The New Student's Reference Work/Evarts, William Maxwell

WILLIAM M. EVARTS

Ev′arts, William Maxwell, American lawyer and statesman, was born at Boston, Feb. 6, 1818, and died at New York city, Feb. 28, 1901. He graduated at Yale, and was admitted to the New York bar in 1841, where he built up a notable practice,—receiving as high as $50,000 for an opinion in a case. He was chief counsel for President Johnson in the impeachment trial in 1868, and was United States attorney-general to the close of Johnson's administration. He was United States counsel before the Alabama tribunal in 1872, and senior counsel for Henry Ward Beecher in 1875. In 1877-81 he was secretary of state, and United States senator for the term 1885—91.