The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1901-03-06
Far from the Madding Crowd.


The remains of William M. Evarts
are entombed IN the quiet town of
Windsor in this State. The throngs
that wander through Greenwood, where
rest the dead Of Gotham, will find there
no marble pile to commemorate the
name and fame of the great attorney
and statesman. The eulogies on Mr..
Eyerts are as exceptional as was their
subject in the times of his life-career.
OF his quality and characteristics as
man among his fello wmen, the Brook
Ign Eagle says of Mr.. Evarts
Pre-eminence sat easily upon him.
Conscious greatness could not be as
criOed TO him, but greatness, without
the obstrusive consciousness of It, was
everywhere conceded to him. He was
a master of assemblages, tbs chief of
advocates, the monarch of debate, a
good fellow among the kings of his
calling and a king in his own right
among all good fellows. Profound in
scholarship, constant i'll study, active in
affairs, he was the champion of fine
and gentle causes, the leading figure in
all thoughtful clubs and associations,
admittedly the brightest raconteur and
the most persuasive and suggestive
post-prandial speaker on either side the
sea, and, more than that, he was the
confidant and the correspondent, the
friend and the companion of states
men, of jurists, of artists, of authors, of
scientists, of divines and of fnanciers
of the highest rank. He likewise rev.
erenced womanhood, loved childhood,
delighted in nature, reveled in music
and in literature and rejoiced either as
guest or host in all the exquisite hosp
talities of life.
Columns could be filed with what he
said worth remembering. Volumes
could be written of what be did well
worth doing. But the columns have
been filed and the volumes have been
written. For the traditions of his
country chronicle the sayings of the
man and the annals of the law and of
the go vernment attest the service of
his genius and the genius of his SER
vice. The sunset of his life was time
of clouded vision and of lowered spirit
TO him. But his mind maintained its
brilliance, his heart its loves, and his
countrymen may be trusted, just as his
profession may be trusted, to do appro-
pirate honor to probably the ablest law
yer that the United States have up to
this time given to the world, a lawyer
who was 30 much more than LAWYER
that there is hardly field of affairs or
of literature or of politics in which his
influence was unknown, or in which
his work was not felt in forms and in
facts as benign in their quality as they
will be lasting in their results.
OF Mr.. Evarts' rank as lawyer and
the style of his oratory the New York
Sun says:
During his long career at the bar
Mr.. Evarts was constantly at the front
of important litigation. His manner
of speech was marvellous. His peri
DDS would have covered half a dozen
periods of an ordinary speaker, but al
though they flowed along apparently
interminable, broken with contrasting
and explanatory phrases, the construc-
ton was 80 skillful, and the thought so
clear, that they were easily followed
with understanding. Enlig htened with
scholarship and with q strength of rea-
son that no subtlety could dim, his ar
gument was so effective that it may
well be said of him that few have been
his equals as trial lawyer. His ora
tory, whether at the bar or at the din
ner table, always left his auditors
pleased with his rhetoric and with the
dry humor that ran through it all. Pos
terity will accord 10 Mr.. Evarts one of
the highest places on the roll of our
great lawyers.