Benjamin Butler

• 1. Introduction

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  Benjamin Butler earned two completely different reputations in the same war. The white South called him a beast and a felon worthy of execution if captured. Black newspapers, when he died in 1893, described him as "a staunch and enthusiastic advocate" of Black progress.

  Both came from the same man, born in 1818, a Massachusetts Democrat. His politics before the war were as distant from Radical Republicanism as it was possible to get. Within two years of the war's start, he had made a legal argument that helped push emancipation forward. He was running New Orleans with an iron hand. He spent the next decade in Congress pursuing the impeachment of a president and writing civil rights laws.

  How did a man start from where Butler started and end where he ended? What made him effective? And what made him dangerous enough that his own commanding general spent years trying to have him removed?

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• 2. New Hampshire to the Bar

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  Benjamin Franklin Butler was born on the 5th of November 1818, in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the sixth and youngest child in his family. His father served under Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans and later became a privateer. He died of yellow fever in the West Indies not long after Benjamin was born. Butler's mother, a devout Baptist, moved the family to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1828, where she operated a boarding house for textile mill workers.

  At nine, Butler was awarded a scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy. A schoolmate described him there as "a reckless, impetuous, headstrong boy." He regularly got into fights. His principal in Lowell later said he was a boy who "might be led, but could not be driven." He attended Waterville College in Maine to prepare for the ministry, then rebelled against the idea entirely.

  In 1836, he tried to secure a West Point appointment; none was available. He graduated from Waterville in August 1838, returned to Lowell, and clerked with a local lawyer. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840. On the 16th of May 1844, he married Sarah Hildreth, a stage actress and daughter of a Lowell doctor.

  Butler quickly gained a reputation as a dogged criminal defense lawyer who seized on every misstep by the opposition. His trial work drew regular press coverage, and he expanded into Boston. Success allowed him to purchase shares in Lowell's Middlesex Mill Company when they were cheap, adding a foothold in the textile industry to his legal practice.

  His political career began in the Democratic Party, where he supported the Compromise of 1850 and spoke out against abolitionism. At the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, he first backed John C. Breckinridge. He then shifted his support to Jefferson Davis, believing Davis might hold the fracturing party together. The convention split anyway. Butler ended up supporting Breckinridge in the general election, against his state party's instructions. He ran for governor on a Breckinridge splinter ticket, trailing far behind all other candidates. Within months, a call for militia in April 1861 would give him the opening he had been maneuvering toward.

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• 3. Fort Monroe and Contraband

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  When Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in November 1860, Butler traveled to Washington. He recommended to outgoing President James Buchanan that the secessionist delegation from South Carolina be arrested and charged with treason. Buchanan rejected the idea.

  Butler's pre-war military record offered little reassurance. He had joined the Lowell militia as a private in 1840 and eventually risen to colonel. He won election as brigadier general after the Know Nothing governor Henry J. Gardner disbanded his unit in 1855. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis appointed him in 1857 to the Board of Visitors at West Point. None of this constituted meaningful military experience.

  In April 1861, Butler maneuvered himself into command of Massachusetts forces heading to Maryland. He landed troops at Annapolis over the governor's objections and restored the rail line to Washington by the 27th of April. On the 13th of May, he entered Baltimore with 1,000 men and artillery on a train. His superior, General Winfield Scott, criticized Butler's strategy even while acknowledging its success. Scott recalled him to Washington, and Butler was soon appointed a major general of volunteer forces.

  Assigned next to Fort Monroe at the mouth of the James River, Butler was there when three escaped slaves made their way within Union lines. Their owner sent a Confederate officer to demand their return. Butler's response: Virginia had claimed to be a foreign country, and he was under no constitutional obligation to that foreign country. He stated his position in writing. "I am under no constitutional obligations to a foreign country, which Virginia now claims to be," he wrote. "I shall hold these negroes as contraband of war, since they are engaged in the construction of your battery and are claimed as your property." Lincoln's Cabinet discussed the decision on the 30th of May and chose to support it. The policy was soon extended to the Union Navy as well.

  Butler's further argument addressed the heart of the matter. Even if "some of us might doubt" whether human beings could be considered property, the Confederacy had no such doubt. Its own claim to property in enslaved people gave the Union grounds to seize that property as an act of war. Biographer Walter Stahr noted that Lincoln's decision to back the stance was a turning point in how the Union conceived of the conflict. Before the end of 1861, Butler was assigned to command ground troops in Louisiana.

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• 4. The Beast of New Orleans

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  In December 1861, Butler directed the first Union expedition to Ship Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. By May 1862, he commanded the land forces that took New Orleans. The Navy had forced its way past Confederate river forts in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. He became the city's military governor.

  His public health results were startling. Yellow fever ordinarily killed as much as ten percent of the city's population in a single year. Butler imposed strict quarantine and introduced a rigid program of garbage disposal. In 1862, only two cases were reported in the city.

  Women in New Orleans had mocked Union funeral processions and spat on officers. In one widely noted case, a woman poured urine on Union Navy commander Admiral David Farragut. Butler's General Order No. 28, issued on the 15th of May 1862, responded to these acts. Any woman who insulted or showed contempt for a Union soldier could be treated as a prostitute "plying her avocation." The order was immediately effective; insults by word, look, or gesture abruptly ceased. Throughout the South, however, it produced fury. Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard gave Butler the epithet "Butler the Beast." Butler also earned the nickname "Spoons Butler." That name came from an incident involving a 38-piece set of silverware he seized from a woman trying to cross Union lines on a pass that permitted her to carry only clothing.

  On the 7th of June 1862, Butler ordered the execution of William B. Mumford. Mumford had torn down a United States flag that Admiral Farragut had placed on the New Orleans Mint. He dragged it through the streets and distributed pieces of it to the crowd. Butler permitted Mumford to speak as long as he wished before the execution. Most people, including Mumford's family, expected a pardon. Butler refused. After the war, he paid off the mortgage on Mumford's widow's house and helped her find government employment.

  Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued General Order 111 in December 1862. It declared Butler a felon deserving capital punishment who, if captured, should be "reserved for execution."

  Butler censored local newspapers. When the editor of the New-Orleans Commercial Bulletin published a favorable obituary for his father, a Confederate soldier, Butler confiscated the paper. He imprisoned the editor for three months. When the editor had asked what would happen if the paper defied his orders, Butler reportedly told him he was the military governor and the supreme power, and that no one could disregard his orders. He added: "By God, he that sins against me, sins against the Holy Ghost."

  On the 27th of September 1862, Butler formed the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, the first African-American regiment in the US Army. He commissioned 30 officers to command it at the company level, a departure from the standard practice of using only white officers. "Better soldiers never shouldered a musket," he wrote. He organized three regiments totaling 3,122 soldiers and officers before Lincoln authorized his recall in December 1862, replacing him with Major General Nathaniel Banks.

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• 5. Bermuda Hundred

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  Butler's next command was the Army of the James, assembled for a spring 1864 operation that Grant believed could end the war early. The plan was to land at Bermuda Hundred on the James River south of Richmond and strike Petersburg. Cutting Petersburg's rail links would sever Richmond's supply lines and force the Confederates to abandon the city.

  His force landed on the 5th of May. Petersburg was nearly undefended. Butler became unnerved by the presence of Confederate militia and home guards and did not advance. Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard assembled a substantial force in the days that followed. On the 16th of May, Beauregard drove Butler's troops back to Bermuda Hundred, trapping the Union force in a loop of the James River. Beauregard then sent most of his men north to reinforce Lee. Both sides entrenched. The Union troops were safe but could not act. Had Butler moved aggressively in early May, he might have taken Petersburg or even Richmond, ending the war a year early.

  Lincoln asked Butler to serve as the 1864 vice-presidential nominee. Butler's rejection was characteristically blunt. He said he would not leave his command for a Senate posting. His condition was explicit: such a move would require Lincoln to give him "bond with sureties... that he will die or resign within three months after his inauguration." He then asked Lincoln what he had done to deserve "the punishment" of four years in the Senate chamber.

  His last military campaign was Fort Fisher in North Carolina. Butler devised a scheme to breach the fort's defenses with a boat loaded with gunpowder. It failed entirely. He then declared Fort Fisher impregnable and withdrew without authorization. Admiral David Dixon Porter, commanding the naval element, told Grant the fort could be taken easily by anyone competent. Grant appealed directly to Lincoln, noting "there is a lack of confidence felt in Butler's military ability." Lincoln issued General Order Number 1 relieving Butler from command of the Department of North Carolina and Virginia. He ordered Butler to report to Lowell. Grant informed him on the 8th of January 1865, naming Major General Edward O. C. Ord as his replacement.

  Butler took his case to the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. He arrived with charts and copies of subordinates' reports arguing he had been right to call off the Fort Fisher attack. News of its capture arrived during the hearing. It had fallen on the 15th of January to a force under Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry and Brig. Gen. Adelbert Ames. Adelbert Ames, who had helped end Butler's military career, would later marry his daughter Blanche.

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• 6. Financial Dealings

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  Butler died with an estimated net worth of $7 million. His biographer Chester Hearn wrote that the source of this fortune "has remained a mystery, but much of it came from New Orleans."

  At Fort Monroe, Butler attempted to send $60,000 worth of sugar to Boston on a Federal warship. He expected to sell it for $160,000. Military authorities intervened and permitted him to recover only his original investment. After that, his brother Andrew officially handled the family's commercial interests. Everyone in New Orleans believed Andrew had accumulated between $1 million and $2 million during his time there. When Treasury Secretary Chase asked about it in October 1862, Butler replied that his brother had cleared less than $200,000.

  The seizures that followed the Confiscation Act of 1862 were structured to ensure that Butler associates ended up with confiscated goods at bargain prices. Butler conducted a census and banished 4,000 residents who refused to pledge loyalty to the Union. Their property was sold at auction, with Andrew Butler often the prime buyer. Expeditions into the countryside brought in cotton seized from people assumed to be disloyal. The proceeds of subsequent auctions were held for "just claimants," but the Butler consortium acquired the cotton.

  At Norfolk, the pattern continued. Historian Ludwell Johnson concluded that a very extensive trade with the Confederacy was conducted in Butler's department. He called it a "significant help to the Confederacy." Brigadier General George Shepley, invited by Butler to "take care of Norfolk," issued military permits allowing goods to pass through Union lines. When Shepley's subordinate George Johnston was charged with corruption in fall 1864, he was allowed to resign. He had indicated he could prove that "General Butler was a partner in all the controversial transactions," along with Butler's brother-in-law Fisher Hildreth.

  Grant wrote that Lee's army was "receiving supplies, either through the inefficiency or permission of an officer selected by General Butler... from Norfolk." Butler's replacement, Major General George H. Gordon, released a sixty-page indictment of Butler and his associates. It found that they were responsible for supplies pouring "directly into the departments of the Rebel Commissary and Quartermaster." The end of the war and Lincoln's assassination kept the report from receiving serious public attention.

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• 7. Reconstruction and Civil Rights

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  Butler won election to the House of Representatives in 1866 on a platform of civil rights and opposition to President Johnson's Reconstruction policies. He supported women's suffrage, an eight-hour workday for federal employees, and the issuance of greenback currency. He served four terms between 1867 and 1875, and one additional term after being elected again in 1876.

  His campaign to impeach Johnson began before he even took his congressional seat. By October 1866, Butler was traveling to cities across the country delivering speeches that detailed six specific charges against the president. He argued that Johnson had sought to overthrow the government by refusing to enforce laws he disagreed with. He contended that Johnson had corruptly used his power to appoint and remove officers. He further charged Johnson with complicity in the New Orleans massacre of 1866.

  When Johnson was impeached in February 1868, Butler drafted his own article of impeachment. He did so at the urging of Thaddeus Stevens, who felt the select committee was conceding too much to moderates. Butler's article cited no specific law violation. Instead it charged Johnson with attempting "to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States." It was initially defeated 48-74 on the 2nd of March 1868. After the impeachment managers reintroduced it, the article was adopted as the tenth by 88-45. It was the only article any Republican congressman voted against.

  The Senate trial was hampered from the start. The case focused on Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The constitutionality of that act had never been settled. Defense attorney William Evarts drowned Butler's questions in objections, each requiring a full Senate vote to resolve. The impeachment failed by a single vote. Johnson later called Butler "the most daring and unscrupulous demagogue I have ever known." Butler's performance as lead prosecutor has been assessed as subpar, cited as a factor in Johnson's acquittal.

  As chairman of the House Committee on Reconstruction, Butler authored the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. He co-authored the Civil Rights Act of 1875 with Republican Senator Charles Sumner. The act banned racial discrimination in public accommodations. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883. The New England Torchlight, at the time of Butler's death, put it simply: "The white South hated him. The black South loved him."

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• 8. Governor and Legacy

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  Four attempts at the Massachusetts governorship preceded Butler's eventual victory. In 1871 and 1873, the conservative party organization denied him the Republican nomination. He ran as an independent with Greenback support in 1878 and again in 1879; Republicans won both times against a divided Democratic opposition.

  In 1882, he won the Democratic and Greenback nominations and was elected by a margin of 14,000 votes, out of more than 300,000 cast. As governor, he appointed the state's first Irish-American judge and its first African-American judge, George Lewis Ruffin. He appointed Clara Barton to head the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women, making her the first woman to hold executive office in the state. He exposed the mismanagement of the state's Tewksbury Almshouse under a succession of Republican governors. Harvard University traditionally granted honorary degrees to the state's governors. Butler's was denied because the Board of Overseers, led by his longtime antagonist Ebenezer Hoar, voted against it.

  Butler ran for president in 1884 on the Greenback and Anti-Monopoly tickets. He had again failed to win the Democratic nomination, which went to Grover Cleveland. He polled 175,000 votes out of roughly 10 million cast. Contemporary accounts suggested he had accepted $25,000 from the campaign of Republican James G. Blaine, perceived at the time as a bribe.

  The political term "Butlerism" was applied during the Gilded Age as a pejorative by Butler's opponents. It was criticized for its "spirit of the European mob." Its stances on monetary policy came at odds with more conservative members of the Republican Party. It also clashed with liberal reformers who prioritized civil service reform. In 1874, Harper's Weekly published a Thomas Nast cartoon depicting Ulysses Grant as having "bottled up" Butlerism after Grant vetoed Butler's inflation bill. In February 1874, Kentucky Democrat John Y. Brown named one word for everything "pusillanimous in war, inhuman in peace, forbidden in morals, and infamous in politics." That word was "Butlerism." Brown was censured for the remarks.

  Butler died on the 11th of January 1893, of complications from a bronchial infection, two days after arguing a case before the Supreme Court. His memoir, Butler's Book, published in 1892, ran to 1,037 pages plus a 94-page appendix of letters. His biographer Richard S. West Jr. described it as "generally true without being meticulously accurate." He is buried behind the main Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell. On his monument, he left an inscription: "the true touchstone of civil liberty is not that all men are equal but that every man has the right to be the equal of every other man - if he can." Among his descendants were the suffragist and artist Blanche Ames Ames and George Plimpton.

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