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

Of course the jury found, after considerable deliberation, a verdict of not guilty, on the ground that the article did not refer to me at all, when everybody in the courthouse knew that it did.

I believe I have one characteristic, and that is of paying my debts. I have fully done so, I think, in this case. This particular judge, while attorney-general under President Grant, got himself nominated to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, but I caused him to be rejected by the Senate; and when in 1876 he offered him-self as a candidate for Congress against me, I published an open letter describing him so exactly, both morally and politically, that there could be no doubt of his identity (nor was the description libellous), and I beat him so that all the votes he got would be hardly sufficient for mile-stones in our district.

I am induced to put on record these villanous newspaper attacks upon me, in order to show, by example, to the young and ambitious men who may read this book, that undeserved newspaper abuse, however vile, will never ultimately harm a man who lives an honest, proper, and independent life.

Of course it was impossible to carry through the legislature a bill restricting labor to ten hours instead of fourteen. But great strides were made in favor of the proposition, and after unsuccessful efforts in several succeeding legislatures, a compromise was effected, and it was made the law that eleven and a quarter hours a day should be the limit of a day's work in the manufacturing establishments of Massachusetts; this law was vigorously enforced until a considerable time after the war, and the shortening of time was a very great relief to the toilers.

I had always insisted that as much work could be done in ten hours, even in attending machinery, as in eleven and a quarter. Afterwards, when I came to have a controlling interest in certain manufacturing establishments in Lowell, I put in effect a ten-hour rule, and never allowed a man, woman, or child to work more than ten hours except in time of pressure of business. At such time they were given pay for every extra hour they worked, and it was left wholly optional with them whether they should or should not work the extra hours.