Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 30.djvu/203

 Lest We Forget Ben Butler. 195

When Butler died the Nashville American had this to say:

" Old Ben Butler is dead! Early yesterday morning the angel of death, acting under the devil's orders, took him from earth and landed him in hell. In all this Southern country there are no tears, no sighs and no regrets. He lived only too long. We are glad he has at last been removed from earth and even pity the devil the pos- session he has secured.

" If there is a future of peace in store for Ben Butler, after his entrance upon eternity, then there is no heaven and the Bible is a lie. If hell be only as black as the good book describes it, then there are not the degrees of punishment in which some Christians so firmly believe. He has gone, and from the sentence which has already been passed upon him there is no appeal. He is already so deep down in the pit of everlasting doom that he couldn't get the most powerful ear trumpet conceivable to scientists and hear the echoes of old Gabriel's trumpet, or fly 1,000,000 kites and get a message to St. Peter, who stands guard at heaven's gate.

" In our statute books many holidays are decreed. It was an egregious oversight that one on the occasion of the death of Ben Butler was not foreordained. The * Beast ' is dead. The cymbals should beat and the tin horn should get in its work."

Butler was outlawed by Mr. Davis in a proclamation.

It will always be a stain upon the Federal authorities that Butler was not promptly court-martialed and hanged; yet, strange to say, great and influential newspapers gloated over this horrible " Order No. 28," and chuckled over the fact that "rebel ladies" of New Orleans did not dare to show their faces on the streets after it was issued. We view him and them with horror and scorn.