Edward Everett

Edward Everett (1794-1865), American statesman, educator, and orator, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard University and the University of Göttingen, Germany. Everett was editor of the North American Review from 1820 until 1824. In 1825 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served for ten years. He was governor of Massachusetts from 1836 to 1840. The following year he was appointed U.S. minister to Britain, returning to the U.S. in 1845 to become president of Harvard University, a position he held from 1846 to 1849. Everett served as secretary of state (1852-1853) under President Millard Fillmore and as U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1853 to 1854. In 1860 he ran unsuccessfully for the vice-presidency on the ticket of the Constitutional Union Party as the running mate of John Bell of Tennessee. His orations, including the one he delivered before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, were published in four volumes (1850-1892).