The Portland daily press., 1894-02-15

years.
'While my main purpose tonight ought
to be to throw light upon him as law
yer, and from this to draw appropriate
lessons for all of us, yet his character
was SO thoroughly knit together that il
will be impossible to do this without first
| turning to his public career, which COW
| cred the prime of his life and SO much
engaged his fellew citizens, and so much
compelled their admiration. In 1925, he
was elected member of the State House
of Representatives, which commenced
it's session in January, 1926, was annual
ly reelected until the session of 1929,
when he was chosen Speaker and served
as such until a vacancy was made in the
congressional representation from the
Kennebec district by the resignation
of Hon. Peleg Sprague. Then he offered
himself as candidate for the successor
ship against Reuel Williams of Augusta,
and won his election at the second at
| tempt. Mr.. Williams was IA years his
senior, and his candidacy was founded
on great abilities. extensive experience.
and large legal clientage, and buttressed
bv most Jealous local support. No
gentleman in the state could, at that
time, offer more resistance to an oppos-
ing candidate, with hope of success,
than Mr.. Williams. His own town of
Augusta gave him more than 700 votes,
to only II for Mr.. Evans. The universal
interest in the contest is shown by the
fact that the state valuation of 1881 re-
turned in that town only 72O
polls. Gardiner voted even
more thoroughly than Augusta, giving
Mr.: Evans 593 votes and only 8 to Mr..
Williams, while it's whole number of
mills nd in In tota
ferred to was 553. This was before the
seat of government had been moved
from Casco Bay to the Kennebec river,
and what is now the capital city retreat
ed to her tents that night, defeated
probably as she never has been within
the recollection of any of us now pres
ent. How different from the night a few
years since, following the. day when
Portland marched to Augusta with spec
ial trains and an extensive commissariat,
and was so promptly routed by cohorts
nnder the, leadership of Baker, Brad
bury, Haynes, Heath, Manley, White
house, and host of other generals nom
legal, but equally skilled in local strate-
gy:..
cat the time of Mr.. Evanss first cleo
ton to the Federal House of Representa-
tives, politics were in the formative
condition out of which grew the great
Democratic and Whig parties. Maine
was carried on the general ticket against
jackson in 1928 by a very small margin,
and its entire vote was thrown against
him in the electoral college; yet aside
from Mr.. Evans, only one representative
out of the seven to which Maine was
then entitled, was classed as a National
Republican. The next year the Jackson
party swept the state, and in the 22nd
Congress of 1881 and the 23rd of 1888,
Mr.. Evans stood alone. In each of the
oath, 25th and Goth Congresses of 1885,
1887 and 1889, Mr.. Evans had but one
Wing associate from Maine in the Ma
tional House of Representatives; and
these associates although gentlemen of
high character and local Tepute, were
not so made up as to become prominent
in the legislative councils at Washing
ton.
"Thus, for a period of ten years, Mr..
Evans stood practically as the sole repre-
sentative of the Wing party from Maine.
and was recognized as such; and al
though, on his advance to the Senate in
1S41, other Whigs-among them Mr.
Fessenden, afterwards of such wide repu-
tation and unprecedented influence and
power at the seat of the national govern
ment-came into the House at Washing
ton on the flood which bore along Harrl-
ssh and Tyler, yet, even then, as a nat
ural result of his long service, and of the
newness of the service of the gentlemen
referred to, Mr.. Evans remained the eff
fective link between the new administra-
ton and the State of Maine, and was at
first the great dispenser of patronage,
and afterwards suffered the consequences
which came therefrom. The political
axe fell quickly and often in the spring
of 1S41, and the Democratic journals said
Senator Evans made removals and APP
pointments through President Harrison
I'm 1S41 MI. Evans, who had been re-
elected to the 9th Congress, was pro-
NOTED by the Whig legislature of the
state to the Senate, resigned his right to
a seat in the House and remained in the
Senate until the expiration of his term in
1S47."
After quoting from Mr.. Blaine, Judge
Putnam continued:
However bitter may have been the
political conflict, everyone who met Mr..
Blaine at his Augusta freside felt his
genial and tender spirit at home, and
many knew that it diffused itself into
the immediate surroundings of his resi-
dence iu that city. His many thought
full acts of kindness towards the widow
of Mr.. Evans, who was a mum ber of years
his neigh Dor, bore evidence of the exist
ence of this spirit, and of his apprecia-
tion of his memory exhibited by this
extract.
"When Mr.. Evans retired from the
Senate in 1S47, he was in the vigor of
manhood, then fifty years of age, and at
the zenith of his political and legal fame.
The next year General Taylor was
elected President, and in March, 1s49,
the Wing party came Into power at
Washington. Mr.. Evans was candidate
for the Treasury potrfolio, but failed of
success. The political reasons therefor
were, perhaps. sufficient. Maine had
failed to throw it's vote for General Tay-
lor. In 1880, Immediately after the first
election of Mr.. Evans to the House OF
Representatives, occurred a political
revolution in Maine, followed by per-
sistency in it's political history. only
equalled by the similar persistency con-
sequent on the revolution in the fifties,
which, by reason IN part of quarrels ln
the Democratic party. threw it out OF
power and installed the Republican
control With only the exceptions OF the
year OF the Harrison campaign, 1S4O,
when the Wings obtained for him the
electoral vote of the state, and secured
the choice of Edward Kent as governor,
Al I. 1nffl- 10