General Butler.
The Beast, Butler, as he has been complimentary designated, is by no means the greatest beast of Yankeedom. He has not the leonine qualities at all, unless it be those lions which abound in regions where the inhabitants are timid and unarmed. He is not so much of a vulture as Seward, nor equal as an ass to Lincoln. He is more of a buzzard than an eagle, but he is not the only buzzard in the Yankee camps. It is not in the predominance of any one animal quality, the genius of vice, that Butler is distinguished. It is rather the harmonious development of all animal appetites that constitutes him the representative Beast of Yankeedom. We have in him a whole menagerie of brutes, a walking Barnum's Museum, in which everything, from the horse to the anaconda, and the monkey to the panther, has its place. We intend no injustice to the other beasts of North America. We have no idea that Butler is the worst of them. On the contrary there are hundreds and thousands who, in certain of the basest passions of humanity, are no doubt his superiors. But they have had no such opportunity to display their peculiar qualities, and, till they have, must be content with their ignoble obscurity. Full many a poison plant is
‘ "Born to blush unseen,
And waste its venom in the desert air."
’
Let them not burst with jealousy of Butler. In him we see them all. He saves us the trouble of examining whole likenesses of Yankee human nature. We have it all condensed in one portly but portable volume, with life-like illustrations on every page. No special compliment to Butler could ever have been intended by the proclamation of outlawry. It is impossible to distinguish all his Yankee competitors, according to their deserts. The Beast is more fortunate, not more beastly, than his brethren.
