page_title: George S. Boutwell
section_title: U.S. Secretary of Treasury
hierarchical_section_title: George S. Boutwell / U.S. Secretary of Treasury
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraved BEP portrait of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury George S. Boutwell
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 was given serious consideration for a place in the cabinet of President-elect Ulysses S. Grant, and is reported to have declined the Interior Department. Within a week of the inauguration in 1869, Grant's first choice for the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander T. Stewart, was found ineligible, and the President had to look for a replacement. Republicans on Capitol Hill, feeling that the cabinet as a whole was weak in members combining Washington experience with solid party credentials, joined to urge him to accept Boutwell, and, tendered the Treasury portfolio, Boutwell accepted. (His selection caused some embarrassment to Grant's Attorney General, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, who was himself from Massachusetts: by custom, no state was allowed more than one Cabinet seat, and Hoar offered to retire. Grant refused the offer, but a year later, without warning or explanation, sent a messenger demanding his resignation). The business community hailed Boutwell's selection. The news of his appointment created an immediate jump in government bonds on the money markets. "Nor is this to be wondered at," the Commercial and Financial Chronicle commented, "for Mr. Boutwell is well known as an earnest advocate of conservative financial reform. That he is an able administrative officer he gave conspicuous proofs when in 1862 he was entrusted with the organization of the new Internal Revenue Bureau." Boutwell, at that time popular for his two impeachment attempts of President Johnson, was easily confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.  Secretary Boutwell often acted independently of President Grant and took on a haughty attitude toward other Cabinet members.  Secretary of State Hamilton Fish noted that Boutwell was frequently evasive, noncommittal, and gave "no reasons, and rarely indicates or explains anything of his policy."
caption: Bureau of Engraving and Printing portrait of Boutwell as Secretary of the Treasury.
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