Single Sheet Annotated Speech By Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 January 11, 1893)

Single sheet, lined paper watermarked with crown and Linen. By the hand of Benjamin Franklin Butler at an event in Boston, speech, citing local dignitaries and events. Unique example of Butler’s abilities as a speaker and politician. Not signed by him, but in his hand with corrections by him on period paper.
Reference: 206-153
Estimate: $200-$300

Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was a major general of the Union Army, politician, lawyer, and businessman from Massachusetts. Born in New Hampshire and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, Butler is best known as a political major general of the Union Army during the American Civil War, and for his leadership role in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the national stage and in the Massachusetts political scene and ran several campaigns for Governor before his election to that office in 1882.
Butler, a successful trial lawyer, served in the Massachusetts legislature as an antiwar Democrat and as an officer in the state militia. Early in the Civil War he joined the Union Army, where he was noted for his lack of military skill, and his controversial command of New Orleans, which brought him wide dislike in the South and the "Beast" epithet. He helped create the legal idea of effectively freeing fugitive slaves by designating them as contraband of war in service of military objectives, which led to a political groundswell in the North which included general emancipation and the end of slavery as official war goals. His commands were marred by financial and logistical dealings across enemy lines, some of which probably took place with his knowledge and to his financial benefit.
Butler was dismissed from the Union Army after his failures in the First Battle of Fort Fisher, but soon won election to the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. As a Radical Republican he opposed President Johnson's Reconstruction agenda and was the House's lead manager in the Johnson impeachment proceedings. As Chairman of the House Committee on Reconstruction, Butler authored the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and coauthored the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1875.
In Massachusetts, Butler was often at odds with more conservative members of the political establishment over matters of both style and substance. Feuds with Republican politicians led to his being denied several nominations for the governorship between 1858 and 1880. Returning to the Democratic fold, he won the governorship in the 1882 election with Democratic and Greenback Party support. He ran for president on the Greenback ticket in 1884.
Business and charitable dealings
Butler greatly expanded his business interests during and after the Civil War, and was extremely wealthy when he died, with an estimated net worth of $7 million ($200 million today). Historian Chester Hearn believed "The source of his fortune has remained a mystery, but much of it came from New Orleans...." However, Butler's mills in Lowell, which produced woolen goods and were not hampered by cotton shortages, were economically successful during the war, supplying clothing and blankets to the Union Army, and regularly paying high dividends. Successful postwar investments included a granite company on Cape Ann and a barge freight operation on the Merrimack River. After learning that no domestic manufacturer produced bunting, he invested in another Lowell mill to produce it, and convinced the federal government to enact legislation requiring domestic sources for material used on government buildings. Less successful ventures included investments in real estate in the Virginia, Colorado, and the Baja Peninsula of western Mexico, and a fraudulent gold mining operation in North Carolina. He also founded the Wamesit Power Company and the United States Cartridge Company and was one of several high-profile investors who were deceived by Philip Arnold in the famous Diamond hoax of 1872.
Butler put some of his money into more charitable enterprises. He purchased confiscated farms in the Norfolk, Virginia area during the war and turned them over to cooperative ventures managed by local African Americans and sponsored a scholarship for African Americans at Phillips Andover Academy. He also served for fifteen years in executive positions of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.
His law firm also expanded significantly after the war, adding offices in New York City and Washington. High-profile cases he took included the representation of Admiral David Farragut in his quest to be paid by the government for prizes taken by the Navy during the war, and the defense of former Secretary of War Simon Cameron against an attempted extortion in a salacious case that gained much public notice.
Butler built a mansion immediately across the street from the United States Capitol in 1873–1874, known as the Butler Building.] One unit of the building was constructed to be fireproof so that it could be rented as storage for valuable and irreplaceable survey records, maps, and engraving plates of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, whose headquarters in the Richards Building was directly next door. The building was used by President Chester A. Arthur while the White House was being refurnished. On April 10, 1891, the Department of the Treasury purchased the building from Butler for $275,000, and it became the headquarters of the U.S. Marine Hospital Service, with its Hygienic Laboratory (the predecessor of the National Institutes of Health) occupying its top floor.
Governor of Massachusetts and run for President.
Butler ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts in 1878 as an independent with Greenback Party support and sought the Democratic nomination. The latter had denied him by the party leadership, which refused to admit him into the party, but he was nominated by a populist rump group of Democrats who disrupted the main convention, forcing it to adjourn to another location. He was renominated in similar fashion in 1879; in both years, the Republicans won against the divided Democrats. Because Butler sought the governorship in part as a steppingstone to the presidency, he opted not to run again until 1882. In 1882, he was elected by a 14,000 margin after winning nomination by both Greenbacks and an undivided Democratic party. He was Governor of Massachusetts from January 4, 1883, to January 3, 1884.
As governor, Butler was active in promoting reform and competence in administration, despite a hostile Republican legislature and Governor's Council. He appointed the state's first Irish American and African American George Lewis Ruffin judges, and appointed the first woman to executive office, Clara Barton, to head the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women. He also graphically exposed the mismanagement of the state's Tewksbury Almshouse under a succession of Republican governors. Butler was somewhat notoriously snubbed by Harvard University, which traditionally granted honorary degrees to the state's governors. Butler's honorarium was denied because the Board of Overseers, headed by Ebenezer Hoar, voted against it.
Butler's bid for reelection in 1883 was one of the most contentious campaigns of his career. His presidential ambitions were well known, and the state's Republican establishment, led by Ebenezer and George Frisbie Hoar, poured money into the campaign against him. Running against Congressman George D. Robinson (whose campaign manager was a young Henry Cabot Lodge), Butler was defeated by 10,000 votes, out of more than 300,000 cast. Butler is credited with beginning the tradition of the "lone walk", the ceremonial exit from the office of Governor of Massachusetts, after finishing his term in 1884. These three ruled the politics of the North End and delivered their votes to the Democratic party. Maguire also formed a lasting friendship with Michael Doherty of the South End, a successful liquor dealer, president of the Boston Beer Company, and, for seventeen years, treasurer of the Democratic City Committee.
In 1882, Butler successfully litigated Juilliard v. Greenman before the Supreme Court. In what was seen as a victory for Greenback supporters, the case confirmed that the government had the right to issue paper currency for public and private debts. Butler leveraged the win to run for president in 1884. Nominated by the Greenback and Anti-Monopoly parties, he was unsuccessful in getting the Democratic nomination, which went to Grover Cleveland. Cleveland refused to adopt parts of Butler's platform in exchange for his political support, prompting Butler to run in the general election. He sought to gain electoral votes by engaging in fusion efforts with Democrats in some states and Republicans in others, in which he took what were perceived in the contemporary press as bribes $25,000 from the campaign of Republican James G. Blaine. The effort was in vain: Butler polled 175,000 out of 10 million cast.
The first Boston Beer Company was listed in the directories at 61 Broad Street in Boston in 1844 and at 47 & 49 Broad Street by 1846. The first entry in the reports of R.G. Dun & Co. for Boston Beer Co. is dated June 1865. The entry indicates this company was recently formed and that they had taken Southers' old brewery. The partners were Mike Doherty, John Miller, James Collins, Carrett Nagle, P.F. Logan, and Robt Moore. Michael Doherty was the president and D.H. Tully was the Treasurer. In the 1865 directory, Dennis (also spelled Denis) H. Tully is listed as the treasurer of the Boston Beer Co. with an office at 19 Central Wharf, but Boston Beer was not listed under brewers for that year. By 1867, Boston Beer Co. is included in the business listings for brewers. The R.G. Dun & Co. reports list the address as 19 Central Wharf with the Brewery listed at So. Boston. Boston Beer prospered in the late 1860s and early 1870s and in 1872, according to the report of R.G. Dun & Co., they had taken on two new partners: Frank Campbell and John McCormick. With continuing reports of prosperity, by November 1881 R. G. Dun & Co. reported that this company stood "at the head of the list of Brewers in point of sales and continue to pay large dividends." In 1883, following the death of Michael Doherty (June 10, 1883), James Collins was elected President.
Michael Doherty Estate. — The late Michael Doherty, of Boston, left an estate which has been appraised at $157,563,95, and which was invested as follows: —Real estate: —Estate No. 21 Union Park Street, $10,000; estate No. 34 Hamilton Street, $20,000; estate No. 184-192 Kneeland Street. $35,000; estate No. 211-213 Kneeland Street, $6,000; estate No. 73 Endicott Street, $5,500: estate No. 77 Endicott Street. $2 500; two-thirds undivided estate, 75 Endicott Street. $2,000; two thirds undivided estate, 75 Endicott Street, $2,400; value of real estate, $83.400. Personal estate: —interest in the business M. Doherty & Cos., $39,573 40; cash in bank. $8.390.000; $2,000.00; Boston Beer Company stock, 24 shares. $24,000.00; watch and jewelry, $1,000; value of personal estate. $74,193.95; value of real estate, $83,400.00, Total. $157,563.95.

Notes: Repaired with museum acid free transparent tape at separation folds. Some spotting, toning, etc. as expected. Not signed by Butler but in his hand.

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8" x 0.001" x 9.75"

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