Year: 1861

 Prop. Journal -.

 Maior-Gen. Benj. F. Butler.

 The following sketch, though somewhat length, y, will be interesting to our readers at this time of the man, whom it is safe to say. fills as larg. space in the public estimation and esteem is one of the leaders of the present war. It was written by an eminent member of the Massachu- setts bar, an opponent to Gen. B. in politics, but warm friend in private The sketch is ta- ken from Massachusetts paper of September [, 1859.

 'The time has come when an accurate. full length portrait of this man should be seen by tho people. We can draw, and will It shan't be overdrawn, either way. We have advantages of of position, and knowledge to do it we'll We know our subject like book To use one of his own oft-repeated phrases, we've sSummcrcd and Wintered him for years We are not his partisan. Yet we bear him no malice, but friend- ship rather. We don't hoiier for him, nor, so to speak, run with his machine to wit, the Demo- cratic Party Yet it is true to say, we rather like him, and wouldn't knowingly do him an in- jury or an injustice. But ono thing let not the reader exact of us. Seek herein no portrayal of his physical features. Our brush would drop from the palsied arm beforc such a task. HAY- DEN would have committed his suicide years ear Her than he did had such an exaction been de- manded of his great powers in the portrait line. No; VIC will agree to turn the General wrong side cut, so that he who reads can discover his methods of thought, and discern the inmost depths of his mind and heart; but as nature clearly broke the mould in shaping the exterior, our finite powers reluct from the impossible task of reproducing it here. It can't be done by comparison, for precisely such an apparition on two legs never came athwart the path of an every day Christian, in the land of daguerrso- types. It can't be done by the imagination, for the boldest, flight of fancy never brought back on it's nimble pinions, so impossible a combina- .ion of features. A witness on the stand, gazing down upon 1t for the moment, perhaps has an idca of its inconceivable type. But it is phen- omenon he never can recall Ever after it exists as dim aild imperfect vision, fitting on the out skirts of the mind, so to speak, and all attempts at description thereof are necessarily fail- urcs.

 But below the neck our Democratic friends can talk understandngly of their candidate- He is neither fat nor hath he the lean and hun gry look that so alarmed Cesar of the old time, when he discovered it in the sleepless Cass;u,. Like Dr. Slop he has q sequipedalty of belly This gives him quite Q substantial look But yet he is nimble For as Dr. Watts would say, he is still in the heat of youthful blood Heis not far from forty. His health is perfect. His constitution is in no manner impaired by early exccsses If, indeed, he ever guilty of any. If he were they never could be traced in his pbysi- cial condition. Nothing but the apoplexy or . raging fever can bring such a constitution to the ground It is as sound and compact as the Federal Constitution. He merely staggered un- der an attack that sent many wailing ghosts to the Plutonian realm-the National Hotel poison He imbibed the poison, or inhaled it, or ate it as copiously as they. He took no better care of himself than they of themselves. But in his case the disease got decidedly the worst of it, :. The man recovered of the bite; the dog it was that died" Twice that amount of poison he would have vanquished. Few men, indeed, "san endure the winters cold as well as he," or the summers heat, or hard and incessant mental | or physical labor. In this fact is found his greatest element of strength, in our judgment

 This is the primary cause of his bestriding the the Democratic fold. Beach, Davis, Choate, and l all hands, so like Colossus. It is the key to all his success. It is the reason why he tries so many causes, more than any other one man in l the Commonwealth. "He can stand it." He of whom that sentence can be truly uttered is the happiest or ought to be the happiest man in the State. And of BUTLER it can be said. He can labor always "and never tire" Indeed, he grows more vigorous the longer he remains in harness. In the months that are comirs he will be found trying causes in the Court in the day time; making stump speeches at night; diret ting the campaign on Sundays, and resting and recrt ing never at all. He ism t the famous "son of the sleepless;' he is Old Sieepless him self He will with his admirable constitution run on like Deacon Holmes e one boss slay,'' and like it ego to pieces all at once."

 Thus far, to recapitulate, we have got the Generals outlines-a sound body, with no very handsome head-piece. - -.

 He was born in New Hampshire, He worked his own way to college, and through 1t. at Wa terville, Maine. 1t is safe to say that his alma mater never graduated such another He sup- ported himself in college by making chairs. s.-- And let not the voters forget this. Through life he cut his own way, and Q wide, long breadth of awarth has he carried. He has wrung success from men and circumstances, moreover, that were reluctant to concede it to him. And in SO doing he has indicated his great strength When he first came to the Bar the Courts looked upon him as a sort of portentous phenomenon, such as never before came athwart the judicial vision. He had no family influence to aid his young steps, He had no friends to "blow for him." as the phrase is His early days were spent in steady rowing up stream with strong wind and the current both dead against him. But he never faltered. He cleared the rapids and up he continued to sail. He is in ealmer water now. He might anchor if he would. But his temperament will never suffer him Ia rest this side the s.narrow house 5 But the fact that all he had and all he is, are the conquest of his own energy, is fact that indicates his pluck He may be safely set down as man of irrepresi- be energy. E.bft1lsist

 His mind is not logical. He don't statea casa with logical precision. He can state it with sophistical deception; and he will make it look like logicr Unless you look again, perhaps you would call it logic. But try again, and you win detect the dull copper sound. He often believes his own sophistry, so igeniously does he con struct it. His arguments to the jury in alf "hard cases" are made up of the most stingenious soPhistrles sometimes, indeed, mixed with im- posing absurdities. But he presses all wilk equal vehemence, and apparently has as much confidence in his copper as in his golden coin. And sometimes they are quite as successful. His fallacies are most ingenious and difficult te unrasel His arguments have not even method. saying nothing of logic. He skips from ono theme to another and back again, with bewildefl ing celerity. The nearer can have no ides oe what be will discuss. or how long he will bs q 1t, from hearing him start for he ofyem hSr,v1