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Name:  Benjamin Franklin Butler

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Born:  November 5, 1818
Died:  January 11, 1893
 
Complete HarpWeek Biography:
Benjamin Butler, U.S. representative and Union general, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and graduated from Waterville College (now Colby College) in 1838. After admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, he began a successful practice in Lowell, gaining a widespread reputation as a talented trial lawyer. Active in the Democratic party, he served one term as state representative in 1853, one term as state senator in 1858, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1859. The following year, he supported John Breckinridge, the Southern Democrat, for president and again ran unsuccessfully for governor, this time on the ticket of the Breckinridge faction.

When the Civil War began, though, Butler was quick to volunteer his services to the Union cause. A brigadier-general of the Massachusetts militia, he led forces that occupied Baltimore unopposed and, as a major-general, captured Forts Hatteras and Clark in North Carolina. He coined the term "contraband" to designate escaped slaves who crossed Union lines.

Butler’s most famous (or infamous) connection with the war was his controversial tenure as commander of the occupation forces in New Orleans in 1862. He seized the posh St. Charles Hotel as his initial headquarters, confiscated $800,000 from the Dutch consulate (which he insisted had been intended for purchase of Confederate war supplies), hanged a man for taking a Union flag down from a flagpole, and inflicted other strictures that caused New Orleans residents to label him "Beast," "Brute," and "Spoons" (for his alleged tendency to steal silverware). The regulation that raised the most ire was his "Woman Order" which stipulated that women who insulted Union soldiers would be treated as prostitutes. In December he was replaced by General Nathaniel Banks.

In late 1863 Butler was given the command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. In October 1864 he was sent to New York City to prevent or control election riots. Criticized for his inability in the field (Grant accused him of getting "bottled up"—another nickname that stuck), Butler retired from the army and returned to Massachusetts in December 1864.

After the war, Butler returned to Congress as a Republican, serving from 1867 to 1875 and from 1877 to 1879. He enthusiastically backed the Radical Reconstruction policies of the Congressional Republicans. A vociferous, unrelenting critic of President Johnson, he authored the tenth article of impeachment aimed at the President’s verbal attacks on Congress. At the suggestion of the ailing Thaddeus Stevens, Butler became the lead House prosecutor at Johnson’s removal trial in the Senate. The Massachusetts Congressman’s poor performance, however, has often been cited as a factor in Johnson’s acquittal.

Butler was an almost perennial candidate for governor of Massachusetts, running unsuccessfully in 1871, 1873, 1874, 1878, and 1879, before being elected in 1882. In his final bid for office, he was the Presidential nominee of the Greenback-Labor and Anti-Monopoly parties in 1884, polling less than 2% of the popular vote. Butler died in Washington, D.C.

 

 


 

 
 

 

     
 

 
     
 

 
     
 

 

 

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