Speeches And Papers Relating To The Rebellion And The Overthrow Of Slavery

George Sewall Boutwell was an American statesman who served as Secretary of the Treasury under 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. 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. Boutwell, as U.S. Representative, was instrumental in the passage and construction of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Raised modestly on his father's farms in Massachusetts, Boutwell attended public school until the age of seventeen. After working jobs as a clerk in various shops and trading stores, Boutwell entered politics as a Democrat, served as Representative in Massachusetts state legislature, and eventually was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 1851. Boutwell managed a powerful coalition of Democrats and Free Soilers, headed by Charles Sumner, that were able to defeat the established Whig party.
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