Within a few days the Secretary of the Treasury assigned him a single
clerk, then a second, and afterward a third, and the clerical force was
increased from time to time until at his resignation of the office of
commissioner on March 3, 1863, it numbered 140 persons. To him is due
its organization upon a basis which has more than fulfilled the most
cherished hopes and expectations of those who conceived the idea and
which has furnished from the first a valuable source of revenue for
the government with little hardship or unnecessary friction among the
people at large. The stamp tax took effect nominally on the 1st of
October, 1862, less than two and one-half months after Mr. Boutwell
entered upon his duties as commissioner, yet before he resigned, five
months later, he had the office so well established, and its work so
thoroughly organized throughout the United States, that its usefulness
was assured and it has continued to the present time practically the
same lines that he laid down. In July, 1863, three months after he
retired from the office, he published a volume of 500 pages, entitled
"A Manual of the Direct and Excise Tax System of the United States,"
which included the act itself, the forms and regulations established
by him, his decisions and rulings, extracts from the correspondence of
the office, and much other valuable information bearing on the subject.
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