[1857–1887, Small Archive of George S. Boutwell, Abolitionist Sympathizer, Politician; one ALS discussing the 15th Amendment to allow for African American suffrage].

“I cannot but think Mr. Sumner’s course unwise… If [the constitutional amendment] passed we should retain all the power…to secure the rights of negroes”

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Small archive of autograph letters and notes etc. signed by George S. Boutwell (1818–1905), abolitionist sympathizer, Massachusetts politician, and Congressional champion of African-American voting rights.

Boutwell served as governor of Massachusetts and U.S. Senator as well as being the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant.

The most significant letter (and the only unmounted letter in the archive) appears to discuss what would later become the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving suffrage to African-Americans. On March 8, 1866, then-Congressman Boutwell writes to L.E. Stone, Esq. in Boston:

There is no change of affairs here. As far as I can learn the President [Andrew Johnson] is determined to bring all the votes in without delay and without equalizing the basis of representation [...] I cannot but think Mr. [Charles] Sumner’s course unwise and unfortunate in reference to the constitutional amendment. If passed we should retain all the power we now have to secure the rights of negroes, while the amendment presents a strong inducement to the late slave states to do right themselves. If it happens, as it may happen, that the states are restored without suffrage for the colored people, and the basis of representation is unchanged, the result is that two rebel soldiers will have the power of these union men. [emphasis ours] I do not see how Mr. Sumner, as any one else, can defend a course which leaves the north in such a condition. [...] If in all time, or for a long period, the rebels get 30 votes in the House and in the electoral college, by Mr. Sumner’s course, a heavy responsibility is upon him.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing suffrage to black men, was ratified in 1870. Included in the archive is a printed copy of Boutwell’s 1869 speech in the U.S. House of Representatives on the right of Suffrage for African American men.

Boutwell’s other letters concern such topics as his photographic portrait made in Cairo, Illinois; visiting the Bridgwater [Massachusetts] Normal School; and his preference for Joseph Emerson Worcester’s 1860 Dictionary of the English Language over Noah Webster’s dictionary. Additionally, Boutwell appears to be answering biographical queries. Other brief missives discuss, among other topics, when Boutwell left the Internal Revenue office, his portrait, and a query as to how to contact relatives of Horace Mann.

Included among the letters and notes,  is one autograph quotation signed by Congressman Boutwell: “Liberty can never die. The generations of men appear and pop away, but the aspirations of their nature are immortal.”

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