The New International Encyclopædia/Boutwell, George Sewall

BOUT′WELL, George Sewall (1818-1905). An American politician and Cabinet officer. He was born in Brookline, Mass., was admitted to the bar in 1836, and between 1842 and 1851 was seven times chosen to the Massachusetts Legislature. Thenceforth he was a leader of the Democratic Party in his State, was chosen Governor in 1851, and was reëlected the next year. On the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, he left the Democratic and assisted in the organization of the Republican Party. In 1862, as commissioner, he organized the new Department of Internal Revenue; in 1863 was elected to Congress, and was twice rechosen. In 1868 he was one of the managers of the impeachment of President Johnson, from 1869 to 1873 was Secretary of the Treasury, and in the latter year was elected United States Senator. In the financial business of the Government, as both a legislator and an executive officer, he had a large share of influence and responsibility. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes to prepare a codification of the statutes-at-large. He was an overseer of Harvard and secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, in which capacity he prepared many valuable reports. He wrote Educational Topics and Institutions (1859); Manual of the United States Direct and Revenue Tax (1863); The Tax-Payer's Manual (1865); Speeches and Papers (1867); The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century (1896); and Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (1902).