8 The Plot to Seize the White House


to himself,  he heard out his visitors in the hope of learning why they
were so anxious to use him.
 They explained that they had arranged for him to attend the
convention as a delegate from Hawaii, which would give him the right to
speak.  When he still declined, they asked whether he wasn’t in sympathy
with their desire to oust the “Royal Family.”  He was, he said, because
the leadership had simply been using the organization to feather their
own nests, but he had absolutely no intention of attending the convention
without an invitation.
 His disappointed visitors took their leave but asked permission to
return in a few weeks.


3


A month later Doyle and MacGuire returned.  Without waiting to inquire
whether Butler had changed his mind, MacGuire quickly informed him
that there had been a change of plans.  The general had been right to
object to coming to the convention as just another delegate, MacGuire
acknowledged.  It would have been ineffective, and a waste of the
general’s immense prestige.
 MacGuire outlined a new plan in which Butler would gather two or
three hundred Legionnaires and take them to Chicago on a special train.
They would be scattered throughout the audience at the convention, and
when Butler made an appearance in the spectators’ gallery, they would
leap to their feet applauding and cheering wildly.  The proceedings would
be stampeded with cries for a speech that would not die down until Butler
was asked to the platform.
 Incredulous at the audacity with which this scheme was being
unfolded to him, Butler asked what kind of speech his visitors expected
him to make.  MacGuire produced some folded