William Maxwell Evarts (February 6, 1818February 28, 1901) was an American lawyer and statesman from New York who served as U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York. He was renowned for his skills as a litigator and was involved in three of the most important causes of American political jurisprudence in his day: the impeachment of a president, the Geneva arbitration and the contests before the electoral commission to settle the presidential election of 1876.
During the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, the reform-minded Evarts was an active member among the "Half-Breed" faction of the Republican Party, which emphasized support for civil service reform,Welch, Richard E., Jr. (1968). George Edmunds of Vermont: Republican Half-Breed, p. 65. Vermont History. Retrieved February 9, 2022. bolstering opposition towards conservative "Stalwarts" who defended the spoils system and advocated on behalf of Southern blacks.
Family, education and marriage William M. Evarts was born on February 6, 1818, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Jeremiah Evarts and Mehitabel Barnes Sherman.. Evarts's father, a native of Vermont, a "lawyer of fair practice and good ability," (Reprinted from the New York Herald, March 7.) and later the editor of The Panoplist, a religious journal, and corresponding secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (during a time of "fervor in mission propagandism") who led the fight against Indian removals, died when William was thirteen. William's mother was the daughter of Roger Sherman, Connecticut founding father, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. (Subscription required.)
Evarts attended Boston Latin School, then Yale College. In his college class were Morrison Waite, later Chief Justice of the United States, Samuel J. Tilden, future New York Governor and Democratic presidential nominee and one of the contestants in the electoral commissions controversy in which Evarts acted as counsel for the Republicans, chemist Benjamin Silliman, Jr., and Edwards Pierrepont, later United States Attorney General. While at Yale he became a member of two secret societies, the literary and debate oriented Linonian Society and Skull and Bones;* he later extolled the former (Subscription required.) and much later denounced all such secret societies.At the 1873 Yale commencement exercises he spoke against secret societies on the ground that they bred elitism and haughtiness. ; . Evarts was one of the founders of Yale Literary Magazine in 1836.. He graduated third in his class in 1837.
After college he moved to Windsor, Vermont, where he studied law in the office of Horace Everett and taught school to save money for law school. He attended Harvard Law School for a year, where he "won the respect of Professors Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf." Evarts completed his legal studies under attorney Daniel Lord of New York City and was admitted to the bar in 1841.
He married Helen Minerva Bingham Wardner in 1843. She was the daughter of Allen Wardner, a prominent businessman and banker who served as Vermont State Treasurer. They had 12 children between 1845 and 1862, all born in New York City.
Private practice After admission to the bar Evarts joined the law office of Daniel Lord. One of his first cases involved the trial of the infamous forger Monroe Edwards. Evarts served as a junior counsel for the defense, which was headed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. Edwards was convicted, but Evarts's handling of his duties earned him notice as a promising lawyer.
In 1851, Evarts began his partnership with Charles F. Southmayd (the firm was then named Butler, Evarts & Southmayd), a partnership that would last for the rest of his professional career in one form or another.. In 1859 Evarts invited Joseph Hodges Choate to join the firm (which then became Evarts, Southmayd & Choate), and the firm then had a trial litigator in many ways as talented as Evarts. But it was Southmayd that Evarts depended on to prepare the case, because Southmayd, it was said, "was a lawyer of remarkable knowledge and capacity and dexterity in working up a case." In court, "especially before a jury," however, it was Evarts who shined.
In 1855, the State of Virginia hired attorneys (including the eminent Charles O'Conor) to contest the decision of the New York Superior Court releasing eight black slaves in the famous Lemmon Slave Case. When Ogden Hoffman, the New York Attorney General, died, the New York legislature appointed Evarts to replace him, and he argued to uphold the decision.. The Appellate Division affirmed the ruling, and Virginia again appealed. Evarts again represented the state in the New York Court of Appeals and again prevailed.. The case generated widespread interest in both New York and the Southern states, and Evarts's arguments were reported in the daily press, as was nearly every step in the case. Thurlow Weed said that the quality of Evarts's arguments "placed beyond doubt his right to be ranked among the foremost lawyers of the country."
In 1856 Evarts represented the widow of Henry Parish, who was the proponent of his will and codicils in probate. His brothers contested the will on the grounds of incapacity and undue influence. (The brothers had been the decedent's executor in the will but, by a codicil executed after he was struck with paralysis that rendered him nearly speechless, they were removed.) The proceedings took on a Bleak House-like life of its own (the Dickens novel having been published only three years before) with eminent counsel on all sides. The estate was worth over $1.5 million at the beginning of the trial. There were 111 days of testimony before the Surrogate and two weeks of oral argument before the case closed on November 23, 1857. The Surrogate admitted the will and the first codicil (removing the brothers as executors and bequeathing them the residue of the estate) but rejected the second and third (providing for $50,000 in charitable bequests). After four-and-a half years of appeal, involving two arguments before the Court of appeals the judgment was affirmed. The Times concluded: "The three volumes of evidence reveal a web of fact, experience and motive, rarely matched in works of fiction, and the three remaining volumes of briefs and arguments exhibit an array of learning, ingenuity and sustained ability, that will always place this suit in the front rank of the causes célèbres of American jurisprudence." (The online scan of the Times contains an incorrect figure for the bequest to St. Luke's Hospital; it should read $10,000. There are also typographical mistakes in the text; the quotation in this article is taken from the print edition.) As a result of this case his firm would be entrusted with many large estates, including that of the Astors.
The most fame Evarts ever received for a case, however, came in 1875 when he represented nationally famous clergyman Henry Ward Beecher in a suit for "criminal conversation" (adultery) by Beecher with the wife of plaintiff Theodore Tilton and the alienation of his wife's affections. The case was a national sensation, but despite what appeared to be clear evidence, Evarts obtained a hung jury for his client; in fact only three of the twelve jurors voted in favor of Tilton.For a review of the entire scandal and the trial and aftermath, see Reissued in 2024 by McNally Editions as Free Love: The Story of a Great American Scandal.
Evarts's courtroom style was summarized as follows: "[H]is long sentences, which, in the period when he was most conspicuous in the public mind, were often marveled over, never seemed to impair the clarity of his arguments; the vein of humor he could infuse in the driest case, the logic and vigor of his utterances, the soundness of his information, the great thoroughness of his preparation, were all factors in his success. But, of course, these do not account altogether for his triumph as an advocate, which was largely due to his positive genius for that kind of work." Another observer described his style:
Early political career Evarts early associated himself with the city's Whig interests dominated by Thurlow Weed. In 1849 he received the appointment of assistant United States attorney for the district of New York. He served until 1853. In 1851 he was also made a commissioner of the Almshouse (later known as the Commissioners of Charity and Correction). The most famous case Evarts was involved in while district attorney was against the famous journalist John L. O'Sullivan and his fellow filibusters, who had fitted out the Cleopatra to aid an insurrection in Cuba.For a description of the plot, see After a month-long trial, the jury was unable to come to a verdict.
Unlike other Northern Whigs, Evarts was not an abolitionist and defended the Compromise of 1850 drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas.William Maxwell Evarts. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 9, 2022. He was not involved in the antislavery crusade except for his involvement in the Lemmon Slave Case.
Evarts never showed the talent or inclination for electoral politics, but he early became relied on by party leaders to perform oratorical or public ceremonial functions. In early 1852 he made two major addresses at large meetings for Daniel Webster's candidacy: one in March at the Metropolitan Hall and the other in June at Constitution Hall right before the Whig National Convention. Evarts's allegiance was out of touch not only with both the Northern and Southern factions of the Whigs but also with William H. Seward, who supported General Winfield Scott.
Although most former Webster supporters belonged to the Whiggish-aligned, moderate wing of the Republican Party and Senator William H. Seward on the staunchly abolitionist end, Evarts became an enthusiastic supporter of Seward. In 1860, he was chairman of the New York delegation to the Republican National Convention in Chicago, where his oratory was at the disposal of the Senator, who most observers believed was a strong favorite for the nomination. James G. Blaine described the effects of those efforts on his audience:
Evarts placed Seward's name in nomination, and when it became apparent that Seward would not attain it, Evarts, on behalf of Seward, graciously moved the unanimous nomination of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1861 he ran against Horace Greeley for the Senate seat vacated by Seward (who had become Lincoln's Secretary of State), but when neither could attain the requisite votes, the legislature settled on Ira Harris as a compromise.
In 1862, he was one of the lawyers who argued the Prize Cases for the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He served on New York's Union Defense Committee during the Civil War. He was a delegate to the New York state constitutional convention of 1867.Evarts sat in seat 90 in the Convention Chamber. See Hough, Franklin B. Diagram of the Constitutional Convention Chamber. New York Convention Manual: Prepared in Pursuance of Chapters 194 and 458, of the Laws of 1867, under the Direction of Francis C. Barlow, Secretary of State, Thomas Hillhouse, Comptroller, and John H. Martindale, Attorney-General. Albany: Weed, Parsons, 1867. At the constitutional convention he was a member of the standing committee on the preamble and bill of rights and the committee on the judiciary.
Service in the Johnson, Grant, and Hayes administrations
From 1865 to 1868, Evarts was on the team of lawyers prosecuting Jefferson Davis for treason. In 1868, he became counsel for U.S. President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial. He delivered the closing argument for Johnson, and Johnson was acquitted, an event that seemed unlikely when the trial began.