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

[123] its bloody attacks and conspiracies to overthrow the government of the people, and the people did rightly in rendering powerless, aye, in killing the oppressors and their allies, who were endeavoring to recover power to oppress them. Those acts of the people during the French Revolution which are so much complained of were made necessary by the efforts of the crowned heads of Europe to restore despotism to its powers and possessions in France, and they were acts well adapted to make that restoration impossible. If it is urged that the people went too far in that direction, I remember what outrages they and their fathers had suffered for generations; and while I may grieve over the results, I have the strongest possible inclination to pardon their acts.

In my political action thenceforward, I maintained my allegiance to the Democratic party. I attended as a delegate every national convention from 1848 to 1860 inclusive. I was frequently candidate for Congress in my district, but never with the slightest prospect of success, the votes on all questions being more than three to one against the Democracy.

In 1858 I was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts by the citizens of Lowell. I was the only Democrat on the ticket. In that legislature I drew the bill reforming the Judiciary of the State, so far as it could constitutionally be done, the Supreme Judicial Court being placed out of reach of reform by the provisions of the Constitution. The Court of Common Pleas, substantially the trial court of the people's causes, was abolished, and a new Court established upon a basis on which it remains to-day. Most of the provisions of that bill are still the law of the State.

During all these years, from 1840 to 1860, I was receiving instruction in another science. This instruction had a most important bearing upon my after life, and became of very considerable importance to the country. In 1839, the autumn before I was admitted to the bar, I had joined as a volunteer soldier in organizing a new company in the Massachusetts disciplined soldiery, called the “Lowell City guard.” I carried my musket in that company for three years. I encamped with the company, either in conjunction with the regiment to which it belonged, or in our private encampments, from five to nine days every year. I did this to learn the duties of a soldier, for I believed then that in the course of my life I should be called upon sometime to perform those duties as a soldier in actual war.