Year: 1866

BENJAMIN r. Butler.


Among the men the war has brought
prominently before the eyes of the pation, is
B. F. Butler. Before the war he was some
what known to fame as very shrewd and
not over scrupulous lawyer, working his way
gradually into the front rank of bold and
successful practitioners; and also as Dem
ocratic politician. He was at the Charles
ton Convention, and tried to prevent the
split in the Democratic ranks that resulted
in the election of Lincoln and Hamlin. He
was among the last to cling to the notion
that by concessions to the South they could
be persuaded to acquiesce in the rule of the
majority or constitutional plurality. When
he saw that, failing to rule they were deter.
mined to ruin, he was among the first to en-
ter the ranks and start for the field. We do
not propose to Ispeak of his military career,
for we may concede that it was failure,
without marring the characteristic genius
of the man, or detracting from his great ser.
vices to the country. His first great stroke
was in declaring the slave contraband Of
war. If they are property in any sense, then
they are munitions of war, and so, contra.
band was his dictum. 1t was accepted by
the Government and people as legal, just and
proper. This was the first heavy blow at the
celebrated back bone" of the rebelIion.-
He soon appeared in New Orleans. The
rebels ran or fell before him, order rose out
of confusion, and justice an6 peace reigned
supreme. The rich rebels were made to sup
port the poor and for the first time in its
history, the city was given victory over its
great enemy, the yellow fever, which has
thus far proved a conquest. No American
has displayed greater executive ability than
that shown by General Butler in New Or
leans. No charges of malfeasance in Office
have been sustained against him. He next
did bis full share in getting ebony soldiers
iato the Union ranks. For a long time he
was the best abused of oil our Generals by
the rebels and their friends, but after Sher
mans march "the Beast" was forgotten,
while Grant was called "the Butcher" and
Sherman .he Fiend" But now Butler is
to enter Congress, if he lives till year from
December. 1t requires no great prophet to
predict that he will make his mark there
By the times he enters, Thaddeus Stevens
will have gone up, perhaps, to the Senate,
and it may fall to his lot to stand in the place
of that terrible old Radical and rally the
hosts of freedom for the final struggle with
reactiOnary conservative despotism. How.





in the front rank of those iron men to whose
hands the destinies of the country will be so
largely committed.


Butler is one of the lie gitimate sons of the
Puritans and Pilgrims. No man will charge
him with wanting brains they were the
very first things that came in sight when he
entered public life. And his brains are of
that peculiar sort that see through a man. or
a subject, or principle. He is an instinct
i've and intuitive reader of men, particular
ly bad ones. He is blessed with prodigious
amount of red blood and brawny muscles,
with large destructiveness, and having once
seen through matter to the very roots, he
knows instantly what ought to be done, and
he has plenty of pluck to do it. His sense
is hard, practical common sense that is, he
knows means as well as ends, and he seizes
them and bends them to his purpose with
giant grasp. He sees generals and details
equally we'll, and has readiness for the one
and patience for the other. When he was
nicknamed 1.-THE Beast" by the Southern
traitors, there was never greater misnamer.
He has large infusion of womanly tender.
ness in his nature, and full as much Of the
real old genuine chivalry. He cries back
for his blood past the Puritans to the old
d uI,
to break lance for the weak. This is the
secret of his being Democrat in Massachu.
setts when they were in desperately hope
less minority; this accounts for his standing
by the South so long; he saw the Northern
masses were growing upon them to crush
them by weight of numbers, and while they
only demanded their constitutional rights he
was their boldest and sturdiest champion. -
xhovx, A.
taking up arms, the old Puritan sense of
right and true democratic spirit, love of free
government, led him to stand by the people
his principles. His celebrated order at New
Orleans. for which he was SO terribly assail
ed, was justified by every lady in the city
and in the land. II woman demeans her.
self, let her be treated accordingly that
was the whole of it. II was justified at the
time and place by General Beauregard's
fined lady said it had no relation to her or
any like her. Many of his decisions reveal.
ed rare sepsitiveness and tender kindness
and humanity. The same vein came out in
his advocacy of the right of slaves to be treat
ed as prisoners of war, and the doctrine that
the Federal uniform must be respected, what
ever style of man it covered, obtained. And
we soon told the rebels that the whole power
of the nation would protect every soldier
Now he is among those that boldly avow i'm
partial suffrage as the true cure for the mala-
dies of the South. in perfect consistency with
his character and conduct throughout. He
is the very man to hold wickedness in check.
His name alone kept New York and her
bloody thousands of rioters quiet as lambs
the Presidential election. If he
stood to-day in Andrew Johnaon's posi-
ton there would be no further trouble with
North or South.-Bee.