Poe Archive

THE LETTER
The Edward Everett letter is written to a Mr. and Mrs. Gordon on 4 November 1843 and in it, Mr. Everett expresses his appreciation for their note of sympathy for the loss of his daughter, Anne Gorham Everett, age 20, who died on 18 October 1843; he briefly describes his daughter and his close relationship with her.

THE BOOK
The book, “Memoir of Anne Gorham Everett”, is a collection of letters and journal entries written by Anne, and compiled by her close childhood friend, Mrs. Philippa Call Bush, fourteen years after Anne’s death. Image 1, shows a handwritten inscription, signed by Edward Everett to a Miss Kettelle. The book was privately published and at the request of Edward Everett distributed only to family and friends. The preface, written by Mr. Everett, can be viewed in Images 4 through 6, and clearly outlines his reasons for “sanctioning” Mrs. Bush’s effort at memorializing her friend, and his desire to protect his daughter’s memory by limiting her early (childhood writings) and the public distribution of the book. Finally on pages 316, 317, and 318 of the memoir, which can be viewed in Images 7 and 8, Edward Everett describes very poignantly his last day with his daughter. On page 318, he describes his daughter much as he had in the letter written 14 years earlier, “Such as the end of our beloved daughter, who, young as she was, had grown up to be my companion and friend, sometimes my adviser, often my exemplar, the object of my tenderest parental love.”

EDWARD EVERETT AT GETTYSBURG
“Everett was considered the nation's greatest orator of his time. He was invited to give the main speech at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on September 23, 1863, following the Battle of Gettysburg. He told the organizing committee that he would be unable to prepare an appropriate speech in such a short period of time, and requested that the date be postponed. The committee agreed, and the dedication was postponed until November 19. Almost as an afterthought, David Wills, the president of the committee, asked President Abraham Lincoln to make a "few appropriate remarks." Everett spoke for two hours, but Lincoln's two-minute follow-up speech, known as the Gettysburg Address, is one of the most famous speeches in the History of the United States. Everett wrote a note to Lincoln the next day, telling him of his appreciation for the President's brief, but moving, speech: "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes."
---From Wikipedia

BIOGRAPHY
“Edward Everett, (father of William Everett), a Representative and a Senator from Massachusetts; born in Dorchester, Mass., April 11, 1794; graduated from Harvard University in 1811; tutor in that university 1812-1814; studied theology and was ordained pastor of the Brattle Street Unitarian Church, Boston, in 1814; professor of Greek literature at Harvard University 1815-1826; overseer of Harvard University 1827-1847, 1849-1854, and 1862-1865; elected to the Nineteenth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1825-March 3, 1835); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1834; chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs (Twentieth Congress); Governor of Massachusetts 1836-1840; appointed United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain 1841-1845; declined a diplomatic commission to China in 1843; president of Harvard University 1846-1849; appointed Secretary of State by President Millard Fillmore to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Daniel Webster and served from November 6, 1852, to March 3, 1853; elected as a Whig to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1853, until his resignation, effective June 1, 1854; unsuccessful candidate for vice president of the United States in 1860 on the Constitutional-Union ticket; died in Boston, Mass., January 15, 1865; interment in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.”
---From the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress