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Evarts, William Maxwell

lawyer, United States senator, was born Feb. 6, 1818, in Boston, Mass. He was the leading counsel employed to defend President Johnson in his trial before the senate; and was attorney-general of the United States from 1868 to 1869, when he resigned. He was one of the three lawyers appointed to defend the interests of the United States before the tribunal of arbitration at Geneva in 1871 to settle the Alabama claims; and was one of the counsel who defended Henry Ward Beecher in 1875. In 1875 he was invited by the centennial commission to deliver the opening oration at the exposition in 1876.

He was secretary of state under President Hayes from 1877 to 1881. In 1885 he was elected United States senator from New York for six years from March 4, 1885, and has since been re-elected twice to the same office.