that forced remedial action, even though his methods were sensational in the extreme. Facts were brought out showing gross neglect in the past of insane and infantile wards of the State, but it did not appear that the general care of the inmates at any time justified the charge of the governor that they were tortured or skinned, alive or dead.

After asserting that Massachusetts was a sadly misgoverned State, Governor Butler sought to establish the contention. The executive had an early encounter with John E. Russell, secretary of the Board of Agriculture, which disclosed ignorance of State affairs. Mr. Russell was an exceptional person, always a Democrat in politics, with shrewd knowledge of life, most attractive in private and public encounter. He was a great lover of horses, who came to know and practice farming for the love of it. Later he was a member of Congress from the rock-ribbed Republican Worcester district. Under previous secretaries oversight of agricultural interests had been perfunctory and inefficient. After Mr. Russell was persuaded to accept the office the farming interests had a real leader. He brought knowledge and inspiring direction where it was needed. The farmers came to love Secretary Russell.

The "supreme executive magistrate", as Butler delighted to call himself, began his interview by saying, "Mr. Russell, I want you to tell me about the schools of the State." It was an astounding revelation. "Your Excellency," responded the startled but amused official, "I am secretary of the State Board of Agriculture." That spoiled the

governor's pose and gave Russell command of a situation he had joy in rehearsing. The executive never again troubled the agricultural department, whose head, it had been reported during the campaign, vigorously declined, in language truly rural, "to help haul the Butler swill cart."

The executive council, which was Republican, would not lend its "advice and consent" to certain appointments. Then the affronted governor had to try again. Neither side dropped politics at the threshold of the executive department. N. A. Plimpton was refused confirmation as insurance commissioner. John K. Tarbox of Lawrence was then appointed and confirmed, and he made an excellent head of the department until his death years afterward. The rotund and oratorical M. J. McCafferty of Worcester was made a judge of the Municipal Court of Boston, and George L. Ruffin, Judge of the Charlestown court, the one an Irish Catholic and the other a Negro. The governor asserted that neither race had up to his time been honored by judicial appointments in Massachusetts.

Picturesque incidents of the Butler régime were many. Harvard set aside its hitherto unbroken practice of conferring the degree of LL.D. upon governors. Governor Butler met the trying situation with becoming dignity. He went to the Commencement in Cambridge attended by the usual military escort. Lieutenant Governor Ames ventured on the way out to express the hope that His Excellency would avoid saying anything unpleasant.

"Oh, no," was the reply, "when visiting a family

where one of the members has been hanged I never mention rope." The biting reference was to the Webster-Parkman murder case. Thereafter the governor was most gracious. He regretted in his speech that the narrow circumstances of his youth had carried him to a Maine college instead of to Cambridge, recalled that he had sent his son to Harvard, and made himself so agreeable that he was cheered again and again. Butler once more cleverly countered on the critics. The governor in due course went to the Williams Commencement and expressed his gratitude for the LL.D. that institution had conferred long ago in recognition of his war services.

Perhaps the most grimly amusing incident of this governership related to Governor Butler's Fast Day Proclamation, a pious production, issued in February, which was criticized in most pulpits and some newspapers. The attack was so general that the reporters went to the governor about it. He turned the tables by disclosing that he had made use of the proclamation issued by Governor Christopher Gore in 1810, the worthy for whom Harvard named a building. Only this addition had been made:

"And I do specially exhort the ministers of the gospel on that day to feed their flocks the divine word, and not discourse upon political and other secular topics which divert the serious thoughts of the people from the humble worship of the Father."

XXXI

GEORGE D. ROBINSON AS CANDIDATE AND

GOVERNOR

THE hectic year under Butler made rapid flight. Very short seemed the time until the Republicans and Independents were called upon to battle for his overthrow. Wisdom in dealing with the situation had become more essential than short-sighted partisans were ready to appreciate. Voters regarded with disfavor old methods of attack. The fair-minded disliked an assumption of all virtues on one side and the denial of any to the man who had been made governor by the people. No longer effective were Jovian thunderbolts cast by George F. Hoar and others out of the atmosphere of almost superhuman rectitude in which they enveloped themselves. That kind of assault rather disposed the man by the side of the road to give the poor old sinner another chance.

Anger and bitterness no longer converted anybody, and it was essential that illumination and conversion be brought about. Only a year before a majority of the voters had been with the governor. It remained to introduce the "come let us reason together" spirit so long absent. This was brought from Washington by George D. Robinson, member of Congress from the Springfield district, who was drafted as the candidate by the Republican state convention.

It had been expected that Henry L. Pierce, formerly member of Congress and mayor of Boston, independent in his political thinking and of fine and generous nature, would make the fight against Governor Butler. But the day before the convention Mr. Pierce withdrew. Henry Cabot Lodge, not yet in Congress and chairman of the state committee, appealed to Congressman Robinson, whom he found in the Boston law office of his brother, Charles Robinson. The brief interview was of happy outcome. "I have not sought the governorship" was the reply, "but if the party wants me and needs me, I will stand." Alanson W. Beard had seen Mr. Robinson and prepared the way. The convention next day was a ratification meeting where the candidate in his short address said to the delegates, “It is your duty to command. I count it mine to obey." So were born reassurance and confidence that deepened as the campaign went on under Robinson's leadership. He stamped upon the canvass a character that led to victory.

The people were ready to try Butler upon his record as governor. "I wonder if any man can be as honest as Brother Robinson looks," George M. Stearns once said in the courtroom. This upright bearing invited trust. The presence of the man suggested one who stood "foursquare to every wind that blows." Butler was astute, and men called him tricky; perhaps he found satisfaction in that reputation. Robinson was straightforward and dependable. In him old New England persisted. From the lips of his father he heard how ancestors resisted the British in Lexington.