Evarts, WILLIAM MAXWELL

Evarts, WILLIAM MAXWELL, American lawyer and statesman, was born in Boston, 6th February 1818, graduated at Yale, and was admitted in 1841 to the New York bar, where he afterwards built up a notable practice, receiving in some cases 25,000 or 50,000 for an opinion. He was chief counsel for President Johnson in the impeachment trial in 1868, and filled the office of United States attorney-general to the end 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 he was elected to the United States senate for the term 1885–91.