Background
George Evans was born in Hallowell, Maine.
George Evans was born in Hallowell, Maine.
He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1815.
He was admitted to the bar, and began practise in Gardiner, where he lived for the greater part of his life. In 1825 he was elected to the legislature as a National Republican, serving until 1829, the last year as speaker. In 1829 he began a period of twelve years’ service in the national House of Representatives. During his first term he made a notable speech (May 18, 1830) opposing the Georgia land policy and the removal of the Indians, but his chief interests were, from the first, in the field of public finance. Among his great speeches in the House might be mentioned his reply to McDuffie on the tariff, June 11, 1832 ; on the removal of the deposits from the United States Bank, Febuary 3 and April 21, 1834; and on the fortifications bill of the preceding session, January 28, 1836, in which he had a memorable clash with John Quincy Adams. The latter described him (Memoirs, IX, 1876, p. 388) as “one of the ablest men and most eloquent orators in Congress. His powers of reasoning and of pathos, his command of language and his elocution, are not exceeded by any member of this Congress; much superior to the last. Adams, like other contemporaries, also commented on his remarkable knowledge of parliamentary law and his mastery of the rules, precedents, and floor tactics of the House. In 1841 he entered the Senate, and, regardless of seniority rules, was made chairman of its committee on finance, a tribute to the reputation he had made as a minority member of the ways and means committee of the House. He held this position throughout the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses and was responsible for much of their revenue legislation. Most of his speeches were on financial topics, and in the course of debate on July 25, 1846, Webster, referring to Evans’s approaching retirement from the Senate, declared that his understanding of revenue and financial questions generally was equal to that of Gallatin or Crawford. In 1847 the Maine legislature was Democratic and Evans accordingly was obliged to retire. His support of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, very unpopular in his own state, is reported to have injured him politically and to have led to certain intrigues in the following year which prevented his appointment to a position in President Taylor’s cabinet. It had been hoped by his friends that he would become secretary of the treasury. He served for two years, however, as chairman of the commission on Mexican claims and in 1851, refusing the offer of several other federal posts, returned to Maine. He resumed the practise of law and in 1854 removed from Gardiner to Portland. He served as attorney-general of the state in 1853, 1854, and 1856, but the collapse of the Whig party and sundry personal feuds following the convention of 1852 had apparently left him without party affiliations and his conservative temperament made him suspicious of the new Republican organization. He is said to have voted the Democratic ticket in his later years, but his active political career had ended. He was an active member of the Maine Historical Society for the greater part of his life, an Overseer for nineteen and a trustee of Bowdoin College for twenty-two years (1826 - 67). His career, however, shows how readily, under such conditions as prevailed in the fifties, a leader of first-rate ability may be sidetracked, and fail to attain the enduring fame which apparently he merited. To this failure his own inability to grasp the overwhelming importance of slavery as a moral and political issue undoubtedly contributed.
He was a strong supporter of the protective tariff, internal improvements, and the United States Bank.
national House of Representatives
Senate, chairman of its committee on finance
He was an active member of the Maine Historical Society for the greater part of his life, an Overseer for nineteen and a trustee of Bowdoin College for twenty-two years (1826 - 67).
James G. Blaine also described him as “a man of commanding power” and “entitled to rank next to Mr. Webster” among New England senators
In October 1820 he married Ann Dearborn.