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.] REMINISCENCES OF SIXTY YEARS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS VOLUME I [Frontispiece: v1.jpg] From a photograph by Purdy, of Boston. Copyright, 1896. [signature] Geo: S. Boutwell Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs by George S. Boutwell Governor of Massachusetts, 1851-1852 Representative in Congress, 1863-1869 Secretary of the Treasury, 1869-1873 Senator from Massachusetts, 1873-1877 etc., etc. Volume One New York McClure, Phillips & Co. Mcmii _Copyright, 1902, by_ McClure, Phillips & Co. _Published May, 1902. N._ CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PRELIMINARY NOTE BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 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 INTRODUCTION At the request of my daughter and my son and by the advice of my friends, the Honorable J. C. Bancroft Davis and the Honorable William A. Richardson, I am venturing upon the task of giving a sketch of my experiences in life during three fourths of a century. The wisdom of such an undertaking is not outside the realm of debate. A large part of my manhood has been spent in the politics of my native state, and in the politics of the country. For many years I have had the fortune to be associated with those in whose hands the chief powers were lodged. I have been a witness of, and in some cases an actor in, events that have changed the character of the institutions and affected the fortunes of the country. Those events and their consequences must in time disturb, if they do not change, the institutions of other countries.