Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1

G >> George Boutwell >> Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1

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[Transcriber's notes:
Footnotes are at the end of the chapter.
The author's spelling of names has been retained.
A few commas have been deleted or moved for clarity.]

REMINISCENCES
OF
SIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
VOLUME I

[Frontispiece: v1.jpg]
From a photograph by Purdy, of Boston. Copyright, 1896.
[signature] Geo: S. Boutwell

Reminiscences of
Sixty Years
in Public Affairs
by George S. Boutwell
Governor of Massachusetts, 1851-1852
Representative in Congress, 1863-1869
Secretary of the Treasury, 1869-1873
Senator from Massachusetts, 1873-1877
etc., etc.

Volume One

New York
McClure, Phillips & Co.
Mcmii

_Copyright, 1902, by_
McClure, Phillips & Co.

_Published May, 1902. N._

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
PRELIMINARY NOTE
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

I Incidents of my Early Life
II Life as a Store-boy and Clerk
III Changes and Progress
IV Schools and School-keeping
V Groton in 1835
VI Groton in 1835--Continued
VII Beginnings in Business
VIII First Experience in Politics
IX The Election of 1840
X Massachusetts Men in the Forties
XI The Election of 1842, and the Dorr Rebellion
XII The Legislature of 1847
XIII Legislative Session of 1848--Funeral of John Quincy Adams
XIV The Legislature of 1849
XV Massachusetts Politics and Massachusetts Politicians, 1850-51
and 1852
XVI Acton Monument
XVII Sudbury Monument
XVIII Louis Kossuth
XIX The Coalition and the State Constitutional Convention of 1853
XX The Year 1854
XXI Organization of the Republican Party in Massachusetts in 1855,
and the Events Preceding the War
XXII As Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
XXIII Phi Beta Kappa Address at Cambridge
XXIV The Peace Convention of 1861
XXV The Opening of the War
XXVI The Military Commission of 1862 and General Fremont
XXVII Organization of the Internal Revenue System in the United States

INTRODUCTION

At the request of my daughter and my son and by the advice of my
friends, the Honorable J. C. Bancroft Davis and the Honorable William
A. Richardson, I am venturing upon the task of giving a sketch of my
experiences in life during three fourths of a century. The wisdom of
such an undertaking is not outside the realm of debate. A large part
of my manhood has been spent in the politics of my native state, and
in the politics of the country. For many years I have had the fortune
to be associated with those in whose hands the chief powers were
lodged. I have been a witness of, and in some cases an actor in,
events that have changed the character of the institutions and affected
the fortunes of the country. Those events and their consequences must
in time disturb, if they do not change, the institutions of other
countries.

In the course of this long period I have had opportunities to know
some of the principal actors in those important events. In a few
cases I am in possession of knowledge not now in the possession of any
other person living. These considerations may in some degree justify
my undertaking.

On the other hand I have not kept a record of events, and I have had
occasion often, especially in the practice of my profession, to notice
the imperfections of the human memory. Much that I shall write must
depend upon the fidelity of that faculty, although in some cases my
recollections may be verified or corrected by the public records.

The recollections of actors, when those recollections are reported in
good faith, constitute quite as safe a basis for an historical
judgment as do the diaries in which are noted present impressions.
Usually the writer of a diary has only an imperfect knowledge of the
subject to which the entries relate. If he is himself an actor in
passing events he makes and leaves a record colored and perhaps tainted
by the personal and political passions of the times. The teachings of
experience and that more moderate view of events, which we sometimes
call philosophy and sometimes the wisdom of age, may warrant the
student and the historian in giving credence to mere recollections.

The writer of a diary takes little note of the importance of the events
to which the entries relate. Persons and events become important or
cease to be important by the progress of time, but the life of an
individual is an adequate period usually for the formation of a
judgment. I cannot assume that it will be my fortune to make a wise
selection in all cases. Important events may be omitted, insignificant
circumstances may be recorded.

I assume that my family and friends will take an interest in matters
that are purely personal: therefore I shall record many incidents and
events that do not concern the public.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

_PRELIMINARY NOTE

In the presence of some misgivings as to the propriety of my course, I
have decided to print the article on my Life as a Lawyer, as it appears
in the "Memoirs of the Judiciary and the Bar of New England" (for
January, 1901), published by the Century Memorial Publishing Company,
Boston, Mass.

Many of the facts were furnished by me. The article was written by W.
Stanley Child, Esq., but it was not seen by me, nor was its existence
known to me until it appeared in the published work. The paper in
manuscript and in proof was read and passed by the editors, Messrs.
Conrad Keno and Leonard A. Jones, Esquires. The words of commendation
are not mine, and it is manifest that any change made by me would place
the responsibility upon me for what might remain. Hence I reprint the
paper with only two or three changes where I have observed errors in
statements of facts._

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH [*]

George Sewall Boutwell, LL. D., Boston and Groton, the first
commissioner of internal revenue, secretary of the treasury under
President Grant, and for many years one of the leading international
lawyers, is the son of Sewall and Rebecca (Marshall) Boutwell, and was
born in Brookline, Mass., in what is now the old part of the Country
Club house, January 28, 1818. He comes from old and respected
Massachusetts stock, being a lineal descendant of James Boutwell, who
was admitted a freeman in Lynn in 1638, and of John Marshall, who
came to Boston in the shop _Hopewell_ in 1634. The family has always
represented the sterling qualities of typical New Englanders.
Tradition asserts that one of his paternal ancestors received a grant
of land for services in King Philip's War. His maternal grandfather,
Jacob Marshall, was the inventor of the cotton press, an invention
originally made, however, for pressing hops. His father, Sewall
Boutwell, removed with his family in 1820 from Brookline to Lunenburg,
Mass., where he held several town offices; he was a member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1843 and 1844 and of the
Constitutional Convention of 1853.

Mr. Boutwell attended in his early years a public school in Lunenburg,
where he became a clerk in a general store at the age of thirteen, thus
gaining a practical as well as a theoretical knowledge of affairs.
Later he supplemented this experience by teaching school at Shirley.
He also studied the classics, and in various ways improved every
opportunity for advancement which limited circumstances afforded. In
1835 he went to Groton, Mass., as clerk in a store. But to be a
lawyer was his dream before he had ever seen a lawyer. Endowed with
unusual intellectual ability, which has been one of his chief
characteristics from boyhood, he felt himself instinctively drawn to
the legal profession, and as early as possible entered his name as
a student at law.

In 1839 he was chosen a member of the Groton School Committee, and
in 1840 he was an active Democrat, advocating the re-election of
Martin Van Buren to the Presidency. In the meantime he delivered a
number of important lectures and political speeches, his first lecture
being given before the Groton Lyceum when he was nineteen, and he was
now rapidly gaining a reputation in public affairs, in which he early
took a deep interest. In January, 1842, he became a member of the
lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature from Groton, and for ten
years thereafter his law studies were neglected. He served during the
sessions of 1842, 1843, 1844, 1847, 1848, 1849 and 1850, and was also
at different times a railroad commissioner, a bank commissioner, and a
member of various other commissions of the commonwealth.

As a member of the House he made many important arguments that were
legal in name if not in fact. One related to the Act of the
Legislature of 1843, by which the salaries of the judges were reduced,
and another upon a bill for the amendment of the charter of Harvard
College. On the latter question, which was in controversy for three
years, his opponents were Judge Benjamin R. Curtis and Hon. Samuel
Hoar.

Mr. Boutwell originated the movement for a change in the college
government, which was effected by a compromise in 1851. Chief Justice
Lemuel Shaw, a member of the corporation, wrote an answer to his
argument. This led to Mr. Boutwell's appointment in 1851 as a member
of the Harvard College Board of Overseers, which position he filled
until 1860. In January, 1851, he became Governor of Massachusetts by
a fusion of the Democratic and Free-soil members of the Legislature,
and in 1852 was re-elected by the same body. He served in that
capacity until January, 1853, a period of two years, and discharged
the duties of the office with ability, dignity, and honor. As a
member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853, Mr.
Boutwell had further and better opportunities to make the acquaintance
and to observe the ways of the leading lawyers of the State.

At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1853, Governor
Boutwell entered the law office of Joel Giles, who was engaged in
practice under the patent laws, and who as a mechanic and lawyer was
a well-equipped practitioner in Boston. As a counselor in patent cases
Mr. Giles had few equals. It was then Mr. Boutwell's purpose to pursue
the study and engage in the practice of the patent laws as a specialty,
but in October, 1855, without any solicitation and indeed without the
slightest knowledge on his part, he was chosen secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of Education, of which he had been a member from
1853. With much uncertainty as to the wisdom of his action in
accepting the place, he entered upon his duties and faithfully and
efficiently discharged them until January 1, 1861, although he had
tendered his resignation in 1859. His annual reports have always been
regarded as models of preparation, and that of 1861--the twenty-fourth
--contains a notable commentary on the school laws of the commonwealth.
He continued as a member of the board until 1863.

After several years Mr. Boutwell severed his relations with Mr. Giles,
and upon his admission to the Suffolk bar in January, 1862, on motion
of the late Judge Josiah Gardner Abbott, he began active practice in
Boston. His first jury case was before the late Judge Charles Allen,
of Worcester, yet at that time he had never seen a jury trial from the
opening to the close. Mr. Boutwell had scarcely entered upon his
professional career when he was called to assume a most important place
in national affairs, and one that was destined to keep him in close
relations with the Federal Government at Washington for many years
afterward.

Among the historical events, originating in the Civil War, was the
passage of the act "to provide internal revenue to support the
government and to pay interest on the public debt," approved July 1,
1862. Mr. Boutwell organized the Office of Internal Revenue and was
the first internal revenue commissioner, receiving his appointment
while at Cairo in the service of the War Department. He arrived in
Washington July 16, and entered upon his duties the following day.
Within a few days the Secretary of the Treasury assigned him a single
clerk, then a second, and afterward a third, and the clerical force was
increased from time to time until at his resignation of the office of
commissioner on March 3, 1863, it numbered 140 persons. To him is due
its organization upon a basis which has more than fulfilled the most
cherished hopes and expectations of those who conceived the idea and
which has furnished from the first a valuable source of revenue for
the government with little hardship or unnecessary friction among the
people at large. The stamp tax took effect nominally on the 1st of
October, 1862, less than two and one-half months after Mr. Boutwell
entered upon his duties as commissioner, yet before he resigned, five
months later, he had the office so well established, and its work so
thoroughly organized throughout the United States, that its usefulness
was assured and it has continued to the present time practically the
same lines that he laid down. In July, 1863, three months after he
retired from the office, he published a volume of 500 pages, entitled
"A Manual of the Direct and Excise Tax System of the United States,"
which included the act itself, the forms and regulations established
by him, his decisions and rulings, extracts from the correspondence of
the office, and much other valuable information bearing on the subject.
This work has ever been accepted as authority, and still forms the
basis of the government of the internal revenue system.

Before Mr. Boutwell was admitted to the bar he was retained by the
county commissioners of Middlesex County to appear before a
legislative committee of the years 1854 and 1855 against the division
of that county and the erection of a new county to be called the county
of Webster with Fitchburg for the shire. Emory Washburn appeared for
Worcester County and Rufus Choate for Fitchburg and the new county.
The application failed in 1855 and again in 1856. Mr. Boutwell's
arguments on this petition, made March 25, 1855, and April 23, 1856,
were remarkable for power and eloquence, and largely influenced the
final result.

From 1862 to 1869 he was retained in many causes, the most important
of which was the controversy over the contract between the commonwealth
and Gen. Herman Haupt for the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel. The
hearing before a legislative committee occupied about twenty days and
ended in the annulment of the contract. For several years Mr. Boutwell
was associated in Boston with J. Q. A. Griffin. Afterward he was in
partnership with Henry F. French until 1869, when he became Secretary
of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Grant. He filled this
position with great ability for four years, originating and
promulgating, among other measures, the plan of refunding the public
debt. During that period he made but one argument, when he appeared
in the Supreme Court on the appeal by his client of a patent case, of
which he had had charge from the beginning. From 1863 to 1869 he had
been a member of the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Congresses, serving on
the committees on the judiciary and on reconstruction, and being
chairman for a time of the latter body. While representing his
district in Congress Mr. Boutwell gained considerable experience in
the proceedings against President Andrew Johnson, who was impeached for
high crimes and misdemeanors, and he was selected as one of the
managers on the part of the House. In a remarkably brilliant speech
before the House on December 5 and 6, 1867, he maintained the doctrine
that the president and all other civil officers could be impeached for
acts that were not indictable, although the contrary was held by many
eminent lawyers, including President Dwight, of Columbia College, who
wrote a treatise in support of his theory. But the House preferred
articles that did not allege an indictable offence and the Senate
sustained them by a vote of thirty-five to eighteen, one less than the
number necessary for conviction. On April 22 and 23, 1868, Mr.
Boutwell, on behalf of the managers, addressed the Senate, delivering
one of the strongest and ablest arguments on record, and thus
completing, as a lawyer, the most exhaustive labor he ever attempted.
He was a member of the Committee of Fifteen which reported the
Fourteenth Amendment, and while serving on the committee on the
judiciary he reported and carried through the House the Fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

In 1873 Mr. Boutwell was chosen United States Senator from
Massachusetts to fill the unexpired term of Hon. Henry Wilson, who had
been elected Vice-President. He continued in the Senate until 1877,
when he was appointed by President Hayes, through Gen. Charles Devens,
then Attorney-General, commissioner to revise the statutes of the
United States. That great work was completed and the volume was
published in the autumn of 1878. Some idea of the labor involved in
this undertaking may be gained from the index, which contains over
25,000 references. In 1878 Mr. Boutwell returned to Boston and resumed
the practice of law. In 1880 William M. Evarts, then Secretary of
State, and President Hayes, asked him to accept the position of counsel
and agent for the United States before a Board of International
Arbitrators created by a treaty ratified in June, 1880, between the
United States and France, for the settlement of claims against each
government by citizens of the other government. The claims of French
citizens, 726 in number, arose from the operations of the Union armies
in the South, principally in and around New Orleans, during the Civil
War, and the consideration of them occupied four years. The counsel
and the commissioners were called to the discussion of treaties, of
international law, of citizenship, of the Legislation of France, of the
rights of war, and of the conduct of military officers and military
tribunals. The claims amounted to $35,000,000, including interest; the
recoveries amount to about $625,000; the defence cost the Government
about $500,000; the record is contained in ninety printed volumes of
about one thousand pages each and the pleas and arguments of counsel
for the two governments fill eight large volumes. Mr. Boutwell's own
arguments cover more than 1,100 pages. Many of these cases rank as
_causes celebre,_ notably those of Archbishop Joseph Napoleon Perche,
No. 3; Henri Dubos, No. 26; Joseph Bauillotte, No. 130; Bleze Motte,
No. 131; Theodore Valade, No. 214; Pierre S. Wiltz, No. 313; Remy
Jardel, No. 333; Etienne Derbee, No. 339; Arthur Vallon, No. 394;
David Kuhnagel, No. 438; Dr. Denis Meng, No. 567; Azoline Gautherin,
No. 590; Oscar Chopin, No. 592; S. Aruns Sorrel, No. 594, in which he
probably made the best argument of his career; Jules Le More, No. 595;
Athenais C. Le More, No. 598; Mary Ann Texier, No. 569; and Charles
Heidsieck, No. 691. That of Theodore Valade, No. 214, was a full
account of the battle of Donaldsonville, and those of Archbishop
Perche, David Kuhnagel, and many other involved intricate and
interesting questions of citizenship as well as damages for the
destruction of property. On May 10, 1884, Mr. Boutwell made an
exhaustive and final report on all these claims to the Secretary of
State, Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen.

Mr. Boutwell was one of the counsel for the government of Hayti in the
celebrated case of Antonio Pelletier against that republic in 1885, and
made a most interesting oral argument. This case was a romance of the
sea as well as of international importance, involving a claim of
$2,500,000 and questions of piracy and slave trading. In 1893-94 Mr.
Boutwell was retained as counsel on the part of Chili to defend their
government before an international commission created under a treaty
with the United States signed August 7, 1892. About forty cases were
presented, involving $26,300,000, and the final report was submitted
April 30, 1894. Among the more important were those of Gilbert B.
Borden, No. 9, and Frederick H. Lovett et al., No. 43, against the
Republic of Chili. These as well as nearly all the others were argued
by him with a brilliancy and eloquence that has marked his entire
career at the bar. Of the five courts martial that were held in
Washington between 1880 and 1892 for the trial of officers of the army
and navy Mr. Boutwell was retained for the defence in four cases, in
three of which the accused were convicted and in the other honorably
acquitted. In 1886 he was retained by the Mormon Church to appear
before the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives against
the Edmunds bill, which was modified in particulars pointed out in the
discussion. The same year he appeared before the House committee on
foreign affairs for the government of Hawaii in opposition to the
project for abrogating the treaty of 1875.

Mr. Boutwell's pleas and arguments have with few exceptions been
published in book or pamphlet form, or both, and form of themselves a
most valuable and interesting addition to legal literature. They bear
evidence of a profound knowledge of the law, of vast research and of
great literary ability. Among others may be mentioned those upon a
petition to the Massachusetts Legislature for the removal of Joseph M.
Day as judge of probate and insolvency for Barnstable County in March,
1881; in the matter of the Pacific National Bank of Boston before the
banking and currency committee of the United State House of
Representatives, March 22, 1884; and for the claimant in the case of
the Berdan Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company of New York vs. the United
States. He is the author of "Educational Topics and Institutions,"
1859; "Speeches Relating to the Rebellion and the Overthrow of
Slavery," collected and published in 1867; "Why I am a Republican," a
history of the Republican Party to 1884, republished in 1888; "The
Lawyer, Statesman and Soldier," 1887; and the "Constitution of the
United States," embracing the substance of the leading decisions of the
Supreme Court in which the several articles, sections and clauses have
been examined, explained and interpreted, 1896. In 1888 he wrote a
pamphlet on "Protection as a Public Policy," for the American
Protective Tariff League; on April 2, 1889, he read a paper on "The
Progress of American Independence," before the New York Historical
Society; and in February, 1896, he published a pamphlet on "The
Venezuelan Question and the Monroe Doctrine."

Mr. Boutwell has probably argued more cases involving international law
than any other living man, and in this department ranks among the
ablest and strongest that this country has ever produced. For more
than forty years he was a prominent figure before the bar of the United
States Courts at Washington, where he achieved eminence as an advocate
of the highest ability. He was uniformly successful, and won a
reputation which was not confined to this country. He is an authority
on international and constitutional law. His published writings stamp
him as a profound student of public questions and a man of rare
literary culture and genius. He was a strong Abolitionist, and as
lawyer, statesman and citizen he has faithfully and efficiently
performed his duties and won the confidence of both friends and
opponents. In politics he has been a leader of the Republican Party
since its organization. He was a delegate to the Chicago Conventions
of 1860 and 1880, and was chosen a delegate to the Baltimore
Convention of 1864, but declined. He was elected a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1857 and of the Phi Beta Kappa
Society of Harvard College in June, 1861, at which time he delivered
the Phi Beta Kappa oration. In 1851 Harvard conferred upon him the
honorary degree of LL. D., and in 1861 he was a member of the Peace
Congress at Washington.

Mr. Boutwell was married July 8, 1841, to Sarah Adelia, daughter of
Nathan Thayer of Hollis, N. H.. Their children are Georgianna A., born
May 18, 1843, and Francis M., born February 26, 1847. Mr. Boutwell
resides in Groton, Mass.

_The eighth day of July, 1891, Mr. Boutwell's family and friends
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage with Sarah Adelia
Thayer, daughter of Nathan and Hannah Jewett Thayer, of Hollis, N. H.;
and on the eighth day of July, 1901, the family observed the sixtieth
anniversary, but without ceremony, as Mrs. Boutwell was much impaired
in health._

[* Copyright, 1900, by the Mason Publishing and Printing Co.]

REMINISCENCES
OF
SIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS
VOLUME I

I
INCIDENTS OF MY EARLY LIFE

My birthplace was at Brookline, Mass., near Boston, upon a farm in my
father's charge, and then owned by a Dr. Spooner of Boston. The place
has had many owners and it has been used for various purposes. In 1851
and 1852 it was owned by a Dr. Trowbridge, who had a fancy for fine
horses. Upon my election to the office of Governor, and when he had
learned that I was born upon his place, he insisted that I should use a
large black stallion in the review of the troops at the annual parade.
The animal was of fine figure but not so subdued as to be manageable.
In one of those years General Wool came to Boston, upon an invitation
to review the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company on Boston Common.
I assigned the Trowbridge horse to General Wool. The General rode him
for a minute or two, when he left the saddle and the reviewing officers
went through the ceremony on foot. Since those days the Spooner place
has been converted into a trotting course known as Clyde Park, and the
house is now used as a clubhouse by an association known as the Country
Club.

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