Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs, Vol. 1 | Page 3

compromise in 1851. Chief
Justice Lemuel Shaw, a member of the corporation, wrote an answer to
his argument. This led to Mr. Boutwell's appointment in 1851 as a
member of the Harvard College Board of Overseers, which position he
filled until 1860. In January, 1851, he became Governor of
Massachusetts by a fusion of the Democratic and Free-soil members of
the Legislature, and in 1852 was re-elected by the same body. He
served in that capacity until January, 1853, a period of two years, and
discharged the duties of the office with ability, dignity, and honor. As a
member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853, Mr.
Boutwell had further and better opportunities to make the acquaintance
and to observe the ways of the leading lawyers of the State.
At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1853, Governor
Boutwell entered the law office of Joel Giles, who was engaged in
practice under the patent laws, and who as a mechanic and lawyer was
a well-equipped practitioner in Boston. As a counselor in patent cases
Mr. Giles had few equals. It was then Mr. Boutwell's purpose to pursue
the study and engage in the practice of the patent laws as a specialty,

but in October, 1855, without any solicitation and indeed without the
slightest knowledge on his part, he was chosen secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of Education, of which he had been a member
from 1853. With much uncertainty as to the wisdom of his action in
accepting the place, he entered upon his duties and faithfully and
efficiently discharged them until January 1, 1861, although he had
tendered his resignation in 1859. His annual reports have always been
regarded as models of preparation, and that of 1861--the twenty-fourth
--contains a notable commentary on the school laws of the
commonwealth. He continued as a member of the board until 1863.
After several years Mr. Boutwell severed his relations with Mr. Giles,
and upon his admission to the Suffolk bar in January, 1862, on motion
of the late Judge Josiah Gardner Abbott, he began active practice in
Boston. His first jury case was before the late Judge Charles Allen, of
Worcester, yet at that time he had never seen a jury trial from the
opening to the close. Mr. Boutwell had scarcely entered upon his
professional career when he was called to assume a most important
place in national affairs, and one that was destined to keep him in close
relations with the Federal Government at Washington for many years
afterward.
Among the historical events, originating in the Civil War, was the
passage of the act "to provide internal revenue to support the
government and to pay interest on the public debt," approved July 1,
1862. Mr. Boutwell organized the Office of Internal Revenue and was
the first internal revenue commissioner, receiving his appointment
while at Cairo in the service of the War Department. He arrived in
Washington July 16, and entered upon his duties the following day.
Within a few days the Secretary of the Treasury assigned him a single
clerk, then a second, and afterward a third, and the clerical force was
increased from time to time until at his resignation of the office of
commissioner on March 3, 1863, it numbered 140 persons. To him is
due its organization upon a basis which has more than fulfilled the most
cherished hopes and expectations of those who conceived the idea and
which has furnished from the first a valuable source of revenue for the
government with little hardship or unnecessary friction among the

people at large. The stamp tax took effect nominally on the 1st of
October, 1862, less than two and one-half months after Mr. Boutwell
entered upon his duties as commissioner, yet before he resigned, five
months later, he had the office so well established, and its work so
thoroughly organized throughout the United States, that its usefulness
was assured and it has continued to the present time practically the
same lines that he laid down. In July, 1863, three months after he
retired from the office, he published a volume of 500 pages, entitled "A
Manual of the Direct and Excise Tax System of the United States,"
which included the act itself, the forms and regulations established by
him, his decisions and rulings, extracts from the correspondence of the
office, and much other valuable information bearing on the subject.
This work has ever been accepted as authority, and still forms the basis
of the government of the internal revenue system.
Before Mr. Boutwell was admitted to the bar he was retained by the
county commissioners of Middlesex County to appear before a
legislative committee of the years 1854 and 1855 against the division
of that county and the erection of a new county to be called the