BUTLER, BENJAMIN Frtaxxixt (1795-185S). An American lawyer and politician. Ile was born at Kinderhook Landing, N. Y., received a district-school education: studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1817. He was a partner of Martin Van Buren until 1821, and gained rapid eminence in his profession. In 1825-27 he was associated with Messrs. Duer and Spencer on the commission to revise the statute laws of the State, and with than carried through the work in such a way as to win the enthusias tic praise of the New York bar. He was elect ed to the State Legislature in 1S27, was the representative of New York on the commission which, in 1833, readjusted the New York-New Jersey boundary; was Attorney-General in the Cabinet of Jackson from 1833 to 1837. and in that of Van Buren from 1837 to 1838; and from October, 1836, to March 4, 1837, acted also as Secretary of War. From 1838 to 1841 he was district attorney for the United States at New York City; in 1S44 he was at the head of the Electoral College in New York; and from 1S45 to 1848 he was again district attorney, having declined the position of Secretary of War in President Polk's Cabinet. He organized the de partment of law in the College of the City of New York, and for some time was the principal professor. After 184S he devoted himself wholly
to his private practice, and was engaged in sev eral notable cases; but in 1858, owing to failing health, he visited Europe, and on November 8 died in Paris. As a lawyer he was recognized as one of the foremost members of the New York bar, and practiced on equal terms with such men as Van Buren, Henry, Duer, Spencer, and Nelson. Chancellor Kent once said of him: "The student, in pursuing his studies, is surprised to find in all his books such vast and various memoranda of the professional labors of this remarkable law yer." In politics he was for the greater part of his life an enthusiastic Democrat, but, dis approving of his party's attitude toward tbe Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the repeal of the Mis souri Compromise, he joined the newly organized Republican Party in 1856 and voted for Fr6 mont. A number of addresses delivered by him before the New York Historical Society were published under the title Outlines of the Consti tutional History of Yew York (1847). For a biographical sketch, consult Proceedings and .Addresses on the Occasion of the Death of Ben jamin F. Butler (New York, 1859).