George S. (George Sewall) Boutwell

Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1818, George S. Boutwell built his career step by step rather than through privilege. He worked as a clerk, taught school, studied law, and became active in state politics, eventually serving as governor of Massachusetts in the early 1850s.

During and after the Civil War, Boutwell became a prominent national Republican. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, was one of the House managers in the impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson, and later joined President Ulysses S. Grant's cabinet as secretary of the treasury. He also went on to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Boutwell is remembered as a strong antislavery and reform-minded politician whose public life touched many of the defining issues of his time, including emancipation, Reconstruction, finance, and civil rights. He died in 1905, leaving behind a career that offers a vivid window into American political life in the 1800s.