Some of General Butler's enemies at the North are making a grand fuss over sundry alleged cotton speculations of his; in which he has defrauded the United States Government. It is natural that such conduct should excite indignation among the most scrupulous and honest community in the world, but we doubt whether it can be proved. No man would venture on the perpetration of such an atrocity, in such a country, without using the greatest precaution to cover his tracks. We are unwilling to believe that our late estimable neighbor at Dutch gap is capable not only of such an abomination, but of the infinitely greater wickedness of being found out. If we have sometimes beheld or fancied something dark in Butler's aspect, we have certainly never perceived anything green. We refuse to believe any charges of cotton stealing against that exemplary person till we see the evidence, and every man has a right to be considered innocent till he is proved guilty.
We are slowly coming to the conclusion that being found out is the only crime in the moral code of most politicians. We do not believe that Butler is likely to be guilty of this crime. He is neither better nor worse than many other of the large gang of political adventurers to whom he belongs. It is all very well to hold him up as an exceptional black sheep in a flock of spotless white. Butler the Beast is, at worst, only one of a beastly herd. Even if it be true that he has got more than his share of the spoils, and plundered his saintly Government, we are glad to hear it, but defy them to prove it.
