The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1, by George Boutwell

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Title: Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1

Author: George Boutwell

Release Date: November 16, 2006 [EBook #19828] [Last updated on May 30, 2007]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REMINISCENCES OF SIXTY YEARS ***

Produced by An Anonymous volunteer

[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