Wills House Virtual Identity: Edward Everett

Steel Engraving of Edward Everett ca. 1860

Library of Congress

You have selected to discover the story of Edward Everett.

To Begin. . .
Read the “Before the War” section below and then proceed to the next room in the Wills House and return to page when prompted.

 

Before the War

Edward Everett was a distinguished American statesman, educator, and famed orator. Highly intelligent from a very young age, Everett entered Harvard at age 13 and graduated at age 17 as class valedictorian. He next entered the ministry and served as a pastor for a few years before accepting a professorship at Harvard, teaching Greek literature. In this position, he spent several years traveling Europe, and earned a Ph.D. from a German University. Upon his return, he taught, wrote, and began a speaking career that gained him great fame and notoriety. He entered the political arena in 1824, first elected to the House of Representatives, and then going on to serve as Governor of Massachusetts, ambassador to Great Britain, Secretary of State, and finally Senator from Massachusetts. He also served a stint as President of Harvard College. Leaving politics in 1854, Everett traveled the country giving public speeches. Through his speeches he also helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the restoration of George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. Throughout all of his world travels and learned accomplishments, the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania most likely never entered his mind.

From Here:

You may proceed now through the first floor exhibits, and return to Everett’s story below whenever you leave David Wills’s law office.

 

During the War

Everett ran as the Vice-Presidential candidate for John Bell on the Constitutional Union Party during the Election of 1860, an election ultimately won by the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. Everett strongly supported and spoke out in favor of the Union and while he was initially critical of President Lincoln, he would come to support him and his administration’s war efforts. After a lifetime of distinguished accomplishments, Edward Everett would become best known as the main orator at the November 19, 1863, dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, delivering the main speech before Lincoln’s “few, appropriate remarks.” Invited by David Wills as the star attraction to deliver the main dedicatory address, Everett worked hard at crafting his speech, which would exceed two hours. Like Lincoln and a host of others, Everett would stay as a guest here at the Wills House the night prior to the ceremony. Everett’s speech at Gettysburg, though entirely overshadowed by Lincoln’s, was a tremendous success. Realizing, however, how strongly Lincoln’s words resonated, Everett famously wrote to the President the day after the ceremony: “I should be glad if I can flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” Lincoln took special pride in these words from the great orator and statesman, Edward Everett.

From Here. . .

Be sure to read a small portion of Everett’s speech on the glass panel at the top of the stairs. Once you have toured the second floor, you can return to Everett’s story below.

 

After the War

Edward Everett did not live long enough to see the end of the American Civil War. On January 9, 1865, he delivered a speech to help raise money for the poor. He caught a cold and his health quickly deteriorated. He died in Boston on January 15, 1865, at the age of 70, and was laid to rest in the historic Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A number of schools, libraries, and towns—and even a mountain in Massachusetts—were later named in his honor.