Page "George S. Boutwell" Paragraph 1

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 a 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.

Having left the Democratic Party, Boutwell became a founder of the Republican Party in 1854, formed to end the spread of slavery, and advocated the party's radical practical elements.

In 1862, Boutwell passed the bar and began to practice law.

First elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1863 during the American Civil War, Boutwell became prominent nationally as a Radical Republican.

During Reconstruction, Rep. Boutwell served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction that framed the Fourteenth Amendment that gave African American freedmen citizenship and established the inviolability of the United States Public Debt.

Boutwell advocated the Fifteenth Amendment that gave full suffrage rights to African Americans.