, and that he should be provided for in some
other department of the public service. To this the Committee
agreed. It was never thought that the Secretary himself profited
corruptly by the transaction, but only that he had suffered
himself to be hoodwinked. It was unfortunate that nearly
all the persons who were connected with this transaction were
from New England, most of them from Massachusetts, and several
of them from Lowell.

CHAPTER XXIV
BENJAMIN F. BUTLER

No person can adequately comprehend the political history
of Massachusetts for the thirty-five years beginning with
1850 without a knowledge of the character, career and behavior
of Benjamin F. Butler. It is of course disagreeable and in
most cases it would seem unmanly to speak harshly of a political
antagonist who is dead. In the presence of the great reconciler,
Death, ordinary human contentions and angers should be hushed.
But if there be such a thing in the universe as a moral law,
if the distinction between right and wrong be other than fancy
or a dream, the difference between General Butler and the
men who contended with him belongs not to this life alone.
It relates to matters more permanent than human life. It
enters into the fate of republics, and will endure after the
fashion of this world passeth away.

I cannot tell the story of my life at a most important period
without putting on record my estimate of him, and the nature
of his influence over the youth of the Commonwealth. Besides,
it is to be remembered that he took special pains to write
and to leave behind him a book in which he gave his own account
of the great controversies in which he engaged, and bitterly
attacked some of the men who thwarted his ambitions. This
book he sent to public libraries, including that of the British
Museum, where he had good reason to expect it would be permanently
preserved.

I shall say nothing of him which I did not say in public
speeches or published letters while he was living and in the
fulness of his strength, activity and power. History deals
with Benedict Arnold, with Aaron Burr, with the evil counsellors
of Charles I. and Charles II., with Robespierre, with Barere
and with Catiline, upon their merits, and draws from their
lives examples, or warnings, without considering the fact
that they are dead. This especially is a duty to be performed
fearlessly, though with due caution, when it is proposed in
some quarters to erect monuments