member leaped to his feet on the floor of the House and shouted:
"If I were to characterise all that is pusillanimous in war, inhuman in peace, forbidden in morals, and corrupt in politics, I could name it in one word—Butlerism!"
For this speech he was ordered to apologise, and when he refused with scorn they voted that the Speaker publicly censure him. The Speaker did so, but winked at the offender while uttering the censure.
John A. Bingham, of Ohio, who had been chosen for his powers of oratory to make the principal speech against the President, rose in the House and indignantly refused to serve on the Board of Impeachment with such a man.
General Butler replied with crushing insolence:
"It is true, Mr. Speaker, that I may have made an error of judgment in trying to blow up Fort Fisher with a powdership at sea. I did the best I could with the talents God gave me. An angel could have done no more. At least I bared my own breast in my country's defense—a thing the distinguished gentleman who insults me has not ventured to do—his only claim to greatness being that, behind prison walls, on perjured testimony, his fervid eloquence sent an innocent American mother screaming to the gallows."
The fight was ended only by an order from the old Commoner's bed to gingham to shut his mouth and work with Butler. When the President had been crushed, then they could settle Kilkenny-cat issues. Bingham obeyed.
When the august tribunal assembled in the Senate
