page_title: George S. Boutwell
section_title: U.S. Congressman
hierarchical_section_title: George S. Boutwell / U.S. Congressman
caption_attribution_description: English: From a photograph by Brady in the United States Signal Corps, War Department, Washington. Left to right, Seated: Benjamin F. Butler, Thaddeus Stevens, Thomas Williams, John A. Bingham. Standing: James F. Wilson, George S. Boutwell, John A. Logan.
context_page_description: 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 U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was a leader in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson.
  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.
context_section_description: Boutwell came to the House of Representatives already celebrated for his financial expertise, and quickly gained a national reputation as a Radical Republican.  A reporter noted that with his first day of service on a committee, he became recognized as one of the most promising freshmen. "A practical matter-of-fact man," the journalist wrote. "A dark skinned man, dark-eyed, dark-haired, thin in the flank, vigilant, self-contained, quiet; giving you the impression that he would wake up quick and in strength.  A speech from him is premeditated logic of inwoven facts and figures, delivered in a magnetic current which flows to the nerves of every man in his audience, however great he may be, and which penetrates through and through. It is impossible to escape impression from Boutwell's debate.  As an adversary he would be fatal to a bad cause, formidable to a good one -- as an ally he is a tower of strength."
caption: The Johnson Impeachment Committee, c. 1868 (photo by Mathew Brady
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