American Cicero

After Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency, and immediately began arguing with the Republican congress about the proper path to reconstruction.

William M. Evarts appeared before a great rally at Cooper Union in October 1867. Standing before a banner inscribed “Andrew Johnson: Traitor, Renegade, Outcast”, Evarts castigated the Democrat Johnson as a “President without a Party”. The Radical Republicans won more seats in November, and, smelling blood, conducted an elaborate inquiry looking for evidence of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors”. When they couldn’t find enough evidence to start impeachment proceedings against the President, the Republican Congress passed the “Tenure of Office Act” which made the removal of Cabinet officers subject to Senate consent, and any infraction would be deemed a “high misdemeanor”.

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was intriguing against the President, and Johnson knew it; he requested Stanton's resignation several times. After Stanton repeatedly declined the request, Johnson suspended him and appointed Grant in his place. Predictably, the Senate refused to confirm the removal of Stanton, and Grant relinquished the position. Johnson then appointed General Lorenzo Thomas; Stanton was incensed and claimed the office was still legally his. He had Thomas arrested, and barricaded the doors of the War Office to prevent his return.

The radicals claimed that Johnson’s removal of Stanton violated the Tenure Act and was grounds for impeachment. A vicious power struggle between the legislative and executive branches of government was under way.

Evarts, despite his opposition to Johnson four months previous, was one of the best litigators in the country, and, at William Seward’s suggestion, was retained as defense counsel when the impeachment trial got underway. This turn surprised many; Gideon Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, thought Evarts “a cold, calculating, selfish man”; The radical Independent called him “a hireling counsel . . . who pawned his honor for a lawyer’s fee.”

Thomas Nast chronicled the trial with his cartoons in Harper’s Weekly, and depicted Johnson as a murdered Caesar. Evarts, looking like Cicero, closed for the defense with a four day oration. He picked apart the managers case legally, practically, politically, morally; he piled on classical allusions, and pled for justice with the aura of a revival minister proclaiming the Gospel.

"We could summon from the people a million of men and inexhaustible treasure to help the Constitution in its time of need. Can we now summon resources enough of civil prudence and restraint of passion to carry us through this trial, so that, whatever result may follow, in whatever form, the people may feel that the Constitution has received no wound?"

The spectacle of the trial, the “Great American Farce”, elevated Evarts to the Pantheon of great American orators. Seven Republicans joined twelve Democrats to vote for acquittal, and Johnson stayed in office by one vote.

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After the trial Johnson appointed Evarts Attorney General of the United States. Evarts took the position somewhat reluctantly, writing to Richard Henry Dana “As for a personal career in politics, I have never felt at liberty to plan for one, and I have less inclination for it than ever. I came here to do my duty in a difficult and dangerous juncture of the Government. I shall do it, and return to my business of farming and lawing, and leave to the newspaper correspondents the conduct of my affairs.”

The New York Bar Association honored the new Attorney General with a public dinner. Four hundred men marched into the Astor House arm in arm. The menu include green turtle soup, salmon, striped bass, filet of beef, turkey, ham, mutton, partridge, capon, oysters, sweet breads, lamb chops, venison, duck, claret, hock, sherry, champagne, brandy, bourbon, scotch, and rye whiskey, and the tables were festooned with edible ornaments including a statue of Evarts to accompany the Monument of Justice and Temple of Liberty.

William M. Evarts, noted for his love of wine, was asked whether drinking so many different vintages made him feel ill the following day. "Not at all," he replied, "it's the indifferent wines that produce that result."

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Hanging on the wall in my “library”, next to my desk where I am writing this, there hangs a handsome steel engraving (marked “artist’s proof”) by Thomas Johnson of Abraham Lincoln in profile facing left. Below it is a photograph of Saint Gaudens’ bust of William M. Evarts, facing right. The common assumption is that he looks like Cicero, but to me he looks just like my grandfather.

Ulysses S.Grant took office in 1870, and in 1872 he sent William M. Evarts to Geneva to try to settle the Alabama claims. Evarts's oldest daughter, Hettie, accompanied him and travelled around Europe with her friend Belle Gibbs who introduced her to a young sculptor in his studio in Rome. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was about to start a small portrait bust of Belle, and when she brought Hettie around to the studio, Hettie recognized Gus as the son of their old shomaker in New York. Belle's father had just bought his new statue of Hiawatha, with the intent of bringing it back to Central Park; Hettie commissioned Gus to copy two Roman busts, one of Demosthenes, and one of Cicero for her father.

There were two prominent busts of Cicero in Rome for Saint-Gaudens to copy. Gus asked Mr. Gibbs which one Mr. Evarts would like best. He started to copy the Capitoline Cicero, because he thought it would compliment the Demosthenes best, but Mr. Gibbs discovered that the Vatican Cicero was rather thin and bony, compared to the heavy set Capitoline.

“Mr. Evarts has the idea, as many of his friends have told him, that he resembles Cicero,” Gibbs explained. “Now Mr. Evarts is thin as possible and if he sees the bust of a fat man, I am sure he will not accept it.”

Saint-Gaudens bought another piece of marble and started over.