77 Facts About Edward Everett

Edward Everett was an American politician, Unitarian pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator from Massachusetts.

Edward Everett taught at Harvard University and served as its president.

Edward Everett was one of the great American orators of the antebellum and Civil War eras.

The son of a pastor, Edward Everett was educated at Harvard, and briefly ministered at Boston's Brattle Street Church before taking a teaching job at Harvard.

Edward Everett served ten years in the United States Congress before winning election as Governor of Massachusetts in 1835.

Edward Everett next became President of Harvard, a job he quickly came to dislike.

Edward Everett supported efforts to maintain the Union before the Civil War, running for Vice President on the Constitutional Union Party ticket in 1860.

Edward Everett was active in supporting the Union effort during the war and supported Lincoln in the 1864 election.

Edward Everett's father, a native of Dedham, Massachusetts, was a direct descendant of early colonist Richard Everett, and his mother's family had deep colonial roots.

Edward Everett's father had served as pastor of New South Church, retiring due to poor health two years before Everett was born.

Edward Everett died in 1802, when Edward was eight, after which his mother moved the family to Boston.

Edward Everett attended local schools, and then a private school of Ezekiel Webster.

Edward Everett attended Boston Latin School in 1805, and then briefly Phillips Exeter Academy, where his older brother Alexander Hill Edward Everett was teaching.

Unlike some of the other students at the time, Edward Everett was an earnest and diligent student who absorbed all of what was taught.

Uncertain what to do next, Edward Everett was encouraged by his pastor, Joseph Stevens Buckminster of the Brattle Street Church, to study for the ministry.

The Reverend Buckminster died in 1812, and Edward Everett was immediately offered the post at the Brattle Street Church on a probationary basis after his graduation, which was made permanent in November 1813.

Edward Everett dedicated himself to the work, and became a highly popular Unitarian preacher.

In late 1814 Edward Everett was offered a newly endowed position as professor of Greek literature at Harvard.

Edward Everett was formally invested as a professor in April 1815.

Edward Everett was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1815.

Edward Everett made his way across western Europe, visiting London and the major Dutch cities en route to the German city of Gottingen.

Edward Everett was a disciplined student, but he and George Ticknor, with whom he had traveled, were quite sociable.

Edward Everett noted that they were viewed by many at the university as curiosities, and were often the focus of attention.

Edward Everett received permission from Harvard to extend his time in Europe, and spent two more years traveling across the continent, visiting the major cities of the continent before returning to the United States in 1819.

Edward Everett took up his teaching duties later in 1819, hoping to implant the scholarly methods of Germany at Harvard and bring a generally wider appreciation of German literature and culture to the United States.

Emerson had first heard Edward Everett speak at the Brattle Street Church, and idolized him.

In 1820 Edward Everett was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Edward Everett began his public speaking career while he taught at Harvard, which combined with his editorship of the Review to bring him some national prominence.

Edward Everett preached at a service held in the United States Capitol that brought him wide notice and acclaim in political circles.

Edward Everett made a major speech in December 1823 advocating American support of the Greeks in their struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Edward Everett delivered speeches commemorating the opening battles of the American Revolution in Concord, Massachusetts in 1825 and Lexington, Massachusetts in 1835.

On May 8,1822, Edward Everett married Charlotte Gray Brooks, a daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks and Ann Gorham, who like Edward Everett were of old New England lineage.

Edward Everett would become associated through the Brooks family with John Quincy Adams' son Charles Francis Adams, Sr.

Edward Everett had decided as early as 1821 that he was not interested in teaching.

In July 1824 Edward Everett gave an unexpectedly significant speech at Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa Society that would alter his career trajectory.

The subject of Edward Everett's speech was "Circumstances of the Favorable Progress of Literature in America".

Edward Everett pointed out that America's situation as an expanding nation with a common language and a democratic foundation gave its people a unique and distinctive opportunity for creating truly American literature.

Edward Everett had expected to continue teaching at Harvard while serving, but was informed by its Board of Overseers that he had been dismissed because of the election victory.

Edward Everett took this news well, even agreeing to refund to the college the costs of his European travels.

Edward Everett continued to remain associated with Harvard, joining the Board of Overseers in 1827 and serving for many years.

Edward Everett was associated with the "National Republican" faction of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay.

Edward Everett was re-elected to four additional terms as a National Republican, serving until 1835.

In Congress Edward Everett sat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and on the Committee on Libraries and Public Buildings, both of which he chaired in his last term.

Edward Everett supported tariff legislation that protected Massachusetts' growing industrial interests, favored renewal of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, and opposed the Indian Removal Act.

Reaction to this speech was highly critical, and Edward Everett was attacked by political friends and foes for this apparent endorsement of slavery.

Edward Everett attempted to justify his statements by pointing out that he rejected the slave trade and the act of kidnapping someone into slavery, but this did not mitigate the damage, and he was heavily criticized for it in the Massachusetts press.

Edward Everett would be dogged by the speech for the rest of his political career.

Edward Everett retired from Congress in 1835, after deciding that he did not really like the rough-and-tumble nature of the proceedings in the House.

Edward Everett had been offered the nomination for governor of Massachusetts by the Anti-Masonic Party in 1834; although he was known to be against secret societies like the Freemasons, he refused, and supported Whig John Davis for governor that year.

Edward Everett easily defeated the perennial Democratic Party candidate, Marcus Morton, in November 1835.

Edward Everett was re-elected by comfortable margins in the three following years, all facing Morton.

One of the most notable achievements of Edward Everett's tenure was the introduction of a state board of education to improve school quality and the establishment of normal schools for the training of teachers.

In 1838 Edward Everett proposed to President Martin Van Buren that a special commission be established to address the issue.

Edward Everett was at first charged with handling the northeast border issues he first encountered as governor.

One aspect of the slave trade interdiction proposed by Edward Everett found its way into the treaty negotiated by Webster: the stationing of an American squadron off the coast of Africa to cooperate with the British effort.

Edward Everett rebuffed several offers for other diplomatic posts proffered by Webster, who was unhappy serving under Tyler and apparently sought the UK ambassadorship as a way to distance himself from the unpopular president; Webster eventually resigned in 1843.

Edward Everett returned to Boston in September 1845 to learn that the Overseers had offered him the post.

Edward Everett found that Harvard was short of resources, and that he was not popular with the rowdy students.

Edward Everett had been suffering for sometime from a number of maladies, some of them prostate-related.

Edward Everett was somewhat rejuvenated by a visit to the springs at Sharon Springs, New York.

Edward Everett served as an aide to Daniel Webster, who President Millard Fillmore appointed Secretary of State.

Edward Everett was elected by the state legislature, and took the office on March 4,1853.

Edward Everett was opposed to the extension of slavery in the western territories, but was concerned that the radical Free Soil Party's hardline stance would result in disunion.

Free of political obligations, Edward Everett traveled the country with his family, giving public speeches.

Not only did Edward Everett donate the proceeds from this touring, he refused to deduct his travel expenses.

Edward Everett agreed to write a weekly column for the New York Ledger in exchange for a $10,000 gift to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.

Edward Everett was disheartened by the sectional divisions between the Northern and Southern states during the late 1850s.

Supporters of Edward Everett put his name forward as a candidate for president, but the party ended up nominating John Bell, and Edward Everett for vice president.

Edward Everett reluctantly accepted the post, but did not campaign very much.

Edward Everett was an active participant in advancing the unsuccessful Crittenden Compromise in a last-ditch attempt to avoid war during the early months of 1861.

Edward Everett did not at first think highly of Lincoln, but came to support him as the war progressed.

In 1861 and 1862 Edward Everett toured the Northern states, lecturing on the causes of the war, and wrote on behalf of the Union cause for the New York Ledger.

Proposals were put forward that Edward Everett serve as a roving ambassador in Europe to counter Confederate diplomatic initiatives, but these were never brought to fruition.

On January 9,1865, at the age of 70, Edward Everett spoke at a public meeting in Boston to raise funds for the southern poor in Savannah.

Edward Everett's name appears on the facade of the Boston Public Library's McKim Building, which he helped found, serving for twelve years as president of its board.

Edward Everett donated 130 books to St Cloud, beginning the community's first library.

The Edward Everett House, located at 16 Harvard Street in Charlestown, was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission in 1996.