George S. Boutwell
Former United States Secretary of the Treasury
Education
- Art School - Boston
Overview
George Sewall Boutwell was an American politician, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as Secretary of the Treasury under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, the 20th Governor of Massachusetts, a Senator and Representative from Massachusetts and the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Abraham Lincoln. He was a leader in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson, and served as a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial.
Boutwell, an abolitionist, is primarily known for his leadership in the formation of the Republican Party, and his championship of African American citizenship and suffrage rights during Reconstruction. As U.S. Representative, he was instrumental in the construction and passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. As Secretary of Treasury, he made needed reforms in the Treasury Department after the chaos of the American Civil War and the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. He controversially reduced the national debt by selling Treasury gold and using greenbacks to buy up Treasury bonds, a process that created a cash shortage. Boutwell and President Grant thwarted an attempt to corner the gold market in September 1869 by releasing $4,000,000 of gold into the economy. As U.S. Senator, Boutwell sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and was chair of a Senate select committee investigating white supremacist violence against Black citizens and their white Republican Party supporters during the 1875 Mississippi state election campaign.
In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Boutwell commissioner to codify the Revised Statutes of the United States and in 1880 to serve as United States counsel before the French and American Claims Commission. He also practiced international law in other diplomatic fora. At the turn of the 20th century, he abandoned the Republican Party, opposed the acquisition of the Philippines, and supported William Jennings Bryan for president.
U.S. Secretary of Treasury:
Boutwell was given serious consideration for a place in the cabinet of President-elect Ulysses S. Grant, and is reported to have declined the Interior Department. Within a week of the inauguration in 1869, Grant's first choice for the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander T. Stewart, was found ineligible, and the President had to look for a replacement. Republicans on Capitol Hill, feeling that the cabinet as a whole was weak in members combining Washington experience with solid party credentials, joined to urge him to accept Boutwell, and, tendered the Treasury portfolio, Boutwell accepted. (His selection caused some embarrassment to Grant's Attorney General, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, who was himself from Massachusetts: by custom, no state was allowed more than one Cabinet seat, and Hoar offered to retire. Grant refused the offer, but a year later, without warning or explanation, sent a messenger demanding his resignation). The business community hailed Boutwell's selection. The news of his appointment created an immediate jump in government bonds on the money markets. "Nor is this to be wondered at," the Commercial and Financial Chronicle commented, "for Mr. Boutwell is well known as an earnest advocate of conservative financial reform. That he is an able administrative officer he gave conspicuous proofs when in 1862 he was entrusted with the organization of the new Internal Revenue Bureau." Boutwell, at that time popular for his two impeachment attempts of President Johnson, was easily confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. Secretary Boutwell often acted independently of President Grant and took on a haughty attitude toward other Cabinet members. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish noted that Boutwell was frequently evasive, noncommittal, and gave "no reasons, and rarely indicates or explains anything of his policy.
Early Life
George S. Boutwell was born on January 28, 1818, in Brookline, Massachusetts. According to his autobiographical memoir, Boutwell was raised on his family's farm in Lunenburg and attended public schools until the age of seventeen. During the summer months he worked barefooted, tending oxen and picking chestnuts. Boutwell was educated in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and Latin grammar. From 1830 to 1835, Boutwell worked as an apprentice and clerk for Simeon Heywood, who owned a palm leaf hat store. While completing his education, Boutwell worked briefly as a teacher in Pound Hill. Boutwell finished his primary school education in February 1835.
From 1835 to 1838, Boutwell worked as a clerk and shopkeeper in Groton, Massachusetts. In 1836, he began to study law under attorney Bradford Russell, whose office was above the store where he clerked. Boutwell did not take the bar exam or enter into active practice until many years later. In 1838, the shop owner offered Boutwell a partnership in the shop. While Boutwell ran the store, he began a personal regimen of reading and writing in an effort to make up for having chosen not to attend college.
Boutwell made his public career debut in 1839, when he served as a pension agent for widows of the American Revolutionary War, which had ended in 1783. He traveled to Washington D.C. and was impressed after seeing Daniel Webster. After talking with a black slave woman whose youngest child had been sold to Louisiana, Boutwell became dedicated to the anti-slavery cause.
Boutwell married Sarah Adelia Thayer on July 8, 1841. Sarah was the daughter of Nathan Thayer from Hollis, New Hampshire. Their marriage produced two children: Georgianna (May 18, 1843) and Francis (February 26, 1847).
Career
- United States - Former Secretary of the Treasury
