the notes, the marginal references, should be ascribed to Mr. Butler." Pie was elected a mem- ber of the assembly in 1828, for the special purpose of aiding it in its delibei-ations on the work sub- mitted by himself and his colleagues. In 1833 he was appointed commissioner for the state of New York to adjust the New Jersey boundary-line, Tlieodore Frelinghuysen being the New Jersey commissioner, and in the autumn of that year was appointed by President Jackson attorne/-general of the United States. He held the office through a part of Van Buren's administration, resigning in January, 1838, and from October, 1836, till March, 1837, was also acting secretary of war. From 1838 till 1841 he was U. S. district attorney for the southern district of New York. In 1848 he was appointed member of a commission to codify the laws of the state, but declined. By request of the council of the University of the city of New York, he had prepared, in 1835, a plan for organizing a faculty of law in that institution, and in 1837 be- came its principal law professor. During the great- er part of his life he was an influential member of the democratic party, but on the passage of the Kan- sas-Nebraska bill, abolishing the Missouri compro- mise, he joined the republicans, and voted for Fre- mont in 1856. Mr. Butler was a thorough scholar, and a great admirer of the Greek and Latin writers. William Cullen Bryant, in 1825, writes of " his puri- ty of character and singleness : how much he was admired on his first visit to New York, then a young man with finely chiselled features, made a little pale by study, and ani- mated by an ex- pression both of the greatest intel- ligence and in- genuousness." In 1847 Mr. Butler delivered, before the New York his- torical society, a discourse entitled " Outlines of the Constitutional His- tory of New York" (New York, 1847). See " Life and Opinions of B. F.
Butler," by W. L. Mackenzie. — His
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son. William Allen, lawyer, b. in Albany, N. Y., 20 Feb., 1825, was graduated at the University of the city of New York in 1843, studied law with his father, and, after travelling in Europe in 1846-8, and contributing sketches of travel entitled "' Out- of-the-Way Places in Europe " to the " Literary World," he entered upon the practice of his pro- fession in New York, which he actively and suc- cessfully pursued. He contributed poetical pieces, displaying wit and fancy, to periodicals. Among his occasional contributions to magazines were hu- morous papers published in the " Literary World," under the title " Tlie Colonel's Club," " The Cities of Art and the Early Artists," printed in " The Art Union Bulletin," and poetical contributions to the " Democratic Review." In 1846 he published " The Future," an academic poem ; in 1850, " Bar- num's Parnassus," a volume of the character of the " Rejected Addresses " ; in 1857_, " Nothing to Wear," a satirical poem which attained celebrity, and was published in many forms in the United States and in England, and has been reproduced in French and German translations. It was originally published anonymously in " Harper's Weekly," and its authorship was claimed by an impostor, until Mr. Butler publicly declared himself the author; in 1858, "Two Millions," origi- nally written for the Phi Beta Kap- pa society of Yale college ; " Gen- eral Average," a stinging satire on sharp practices in mercantile life ; in 1860, " The Bible by Itself," an address deliv- ered before the New York Bible society; in 1862, " Martin Van Bu- ren," a biograph- ical sketch ; in 1871, "Lawyer
and Client," an
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ethical disquisition on their relations, being the substance of a lecture delivered to the law-school of the University of the city of New York ; and his collected poems (Boston). In prose fiction he published anonymously, in 1876, " Mrs. Limber's Raffle," and in 1886 " Domesticus," a story illustrating vari- ous phases of the labor question. In 1879 he published a memorial address on Evert A. Duyckinck. He is a trustee of the New York library.
BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, lawyer, b. in
Deerfield, N. 11.. 5 Nov., 1818: d. in Washington,
11 Jan., 1893. His father served under Jackson at
New Orleans. He was graduated at Waterville col-
lege (now Colby university), Maine, in 1838, was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell,
Mass., in 1841, and afterward had a high reputation
as a lawyer, especially in criminal cases. He early
took a prominent part in politics on the demo-
cratic side, and was elected a member of the Mas-
sachusetts house of representatives in 1853. and
of the state senate in 1859. In 1860 he was a
delegate to the democratic national convention
that met at Charleston. When a portion of the
delegates reassembled at Baltimore, Mr. Butler,
after taking part in the opening debates and votes,
announced that a majority of the delegates from
Massachusetts would not further participate in the
deliberations of the convention, on the ground that
there had been a withdrawal in part of the majority
of the states ; and further, he added, " upon the
ground that I would not sit in a convention where
the African slave-trade, which is piracy by the
laws of my country, is approvingly advocated." In
the same year he was the unsuccessful democratic
candidate for governor of Massachusetts. At the
time of President Lincoln's call for troops in April,
1861, he held the commission of brigadier-general
of militia. On the 17th of that month he marched
to Annapolis with the 8th Massachusetts regiment,
and was placed in command of the district of An-
napolis, in which the city of Baltimore was in-
cluded. On 13 May, 1861, he entered Baltimore at
the head of 900 men, occupied the city without op-
position, and on 16 May was made a major-general,
and assigned to the command of Fort Monroe and
the department of eastern Virginia. While he was
here, some slaves that had come within his lines
were demanded by their masters ; but he refused
to deliver them up on the ground that they were
