WILLIAM M. EVARTS - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 07/04/1888 - HFSID 13815

WILLIAM M. EVARTS. ALS: "Wm M. Evarts", 4p, 8x9. Washington, 1888 July 4. To James S. Lehmair, Esq., Secretary, Republican League of the State of New York, replying to an invitation "to attend their Convention at Saratoga on the 11th instant, and address the ratification meeting in the evening of that day...I feel, however, the situation of further business in the Senate, in the middle of next week, will hardly permit me to be way the two or three days in attendance upon the Convention would require...I cannot but congratulate the Republican League, and all the Republicans of New York and of the country, upon the fortunate nominations by the National Convention, and the conspicuous capacity with which the campaign opens...." Two weeks earlier, the Republicans had nominated former U.S. Senator from Indiana Benjamin Harrison for President and former N.Y. Congressman and Ambassador to France Levi P. Morton for Vice President. William M. Evarts (1818-1901) was Chief Counsel for President Andrew Johnson in the 1868 impeachment proceedings in which Johnson was acquitted by one vote. Ironically, a century later, Evarts' great-grandson, Archibald Cox, was appointed and later fired as Watergate Special Prosecutor by President Nixon. Evarts was President Andrew Johnson's Attorney General (1868-1869), counsel for Rutherford B. Hayes before the Electoral Commission in 1876 and Hayes' Secretary of State (1877-1881). From 1885-1891, Evarts represented New York in the U.S. Senate. 3 file holes at blank left. Slightly soiled. Horizontal folds, not at signature. Fine condition.