compelled by the laws of trade and the laws of nations to pay for the mischief they have done. So that when we look around in this country, which has just begun to put forth her strength, because no country has ever come to her full strength until her institutions have proved themselves strong enough to govern the country against the will, even the voluntary will of the people-when this government, which has now demonstrated itself to be the strongest government in the world, puts forth her strength as to men, and when this country of ours, richer and more abundant in its harvests and in its productions than any other country on earth, puts forth her riches, we have a strength in men, we have an amount in money, to battle the world for liberty, and for the freedom to do, in the borders of the United States and on the continent of America, that which God, when he sent us forth as a missionary nation, intended we should do. So, allow me to return your words of congratulation and your words of welcome, with words of good cheer. Be of good cheer! God gave us this continent to civilize and to free, as an example to the nations of the earth; and if He has struck us in His wrath, because we have halted in our work, let us begin again and go on, not doubting that we shall have His blessing to the end. Be, therefore, I say, of good cheer; there can be no doubt of this issue. We feel the struggle; we feel what it costs to carry on this war. Go with me to Louisiana-go with me to the South, and you shall see what it costs our enemies to carry on this war; and you will have no doubt, as I have none, of the result of this unhappy strife, out of which the nation shall come stronger, better, purified, North and South-better than ever before."* NO DANGER FROM THE ARMY. "There never has been any division of sentiment in the army itself. They have always been for the Union unconditionally, for the government and the laws at any and all times. And who are this army? Are they men different from us? Not at all. I see some here that have come back from the army, and are now waiting to recover their health to go back and join that army. Are they to be any different on the banks of the Potomac or in the marshes of Louisiana, or struggling with the turbid current of the Mississippi than they are here? Are our sons, our brothers, to have different thoughts and different feelings from us, simply because to-day they wear blue and to-morrow they wear black, or to-day they wear black and to-morrow they wear blue? Not at all. They are from us, they are of us, they are with us. The same love of liberty, ay, and you will pardon me for saying it, a little more love for the Union, have caused them to go out than has actuated those who have stayed behind. The same desire to *Speech at Boston, Jan. 13, 1863. see the constitution restored has sent them out that animates us, the same love of good government, the same faith in this great experiment of freedom and free government that actuates us actuates them, and there need be no trouble, it seems to me, in the mind of any man upon the question of what is the army to do. There need be no fears. I have seen men, too. good, virtuous, candid, upright, patriotic men, who seem to feel this great increase of the army to be somewhat dangerous to our liberties. Is the army to take away their own liberties? is the army to destroy their own country? is the army to do anything that patriotic men won't do? Oh, no; they answer with universal accord upon that subject. Then where is the danger men see? Why, in the olden time, at the head of large armies, some ambitious man, some ambitious military leader, gets the control of the army and destroys the liberty of the country; but the difficulty is, the examples of nations in the old world are by no means analogies for this. No general of the old world ever commanded such an army; no general of the old world ever had such a country; no general of the old world ever had such a government to fight for, to fight with, to fight under, or will have ever and for ever; and no general of the old world, no general thus far on the face of the earth ever was in a country, where, by elevating his country first, last, and all the time, he might more surely elevate himself. But we do not depend upon either the patriotism, or the ability, or the prudence, or the courage of any one man; we depend upon the courage, the patriotisın, and the intelligence of this half million of men in the army who know that the place to regulate government affairs is in the ballot-box, and who, as long as they can get matters regulated, and can have fair play through the ballot-box, will go home and be much more ready to use the ballot-box than the cartridge-box. "Therefore, I say to you, sir, let no man have fear on this subject. There are no better friends of free institutions, there are no more intelligent, no truer men and citizens at home and in peace than in the army of the United States."* was. RECONSTRUCTION. "I am not for the Union as it was. I have the honor to say, as a democrat, and an Andrew Jackson democrat, I am not for the Union to be again as it Understand me, I was for the Union as it was, because I saw, or thought I saw, the troubles in the future which have burst upon us; but having undergone those troubles, having spent all this blood and this treasure, I do not mean to go back again and be cheek to jole, as I was before with South Carolina, if I can help it. Mark me now; let no man misunderstand me; and I repeat, lest I may be misunderstood (for there are none so difficult to understand as those that don't want to)-mark me Speech at Boston, April, 1863. again, I say, I do not mean to give up a single inch of the soil of South Carolina. If I had been living at that time, and had the position, the will, and the ability, I would have dealt with South Carolina as Jackson did, and kept her in the Union at all hazards; but now she has gone out, and I will take care that when she comes in again she will come in better behaved; that she shall no longer be the fire-brand of the Union, ay, that she shall enjoy what her people never yet enjoyed, the blessings of a republican form of government. And, therefore, in that view I am not for the reconstruction of the Union as it was. I have spent treasure and blood enough upon it, in conjunction with my fellow-citizens, to make it a little better, and I think we can have a better Union. It was good enough if it had been let alone. The old house was good enough for me, but the South pulled it down, and I propose, when we build it up, to build it up with all the modern improvements. Another one of the logical sequences, it seems to me, that follow inexorably, and is not to be shunned, from the proposition that we are dealing with alien enemies, what is our duty with regard to the confiscation of their property? And that would seem to me to be very easy of settlement under the constitution, and without any discussion, if my first proposition is right. Hasn't it been held from the beginning of the world down to this day, from the time the Israelites took possession of the land of Canaan, which they got from alien enemies, hasn't it been held that the whole of the property of those alien enemies belongs to the conqueror, and that it has been at his mercy and his clemency what should be done with it? And for one, I would take it and give to the loyal man, who was loyal from the heart, at the South, enough to make him as well as he was before, and I would take the balance of it and distribute it among the volunteer soldiers who have gone forth in the service of their country; and so far as I know them, if we should settle South Carolina with them, in the course of a few years I should be quite willing to receive her back into the Union."* ARMING THE NEGROES. "If these men are alien enemies, is there any objection that you know of, and if so state it, to our arming one portion of that foreign country against the other, while they are fighting us? Suppose we were at war with England, who here would get up in New York and say we must not arm the Irish, lest they should hurt some Englishman? Well, at one time, not very far gone, all those Englishmen were our grandfathers' brothers. Either they or we erred; but we are now separate nations, arising out of the contest. So again I say, if you will look carefully you will see that there can be no objection for another reason. There is no law, either of war or of international law, or law of governmental action that I know of, which prevents * Speech at New York, April 2, 1868. a country arming any portion of its citizens or its subjects for the defensc of that portion, or of any other, and they become (if they do not take part with those rebels) simply our citizens, residing upon our territory, which at the present hour is usurped by our enemies. At this moment, and in the waning hour, I do not propose to discuss, more than to hint at these various subjects. But there is one question that I have been so often asked, that I want to make an answer to, once for all, and when I have answered it to everybody, nobody will ask me again, and that is this (and most frequently am I asked that question by my old democratic friends): Why, General Butler, what is your experience? Will the negroes fight?' To that I have to answer, that upon that subject I have no personal experience. I left the Department of the Gulf before they were fairly brought into action; but they did fight under Jackson at Chalmette. More than that, I will bring in some other man to answer that question. Let Napoleon III. answer it, who has hired them to do what the veterans of the Crimea can not do-to whip the Mexicans. I will answer it in another form. Let the veterans of Napoleon the First, under his brother-in-law, Le Clerc, who were whipped out of St. Domingo by them, tell whether they will fight or not. I will ask you to remember it in another form still. What has been the demoralizing effect upon them as a race by their contact with the white man, I know not; but I can not forget that they and their fathers would not have been slaves except they were captives of war in their own countries, in hand to hand fights among the several chiefs, and were sold into slavery because they were captives in war. They would fight at some time, and if you want to know any more about it, I can only advise you to try them."* THE QUESTION BEFORE US. "No Union man wants to abrogate the old constitution. It is good enough. The only question is, how can we take back an absconding member of the firm under the old articles of agreement." + It has been mentioned in a previous chapter that, at the time of the seizure of Mason and Slidell, General Butler was of opinion that they ought not to be given up. It is proper to record here, that his more mature opinion, as expressed in his speech of April 2d, 1863, is that "we acted wisely at that time in not getting into serious trouble with England." At the same time, he avowed the conviction that the United States ought not to continue to hold friendly relations with a power in practical alliance with the rebel * Speech at New York, April 2, 1863. + Speech at Harrisburgh, September,1863. government. He advised a declaration of non-intercourse with England. Let "England told us what to do when we took Mason and Slidell, and she thought there was a likelihood to be a war. She stopped exportation of those articles which she thought we wanted, and which she had allowed to be exported before. us do the same thing. Let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that no ounce of food from the United States shall ever by any accident get into an Englishman's mouth until this rebellion ceases. I say again, let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that no ounce of food shall by any accident get into an Englishman's mouth until these piracies are stopped. That we have a right to do; and when we ever do do it, my word for it, they will find out where these vessels are going to, and they will write to the Emperor of China." CHAPTER XXXV. SUMMARY. THE speciality of General Butler is this: He is a great achiever. He is the victorious kind of man. He is that combination of qualities and powers which is most potent in bringing things to pass. Upon reviewing his life, we find that he has been signally successful in the undertakings which have seriously tasked his powers. A good example of his ready adaptation of means to ends, has just been related to me by one of his legal friends. A wealthy corporation in New England refused to pay for a bridge, on the ground that the contractor had been a few days behind the stipulated time in completing it. General Butler was retained on behalf of the contractor. Aware that he really had no case, though the delay in finishing the bridge was abundantly excusable, he brought the cause to the bar of public opinion. In other words, he told the story to every man and group of men whom chance threw in his way. He caused endless paragraphs upon the subject to be inserted in the newspapers. The bridge was justly commended as a most admirable picce of work, and remarks were appended upon |