Edward Everett (1794–1865)

American Unitarian clergyman, educator, orator, statesman and governor of Massachusetts, in which post he was responsible for helping establish the nation’s first state public school system. A professor of Greek at Harvard from 1819 to 1825, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 10 years before being elected Massachusetts governor in 1836. As governor, he established the first state board of education in the United States. Headed by state senator HORACE MANN, the board was charged with establishing a system of public schools throughout the state. After one term as governor, Everett was named U.S. minister to Great Britain in 1841. He served until 1846, when he became president of Harvard—a post he held until 1849. He was appointed U.S. secretary of state in 1852–53, served as a U.S. senator from 1853–54, and on November 19, 1863, owing to his reputation as a stirring orator, delivered the little-known, two-hour oration that accompanied Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.