William M. Evarts
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William Maxwell Evarts (February 6, 1818–February 28, 1901) was an American lawyer and statesman. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of author, editor, and Indian removal opponent Jeremiah Evarts, and the grandson of Declaration of Independence signer Roger Sherman.
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School, family, and early career
William attended Boston Latin School, graduated from Yale College in 1837, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. Attended at Harvard Law School. He was admitted to the bar in New York in 1841, and soon took high rank in his profession. He married Helen Minerva Wardner in 1843. They had 12 children between 1845 and 1862, all born in New York City.
He was appointed assistant United States district attorney and served from 1849-1853. In 1860 he was chairman of the New York delegation to the Republican National Convention. In 1861 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate from New York. He was a member of the State constitutional convention 1867-1868.
Service to the Johnson Administration
He was chief counsel for President Andrew Johnson during the impeachment trial, and from July 1868 until March 1869 he was Attorney General of the United States. In 1872 he was counsel for the United States before the tribunal of arbitration on the Alabama claims at Geneva, Switzerland.
Service to the Hayes Administration
Counsel for President Rutherford B. Hayes, in the behalf of the Republican Party, before the Electoral Commission in the disputed U.S. presidential election of 1876. During President Rutherford B. Hayes' administration he was United States Secretary of State. He was a delegate to the International Monetary Conference at Paris 1881.
Service as U.S. Senator
From 1885 to 1891 he was a U.S. Senator from New York. While in Congress (50th and 51st), he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Library. As an orator Senator Evarts stood in the foremost rank, and some of his best speeches were published.
He led the American fund-raising effort for the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty and spoke at its unveiling on October 28, 1886.
Law Practice
He was a part of a law practice in New York City called Evarts, Southmoyd and Choate.
Retirement
He retired from public life due to ill health. He died in New York City and was buried at Ascutney Cemetery in Windsor, Vermont.
Extended Family
William was a member of the extended Baldwin, Hoar & Sherman family, which had many members in American politics. His grandsons included:
U.S. Attorney General and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts Ebenezer R. Hoar and Evarts were best friends, owing it to being first cousins, having similiar professional pursuits and political beliefs. Each served, in succession, as United States Attorney Generals. Some of his other first cousins include U.S. Senator & Governor of the State of Connecticut, Roger Sherman Baldwin; U.S. Senator (brother of Ebenezer R.) George F. Hoar; and California state senator and founding trustee of the University of California, Sherman Day.
Son Maxwell Evarts graduated from Yale College in 1884, where he was also a member of Skull and Bones. He served as a New York City District attorney, and then later as General Counsel for E. H. Harriman, which later became the Union Pacific Railroad. President of two (2) Windsor, VT banks, the chief finacial backer of the Gridley Automatic Lathe (manufactured by the Windsor Machine Co.), served as a representative in the Vermont state legislature and was a Vermont State Fair Commissioner.
Grandson Maxwell E. Perkins famed Charles Scribner's Sons editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and James Jones.
Grandson Evarts Boutell Greene, the famed American historian appointed Columbia University's first De Witt Clinton Professor of History 1923, Department Chairman, 1926-1939. Chairman of the Columbia Institute of Japanese Studies, 1936–39. A noted authority on the American Colonial and Revolutionary War periods.
Great Grandson Roger Sherman Greene, the son of Daniel Crosby Greene and Mary Jane (Forbes) Greene; was the U.S. Vice Consul in Rio de Janeiro, 1903-04; Nagasaki, 1904-05; Kobe, 1905; U.S. Consul in Vladivostok, 1907; Harbin, 1909-11; U.S. Consul General in Hankow, 1911-14.
Great Grandson Jerome Davis Greene (1874-1959), President, Lee, Higginson & Company, 1917-1932; Secretary, Harvard University Corporation, 1905-1910 & 1934-1943; General Manager of the Rockefeller Institute 1910-1012, assistant and secretary to John D. Rockefeller Jr. as Trustee, Rockefeller Institute; Trustee, Rockefeller Foundation; Trustee, Rockefeller General Education Board, 1910-1939. executive secretary, American Section - Allied Maritime Transport Council, 1918 Joint Secretary of the Reparations, Paris Peace Conference, 1919; Chairman, American Council Institute of Pacific Relations, 1929-32; Trustee, Brookings Institute of Washington, 1928-1945; founding member, Council on Foreign Relations.
Great Grandson Archibald Cox served as a U.S. Solicitor General and special prosecutor during Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal. William Maxwell Evarts, as general counsel to the Republican Party. defended President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial. They both successully argued their cases, which represent two (2) of the three (3) U.S. Presidential Impeachment trials.
Sources
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
External link
- Family tree of William Maxwell Evarts (http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=glencoe&id=I40078)
| Preceded by: Henry Stanberry | United States Attorney General 1868–1869 | Succeeded by: Ebenezer R. Hoar |
| Preceded by: Hamilton Fish | United States Secretary of State March 12, 1877–March 7, 1881 | Succeeded by: James G. Blaine |
| Preceded by: Elbridge G. Lapham | U.S. Senator (Class 3) from New York 1885–1891 | Succeeded by: David B. Hill |