The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-27

daughter of Roger Sherman, who not only
signed the Declaration of independence, but
was member of the committee with JEFF
ferson and Franklin to draft that precious
document. Mrs. Evarts was devout wo-
man, whose clear intellect was tower of
strength to her hard worked husband. 1t
Was not strange that such father and
mother should desire to bend the growing
minds of their son towards the life work
to which they had devoted themselves.
| One night, a few winters ago. when ]
had occasion to inte view Mr.. Eyarts, he
reverted apparently with good deal of
pleasure to this circumstance. He sat
the fender before glowing fire. All the
jokes about his weight seemed justified at
| that moment. He sat in a low rocking
chair that made him even less than he was.
His rusty broadcloth coat, the careless cra-
vat ends, the old-fashioned turn over shirt
collar, the absence of the ordinary orna-
ments of dress that the average man
wears, were in vigorous strokes in the pic
ture he made as he sat there, but they were
thrown in the shade entirely by the mag
nifioent head that rose above them. In
his old age-he will soon be 74-Mr. Evarts
is won derfully handsome man. His pro-
file is severely classic in the mobile lips. the
firm projecting chin, the smooth shaven
though wrinkled cheeks, and the keen pene-
tratrng eye, taken with the grand contour
of the head, form a splendid subject for
painter or sculptor. 1t is not strange that
men compare him to Cicero. especially when
the likeness extends beyond physical char
acteristics.
Mr.. Evarts' political career always sug-
gests a comparison with that of the orator
Of Arpinnm, Cicero, vibrating from faction
to faction, his splendid intellect giving him
he was like the first lawyer of America
whenever he entered politics. His legal
career, one of the most brilliant in history,
earned for him thirty years ago, full recog-
milton of the republican party. Thnrlow
Weed used him as foil in 1861 to thwart
Horace Greely's ambition to enter the SEN
ate. Tho old firm of Seward, Weed d.
Greeley. had dissolved and Greeley's seces-
sion editorials had Rirded Weed to deter
mined hostility to the EDITORS political de-
sires. Eyarts barely led on the first ballot
in the senatorial contests, then Greeley
steadily gathered headway and Weed had to
surrender to the suggestion of Henry y.
Raymond and turn his forces over to elect
Ira Hrrris. What Mr.. Evarts' career might
have been if he had been successful in this
contest can only be conjectured. Bat 1t is
reasonable to make the retroactive prophecy
that he would have been less lawyer and
advocate and more statesman. His
not have been in the open market
to be employed now on one SIDE, now on
the other of tho great questions that divided
the nation. In 1850 he was forced by the
influence of rich clients into making the
famous Castle Garden speech defending the
fugitive slave law. len years later, in the
Lennon case, lawyer-like. he denounced
what no had said i'll 1850. 1t was a retainer
and his three days speech in the impeach-
ment trial of Andrew johnson that carried
Mr.. Evarts into the cabinet of that scotched
chief magistrate. In 1872 he WAS liberal
E.~,u
other candidate of the new party other
than Mr.. Greeley, but tho persuasions Of
good clients again prevailed and he took
the stump for Gen. Grant In 1876 he
earned another cabinet portfolio by making
the legal argument which seated President
Hayes. His position WAS that the country
was not ready for democratic restoration
and that there would be renewal of ''er-
ganized revolution Yet when firmly
seated in the cabinet he advised President
Hayes IN his southern policy, himself urged
Gov. Chamberlain TO yield his rights
i'll South Carolina in the interest of
peace and Il common welfare, and after
overthrowing the republican ndministra-
tion IN Louisiana. consoled Gov. Packard
with tho liverpool consulate. In 1879 Mr..
Evarts supported Cornell for governor of
New York, and denounced boilers; in 1882
Gov. Cornell said Mr.. Evarts bolted Folger
and refused him amy possible aid. In 1880
in Garfield, because of the understanding
between the latter and Mr.. Blaine, that
Steve Dorsey would not let him make u
speech in Indiana. In 1884 Mr.. Evarts was
on the stump for Blaine. His election to
the senate in 1884 was the result of combi-
nations originating entirely outside of Mr..
Evarts' desires or power in New York poll
tics. To Warner Miller and Chester A. Ar |
thur he owes that honorable passage in his
life. And this Ia still another queer polit-
ical contradiction in Evarts' career. Ar
thur, years before, had done his share of
tidiculing Evarts, and never dreamed he
should ever be in the same camp with him.
DO you know" said y senator recently
who served during Mr.. Evarts' six years in
The senate, shat Gar6eld's quarrel with |
began with William NJ. Evarts, |
and that IL Evarts had not been called |
INTO Hayes cabinet Garfield would in all
have escaped assassination and |
served out his termY'
'That ia the fact, ] think, ns IL appears in
hs history of New York politics. IL began |
,auk in Andy Iohnson's time when little
lvarts,' IA they dorisively called him, pun
shed the managers of tho impeachment and