This work has ever been accepted as authority, and still forms the
basis of the government of the internal revenue system.
Before Mr. Boutwell was admitted to the bar he was retained by the
county commissioners of Middlesex County to appear before a
legislative committee of the years 1854 and 1855 against the division
of that county and the erection of a new county to be called the county
of Webster with Fitchburg for the shire. Emory Washburn appeared for
Worcester County and Rufus Choate for Fitchburg and the new county.
The application failed in 1855 and again in 1856. Mr. Boutwell's
arguments on this petition, made March 25, 1855, and April 23, 1856,
were remarkable for power and eloquence, and largely influenced the
final result.
From 1862 to 1869 he was retained in many causes, the most important
of which was the controversy over the contract between the commonwealth
and Gen. Herman Haupt for the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel. The
hearing before a legislative committee occupied about twenty days and
ended in the annulment of the contract. For several years Mr. Boutwell
was associated in Boston with J. Q. A. Griffin. Afterward he was in
partnership with Henry F. French until 1869, when he became Secretary
of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Grant. He filled this
position with great ability for four years, originating and
promulgating, among other measures, the plan of refunding the public
debt.
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