George S. Boutwell - Later Career

Later Career

After leaving the Senate, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed him commissioner to codify and edit the Revised Statutes of the United States in 1877 and was the United States counsel before the French and American Claims Commission in 1880.

Boutwell practiced international and patent law in Boston and Washington, D.C. and turned down the appointment of Secretary of the Treasury from President Chester A. Arthur in 1884.

He opposed the acquisition by the United States of the Philippines, became president of the American Anti-Imperialist League, and was a presidential elector on the William Jennings Bryan ticket in 1900.

He published several books on education, taxation and political economy. His book The Constitution of the United States at the End of the First Century was considered particularly significant.