Jobs, fraudulent contracts,
trading through the lines, relatives enriched by public plunder,
corrupt understanding with the enemy. These stories pursued
him to New Orleans and from New Orleans back to Lowell. Is
there another Union General, at least was there ever another
Massachusetts General to whose integrity such suspicion attached?
He scarcely undertook to discuss the matter himself. After
the war a New Orleans bank, on which Butler had made a requisition
for eighty thousand dollars in gold, employed the late Edwards
Pierpont to bring an action against General Butler on the
ground that the money had never been paid over to the Government,
but that he had kept it himself. Butler saw the counsel for
the plaintiffs and said he had received the money in an official
capacity and had paid it over to the United States. Mr. Pierpont
answered: "If you will show that, it will constitute a good
defence." In the course of the conversation Pierpont said:
"Your neighbors in Lowell will not think very well of it when
they see you riding in your carriage through the streets,
and know it was paid for out of the money you have taken unlawfully
from this bank.
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