Some human remains were brought into the presence
of the committee, which it was alleged had come from the almshouse.
Butler was in an angry mood at something that had occurred
and called out peremptorily: "Give me the skin that came off
the nigger."
I will not undertake myself to impute the motive which inspired
this attack upon his own State. Whether it were anger inspired
by the knowledge of the estimate in which the majority of
her people held him; whether it were a gross nature with blunted
sensibilities; whether these expressions were uttered in haste
or anger, I will not say. The Honorable William P. Frye,
an able and justly distinguished Representative and Senator
from Maine, with an intimate knowledge of General Butler,
which came from a long association in the public service,
charged General Butler in a public speech in Massachusetts,
in the autumn of 1883, in my hearing, what he repeated at
many places elsewhere in the Commonwealth--that Butler had
made this foul charge against Massachusetts in order that
he might win the favor of the slave-holding and rebel Democratic
elements of the South by catering to their prejudices against
her.
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