Why Ben Butler Supported Jeff Davis

The Minneapolis Tribune says the f olio win g letter was written to a gentleman of that city : BOSTON, Mass., Jan. 5, !87. Deak Sik - I do not know as I ought to write vou to decide a bet, beuause you ought not to bet. But, to set you right i a matter of history in whieh yon seem to be interested, allow me to eay that in the Democratie Convention at Charleston, S. C, in the year 1800, I voted flftyseven times, as I remember it, for Jefferson Davie, of Missixsippi, afterward Pretident of the Confedérate States, as candidato for the Democratie party, for President He was not before the convention as a candidate, for my vote and that of onoof my colleagues were the only ones that he had. I believed him to be a representative man of the South, and subserment events have shown that I was right. And I believod then, and bolieve doiv, that if he could havo been nominated for President, and clected, the war wonld have been saved, and the attsmpted disuuion prevented, for ho would have ohosen to be President of thirty-two BtatM, rather Uisu flfteen, and my experience lian heen that the North always got more consideraron on ([iieHtiona of hnman liberty f rom a Southern statenman as President bofore the war tlian it did from a Northern doughface and that remains troe down to the present time. JiEN'J. F. BUTT,Ei!.