Educated at the Edgefield Male Academy, Matthew Calbraith Butler entered South Carolina College (present-day University of South Carolina) in October 1854 but withdrew in 1856 after participating in the student "guardhouse riot."
Educated at the Edgefield Male Academy, Matthew Calbraith Butler entered South Carolina College (present-day University of South Carolina) in October 1854 but withdrew in 1856 after participating in the student "guardhouse riot."
Matthew Calbraith Butler was an American attorney and politician. He served as a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil war and in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War. Also, he was a three-term United States Senator.
Background
Matthew Calbraith Butler was born near Greenville, South Carolina on March 8, 1836. Butler was the son of Dr. William Butler and Jane Tweedy Perry. He came from a prominent South Carolina family. His uncle Andrew Butler was a United States Senator and his father William Butler was a congressman.
Education
Educated at the Edgefield Male Academy, Matthew Calbraith Butler entered South Carolina College (present-day University of South Carolina) in October 1854 but withdrew in 1856 after participating in the student "guardhouse riot."
Matthew Calbraith Butler studied law and was admitted to the bar in December 1857. In 1860 Butler was elected from Edgefield to the S.C. House of Representatives.
On June 14, 1861, the Edgefield Hussars, with Butler as captain, were mustered into Confederate service as part of the Hampton Legion. Butler’s field commander, Wade Hampton III, deemed him the finest cavalry officer he ever saw. His actions at First Manassas led to his promotion to major on July 21, 1861. In August 1862 Butler became colonel of the Second South Carolina Cavalry. At the Battle of Brandy Station (June 9, 1863) he lost his right foot to an artillery shell, but his contributions in that battle led to his promotion to brigadier general on September 1, 1863. While still on crutches, Butler returned to active duty in early 1864. His conspicuous service in the Virginia theater led to his elevation to major general on December 7, 1864. Butler and his division were ordered to South Carolina on January 19, 1865, in a vain attempt to thwart Sherman’s march. Butler surrendered in April 1865 and was soon paroled.
Returning to Edgefield, Butler received a presidential pardon on October 27, 1865, and resumed his legal practice and political activities. Reelected to the General Assembly in 1865, Butler advocated a measure granting civil rights to former slaves and voted against passage of the controversial “Black Codes,” to be used by white South Carolinians to regulate former slaves’ labor and movements. In 1870 he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for lieutenant governor on the fusionist Union Reform Party ticket, and he was a member of the 1871 and 1874 taxpayers conventions. He was a central figure in the Hamburg Massacre of July 1876, although not a participant in its violence. Concluding that reform was impossible in cooperation with state Republicans and that appeals for black support were futile, Butler became a champion of the "straight-out" Democratic movement of 1876, and with Martin W. Gary he orchestrated the "Edgefield Plan" of campaign, which was to restore Democratic rule to South Carolina through fraud, intimidation, and violence. After Butler was elected to the U.S. Senate in December 1876, his victory was unsuccessfully contested by the Republican candidate David T. Corbin. Butler took his seat on November 30, 1877. Reelected in 1882 and 1888, he remained in the Senate until March 3, 1895, and served as chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Forty-sixth Congress) and the Committee on Interstate Commerce (Fifty-third Congress). As a senator, Butler supported civil service reform, a strong navy, and the elevation of the agriculture department to cabinet-level status. He also secured nearly $5 million in federal funds for South Carolina harbor and river improvements and public buildings. In 1890 Butler instigated a national debate with his introduction of a bill to provide federal aid to blacks who would emigrate to Africa. Responding to South Carolina’s agrarian movement, Butler shifted his position from that of a conservative Democrat to one favoring such Populist measures as the free coinage of silver and a federal income tax.
Defeated for reelection in 1894 by Benjamin R. Tillman, Butler remained in Washington, forming the law firm of Shelley, Butler, and Martin. On May 28, 1898, President William McKinley appointed Butler major general of volunteers in the Spanish-American War. As a member of the Cuban Peace Commission, Butler oversaw the evacuation of Spanish troops from the island, and he was honorably discharged on April 15, 1899. Resuming his legal practice, he maintained business interests in New York and Philadelphia and became president of the Hidalgo Placer Mining and Milling Company of Mexico in January 1904.
Achievements
Religion
An Episcopalian for most of his life, Matthew Calbraith Butler was received into the Catholic Church on his seventy-third birthday.
Politics
As a senator, Butler supported civil service reform, a strong navy, and the elevation of the agriculture department to cabinet-level status. He also secured nearly $5 million in federal funds for South Carolina harbor and river improvements and public buildings. In 1890 Butler instigated a national debate with his introduction of a bill to provide federal aid to blacks who would emigrate to Africa. Responding to South Carolina’s agrarian movement, Butler shifted his position from that of a conservative Democrat to one favoring such Populist measures as the free coinage of silver and a federal income tax.
Views
Matthew Calbraith Butler decried the use of violence to combat the Republicans, and he never joined the Ku Klux Klan.
Personality
Handsome, courtly, and possessed of a fiery temperament and a keen eye for the ladies, Matthew Calbraith Butler was characterized by one of his sons as a complete military man and a stern but loving father.
Butler was a fine soldier, especially considering that he had no formal training. Butler recalled one eyewitness, "showed no emotion as he scanned the field of battle" armed with only a silver riding crop, calmly taking in the situation and carefully planning his response. One observer noted of him, "so fine was his courage, so unshaken his nerve, that, if he realized the danger, he scorned it and his chiseled face never so handsome as when cold-set for battle, never showed if or not his soul was in tumult." Butler was the sort of leader who sat his horse quietly while shot and shell stormed around him and other men ran for shelter.
Quotes from others about the person
"Often did I see him after the fatiguing events of the day lying upon the ground with no shelter but the vaulted sky above, sharing the hardships with his men, ever hopeful, ever ready to lead his sadly diminished ranks where an effective blow might be struck."
Connections
In 1858, Matthew Butler married Maria Simkins Calhoun Pickens, daughter of Governor Francis West Pickens. The couple had eight children. Maria died in 1900. On January 14, 1905, Butler married Nancy Bostic Whitman.