considered seclusion, was enjoyed
by Col. Butler nearly twenty-five years, when he was called out by the
Democratic party to redeem by his personal popularity the
congressional district in which he lived. It was supposed that no one
else could save it from the Whigs. Like all the rest of his family,
none of whom had made their military service a passport to the honors
and emoluments of civil stations, he was averse to relinquish the
attitude he occupied to enter on a party struggle. The importunity of
friends prevailed; and he was elected to two successive terms in
Congress, absolutely refusing to be a candidate a third time. He spoke
seldom in Congress, but in two or three fine speeches which appear in
the debates, a power will readily be detected which could not have
failed to conduct to the highest distinction in that body. Taste,
judgment, and eloquence, characterized all his efforts in Congress. A
fine manner, an agreeable voice, and the high consideration accorded
to him by the members of all parties, gave him, what it is the good
fortune of few to obtain, an attentive and gratified audience.

In 1844 the same experiment was made with Butler's popularity to carry
the state for the Democracy, as had succeeded in his congressional
district. He was nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor by
the 8th of January Convention; and there is good ground to believe
that he would have been chosen over his estimable Whig competitor,
Governor Owsley, but for the universal conviction throughout the state
that the defeat of Mr. Clay's party, by the choice of a Democratic
governor in August, would have operated to injure Mr. Clay's prospects
throughout the Union, in the presidential election which followed
immediately after in November. With Mr. Clay's popularity, and the
activity of all his friends--with the state pride so long exalted by
the aspiration of giving a President to the Union--more eagerly than
ever enlisted against the Democracy, Col. Butler diminished the Whig
majority from twenty thousand to less than five thousand.

The late military events with which Maj. Gen. Butler has been
connected--in consequence of his elevation to that grade in 1846, with
the view to the command of the volunteers raised to support Gen.
Taylor in his invasion of Mexico--are so well known to the country
that minute recital is not necessary. He acted a very conspicuous part
in the severe conflict at Monterey, and had, as second in