Benjamin Franklin Butler (politician) - Early Life

Early Life

Butler was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the sixth child of Captain John Butler, who served under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and later became a privateer, dying in 1819. He was named after Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. His elder brother, Andrew Jackson Butler (1815–1864), would serve as a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War and joined him in New Orleans. After the death of his father, his mother, Charlotte (Ellison) Butler, operated a boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts. He attended Waterville College (now Colby College) in Maine and graduated in 1838. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell, and soon attained distinction as a lawyer, particularly in criminal cases. He married Sarah Hildreth, a stage actress and daughter of Dr. Israel Hildreth of Lowell, on May 16, 1844. They had three children survive past their childhood: Blanche (1847–1939), Paul (1852–1918; the Butlers' first child, also named Paul, had died at age 5 in 1850) and Ben-Israel (1855–1881). Blanche Butler eventually married Adelbert Ames, a Mississippi governor and senator who had served as a general in the United States Army during the Civil War.

Entering politics as a Democrat, Butler first attracted general attention by his vigorous campaign in Lowell advocating the passage of a law establishing a ten-hour day for laborers. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and of the Massachusetts Senate in 1859, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions from 1848 to 1860. In the 1860 Democratic National Convention at Charleston, South Carolina, he advocated the nomination of Jefferson Davis (voting for him on the first 57 ballots) and opposed Stephen A. Douglas, and in the ensuing campaign he supported John C. Breckinridge.

Butler supported Davis as he believed that only a moderate Southerner could keep the Democratic party from dividing in 1860. Although he sympathized with the South, Butler stated that "I was always a friend of southern rights but an enemy of southern wrongs", and sought to serve in the Union army. His military career prior to the Civil War began with him as a third lieutenant in the Massachusetts Militia in 1839; he was promoted to brigadier general of the militia in 1855. These ranks were closely associated with his political positions and Butler received little practical military experience to prepare him for the coming conflict.