Benjamin Butler

[Bruce Vail]

I'm experimenting here with copying and enlarging images of different kinds.

This is an 1874 political cartoon from the inimitable Thomas Nast. The message here is a little obscure to me, despite the rather obvious disdain for Butler himself. Butler was a Congressman from Massachussetts in 1874 and deeply involved in national Republican Party politics, although he would later quit the party to run for for Governor of Mass. as a Democrat.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Oh, the original caption from Harper's Weekly:

The Cradle of Liberty In Danger
"Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum!" The genie of Massachussetts smells blue blood.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

LOL! Good ol' Spoons Butler. Never liked by anyone North or South it seems!

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[GELongstreet]

LOL! Good ol' Spoons Butler. Never liked by anyone North or South it seems!

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If pictures of Butler would have been more available in New Orleans they would have been on the bottom of another kind of pot ...

 

[Carronade]

Ironically, "a woman of the town pursuing her avocation" is precisely the one who wouldn't insult potential customers, especially ones with real cash money.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Thomas Nast again, 1880.

Complete HarpWeek Explanation:

This front-page Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast was prompted by Benjamin Butler's endorsement of Winfield Hancock, the Democratic presidential nominee. A quizzical Hancock inquires as to what the former congressman from Massachusetts wants in return for the endorsement. Butler was a favorite target ofHarper's Weekly, and an editorial in this issue dismisses the endorsement as inconsequential.

Butler's controversial record as a Union general, party-switcher, and promoter of various reform schemes, in addition to his odd looks, made him one of the more colorful characters of the late-19th century. The "Widow Butler" caricature was based on his boast that he was not a coy maiden in politics, but knew his way around like a widow. The nickname also recalls a character in Sir Walter Scott's novel, The Heart of Midlothian. Widow Judith Butler was a poor woman who was fined often for (religious) nonconformity. Applied to Benjamin Butler, it reflects his penchant for changing party affiliation (political nonconformity) as well as begging for political power, place, and patronage.

Here, "Widow Butler" carries her Rag Baby, a symbol of "soft-money" and inflation, while her pocket is stuffed with a paper reading "Bay State" (i.e., Massachusetts), which she means to deliver (in the November election) to Hancock. The posters on the wall allude to Butler's infamous tenure as commander of the Union occupation forces in New Orleans during the Civil War. He was so hated by the city's residents that they called him "Beast Butler." The regulation that most raised their ire was his "Woman Order," which stipulated that women who insulted Union soldiers would be treated as prostitutes.

Butler began his political life in Massachusetts as a Democrat, voting for the Southern Democratic presidential nominee, John Breckinridge, in 1860. As a Union general, he was a War Democrat, but was elected to Congress as a Republican (1867-75; 1877-79). In Congress, he endorsed the Radical Republican policies for Reconstruction and served as House prosecutor at the impeachment trial of Democratic President Andrew Johnson. Butler ran numerous times unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts, first as a Republican (1871, 1873, 1874), then as an independent (1878) and a Democrat 1879), before being elected to the governorship by a Democratic-Greenback coalition (1882). In 1884, he would be the presidential nominee of the Greenback-Labor and Anti-Monopoly parties.

 

[Bee]

LOL! Good ol' Spoons Butler. Never liked by anyone North or South it seems!

This comment is directed at no one in particular, as I have done very little research on Butler other than to realize that he, indeed, seems to unite North and South in their disdain for him.

My comment/question is this: Whilst I was reviewing my "Atlantic Slave Trade" & "Many Rivers" video notes, I was reminded of two Butler incidents.

1. When a mass of escaped slaves arrived at Ft Monroe, rather than returning them, instead, Butler allowed them to stay and designated them "Contraband of War"

2. 6 months after the massacre at Fort Pillow, Butler led the battle of New Market Hts. in command of USCT -- allowing them first in line for the charge - and encouraged the yell of "Remember Fort Pillow!!" They were almost wiped out in the battle, but the Confederates withdrew.

Is Butler's subsequent deeds so dastardly that there is no redeeming value to his other deeds regarding former slaves?

 

[Bruce Vail]

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Here is a rarely seen image, with Butler wearing a beard. Must be from Bermuda Hundred campaign....

 

[1950lemans]

Wasn't it Butler who saved New Orleans?
When the rebels were leaving the city, and before the US Navy arrived, they pretty much destroyed everything (this seems to be the rebel modus operandi for retreating). Also the heck with the working class which was pretty much all that was left in the city. The drunk ones began to destroy whatever was left. So they all starved, or would have, if it were not for Butler's organizational skills and he managed to ward off this catastrophe.
Summer was coming and summer brought diseases like typhus and malaria so Butler became the department of public works: had the trash picked up, cleaned the streets, removed garbage mounds, etc. 10% of the city would die from these tropical diseases. I believe, under Butler, only a few died.

 

[Drew]

Summer was coming and summer brought diseases like typhus and malaria so Butler became the department of public works: had the trash picked up, cleaned the streets, removed garbage mounds, etc. 10% of the city would die from these tropical diseases. I believe, under Butler, only a few died.

Actually, no. There are threads on this issue that show the cyclical nature of Yellow Fever and other diseases. Butler didn't really have much to do with reducing death from disease. It's a nice Narrative, but not really true.

 

[Allie]

This comment is directed at no one in particular, as I have done very little research on Butler other than to realize that he, indeed, seems to unite North and South in their disdain for him.

My comment/question is this: Whilst I was reviewing my "Atlantic Slave Trade" & "Many Rivers" video notes, I was reminded of two Butler incidents.

1. When a mass of escaped slaves arrived at Ft Monroe, rather than returning them, instead, Butler allowed them to stay and designated them "Contraband of War"

2. 6 months after the massacre at Fort Pillow, Butler led the battle of New Market Hts. in command of USCT -- allowing them first in line for the charge - and encouraged the yell of "Remember Fort Pillow!!" They were almost wiped out in the battle, but the Confederates withdrew.

Is Butler's subsequent deeds so dastardly that there is no redeeming value to his other deeds regarding former slaves?

Butler was actually a pretty good guy if you were black and living in the 19th century. He did a number of good deeds on behalf of contraband during the war and freedpeople after, and his outrageous conduct seems to have been at least partially provoked by sincere rage at the way Southerners treated their slaves. He was also apparently a good family man.

He had the misfortune of being extremely funny looking, and he pulled a couple of idiot moves that were hard to forget - order no. 40 was just one of them.

 

[Bruce Vail]

I was reading over some of the old threads on Butler and it seems there is an awful lot there -- good and bad.

I hadn't realized Butler was the USA commander at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher. One of my wife's Confederate ancestors -- Jacob Wells Taylor -- was in one of the CSA artillery units that defended Wilmington in that battle.

 

[Drew]

This comment is directed at no one in particular, as I have done very little research on Butler other than to realize that he, indeed, seems to unite North and South in their disdain for him.

Well, he was a politician, a crook and a lousy General. This doesn't really inspire admirers and latitude has little to do with it.

My comment/question is this: Whilst I was reviewing my "Atlantic Slave Trade" & "Many Rivers" video notes, I was reminded of two Butler incidents.

1. When a mass of escaped slaves arrived at Ft Monroe, rather than returning them, instead, Butler allowed them to stay and designated them "Contraband of War"

Beast's motivations for this are best explained by Willie Lee Rose in her book, Rehearsal for Reconstruction. It's a humdinger if you haven't read it - put it on your list.

Butler had offered troops early in the war to put down potential slave uprising in Maryland and in doing so infuriated the abolitionist wing of the Massachusetts Republican Party. Butler, the politician, was also in bed with Wall Street's financiers who were very uncomfortable with the idea of emancipation. Slaves were private property, after all, from a philosophical standpoint and as a practical matter were to a large extent part of credit arrangements.

Butler, according to Rose, kept escaped slaves within his lines, to mollify Massachusetts abolitionists and designated them "contraband" (a form of property of course) to mollify the Wall Street money men.

It's pretty ingenious and I won't take that away from him. That he wasn't very good looking was probably not his fault, but didn't help him much in the popularity contest of the 1860s.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

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Here is a rarely seen image, with Butler wearing a beard. Must be from Bermuda Hundred campaign....

Actually, a beard and cap/kepi make him look much better, at least in this photo anyway.

 

[mobile_96]

If pictures of Butler would have been more available in New Orleans they would have been on the bottom of another kind of pot ...

That picture is that of Butler's image on the inside bottom of a chamber pot, the only view of Butler Southerners appreciated.

 

[Aussie Billy Sherman]

I think he had every right to post that order in New Orleans. If it was men showing such disrespect to Union officers, they would have been liable to be shot or hanged.

 

[Hunter]

Thomas Nast again, 1880.

Complete HarpWeek Explanation:

This front-page Harper's Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast was prompted by Benjamin Butler's endorsement of Winfield Hancock, the Democratic presidential nominee. A quizzical Hancock inquires as to what the former congressman from Massachusetts wants in return for the endorsement. Butler was a favorite target ofHarper's Weekly, and an editorial in this issue dismisses the endorsement as inconsequential.

Butler's controversial record as a Union general, party-switcher, and promoter of various reform schemes, in addition to his odd looks, made him one of the more colorful characters of the late-19th century. The "Widow Butler" caricature was based on his boast that he was not a coy maiden in politics, but knew his way around like a widow. The nickname also recalls a character in Sir Walter Scott's novel, The Heart of Midlothian. Widow Judith Butler was a poor woman who was fined often for (religious) nonconformity. Applied to Benjamin Butler, it reflects his penchant for changing party affiliation (political nonconformity) as well as begging for political power, place, and patronage.

Here, "Widow Butler" carries her Rag Baby, a symbol of "soft-money" and inflation, while her pocket is stuffed with a paper reading "Bay State" (i.e., Massachusetts), which she means to deliver (in the November election) to Hancock. The posters on the wall allude to Butler's infamous tenure as commander of the Union occupation forces in New Orleans during the Civil War. He was so hated by the city's residents that they called him "Beast Butler." The regulation that most raised their ire was his "Woman Order," which stipulated that women who insulted Union soldiers would be treated as prostitutes.

Butler began his political life in Massachusetts as a Democrat, voting for the Southern Democratic presidential nominee, John Breckinridge, in 1860. As a Union general, he was a War Democrat, but was elected to Congress as a Republican (1867-75; 1877-79). In Congress, he endorsed the Radical Republican policies for Reconstruction and served as House prosecutor at the impeachment trial of Democratic President Andrew Johnson. Butler ran numerous times unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts, first as a Republican (1871, 1873, 1874), then as an independent (1878) and a Democrat 1879), before being elected to the governorship by a Democratic-Greenback coalition (1882). In 1884, he would be the presidential nominee of the Greenback-Labor and Anti-Monopoly parties.

President Lincoln truly disliked Butler. Lincoln once said Butler was as full of poison as a dead dog. Particularly after Lincoln relieved him, the feeling was mutual. After Lincoln's assassination, Butler publicly expressed gratitude to God.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

*Sigh* I wonder how many times I've posted this? I'll get yelled at for saying this but oh well. It is difficult to let go of this ' Beast ' image, for a lot of people. That's fine, but like a lot of things, once you get past all the yelling sometimes there's another story.

Butler was from as ' blue blood ' a family in the North as anyone claiming the same thing in the South, He was pretty, gosh darn familiar with the latitude allowable for ladies, as far as behavior. Flinging urine and human doodle over the heads of Union officers was not behavior one allowed oneself and still could claim to be a ' lady '. Besides, it was really irritating. Butler decided well heck, if these women behave like, er, trollops, we will treat them like trollops. So he issued an order treating anyone who would fling urine and human doodle over the heads of Union officers like trollops- on the grounds that no lady would engage in this behavior. OH the whining, gnashing of teeth, bemoaning of reputations! Well, then do not empty chamber pots over the heads of Union officers, The End.

Butler was a huge humanitarian. Nobody please yell at me, he was. One of the reasons he is so loathed was his habit of turning over property once belonging to an ' owner ', to the formerly enslaved. He also did dip into the coffers of the wealthy in New Orleans by way of a massive tax- it's the money used to clean up the filth. Again- OH the gnashing of teeth. He gave the poor of New Orleans jobs, cleaning the streets- an extension of his commitment to the poor he had all his life, pre and post war.

Widow Mumford, whose husband was executed by Butler, was held up as a victim of his. But. By 1869 everyone had forgotten about her. She was in desperate straights. Butler had promised her help. She contacted him, by this time back in new England- and he came to her rescue, paying her mortgage and finding government employment for her.

 

[Allie]

*Sigh* I wonder how many times I've posted this? I'll get yelled at for saying this but oh well. It is difficult to let go of this ' Beast ' image, for a lot of people. That's fine, but like a lot of things, once you get past all the yelling sometimes there's another story.

Butler was from as ' blue blood ' a family in the North as anyone claiming the same thing in the South, He was pretty, gosh darn familiar with the latitude allowable for ladies, as far as behavior. Flinging urine and human doodle over the heads of Union officers was not behavior one allowed oneself and still could claim to be a ' lady '. Besides, it was really irritating. Butler decided well heck, if these women behave like, er, trollops, we will treat them like trollops. So he issued an order treating anyone who would fling urine and human doodle over the heads of Union officers like trollops- on the grounds that no lady would engage in this behavior. OH the whining, gnashing of teeth, bemoaning of reputations! Well, then do not empty chamber pots over the heads of Union officers, The End.

Butler was a huge humanitarian. Nobody please yell at me, he was. One of the reasons he is so loathed was his habit of turning over property once belonging to an ' owner ', to the formerly enslaved. He also did dip into the coffers of the wealthy in New Orleans by way of a massive tax- it's the money used to clean up the filth. Again- OH the gnashing of teeth. He gave the poor of New Orleans jobs, cleaning the streets- an extension of his commitment to the poor he had all his life, pre and post war.

Widow Mumford, whose husband was executed by Butler, was held up as a victim of his. But. By 1869 everyone had forgotten about her. She was in desperate straights. Butler had promised her help. She contacted him, by this time back in new England- and he came to her rescue, paying her mortgage and finding government employment for her.

Well, not exactly. "The End" meant being arrested and shipped to a hotbox on an island full of mosquitoes for at least one lady - conditions which would straight up bring Amnesty International on your head today and essentially amounted to attempted murder. It wasn't a matter of "sit down and eat your dinner, young lady."

He had some justification for his behavior; that doesn't make his behavior justified.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Butler ran for president in 1884 on the Greenback Party ticket. The party platform included the eight-hour work day, progressive income tax and suffrage for women.