Roderick Randum Butler (April 9, 1827 – August 18, 1902) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 1st district in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from 1867 to 1875, and again from 1887 to 1889. He also served several terms in the

Tennessee state legislature The Tennessee General Assembly (TNGA) is the state legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is a part-time bicameral legislature consisting of a Tennessee Senate, Senate and a Tennessee House of Representa ...

, and briefly served as a state court judge. An opponent of secession, Butler represented Johnson County at the

East Tennessee Convention The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee sta ...

in 1861, and afterward joined the Union Army. Butler was censured by the House of Representatives in March 1870 for receiving payment in return for recommending someone for admission to the U.S. Naval Academy.

Early life

Butler was born in

Wytheville, Virginia Wytheville ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Wythe County, Virginia, Wythe County, Virginia, United States. It is named after George Wythe, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and mentor to Thomas Jefferson. Wytheville ...

, on April 9, 1827, the youngest son of George Butler. His father died before Roderick was one year old.Butler, Tennessee: Colonel Roderick Random Butler's Namesake
WataugaLakeMagazine.com, September, 2007. At age 13, he was bound out as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

to John Haney of

Newbern, Virginia Newbern is an unincorporated community in Pulaski County, in the U.S. state of Virginia. From 1839 until the courthouse burned in 1892, Newbern was the county seat of Pulaski County. A large share of the early settlers being natives of Switzer ...

, to learn the

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

's trade. After a six-year apprenticeship, he moved to Taylorsville, Tennessee (modern Mountain City) to work as a tailor.William S. Speer,
Hon. Roderick Random Butler
" ''Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans'' (Genealogical Publishing Company, 2010; originally published 1888), pp. 50–52. At the age of 21, Butler began

reading law Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship u ...

with Carter County attorney Carrick W. Nelson. He was admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

in 1853, and practiced in Johnson County and Carter County in partnership with Nelson until the outbreak of the Civil War. At a young age, Butler aligned himself with the Whig Party.William Horatio Barnes,
Roderick R. Butler
" ''Biographies of Members of the House of Representatives of the Forty-third Congress'' (W.H. and O.H. Morrison, 1874), pp. 77–80. He was appointed

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

of Taylorsville by President

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a De ...

, and was elected to a county judgeship in 1855. He was also a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

of the First Battalion of the Tennessee Militia, having been elected to the rank around 1850.

Civil War

Butler was elected to the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

in 1859, representing Johnson and Carter counties, and was reelected in 1861. He was one of fifteen legislators to vote against the state's military alignment with the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...

in May 1861. He was a member of the Johnson County delegation at both the Knoxville session (May 30–31) and Greeneville session (June 17–20) of the

, which petitioned the state legislature to allow East Tennessee to break away from Tennessee and form a Union-aligned state. Described by fellow Unionist

Oliver Perry Temple Oliver Perry Temple (January 27, 1820 – November 2, 1907) was an American attorney, author, judge, and economic promoter active primarily in East Tennessee in the latter half of the 19th century.Mary Rothrock, ''The French Broad-Holston Country: ...

as "unshrinking" and "outspoken,"Oliver Perry Temple,
R.R. Butler
" ''Notable Men of Tennessee'' (Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), pp. 77–78. Butler was arrested by Confederate authorities and charged with treason in 1862, but was acquitted due to lack of witnesses. He was arrested on a similar charge a short while later, but was released with the help of friends, and fled to

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. He was authorized by General

Ambrose Burnside Ambrose Everts Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the American Civil War and a three-time Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successfu ...

to raise a Union Army regiment, but this new regiment was consolidated with the 13th Regiment Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry under Colonel John K. Miller in late 1863. Butler received the rank of lieutenant colonel, and served until 1864, when he resigned for health reasons. Butler was a delegate to the

Republican National Conventions The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the Republican Party in the United States. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of ...

in 1864, 1872 and 1876. In 1865, he was a delegate to the Tennessee state constitutional convention. That same year, he was elected to the

Tennessee Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...

, but resigned to accept an appointment by Governor

William G. Brownlow William Gannaway "Parson" Brownlow (August 29, 1805April 29, 1877) was an American newspaper publisher, Methodist minister, book author, prisoner of war, lecturer, and politician who served as the 17th governor of Tennessee from 1865 to 1869 and ...

as judge of the state's First Judicial Circuit Court. He was chairman of the first state Republican executive committee of Tennessee. He was also a delegate to the Baltimore Border State Convention in 1867.

Postwar political endeavors

In 1867, Butler was elected as a Republican to the

Fortieth United States Congress The 40th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1867, ...

, winning over 86% of the vote in a race against Democrat James White. He ran virtually unopposed in 1868. He was

censure A censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. In parliamentary procedure, it is a debatable main motion that could be adopted by a majority vote. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a sp ...

d by the House of Representatives on March 17, 1870, for accepting payment in return for recommending the appointment of a cadet to

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

(a vote to expel failed). He was narrowly reelected later that year in a three-way race against White and former congressman

Nathaniel Green Taylor Nathaniel Green Taylor (December 29, 1819 – April 1, 1887) was an American lawyer, farmer, and politician from Tennessee. He was U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1854 to 1855, and again from 1866 to 1867, and Commissioner of India ...

. Though the state legislature

gerrymandered Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries to advantage a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. Th ...

his district, he was nevertheless reelected to a fourth term in 1872, winning 56% of the vote in a race against William B. Carter, the leader of the

East Tennessee bridge-burning conspiracy The East Tennessee bridge burnings were a series of guerrilla operations carried out during the American Civil War by Southern Unionists in Confederate-held East Tennessee in 1861. The operations, planned by Carter County minister William B. Ca ...

. He was finally defeated for reelection in 1874, garnering just 44% of the vote against the Democratic candidate, William McFarland.Candidate Roderick R. Butler
''Our Campaigns''. Retrieved: 3 May 2013. During the

40th Congress The 40th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1867, ...

(1867–1869), Butler served on the Committee on the Revision of Laws (now part of the Judiciary Committee). During the

41st Congress The 41st United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1869, ...

, he served on the Committee on Elections and the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. For the

42nd Congress The 42nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1871, ...

, he was a member of the Committee on Freedmen's Affairs, and for the 43rd Congress, he was a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs. In 1878, Butler was elected to the

, where he would serve until 1885. In 1887, Butler was again elected to Congress, defeating his old opponent, James White, with about 60% of the vote. In 1887, he failed to win his party's nomination for reelection, but ran in the general election as an Independent Republican. He was narrowly defeated by rising politician Alfred A. Taylor. In 1893, he was elected to the

, where he served until 1901. In a letter to editor William S. Speer, who was compiling information for his book, ''Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans'', Butler stated:

If my time were to go over, I would attend to my profession and nothing else; I would never go into politics; there is no money in it, it is a dog's life; the politician is a pack-horse for everybody, has to go everybody's security and neglect one's private affairs.

Butler died in Mountain City, Tennessee, on August 18, 1902 (age 75 years, 131 days). He is

interred Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and object ...

at Mountain View Cemetery in Mountain City.

Family and legacy

Butler married Emeline Jane Donnelly, the daughter of a wealthy Taylorsville area farmer, in 1849. The couple had 11 children. A grandson of Butler, Robert Reyburn Butler, represented an

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1928 to 1933. His private residence in Mountain City, the Butler House, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

.Carolyn Sakowski (2007),
Touring the East Tennessee Backroads
', John F. Blair, Publisher. , . Pages 28–29. After the Civil War, the Johnson County community of Smith's Mill was renamed

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

in his honor.

References

External links