urope. He was counsel
for President Johnson on his impeachment, counsel for the
Republican side in support of the title of President Hayes
before the Electoral Commission; counsel for the United States
against Great Britain before the Tribunal at Geneva. He was
counsel in the celebrated Lemon case, where the case was settled
as to the rights of slave owners to bring their slaves into
the free States, and hold them _in transitu_. In all these
he was successful. He was counsel also in another trial of
almost equal interest and celebrity, the Tilton divorce suit--
in which Henry Ward Beecher was charged with adultery. In
this the jury disagreed. But the substantial victory was
with Evarts's client.

Mr. Evarts was a man of unfailing equanimity and good nature,
never thrown off his balance by any exigency in diplomacy,
in political affairs, or in the trial of causes. Any person
who has occasion to follow him in his diplomatic discussions
will be impressed with the far-sighted wisdom and caution
with which he took his positions.

He was always a delightful orator. He rose sometimes to a
very lofty eloquence, as witness especially his argument in
defence of President Johnson. He had an unfailing wit. You
could never challenge him or provoke him to an encounter without
making an abundant and sparkling stream gush forth. He never
came off second best in an encounter of wits with any man.
He was a man of great generosity, full of sympathy, charity,
and kindliness. If his biography shall ever be properly written,
it will be as delightful as that of Sheridan or Sidney Smith
for its wit, and will be valuable for the narrative of the
great public transactions in which he took a part. Especially
it will preserve to posterity the portraiture of a great lawyer
and advocate of the time before the days of specialists, when
the leaders of the American Bar were great lawyers and advocates.

I do not think Evarts's capacity as a diplomatist is known.
Perhaps it never will be thoroughly understood. The work
of a Secretary of State in dealing with foreign countries
is performed in the highest confidence and does not ordinary
come to light until interest in the transaction to which it
relates has grown cold. Evarts conducted some very delicate
negotiations, including that in regard to the Fortune's Bay
matter, with much skill. He was careful never, for the sake
of present success, to commit the country to any doctrine
w