of statues to such men for
the admiration of the youth of future generations.

Benjamin F. Butler was born November 5, 1818. He was graduated
at Waterville College, now Colby University, in the year 1838.
He began the practice of law in Lowell. Compared with other
men of equal ability and distinction, he was never a very
successful advocate. Quiet and modest men who had the confidence
of the courts and juries used to win verdicts from him in
fairly even cases. He was fertile in resources. He liked
audacious surprises. He was seldom content to try a simple
case in a simple way. So that while he succeeded in some
desperate cases, he threw away a good many which with wise
management he might have gained.

Butler's practice in the beginning was chiefly in the defence
of criminals, or in civil cases where persons of that class
were parties. There was very likely to be a dramatic scene
in court when he was for the defence. His method of defence
was frequently almost as objectionable as the crime he was
defending. He attacked the character of honest witnesses,
and of respectable persons, victims of his guilty clients,
who were seeking the remedy of the law. He had many ingenious
fashions of confusing or browbeating witnesses, and sometimes
of misleading juries. He once asked a medical expert who
undertook to testify about human anatomy, in a case of physical
injury, this question: "State the origin and insertion of
all the muscles of the forearm and hand from the elbow to
the tips of the fingers"; and another, "Give a list of the
names and the positions of all the bones in the body." This
was something like asking a man who claimed to know the English
language to give off hand all the words of the English language
beginning with a. But it confused a worthy and respectable
country doctor, and misled the jury. The best citizen of
a country village, or his wife or daughter, who had to testify
against a thief or burglar who had broken into a house had
to encounter his ruffianly treatment on the witness stand.
So Butler became a terror, not to evil-doers but to the opponents
of evil-doers throughout the county of Middlesex. Few lawyers
liked to encounter his rough speech and his ugly personalities.

He was a Democrat in politics and became quite popular with
the poorer class of foreign immigrants who gathered in manufacturing
towns and cities like Lowell. He had at first little success
in politics for the rea