Produced by An Anonymous volunteer
[Transcriber's notes:
Footnotes are at the end of the chapter.
The author's spelling of names has been retained.
A few commas have been deleted or moved for clarity.]
[Frontispiece: v1.jpg]From a photograph by Purdy, of Boston. Copyright, 1896.[signature] Geo: S. Boutwell
Reminiscences ofSixty Yearsin Public Affairsby George S. BoutwellGovernor of Massachusetts, 1851-1852Representative in Congress, 1863-1869Secretary of the Treasury, 1869-1873Senator from Massachusetts, 1873-1877etc., etc.
New York
McClure, Phillips & Co.
Mcmii
Copyright, 1902, byMcClure, Phillips & Co.
Published May, 1902. N.
I Incidents of my Early Life
II Life as a Store-boy and Clerk
III Changes and Progress
IV Schools and School-keeping
V Groton in 1835
VI Groton in 1835—Continued
VII Beginnings in Business
VIII First Experience in Politics
IX The Election of 1840
X Massachusetts Men in the Forties
XI The Election of 1842, and the Dorr Rebellion
XII The Legislature of 1847
XIII Legislative Session of 1848—Funeral of John Quincy Adams
XIV The Legislature of 1849
XV Massachusetts Politics and Massachusetts Politicians, 1850-51
and 1852
XVI Acton Monument
XVII Sudbury Monument
XVIII Louis Kossuth
XIX The Coalition and the State Constitutional Convention of 1853
XX The Year 1854
XXI Organization of the Republican Party in Massachusetts in 1855,
and the Events Preceding the War
XXII As Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
XXIII Phi Beta Kappa Address at Cambridge
XXIV The Peace Convention of 1861
XXV The Opening of the War
XXVI The Military Commission of 1862 and General Fremont
XXVII Organization of the Internal Revenue System in the United States
At the request of my daughter and my son and by the advice of myfriends, the Honorable J. C. Bancroft Davis and the Honorable WilliamA. Richardson, I am venturing upon the task of giving a sketch of myexperiences in life during three fourths of a century. The wisdom ofsuch an undertaking is not outside the realm of debate. A large partof my manhood has been spent in the politics of my native state, andin the politics of the country. For many years I have had the fortuneto be associated with those in whose hands the chief powers werelodged. I have been a witness of, and in some cases an actor in,events that have changed the character of the institutions and affectedthe fortunes of the country. Those events and their consequences mustin time disturb, if they do not change, the institutions of othercountries.
In the course of this long period I have had opportunities to knowsome of the principal actors in those important events. In a fewcases I am in possession of knowledge not now in the possession of anyother person living. These considerations may in some degree justifymy undertaking.
On the other hand I have not kept a record of events, and I have hadoccasion often, especially in the practice of my profession, to noticethe imperfections of the human memory. Much that I shall write must