Maxwell Evarts

Maxwell Evarts (November 15, 1862 – October 7, 1913) was an American lawyer and politician.

Early life and education Maxwell Evarts was born on November 15, 1862, in New York City, the youngest of the twelve children of Helen Minerva (Wardner) and William M. Evarts. He attended St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale College, 1884, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. After graduation, he studied for two years at Harvard Law School, and was then in the law office of Seward, DaCosta & Guthrie until summer 1889.

Career In 1890 he was appointed an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. He held this office two years, after which he entered the law department of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. He was counsel to the Southern Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad, along with co-general counsel Robert Scott Lovett, and for E. H. Harriman. In 1904 he was elected a director of the Southern Pacific Railroad, for several years was an attorney of the Harriman system, and in October 1910 he was made general counsel of the Oregon Short Line and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Co. The Supreme Court sided with Evarts, establishing birthright citizenship as a right.

He was an organizer of the State National Bank of Windsor, which included Vermont State Treasurer John L. Bacon as cashier. He was also vice-president of the Windsor Machine Co., half owner of the Amsden (Vt.) Lime Co., president of the Vermont State Fair Association, a governor of the Morgan Horse Club, and president of the Vermont Fish and Game League. He was a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1906.