Likely you know that Groton‘s George Boutwell was the twentieth Governor of Massachusetts. But did you know that while serving as Abraham Lincoln’s Commissioner of Internal Revenue, he was also the president’s close political ally and confidante?  His, the voice that made Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation a reality by stating publicly (after the Battle of Antietam in 1862) what the president for political reasons couldn’t yet say: that the Civil War would not be won until we “take slavery by the throat and destroy it.”

Indeed, as writer, historian, and science policy specialist Jeffrey Boutwell puts it, “For seven decades, George Boutwell sought to “redeem America’s promise” through racial equality, economic equity, and the humane use of American power abroad.”

Join Jeffrey for his talk “George Boutwell and the Emancipation Proclamation: Saying What Lincoln Couldn’t Say” on Sunday, June 19, at 2 pm at the Groton Center, 163 West Main Street, Groton.  This free presentation in celebration of the Juneteenth holiday and the abolition of slavery is made possible by the Commissioners of Trust Funds. All are invited.