He became a Congressman from Illinois, and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal by President William Howard Taft.

Although both able and prominent as an attorney, representing, for example, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in securing a right of way into Chicago, 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 the Republican Party.

He was an effective speaker and of considerable influence, but his tariff views were unacceptable to business interests in Chicago, which forced his retirement.

President William Howard Taft then appointed him to the post of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal, on March 2, 1911.

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 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

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.

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.

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) Reproduced in Biography Resource Center.