Roderick R. Butler

Roderick R. Butler

Roderick Randum Butler (born April 9, 1827 in Wytheville , Wythe County , Virginia , †  August 18, 1902 in Mountain City , Tennessee ) was an American politician . Between 1867 and 1875 and again from 1887 to 1889 he represented the state of Tennessee in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Roderick Butler trained as a tailor and then moved to Taylorsville, later Mountain City, Tennessee, where he continued his education with courses at evening school. After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1853, he began to work in his new profession. He also became a postman in Taylorsville and a major in the state militia. Between 1859 and 1863 he was a member of the Tennessee Senate .

During the Civil War , he was a lieutenant colonel in a Tennessee-based unit that was part of the Union Army in 1863 and 1864 . Politically, Butler joined the Republican Party , whose first chairman he was in Tennessee. In the years 1864, 1872 and 1876 he was a delegate to the respective Republican National Conventions , at which Abraham Lincoln , Ulysses S. Grant and finally Rutherford B. Hayes were nominated as presidential candidates. In 1865, Butler was also a delegate to a meeting to revise the Tennessee Constitution. At that time he also became a judge in the first judicial district of his state. In 1869 and 1882, Butler presided over the regional Republican party conventions in Tennessee.

In the 1866 congressional elections , Butler was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the first constituency of Tennessee , where he succeeded Nathaniel Green Taylor on March 4, 1867 . After three re-elections, he was able to complete four legislative terms in Congress by March 3, 1875 . These were marked by the tensions between the radical Republicans and President Andrew Johnson , which culminated in a narrowly failed impeachment process. During Butler's tenure in Congress, Alaska was also bought by Russia and annexed to American territory as territory. In 1868 and 1870 the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution were passed. From 1873 to 1875 Butler was chairman of the militia committee. In 1870 he was given a formal warning by the Congress administration for corruption in the award of scholarships to the US Military Academy at West Point .

In the elections of 1874 Butler was defeated by the Democrat William McFarland . Between 1879 and 1885 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Tennessee ; from 1893 to 1901 he was once again a member of the State Senate. In 1886 Roderick Butler was re-elected to Congress, where he replaced Augustus Herman Pettibone on March 4, 1887 . Until March 3, 1889 he was able to spend another legislative period in the US House of Representatives. In 1888 he renounced another candidacy. In addition to his political activities, Butler still worked as a lawyer. He died in Mountain City on August 18, 1902.

Roderick Butler was married to Emeline Jane Donnelly, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, with whom he had eleven children. He was the grandfather of Robert R. Butler (1881-1933), who represented the State of Oregon in Congress between 1928 and 1933 .

Web links

Commons : Roderick R. Butler  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Roderick R. Butler in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Roderick R. Butler in the database of Find a Grave (English)