In the meantime he delivered a
number of important lectures and political speeches, his first lecture
being given before the Groton Lyceum when he was nineteen, and he was
now rapidly gaining a reputation in public affairs, in which he early
took a deep interest. In January, 1842, he became a member of the
lower House of the Massachusetts Legislature from Groton, and for ten
years thereafter his law studies were neglected. He served during the
sessions of 1842, 1843, 1844, 1847, 1848, 1849 and 1850, and was also
at different times a railroad commissioner, a bank commissioner, and a
member of various other commissions of the commonwealth.
As a member of the House he made many important arguments that were
legal in name if not in fact. One related to the Act of the
Legislature of 1843, by which the salaries of the judges were reduced,
and another upon a bill for the amendment of the charter of Harvard
College. On the latter question, which was in controversy for three
years, his opponents were Judge Benjamin R. Curtis and Hon. Samuel
Hoar.
Mr. Boutwell originated the movement for a change in the college
government, which was effected by a compromise in 1851. Chief Justice
Lemuel Shaw, a member of the corporation, wrote an answer to his
argument. This led to Mr. Boutwell's appointment in 1851 as a member
of the Harvard College Board of Overseers, which position he filled
until 1860.
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