Edward Everett (born April 11, 1794, Dorchester, Mass., U.S.—died Jan. 15, 1865, Boston) was an American statesman and orator who is mainly remembered for delivering the speech immediately preceding President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (Nov. 19, 1863) at the ceremony dedicating the Gettysburg National Cemetery (Pa.) during the American Civil War (1861–65).
By 1820 Everett had established a formidable reputation as a lecturer and orator, based on careful preparation, an extraordinary memory, and brilliance of style and delivery. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1825–35), as governor of Massachusetts (1835–39), and as U.S. minister to England (1841–45). With his election as president of Harvard in 1846, he withdrew from politics for several years, returning in 1852 as secretary of state during the last four months of President Millard Fillmore’s administration. In 1853 he entered the U.S. Senate, but his generally conciliatory stand on the issue of slavery aroused the ire of his abolitionist constituents, and he resigned the following year.
In 1860 Everett was the unsuccessful vice presidential candidate of the Constitutional Union Party, which sought to bridge sectional differences by stressing common devotion to the Union and the Constitution. His desire for compromise ended at the outbreak of the Civil War, throughout which he traveled and spoke in support of the Union cause.