EVERETT, EDWARD (1 794-1865), American statesman and orator, was born in Dorchester, Mass., on April 11, 1794, of colonial ancestors. His father, a minister, died in 1802, and his mother removed to Boston with her family after her husband's death. At 17 Edward Everett graduated from Harvard college, taking first honours in his class. While a student he distinguished himself by his remarkable memory and his literary tastes. His earlier predilections were for the law, but the advice of Joseph Stevens Buckminster, a preacher in Boston, led him to prepare for the pulpit, and as a preacher he at once became prominent. He was called to the ministry of the Brattle street church (Unitarian) in Boston before he was 20 years old. The melody of his voice and the splendour of his images enthralled his hearers; and he fur ther demonstrated his ability and zeal by his publication in 1814 of a volume entitled Defence of Christianity, written in answer to The Grounds of Christianity Examined (1813), by G. B. English.
Everett's tastes, however, were then, as always, those of a scholar; and in 1815, after little more than a year in the pulpit, he resigned his charge to accept a professorship of Greek literature in Harvard college. After nearly five years spent in Europe in preparation, during which time he was the first American to receive the Ph.D. degree from Gottingen, he entered with his usual in dustry on his duties. For five years more he won the affectionate admiration of his students and, through his lectures and sermons, the plaudits of a wider audience. He was increasingly restless in his teaching, however, and threw himself with energy into the editorship of the North American Review (182o-24), the in fluence of which he greatly extended. His election to the House of Representatives forced him to vacate his professorship, and thereafter his career was largely political. As congressman (18 2 5 3 5) he supported generally the administration of President J. Q. Adams and opposed that of Jackson, which succeeded it. He bore a part in almost every important debate, and was a member of the committee on foreign affairs during the whole time of his service in Congress as well as a member of nearly all the most important select committees, such as those on the Apportionment bill and the Bank of the United States. Although he aroused much criticism by his unnecessary defence of slavery in the event of a slave insurrection, honour is due to him for his unsuccessful op position to the Indian policy of Gen. Jackson (the removal of the Cherokee and other Indians, without their consent, from lands guaranteed to them by treaty).
In 1835 he was elected governor of Massachusetts. He brought to the duties of the office the untiring diligence which was the char acteristic of his public life. A few of the measures which received his efficient support were the establishment of the first board of education and normal school in the United States, the scientific surveys of the State (the first of such public surveys), the criminal law commission, and the preservation of a sound currency during the panic of 1837. Everett filled the office of governor for four years, and was then defeated by an exceedingly small majority, largely through the lethargy of the Whigs.
In the following spring he made a visit with his family to Europe. In 1841, while residing in Florence, he was nominated U.S. minister to Great Britain, and arrived in London upon the duties of his mission at the close of that year. Critical questions were at that time open between the two countries—the north eastern boundary, the affair of M'Leod, the seizure of American vessels on the coast of Africa, in the course of a few months the affair of the "Creole," to which was soon added the Oregon ques tion. Although direct negotiations were handled at Washington, Everett's conduct of his legation won the approbation of Webster and his successors and the esteem of the English court.
Immediately after the accession of Polk to the presidency Ever ett was recalled. From Jan. 1846 to 1849, as the successor of Josiah Quincy, he was president of Harvard college, but found disciplinary matters trying. One of the outstanding achievements of his administration was the foundation of the Lawrence scien tific school, to which he brought Louis Agassiz as professor.
On the death in Oct., 1852, of his friend Daniel Webster, to whom since his school days he had been closely attached, he suc ceeded him as secretary of State. This post he held for the remain ing months of Fillmore's administration, leaving it to go into the Senate in 1853 as one of the representatives of Massachusetts. Under the work of the long session of 1853-54 his health gave way. In May, 1854, he resigned his seat, on the orders of his physician, and retired to what was called private life. But, as it proved, the remaining ten years of his life most widely established his reputation and influence throughout America.
As early as 182o he had established a reputation as an orator such as few men in later days have enjoyed. Careful preparation, an extraordinary memory and brilliance of style and delivery all blended to make him a superb, although possibly a too ornate, speaker. Eager to avert, if possible, the impending conflict of arms between the North and South, he prepared an "oration" on George Washington, which he delivered in every part of America. In this way he raised about $70,00o for the purchase of the old home of Washington at Mt. Vernon, adding $ro,000 more to it by contribut ing weekly articles for a year to the New York Ledger. These were published in book form as Mount Vernon Papers (1859). Everett also prepared for the Encyclopedia Britannica a biographical sketch of Washington, which was published separately in 186o. In 186o Everett was the candidate of the short-lived Constitutional Union Party for the vice presidency, on the ticket with John Bell (q.v.), but received only 39 electoral votes. During the Civil War he zealously supported the national Government, was fre quently consulted by the administration and was called upon in every quarter to speak at public meetings. He delivered the last of his great orations at Gettysburg, after the battle, on the conse cration of the national cemetery there. On Jan. 9, 1865, he spoke at a public meeting in Boston to raise funds for the Savannah sufferers. At that meeting he caught cold, his death resulting on Jan. 15, 1865. (E. E. H.) Everett's Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions was first published in 1836. Later additions resulted in a collection P. R. Frothingham's Edward Everett, Orator and States man (1925) is a belated but generally adequate biography.