You could have used the down time to educate yourself.
Benjamin Butler was a trial lawyer and politician.
Like so many other generals in the war, he was a political appointee not a professional military man.
Why didn't you bother to figure that out before posting?
As a lawyer, Lincoln would argue one side of a case in the morning, and then argue the very opposite side of a case in the afternoon. A Judge once asked him how he could square changing his position 180 degrees from the morning to the afternoon.
He replied something to the effect that in the morning he thought he was correct, but by the afternoon he realized the other position was more correct.
Why would a lawyer switch sides in the middle of a case?
Why would any judge be surprised that lawyers do argue different sides of the same question?
Do you have a source for this highly questionable anecdote?
Or did you just pull it out of your -- well wherever you get the rest of your nonsense?
Wikipedia says:
Butler quickly gained a reputation as a dogged criminal defense lawyer who seized on every misstep of his opposition to gain victories for his clients, and also became a specialist in bankruptcy law. His trial work was so successful that it received regular press coverage, and he was able to expand his practice into Boston.
Butler's success as a lawyer enabled him to purchase shares in Lowell's Middlesex Mill Company when they were cheap. Although he generally represented workers in legal actions, he also sometimes represented mill owners.
In other words, everything you charge Lincoln with applies to Butler as well.
Butler, who saw many of his ambitions thwarted or blocked, had plenty of reason to make things up.
And we know that he did make things up in his autobiographical book.
Stop acting like he was some kind of saint because he tells you what you want to believe.
So he was of the same cut as Lincoln?
Like so many other generals in the war, he was a political appointee not a professional military man.
Why didn't you bother to figure that out before posting?
I fail to see how this impugns his character.
Why would a lawyer switch sides in the middle of a case?
He didn't. He argued one side of a case for a Client in the morning, and he argued the opposite side of a similar case for a different client in the afternoon.
The Judge was not angry, he was mirthful about the fact that Lincoln had to represent clients in two different cases on opposite side of the same legal issue, and he jokingly pointed out to Lincoln how unprincipled this made Lincoln seem.
Do you have a source for this highly questionable anecdote?
One of the several books on Lincoln I have read many years ago. So far as I can help you find it, no, I do not have a source for it.
In other words, everything you charge Lincoln with applies to Butler as well.
So if Butler fabricates, it's safe to conclude that Lincoln did so as well?
And we know that he did make things up in his autobiographical book.
I do not know such things, but I see that they are alleged. I dare say that anyone who attacks the hero of a large portion of the population will find that his own history is going to be scavenged for material to use against him.