war when he voluntarily separated from service. He was granted an honorable discharge on January 14, 1866. Soon after his departure from naval service, he married Elizabeth ("Lizzie") Hodsdon, daughter of attorney and Maine Adjutant General, John L. Hodsdon, on May 16, 1866, in Augusta, the bride's home town. Together they had three daughters, Grace Hodsdon Boutelle, Elizabeth Boutelle, and Anne ("Annie") Curtis Boutelle. In 1890 Anne Boutelle sponsored the protected cruiser , the US Navy's first modern cruiser. Newspaper editor and publisher Following the war, Boutelle became the master of a steamer running between New York and Wilmington. He was associated briefly with a New York commission house, but, in 1870, he was recommended for the position of Editor-in-Chief of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, a Republican newspaper. He took that position and moved his young family to Bangor in their home state of Maine, where they lived for the rest of his life. Boutelle was a dynamic editor, and, under his leadership, the paper became one of the most influential in the northeastern United States. Upon the death of the owner, J. H. Lynde, Boutelle, along with a partner, B. A. Burr, purchased the Daily Whig and Courier on May 15, 1874. He continued active editorial control until failing health and growing competition finally forced him to sell the paper in March, 1900. Political career Boutelle's robustly-conservative Republican editorial positions drew him further into both state and national politics. He was selected as a district delegate to the Republican National Convention at Cincinnati in 1876, and served as the president of the Maine (James G.) Blaine Club at the national convention of 1880. Gaining further prominence in the state Republican party, he was selected as the representative from Maine on the Republican National Committee at the national convention of 1884 that nominated James G. Blaine. He was both a delegate-at-large and chairman of the Maine delegation at the Republican national convention of 1888, during which he read to the convention the cablegram from Blaine refusing to be nominated. He was a member of the Maine Republican State Committee from 1875 to 1882. U.S. Representative An obvious choice for U.S. Congress, he first stood as the Republican candidate for the 4th Maine Congressional District (comprising Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Washington counties) on June 24, 1880, but was narrowly defeated (by 855 votes) by the incumbent, Dr. George W.