When news of the attack on Fort Sumter arrived in New York, nobody really knew what the public reaction would be, or what course the state should take. William M. Evarts met with five other prominent men in a private office on Pine Street on Tuesday after the firing on Sumter to feel the pulse of the people, and to call a public meeting. “We did not know whether we dared to do it, lest the fewness of the number should be counted and the game be lost; and then we did not dare take the Academy of Music, for fear our shrunken columns would display the poorness of the patriotism of New York.”
The arrival of the Civil War seemed to hit everyone as a surprise. Certainly the states had their differences, but what would separation actually mean? Nobody foresaw the bloodiness of the conflict that would come. As Henry Adams noted, “Not one man in America wanted the Civil War, or expected or intended it. A small minority wanted secession. The vast majority wanted to go on with their occupation in peace. Not one, however clever or learned, guessed what happened.”
Evarts was nervous that federal troops might be harassed in New York as they had just been in Baltimore. When the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, with Evarts, the Colonel, and the Mayor at the head, marched down Broadway the cheers of the crowds came as a great relief. The public meeting was a great success and a Union Defense Committee was formed with Evarts as secretary, and it soon organized sixty-six regiments and expedited the movement of troops and supplies to the front lines.
The arrival of the Civil War seemed to hit everyone as a surprise. Certainly the states had their differences, but what would separation actually mean? Nobody foresaw the bloodiness of the conflict that would come. As Henry Adams noted, “Not one man in America wanted the Civil War, or expected or intended it. A small minority wanted secession. The vast majority wanted to go on with their occupation in peace. Not one, however clever or learned, guessed what happened.” Evarts was nervous that federal troops might be harassed in New York as they had just been in Baltimore. When the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, with Evarts, the Colonel, and the Mayor at the head, marched down Broadway the cheers of the crowds came as a great relief. The public meeting was a great success and a Union Defense Committee was formed with Evarts as secretary, and it soon organized sixty-six regiments and expedited the movement of troops and supplies to the front lines.
~
Evarts had campaigned for Zachary Taylor in 1848; when Taylor won, William Seward managed to have Prescott Hall appointed district attorney for the southern district of New York, and Evarts became Hall’s assistant DA. The United States had a history of citizens launching freelance military schemes, from Aaron Burr’s journey down the Ohio River, to the adventures against the Indian territories which Evarts's father had opposed. As Assistant DA, Evarts had instructions to enforce the neutrality act and to stop various filibustering expeditions to Cuba and Latin America. Evarts placed marines aboard the ships in New York Harbor chartered by Narciso Lopez, who was plotting to liberate Cuba and he seized the ship Kate Boyd, which was loaded with munitions bound for Haiti.
After the end of the war with Mexico, the issue of slavery dominated political debate. Evarts helped form the Republican Party in New York in 1856. When Governor William Seward campaigned for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1860, Evarts was chairman of the New York delegation and nominated Seward at the convention. Seward, as leader of the "irrepressibles" was the strongest voice against slavery, and came into the convention the establishment favorite. He led for the first two ballots, but Horace Greeley led the opposition and eventually the more conservative westerner Lincoln took the lead and finally won the nomination. It was a crushing blow to the Seward camp; Thurlow Weed burst into tears, but Evarts quickly made his way to the stage of the “Wigwam”, mounted the secretary’s table, and with great emotion moved the unanimous approval of Lincoln’s nomination. As Evarts left the Wigwam, he turned to his fellow delegate and remarked, with his characteristic dry humor: "Well, Curtis, at least we have saved the Declaration of Independence!"
Lincoln carried New York, Seward became Secretary of State, and Evarts name was soon floated to succeed Seward as senator. His name was placed in nomination and he led Horace Greeley through two ballots, until the Thurlow Weed / Horace Greeley feud boiled over and the dark horse Harris eventually won.
During the war Evarts was retained by the the government to prosecute Confederate privateers. The Confederate ship Savannah had left Charleston and captured a no
rthern merchant ship, before being captured herself by a northern warship. The crew was paraded through New York and taunting crowds demanded they be hanged. The United States had always permitted privateering in wartime, and while President Lincoln had declared Confederate privateers to be pirates, a convic tion would probably have led to Confederate reprisals. The issue, which Evarts wiggled around, came down to the question of whether in a civil war a crew had any rights as belligerents, or (anticipating the questions still being asked in Guantanamo) were deemed unlawful combatants.
The British were allowing ships, such as the Florida, to be built and go to sea and then capture American merchantmen. Charles Francis Adams, the American minister in England, feared the rapid destruction of the merchant marine. Seward telegraphed Evarts in April of 1863 requesting him to sail to London to assist Adams on the legal matters of enforcing neutrality. The Alexandra, another Confederate cruiser was said to be almost ready in Liverpool, and more ships were being built.
Great Britain proclaimed neutrality, but it was an uneasy neutrality which kept Lincoln and Seward nervous. England had abolished slavery in 1833, but the real politick was that the English were concerned about the growing power of the United States, and perceived the British interests might best be protected if secession split the growing country in two.
On the wall of the front room of our house in Bennington, I have a framed fragment of the flag of the USS Kearsarge, given to me when my mother moved out of the High Street house in Bethlehem. The note on the back, obviously typed by my father, reads:
“The Kearsarge was an important ship of the Union’s navy in the time of the Civil War. 1861-1864. The Alabama was a smaller, but faster, sailing ship, built for the Confederancy in England, which was a very successful blockade runner and thorn in the side of the Union Blockading ships.
After a lengthy series of cruises, during which she did a good deal of harm to the Union cause, the Alabama was caught, outside of the French seaport of Cherbourg, in 1864, trying to evade the Union’s ship, the Kearsarge. She was heavily outgunned and, as a sailing vessel only, was less manoeverable than her enemy which had auxiliary steam propulsion. The Alabama was sunk.
This little piece of flag – actually a bit of the “pennant” was given to my Grandfather, whose name was the same as mine, by Mary Winslow, whose father was the Captain of the Kearsarge, in 1869."
Evarts went to London with letters of introduction from George Bancroft and Charles Sumner to Anthony Trollope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Baring, and William Gladstone. Arriving in London, Evarts drove a two-horse brougham about the city, making the acquaintance of the rich and powerful. He presented himself well; the Chief Justice Lord Coleridge found him “a very able man, full of good sense and moderation . . . He is a little hard, perhaps, but very clever, reasonable, and a gentleman.”
Henry Adams, working as his father’s secretary, was twenty years younger than Evarts but the two hit it off right away, talking incessantly of the law and the war and the need for reform at home. Adams noted how Evarts still smarted from the race for senator and was soured on his political luck.
“If you could have seen Evarts and me after dinner at one of those little colleges, conducting a noisy and jovial game of whist, with cigars and brandy and soda-water . . . You recollect, no doubt, that he wears his hat so that a plumb line dropped from its center would fall about twelve inches behind his heels. His speech is Yankee and his aspect shouts American with stentorian lungs. Fortunately his conversation and his mind make up for the peculiarities of dress and appearance, so that I was always relieved when he took off his hat and opened his mouth.”
Evarts lobbied the British to detain the Alexandra, which they finally did. When the case came to trial, the judge charged the jury that British neutrality laws aimed to prevent hostilities in British waters only, and forbade armament in port; but once outside British waters, a vessel could be armed. In other words, British shipbuilders could supply the Confederates with all the warcraft they could buy, if they were not armed within British ports (in my copy of Barrow’s biography of Evarts, my father noted in the margin: “Roosevelt’s Airplanes and Wilson’s Submarines”).
Returning to the US, Evarts urged Lincoln to visit Europe, but the gawky Lincoln replied that he would feel embarrassed to meet men of such great classical learning. Evarts, on the other hand, loved the give-and-take of puns and intellect, and invited George Bancroft to bring Sir Henry Holland, the travel writer, to visit his farm at Windsor: "I will show you the ignoble pen from which, in the shape of pork, your elegant pen has received some of its sense and strength."
After the end of the war with Mexico, the issue of slavery dominated political debate. Evarts helped form the Republican Party in New York in 1856. When Governor William Seward campaigned for the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1860, Evarts was chairman of the New York delegation and nominated Seward at the convention. Seward, as leader of the "irrepressibles" was the strongest voice against slavery, and came into the convention the establishment favorite. He led for the first two ballots, but Horace Greeley led the opposition and eventually the more conservative westerner Lincoln took the lead and finally won the nomination. It was a crushing blow to the Seward camp; Thurlow Weed burst into tears, but Evarts quickly made his way to the stage of the “Wigwam”, mounted the secretary’s table, and with great emotion moved the unanimous approval of Lincoln’s nomination. As Evarts left the Wigwam, he turned to his fellow delegate and remarked, with his characteristic dry humor: "Well, Curtis, at least we have saved the Declaration of Independence!"Lincoln carried New York, Seward became Secretary of State, and Evarts name was soon floated to succeed Seward as senator. His name was placed in nomination and he led Horace Greeley through two ballots, until the Thurlow Weed / Horace Greeley feud boiled over and the dark horse Harris eventually won.
~
During the war Evarts was retained by the the government to prosecute Confederate privateers. The Confederate ship Savannah had left Charleston and captured a no
rthern merchant ship, before being captured herself by a northern warship. The crew was paraded through New York and taunting crowds demanded they be hanged. The United States had always permitted privateering in wartime, and while President Lincoln had declared Confederate privateers to be pirates, a convic tion would probably have led to Confederate reprisals. The issue, which Evarts wiggled around, came down to the question of whether in a civil war a crew had any rights as belligerents, or (anticipating the questions still being asked in Guantanamo) were deemed unlawful combatants.The British were allowing ships, such as the Florida, to be built and go to sea and then capture American merchantmen. Charles Francis Adams, the American minister in England, feared the rapid destruction of the merchant marine. Seward telegraphed Evarts in April of 1863 requesting him to sail to London to assist Adams on the legal matters of enforcing neutrality. The Alexandra, another Confederate cruiser was said to be almost ready in Liverpool, and more ships were being built.
Great Britain proclaimed neutrality, but it was an uneasy neutrality which kept Lincoln and Seward nervous. England had abolished slavery in 1833, but the real politick was that the English were concerned about the growing power of the United States, and perceived the British interests might best be protected if secession split the growing country in two.
~
On the wall of the front room of our house in Bennington, I have a framed fragment of the flag of the USS Kearsarge, given to me when my mother moved out of the High Street house in Bethlehem. The note on the back, obviously typed by my father, reads:“The Kearsarge was an important ship of the Union’s navy in the time of the Civil War. 1861-1864. The Alabama was a smaller, but faster, sailing ship, built for the Confederancy in England, which was a very successful blockade runner and thorn in the side of the Union Blockading ships.
After a lengthy series of cruises, during which she did a good deal of harm to the Union cause, the Alabama was caught, outside of the French seaport of Cherbourg, in 1864, trying to evade the Union’s ship, the Kearsarge. She was heavily outgunned and, as a sailing vessel only, was less manoeverable than her enemy which had auxiliary steam propulsion. The Alabama was sunk.
This little piece of flag – actually a bit of the “pennant” was given to my Grandfather, whose name was the same as mine, by Mary Winslow, whose father was the Captain of the Kearsarge, in 1869."
~
Evarts went to London with letters of introduction from George Bancroft and Charles Sumner to Anthony Trollope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Baring, and William Gladstone. Arriving in London, Evarts drove a two-horse brougham about the city, making the acquaintance of the rich and powerful. He presented himself well; the Chief Justice Lord Coleridge found him “a very able man, full of good sense and moderation . . . He is a little hard, perhaps, but very clever, reasonable, and a gentleman.”
Henry Adams, working as his father’s secretary, was twenty years younger than Evarts but the two hit it off right away, talking incessantly of the law and the war and the need for reform at home. Adams noted how Evarts still smarted from the race for senator and was soured on his political luck.“If you could have seen Evarts and me after dinner at one of those little colleges, conducting a noisy and jovial game of whist, with cigars and brandy and soda-water . . . You recollect, no doubt, that he wears his hat so that a plumb line dropped from its center would fall about twelve inches behind his heels. His speech is Yankee and his aspect shouts American with stentorian lungs. Fortunately his conversation and his mind make up for the peculiarities of dress and appearance, so that I was always relieved when he took off his hat and opened his mouth.”
Evarts lobbied the British to detain the Alexandra, which they finally did. When the case came to trial, the judge charged the jury that British neutrality laws aimed to prevent hostilities in British waters only, and forbade armament in port; but once outside British waters, a vessel could be armed. In other words, British shipbuilders could supply the Confederates with all the warcraft they could buy, if they were not armed within British ports (in my copy of Barrow’s biography of Evarts, my father noted in the margin: “Roosevelt’s Airplanes and Wilson’s Submarines”).
Returning to the US, Evarts urged Lincoln to visit Europe, but the gawky Lincoln replied that he would feel embarrassed to meet men of such great classical learning. Evarts, on the other hand, loved the give-and-take of puns and intellect, and invited George Bancroft to bring Sir Henry Holland, the travel writer, to visit his farm at Windsor: "I will show you the ignoble pen from which, in the shape of pork, your elegant pen has received some of its sense and strength." ~
The end of the war came in sight shortly after the election. Lincoln was sworn in to his second term on March 4th, 1865.
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
The war officially ended on April 9;
Chief Justice Taney died in October 1864, and Evarts name was bandied about as a successor. The Court of Appeals unanimously petitioned Lincoln to appoint Evarts: “He is preeminent for his refinement, courtesy, and dignity of his manner, and these qualities are not undeserving of consideration in a man who is to occupy the place heretofore filled by a Jay, Ellsworth, Marshall, and Taney.”
Evarts, who never lacked self-confidence, concurred in a letter to Richard Henry Dana: “Aside from Gov. Chase I am justified in thinking that many things concur to make me a very prominent, if not the most prominent candidate.”
Evarts, who never lacked self-confidence, concurred in a letter to Richard Henry Dana: “Aside from Gov. Chase I am justified in thinking that many things concur to make me a very prominent, if not the most prominent candidate.”
Chase of course felt differently: “Evarts is a man of sterling abilities and excellent learning and a much greater lawyer than I ever pretended to be. The truth is, I always thought myself much over-estimated. And yet I think I have more judgment than Evarts, and that tried by the Marshall standard, I should make a better judge.”
Chase got the job, and again Evarts was disappointed.
Chase got the job, and again Evarts was disappointed.
~
The end of the war came in sight shortly after the election. Lincoln was sworn in to his second term on March 4th, 1865.With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.
The war officially ended on April 9;Lincoln was shot to death at Ford’s Theater April 14th.
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