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.

[1] 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,[2] bolstering opposition towards conservative "Stalwarts" who defended the spoils system and advocated on behalf of Southern blacks.

[3] Evarts's father, a native of Vermont, a "lawyer of fair practice and good ability,"[4] 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")[5] who led the fight against Indian removals,[6] 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.

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,[7] chemist Benjamin Silliman, Jr., and Edwards Pierrepont, later United States Attorney General.

[12] He attended Harvard Law School for a year, where he "won the respect of Professors Joseph Story and Simon Greenleaf.

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.

[20] 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).

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.

[7] 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.

[22] 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.

Evarts never showed the talent or inclination for electoral politics,[7] but he early became relied on by party leaders to perform oratorical or public ceremonial functions.

[26] 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.

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: Seldom if ever in the whole field of political oratory have the speeches of Mr. Evarts at Chicago been equaled.

[7] 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.

Evarts served as counsel for President-elect Rutherford B. Hayes before the Electoral Commission that resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876.

However, when President Grant continued to hear such complaints during his post-presidential around-the-world tour, and such were confirmed by internal troubleshooters DeB.

Randolph Keim and former General turned consul to Japan Julius Stahel, Evarts began to clean house before the 1880 election.

The signal was given, and Bartholdi, together with Richard Butler and David H. King Jr., whose firm built the pedestal and erected the statue, let the veil fall from her face.

A 'huge shock of sound' erupted as a thunderous cacophony of salutes from steamer whistles, brass bands, and booming guns, together with clouds of smoke from the cannonade, engulfed the statue for the next half hour.

It was later restored and reopened as Snapdragon Inn, which is open to the public and features a library displaying items related to the history of William M. Evarts and his extended family.

William Evarts was a descendant of the English immigrant John Everts; the family settled in Salisbury, Connecticut, in the 17th century.

Ebenezer R. Hoar, a first cousin of Evarts, was a U.S. Attorney General, Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and representative in Congress.

Grandson Maxwell E. Perkins became the noted editor of Charles Scribner's Sons[35] and dealt with authors F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and James Jones.

Great-nephew Evarts Boutell Greene became a historian and was appointed Columbia University's first De Witt Clinton Professor of History in 1923 and department chairman from 1926 to 1939.

A eulogist summarized his career thus: Mr. Evarts's most conspicuous, perhaps sole, title to fame is, that he was a great lawyer and brilliant advocate.

[5]On March 6, 1943, construction began on a United States Maritime Service liberty ship in Evarts's name.

The SS William M. Evarts (hull identification number MS 1038) was launched April 22, 1943, and served during World War II in the European theater.