author
Edward Everett
1794–1865
Best remembered today for the long, carefully crafted speech that came just before Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, he was one of 19th-century America’s most celebrated public speakers. His career ranged far beyond oratory, moving through politics, diplomacy, religion, and higher education.
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About the author
Born in Massachusetts in 1794, he showed unusual academic promise early and entered Harvard at a very young age. He first trained for the ministry and served as a Unitarian pastor, then became a professor of Greek at Harvard, building a reputation as a brilliant lecturer and polished speaker.
Public life drew him in for decades. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, became governor of Massachusetts, later represented the state in the U.S. Senate, and also served as U.S. minister to Great Britain and briefly as secretary of state. He returned to Harvard again as its president, reflecting how comfortably he moved between scholarship and government.
He is most often remembered now for speaking at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg in November 1863, where his formal oration was followed by Abraham Lincoln's much shorter address. Even so, in his own time he was famous in his own right: a respected statesman, educator, and one of the leading American orators of his age.