George Boutwell, the son of a Massachusetts farming family and governor of the 1850s, was selected by Abraham Lincoln to be the nation's first commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1862 during the Civil War. He oversaw a system that added $100 million in revenue to the Union war effort. Despite initial controversy over taxing the income of American citizens, Boutwell and Lincoln were satisfied that citizens were paying their taxes as an expression of faith in American democracy. Despite losing 20,000 employees in President Trump's attempt to streamline the federal government, the IRS has lost its ability to collect unpaid taxes and provide equitable tax treatment for all.