New Britain herald., 1914-04-22
The Butler Statue.
Springfield Republican )

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 There are certain wholesome preju- dices, and one of them is the ''preju- dice" very many people in this state entertain against an appropriation by the legislature for statue in honor of the late Gen. Benjamin F. Butler.
 One may search Massachusetts his tory in vain for a public man more exposed to criticism than Butler, or whose military record excites so lit- tie admiration. The obsession of the Massachusetts house in favor of the proposed Butler statue seems to con- v,ict it of esteem for one of the cheap est, fashiest, tawdriest most denla- gogic figures American politics pro- duced in the nineteenth century.
 An equestrian, or military, statue above all things would be ridiculous. Butler performed much good service in the Civil war, but he was utterly incompetent as an army commander and he had to be removed, because of incapacity, at the request even of Gen. Grant, over whom Butler had acquired strange personal influence. A military statue to Butler would be a perpetual humiliation to Massachu- sets and an object of derision for the ICSC Ol JIlc VI OiIu DCCdISc, dS d SOlultI, Butler did nothing to entitle him to the high honor of such memorial.
 The taint of personal corruption will ever cling to Buffers war rec ord. One of our foremost historians, after careful investigation, has de Hberately written: 1T need not hesi- tate to affirm that the weight of the historical evidence implies that But 1ny.s~ the Civil war was not what is ex- pected of men placed in positions of trust; beyond reasonable doubt he was making money out of his coun- try's life-struggle.' What a glorious epitaph would be this judgment of the same historian, if chiseled on the Butler statue:
 May we be spared in future the need of such servants who, efficient as they may be when their country's interest and their own do not clash, are yet willing to risk prolonging her agonies for the sake of private gain.
 In politics, Butlers record was ter ribly marred by his warm support of Jefferson Davis for the presidency of the United States in the Charleston of 1860. Becoming a
 
 was a deplorable extremist in the re- construction period So hateful in memory to the south, and it is inn possible now to find wisdom in his vindictive attitude in the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson. He left the republican party because he could not rule it in and he left the demo- cratic party in 1884 the moment 1t preferred Grover Cleveland to himself as a candidate for president. As a lawyer, Butler was one of the trickiest and most unscrupulous who ever practiced before American courts.
 Granting all the good that Butler did, and which his advocates em- phasize so insistently, still it would degrade the fame of the common wealth and menace the civic ideals of our youth in future generations to have this statue erected on Massa- chusetts soil by act of the great and general court. .s.t
 It would be a great abuse of the l legislative power to single out for so exceptional an honor a man whose statue, erected at public expense, would be an everlasting offense in the eyes of so large proportion of the people of the commonwealth.