Edward Everett | Biography

Edward Everett (11 April 1794-15 January 1865) was a noted nineteenth-century educator and clergyman, and was one of the New England Brahmins whose credentials were not unlike those of George Bancroft, Edward Everett Hale, and others. The Everett name had been established firmly in New England since 1642, when Richard Everett settled at Dedham, Massachusetts. His descendant, Oliver Everett, father of Edward, graduated in 1779 from Harvard College and became minister of the New South Church in Boston. Poor health required that he move to Dorchester, where he was prominent in the Federalist Party and served as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Edward Everett was born in Dorchester on 11 April 1794, one of eight children. In 1807 Edward graduated from the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. His delivery of the Valedictory Latin Address was the first sign of the recognition of his talents as an orator. In 1807 Everett entered Harvard College, and in 1814 received the degree of M.A. in divinity. While at Harvard, Everett received added acclaim for his abilities as an orator. He also showed promise of his later outstanding career as a writer by organizing and editing the Harvard Lyceum. In 1813 Everett accepted an invitation to become minister of the fashionable Brattle Street Church (Unitarian) in Boston, and was installed in February 1814 at the age of nineteen. After a year's service, Everett accepted a chair at Harvard, and journeyed to Europe in 1815 for additional study. After being awarded a Ph.D. at Gottingen in 1817, the first such degree given to an American, he joined the Harvard faculty and soon became editor of the North American Review. Soon Everett's abilities as an orator led him to politics, and he served Massachusetts in the United States Congress from 1825 to 1835. Gradually Everett's political fortunes increased, due in part to his abilities as a speaker and writer. After serving four terms as governor of Massachusetts during the 1830s, he was appointed minister to the Court of St. James, and in 1852 was appointed secretary of state. His position as a moderate New England Whig produced both his election to the Senate in 1853 and his nomination in 1860 as Vice-President on the ticket of the Constitutional Union Party. A strong advocate of the Union cause during the Civil War, Everett is perhaps known best for his 1863 oration which preceded that of President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg. He died of pneumonia in Boston in 1865. His works were collected as Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions, 4 vols. (Boston: Little & Brown, 1850-1868).