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Image courtesy of Library of Congress |
BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, (grandfather of Butler Ames and father-in-law of Adelbert Ames),
a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Deerfield, N.H.,
November 5, 1818; moved with his mother to Lowell, Mass., in 1828; attended
high school and Exeter Academy, and was graduated from Waterville College (now
Colby College), Waterville, Maine, in 1838; studied law; was admitted to the
bar in 1840 and commenced practice in Lowell, Mass.; member of the State house
of representatives in 1853; served in the State senate in 1859; delegate to the
Democratic National Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore in 1860; entered
the Union Army April 17, 1861, as a brigadier general; promoted to major
general May 16, 1861, and assigned to the command of Fort Monroe and the
Department of Eastern Virginia; resigned November 30, 1865; elected as a
Republican to the Fortieth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4,
1867-March 3, 1875); chairman, Committee on Revision of the Laws (Forty-second
Congress), Committee on the Judiciary (Forty-third Congress); one of the
managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1868 to conduct the
impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson, President of the United States;
unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1871 and
1872 and for reelection to the Forty-fourth Congress in 1874; elected to the
Forty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1879); declined to be a candidate
for renomination; unsuccessful candidate for Governor as an independent in 1878
and as a Democrat in 1879; elected Governor in 1882 by the combined efforts of
the Greenback and Democratic Parties; unsuccessful candidate for President of
the United States on the Greenback and Anti-Monopolist ticket in 1884; died
while attending court in Washington, D.C., January 11, 1893; interment in
Hildreth Cemetery, Lowell, Mass.
BibliographyButler, Benjamin F.
Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences. Boston: A. M.
Thayer, 1892; Nash, Howard P.
Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler,
1818-1893. 1969. Reprint, Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson
University Press, 1975; Trefousse, Hans L.
Ben Butler: The South Called Him Beast! 1957. Reprint, New
York: Octagon Books, 1974.
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