"Would you believe it, fellow-citizens, this speech was applauded in the Douglas convention, and that too, by a delegate from Massachusetts, ay, and from Middlesex county. "When I left that convention, I declared that I would no longer sit where the African slave trade, made piracy and felony by the laws of my country, was openly advocated and applauded. Yet such, at the South, are the supporters of Douglas." General Butler was the Breckinridge candidate for the governorship of Massachusets. He had been a candidate for the same office a few years before, and had received the full support of his party, about 50,000 votes. On this occasion only 6,000 of his fellow-citizens cast their votes for him; the whole number of voters being more than 170,000. CHAPTER II. MASSACHUSETTS READY. "Have you counted the cost? Do you really think you can break up this Union? Do you think so yourself?" "I do." "You are prepared, then, for civil war? You mean to bring this thing to the issue of arms?" "Oh, there will be no war. The North won't fight." "The North will fight." "The North can't fight. We have friends enough at the North to prevent it." "You have friends at the North as long as you remain true to the constitution. But let me tell you, that the moment it is seen that you mean to break up the country, the North is a unit against you. I can answer, at least, for Massachusetts. She is good for ten thousand men to march, at once, against armed secession." 66 Massachusetts is not such a fool. If your state should send ten thousand men to preserve the Union against southern secession, she will have to fight twice ten thousand of her own citizens at home who will oppose the policy." "No, sir; when we come from Massachusetts we shall not leave a single traitor behind, unless he is hanging on a tree." "Well, we shall see." IN December, 1860, Mr. Lincoln having been elected, and congress met, General Butler went to Washington, according to the agreement at Baltimore, in June, to confer with democratic leaders upon the future course of the party. South Carolina had gone through the form of seceding from the Union, and her three commissioners were at the capital, to present to the president the ordinance of secession, and negotiate the terms of separation. Regarding themselves in the light of ambassadors, and expecting a long negotiation, they had taken a house, which served as the head-quarters of the malcontents. Excitement and apprehension pervaded all circles. General Butler, in visiting bis southern friends, found that most of them considered secession a fact accomplished, nothing remaining but to arrange the details. Mr. Breckinridge, however, still steadfast to his pledges, indignant, sorrowful, was using his influence to bring about a convention of the border states, which should stand between the two hostile bodies, and compel both to make the concessions supposed to be necessary for the preservation of the Union. By day and night he strove to stem the torrent of disaffection, and bring the men of the South to reason. He strove in vain. The movement which he endeavored to effect was defeated by Virginians, particularly by Mason and Hunter. Finding his plan impossible, he went about Washington, pale and haggard, the picture of despair, and sought relief, it is said, where despairing southern men are too apt to seek it, in the whiskyers will starve and overturn the government." bottle. "You will see. I know something of the North, and a good deal about New England, where I was born and have lived forty-two years.. We are pretty quiet there now because we don't believe that you mean to carry out your threats. We have heard the same story at every election these twenty years. Our people don't yet believe you are in earnest. But let me tell you this: As sure as you attempt to break up this Union, the North will resist the attempt to its last man and its last dollar. You are as certain to fail as that there is a God in Heaven. One thing you may do; you may ruin the southern states, and extinguish your institution of slavery. From the moment the first gun is fired upon the American flag, your slaves will not be worth five years' purchase. But as to breaking up the country, it can not be done. God and nature, and the blood of your fathers and mine have made it one; and one country it must remain." "What does all this mean?" asked General Butler, of an old southern democrat, a few hours after his arrival in Washington. "It means simply what it appears to mean. The Union is dead. The experiment is finished. The attempt of two communities, having no interest in common, abhorring one another, to make believe that they are one nation, has ceased for ever. We shall establish a sound, homogeneous government, with no discordant elements. We shall have room for our northern friends. Come with us." And so the war of words went on. The general visited his old acquaintances, the South Carolina commissioners, and with them he had similar conversations; the substance of all being this: Secessionists: "The North won't fight." General Butler: "If the South fights, there is an end of slavery." Secessionists: "Do you mean to say that you yourself would fight in such a cause ?" General Butler: "I would; and, by the grace of God, I will." The general sat at the table, once more, of Jefferson Davis, for whom he had voted in the Charleston convention. Mr. Davis, at that time, appeared still to wish for a compromise and the preservation of the Union. But he is a politician. He gave in to the sentiment, that he owed allegiance, first to the state of Mississippi; sec ondly, to the United States; which is the same | seemed to have a kind of right to be, at least, as saying that he owed no allegiance to the warned away, before we could honorably trust United States at all. So, if a majority of the them as criminals or enemies. In vain General legislature of Mississippi should pronounce for Butler urged that his object was simply to get secession, he was bound to abandon that which, their position defined by a competent tribunal; for fifty years, he had been proud to call his to ascertain whether they were, in reality, am"country.' bassadors or traitors. His scheme was that of a bold and stedfast patriot prepared to go all lengths for his country. It could not but be rejected by Mr. Buchanan. In times like those, every man of originating mind has his scheme. If in the multitude of Counselors there were safety, no country had been safer than this country was in December, 1860, when Mr. Buchanan was assailed and confounded with advice from all quarters, near and remote, from friends and foes. General Butler, too, had an idea. As a leading member of the party in power, he was entitled to be listened to, and he was listened to. Mr. Black, the legal adviser of the government, had given it as his opinion, that the proceedings of South Carolina were legally definable as a "riot," which the force of the United States could not be lawfully used in suppressing. ter. General Butler said to the attorney-general:"You say that the government can not use its army and navy to coerce South Carolina in South Carolina. Very well. I do not agree with you; but let the proposition be granted. Now, secession is either a right, or it is treason. If it is a right, the sooner we know it the betIf it is treason, then the presenting of the ordinance of secession is an overt act of treason. These men are coming to the White House to present the ordinance to the president. Admit them. Let them present the ordinance. Let the president say to them:-' Gentlemen, yon go hence in the custody of a marshal of the United States, as prisoners of state, charged with treason against your country.' Summon a grand jury, here in Washington. Indict the commissioners. If any of your officers are backward in acting, you have the appointing power; replace them with men who feel as men should, at a time like this. Try the commissioners before the Supreme Court, with all the imposing forms and stately ceremonial which marked the trial of Aaron Burr. I have some reputation at home as a criminal lawyer, and will stay here and help the district attorney through the trial i without fee or reward. If they are convicted, execute the sentence. If they are acquitted, you will have done something toward leaving a clear path for the incoming administration. Time will have been gained; but the great advantage will be, that both sides will pause to watch this high and dignified proceeding; the passions of men will cool; the great points at issue will become clear to all parties; the mind of the country will be active while passion and prejudice are allayed. Meanwhile, if you can not use your army and navy in Charleston harbor, you can certainly employ them in keeping order here." This was General Butler's contribution to the grand sum total of advice with which the administration was favored. Mr. Black seemed inclined to recommend the measure. Mr Buchanan was of opinion, that it would cause a fearful agitation, and probably inflame the South to the point of beginning hostilities forthwith. Besides, these men claimed to be ambassadors; and though we could not admit the claim, still they had voluntarily placed themselves in our power, and General Butler frankly told the commissioners the advice he had given. "Why, you would'nt hang us, would you?" said Mr. Orr. "Oh, no," replied the General; "not unless you were found guilty." Then came the electric news of Major Anderson's "change of base" from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter; one of those trivial events which generally occur at times like those to decide the question of peace or war. The future historian will probably tell us, that there was never a moment after that event when a peaceful solu tion of the controversy was possible. He will pro bably show that it was the skillful use of that incident, at a critical moment, which enabled the secessionists of Georgia, frustrated till then, to commit that great state to the support of South Carolina; and Georgia is the empire state of the cotton South, whose defection involved that o. all the cotton states, as if by a law of nature. The president of the United States had allow. ed himself to promise the South Carolina commissioners that no military movement should occur in Charleston harbor during the negotiation at Washington. They promptly demanded the return of Major Anderson to Fort Moultrie. Floyd supported their demand. Mr. Buchanan consented. Then the commissioners, finding the president so pliant, demanded the total withdrawal of the troops from South Carolina, and Floyd supported them in that modest demand also. While the president stood hesitating upon the brink of this new infamy, the enormous frauds in Floyd's department came to light, and his influence was at an end. The question of withdrawal being proposed to the cabinet, it was negatived, and the virtuous Floyd relieved his colleagues by resigning. Mr. Holt succeeded him; the government stiffened; the commissioners went home; and General Butler, certain now that war was impending, prepared to depart. He had one last long interview with the southern leaders, at which the whole subject was gone over. For three hours he reasoned with them, demonstrating the folly of their course, and warning them of final and disastrous failure. The conversation was friendly, though warm and earnest on both sides. Again he was invited to join them, and was offered a share in their enterprise, and a place in that "sound and homogeneous government," which they meant to establish. He left them no room to doubt that he took sides with his country, and that all he had, and all he was, should be freely risked in that country's cause. Late at night they separated to know one another no more except as mortal foes. The next morning, General Butler went to Senator Wil on, of Massachusetts, an old acquaintance, though long a political opponent, and told him that the southern leaders meant war, and urged him to join in advising the governor of their state to prepare the militia of Massachusetts | knapsacks before getting into the cars for Washfor taking the field. At that time, and for some time longer, the southern men were divided among themselves respecting the best mode of beginning hostilities. The bolder spirits were for seizing Washington, preventing the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and placing Breckinridge, if he would consent, or some other popular man if he would not, in the presidential mansion, who should issue a proclamation to the whole country, and endeavor to rally to his support a sufficient number of northern democrats to distract and paralyze the loyal states. That more prudent counsels prevailed was not from any sense of the turpitude of such treason, but from a conviction that if anything could rouse the North to armed resistance, it would be the seizure of the capital. Nothing short of that, thought the secessionists, would induce a money-making, pusillanimous people to leave their shops and their counting-houses, to save their country from being brokeu to pieces and brought to nought. The dream of these traitors was to destroy their country without fighting; and so the scheme of a coup d'état was discarded. But General Butler left Washington believing that the bolder course was the one which would be adopted. He believed this the more readily, because it was the course which ho would have advised, had he, too, been a traitor. One thing, however, he considered absolutely certain: there was going to be a war between Loyalty and Treason; between the Slave Power and the Power which had so long protected and fostered it. ington. Having thus assisted in preparing Massachusetts to march, General Butler resumed his practice at the bar, vibrating between Boston and Lowell as of old, not without much inward chaf ing at the humiliating spectacle which the country presented during those dreary, shameful months. One incident cheered the gloom. One word was uttered at Washington which spoke the heart of the country. One man in the cabinot felt as patriots feel when the flag of their country is threatened with dishonor. One order was given which did not disgrace the government from which it issued. "IF ANY ONE ATTEMPTS TO HAUL DOWN THE AMERICAN FLAG SHOOT HIM ON THE SPOT!" "When I read it," wrote General Butler to General Dix long after, "my heart bounded with joy. It was the first bold stroke in favor of the Union under the past administration." He had the pleasure of sending to General Dix, from New Orleans, the identical flag which was the object of the order, and the confederate flag which was hoisted in its place; as well as of recommending for promotion the sailor, David Ritchie, who contrived to snatch both flags from the cutter when traitors abandoned and burnt her as Captain Farragut's fleet drew near, The fifteenth of April arrived. Fort Sumter had fallen. The president's proclamation calling for troops was issued. In the morning came a telegram to Governor Andrew from Senator Wilson, asking that twenty companies of Massachusetts militia be instantly dispatched to defend the seat of government. A few hours after, the formal requisition arrived from the secretary of war calling for two full regiments. At quarter: before five that afternoon, General Butler was in in court at Boston trying a cause. To him came Colonel Edward F. Jones, of the Sixth regiment, bearing an order from Governor Andrew, directing him to muster his command forthwith in Boston common, in readiness to proceed to Washington. This regiment was one of General Butler's brigade, its head-quarters being Lowell, twenty-five miles distant, and the companies scattered over forty miles of country. The general endorsed the order, and at five Colonel Jones was on the Lowell train. There was a good deal of swift riding done that night in the region round about Lowell; and at eleven o'clock on the day following, there was Colonel Jones with his regiment on Boston common. Not less prompt were the Third and Eighth regiments, for they began to arrive in Boston as early as nine, each company welcomed at the dépôt by applauding thousands. The Sixth regiment, it was determined, should go first, and the governor deemed it best to strengthen it with two additional companies. He found the North anxious, but still incredulous. He went to Governor Andrew, and gave him a full relation of what he had heard and seon at Washington, and advised him to get the militia of the state in readiness to move at a day's notice. He suggested that all the men should be quietly withdrawn from the militia force who were either unable or unwilling to leave the state for the defense of the capital, and their places supplied with men who could and would. The governor, though he could scarcely yet believe that war was impending, adopted the suggestion. About one-half the men resigned their places in the militia; the vacancies were quickly filled; and many of the companies during the winter months, drilled every evening in the week, except Sundays. General Butler further advised that two thousand overcoats be made, as the men were already provided with nearly every requsite for marching, except those indispensable garments, which could not be extemporized. To this suggestion there was sturdy opposition, since it involved the expenditure of twenty thousand dollars, and that for an exigency which Massachusetts did not believe was likely to occur. One gentlemen, high in office, said that General Butler made the proposal in The general, too, was going. During the the interest of the moths of Boston, which alone night following the 15th of April, he had been would get any good of the overcoats. Others at work with Colonel Jones getting the Sixth insinuated that he only wanted a good contract together. On the morning of the 16th, he was for the Middlesex Woolen Mills, in which he in the cars, as usual, going to Boston, and with was a large shareholder. The worthy and pa-him rode Mr. James G. Carney, of Lowell, presitriotic governor, however, strongly recommended dent of the Bank of Redemption, in Boston. the measure, and the overcoats were begun. "The governor will want money," said the The last stitches in the last hundred of them general. "Can not the Bank of Redemption were performed while the men stood drawn up offer a temporary loan of fifty thousand dollars on the common waiting to strap them to their to help off the troops ?" It can, and shall, was the reply, in substance, of the president; and in the course of the morning, a note offering the loan was in the governor's hands. A hurried visit to the steamer bound for Fortress Monroe. All was in readiness there. Then to the Eighth regiment, on the Common, which he was to conduct to Washington by way of Baltimore; no intimation of the impending catastrophe to the Sixth having yet been received. The Eighth marched to the cars, and rolled away from the dépôt, followed by the benedictions of assen led Boston; saluted at every station on the way by excited multitudes. At Springfield, where there was a brief delay to procure from the armory the means of valuable company, under Captain Henry S. Briggs Thence, to New York. The Broadway march of the regiment; their breakfast at the Metropolitan and Astor; their push through the crowd to Jersey City; the tumultuous welcome in New Jersey; the continuous roar of cheers across the state; the arrival at Philadelphia in the afternoon of the memorable nineteenth of April, who can have forgotten? General Butler went not to court that morning. As yet, no brigadier had been ordered into service, but there was one brigadier who was on fire to serve; one who, from the first summons, had been resolved to go, and to stay to the end of the fight, whether he went as private or as lieutenant-geueral. Farewell the learned plea, and the big_fees that swell the lawyer's bank account! Farewell the spirit-repairing muskets, the regiment was joined by a stirring speech, the solemn bench, and all the pomp and circumstance of glorious law! General Butler's occupation was about to be changod. He telegraphed to Mr. Wilson, asking him to remind Mr. Cameron, that a brigade required a brigadier; and back from Washington came an order calling for a brigade of four full regiments, to be commanded by a brigadier-general. That point gained, the next was to induce Governor Andrew to select the particular brigadier whom General Butler had in his mind when he dispatched the telegram to Mr. Wilson. There were two whose commissions were of older date than his own; General Adams and General Pierce; the former sick, the latter degiring the appointment. General Pierce had the advantage of being a political ally of the governor. On the other hand, General Butler had suggested the measures which enabled the troops to take the field, had got the loan of fifty thousand dollars, had procured the order for a brigadier. He was, moreover,, Benjamin F. Butler, a gentleman not unknown in Boston, though long veiled from the general view by a set of obstinately held unpopular political opinious. These considerations, aided, perhaps, by a little wire-pulling, prevailed; and in the morning of the 17th, at ten o'clock, he received the order to take command of the troops. All that day he worked as few men can work. There were a thousand things to do; but there were a thousand willing hearts and hands to help. The Sixth regiment was off in the alternoon, addressed before it moved by Governor Andrew and General Butler. Two regiments were embarked on board a steamer for Fortress Monroe, then defended by two companies of regular artillery-a tempting prize for the rebels. Late at night, the General went home to bid farewell to his family, and prepare for his final departure. The next moruing, back again to Boston, accompanied by his brother, Colonel Andrew Jackson Butler, who chanced to be on a visit to, his ancient home, after eleven years' residence in California; where, with Broderick and Hooker, he had already done battle against the slave power, the lamented Broderick having died in his arms. Ile served now as a volunteer aid to the General, and rendered good service on the eventful march. At Boston, General Butler stopped at his accustomed barber-shop. While he was under the artist's hands, a soldier of the departed. Sixth regiment came in sorrowful, begging to be excused from duty; saying that he had left his wife and three children crying. "I am not the man for you to come to, sir," said the General, for I have just done the same," and straightway sent for a policeman to arrest him as a deserter. Fearful news met the general and the regiment at the dépôt. The Sixth regiment, in its march through Baltimore that afternoon, had been attacked by the mob, and there had been a conflict, in which men on both sides had fallen! So much was fact; but, as inevitably happens at such a time, the news came with appalling exaggerations, which could not be corrected; for soon the telegraph ceased working, the last report being that the bridges at the Maryland end of the railroad were burning, and that Washington, threatened with a hostile army, was isolated and defenseless. Never since the days when "General Benjamin Franklin" led a little army of Philadelphians against the Indians after Braddock's defeat, the Indians ravaging and scalping within sixty miles of the city, and expected soon to appear on the banks of the Schuylkill, had Philadelphia been so deeply moved with mingled anger and apprehension, The first blood shed in a war sends a thrill of rage and horror through all hearts, and this blood shed in Baltimore streets, was that of the countrymen, the neighbors, the relatives of these newly arrived troops. A thousand wild rumors filled the air, and nothing was too terrible to be believed. He was the great man of the group, who had the most incredible story to tell; and each listener went his way to relate the tale with additions derived from his own frenzied imagination. General Butler's orders directed him to march to Washington by way of Baltimore. That having become impossible, the day being far spent, his men fatigued, and the New York Seventh coming, he marched his regiment to the vacant Girard House for a night's rest, where hospitable, generous Philadelphia gave them bountiful entertainment. The regiment slept the sleep that tired soldiers know. For General Butler there was neither sleep nor rest that night, nor for his fraternal aid-docamp. There was telegraphing to the governor of Massachusetts; there were consultations with Commodore Dupont, commandant of the Navy Yard; there were interviews with Mr. Felton, prosident of the Philadelphia and Baltimore railroad, a son of Massachusetts, full of patriotic zeal, and prompt with needful advice and help; there was poring over maps and gazetteera Meanwhile, Colonel A. J. Butler was out in the streets, buying, pickaxes, shovels, tinware, provisious, and all that was necessary to enable the troops to take the field, to subsist on army rations, to repair bridges and railroads, and to throw up breastworks. All Maryland was supposod to be in arins; but the general was going through Maryland. "I may have to sink or burn your boat," said the general to Mr. Felton. "Do so," replied the president, and immediately wrote an order authorizing its destruction, if necessary. It had been the design of General Butler, as we have seen, to leave Philadelphia in the morning train but he delayed his departure in the Before the evening was far advanced, he had hope that Colonel Lefferts might be induced to determined upon a ph of operations, and sum-share in the expedition. The Seventh had arrimoned his officers to make them acquainted ved at sunrise, and General Butler made known with it--not to shun responsibility by asking his plan to Colonel Lefferts, and invited his cotheir opinion, nor to waste precious time in dis-operation. That officer, suddenly intrusted with cussion. They found upon his table thirteen the lives (but the honor also) of nearly a thousand revolvers. He explained his design, pointed of the flower of the young men of New York, out its probable and its possible dangers, and was overburdened with a sense of responsibility, said that, as some might censure it as rash and and felt it to be his duty to consult his officers. reckless, he was resolved to take the sole res- The consultation was long, and, I believe, not pousibility himself. Taking up one of the harmonious, and the result was, that the Seventh revolvers, he invited every officer who was embarked in the afternoon in a steamboat at willing to accompany him to signify it by ac- Philadelphia, with the design of going to Washcepting a pistol. The pistols were all instantly ington by the Potomac river, leaving to the men appropriated. The officers doparted, and the of Massachusetts the honor and the danger of general then, in great haste, and ainid ceaseless opening a path through Maryland. It is imposinterruptions, sketchod a memorandum of his sible for a New Yorker, looking at it in the light plan, to be sent to the governor of Massachusetts of subsequent events, not to regret, and keenly after his departure, that his friends might know, regret, the refusal of officers of the favorite New if he should be swallowed up in the maelstrom York regiment to join General Butler in his boid of secession, what he had intended to do. Many and wise movement. But they had not the light sentences of this paper betray the circumstances of subsequent events to aid them in their delibin which they were written. erations, and they, doubtless, thought that their first duty was to hasten to the protection of Washington, and avoid the risk of detention by the way. It happened on this occasion, as in so many others, that the bold course was also the prudent and successful one. The Seventh was obliged, after all, to tako General Butler's road to Washington. I "My proposition is to join with Colonel Lefferts of the Seventh regiment of New York. propose to take the fifteen hundred troops to Annapolis, arriving there to-morrow about four o'clock, and occupy the capital of Maryland, and thus call the state to account for the death of Massachusetts inen, my friends and neighbors. If Colonel Lefferts thinks it more in accordance At eleven in the morning of the twentieth of with the tenor of his instructions to wait rather April, the Eighth Massachusetts regiment moved than go through Baltimore, I still propose to slowly away from the dépôt in Broad street toward march with this regiment. I propose to occupy Havre de Grace, where the Susquɔhannah river the town, and hold it open as a means of com- empties into the Chesapeake Bay-forty niles munication. I have then but to advance by a from Philadelphia, sixty-four from Aunapolis. forced march of thirty miles to reach the capital, General Butler went through each car explainin accordance with the orders I at first received, ing the plan of attack, and giving the requsite but which subsequent events in my judgment orders. His design was to balt the train one vary in their execution, believing from the tele-mile from Havre de Grace, advance his two best graphs that there will be others in great num-drilled companies as skirmishers, follow quickly bors to aid me. Being accompanied by officers of more experience, who will be able to direct the affair, I think it will be accomplished. Wo have no light batteries; I have therefore telegraphed to Governor Andrew to have the Boston Light Battery put on shipboard at once, to-night, to help me in marching on Washington. In pursuance of this plan, I have detailed Captains Devereux and Briggs with their commands to hold the boat at Havre de Grace. "Eleven; A. M. Colonel Lefferts has refused to march with me. I go alone at three o'clock, P. M., to execute this imperfectly written plan. If I succeed, success will justify me. If I fail, purity of intention will excuso want of judgment or rashness." The plan was a little changed in the morning, when the rumor prevailed that the ferry-boat at Havre de Grace had been seized and barricaded by a large force of rebels. The two companies were not sent forward. It was determined that the rogiment should go in a body, seize the boat and use it for transporting the troops to Annapolis. with the regiment, rush upon the barricades and carry them at the point of the bayonet, pour headlong into the ferry-boat, drive out the rebels, get up steam and start for Annapolis. Having assigned to each company its place in the line, and given all due explanation to each captain, the general took a seat and instantly fell asleep. And now, the bustle being over, upon all these worthy men fell that seriousness, that solemnity, which comes to those who value their lives, and whose lives are valuable to others far away, but who are about, for the first tine, to incur mortal peril for a cause which they feel to be greater and dearer than life. Goethe tells us that valor can neither be learned nor forgotten. I do not believe it. Certainly, tho first peril does, in somo degroc, appal the firmost heart, especially when that peril is quietly approached on the casy seat of a railway car during a two hours' ride. Scarcely a word was spoken. Many of tho mon sat erect, grasping their muskets firmly, and looking anxiously out of the windows. |