Marion Butler of Sampson County, N.C.,was president of the North Carolina and National Farmers' Alliance and IndustrialUnion; state and national Populist Party leader; member of the North CarolinaSenate; United States senator, 1895-1901; and Republican Party leader after 1904. Heowned and edited a newspaper, the , locatedat various times in Clinton, Goldsboro, and Raleigh, N.C. He practiced law inWashington, D.C., 1901-1938. Caucasian The collection includes personal, political, and businesscorrespondence and other papers of Marion Butler, chiefly 1890-1927. Personalletters include correspondence with his brothers George Butler, Lester Butler, andHenry Butler; his wife Florence Faison Butler; and his sons Marion Butler, Jr., andEdward F. Butler. Business and legal papers document Butler's work as a lawyer inWashington, D.C., and newspaper owner in Clinton. N.C., and Raleigh, N.C., as wellas his interest in mining and oil investment in Mexico and the western UnitedStates, in new inventions, in securing government contracts for variouscorporations, and in establishing a colony of South Africans in Mexico. Hisactivities as attorney in cases of claims against the United States government,including Civil War claim cases and Indians claims cases as well as other legalcases involving Indians, are also documented. Prominent business correspondentsinclude Josiah M. Vale, Richard Franklin Pettigrew, Baylus Cade, and Lester Butler.Political papers reflect Butler's activities in the state and national Farmers'Alliances, 1892-1895; his campaigns as a Populist candidate and chairman of thenational Populist Party; his legislative interests, especially in postal servicesand agriculture; and his activities as a leader in the North Carolina RepublicanParty. Political correspondence reflects the major state and national issues inturn-of-the-century politics, including currency reform and free silver, trusts, thewhite supremacy campaigns in North Carolina in 1898 and 1900, and politicalpatronage. Political correspondents include Daniel Lindsay Russell, Walter Clark, J.H. (Cyclone) Davis, Benjamin Orange Flower, Cyrus Thompson, Jeter Conley Pritchard,William Jennings Bryan, Spencer Adams, W. S. O'B. Robinson, Tom Watson, John MotleyMorehead, and many others.
