Benjamnin F. Butler, Butler's Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin Butler

[1021] a train could recover by indictment five thousand dollars penalty for the death. In the year following the accident, a son who was the administrator of his father, whose name I do not now remember, had an indictment found against the railroad for the death of the father upon the train. The negligence relied on in the case was that the axle, which broke at the journal,--that is, at the line inside of the box in which the axle runs, and between it and the wheel,--had been cracked for a very long time. The crack had opened clear around the axle, which was two and one half inches in diameter, and the wheel had been wabbling backward and forward on that crack until the faces of the iron in the axle had all been worn and pointed, yet not absolutely smooth. A portion a little less than an inch in diameter in the centre of the axle alone held it at the moment when it broke.

The condition in which the axle was found was the fact relied upon by the prosecution to show that the crack had been there a very long time; and at first sight without careful thought it would seem almost conclusive. If the crack had been there for the time supposed to be necessary to give the axle that appearance on the broken end, it seemed clearly negligence on the part of the railroad not to have discovered it by some means or tests.

I had nothing to do with the case, pro or con, but one morning I received a note from President Pierce, who was in Washington, saying that he wished that I would take part in the case and defend the road. He did not himself believe that the road was in any way to blame, but believed it was a pure accident, and he did not desire to have any measures taken against the road in behalf of his son's estate. More than that, Mrs. Pierce believed it was a pure accident, and wanted to have it shown as such, because she believed that it was a visitation of special Providence to take away from the President his son that he might better be prepared to devote himself wholly to the duties of his great office.

I had known General Pierce from my youth up; I had tried cases with him and I had tried cases against him, and I felt highly complimented at his selection of me to go into the case. I reverenced the deep piety of Mrs. Pierce, who was one of the most devout women I ever knew, although I did not quite concur with her logic, because I could not see why Divine Providence might not as well work