n was passed, without a dissenting
vote:

_"Resolved,_ That we warn the people of the Commonwealth,
whose votes General Butler is now soliciting by promises to
serve them faithfully, that his professions when seeking office
have been found in our experience to be easily made and as
easily repudiated when the time for redeeming them came.

"That they are neither gold nor good paper, but are a kind
of fiat currency, having no intrinsic character, being cheap,
delusive, irredeemable and worthless."

This convention represented a large and overwhelming majority
of the people of the Middlesex district. It was made up as
such conventions in Massachusetts always are made up, of men
of high standing and character and of great personal worth.
Can there be found in the history of Massachusetts such a
record of shameless dishonor and such a terrible indictment
and conviction?

A like judgment was expressed a little later by Mr. Edward
Avery, a Democrat of high standing, who declared that the
Democratic Party had found his promises and pledges could
not be trusted.

He was once elected Governor. It so chanced that the Republican
Party had been disappointed by the defeat in their State Convention
of Mr. Crapo, a gentleman of the highest standing, who had
rendered conspicuous service to his country in the National
House of Representatives, and who was doubtless the choice
of a majority of his party. His successful competitor was
a man of much personal worth and highly esteemed. But it
was thought that his nomination had been compassed by skilful
political management by which the will of the people had been
baffled and defeated, and many Republicans declined to vote.
There was a certain curiosity, as many men expressed it, to
see what Butler would do and to test his professions of reform,
with a feeling that he would be quite harmless with a Republican
Legislature and Council. So the experiment was tried. The
people of the Commonwealth had no desire to try it a second
time. The matter of General Butler's title to public respect,
if the rest of his record could be erased as by a wet sponge,
might be determined by the experience of a single year. There
was never such an exhibition as that made by him in the executive
chair of Massachusetts. He proceeded to attack, to promote
his own ambitions, the fair name and fame of the Commonwealth
itself. One of his speeches was so gross in its nature that
the principal Democra