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

He announced himself in a speech which was very bitter and derisive towards me. Of course it was published and circulated. In answer to it I sat down and wrote him a letter which I regret I cannot spare the space to reproduce here as an exhibit of what can be done to a political opponent when a man of any resources sets himself earnestly at work to do it.

Harvard College was called upon to do missionary work in my district to push Mr. Hoar, who was one of its fellows. Money was forthcoming, as it usually is when that class of people undertakes to influence and control the elective franchise.

I had substantially none of the Republican orators of the day with me because they were all busy trying to elect Mr. Hayes as President. The result followed that while Mr. Hayes got a very large vote, Mr. Tarbox as my congressional Democratic opponent got also a very large vote. But my self-constituted opponent, Mr. Hoar, got hardly enough votes in the district where he lived to count for mile-stones.

With that term ended my congressional career, and I thought, as I had given ten years to the country in Congress, I had done all that should be required of me.

But to return to my position in Congress. In 1867 the question of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson began to be discussed. Indeed, its discussion was in large part rendered possible by his performances in a western tour in advocacy of his own re-election. They disgusted everybody. Meanwhile Johnson undertook to quarrel with Stanton and depose him as Secretary of War. Congress resisted that, and Stanton stuck to his office. His efforts to remove Stanton caused a resolution for Johnson's impeachment to pass through the House of Representatives by a large majority. The ablest men of the house, barring myself, were elected on the board of managers to present and advocate articles of impeachment to the Senate.

I did not quite agree to the articles presented or to the doctrines which were the guides by which they were presented. A great many men in and out of Congress, especially college professors, who always claim to know more about free trade and government than any practical man in the country, held that “high crimes and misdemeanors” named in the Constitution must be some crimes that were known in the catalogue of offences punishable by imprisonment