George Boutwell During the Civil War: Lincoln’s Revenue Commissioner and Emancipation Ally
Who was George Boutwell, and what was his importance to the Union’s success in the Civil War? In his presentation, Jeffrey Boutwell will answer these questions and more, focusing on George’s wartime role, first as part of the Virginia Peace Convention in Washington in February 1861, then as Lincoln’s Revenue Commissioner, raising needed funds for the Union Army and urging Lincoln to move ahead with the Emancipation Proclamation. By 1865, when Lincoln was assassinated, George had become a leader of the Radical Republicans in the House of Representatives and would soon be appointed to the all-important Joint Committee on Reconstruction, which would frame the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

JEFFREY BOUTWELL, PH.D.
Jeffrey Boutwell is a writer, historian, and public policy specialist whose forty-year career has spanned journalism, government, and international scientific research and cooperation. He has written widely on issues relating to nuclear arms control, European politics, and Middle East security. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from MIT and a B.A. in history from Yale University, and worked for many years at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass. Jeffrey grew up in Concord, Mass., and now lives in Columbia, Maryland. He and George Boutwell share a common ancestor, the indentured servant James Boutwell, who emigrated from England to Salem, Mass., in 1632.