Edward Everett

Edward Everett ( born April 11, 1794 in Boston, Massachusetts, † January 15, 1865 ) was an American politician of the Whig party. He was from 1836 to 1840 governor of Massachusetts and 1852/53 Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United States. He was also from 1846 to 1849 president of Harvard University.

Life

Edward Everett was born 1794 in Boston, the son of the preacher Oliver Everett and Lucy ( Hill ) Everett. He studied theology at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1811. He then worked as a pastor in his hometown of Boston.

From 1825 to 1835 he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1836 to 1840 and governor of Massachusetts. He then worked as the successor to Andrew Stevenson American ambassador in the United Kingdom, and subsequently Professor of Greek History at Harvard University, as its president until 1849 and served from 1846.

On November 19, 1863 one of the largest cemeteries of the American Civil War was inaugurated at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Edward Everett was the keynote speaker at the ceremony, followed by President Abraham Lincoln, who spoke his legendary greeting word " Gettysburg Address ". Everett said to have then said to Lincoln: " Dear Mr President I wish I could flatter myself to have brought the heart of the matter in two hours so succinctly expresses how you have succeeded in two minutes. "

The city of Everett, Middlesex County is named after Edward Everett. His son William sat from 1893 to 1895 also for Massachusetts in Congress.