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Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler Brady-Handy (3x4b).jpg
33rd Governor of Massachusetts
In office
January 4, 1883 – January 3, 1884
Lieutenant Oliver Ames
Preceded by John Long
Succeeded by George D. Robinson
Member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts
In office
March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1879
Preceded by John K. Tarbox
Succeeded by William A. Russell
Constituency 7th district
In office
March 4, 1867 – March 4, 1875
Preceded by John B. Alley
Succeeded by Charles Perkins Thompson
Constituency 6th district (1867–1873)
7th district (1873–1875)
Member of the
Massachusetts Senate
In office
1859
Preceded by Arthur Bonney
Succeeded by Ephraim Patch
Personal details
Born
Benjamin Franklin Butler

(1818-11-05)November 5, 1818
Deerfield, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died January 11, 1893(1893-01-11) (aged 74)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Resting place Hildreth Cemetery
Political party
Other political
affiliations		 Greenback (1874–1889)
Spouse
Sarah Hildreth
​
​
(m. 1844; died 1876)​
Children 4, including Blanche
Education Colby College (BA)
Signature
Military service
Allegiance  United States (Union)
Branch/service Seal of the United States Board of War and Ordnance.svg U.S. Army (Union Army)
Rank Union Army major general rank insignia.svg Major general
Commands
Battles/wars

Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts.

Butler is best known as a political major general of the Union Army during the American Civil War and for his leadership role in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the national stage and on the Massachusetts political scene, serving five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and running several campaigns for governor before his election to that office in 1882.

Early life

Benjamin Franklin Butler was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the sixth and youngest child of John Butler and Charlotte Ellison Butler. His father served under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and later became a privateer, dying of yellow fever in the West Indies not long after Benjamin was born. He was named after Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. His elder brother, Andrew Jackson Butler (1815–1864), served as a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War and joined him in New Orleans. Butler's mother was a devout Baptist who encouraged him to read the Bible and prepare for the ministry. In 1827, at the age of nine, Butler was awarded a scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent one term. He was described by a schoolmate as "a reckless, impetuous, headstrong, boy", and regularly got into fights.

Butler's mother moved the family in 1828 to Lowell, Massachusetts, where she operated a boarding house for workers at the textile mills. He attended the public schools there, from which he was almost expelled for fighting, the principal describing him as a boy who "might be led, but could not be driven." He attended Waterville (now Colby) College in pursuit of his mother's wish that he prepare for the ministry, but eventually rebelled against the idea. In 1836, Butler sought permission to go instead to West Point for a military education, but he did not receive one of the few places available. He continued his studies at Waterville, where he sharpened his rhetorical skills in theological discussions and began to adopt Democratic Party political views. He graduated in August 1838. Butler returned to Lowell, where he clerked and read law as an apprentice with a local lawyer. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840 and opened a practice in Lowell.

In 1844, Butler was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Early career

Butler quickly gained a reputation as a dogged criminal defense lawyer. His trial work was so successful that it received regular press coverage, and he was able to expand his practice into Boston.

Political career

General Benjamin Butler Brady-Handy
Portrait of Butler in his Union Army uniform, Brady-Handy 1862–1865

Butler served in the Massachusetts legislature as an antiwar Democrat and as an officer in the state militia. Early in the Civil War he joined the Union Army, where he was noted for his lack of military skill and his controversial command of New Orleans, which was marred by financial and logistical dealings across enemy lines, some of which may have taken place with his knowledge and to his financial benefit.

His most notorious act was Butler's General Order No. 28 of May 15, 1862. According to it, should any woman insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be held liable. The order provoked general outrage in the South, as well as abroad, particularly in England and France.

He was nicknamed "Beast Butler" or alternatively "Spoons Butler," the latter nickname deriving primarily from an incident in which Butler seized a 38-piece set of silverware from a New Orleans woman attempting to cross the Union lines. Although the woman's pass permitted her to carry nothing but clothing on her person (making her carriage of the silverware illegal), the single set of silverware would have normally been considered protected personal valuables. Butler's insistence on prosecuting the woman as a smuggler and seizing the silverware as wartime contraband under his dictate of confiscating all property of those "aiding the Confederacy" provoked angry jeers from white residents of New Orleans and the much-repeated perception that he used his power to engage in the petty looting of the household valuables of New Orleanians.

Butler was dismissed from the Union Army after his failures in the First Battle of Fort Fisher, but he soon won election to the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. He considered President Johnson's Reconstruction agenda to be too weak, advocating harsher punishments of former Confederate leadership and stronger stances on civil rights reform. He was also an early proponent of the prospect of impeaching Johnson. After Johnson was impeached in early 1868, Butler served as the lead prosecutor among the House-appointed impeachment managers in the Johnson impeachment trial proceedings. Additionally, as Chairman of the House Committee on Reconstruction, Butler authored the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and coauthored the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1875.

Butler built a mansion immediately across the street from the United States Capitol in 1873–1874, known as the Butler Building. One unit of the building was constructed to be fireproof so that it could be rented as storage for valuable and irreplaceable survey records, maps, and engraving plates of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, whose headquarters in the Richards Building was directly next door. The building was used by President Chester A. Arthur while the White House was being refurnished. On April 10, 1891, the Department of the Treasury purchased the building from Butler for $275,000, and it became the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, with its Hygienic Laboratory (the predecessor of the National Institutes of Health) occupying its top floor.

Butler made four unsuccessful attempts at being elected governor of Massachusetts between the years 1871 and 1879. He finally won the governorship of Massachusetts in 1882. As governor, Butler was active in promoting reform and competence in administration.

Butler's bid for reelection in 1883 was one of the most contentious campaigns of his career. Running against Congressman George D. Robinson, Butler was defeated by 10,000 votes, out of more than 300,000 cast.

In his later years Butler worked on his memoir, Butler's Book, which was published in 1892.

Personal life

After an extended courtship, Butler married Sarah Hildreth, a stage actress and daughter of Dr. Israel Hildreth of Lowell, on May 16, 1844. They had four children: Paul (1845–1850), Blanche (1847–1939), Paul (1852–1918) and Ben-Israel (1855–1881).

Death

General Butler's Monument (Rear)
Butler's memorial at the Hildreth family cemetery in Lowell, Massachusetts

Butler died on January 11, 1893, of complications from a bronchial infection. He is buried in his wife's family cemetery, behind the main Hildreth Cemetery in Lowell.

Butlerism

Butlerism was a political term that referred to the political causes of Butler. Butlerism supported women's suffrage, Irish nationalism, an eight-hour work day, monetary inflation, and the usage of greenbacks to pay off the national debt.

Interesting facts about Benjamin Butler

  • Butler is credited with beginning the tradition of the "lone walk", the ceremonial exit from the office of Governor of Massachusetts, after finishing his term in 1884.
  • As governor of Massachusetts, Butler appointed the state's first Irish-American and African-American judges. He also appointed the first woman (Clara Barton) to executive office.
  • Butler sponsored a scholarship for African-Americans at Phillips Andover Academy.
  • Butler was somewhat notoriously snubbed by Harvard University, which traditionally granted honorary degrees to the state's governors. Butler's honorarium was denied because the Board of Overseers, headed by Ebenezer Hoar, voted against it.
  • Butler was extremely wealthy when he died, with an estimated net worth of $7 million ($230 million today).
  • The inscription on Butler's monument reads, "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."
  • Butler's descendants include the famous scientist Adelbert Ames, Jr., suffragist and artist Blanche Ames Ames, Butler Ames, Hope Butler, and George Plimpton.

Images for kids

See also

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