Henry Sherman Boutell

Henry Sherman Boutell
Henry Sherman Boutell ca. 1910
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromIllinois
In office November 23, 1897 – March 3, 1911
Preceded by	Edward D. Cooke
Succeeded by	Lynden Evans
Constituency	6th district(1897–1903) 9th district(1903–11)
Personal details
Born	(1856-03-14)March 14, 1856 Boston,Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	March 11, 1926(1926-03-11)(aged 69) Sanremo,Italy
Political party	Republican

Henry Sherman Boutell(March 14, 1856 – March 11, 1926) was an American lawyer and diplomat. He became a Congressman from Illinois, andEnvoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugalby PresidentWilliam Howard Taft.

Biography

Boutell was born atBoston,Massachusetts, the son of Lewis Henry and Anna (Greene) Boutell. A colonial ancestry entitled him to membership in theSons of the American Revolutionand in theSociety of Colonial Wars.He was also an hereditary member of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

His college education was secured atNorthwestern(A.B. 1874, M.A. 1879) andHarvard(A.B. 1876, A.M. 1877). After studying law in an office, in 1879 he wasadmitted to the barand began practice inChicago.Although both able and prominent as an attorney, representing, for example, theBaltimore and Ohio Railroadin securing a right of way intoChicago,and in the erection of its terminal there, his tastes from the beginning ran to public life, and he was soon both active and useful as a worker in theRepublican Party.

In 1884, he was a member of the lower house of the state legislature, and from 1897 to 1911 a representative of Chicago districts in Congress.There he was a member of the committees on Rules, and on Ways and Means, and was chairman of the Committee on Expenditures of theNavy.He was an effective speaker and of considerable influence, but his tariff views were unacceptable to business interests in Chicago, which forced his retirement. PresidentWilliam Howard Taftthen appointed him to the post ofEnvoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal,on March 2, 1911. He never assumed its duties, and on April 24, 1911, he was given a similar appointment to Switzerland. In this post he served from May 17, 1911, to July 31, 1913.

He did not find the diplomatic service to his liking, and resigned. Before he did so he had declined the chief justiceship of the United States court of claims tendered him by President Taft (January 1913). With this his public career ended, except for service (November 1913) as chairman of a board of arbitration which settled an important dispute between the operatives and officers of theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.From 1914 to 1923, he taught constitutional law and international law inGeorgetown University,inWashington, D.C.

He was short of stature, very erect and dignified of carriage, alert in movement. Distinctly of the scholarly type, he was very widely read, and active, so long as he resided in Chicago, in the Literary Club of that city. His speeches, which reflected his reading, were always graceful and sometimes eloquent. In his political opinions he was fairly liberal, but in the regulation of purely personal affairs and conduct he was notably conservative. He was a rare combination of force and urbanity. Although unfailingly careful to avoid giving offense to anybody with whom he came in contact, invariably gracious, and charming in manner, his opinions were not lacking in definiteness, and he was not in any way colorless. These qualities should have won him great distinction either in law or diplomacy, but in politics they left him merely a staunch and dependable"party"man, whose mental independence and natural talents were hampered by party platforms. He did not win in public life the renown of which his abilities and early professional success gave promise. On December 29, 1880, he was married to Euphemia Lucia Clara Gates ofProvidence, Rhode Island.He died atSanremo, Italy.Several children survived him.

He was the great nephew ofWilliam M. Evarts,great-grandson ofJeremiah Evartsand the great-great-grandson ofRoger Sherman.His father Lewis Henry Boutell (July 21, 1826 – January 16, 1899) wrote the book,The Life of Roger Sherman(Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1896)

References

• "Henry Sherman Boutell".Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies,1928–1936.

Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich: Thomson Gale. 2005.[1]

Further reading

The chronology of Boutell's life is given inWho's Who in America,1908–09; and in theBiographical Congressional Directory1774–1911. See also obituaries, Mar. 13, 1926, in theChicago Daily Tribuneand theWashington Post,as well as the sketch inHarvard College Class of 1876,Tenth Report (1926).

External links

• A Biographical Congressional Directory: With an Outline History of the National Congress, 1774-1911p. 488 (1913) United States Congress
• Chicago Literary Club
• Sherman Genealogy Including Families of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, EnglandBy Thomas Townsend Sherman

United States Congress."BOUTELL, Henry Sherman (id: B000672)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
This article incorporatespublic domain materialfrom theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress