Background

Marion Butler was born on May 20, 1863 near Clinton, Sampson County, North Carolina. His father, Wiley Butler, was of Irish descent, his mother, Romelia Ferrell, of English. His great-grandfather, James Butler, had fought in the Revolutionary War, and his father served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Education

Marion, the oldest of six children, was educated at Salem High School and at the University of North Carolina. Graduating in 1885, he entered the university's law school, but he was called home before completing his course to take charge of the family farm after his father's death.

Career

When the Farmers' Alliance was organized in North Carolina, Butler joined it and became its president in his county. In 1888 he purchased a local newspaper, the Clinton Caucasian, which he made an Alliance mouthpiece. Thereafter his rise as a farmer spokesman was swift and conspicuous. In 1890, a year of agrarian triumph in North Carolina, he was elected to the state senate, where he led the agricultural forces that held the balance of power in the legislature.

The organization of a national People's party early in 1892 split the Alliance forces in North Carolina, one group favoring third-party action on the state level, the other, to which Butler at first belonged, favoring a continued attempt to work within the Democratic ranks along the lines that had proved successful in 1890.

In 1891 Marion Butler became president of the state Farmers' Alliance and in 1894 president of the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, better known as the Southern Alliance.

As an ardent advocate of free silver, however, Butler had little use for the Democratic presidential ticket of 1892, and in that fall he campaigned for the Populist candidate, James B. Weaver. By 1894 Butler and many of the Alliance men were convinced Populists, and Butler had become the party's state chairman. For that year's election he negotiated an agreement with the state Republican organization by which the two parties nominated a joint ticket. Butler planned the campaign and established a statewide edition of the Caucasian at Raleigh.

The fusion forces swept the state, winning control of both houses of the legislature, which soon afterwards elected Butler to the United States Senate. The Populists repeated their triumph in 1896, but in 1898 they lost to the Democrats, led by Furnifold M. Simmons.

Outside of North Carolina, Butler became most widely known as national chairman of the Populist party in 1896. He had helped to effect the compromise by which the Populists at their convention endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, while making their own nomination for vice-president.

While still a Senator, in May 1899, Butler had resumed the study of law at the University of North Carolina, and after retiring from public life he engaged in practice in Washington, D. C. Although he became identified with several large mining corporations, he retained an interest in agricultural affairs, helping to organize in 1923-24 the Cotton and Tobacco Cooperative Marketing Association of the South.

He was buried in Clinton Cemetery, Clinton, North Carolina.

Achievements

• Perhaps Butler's greatest service to education was his successful defense of the University of North Carolina, of which he was a trustee and a member of the executive board from 1891 to 1899, at a time when its continued existence was threatened by the hostility of farm and denominational groups. Butler as a United States Senator took pride in his efforts to establish free rural mail delivery, parcel post service, and postal savings banks and to obtain appropriations to build the first modern submarine. In his native North Carolina he was in the thick of the fight which established a state college for girls at Greensboro, and he claimed authorship of laws establishing a state railway commission and prohibiting the lending of money at more than six per cent interest. He also fought to improve the public schools of the state.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Great Art Beaten Down: Yeats on Censorship

    (Article From College English, V13, No. 5, February, 1952.)

  • Behn, Meyer & Co v. Miller U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings

    (The Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and ...)

  • Huebschman v. Pinaud, Inc U.S. Supreme Court Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings

    (The Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and ...)

Politics

Eager for a free-silver victory, Butler worked closely with the Democrats in the subsequent national campaign (despite the continuing Populist-Republican fusion in his home state), all but ignoring the Populist vice-presidential candidate, Thomas E. Watson.

In 1900, with the Democrats once more in control of North Carolina, Butler was defeated for reelection to the Senate. For four more years he continued as Populist national chairman, and then, in 1904, he joined the Republican party; thereafter his political activity was confined to attending each of its national conventions from 1912 to 1932.

Membership

Marion Butler was a member of the Philanthropic Literary Society.

Personality

Described in 1896 as a tall, broad-shouldered, rather angular man, with a heavy head of hair and a full beard, Butler gave the impression of being a shrewd political manager.

Connections

On August 31, 1893, Marion Butler had married Florence Faison of Sampson County, North Carolina, by whom he had five children: Pocahontas, Marion, Edward F. , Florence F. , and Wiley.

Father:

Wiley Butler

1816–1885

Mother:

Romeial Ferrell Butler

1839–1922

Sister:

Romelia Butler

1871–1871

Sister :

Cornelia Butler Cooper

1865–1949

Sister :

Florence Butler Howard

1861–1928

Daughter :

Pocahontas Butler Woodson

1894–1996

Daughter :

Florence Faison Butler Cairns

1899–1990

wife :

Florence Faison Butler

1868–1954

Son:

Wiley Happer Butler

1900–1967

Son :

Marion Butler

1896–1972

Brother:

Lester Ferrell Butler

1876–1951

Brother :

George E. Butler

1868–1941

Brother :

Henry Wiley Butler

unknown–1971

Brother :

Mittie Butler McQueen

1878–1958

References

• Marion Butler and American Populism
• Marion Butler and American Populism by James L. Hunt (2003-04-28)