William M. Evarts

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William M. Evarts

William Maxwell Evarts (born February 6, 1818 in Boston , Massachusetts , † February 28, 1901 in New York City ) was an American lawyer and statesman .

Early years and political beginnings

William Evarts attended the Boston Latin School and then Yale College , now Yale University, until 1837 . He then graduated from Harvard University Law School. After his admission to the bar in 1841, he began to take up this profession. From 1849 to 1853 he was a federal district attorney. Evarts became a member of the newly formed Republican Party . In 1861 he ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate . In 1867 and 1868 he was a member of a commission to revise the New York State Constitution .

Justice Minister and Foreign Minister

In 1868, William Evarts was President Andrew Johnson to the Minister of Justice of the United States ( Attorney General appointed). He held this office until 1869. During the impeachment process against the president, he was his main adviser.

In 1872 he represented the United States before an arbitration tribunal in Geneva . The United States' claims for damages against England for the construction of the Confederate warship Alabama were heard there. The US accused the British of violating neutrality during the Civil War because the ship was built in England. The lawsuit was intended to pay for the damage done by Alabama by England. The lawsuit resulted in US compensation of $ 15.5 million.

During the controversial presidential election of 1876, Evarts was the legal representative of the Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes . After he had won his election, Hayes appointed him as the new foreign minister in his cabinet . He held this office from 1877 to 1881. In 1881, William Evarts was also a delegate to an international currency conference in Paris .

US Senator and further résumé

Between March 4, 1885 and March 3, 1891, William Evarts represented New York State as a Senator in the US Congress . There he was chairman of the "Committee on the Library". He organized the collection for the base of the Statue of Liberty and gave a speech at the inauguration of the monument in 1886. After his tenure in the Senate, Evarts withdrew from politics for health reasons. He died in New York on February 28, 1901.

As a member of a politically active family, Evarts also had many prominent relatives. His grandfather, Roger Sherman, was a Member of Parliament and then a US Senator from Connecticut between 1789 and 1793 . His cousin Roger Sherman Baldwin was US Senator for Connecticut from 1847 to 1850 and also governor of that state from 1844 to 1846. Some of his descendants were also politically and legally active on various levels.

literature

  • David Anderson: William M. Evarts. In: Edward S. Mihalkanin (Ed.): American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell . Greenwood Publishing 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-30828-4 , pp. 182-187.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Evarts, William M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Evarts, William Maxwell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1901
Place of death New York City