I doubt that Charles Addison Boutelle
was legally insane, but he was confined to an asylum - and was promptly re-elected to his ninth term as a Republican Congressman. Still, the
voters must have suspected that something was not right with the
contentious old sailor, since his margin of victory was well below
his usual level. But sane or not, his whole life was a testament to
the power of one crazy man in a world run by mostly sane people.
The dictatorial speaker of the House,
Hoosier Joe Cannon opined that Charles Boutelle (above), “Could get into
more controversies in shorter time than any man I ever knew.” And
Boutelle's own daughter, in praising her father, asserted, “He
could always command attention. No one ever dozed or attended to
their correspondence when he was speaking.” Between those two
quotes lies the shadow of a politician whose mouth (and pen) got him
into a lot of trouble. And calling him “The handsomest man in the
Congress”, as he was well known, seems the reverse to describing a
woman as having a good personality. So, I'm pretty sure that Charlie
was indeed a loony politician, the kind who drives friends and
enemies absolutely nuts.
The young Lt. Boutelle had led the
Union naval charge into the Confederate stronghold of Mobile Bay, in
August of 1864. He came home to Bangor an official hero. After the
war, first as editor and then from 1874 co-owner (along with his
brother Edward) of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, Boutelle's
dynamic and hyperbolic editorials made him a Republican power across
New England. And his willingness to directly buy votes (there was no
secret ballot, yet) built the Republican dominance of Maine over the
post war generations.
Boutelle first threw his editorial
support behind the ambitious and avaricious James Blaine (above, in shame), known
accurately as “the continental liar from the state of Maine”. Mr.
Boutelle attended the Republican convention in 1876, and in 1880 he
was the national chairman of the Blaine Clubs. Blaine came within a
handful of votes of being the Republican Presidential nominee both
times. Finally in 1884 Boutelle 's unwavering support paid off. He
was named the state Party Chairman, and heading into the Presidential
campaign that year, the Bangor editor was considered Blaine's “right
hand man...and is even now talked of for a cabinet position”. But
the nation was saved this turn of events when Blaine lost the
election to Grover Cleveland by ½ of 1% of the popular vote
In the meantime, the
“robustly-conservative” Boutelle had decided to run for congress
himself, selling a mix of jingoism and empire building. He lost his
first attempt in September of 1880, by 855 votes. I guess he ran out
of money. But two years later he threw his growing fortune into his
election for Maine's “at-large” seat in Congress, and in
September of 1884 he won Maine's 4th district seat, which
he was to occupy for most of the rest of his life.
Boutelle was a supporter and friend of
the legendary Speaker of the House, “Czar” Thomas Reed (above), also from
Maine. Then in 1890, the New York Times observed election day in
several small Maine towns, and noted that that Reed influenced the
results with cash. “Boodle has elected him, operating directly in
the purchase of votes and indirectly by discouraging the Democrats to
such an extent as to keep hundreds of them away from the polls.”
The story went on to say, “...the richest and most influential man
in Wells, sat in the (city hall) with a pile of (dollar) bills in his
lap and...in the presence of scores of people, exchanged money for
votes for Reed...at least 300 votes (were) purchased in Biddeford”,
a small town near the New Hampshire border, at up to $20 a vote. It
was a smear, of course. No Republican needed to buy an election in Maine.
But by the following Sunday, preachers in pulpits across Maine were
lecturing on the need for a secret ballot, as was used in Australia.
When in 1891 the Maine legislature seriously considered the Australia
ballot, Reed and Boutelle sent a joint letter, warning that such
procedures were too complicated for the average voter. But they were
swimming against the tide. Under the new system, in the September
1894 election, Reed won re-election by 17,383 votes. But by September
of 1898 his margin of victory had slipped to 12, 380. Change was on
the wind
And it shifted most dramatically during
the 1896 presidential campaign, when a surrogate speaker for the
Democrat candidate William Jennings Bryant (above), visited Maine. He was
Alexander Troop, editor of the Democratic leaning New Haven Union
newspaper. Well, Boutelle could not resist throwing some mud at his
New England rival, running an uncredited story that Troop had once
been arrested for indecent exposure. The outraged Troop filed a libel
suite, demanding a retraction. As the trial date approached, friends
convicted the bull headed Boutelle to leave the negotiations to his
friend, Speaker Reed. Finding that Troop would not take a quiet
payoff, Reed wrote out a retraction on the spot. Boutelle responded
by telegraph that he would be “damned” if he would print anything
like that in his paper. Even after Reed explained that without a
retraction, it might not remain his paper for long, Boutelle refused
to budge. The arguments swung back and forth until Reed threatened to
walk away from their friendship. Boutelle ate crow on the front page
of his newspaper. But by then the Democrat had been beaten, and both
Reed and Boutelle were safely re-elected by the usual wide margins.
Then, on the afternoon of Thursday,
December 21, 1899, Charles Boutelle was entertaining in the
electrified Young's Hotel (above), on Court street, in the financial district
of Boston. Charles had used the hotel for years as a lay over
between his homes in Washington and Maine, and a place to make
business and political deals out of the public eye. But this
afternoon, after an otherwise normal morning, Charles collapsed in
the 100 foot long dining room. Rather than taking him upstairs to his
suite, he was carried unconscious into a parlor. Dr. F.W. Johnson, a
well known surgeon, was sent for, but would only tell the press that
Boutelle's condition was “serious, but not necessarily fatal”.
Some considered that report optimistic. In fact Boutelle was
delirious and ranting. Late that night Boutelle's brother Edward
arrived from Bangor, and about midnight told the press Charles was
suffering from “congestion of the brain, brought on by acute
indigestion”, or as his Bangor Whig reported it, “by the strain
and overwork in connection with his official duties”.
The next day Charles was carried via a
private rail car to Bangor, but it was quickly realized that he was
too violent to be treated at home. The 62 year old was transported
back to Boston, and taken to the McLean asylum in Belmont. Seventy
years earlier, it was McLean staff member Mary Sawyer, whose
relationship with a pet had inspired the poem “Mary Had A Little
Lamb”. But it was also the first psychiatric hospital in America
which studied the biological causes of mental illness. Just five
years earlier, under Superintendent Dr. Edward Cowles, the hospital
moved to a new hill top “cottage plan” campus (above), where patents
could be treated in a residential environment. At week's end the New
York Times reported that although “officials are very reticent in
the matter...(Congressman Boutelle was) not considered in any
immediate danger.” But other than an occasional day trip, he would
never leave the McLean again. And his medical bills would force his
daughters and brother to sell the Whig Courier that March. Despite
his condition, Charles would be re-elected back in Maine, while still
a patient in his Boston mental hospital.
It wasn't that Maine was short of loyal
Republicans eager to replace the “handsomest man in congress”,
nor that Maine voters did not think it important they be represented
by a functional congressman. But 1900 would be a Presidential
election year, and Reed simply had too much else on his plate. So, at
the end of December it was announced that the Navy committee which
Boutelle chaired, would return to work in January, with the now
hospitalized congressman still officially its chairman. His daughters
still collected his salary, and his party still had the use of his
patronage. Come September Charles Boutelle won his last election,
probably already unaware he had ever held public office. He won it by
only 10,000 votes, instead of his usual 18,000. And in November the
powers of his office, exercised by his friend Thomas Reed, were able
to help fellow Republican and fellow Maine man, William McKinley, to win the
White House, defeating (again) the Democrat Bryant.
As soon as the election was over, Reed
moved in the House to have Charles (above) retroactively appointed a retired captain
in the U.S. Navy. Considering his Civil War record, and his
dedication in creating the “Great White Fleet” which had just won
the Spanish American War of 1898, this seemed a reasonable reward to
an eight term congressman, who at the time had no other pension. To
encourage the Senate to agree, Dr. Cowles up in Boston was authorized
to issue a public statement on the first anniversary of Boutelle's
admission to McLean's. “At the present time,” said the doctor,
“the indications are not so favorable...for a degree of recovery..
.In my own opinion he should never resume the cares of active life or
under take any business responsibilities, and he may live but a few
years.”
It seems likely Charles was suffering
from an advanced case of Altzeimers, first identified by Dr. Aloysius
Alzheimer. In 1901 “Alois” began working in Frankfurt on the
Main, Germany, with a 51 year old woman named Auguste Deter (above), who had
suddenly begun screaming in the middle of the night. She was
befuddled and had lost increasingly large chunks of her memory. When
Dr. Alzheimer questioned her, she would repeat, “Ich hab mich
verloren” - “I am lost”. Her dementia progressed rapidly until
her death on April 8, 1906. In a November 1906 speech, after
examining slides of her brain tissue using a new staining technique,
Dr. Alzheimer identified plaque build-up on the neurons in Auguste's
brain as identifying the disease. In effect the disease destroyed
her identity from the inside, as it had done five years earlier in
America to Charles Boutelle.
On Wednesday, January 16, 1901,
Charles' captain's pension went into effect. And on Sunday, March
3rd, Charles submitted his resignation from congress, the
day before the new congress convened. It was a play, of course. By
this stage of his disease, it is very unlikely Charles was capable of
signing a letter. Still the smooth transition did honor to its
probable architect, James Reed – call it the last act of friendship
for an old argumentative ally. And as if part of the same plan,
eleven weeks later, on Tuesday, May 21, 1901, Charles Addison
Boutelle died of pneumonia, a build up of fluid in his lungs, caused
by his inability to get out of bed.
He remains the only congressman on
record, to be re-elected while confined in a mental institution. But the
country is young, yet. Given us another 200 years, and I 'm sure we
will get at least one more.
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