
der and lifelong devotion of his sister
John carker would have been driven TO
suicide by the sneers Of his heartless, sue
cessful, sconndrellv brother.