The Daily Dispatch: February 11, 1865., [Electronic resource]

After reading the speech of General Butler, printed in Thursday's Dispatch, we take back the opinion formerly expressed, that General Butler's forte is soldiership, not oratory. We magnanimously apologize for that act of unintentional injustice. We concede that Butler is, like Cæsar, equally great with the tongue and the sword. We should like to know General Grant's opinion of that speech as an oratorical performance. We know that General Grant does not consider Butler a soldier. What does he think of him as an orator? Does he not perceive, even in his oratory, some glimpses of military genius? Not permitted by military rule to attack his superior officer directly in front, does he not execute some handsome flank movements? What does General Grant think of Butler's outline of Grant's last summer campaign, when he started with two hundred thousand men for the north side of Richmond, and arrived on the south side, which Butler had reached without the loss of a man? What of the battle of Cold Harbor, where Butler interposed to save him from destruction? What of the set-off of the Petersburg mine to the Dutch gap? Is not the way in which General Butler puts his case on paper at least as skillful as the way in which Grant sets his squadrons in the field?

When rogues fall out they are apt to tell the truth of each other. The "hero" of Big Bethel and Fort Fisher informs the officers of the United States that "Big Bethel was not Bull Run; Big Bethel was not Fair Oaks; Big Bethel was not Seven Pines; Big Bethel was not the Chickahominy--Fort Fisher was not Fredericksburg; Fort Fisher was not Chancellorsville; Fort Fisher was not the Wilderness; Fort Fisher was not Cold Harbor. When I die, put over me for my epitaph: Here lies the General who saved the lives of his soldiers at Big Bethel and Fort Fisher, and who never commanded the Army of the Potomac. " What does General Grant think of that for an oratorical bombshell?

We are curious to see his reply. Will he say Amen! here lies General Butler? Will he insinuate that General Butler was guided in his campaigns by military advisers of the old United States army, or will he prove that Butler has been as unsuccessful as Grant? But observe that Butler only claims that he is the hero of "failures," whilst Grant is represented as the hero of not only "failures," but "disasters." How will General Grant spike that gun?

‘ "He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day."

’

But he who fights, runs, and gets killed in running, is a hopeless case.--This is what General Butler means by the

‘ "Disaster on disaster,
Following fast, and following faster,"

’

which has distinguished Grant's massacres from Butler's "failures."

Whatever General Grant may think of Butler's oratory, it will strike home to the hearts of his Massachusetts audience. The man that saves human life is the man for their money. The man that fills up the ranks with American citizens of African descent, instead of Massachusetts citizens of New England descent., is a benefactor of his native land. They appreciate the difference between that Petersburg "hole filled up with American dead until it ran blood" and that placid and secure Dutch gap, where not a groan was heard, nor a funeral note, and where their favorite General snored calmly in his couch of mud, "with his martial cloak around him." General Grant need not send his recruiting officers in the neighborhood of Lowell.

‘ "'Taint, a knowin' kind of cattle
That is cotch'd with mouldy corn."

’

It will be the crowning glory of Butler in Massachusetts that only "twenty-five men were killed and wounded at Big Bethel"; and as his audience were none of the twenty-five, there is no drawback to their satisfaction. Whereas, he delares that, in the disastrous battles of Grant and others, "there were more men slaughtered and homes made desolate than there were leaves on the trees in the forest around Big Bethel — not to be numbered."

We shall get the truth out of these people at last. It is a timely exposition, in view of the approaching draft. If the Yankee people are anxious to drop in greater numbers than the leaves of the forest, they will have a better prospect than ever this spring, and the Lieutenant- General, grim and gory, is ready to show them the way immediately.