Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/411

Protecting System ; The American System ; Life of Henry Clay; Early Literature of Modern Europe; Early Literature of France; Origin and Character of the Old Parties ; and Thomas Carlyle. His principal contributions to the " Democratic Review " are the following : The Spectre Bride- groom, from Burger ; The Water-King, a Legend of the Norse ; The Texas Question ; and The Mal- thusian Theory. His contributions to the " Boston Quarterly Review " were chiefly, if not altogether, devoted to an exposition of questions connected with the currency. Among Mr. Everett's pub- lished orations are the following : On the Progress and Limits of the Improvement of Society ; The French Revolution ; The Constitution of the United States ; Discovery of America by the Northmen ; Battle of New Orleans ; and Battle of Bunker Hill. — His brother, Edward, b. in Dorchester, Mass., 11 April, 1794; d. in Boston, 15 Jan., 1865, entered Harvard (where he edited the " Harvard Lyceum ") in 1807, and was graduated with the highest hon- ors in 1811. }n 1813 he was set- tled as pastor over the Unitari- an church in Brat- tle square, Bos- ton, succeeding the Rev. Joseph Stevens Buck- minster, and soon attracted atten- tion by his elo- quence, especially

by his sermon delivered in the hall

of the house of representatives, Washington, in February. 1820. " The sermon was truly splendid," wrote Judge Joseph Story, "and was heard with a breathless silence. The audience was very large, and, being in that magnificent apartment of the house of representa- tives, it had vast effect. I saw Mr. King, of New York, and Mr. Otis, of Massachusetts, there. They were both very much affected with Mr. Everett's sermon ; and Mr. Otis, in particular, wept bitterly. There were some very stirring appeals to our most delicate feelings on the loss of our friends. Indeed, Mr. Everett was almost universally ad- mired as the most eloquent of preachers. Mr. King told me he never heard a discourse so full of unction, eloquence, and good taste." After his graduation Mr. Everett was Latin tutor at Harvard, and in 1814 he was chosen to fill the newly-formed chair of Greek literature, to qualify himself for which he spent more than four years (from the spring of 1815 to the autumn of 1819) in Europe, studying for two years in the University of Gottin- gen. " Edward Everett," remarks Abraham Hay- ward in his sketch of " American Orators aiid Statesmen," in the "London Quarterly Review" for December, 1840, "is one of the most remark- able men living. ... At nineteen he had already acquired the reputation of an accomplished scholar, and was drawing large audiences as a Unitarian preacher. At tweniy-one (the age at which Roger Ascham achieved a similar distinction) he was ap- pointed professor of Greek in Harvard university, and soon afterward he made a tour of Europe, in- eluding Greece. M. Cousin, who was with him in Germany, informed a friend of ours that he was one of the best Grecians he ever knew, and the translator of Plato must have known a good many of the best. On his return from his travels he lectured on Greek literature with the enthusiasm and success of another Abelard — we hope without the Heloise." Before his departure for Europe, Mr. Everett had given a striking proof of his wide reading and critical powers in answering a vol- ume entitled " The Grounds of Christianity Exam- ined," by George B. English (Boston, 1813). Mr, Everett convicts English of dishonesty in his as- sertions, and of plagiarism from Evanson, Collins, Toland, Sember, Priestley, Rabbi Isaac, and Orobio. About ninety-four pages are borrowed from other writers, while English credits other authors with twenty-four pages only. In 1819 INIr. Everett re- turned home and entered upon the duties of the Greek professorship. In addition to his regular duties he published a translation of Buttman's Greek grammar, and a Greek reader based upon that of Jacobs. He became editor of the " North American Review" in January, 1820, and in the next four years contributed to its pages about fifty papers, to which are to be added sixty more written while the " Review " was under the management of his brother Alexander and his successors. lu May, 1822, Mr. Everett married Charlotte Gray, a daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks, whose biogra- phy he wrote. In 1824 Mr. Everett was elected to congress from the Boston district, and sat in the house of representatives for ten years. He took the side in politics maintained by the friends of President John Q. Adams, as a " National Repub- lican " and " Whig " ; but gave special attention to obtaining pensions for the survivors of the Revo- lution, and offered vigorous opposition to the re- moval of the Indians from Georgia. In 1835, and for three successive years thereafter, he was elected governor of Massachusetts, and at the next election was defeated by only one vote out of more than 100,000. In 1840 he made another journey to Eu- rope, and while residing in London he was appoint- ed, chiefly through the influence of Daniel Webster, minister to England. During his sojourn in that country he received the degree of D. C. L. from Ox- ford and that of LL.D. from Cambridge and Dublin, He was recalled by President Polk in 1845. Prom 1846 till 1849 he was president of Harvard college, and on the death of Daniel Webster, in 1852, was appointed secretary of state. In 1853 he succeeded John Davis in the U. S. senate. In the summer and autumn of this year he spoke on the Central American question, addressed the New York his- toi'ical society on colonization and emigration, re- plied to Lord John Russell's protest against the doctrines of the U. S. government in the note de- clining the Tripartite convention, and spoke in opposition to the proposed new constitution in Massachusetts. On the assembling of congress in December, 1853, although his health had been im- paired by his labors, he continued them with such zeal and fidelity in the discussion of the bill to re- peal the Missouri compromise, and other important measures of that session, that in the following May he was obliged to resign his seat. In 1853 Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham originated a plan to purchase Mount Vernon by private subscription, in an address to the women of the United States, signed " A Southern Matron," and in this praise- worthy object she found an efficient advocate in Mr. Everett, who delivered in its behalf his oration on Washington, from 19 March, 1856, till June, 1859 — 122 times — with a result of more than $58,000, In the autumn of 1858 Mr. Everett contracted with Robert Bonner, proprietor of the New York " Ledger," to furnish an article weekly for that paper for one year, in consideration of $10,000, to