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A MEMORIAL
OF
EDWARD EVERETT,
THE CITY OF BOSTON.
BOSTON:
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL
M PC COL XV.
COMPILED BY J. M.-BUGBEE,
THE MAYOR S CLERK.
PRINTED BY J. E. FARWELT. & COMPANY,
1* I! I N T E R S TO THE CITY.
THIS volume has been prepared, under the direction
of a Committee of the City Council, for the purpose of
preserving, in a permanent form, some of the numerous
tributes of respect to the memory of EDWARD EVERETT,
whose great accomplishments and unsurpassed eloquence
were always devoted to the cause of good morals, to
the elevation of the human race, and to creating in the
hearts of his countrymen " THE LOVE OF LIBERTY PRO
TECTED BY LAW."
CONTENTS.
Memoir of Edward Everett, by Rev. E. E. Hale
Order of the President of the United States 19
Proceedings in the Board of Aldermen 23
Proceedings in the Common Council 28
Meeting in Faneuil Hall 33
Address of Mayor Lincoln 35
Resolutions 37
Remarks of Hon. Charles G. Loring 40
Remarks of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop 45
Remarks of Hon. Alexander H. Bullock
Committee on the Erection of a Statue 66
Funeral 71
Address of Rev. Rufus Ellis 73
Procession 79
Proceedings of the School Committee 85
Proceedings of the Trustees of the Public Library 91
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Legislature 95
Speech of Senator Wentworth 100
Speech of Senator Worcester 101
Speech of Senator Chadbourne 109
Speech of Mr. Wells Ill
Speech of Mr. Scudder ^ 113
Proceedings of the Board of Trade 117
Remarks of E. S. Tobey, Esq " 117
Remarks of J. M. Beebe, Esq 121
Remarks of R. B. Forbes, Esq 123
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society 127
Remarks of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop 127
Remarks of Hon. George S. Hillard 134
Resolutions 142
Remarks of Rev. S. K. Lothrop, D . D 143
6 CONTENTS.
PAGE
Remarks of Hon. John C. Gray 160
Remarks of George Ticknor, Esq 164
Remarks of Hon. John H. Clifford 177
Remarks of Rev. James Walker, D. D 186
Poem of Dr. O. W. Holmes 189
Remarks of Hon. Richard H. Dana, Jr 192
Remarks of Hon. B. F. Thomas 194
Remarks of Hon. James Savage . . 200
Remarks of Hon. Emory Washburn 201
Letter of John G. Whittier 211
Proceedings of the Thursday-Evening Club 217
Remarks of Dr. J. Mason Warren 217
Remarks of Mr. E. P. Whipple 219
Remarks of Bishop Eastburn 227
Remarks of Dr. A.A.Gould 231
Proceedings of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society . . . . 235
Remarks of Mr. John H. Sheppard 235
Resolutions 236
Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 241
Remarks of Hon. Stephen Salisbury 241
Resolutions 242
Remarks of Rev. Dr. Sweetser 244
Remarks of Rev. Dr. Hill 248
Remarks of Hon. Isaac Davis 254
Remarks of Judge Barton 256
Remarks of Hon. Levi Lincoln 261
Remarks of Hon. Henry Chapin 264
Memorial Services at the Everett School , 271
Remarks of Frederic F. Thayer, Esq 271
Remarks of Rev. R. C. Waterston 278
Remarks of Charles W. Slack, Esq 287
Proceedings of the Overseers of Harvard University
Proceedings of the Faculty of Harvard College 297
Proceedings of the Standing Committee of the First Church 298
Proceedings of the Franklin Medal Association 300
Proceedings of the Mercantile Library Association 303
Proceedings of the Franklin Typographical Society 305
Proceedings of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association 307
Proceedings of the Bunker Hill Monument Association 309
Proceedings of the Lincoln Guard 311
Chronological Table , 313
MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT,
^.^ T i?5x
* v
Library*
V
MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT.
EDWARD EVERETT was born in Dorchester, Norfolk
County, near Boston, on the llth of April, 1794.* His
father, Rev. Oliver Everett, had resigned the ministry
of the New South Church, in Boston, in 1792, and re
moved to Dorchester, where he spent the remainder of
his life. On his father s side Mr. Everett was descended
from Richard Everett, or Everard, of Dedham, one of
the early settlers in New-England, who is said by tra
dition to have been a soldier in the Low Countries.
His mother was Lucy Hill, daughter of Alexander Sears
Hill of Boston, and Mary Richey, and granddaughter
of Alexander Hill, a merchant of Boston through the
greater part of a long life. On both sides Mr. Everett
was descended from ancestors almost all of whom were
of the first Puritan emigration. His maternal grand
mother, Mary Richey, was born in Philadelphia. His
grandfather, Alexander Sears Hill, graduated at Har
vard College in 1764, and died in 1771.
* In the preparation of this sketch, we have in some passages availed ourselves
of a careful article published in the Boston Daily Advertiser, the day after Mr.
Everett s death.
10 MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Rev. Oliver Everett, the father of Edward Everett,
was the minister of the New South Church, in Boston,
from 1782 to 1792, when,, with failing health, he re
tired from the ministry. Pie was appointed Judge of
the Circuit Court in 1799, and is sometimes spoken of
as Judge Everett in the contemporary journals. He
died on the 19th of November, 1802, and, in the
spring of 1803, his widow, with her large young family
removed to Boston. Edward Everett was then a boy of
nine years of age, and since that time to his death he
has been nearly connected, by residence or by official
duty, with this town. His mother s residence at that
time was in the street then known as Proctor s Lane,
now the eastern part of Richmond Street. He was
placed at school at the reading and writing schools in
North Bennet Street, under the care of Master Ezekiel
Little and Master John Tileston. At this " double
school," in 1804, he received a Franklin Medal. In that
year his mother removed her residence to a house now
standing in Richmond Street, and on the death of her
grandfather, Mr. Hill, removed again to a house in the
upper part of Newbury Street, now Washington Street,
nearly opposite the head of Essex Street. About this time
Mr. Everett s regular preparation for college was begun,
and he was sent to a private school, kept by Mr. Ezekiel
Webster, of New Hampshire, a gentleman, says Mr.
Everett himself, " of eminent talent and great worth,
well entitled to be remembered for his own sake, but
better known as the elder brother of Mr. Daniel Web
ster." On one occasion, during his brother s absence,
MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT. H
Mr. Daniel Webster took charge of the school for a week.
It was thus that an acquaintance began, which afterwards
ripened into the closest regard. Mr. Webster himself
says of it, [July 21, 1852,] :
" We now and then see stretching across the heavens
a clear, blue, cerulean sky, without cloud, or mist, or
haze. And such appears to me our acquaintance, from
the time when I heard you for a week recite your les
sons in the little schoolhouse in Short Street to the date
hereof."
Few things, probably, were less in the thought of
either, in that schoolhouse, than that the boy, as Gov
ernor of Massachusetts, would one day sign the^ commis
sion of his teacher as Senator of the United States, or,
at a later day, succeed him in the State Department.
In 1805 he was sent to the Latin Grammar School,
then temporarily under the* charge of Mr. Samuel Cooper
Thacher, who soon afterwards left it in the charge of
Mr. William Biglow. At this school, his classmates, as
named in its own Catalogue, were William Turell An
drews, Samuel Blagge, John Borland, Charles Pelham
Curtis, Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, Benjamin Daniel
Greene, Alba Hayward, George Edward Head, Harrison
Gray Otis, William Parke, Edward Reynolds, William
Smith, Solomon Davis Townsend, Benjamin Lincoln
Weld, with two boys named Simpson whose other names
are not given. At this school, in 1806, he received
another Franklin Medal. In the same year he was
sent to Exeter Academy, then under the charge of Dr.
Benjamin Abbot, with the assistance of Nathan Hale and
12 MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Alexander H. Everett, Edward Everett s older brother.
Here he remained till he was fitted for Harvard Col
lege, which he entered in the summer of 1807.
He graduated in 1811, and entered immediately on the
study of Divinity, under the direction of President Kirk-
land, acting, at the same time, as Latin Tutor. In 1813
he was invited to become the minister of the Brattle
Square Church, in Boston, and resumed his residence
here. He was ordained on the 9th Feb., 1814.
In 1815 he was called by the government of Harvard
College to the chair of the Greek Professorship, then
recently established by Mr. Samuel Eliot. Accepting
their invitation, he made his first visit to Europe to pre
pare for his new duties, and, in company with Mr. George
Ticknor, went at once to Gottingen, they being among
the first Americans to resort to a German university.
Returning to America in 18 ft), after a long course of
study and travel, he entered upon his professorship,
where he gave, in the next four years, an impulse to the
study of Greek literature in America which is not yet lost.
In 1822, while a professor at Cambridge, he married
Charlotte Gray, daughter of the late Hon. Peter Chardon
Brooks. By this marriage he had three sons and four
daughters. Four of these children are not now living.
One of the daughters died soon after her birth. Grace
Webster Everett, named for the wife of Hon. Daniel
Webster, died in her ninth year. Anne Gorham Everett,
who grew to womanhood, and shewed at an early age
many of the traits of character and genius which distin
guished her father, died in London, Oct. 18, 1854. Dr.
MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT. 13
Edward Brooks Everett, who graduated at Cambridge in
1850, died November 5, 1861, leaving two children,
Edward and Louisa Adams, by his wife, Helen Cordis,
daughter of Benjamin Adams, Esq. of this city.
The children who survive Mr. Everett are Charlotte
Brooks Wise, wife of Captain Henry Augustus Wise,
of the United States Navy ; Henry Sidney Everett, who
graduated at Harvard College in 1855, now Major in the
Volunteer Army of the United States, and William
Everett, who graduated at Harvard College in 1859, and
took the degree of B. A. at the University of Cambridge,
England, in 1862.
Mr. Everett was elected to Congress, at the election in
1824, from the Middlesex district, and, leaving his aca
demic pursuits, entered upon a new and more public
career as a statesman. He took his seat in the House
of Representatives in 1825, as a supporter of Mr. Adams,
and served there for ten years. He was at once ap
pointed to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. To the*
foreign relations of the country, therefore, he gave espe
cial attention, but his interest was not limited to them.
These years were marked by discussions on the most
important interests in our legislation, and in many of
these discussions he took a leading place. He served
in Congress through Mr. Adams s administration, and
part of that of General Jackson s.
In 1835 Mr. Everett was elected Governor of Massa
chusetts, and held that office for the four years follow
ing. His official term was a period of unusual interest
in the historv of the State. The Board of Education
14 MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT.
was then organized, the Normal Schools founded, the
State subscription to the stock of the Western Railroad
was made ; and the division of the surplus revenue of the
United States presented a unique question of State polic/.
Losing his reelection by a single vote in 1839, Mr.
Everett, thus released from public duty, sailed for Eu
rope the second time, in June 1840, with his family, and
passed a winter in Italy. General Harrison s election,
however, brought his political friends into favor, and Mr.
Everett was appointed Minister at the Court of St. James.
The questions relating to the Northeastern Boundary, the
fisheries, the Caroline, the Creole, the case of McLeod,
and other matters of dispute, were then at their most
critical stage. Mr. Webster s intimate knowledge of the
powers and qualifications of his friend gave the latter
full scope for unfettered action ; and never, -it is safe to
say, was a difficult diplomatic duty discharged with more
judgment, delicacy, and grace. Multiplied marks of re
spect, among which we may name only the honorary
degrees conferred upon him by the Universities of Ox
ford, Cambridge, and Dublin, testified the apprecia
tion of the cultivated public opinion of England; and
many personal friendships, with men of the highest po
sition in society or in letters, remained until his last mo
ment as the memorials of this period of his life. W r e
may add that, more than once during the present war,
proposals to accept diplomatic responsibilities of a con
fidential nature have marked the recollection of his tri
umphs in this part of his career, by members of the
present administration.
MEMOIK OF EDWARD EVERETT. 15
Returning home in 1846, Mr. Everett was recalled to
academic life, by his Alrna Mater, which in that year
elected him President, to succeed the venerable Josiah
Quincy. Holding this position for three years, Mr.
Everett resigned it in 1849, and for some years re
mained in comparative retirement.
While still at Cambridge, he had given an impulse
to a movement for a Public Library in Boston, and he
no sooner left the presidency of the College than he
addressed himself to its establishment on a generous
scale. T In a letter to the Mayor of the City of Boston,
Hon. John P. Bigelow. he suggested the plan which
has been steadily carried forward from that moment,
and now exhibits a result of the greatest interest and
value. Different suggestions had been offered with re
gard to such a library, but they had slept without action,
until Mr. Everett proposed the scheme to the Mayor.
Mr. Bigelow immediately made the first contribution in
money towards this purpose, and Mr. Everett sketched
out a plan for the conduct of the institution. He had,
while in Cambridge, made a large gift of books to the
city, as a part of the nucleus of such an institution.
A Board of Trustees was appointed, of which he was
the chairman, a position which he held until his death.
This Board, in conjunction with the appropriate com
mittees of the City Government, opened a library, tem
porarily, in 1852. Mr. Joshua Bates, the intimate and
confidential friend of Mr. Everett, in the autumn of
the same year, made the first of a series of magnificent
pecuniary gifts to it. This institution differs from every
16 MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT.
other large library in the country, in being a circu
lating library, from which every person resident in the
town may take books, without charge, so long as he
observes the regulations. Mr. Everett lived long enough
to witness the complete success of his plans and an
swer to his wishes in its operations. He justly con
sidered it as essential in a system which aims at
universal education.
At the death of Mr. Webster, in October, 1852,
Mr. Everett was called by President Fillmore to the
Department of State.
During the few months that he was Secretary of
State, he had occasion, in the matter of the proposed
tripartite convention respecting Cuba, to leave upon
record a memorable token of the reach and vigor of
his policy in foreign aifairs. The change of administra
tion, however, withdrew him from office, and in 1853 he
took his seat in the United States Senate, as successor
of Hon. John Davis. His health, however, which had
for some years been impaired, had now almost given
way, under the pressure of his labors in the Cabinet.
His sufferings during that winter were intense. He
spoke against the repeal of the Missouri Compro
mise, a measure which he has termed the Pandora s
box from which our ills have flowed, but was com
pelled in May, 1854, to resign his seat; and this event
terminated his career in public office in the service of
the Nation, with a single memorable exception.
The great work which he performed in the next
four years, when, with infirm bodily powers, he labored
MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT. 17
incessantly for the Mount Vernon Fund, is fresh in the
minds of all. The sum collected by his efforts for this
noble object was little less than one hundred thousand
dollars, and his motives for undertaking such a task,
recently alluded to in one of his own public speeches,
will command admiration as long as his name shall be
remembered :
" After the sectional warfare of opinion and feeling
reached a dangerous height, anxious if* possible to bring
a counteractive and conciliating influence into play; feel
ing that there was yet one golden chord of sympathy
which ran throughout the land ; in the hope of con
tributing something, however small, to preserve what
remained, and restore what was lost of kind feeling
between the two sections of the country, I devoted the
greater part of my time for three years to the attempt
to give new strength in the hearts of my countrymen
to the last patriotic feeling in which they seemed to
beat in entire unison, veneration and love for the
name of Washington, and reverence for the place of
his rest. With this object in view, I travelled thousands
of miles, by night and by day, in midwinter and mid
summer, speaking three, four, and five times a week, in
feeble health, and under a heavy bnrden of domestic
care and sorrow, and inculcating the priceless value of
the Union in precisely the same terms from Maine to
Georgia and from New York to St. Louis."
The single exception alluded to, in which Mr. Everett
once more discharged a high public function in the
National service, was his fulfilment of the imposing
18 MEMOIR OF EDWARD EVERETT.
charge given him by the people of Massachusetts, when
they chose him their first Presidential Elector, in No
vember, 1864. With this exception, his constant service
as a Trustee of the Public Library of the city has been
his only official duty. But in every walk of life he
used his closing years in the service of his fellow-men.
He had recently promised to deliver before the Dane Law
School a course of lectures on International Law, and
he was engaged in the preparation of these when he
died.
The last occasion on which his voice was heard by
his fellow-citizens in public, was at the meeting in
Faneuil Hall on Monday, January 12, for the relief of
the people of Savannah. To those who heard him on
that occasion he seemed to exhibit more than his usual
animation, and his face was free from the expression
of subdued suffering which has too often marked it.
Upon his return home, however, after a day of fatiguing
engagements, he was obliged to summon his physician,
and did not again leave his house, suffering from a
serious oppression of the lungs. He slept well through
Saturday night, until shortly after four, when a sudden
attack of an apoplectic nature ensued, which, in a few
minutes, proved fatal. He died on the 15th of January,
1865, in the seventy-first year of his age.
OEDEE,
OF THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, January 15, 1865.
The President directs the undersigned to perform the
painful duty of announcing to the people of the United
States that Edward Everett, distinguished not more by
learning and eloquence than by unsurpassed and disinter
ested labors of patriotism at a period of political disorder,
departed this life at four o clock this morning. The sev
eral Executive departments of the Government will cause
appropriate honors to be rendered to the memory of the
deceased, at home and abroad, wherever the national
name and authority are acknowledged.
WM. H. SEWAKD.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE CITY COUNCIL.
THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN.
A SPECIAL meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held on
Monday, January 16, in response to a call by his Honor the
Mayor, for the purpose of taking appropriate notice of the
death of Mr. Everett.
The Mayor, on taking the chair, submitted the following
communication :
To THE HONORABLE THE CITY COUNCIL :
GENTLEMEN : Yesterday, Sabbath morning, January 15,
the Honorable Edward Everett was suddenly summoned
by the Great Disposer of Events to finish his course
on earth, and to enter upon the happiness of an im
mortal existence. The sober cares of God s holy day
were sanctified by the hallowing influence of this sad
event, and our community, which had been so long
blessed by his presence, felt that they had sustained
a loss which never can be filled by this generation.
I have deemed it my duty to order the bells of
the city churches to be tolled, to announce to our
inhabitants the death of their most distinguished cit
izen, and I have called you together at this unusual
hour that you may take such measures as your own
24 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
hearts and the proprieties of this solemn occasion may
suggest.
Mr. Everett, through his long and honorable career,
has been strongly identified with the reputation of
Boston ; and although his great talents and splendid
accomplishments have often been at the service of the
nation and the commonwealth, yet his dearest interests
have been concentrated upon the community in which
his home was chosen, and which depended upoipi him
for advice and assistance in every great emergency and
in all good works.
Boston never had a citizen who responded with more
alacrity to her demands. He was ever ready to serve
her in official relations, or on those more informal
occasions, which were graced by his eloquence and
power. His pen and tongue, whenever wanted, were
devoted to her service and honor, and -his highest
happiness, I believe, was in ministering to the welfare
of her people.
Commencing his public education in Boston, when
nine years of age, as a pupil in the Eliot School, at
the North End, where, in 1804, he received his first
Franklin medal, he devoted a portion of the latter
years of his great life to the care of the Public Li
brary, acting, from its organization until his death, as
the President of the Board of Trustees.
Faneuil Hall, so often the scene where the inspi
ration of his powerful and impassioned eloquence stirred
the hearts of our people, witnessed his last intellect
ual effort ; and his closing speech, before a popular
IN THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN. 25
assembly, was, by a wise Providence, ordained to be a
pathetic and patriotic appeal in. behalf of the suffering
inhabitants of the city of Savannah. It was a grand
and appropriate termination to a life of unselfish patri
otism and distinguished public service.
His merits as a statesman, a scholar, and a philanthro
pist were acknowledged throughout the civilized world.
We, who were drawn nearer to him in local matters,
knew^iow to appreciate him as a citizen, as a man true
in all the relations of social and domestic life, and one
x-
whose commanding influence was always brought to
bear on the side of religion and morals, who was an
example to youth, and a prompter of noble deeds to
those in riper years.
Mr. Everett s memory will ever be cherished with
pride by . Bostonians, as one who has added to the
fame of the city which he loved; and I have no doubt
you will agree with me that, as he shared to so large
an extent our admiration and respect while living, so
he should be suitably remembered by the Municipal
Government now that he is gone.
As the representatives of the people, it is our duty
in their behalf to testify in some form our sense of
the bereavement we have sustained by his death ; and
your action is respectfully invoked for such measures
as may be proper, and which will comport with the
dignity and character of the occasion. Pie has left no
contemporary as his equal, and his name will be hon
ored through many generations as a good and great
man.
F. W. LINCOLN, JR., Mayor.
26 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Alderman Clapp thereupon offered the following preamble
and resolutions :
Whereas, in the ripeness of his years, and in the
full possession of his great intellect, the Honorable
Edward Everett has fallen by the hand of death,
taken from a field of usefulness boundless as his own
love for his native country, therefore it becomes us,
in behalf of the City of Boston, to place tn our
records an expression of the grief which pervades all
hearts, in a community realizing the great loss which
the nation, the state, and the city sustained, when the
immortal spirit of the statesman, patriot, and Christian
broke from its earthly tenement for its journey through
eternity.
Resolved, That the City Council of Boston, feeling a
deep sense of obligation to the deceased for his invalu
able services to its local institutions, and recognizing
in his public life almost without a parallel for the
varied positions of trust which he has held at home
and abroad those elements of true greatness which are
rarely combined in one man, do most sincerely unite
in acknowledging that in every walk of life his no
bility of character gave him a claim to our admiration,
while the monuments of his literary ability and phi
lanthropic effort will keep his memory sacred through
out all time.
Resolved, That the sympathy of the City Council be
tendered to the bereaved family, in this the hour of
their great affliction. There is consolation in the thought
IN THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN. 27
that it pleased God, in his goodness, to prolong the
life of his servant, that he might prove, in the darkest
hour of onr history, a bright and shining light.
Resolved, That His Honor the Mayor be requested to
call a meeting of the citizens, at Faneuil Hall, on
Wednesday, at noon, that a public expression of the
great loss sustained by this community may be a tribute
of respect to the memory of the deceased.
Resolved, That a joint special committee of the two
branches of the City Council be appointed, to express
to the family the desire of the city to take such part
in the funeral ceremonies as may be appropriate.
Resolved, That the committee be also empowered to
make all arrangements for such other tokens of respect
to the deceased as may be deemed due to his exalted
fame.
Alderman Tyler spoke briefly in support of the resolutions,
after which they were unanimously adopted, the members rising
in their places. .
Aldermen Tyler, Messinger, and Dana were appointed on the
committee, on the part of the Board, to take charge of the
funeral ceremonies.
Adjourned.
IN THE COMMON COUNCIL .
A SPECIAL meeting of the Common Council was also held on
Monday, at 12 o clock, M. to take action in concurrence with
the Board of Aldermen in relation to the death of Mr. Everett.
The President, William B. Fowle, Jr. Esquire, occupied the
chair.
The communication of His Honor, the Mayor, and the reso
lutions of the Board, were received and read.
The President then spoke as follows :
GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMON COUNCIL :
It is rarely our fortune, in deploring the loss of a
distinguished and valued citizen, to be able with our
grief tb combine so many truly pleasurable emotions.
A retrospective view of the life of Edward Everett
brings with it peculiar satisfaction. Endowed by Prov
idence with an intellect rarely if ever surpassed, that
intellect has been employed by him in single, honest
effort for the true good of his country, and in pro
moting the welfare of his fellow-men.
Especially have the citizens of Boston felt his influ
ence, and gloried in his intellect. To him, before all
others, have we ever looked, in time of trouble, for
IN THE COMMON COUNCIL. 29
counsel and advice, and at such times he has ever
proved a pillar of strength and wisdom.
We mourn our loss ; yet in our grief we thank a
kind Providence that his great intellect was spared to
the last, and that to the latest moment his usefulness
was unimpaired.
The resolutions passed unanimously, the members rising.
The following members were appointed to join the com
mittee of the Board: Clement Willis, Granville Hears, Jonas
Fitch, John P. Ordway, and Benjamin F. Stevens. On mo
tion, the President of the Council was added to this com
mittee.
On motion of Mr. Stebbins of Ward 10, it was voted that
the Clerk be authorized to send a copy of the resolutions
passed, and the addresses of His Honor the Mayor and of the
President of the Common Council, to the family of the deceased.
Adjourned.
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL.
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL.
BY invitation of His .Honor the Mayor, a number of the
prominent citizens of Boston met at the City Hall on Monday
afternoon, January 16, for the purpose of consulting upon
arrangements for a meeting in Faneuil Hall. It was decided
to hold the meeting on Wednesday, January 18, 1865, at noon.
The following Committees were appointed :
On Organization: George B. Upton, J. Huntington Wolcott,
Edward S. Tobey, Otis Norcross, and George C. Richardson.
On Resolutions: Samuel H. Walley, George S. Hillard, Rev.
S. K. Lothrop, George W. Bond, and H. P. Kidder.
The following notice was published in the newspapers :
MAYOR S OFFICE, CITY HALL,
BOSTON, January 16, 1865.
To THE CITIZENS OF BOSTON :
In conformity with a resolve passed this day by the
City Council, the citizens of Boston are invited to as
semble in Faneuil Hall, on Wednesday, January 18, at
12 o clock, for the purpose of taking such measures as
may be deemed appropriate to express their sense of
the loss the nation and this community have sustained
by the recent decease of their late eminent fellow cit
izen, Edward Everett.
F. W. LINCOLN, JR.
34 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
At the hour designated in the above notice, the citizens of
Boston convened in Faneuil Hall, attracted there, as their ap
pearance would indicate, through no v idle curiosity, but through
a desire to testify, by their presence, to the sorrow which
pervaded the community. The darkened hall, the symbols of
mourning upon the walls, the sad and subdued expression of
the assemblage, combined to make the scene remarkably im
pressive.
At twelve o clock, Mr. George B. Upton came forward upon
the platform, and read, as the report of the Committee on
Organization, the following list of officers for the meeting:
PRESIDENT,
Hrs HONOR, F. W. LINCOLN, JR.
VICE-PRESIDENTS ,
Chief Justice G. T. Bigelow, J. Thomas Stevenson,
Charles G. Loring, Charles G. Greene,
George Ticknor, Rt. Rev. J. B. Fitzpatrick,
John C. Gray, Thomas Aspinwall,
Robert C. Winthrop, Silas Peirce,
Rev. G. W* Blagden, George W. Lyman,
James Savage, J. Z. Goodrich,
Stephen Fairbanks, Dr. George Hay ward,
Rt. Rev. Manton Eastburn, Joseph T. Bailey,
Charles Wells, Albert Fearing,
J. G. Palfrey, Josiah Quincy,
David Sears, James W. Paige,
Dr. James Jackson, Patrick Donahoe,
Francis C. Lowell, James Read,
William B. Reynolds,
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 35
SECRETARIES,
William W. Greenough, .Patrick T. Jackson,
Edwin P. Whipple, . J. Tisdale Bradlee.
Mayor Lincoln took the chair, and prayer was offered by
Rev. S. K. Lothrop, D.D., Pastor of the Brattle Street Church.
The Mayor then addressed the meeting as follows : -
FELLOW-CITIZENS :
The official position which it is my fortune to occupy
brings with it, through your courtesy, the distinguished
honor of presiding over the deliberations of this as
sembly.
The sad event which has called us together has cast
a shadow over all the land, but its deepest gloom is
naturally felt in this community; and this venerable
hall, clad in its mourning habiliments, feebly represents
the grief which oppresses all our hearts. The opening
dawn of the first day of the week closed the earthly
career of our foremost man ; and we are assembled, be
fore his body has received its funeral rites, and has
been " committed to the holy mystery of the ground,"
to do honor to his memory, and to express our sense
of the bereavement we have sustained by his death.
We have met, fellow-citizens, to dwell for a while on
the merits of one who has so often led our thoughts
in contemplation of the distinguished dead. It is hard
for us to realize, especially within these walls, that
those eloquent lips are dumb, and that he, too, is gone,
never more to stand on this platform, before a waiting
36 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
multitude eager to hear those words of wisdom and
cheer, which dropped like manna when he spoke. It
has been my great privilege, for a number of years
past, to be a personal witness, on public occasions, or
in more private ways, to Mr. Everett s zeal and devo
tion to the welfare of this community, and his stanch
and unswerving loyalty to his native land.
His presence was a benediction. The world is better
that he has lived in it; and his memory will be one of
those rich treasures which can never be taken away
from his countrymen. Boston, as his home, was
ever dear to him. He was interested in its most trivial
concerns, while his comprehensive mind extended and
took delight in those vast affairs which constitute our
strength and character as a nation.
It does not become me, in this presence, surrounded
as I am by the talented and gifted of the community,
to speak to you of his genius, and of the rich fruits
of his noble career. The consummate ability which
distinguished his public efforts, and the dignity and
grace of his private life, will be discoursed upon by
those who, in fitting words, can do justice to such
topics. My only duty is, with your indulgence, to con
duct in some degree the proceedings of the meeting,
and by my official presence, in an humble way, to be
the representative of the City of Boston on this occa
sion.
Hon. Samuel H. Walley was introduced, and read, without
prefatory remark, the following series of resolutions :
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 37
It having pleased Almighty God, in the exercise of
his all-wise Providence, to remove by death our fellow-
citizen, Edward Everett, whose decease occurred at his
residence in this city, on Sunday morning, January 15,
1865, in the seventy-first year of his age; therefore,
Resolved, That we bow with humble acquiescence to
the will of God, knowing that the Judge of all the
earth will do right ; that all men and all events are at
his disposal ; and that it becomes us to believe that
he knows infinitely better than we do, or can, the
most appropriate season for the departure of each in
dividual, however lowly, or however highly exalted, from
time to eternity.
Resolved, That we are bound by every sense of obli
gation of which we are capable to acknowledge with
gratitude the goodness of God, in granting to our com
munity so rich a gift as we all feel was contained *in
the natural endowments, the rare opportunities, the con
scientious nature, the extensive influence, and the pro
tracted life of our departed friend.
Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Everett, not alone
his family, not alone the city where he lived, the com
monwealth to which he belonged, the bleeding and dis
tracted nation of which he was an essential part, not
alone all of these, but the world of letters and of
learning, the world of eloquence and refined culture,
the world of science and of profound scholarship, the
cause of humanity at large and of human freedom in
particular, the cause of Christian morality and of
humble, unostentatious Christian life and conversation,
38 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
mourn the loss of a bright, inflexible, and consistent
exemplar,
Resolved, That in tracing the varied and eventful life
of him whose decease we this day mourn, we are
forcibly reminded of its fitting commencement and close.
His earliest strains of eloquence, ere he had reached
the age of manhood, having sounded forth from the
pulpit to crowded audiences, who hung upon his lips
with thrilling interest; while his almost dying words
were an eloquent plea to his fellow-citizens to give
heed to the teachings of Holy Writ "If thine enemy
hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink."
Resolved^ That in reviewing the claims to our respect
and admiration furnished by the life of our friend,
kindly continued beyond threescore and ten, we are
forcibly reminded of the fact that, unlike most men,
his severest trial was to satisfy himself, as he was
always his own great rival, never failing to meet the
expectations of his friends, but never satisfying his own
demands upon himself. And with all his native mod
esty and diffidence, at times mistaken, by those who
did not know the workings of his heart and his true
nature, for coldness of manner, it was apparent to all
careful observers that each step in his progress through
life seemed to be onward and upward, not always
pleasing all men, for then he would have been of
little worth, but always acting from a high sense of
conscientious obligation to the Giver of his splendid
talents.
Resolved, That while we are at a loss which most
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL, 39
to admire of all the rare endowments of the departed,
his course may well be likened to the sun in the
heavens, rising full-orbed in a cloudless sky, shining
brightly as it approached meridian, and continuing with
undiminished splendor until its setting hour; when,
still full-orbed and large, undimmed and in unclouded
light, it quietly sank below the horizon. Thus did he
of whom we speak ; constantly adding to his knowledge,
that he might instruct the more from the rich store
house of his cultivated mind ; and went forward in
life instructing the people in the church, in the col
lege, in the senate, at the foreign court, and in the
cabinet at home, till wearied of the vexations of politi
cal strife, and with impaired health he sought rest in
retirement. But with renewed health he rose again to
view, more bright than ever, and, with a zeal and a
power unsurpassed, labored to save his country from
civil war, by commending to North and South the ex
ample and counsels of Washington; and failing in this
eifort, finding his flag assailed and his country im
perilled, with a magnanimity and self-forgetfulness, and
a power of eloquence worthy of all praise and imita
tion, he devoted all his energies to the single work
of saving his country, and reuniting it upon a secure
and righteous basis, with no stripe erased, no star
blotted from its flag, no stain upon its fair escutcheon.
It was in this, the last epoch of his eventful life, that
he shone out full-orbed, and secured an abiding place
for the record of his fame on the imperishable scroll
of a nation s gratitude.
40 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Resolved, That a life so full of well-directed, indus
trious effort, coupled with power? of a high order,
a life marked strongly throughout, but brilliantly at its
close, by deeds of unselfish patriotism, deserves to be
held up no less for the imitation of posterity than for
the commendation of contemporaries ; and in order to
associate in the minds of future beholders the linea
ments of his person with the history of his greatness,
it is expedient that a statue should be erected in honor
of Edward Everett.
Resolved, That a committee of fifty citizens be ap
pointed by the Chair, in accordance with the previous
resolve.
Resolved^ That while we do not presume to trespass
on the sacred retirement of domestic grief, called
forth by the loss of one who was so admirable in all
the domestic relations, we may be permitted to tender
our heartfelt sympathy to the family of the deceased,
in this hour of sudden and heavy sorrow; and at the
same time to point them to the abundant consolations
afforded by such a close to such a life.
Resolved^ That a copy of these resolutions be for
warded by the officers of this meeting to the family of
Edward Everett.
The President then introduced Hon. Charles G. Loring,
whose remarks were as follows :
MR. CHAIRMAN AND FELLOW- CITIZENS :
In obedience to the request of the authorities under
whose auspices this meeting is assembled, and the
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 41
impulses of friendship and admiration for the illustrious
man whose death it is designed to commemorate, I am
here to speak to you of the decease of Edward Everett.
But what shall I say? The theme is so full and ex-
haustless that I know not where to begin, and if I
could rightly begin, I should not know where to end.
The simple announcement that Edward Everett is dead
so fills the minds of such an audience of fellow-towns
men and friends with thickly crowding recollections
and emotions, that the mere utterance of the mournful
truth seems to be all that is needed to awaken the
most affecting remembrances of his virtues, and of his
services for ourselves and our country, and to inspire
each heart with its own most fitting eulogium.
A few brief weeks only have passed since he stood
upon this platform to vindicate, what seemed to him
and to most of us, the great cause of our beloved
country. The sounds of your ^plaudits upon his appear
ance, and of your enthusiastic approbation of his ad
dress, seem to be still ringing in my ears, and to be
reverberating from these walls ; a few brief days only
have gone since he again stood here, in eloquent and
effective appeals to your benevolence, your magnanimity,
and your patriotism, in behalf of the famishing poor of
Savannah. It seems almost impossible to bring home
to our hearts the reality that we are. never again to
listen to his words of counsel, to his bursts of patriotic
enthusiasm, or his touching appeals in behalf of down
trodden humanity; and that these same walls are now
so soon echoing to lamentations over his bier.
6
42 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Upon the former of those occasions it was remarked
that when the time should come, which it was trusted
might be far distant, for contemplating the monument
which his life and services would constitute in the
history of his country, when the eye shall have lin
gered in admiration upon the entablatures commemora
tive of his character, his scholarship, his eloquence,
and his statesmanship, it would at last rest with still
fonder delight upon that which shall tell of his patri
otism, when, Samson-like, bursting the withes of old
political associations, he threw himself, heart and hand,
into the cause of his country, to save her, if possible,
from the perils with which she was surrounded. How
soon, ala ! has this prophecy become history.
Proud, as we justly may be, of his varied learning,
his matchless oratory, his world-wide reputation as a
scholar and a statesman; and pleasant as it might be
to dwell upon all that h*e has accomplished for letters
and ar,t and science, and the fame of his native land ;
how instinctively, nay, how almost exclusively, we now
turn to contemplate his noble patriotism ; the devotion
of his great powers and generous heart to the service
of his country. How much dearer to us is Edward
Everett the patriot, than he ever could have been if
only Edward Everett the scholar, the statesman, and the
orator, although standing without a rival. His patriotism,
however, though fervent, was not marred by any unjust
disparagement of those who, seeking their country s
welfare, differed from him in their judgment of the
best means of securing it. While no one could ques-
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 43
tion the sincerity and purity of his motives, he was
wholly above any ungenerous distrust of theirs.
When the family of a great and good man stand
around his grave, it is not the termination of his career
of intellectual achievement, or of future opportunity for
its triumphs, that causes the tear to drop upon the
coffin lid, but the thought that the wise counsellor, the
noble exemplar, the strong protector, and the loving
friend is gone, and that the places which knew him
shall know him no more forever. So now, fellow-
citizens, we, united as we feel ourselves to be in pa
triotic friendship, man to man, as never before, in this
mighty struggle for national life, gather around the
bier of Edward Everett in sympathizing grief, that we
can no longer be guided by his counsels, encouraged
by his patriotism, and sustained by his intellectual
strength and influence. Nor do we bend over it alone.
The wretched sufferers in Tennessee, whom his efforts
have so effectually aided to rescue from starvation, and
other horrors consequent upon a fiendish persecution,
the destitute mingled friends and foes of Savannah,
for whom he so earnestly and successfully pleaded here
a few days ago, the last effort of those eloquent lips
now cold in death, the exultant freedman, the cower
ing refugee, the noble soldiers in the hospitals, all of
whose causes he has upheld and promoted by his elo
quence and his toils, with the patriots of every name
throughout the land, all are heartfelt mourners with us
to-day.
This is not the time or -the occasion for an enumera-
44 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
tion or an analysis of the intellectual powers and traits
of character of our friend ; otherwise it were easy and
delightful to trace his career, for their illustration, from
the remarkably precocious development of his literary
powers in boyhood to their maturity in manhood and
old age ; to follow him from the college, in which he
was graduated with the highest honors, to the tutor s
chair, to the pulpit, the professorship, the editorship of
the North American Review, to the halls of Congress, in
. both branches, to the gubernatorial chair of this Com
monwealth, to the Cabinet as Minister of State, to the
chief of our foreign diplomatic missions, to the Presi
dency of Harvard College, and other stations of duty
and honor, in all of which he was distinguished by un
surpassed ability and unswerving fidelity ; to his glori
ous enterprise for uniting the hearts of the people
throughout the land in the knowledge of the character
and principles of the Father of his Country, and in
the establishment of Mount Vernon as the monument
of a nation s reverence and gratitude; and, finally, to
that widely diffused and vast personal influence which
he obtained throughout our country, and which he has
so signally devoted to her service in this her hour of
need. But we are not here to celebrate his achieve
ments, or glory in his fame. The time is not distant,
we may trust, when the erection of a suitable statue to
his memory shall give opportunity for such a record.
We are here now, in justice to ourselves, that we may
unite in testifying to our sense of his worth, and our
just appreciation of the loss which this community es-
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. - 45
pecially, and our whole country, has sustained in his
death. I heartily second the resolutions.
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop was the next speaker. He ad
dressed the meeting in the following words : -
I hardly know, fellow-citizens and friends, I hardly
know either how to speak or how to be silent here
to-day. I dare not trust myself to any off-hand, impul
sive utterance on such a theme. And yet I cannot but
feel how poor and how inadequate to the occasion is
the best preparation which I am capable of making. I
am sincerely and deeply sensible how unfitted I am,
by emotions which I should in vain attempt to restrain,
for meeting the expectations and the demands of such
an hour, or for doing justice to an event which has
hardly left a heart unmoved, or an eye unmoistened, in
our whole community. Most gladly would I still be
permitted to remain a listener only, and to indulge a
silent but heartfelt sorrow for the loss of so illustrious
a fellow-citizen and so dear a friend.
I have so often been privileged to follow him on
these public occasions of every sort, that I feel almost
at a loss how to proceed without the encouragement of
his friendly countenance and the inspiration of his
matchless tones. I seem to myself to be still waiting
for his ever- welcome, ever-brilliant lead. I find it all
but impossible to realize the fact, that we are assembled
here in Faneuil Hall, at a meeting at which whatever
is most eloquent, whatever is most impressive, whatever
is most felicitous and most finished, ought justly to be
46 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
heard, and that Edward Everett is not here with us to say
the first, the best, the all-sufficient word. I feel myself
impelled to exclaim and you will all unite with me in
the exclamation
" Oh, for the sound of a voice that is still d,
And the touch of a vanished hand."
Certainly, my friends, I can find no other words to begin
with, than those which he himself employed, when rising
to speak in this hall on the death of that great statesman,
whose birthday, by a strange but touching coincidence, we
are so sadly commemorating to-day by this public tribute
to his life-long friend and chosen biographer : " There is
but one voice, 7 said Mr. Everett of Daniel Webster, and
certainly I may repeat it of himself to-day, " There is but
one voice that ever fell upon my ear which could do jus
tice to such an occasion. That voice, alas, we shall hear
no more forever."
Yes, fellow-citizens, as a celebrated Roman historian
said of the consummate orator of his own land and age,
that to praise him worthily required the eloquence of Cic
ero himself, so we cannot fail to feel that full justice to
the career and character of our American Cicero could
only be rendered by the best effort of his own unequalled
powers. It is hardly an exaggeration to say of him, that
he has left behind him no one sufficient to pronounce his
eulogy as it should be pronounced; no one, certainly, who
can do for him all that he has done for so many others
who have gone before him.
But, indeed, my friends, the event which has called us
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 47
together has occurred too suddenly, too unexpectedly, for
any of us to be quite prepared either for attempting or
for hearing any formal account of our departed friend s
career, or any cold analysis of his public or private charac
ter. There must be time for us to recover from the first
shock of so overwhelming a loss before his eulogy can be
fitly undertaken or calmly listened to. His honored re
mains are still awaiting those funeral rites in which our
whole community will so eagerly and so feelingly unite
to-morrow. The very air w r e are breathing at this moment
is still vocal and vibrating with his last public appeal. It
seems but an instant since he was with us on this platform,
pleading the cause of humanity and Christian benevolence
in as noble strains as ever fell from human lips. And no
one, I think, who had the privilege of hearing that appeal,
can fail to remember a passage, which did not find its way
into any of the printed reports, but which made a deep
impression on my own heart, as I stood on yonder floor a
delighted listener to one whom I could never hear too
often. It was the passage in which, in terms quite
unusual for him, and which seemed as if the shadow of
coming events were passing over his mind, he spoke of
himself as "an old man who had nothing but his lips left
for contributing to the public good." Nothing but his
lips left ! Ah, my friends, what lips those were ! If ever
since the days of the infant Plato, of whom the story is
told, if ever since that age of cunning fable and of deep
philosophy with which he was so familiar, the Attic bees
have lighted upon any human lips, and left their persua
sive honey there without a particle of their sting, it must
48 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
have been on those of our lamented friend. What lips
they were ! And what hare they not accomplished since
they were first opened in mature, articulate speech ! What
worthy topic have they not illustrated ! What good and
noble cause have they not advocated and adorned ! On
what occasion of honor to the living or to the dead. at
what commemoration of the glorious past in what exi
gency of the momentous present have those lips ever
been mute? From what call of duty or of friendship, of
charity or of patriotism, have they ever been withheld ?
Turn to those three noble volumes of his works, and fol
low him in that splendid series of Orations which they
contain from the earliest at Cambridge, in which he
pronounced that thrilling welcome to Lafayette a little
more than forty years ago, down to that on the 4th of
July. 1858, which he "concluded by saying, that in the
course of nature he should go to his grave before long,
and he wished no other epitaph to be placed upon it than
this : 4i Through evil report and through good report he
loved his whole country : " Follow him. I say. in his
whole career as unfolded in those noble volumes the
best manual of American Eloquence and then take up
the record of those other Orations and Addresses which
are still to be included in his collected works, the record
of the last few years, as it is impressed upon the minds
and hearts of every patriot in our land with all its grand
appeals for Mount Vernon and the memory of Washington.
for the sufferers of East Tennesee. for the preservation of
the Union, for the defence of the country against rebellion
and treason, for the support of the National Administration
MEETING IN FAXEUIL HALL. 49
agreeably to his own honest convictions of duty : Follow
him, I say again, along the radiant pathway of that whole
career, illuminated as it is from his earliest manhood to
the last week of his life by the sparkling productions
of his own genius, and then tell me, you who can,
what cause of education or literature, what cause of
art or industry, what cause of science or history, what
cause of religion or charity, what cause of philanthropy
or patriotism, has not been a debtor a debtor beyond
the power of payment and, now alas ! beyond the power
of acknowledgment, to his voice or to his pen ! Who
has ever more fairly won the title of " the golden-
mouthed," since the sainted Chrysostom of old, than he
who, by the music of his voice and the magic of his
tongue, has so often coined his thoughts into eagles and
turned his words into ingots, at one moment for the
redemption of the consecrated home and grave of the
Father of his Country, and at another for the relief of an
oppressed and suffering people !
And who, my friends, as he reviews this marvellous
career, can fail to remember how singularly applicable
to him, in view of his earliest as well as of his later
callings, are those words in which the immortal drama
tist has described the curious felicity and facility of speech,
and the extraordinary versatility of powers, of one of the
great princes and sovereigns of England :
" Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, al!-adnriring, with an inward wish
You^vould desire the king were made a prelate :
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
7
50 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
You d say, it hath been all-in-all his study :
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rendered you in music :
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter ; that when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men s ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences."
It is hardly too much to say of him that he established
a new standard of American eloquence, that he was the
founder of a new school of occasional oratory, of which
he was at once the acknowledged master and the best
pupil, and in which we were all proud to sit at his feet
as disciples. Would that we had been better scholars !
Would that, now that he has been snatched so suddenly
from our sight, and as we follow him to the skies with
our parting acclamations of admiration and affection, we
could feel that there were some shoulders not wholly
unworthy to wear, not altogether incapable of sustaining,
his falling mantle !
I need not dwell for a moment, my friends, upon the
details of his official life. We all remember his earlier
and his later relations to the University to which he was
so ardently attached, and which has ever counted him
among its proudest ornaments. We all remember how
long and how faithfully he served the State and the Na
tion in their highest departments at home and abroad.
But public office was not necessary to his fame, and he
never held his title to consideration al& the precarious
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 51
tenure of public favor or popular suffrage. Office gave
no distinction to the man ; but the man gave a new dis
tinction and a new dignity to every office which he held.
Everywhere he was the consummate scholar, the brilliant
orator, the Christian gentleman, greater, even, as a pri
vate citizen than in the highest station to which he ever
was, or ever could have been called.
I need not dwell for a moment, either, my friends,
upon the purity and beauty of his daily life, upon his de
votion to his family, his fidelity to his friends, his integ
rity as a man, his untiring willingness and eagerness to
do kind and obliging things for all who, reasonably or un
reasonably, asked them at his hands, at any cost of time
or trouble to himself. I can never fail, certainly, to re
member his countless acts of kindness to myself during a
friendship of thirty years. I do not forget that at least
once in my life I have differed from him on important
questions, and that recently; but I can honestly say that
there was no living man from whom I differed with a
deeper regret, or with a greater distrust of my own judg
ment. Nor can I fail to remember with inexpressible joy
at this hour, that within a week, I had almost said within
a day, after that difference was avowed and acted upon,
he reciprocated most kindly and most cordially an assur
ance, that our old relations of friendship and affection
should suffer no estrangement or interruption, and that
we would never distrust each other s sincerity or each
other s mutual regard. " I am not afraid," he wrote me,
" that we shall give "each other cause of offence ; and we
will not let others put us at variance."
52 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Fellow-Citizens : I knew not how to commence these
imperfect and desultory remarks, and I know not how to
close them. There is, I am sensible, much to console us
in our bereavement, severe and sudden as it is. We may
well rejoice and be grateful to God, that our illustrious
and beloved friend was the subject of no lingering illness
or infirmity, that he was permitted to die while in the full
possession of his powers, while at the very zenith of his
fame, and while he had a hold on the hearts of his coun
trymen such as even he had never before enjoyed. We
may well rejoice, too, that his voice was last heard in ad
vocating a measure of signal humanity which appealed to
every heart throughout the land, and that he lived to see
of the fruit of his lips and to be satisfied. I hold in my
hand one of his last notes, written on Thursday evening
to our munificent and excellent fellow-citizen, Mr. Wil
liam Gray, and which, in his own necessary and regretted
absence, he has kindly permitted me to read :
" SUMMER STREET, 12 Jan. 1865.
" My dear Mr. Gray : I am greatly obliged to you for send
ing me word of the success of the Savannah subscription. What
a large-hearted, open-handed place we live in ! It is on these oc
casions that I break the tenth commandment, and covet the wealth
of you millionaires. I have been in bed almost ever since Mon
day, having narrowly escaped an attack of pneumonia. I had
been in the court-house all the morning, and had to return to it
for three hours in the afternoon to attend to a harassing arbitration
case, and left Faneuil Hall with my extremities ice, and my lungs
on fire. But in such a cause one is willing to suffer.
" Ever sincerely yours,
" EDWARD EVERETT."
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 53
This little note, my friends, in his own unmistakable
and inimitable hand, written within two days of his death,
shows clearly what thoughts were uppermost in that
noble heart, before it so suddenly ceased to beat. In such
a cause he was willing to suffer. In such a cause he was
not unwilling to die.
But whatever consolation may be found in the circum
stances of his death, or in the occupation of his last
years, or months, or days, we still cannot but feel that no
heavier public calamity could at this moment, if at any
moment, have befallen our community. We cannot but
feel that not Boston only, not Massachusetts only, not
New England only, but our whole country, is called to
deplore the loss of its most accomplished scholar, its
most brilliant orator, its most, valuable citizen. More
and more, as the days and the years roll on, will that
loss be perceived and felt by all who have known, ad
mired, and loved him. The public proceedings of this
day, the sad ceremonials of to-morrow, will find their
place on the page of history. All the customary trib
utes of respect and gratitude to our lamented friend
will at no distant day be completed. We shall hang
his portrait on these hallowed walls in fit companion
ship with the patriot forms which already adorn them.
We shall place a statue of him, in due time, I trust,
on yonder terrace, not far from that of his illustrious
and ever-honored friend. But neither portrait nor statue,
nor funeral pomp, nor public eulogy, will have done
for his memory, what he has done for it himself. The
name and the fame of Edward Everett will in no way more
54 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
surely be perpetuated than by the want which will be ex
perienced, by the aching void which will be felt, on all our
occasions of commemoration, on all our days of jubilee,
on every literary anniversary, at every festive board, in
every appeal for education, for charity, for country, in
every hour of peril, in every hour of triumph, from the
loss of that .ever-ready, ever-welcome voice, which has so
long been accustomed to say the best, the most appropri
ate, the most effective word, in the best, the most appropri
ate, the most effective manner. For nearly half a century
no public occasion has ever seemed complete without
his presence. By a thousand conspicuous acts of pub
lic service, by a thousand nameless labors of love, for
young and old, for rich and poor, for friends and for stran
gers, he has rendered himself necessary so far as any
one human being ever can be necessary to the wel
fare and the honor of the community in which he
lived. I can find no words for the oppression I feel,
in common, I am sure, with all who hear me, at the
idea that we shall see his face and hear his voice no
more. As I looked on his lifeless form a few hours
only aftev his spirit had returned to God who gave it,
as I saw those lips which we had so often hung
upon with rapture, motionless and sealed in death,
and as I reflected that all those marvellous acquisitions
and gifts, that matchless memory, that exquisite diction,
that exhaustless illustration, that infinite variety, which
no age could wither and no custom stale, that all, all
were henceforth lost to us forever, I could only recall
the touching lines which I remembered to have seen
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 55
applied to the sudden death, not many years ago, of a
kindred spirit of old England, one of her greatest
statesmen, one of his most valued friends
" Could not the grave forget thee, and lay low
Some less majestic, less beloved head?
Those who weep not for Kings shall weep for thee,
And Freedom s heart grow heavy at thy loss ! "
Hon. Alexander H. Bullock, then spoke as follows :
MR. MAYOR AND FELLOW-CITIZENS :
This place which welcomed him through so many
years, this hour of noon in which he so often charmed
and instructed us, the tones of his voice yet lingering
here to plead a sublime charity, are better than the
written or spoken words, with which you seek to en
compass with mournful honors the name of our illus
trious and departed citizen. And yet the ties of state,
the pride of fellowship, the memory of services, bring
us by instinct here to form the long train of those who
lament this death, so unexpected, so timely. Our as
sembling is not to add honors to him who had won his
own, but to testify in the general grief, that, born among
us, living his life in the presence of us, placed by us
in the highest positions with which we could invest
him, he kept to the last, bright and electric the sympa
thies of the mutual relationship, so that when he passed
away, we, above all others, felt the shock of the separ
ation. He not only died among his kindred, but in the
midst of a people who had made him especially their
56 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
own. He was the contemporary of two generations in
the State, but his mental activity, his increasing wis
dom, his maturing fame, had made Mr. Everett, beyond
the lot of most men, a brighter and more particular
treasure to the second generation, than he had been to
the first. The pall fell from heaven at the right mo
ment. Never before had we respected him so greatly,
never before had*we esteemed him so tenderly, as when
he died crowned with age that bore the emblems of
youth, rich in renown that blended the splendor of
manhood with the mellow lustre of later years, carry
ing to the portals of immortality that noble vindication
of a long life which devotion to patriotism and philan
thropy best furnishes as the closing scene.
This is not the time to pass in review the varied
career of our lamented statesman and scholar. He ivas
statesman and scholar in the highest sense, and he
made the two characters reflect upon each other, that
light and glory which, when blended, makes the life of
a public man most radiant. Here in this mart of com
merce I hold up his name in behalf of the retreats of
the schools. His early academic success, which for
example and fascination was the first and best our
country has supplied, upon which he never turned an
averted face, as men are accustomed too frequently to
do in the rude turmoil of our politics, was a life-long
and elemental power which he wielded in every sphere
of his labors. He carried it from yonder shades into
Congress ; was never ashamed to use it there ; never
fell away from it, and rose upon it to the respect and
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 57
admiration of his associates. No man from Eton or
Oxford ever did more in this respect for the parliament
of Great Britain, than he has done for ours. So
Canning graced and delighted her Commons; so the
ignorance of Castlereagh was more than once rebuked ;
so Pitt made a broad scholarship an instrument of
power a weapon for an onset. Our Canning produced
the same effect by the scope and beauty of his exam
ple, though among older, more arrogant, more over
powering men, it was not in accord with his nature to
lead in the positive attack. This was the bed whence
blossomed the flowers of a large and enduring influence.
Entering Congress in its palmiest period, and continu
ing there ten years, while its great Senators were wont
to come into the House to listen to our Everett and
Choate, it was fortunate for us that he so kept high
the standard of debate, and so adorned the counsels of
statesmanship, with the graces of learning and of elo
quence, that when he came away to take the chair of
our State at home, he left behind a treasured memory
j
of cultured mastery for the ^ State at the capitol. I
know that Mr. Clay, listening to him for the first time,
then thirty-five or six years of age, said to a bystander,
" this is the acme of eloquence." Our Commonwealth
cannot afford to forget her sons who have given her
the first place in the Federal councils who, opening
a brilliant career for themselves, have illustrated her
institutions and enlarged her capacity for beneficence.
It has been our good fortune, to have had there a long
line of such statesmen, which began with Ames, which
58 MEMORIAL OF EDWAKD EVERETT.
found a complete representative in Everett. Each one
has been a stimulation to the other. Mr. Choate once
told me that while residing in Washington it was his
pride to gather up the scattered traditions, floating
through all that social life, of the forensic eiforts of
Webster ; and who shall say how much his own trans
cendent idea may have been quickened by the magic
of such rumor? Mr. Everett in the twelve years he
served in the two houses, so far as I know, brought
never to any discussion, a rhetorical treatment that
would have done discredit to Burke, or Fox, or Rom-
illy. Such attainment deserves our perpetual remem
brance. It is among the enduring forces by which we
may hope to influence greater States and greater num
bers than our own in all after time.
From his academic and Congressional course Mr.
Everett passed to the curule chair of Massachusetts.
He held it in those dull times of peace, four years,
while it furnished no deep excitements to his ambition.
It was not a time or a place for special originations.
The genius of that period was the genius of some
improvement, but of more routine. And yet I conceive
that he performed a good work for us, and for poster
ity, in his support of our grand State system existing
already, and as the official patron of those greater and
better plans of education and charity which make States
immortal. It is now a quarter of a century since his
administration terminated, and in the more conspicuous
action which has since distinguished him on broader
and more fertile fields of fame, that has been compari-
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 59
lively obscured. But it was an essential portion of his
life. His record as chief magistrate is without blemish.
He never lowered the dignity of state ; he never called
unworthy counsel around him ; he left the office un
tarnished as he found it.
It does not comport with my purpose of brevity to
detain you with reminiscences which belong to protracted
address or stated biography. I regard as among the
more striking services, he has rendered, his connection
at two periods with our foreign affairs. You remember
how the advent of Mr. Webster to the Department of
State found Mr. Everett in a foreign land, whither he
had repaired for a scholar s travel and a scholar s sol
ace. At the call of the President he accepted the cre
dentials for the highest court of Europe. It was a
critical period. History is too busy now with graver
matters at home to have much space for that; but it
was a critical epoch. The shadows of war frowned from
the Canadas ; the fires of the Caroline lighted up the
frontier. We came out of the crisis without the stain
of blood or the discolor of smoke upon our diplomatic
robes. You may distribute the honors as you please
among Webster, and Ashburton, and Everett, but he who
stood our representative before the grandest court of the
world, in constant correspondence and mutual counsel with
his great friend at the capitol, cannot be overlooked in
the impartial distribution.
About ten years later, he himself was called to the
Department of State, which was vacant. It had been
vacated by the death of Daniel Webster. It was a
60 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
great vacancy, which no man could fill so well. Think
a moment, to what statesmanship in diplomacy Mr. Ev
erett succeeded. Have you sufficiently reflected, that
great as Webster has been at the bar, and in the Senate,
he was greater still at the august international tribunal,
in the court of nations, before the juries of history]
Such he proved himself to be. How. under Harrison,
he asserted himself, and vindicated his country to un
precedented grandeur. How, in the case of the Caro
line, he dramatized the literature of the international
code by the elements of his conception and the majesty
of his rhetoric. How, in the question of impressment,
he settled all that Rush and those after him had left
loose and unadjusted, by the memorable despatch, which
has never received a reply and never can receive a re
futation. How, in the Treaty of Washington, he drew
those northeastern lines with the precision of science
and with the power of destiny, that shall last forever.
Mr. Everett succeeded to HIS chair, and carried with
him the confidence of Massachusetts that he would
prove equal to the exigency. The teacher had departed,
but the disciple remained to complete his mission. It
was a new era in his life ; but he more than matched
its necessities. By one comprehensive study, by one
continuous and magnetic triumph of his pen, he raised
what some of us thought the effete and demoralized
administration of Fillmore, to the respect of a chival
rous people. His tri-partite letter, unique, original, and
independent, justified our America upon a base exclu
sively her own. The philosophy of that letter was well
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 61
V
then; it is better now. It is a quiver from which we
may draw the weapons against any and every European
intervention. Mr. Everett of the Cabinet of 1852 is
our diplomatic instructor this day. He asserted a pol
icy upon which we will stand and defy interference;
he touched chords of country which will vibrate while
this war shall last ; he lifted the clear signal to nations
which may in some day of the future become the nam
ing cross of deliverance to Mexico. In the ripeness of
his age he was, at the hour of his death, I apprehend,
one of the most just and equitable and learned and best
balanced expounders of international law on the globe.
If he might have lived to execute his purpose, the
volume which he proposed upon the laws and rights of
nations would, I believe, have placed him at the head
of that sublime jurisprudence which is founded upon
the historic lessons of Christian civilization.
We are about to bury our foremost scholar and ora
tor. Do not suppose that I intend to analyze now the
remarkable eloquence of Mr. Everett. I only allude to
it. He was a perfect literary artist; but this idea of
him has in some minds been the source of most unjust
conception as to the wider domain of his force and his
power. And this injustice, while it is according to ex
perience, is also unphilosophical. Mr. Webster in his
practice was scarcely less observant of the dramatic cir
cumstances of public eloquence ; but rising on broader
and deeper foundations, being less frequent and conver
sant with the schools, cast in the mould of country life
and more familiar with its sympathies, and more than all,
62 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
trained in that most democratical discipline of trials
before juries, lie escaped the reputation of speaking ac
cording to art. No man, however, ever understood this
art better than he. With him, this characteristic assumed
the form not of a fine art, but of the power of drama.
It is not worth while to cite illustrations, but the fact
is known to all close critics. His library, his study was
veiled to the world, but he himself passed the long and
solemn hours behind the curtain, before his stately form
emerged to attract the wonder of men. Mr. Everett
never could extinguish the midnight lamp, never could
disguise the alcoves he loved. But no man in our day
has painted so well, and left no specific trace of how the
colors had been applied. I doubt if at any time, until
within the last ten years, educated men have quite done
him justice in this particular. Art is apt to conceal the
substance of greatness ; manner oftentimes overshades the
matter. It is so through all of life. Robert Walpole
was really one of the ablest of British premiers ; but his
adherence to the arts of his office lost him the credit of
his administration in the popular judgment. He who
shall pronounce your formal eulogy upon Mr. Everett
cannot say that his eloquence had exactly the sweeping
majesty which bore Chatham or Webster through periods
swelling and resounding like a national anthem, or like
the thunders of great armadas on the sea ; such pas
sages come rarely to human ears ; they
" Come as the winds come, when forests are rended :
Come as the waves come, when navies are stranded."
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 63
But he shall accord to him the finest and most complete
proportions that have marked any orator of this age.
The mould of personal form, all the graces, the voice,
the cadences, partly constitutional and partly acquired,
all that is histrionic and attractive, all that nature could
furnish and art could add, belonged in largest measure
and in purest style to him. But this is only the form,
the style and the stage. There was a greatness of
character behind all this. You sometimes overlooked
the depth of his philosophy, the richness of his reflection,
only because he pleased and beguiled you. Not a sen
tence unnecessary, not a word unessential, can you find
in all that he has said or written. He never rejected
truisms if they might be profitable ; but he illuminated
them with the choicest colors of the rainbow. He never
neglected the lessons of religion, or science, or experi
ence, but he had the genius to make them winning as a
first love. He had exquisite humor and subtle art ; but
if it escaped his tongue or pen it was quite likely to min
gle with some pensive thought that toned it down to
marvellous sobriety and beauty. His smile on the plat
form was of that kind which we are told belongs to
genius, because melancholy is a part of genius ; and yet
it pleased us, because it was uncommon and serene. He
had a peculiar tenderness of oratory.
But the eloquence of Mr. Everett ended not here. He
had all knowledge, all gifts, all tongues. No man of this
generation, save Macaulay, had equal command of the
treasures of the ages. No orator in America, from the
first until now, has so woven into his addresses the in-
64 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
structions of history. This I have thought to be his
specialty. His memory was comprehensive, retentive,
and perfect. He had read everything, and he remem
bered all that he had read. There is no such treasury
for an orator as that, if he have, all the other plenitudes,
powers and graces, as Mr. Everett possessed them. Ac
cordingly, for an entire generation, he has instructed his
country in historical knowledge and historical analogies,
and his instructions have had the charm of freshness, and
naturalness, and fitness. In this department of usefulness,
broad enough for the highest ambition, he has had no
equal among all his countrymen. In this we have always
delighted to call him our master and our guide. And
thus, to our Congress and our Cabinets, to our cultured
men and to all our people, he has been a splendid
educator. His instructions have descended from his
own elevated table-land, through our social strata, puri
fying and ennobling every class of mind, fascinating by
their gorgeous but natural array, and carrying on their
wing the transport of communicated thought and knowl
edge. I appropriate to him the eulogy from Milton ;
" I shall detain you no longer in the demonstration,
but strait conduct ye to a hill-side, were I will point ye
out the right path of a virtuous and noble education ;
laborious indeed at the first ascent, but also so smooth,
so green, so full of goodly prospect, and melodious
sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus was
not more charming."
His greatest days were his last. The country did not
know him perfectly until 1861. Then he renewed his
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 65
youth ; then he broke away from his own traditions and
associations, and mounted to that wise, large patriotism
which has guided twenty loyal millions to life and glory.
He waited not for others, nor for the victory of our
arms ; but in those first days of war and gloom, his
voice sounded like a clarion over this land. Almighty
God be praised that he has been spared to us these
four years ! In these temples of your eloquence, in
that commercial metropolis where his counsel was more
needed, everywhere, and every day, by public speech
and through the popular press, he has confirmed hesi
tating men at home, he has inspired your armies in
the field. These victories which fill the air to-day,
peal grandly over his inanimate form ; they cannot
wake him from sleep, but they are a fitting salute for
his burial. He passes to his rest when the whole
heaven is lighted up to proclaim that his mission has
been accomplished. The same page of the calendar
shall repeat to the next age, THE DEATH OF EVERETT AND
THE NEW LIFE OF HIS COUNTRY.
Mr. James M. Beebe offered the following additional resolution,
which was inserted in the list originally reported, and the whole
series was then unanimously adopted :
Resolved, That as a tribute of respect to the mem
ory of Mr. Everett, this meeting recommend to our
fellow-citizens that the banks, insurances offices, and
other places of business be closed to-morrow at the
hour set apart for his funeral.
66
MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
In accordance with one of the resolutions the Chairman ap
pointed the following-named gentlemen a Committee to take
measures for the erection of a statue in honor of Edward
Everett.
Charles G. Loring,
Robert C. Winthrop,
George Livermore,
J. H. Wolcott,
Geo. B. Upton,
Geo. C. Richardson,
Otis Norcross,
Edward S. Tobey,
Nathaniel Thayer,
Jas. M. Beebe,
James Lawrence,
Eben Dale,
Martin Brimmer,
F. E. Parker,
Gardner Brewer,
Sidney Bartlett,
Geo. S. Hillard,
Daniel N. Haskell,
Charles F. Dunbar,
Geo. Wm. Bond,
J. Tisdale Bradlee,
John S. Tyler,
Wm. Endicott, jr.
Henry A. Pierce,
J. W. Seaver,
Henry P. Kidder,
Wm. B. Fowle, jr.
Geo. Ticknor,
Jacob Bigelow,
J. Mason Warren,
Wm. Araory,
Chas. Amory,
Edw. Austin,
J. J. Dixwell,
Sam l D. Crane,
W. W. Clapp, jr.
Josiah Quincy,
Oliver Ditson,
Jos. T. Bailey,
J. G. Palfrey,
Geo. W. Messinger,
S. K. Lothrop,
C. G. Greene,
Albert Fearing,
Sam l H. Walley,
Rufus Ellis,
J. Ingersoll Bowditch,
Chas. O. Rogers,
Francis Bacon,
Wm. Gray,
Henry I. Bowditch,
Albert Bowker,
Albert J. Wright,
O. W. Holmes,
MEETING IN FANEUIL HALL. 67
. Samuel G. Ward, Thomas G. Appleton,
Richard H. Dana, James L. Little,
Thomas Gaffield, Peter Harvey,
J. M. Wightman.
On motion, the name of His Honor Mayor Lincoln was added
to the Committee.
The meeting then dissolved.
FUNERAL
Library*
THE EUNERAL
THE funeral of Mr. Everett took place on Thursday, Jan
uary 19. The public solemnities were under the charge of
the Committee of the City Council, and were conducted with
as little display as the proprieties of the occasion would permit.
Since the death of Mr. Webster no such general and profound
manifestations of sorrow had been exhibited. The announcement
made by order of the President of the United States, on Sunday,
had led many to expect that he would honor the obsequies with his
presence ; his official duties, however, rendered it impracticable ;
and on Wednesday, a despatch was received from Mr. Seward,
stating that fact, and tendering to the Commonwealth the condo
lence of the President and the Heads of Departments, " on the
lamented death of Edward Everett, who was worthy to be
enrolled among the noblest of the nation s benefactors."
The public services were held in the First Church in Chauncy
Street, where Mr. Everett had been a constant attendant for many
years. Although the weather was unusually cold, and the ground
was covered with snow, the streets in the vicinity, and along the
whole route of the procession, were crowded with people long
before the hour appointed for the ceremonies to begin. It being
understood that the galleries of the church would be reserved
72 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
for ladies, an immense number congregated in front of the doors
as early as ten o clock, and waited patiently, until the doors were
opened at eleven o clock.^ All public buildings, and many of the
places of business in the city were closed. In the Merchants
Exchange, the Public Library, the Mercantile Library, and
the Union Club House, emblems of mourning were displayed,
and on public and private buildings the national flag appeared at
half-mast.
Previous to the public ceremonies in the church, there were
private services at Mr. Everett s house in Summer Street, at
which Rev. Edward Everett Hale officiated. None but the
relatives and intimate personal friends of the deceased were pres
ent. The Independent Corps of Cadets, Lieutenant-Colonel
Holmes, performed guard duty in front of the house during the
services, and at their conclusion escorted the remains to the
church. The following-named gentlemen acted as pallbearers :
EMORY WASHBURN, F. W. LINCOLN, JR.
Ex-Governor of Massachusetts. Mayor of the City.
THOMAS HILL, GEORGE T. BIGELOW,
President of Harvard University. Chief Justice Supreme Court.
GEORGE TICKNOR, ROBERT C. WINTHROP,
Trustee Public Library. President Historical Society.
CHARLES G. LORING, ASA GRAY,
Vice-President Union Club. Pres. of Acad. of Arts and Sciences.
J. D. GRAHAM, . SILAS H. STRINGHAM,
Colonel United States Army. Rear- Admiral United States Navy.
In accordance with the notice issued by the Chief Marshal, the
delegations from various organizations which had signified their
desire to participate in the ceremonies, assembled at the City
Hall at half-past elevm o clock, and marched thence, at twelve
THE FUNEKAL. 73
o clock, to the church. His Excellency the Governor, the mem
bers of his staff, the President of the State Senate, the Speaker
of the House, the Joint Committee from the General Court, and
the Overseers of Harvard University, arrived at the church at
the same time.
Shortly after twelve o clock, the body was borne into the church,
and up the main aisle. The entire congregation arose and remained
standing, until the coffin was placed upon the table below the
pulpit. A chant was performed by the choir ; and Rev. James
Walker, D. D., the venerable ex-President of Harvard University,
then offered prayer, and read appropriate selections from the
Scriptures. Rev. Rufus Ellis, pastor of the church, made the
following address :
We are on our way to commit to the earth all that
was mortal of a great and good, and justly famous man;
a man so great, so good, so famous, that the honors
decreed for him by the head of the nation will be most
gratefully rendered, and that to the very letter of the
decree, at hpme and abroad, wherever the national
name and authority are recognized. We have paused
for a few moments and laid down our burden within
these consecrated walls so familiar and dear to him
who has gone from us that we may acknowledge the
Giver of Life, the Father of Him who is the resurrec
tion and the life, the best and the only comforter. It
is for this that we are here, believing that our burden
will be lightened for hands, which are so ready to hang
down, if only we can obtain help from God.
And yet, before we seek the refuge of prayer, in
the name and the faith of Christ, a word must be
10
74 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
spoken to this great company a word from heart to
heart of him whom you revered and admired, and
loved ; for I am sure that the most halting speech, so
it be sincere, will do more justice than silence, to the
spirit of this hour, so solemn, and yet so rich in
memories and in hopes. In these few and swiftly
passing moments, I cannot tell the story of this grandly
completed life, as full of works as of days, from its
boyhood, mature as manhood, to its age, vigorous as
youth. I may not attempt any analysis of this fine
intellect, or try to explore with you, the hiding-places
of this great power. I shall undertake no delineation
of a character which was always most admired by
those who were brought nearest to it, and which like
some of the works of the most conscientious artists,
was most finished where it made the least show. We
are on our way to a grave, and our words must be
few, and they may be very simple, for uppermost in
our minds and abounding in our hearts, are proud
and grateful thoughts of the departed, which the
tongue of the most unlettered might tell.
What is it, friends, that has made this man so very
dear to the . people, I do not say to scholars, to the
few, but to the people, yea, their foremost citizen in
these times when God has made " a man more precious
than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge
of Ophir!" Why is the announcement of his sudden
death, by the President of the United States, only the
utterance of a nation s sorrowing heart] I answer,
you answer, not merely because he was your scholar
THE FUNERAL. 75
and a ripe and good one ; not merely because he was
your orator, one of the most eloquent and instructive
of men, your chief speaker for every grand and good
occasion ; not merely because of his life-long service
to letters and to the education of the people ; not
merely because of his labors for the State, at home
and abroad, in ordinary times, honorable, admirable, as
he ever was in these things ; but because in the hour
of sore trial, and when the nation s very life hung in
the balance, and patriotism was something more than
an idle word for the trifler to ring changes upon, he
has proved himself to be first, last, only, and altogether
a Christian patriot, an American, indeed, in whom was
no guile, resolved at all costs to himself, of old friend
ships if need be, of old prejudices, our costliest
possessions, to do his whole duty to the land and the
people of his affections, as to the mother that bore him
and nourished him, and led him up to his grand and
serviceable manhood. I mean no disparagement of
former services ; nay ; where some might criticise, I
should justify, and yet on this day of his solemn
burial I say honor to this large, this regal soul, which
could not sacrifice itself to obsolete ideas, or go about,
with the dead burying their dead, or crush the
throbbing life of to-day under any old traditions ;
honor to him who could see that old principles may
demand new methods, and that the wisdom of yester
day may be the folly of to-day. During these grand
historic years, years in which many an hour has been
worth whole months of commonplace existence, with
76 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the rest of the nation, he has been passing through
the refiner s fire, and you have found, dear friends, to
your joy, for nothing refreshes and delights us so much
as to be able to reverence and admire, and love
you have found that the finest gold was in him, that
he was more than your great scholar, more than your
great orator, more than your trusted statesman and
diplomatist, that he was your great citizen and your
brother man, your country his country, your political
faith his political faith not a man to babble gar
rulously of foreign despotisms, but a lover and a
servant of our republican institutions, his heart throb
bing with your hearts, and alive with sacred national
memories, and precious hopes for humanity sighing
to be uplifted and redeemed. How manly, how con
sistent, how steadfast, how unwearied he has been,
in all his glorious speaking and doing from the first
moment when our nation s life was assailed, to that
day so fatal to us, but so honorable to him, when
weighed down as he was by sickness, and already entering
into the death-shadow, he asked help in such eloquent
words for those who, as we hope, are ceasing to be
our enemies, in the name of that holy and sweet
charity which St. Paul, inspired by our Lord, has
taught us, saying, " If thine enemy hunger, feed him. *
So he took up in the time of his age and for his last
public act, the sacred office which he had laid down
in youth, and was found at the last a gospel preacher.
When the history of our nation s regeneration shall
be written, and it will be an illuminated record,
THE FUNERAL. 77
when victory and peace, which are as sure to be ours
as that the sun burns in the heavens, shall be the
reward of patient struggle, no name shall shine out more
brightly upon the page, or be pronounced more thank
fully by the lips, than the name of him for whom we
both rejoice and mourn to-day. In these last great
years we have seen the beauty, we have breathed in
the fragrance of the fair, consummate flower of a noble
plant. Never has the bright sun of his life shone with
such refulgent brightness as when it neared the setting,
but was even more a giant than when it climbed the
morning sky. And all this strength was blended with
so much gentleness, all this earnest speech was so free
from bitterness and wrath, all this public virtue was
bound up with so much private worth and household
love and Christian faith. Alas! that his* day must
needs come ! Strange ! that when so many only cumber
the earth, and eat and drink, but do not die to-morrow !
Alas ! that we are here and without him, with only this
sacred dust, precious indeed in our sight and to be
borne away most tenderly, and yet so sadly reminding
us, that himself is gone. Alas ! for our necessity is still
so great and our counsellor was so wise and so noble,
so prudent and so charitable, so thoroughly furnished
for the hour! Would, we say, that God who hath an
eternity to give from, had given more time to him who
knew so well how to redeem time ! And yet, my
friends, who are we that we should reply against God?
and hath the Christ been so long time with us and
have we not yet learned to trust utterly in the
78 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Divine Providence, in Him that taketh away as well as
in Him that giveth, in Him who said by the lips of
his own dear Son, " Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit?" Let us rather give
thanks for the life in the light of which we have
lived and which God hath crowned with glory and
honor and immortality, for its years of devotion to the
things which are highest and holiest ; stricken, bereaved,
let us bow reverently and submissively to the Divine
decree, and have no will but that Will which is for
ever Love ; let us have faith that with his blessing who
appoints for us our works and our days, and meteth out
our span with an unerring wisdom, there shall come
forth, life from this death, beauty from these ashes, life
and beauty for earth as well as for heaven. Being dead
he doth yet speak to us, if only we have open ears,
more eloquently than even he, worthy to be named
with the most famous masters of speech since the world
began, could speak to us, being yet alive. But why do
I say " being dead," seeing that the righteous live for-
evermore, seeing that their reward is with the Lord and
the care of them with the most High, and that below
and above, He giveth to them a beautiful kingdom and
a glorious crown and an abiding ministry ? Honor
to the dead ! and what fitter honor can we pay to the
dead than by consecrating ourselves, about these re
mains, to that dear country whose holy cause he who
is gone can plead no longer in the name of Humanity,
of Christ, of God, to whom in death, and in life be glory
forever and ever ! Amen.
THE FUNERAL. 79
Rev. Mr. Ellis, then offered prayer, and after a hymn
had been sung, he descended from the pulpit and read a
portion of the burial service. An anthem was sung, and the
services were concluded with a benediction, pronounced by
Eev. Dr. Walker.
The funeral procession was formed soon after one o clock,
under the direction of the following officers :
Chief Marshal.
BREVET BRIG. GEN. F. A. OSBORN.
Aids.
GEO. H. KINGSBURY, LIEUT. -CoL. O. W PEABODY.
Marshals.
DAVID H. COOLIDGE, A. J. C. SOWDON,
T. B. WINCHESTER, S. A. STETSON,
ELI AS B. GLEASON, CAPT. J. C. MAKER,
MAJ. EDW. C. RICHARDSON, W. RALPH EMERSON,
H. H. COOLIDGE, E. R. MEARS,
CAPT. J. H. LOMBARD. CAPT. JOHN N. PARTRIDGE.
The military escort was under the command of Lieutenant-
Colonel C. C. Holmes, with Lieut. G. C. Winsor acting as
Aid-de-Camp.
The order of the procession was as follows :
Drum Corps.
First Unattached Co. Infantry, M. V. M. (Lincoln Guard,)
Capt. M. E. Bigelow.
Marine Band.
Battalion of Four Companies U. S. Marines. Capt. Lowry,
Commanding.
80 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Chelsea Band, (mounted.)
Company B, First Battalion Light Dragoons, (Boston Light
Dragoons,) Capt. Charles T. Stevens.
Company A, First Battalion Light Dragoons, (National Lancers,)
Capt. Lucius Slade.
Pall Bearers in Carriages.
Brigade Band.
Independent Corps of Cadets, Major Charles B. Raymond,
Commanding;.
Cadets.
Cadets.
Howitzer Battery of the Cadets.
Relatives of the Deceased in Carriages.
Chief Marshal and Aids.
City Council, School Committee, and Trustees of the Public
Library of the City of Boston.
His Excellency, the Governor, and his Staff.
Executive and Legislative Departments of the Commonwealth.
Corporation and Overseers of Harvard College.
Officers of the Army and Navy.
Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court.
Delegations from :
American Antiquarian Society.
Massachusetts Historical Society.
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association.
Boston Board of Trade.
Professors and Students of Harvard College.
City Government of Worcester.
City Government of Charlestown.
Bunker Hill Monument Association.
Lexington Monument Association.
New England Historic Genealogical Society.
THE FUNERAL. 81
Franklin Medal Scholars.
Mercantile Library Association.
Committee, Master, and Pupils of the Everett School.
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, in citizens dress.
The procession began to move at two o clock over the following
route : through Chauncy, "Washington, School, Beacon, Charles,
and Cambridge streets to Cambridge Bridge. The bells on all
the churches in the city were tolled, and minute-guns were fired
by a section of Light Artillery, on the Common, during the
passage of the procession through the city. The streets were
lined with spectators, many of whom reverently uncovered their
heads as the hearse passed. At Cambridge Bridge a portion of
the procession was dismissed. The Cadets and the Brigade Band,
were conveyed to Harvard Square in cars. The procession was
there reformed again, and then proceeded to Mount Auburn
Cemetery. The remains of Mr. Everett were interred in the
family lot, No. 17 Magnolia Avenue. There were no services at
this place. Wreaths of white flowers and evergreens were placed
upon the coffin, and as it was lowered into the grave, the Brigade
Band began the solemn strains of the Dead March " in Saul.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
IN THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE.
AT a meeting of the School Committee of the City of Boston,
on Tuesday, January 24, 1865, His Honor the Mayor in the
Chair, Rev. S. K. Lothrop, D. D., made the following
remarks :
MR. PRESIDENT : Since the last meeting of this Board,
an event has occurred which has thrown a gloom over
our city, our community, our country. Edward Everett,
whose name for more than fifty years has been held in
honor among us, associated with learning, literature,
eloquence, statesmanship, philanthropy, and patriotism,
who has filled a great variety of public offices and
adorned them all by rare abilities and eminent fidelity,
whose career has been marked by an unspotted in
tegrity, purity, and a large usefulness, has suddenly
been called from among us, and the places that have so
long known him here, shall know him no more for
ever. The City Government have taken appropriate
notice of this sad event. The authorities of the State
have not let it pass unobserved ; the Chief Magistrate
of the nation has called the attention of the country to
86 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the loss of a devoted patriot its foremost private citi
zen, and as the intelligence of this event is borne
over the land and over the sea, many in all parts of
the Christian world, will receive it with a deep regret,
and give it some form of reverent notice. A medal
scholar of the Boston Public Schools, receiving the first
rudiments of his education at those institutions which
are under the special charge of this Board ; retaining
at all times and up to the close of his life a strong
interest, not only in the great cause of popular educa
tion, but especially in the Public Schools of our city,
it is due not only to him, but to ourselves, that our
Records should contain some expression of our gratitude
for his services, our sorrow at his death, our respect for
his memory.
I ask leave, therefore, Mr. President, to submit the
following resolutions, and, if adopted, to have them
placed upon our Kecords :
Whereas, The Hon. Edward Everett died suddenly,
after a brief illness, at his residence in Summer Street,
on Sunday morning, the 15th instant, the School Com
mittee of the City of Boston, on this their first meeting
after his decease, desire to adopt, and place upon their
Eecords the following resolutions.
Resolved, That we share in the universal regre t and
sorrow which this event awakens, and sympathize in all
the private and public tokens of profound respect so
justly paid to the memory of one who has enriched our
literature by his learning and scholarship, illustrated our
history, and instructed our people, by many eloquent
IN THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 87
orations and addresses, elevated public and political life
among us by faithful service in exalted station, and by
the dignity, purity, and unstained integrity of his char
acter and conduct ; who has often stirred our patriotism
by his fervent appeals, confirmed it by his cogent argu
ments, guided by his illustrious example, and who,
through a long life of unr emitted industry, and the
noble exercise of great and versatile powers in manifold
positions and offices, and by a beautiful exhibition of
the Christian virtues, in private and domestic relations,
has adorned our common humanity, and left us, in his
fame, a legacy to be cherished with gratitude and pride.
Resolved, That it is specially incumbent upon this
Board, instituted for the promotion, and entrusted with
the guardianship of the Public Schools of the city, to
recognize and honor his name and services as connected
with the cause of popular education. Eeceiving his
own first distinction in life the Franklin Medal
twice, first at the North School in 1804, and again at
our Public Latin School in 1806, he has never ceased,
for half a century, amid all his honors and avocations,
. to feel a deep interest in these primary fountains of
learning, whose healing waters are for the enlightenment
of the whole people ; and has repeatedly manifested his
respect and confidence by using them for "the education
of his children and his children s children ; and his Chief
Magistracy of our Commonwealth, wise and firm in its
administration of all our affairs, was distinguished by two
events, the inauguration of the Board of Education,
and of our State Normal Schools, which are as honorable
88 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
*-
testimonials of patriotic wisdom and usefulness as any
incumbent has ever left in the Chair of State, and grandly
beneficent in the effect they have had to enlarge, elevate,
and advance that popular education which is the secret
of the past and present position, power, and prosperity
of Massachusetts.
Resolved^ That, while we bow in devout submission to
the Divine Will, which has removed from among us so
eminent and useful a citizen, it is alike a duty, a pleasure,
and a benefit to recall with gratitude his distinguished
services, to cherish the memory of all that was beautiful,
useful, honorable, and Christian in his life and character,
and make it an incentive in our individual hearts to a
like fidelity, a fidelity that in us, also, shall meet the
measure of our ability and our opportunities.
The Resolutions were unanimously adopted.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
12
TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
A special meeting of the Trustees of the Public Library was
held on the 17th of Jan. 1865, at 11 o clock, A. M., to take suit
able notice of the death of their President, the Hon. Edward
Everett. The following resolutions were offered by George Tick-
nor, Esq., chairman of the meeting, and were unanimously adopted
by the Board :
Resolved, That, while the Trustees of the Public Li
brary, in common with all their fellow-citizens, look back,
with proud gratitude, to the record of the eminent ser
vices rendered by Mr. Everett in trusts and ways so vari
ous and so distinct, not only to the highest interests of
our country and our Commonwealth, but to the inter
ests of letters and religion, and to the promotion of all
that is good, faithful, and worthy everywhere, during his
long life, an uncommon portion of which has been
marked and honored on both sides of the Atlantic, we yet
feel at this sad moment an obligation more especially
resting on this Board thankfully to acknowledge, how
much is due to him from our own city as one of those,
92 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
who earliest and most earnestly, counselled and promoted
the foundation of this Public Library, to whose interests
and progress, amidst the many high and graver claims
that were constantly crowded on his care, he devoted
himself faithfully from its first beginnings down to the
very day before his death, acting, during the whole of its
organized existence, with uniform wisdom, gentleness,
and dignity, as its presiding officer.
Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the memory of
our late honored and lamented President, and, in deference
to the feeling of this whole community, the Trustees direct
the Library to be closed during the day of his interment,
and that it be draped in mourning for the thirty days sub
sequent.
Resolved, That the chairman of this meeting address to
the family of Mr. Everett a certified copy of these pro
ceedings, expressing to them, at the same time, our heart
felt sympathy in this, their great sorrow, and commending
them to the gracious God in whom he always trusted, and
to the Christian consolations, in which during such
times of trial and bereavement as come to all men he
found an unfailing support.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS
LEGISLATURE.
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE.
IN THE SENATE.
MONDAY, JAN. 16, 1865.
Mr. Went worth, of Middlesex, offered the following order :
Whereas, intelligence has been received announcing
the death of the Hon. Edward Everett, at his residence in
this city,
Ordered^ That a committee of five on the part of the
Senate, with such as the House may join, be appointed to
consider and report what measures it may be proper for
the Legislature to adopt as a testimonial of its gratitude
for the public services and respect for the memory of the
illustrious dead.
The order was adopted, and Senators Wentworth of Middlesex,
Loud of Plymouth, Parker of Suffolk, Foster of Essex, and Kneil
of Hampden were appointed as the Committee on the part of the
Senate.
IN THE HOUSE.
The order from the Senate in regard to measures to be taken in
relation to the decease of the Hon. Edward Everett was concurred in
96 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
and the following gentlemen were joined to the Senate committee
on the subject : Messrs. Kimball of Boston, Wells of Chicopee,
Scudder of Dorchester, Stone of Charlestown, Hills of Boston,
Stone of Waltham, Gallup of Brookfield, Dwelley of Hanover
Warren of Windsor, and Hall of Dennis.
Mr. KIMBALL, of Boston, moved that, out of respect for the
memory of Mr. Everett, the House immediately adjourn.
Adjourned.
IN THE SENATE.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1865.
A communication was received from His Excellency the Gov
ernor, as follows : -
HON. J. E. FIELD, President of the Senate:
SIR : I perceive that the Senate will be in session at
10 o clock this morning to consider and adopt appro
priate measures in honor of the memory of our late
illustrious fellow- citizen, EDWARD EVERETT.
In the utmost sympathy with the Senate, and sharing
its sense of bereavement, the Executive Department of
the Commonwealth will cordially unite with the General
Court in every demonstration of affectionate respect for
the departed which it may adopt. The Governor and
Council propose to attend the funeral to-day in a body.
The military staff of the Commonwealth Headquarters
have been directed to report at the Council Chamber
at 11 o clock A. M., and an appropriate military detach
ment is under orders to perform the duty of escorting
the funeral procession, the Independent Corps of Cadets
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 97
acting as a guard of honor to the remains of the de
ceased statesman, whose body guard they were in his
former capacity of Governor of Massachusetts.
I am, sir, with high respect, your obedient and hum
ble servant,
JOHN A. ANDREW.
Mr. Wentworth of Middlesex, from the committee on resolu
tions of respect to the memory of Mr. Everett, submitted the
following, which were read by the Clerk :
Resolved. That, as members of the Senate and House
of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachu
setts, we deem it our public duty to express the pro
found emotions with which we, and the people whom
we represent, have received the intelligence of the death
of the Hon. Edward Everett.
Resolved. That we mourn with deep regret the loss
of a citizen who, for fifty years, has been the pride
and ornament of the Commonwealth ; who in early youth
attracted public attention as a poet and scholar, and
during a period in Which he was the active associate
of three generations of men had never ceased to occupy
it, as an accomplished man of letters and a finished and
captivating orator ; who united to singular gifts of speech
and action an equally unusual power of application and
habit of industry; who touched no subject, however
light, without leaving upon it the mark of conscientious
care, and who investigated no question, however grave,
without throwing over it the inimitable charm of genius ;
13
98 MEMORIAL OF EDWAED EVEEETT.
who, having begun active life with the patience and
ripeness of age, still retained in age the grace and
spirit of youth, and, when he had passed the allotted
age of man, so completely filled the public eye and
satisfied the public expectation, that had he no better
claim for gratitude, his death would still be an irrepa
rable loss.
Resolved. That we recollect with pride that the life
of Mr. Everett was spent in the public service, and
that we cherish in respectful remembrance the fidelity
and signal success with which he filled the highest
offices of his native State ; that he administered these
great public trusts as a personal duty, and devoted to
all their details the same attention which he bestowed
on his most splendid efforts ; that he added dignity to the
national councils by his profound learning as a states
man, and maintained the national honor abroad by the
intelligence and wisdom of his diplomacy ; that he was
never seduced by public indulgence to act on any
measure without thorough investigation, and during his
long and eventful public service, never failed to appre
ciate the magnitude and difficulty of the questions before
him, and to give to them, all the strength of his great
talents, and the illumination of his various knowledge.
Nor are we to forget that he dignified his public station
by private virtues ; by the profession of a Christian
faith, and the practice of a Christian life.
Resolved. That, while we thus gratefully recognize the
eminent usefulness and importance of Mr. Everett s
public life, we regard, and would here commemorate,
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 99
as his highest title to honor and gratitude from the
people of this Commonwealth, the timely and decisive
service which he has rendered during the last .four years
to our common country, in her struggle for national unity
and national existence ; and that we consider the prompt
ness with which he embraced the cause of the Union,
the distinctness with which he saw the vital issues of
the present war, the cordial support which he gave to
the Government, the research and unequalled clearness
of the productions by which he sought to form, and
did form, an enlightened public opinion, the temperate
and luminous papers by which he upheld our cause to
the world, the confidence which his presence and his
speech inspired in the success of our arms, and, more
than all, the ardent love of country which animated his
spoken and written words, and prompted him to those
grand enterprises of national charity, of which he has
left so little for others to complete, as the crowning
glory of his long and brilliant life, and as entitling
him to an imperishable place in the history of the
United States as an ILLUSTRIOUS CITIZEN.
Resolved. That an eulogy on his life and character,
be pronounced before the Executive and Legislative
branches of the government of the Commonwealth, at
some time during the present session.
Resolved. That His Excellency the Governor be re
quested to transmit a copy of these resolves to the
family of Mr. Everett.
Resolved. That a Committee, consisting of the Pres
ident and ten members on the part of the Senate, and
100 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the Speaker and twenty members on the part of the
House, be appointed to attend the funeral of the
deceased.
Mr. Wentworth addressed the Senate as follows :
The resolutions which have been read to the Senate
are designed to express the sentiments of the Legisla
ture upon the melancholy event they are intended to
commemorate. It is peculiarly fitting that we should,
in an appropriate manner, and by public action, call
the attention of our fellow-citizens to the loss the coun
try has sustained in the death of Edward Everett.
The orator, the statesman, the patriot, the philanthro
pist and Christian, is no more ! For forty years, with
few and short intermissions, the exertions of Mr. Everett
have been devoted to the public in various positions
in the service of this, his native State, and of the
nation.
Of the eminent ability and success which has marked
his entire public career, of the patriotic efforts which
have so signally illustrated the last years of his valu
able life, and of the philanthropic labors which have
been so gracefully and bounteously yielded by him to
every call of suffering and distress, there will be fitting
occasion elsewhere for others to speak, an occasion
when a delineation of his character, life, and services
will give to mankind a splendid example of the high
est talent employed for the noblest ends ; of a life de
voted with unusual fidelity to the welfare of the human
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 101
race, and which has adorned the policy, the politics,
and the literature of his country. I content myself
with expressing my entire concurrence with the Legis
lative action proposed, and move the adoption of the
resolutions.
Mr. WORCESTER of Essex said :
MR. PRESIDENT : I find myself constrained to violate
a resolution which I had formed, in coming into this
body, that I would not occupy the attention of the
Senate, except for a few moments at a time, per
haps, for months to come. But I owe a debt of
gratitude to Mr. Everett, and must speak of him some
what with the feelings of a son. Were it not for
this, my voice would probably now be silent.
It was my privilege to be a member of the College
at Cambridge, when he returned from his four years of
sojourn in Europe, to enter upon his duties as Eliot
Professor of Greek literature. I may almost say, that
his lecture-room in the old Harvard Hall was the birth
place of my mind. Sure I am, that no one of all the
officers of the College had such an awakening power of
influence upon my own mind ; and what is true of myself,
I believe, was also true of my class generally. We
were one of the five classes only, if I remember rightly,
that enjoyed his instructions, in the senior year.
He laid out a programme for a course of lectures upon
Greek literature and the antiquities of the classic lands,
which, instead of some twenty-five or thirty lectures,
102 MEMORIAL OF EDWAKD EVERETT.
would have required three hundred for its entire com
pletion. His manner of lecturing was colloquial and
exceedingly familiar. He would read a few pages from
his carefully prepared manuscripts, and then turn from
the written lecture, and indulge himself in extemporized
excurses, suggested by some word or association. In
these he was no less interesting and instructive, than
in the most finished parts of his lectures, as he read them
in his deliberate and earnest manner. Often have I seen
him roll up his papers, and close the hour, when he did
not appear to have delivered more than a third, if more
than a sixth part, of what he had written for the occasion.
It seemed to be his constant aim to arouse the interest
and the emulation of the students, in exertions to qualify
themselves for distinguished usefulness. He has been
represented as if he was not a man of warm heart, but
was characteristically cold and unapproachable. He cer
tainly was not thus, as he appeared in the lecture-room,
and as I saw him at other times, when he gave a few of
us private instructions in an extra course of study, to
which all were kindly invited.
He seemed as if he wished to break down those conven
tional barriers, which were designed probably to keep the
students at a respectful, but which practically kept them
at a disrespectful, distance from the officers. And it is no
disparagement to any of those with whom he was associ
ated in the instruction of the College, to say that no one of
them was more highly esteemed. He was truly beloved.
It was most easy to follow him as he lectured. A
second or third rate reporter could have taken down
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 103
almost every word, whether he was reading or extem
porizing. I took myself extended notes of his lectures.
And as I yesterday looked over some eighty or a hundred
pages, I was surprised on being reminded of the great
amount of labor which he accomplished, and the range of
topics which he illustrated, or alluded to, as worthy of
remembrance or research.
The first time I saw Mr. Everett, was in the latter part
of my freshman year, the summer of 1819, and when
he had just returned from Europe. His appearance then,
when but twenty-five years of age, was not in the full and
somewhat portly, bodily form* which we have seen in his
later years. His countenance was that of a hard student,
and his bearing was by no means that of a man who gave
promise of the length of days which he has been permitted
to enjoy. It was a slender and diminutive figure, even,
which he presented, when he walked from University
Hall across the College yard, as I have seen him, lean
ing upon the arm of his younger brother John, who, as he
now comes before my memory in his stalwart form, " from
his shoulders and upward was higher." Some have
thought, that in native -intellectual endowment, that
brother, who went down to an early grave, had as much
superiority, as he had in bodily presence, over the
lamented man whose death we* are now called to mourn.
From the reputation which preceded Mr. Everett s com
ing to enter upon his duties as Professor, the students
had high expectations. The first displays which he made
before us, were from the, pulpit. But although he drew
large audiences, and was highly extolled and glorified by
104 MEMOEIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
many, I do not think that he made any great impres
sion upon the under-graduates. The pulpit was not his
appropriate place. I heartily rejoiced when he withdrew
from it, and gave himself so devotedly to the instruc
tion of the College classes ; and afterwards to the instruc
tion of the country and of the world.
Soon after his return from Europe, he was editor of the
North American Review, which he renewed, by giving it a
character and reputation such as it never had before. The
students were much interested in the articles which he
wrote for it, and which they thought could be easily iden
tified. The style of those articles had a great effect, in
stimulating them to cultivate a high order of literary com
position. We were specially interested in the articles,
which vindicated our institutions and character against the
mendacious reports of British travellers in America, and
the savage assaults of the Edinburgh and London Quar
terly Ee views. At this time there was much written in
the spirit of Sydney Smith s sneering interrogatory,
" Who reads an American book ? "
In refuting the statements and repelling the assaults of
British travellers and reviewers, Mr. Everett came forth
with a manliness which he had not before displayed. His
compositions had often seemed to belong rather to the fem
inine than to the masculine gender. While he showed that
he had the same delicacy of taste and kindliness of tem
per, which had been so admirably exhibited by Washing
ton Irving, in the essays of the Sketch Book, which
portrayed and defended our national character, he also
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 105
showed a vigor and masterly strength, which, perhaps,
he owed in part at least, to his intimacy with Webster,
whom he so greatly admired, and with whom he so in
tensely sympathized. In those vindications of our country
which appeared in the North American , from the pen of
Mr. Everett, you may see the germs or the elements of the
same patriotism which has so nobly distinguished the
efforts of these last years of his life.
He could say very hard things in very mild words.
He could take a man s head off, by a feather, as well
as by any more potent instrument. An example of his
manner now occurs to me. He was commenting upon
some flagrant statements. " This," said he, " is a spe
cies of fiction in which gentlemen of veracity are not
accustomed to indulge."
One or two articles he wrote on the Missouri ques
tion, with signal ability. One of these, I think was in
the early part pf 1820, when he reviewed the history
of slavery in our country, referring to the principles and
sentiments of the founders of the republic, and earnestly
imploring, that the area of the "peculiar institution"
should be no farther extended. These views he seems
to have modified, after he became a member of Con
gress : perhaps more seemingly , than in reality, yet afford
ing too much occasion for the terrible rebuke of John
Randolph, who, as some will remember, gave him to
understand, that slave-holder as he was himself, he had
little respect for the heart or the head of any man, from
H
106 MEMOEIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the North, who would stand up there to apologize for
Southern slavery.
In August, 1824, Mr. Everett delivered an oration
before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which was received
with the highest applause. General Lafayette had just
arrived, on a visit to the United States, and his coming
stirred up and called forth all the patriotic feeling,
which could be moved by the remembrances and asso
ciations of the revolutionary war. His presence in the
assembly at Cambridge added greatly to the interest of
that 27th day of August, a day most memorable in
Mr. Everett s public life.
The subject of the oration, as then stated by the
orator, was " The peculiar motives to intellectual exertion
in America." In a revised edition of Mr. Everett s works,
the oration appears tinder the title of " Circumstances favor
able to the progress of literature in the United States." In
the treatment of this subject, he displayed a wealth of
learning and a wealth of language, which perfectly amazed
his auditory, and far exceeded all the most sanguine expec
tations of his greatest admirers. It would be utterly impos
sible to describe the effect produced as with his graphic and
thrilling power, as from an inspiration he depicted, " the
theatre upon which the intellect of America was to ap
pear;" "the motives to its exertion;" "the mass to be
influenced by its efforts ; " " the crowd to witness its ener
gies;" and "the glory to crown its success." And when in
his peroration he addressed Lafayette, the enthusiasm of
admiration knew no bounds. The closing words of " wel-
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 107
come" " WELCOME," were received with a kind of rapture and
the wildest excitement, that can well be imagined. Never
before, and I believe, never since, was such a scene
witnessed at Cambridge. And I much incline to the
opinion, that for all in all, considering the occasion and
the circumstances, not one of all Mr. Everett s greatest
efforts, throughout his whole subsequent career, has sur
passed that memorable Phi Beta oration of August 27,
1824.
In the autumn of this year, 1824, the young men of
Middlesex nominated Mr. Everett for the House of Rep
resentatives in Congress. The course which he pursued
in his ten years as Representative in Washington, his
services in Europe, his administration as Governor of
our State, his presidency at Cambridge, and even
the wonderful eiforts of the last glorious period of his
life, it is not now the time, nor is this the place, to
review and describe. But whatever may have been
thought of him, at certain times, in respect to his politi
cal action, I believe that no man could ever say with
greater sincerity and propriety, that "through good report
and through evil report, he had truly loved his whole
Country."
The bereavement which we mourn, is a bereavement
of all tbe loyal people in our land. We are all mourn
ers to-day, as if the affliction were in our own family
circle. Although the beloved man had lived so long,
and had accomplished so much by his integrity and learn
ing, his patriotism and philanthropy, and although.
108 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
" gathered to his fathers," " as a shock of com cometh
in his season," his death appears to us untimely. Our duty
is to bow with entire submission to God s Sovereign will.
" EVEN so, FATHER, FOR so IT SEEMETH GOOD IN THY SIGHT."
Little did we think, when we so lately saw him, that
he was so soon to fall asleep. But if it had been kno^yn,
that his days were so near the end, and there had been the
opportunity, I think that I should have ventured to
congratulate him, that God had spared him so long;
and that for himself, for our land, and for the world, he
was not taken from us four years since.
Grateful should we be that he so early gave himself
to the pure, the beautiful, and the just. As we gather
him to his burial, let us all be admonished of our personal
duty to our Country and to God. I would that I could
speak to all the young men of the land. I would exhort
them to study those volumes which are the memorial
of his erudition, his eloquence, and his beneficence.
We cannot doubt what he would say to them, and to
all of us. And here comes to my mind, at this moment,
the words which he uttered when approaching the end
of that oration on the 27th of August, 1824. "If I
err in this happy vision of my Country s fortunes, I
thank God for an error so animating. If this be false,
may I never know the truth. Never may you, my friends,
be under any other feeling than that a great and growing,
an immeasurably expanding country is calling upon you
for your best services.
Mr. President, there is a spot in front of this edifice,
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 109
on the other side of that which is occupied by the statue
of the great defender of the Constitution. Whose statue
shall have that vacant place ? Whose can occupy it so
worthily as that of him whose sudden departure we all
so deeply deplore? But however it may be, it is our
" joy of grief," that his monument is everywhere in the
land ; his renown is in all lands ; and for ages to come,
his Country " redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled," shall
cherish among her choicest treasures, the transcendent
name of EDWARD EVERETT.
Mr. Chadbourne of Berkshire said :
MR. PRESIDENT : It is eminently proper that we should
turn aside from the ordinary duties of this chamber to
pay our brief tribute of respect to the memory of a
great man. Edward Everett w r as a great man among
great men. It was his lot, sir, to live and walk with
a race of intellectual giants. And if we consider the
rare combination of native power with vast acquirements,
he was hardly surpassed by any man of his time. He
was a scholar, an orator, a statesman, and a patriot.
How perfect and beautiful was his life, how transcen-
dently beautiful its close ! No broken shaft can be its
symbol. It was like the lofty marble column, without
spot or blemish, its flutings perfect, its capital entire.
I shall ever consider it among the fortunate events in
my life, sir, that I heard his last words in Eaneuil Hall.
There his great heart gushed forth, breaking down the
forms of elaborate and studied oratory so commonly at-
110 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
tributed to him. With what loving enthusiasm was he
greeted by the hundreds who had so often hung upon
his lips. And how did his words give us courage for
the conflict and charity towards the returning prod
igals. He did not live to see the Union restored, but,
as has been well said, he saw it by the eye of faith.
Those who heard his last speech will never forget his
eloquent words respecting the people of Savannah.
" They do not know as we do," said he, " that the
Savannah River shall sooner reverse its course and roll
its flood of waters back to the mountains than the stars
and stripes be again replaced by the flag of the Rebel
lion." His eloquent words remain, but his eloquent lips
are closed forever in death. He has completed his
warfare. We may place -his statue in the vacant place
in front of the capitol, but his spear leans against the
wall, and who is there left, mighty enough to wield it?
But how little, sir, of such a man can die ! His death
seems to me like one of those splendid summer nights
in the far north, where the sun indeed sinks beneath
the horizon, but where his midnight light curtains the
heavens with purple and gold, more gorgeous and beau
tiful than his noonday glory.
His name will live forever. Henceforth, they who
make pilgrimages to Mount Vernon will couple the
name of Everett with the name of Washington. He
will be remembered as the proud yjroduct of republican
institutions, as the orator who launched his thunders
against the Catilines of our day, and as the patriot who
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 1 1 1
ever preferred his country to party, and never despaired
of the republic.
The resolutions were adopted.
Senators Wentworth of Middlesex, Loud of Plymouth, Codman
of Suffolk, Parker of Suffolk, Stoddard of Worcester, Frost of
Norfolk, Foster of Essex, Kneil of Hampden, Ide of Bristol, and
Parsons of Franklin were appointed a Committee on the part of
the Senate to attend the funeral.
Adjourned.
IN THE HOUSE.
A communication was received from His Excellency, the Gov
ernor, stating that the Executive Department would unite with
the General Court in any demonstration of respect to the mem
ory of Mr. Everett, which they might adopt.
The resolutions of the joint special Committee, in relation to
Mr. Everett, were received from the Senate, and read by the
clerk.
Mr. Wells of Chicopee said :
MR. SPEAKER : The brief time that remains before we
are to proceed to join in the funeral ceremonies, as
well as the fact that our action contemplates a formal
eulogy at some future day, forbids that I should enter
upon any extended discussion of the life or character of
Mr. Everett. Were it otherwise, I should not venture,
with my limited powers, and limited knowledge of the
subject, to undertake its delineation. But I am sure it
would not comport with the feelings of this house,
112 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
it would not comport with the propriety of the occasion,
that the Resolves should pass to their adoption by a
mere formal vote. There is one consideration in the
life of Mr. Everett, which seems especially to force
itself upon our attention. Although for so many years
in public life ; elected to Congress forty years ago ;
having filled the office of Governor of this Common
wealth more than a quarter of a century since ; ap
pointed in 1841 as our Minister to the Court of St.
James; in 1852 succeeding Mr. Webster as Secretary
of State of the United States ; and having filled all these
and other prominent positions of public trust with dis
tinguished ability, and honor to himself as well as to
the country; he has nevertheless rounded out his life,
and placed upon its record an enduring crown of sur
passing excellence, by the display of that patriotism,
and the performance of those duties to the country,
which come within the province of the private citizen.
Great and honored as he was among men when exer
cising the influence which attends the possession of high
official position, he was greater, more honored, more
powerful in the influence he was able to exert for the
good of his country, in his last capacity as a private
citizen.
He thus nobly illustrated the true spirit of the insti
tutions of our country; where the private citizen is
the real potentate, above all office, and not dependent
upon it for the possession of his true dignity and influ
ence. In the death of Mr. Everett the country has
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE. 1]3
indeed suffered a great loss. And yet his life is not
lost to the nation. It is fortunate for us, fortunate
in view of that immortality which is said to be possi
ble to a nation, that its great men do not die. It is
not in the power of death to tear away the life of such
men from the life of the Nation. Their acts, their
example, their written and spoken words, their influ
ence upon the passing events of their time, all that
which is the expression of their lives is wrought
into the public life, woven as it were into the web
of the history of the country. And although they may
be withdrawn from our mortal vision, all that which
was great in them, all which connects itself with the
public life, remains forever. Passing time will remove
whatever of cloud may be thrown upon the character
by the prejudice or passion of to-day, and as we look
back from some future period, we shall recognize, more
fully, all that is great and good in such a life, and
cherish it as a part of the national life and history.
Mr. Scudder of Dorchester said that this was not the time
for an extended eulogy; the subject did not demand, nor the
occasion require it. The very air was full of the praises of the
illustrious dead, mingled with sighs and lamentation at his loss.
He felt justified in saying, that within the last half century no
man had walked among us who had so completely the char
acteristics of a truly great man, or whose life and character
would so adorn the pages of our history. More than sixty
years of the threescore and ten of his life are a history famil
iar to us all. The fame of his extraordinary promise as a boy
still lingered in his native town of Dorchester, a promise so
15
MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
wonderfully fulfilled in his after career as preacher, professor, sen
ator, diplomate, governor, college president, and cabinet minister.
Certainly Edward Everett embodied in himself all the virtues and
excellences which are the components of greatness.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted, the members of
the House rising in their places.
The following gentlemen were appointed by the Speaker on
the Committee of the House to attend Mr. Everett s funeral : -
Messrs. Kimball of Boston, Scudder of Dorchester, Stone of
Charlestown, Hills of Boston, Stone of Waltham, Gallup of
Brookfield, Dwelley of Hanover, Warren of Windsor, Hall of
Dennis, Holden of Salem, Bartlett of Greenfield, Lovering of
Taunton, Shortle of Provincetown, Osborne of Edgartown,
Mitchell of Nantucket, Stone of Lowell, Winchester of Spring
field, Mudge of Petersham, Stevens of Newburyport, and Dudley
of Northampton.
Adjourned.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE.
A SPECIAL meeting of the Government of the Board of Trade was
held on Tuesday, January 17, at noon, to consider what meas
ures should be adopted in relation to the death of Mr. Everett.
The meeting was called to order by the President, Hon. George
C. Richardson, who briefly stated its objects. Edward S. Tobey,
Esq. then addressed the meeting as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE BOARD OF
TRADE : It is but recently that this Board has had occa
sion to perform the solemn office of a public expression
of its sense of the personal worth and eminent character
of a distinguished American merchant, whose death de
prived the commercial world of one of its most promi
nent and honored representatives. We are now sum
moned to this place, to bear our highest tribute of re
spect for the character and worth of our preeminent and
revered fellow-countryman, Edward Everett, whose sud
den departure has thrown the pall of sadness over our
land.
Although not directly connected with the commercial
history of this community, Mr. Everett has, in former
118 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
years, as the able minister of the United States in Great
Britain, rendered signal service to the commerce of this
country, especially in giving his valuable influence in the
adjustment of questions in controversy as to the rights of
American Fishermen.
At an earlier date, his series of letters on the subject
of our Colonial trade, doubtless had no inconsiderable influ
ence in forming an intelligent public opinion on the com
mercial questions involved. Notwithstanding the grave
and protracted controversy in reference to the Northeast
ern boundary, the Oregon question, and other kindred
topics, which at one time threatened the peace of this
country and of England was ultimately transferred to
Washington, through the arrangement of a special am
bassador- from England, it is not doubted that Mr.
Everett s previous discussions of those questions with
the British Government largely contributed to prepare
the way for the amicable settlement, which was finally
attained by the commissioners of both governments.
His appointment by the government in 1843, on a
mission to China, with a view to establish improved
commercial relations with that country (an appointment
which he felt constrained to decline), shows the estima
tion in which his ability on commercial questions was
held.
But, Mr. President, it is not by reason of any relations
to the commerce of the country which Mr. Everett sus
tained, that we are now convened to do appropriate honor
to his memory. Our country mourns the loss of one of
her ablest and most devoted statesmen ; and one of Mas-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE. 119
sachusetts gifted sons, one of the great constellation of
brilliant statesmen, whose lives during the last half cen
tury have adorned and illuminated the pages of our
country s history, has been withdrawn from these earthly
scenes.
This is, therefore, no ordinary occasion. Generally we
may well be guarded against the use of words of fulsome
eulogy, which too indiscriminately uttered, may alike do
injury to the living and injustice to the dead.
But when one of such rare combination of virtues and
excellences of character as was possessed by Mr. Everett
passes from earth, we may safely commend his exem
plary public and private life to the emulation of his fellow-
citizens in no measured terms.
I, therefore, Mr. President, regard it both an honor
and a privilege, cordially to unite with this Board in the
present appropriate demonstrations of respect for the
character of our deceased fellow-citizen.
Long will the tones of his matchless eloquence be
treasured in memory, as with all the fervor of a pure,
devoted patriotism he sought to rally the people to the
standard of his country, and in support of its lawfully
constituted government in its struggle with treason ; or
in his last pathetic appeal to the sympathies of our citi-
jzens in behalf of the suffering poor in Savannah.
But, Mr. President, I do not feel at liberty to indulge
the promptings of my own heart in more extended re
marks, aware, as I am, that there are others present
who, I am sure, desire to give expression to their
hearty approval of these proceedings. I have the
120 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
honor to submit the following resolutions for your
consideration :
Resolved. That this Board would reverently acknowl
edge the hand of Divine Providence in the sudden de
parture from this life of our deeply lamented fellow-
citizen, Edward Everett, whose varied public services and
high attainments have been so preeminent as to make his
character the common property of the American people.
Resolved. That in common with our fellow-countrymen,
we share in the general sorrtnv which now oppresses the
heart of this nation, for the irreparable loss of one whose
life has adorned the brightest page of its history, and
whose death has deprived the country of the wise counsel
and influence dT one of her noblest sons.
Resolved. IThat, while this Board cannot be unmindful
of the eminent services rendered by Mr. Everett as the
representative of his country at the Court of St. James, in
his participation in the adjustment of international ques
tions of great importance to the commercial interests of
the United States, we regard it as a special privilege, not
less than a solemn and sacred duty, on this sad occasion,
to express our appreciation of his patriotism, his exalted
and comprehensive statesmanship, and his moral worth,
which, with his unsurpassed eloquence, have added lustre
to the American name and character throughout the
world, and will enshrine his memory in the hearts of a
grateful nation.
Resolved. That we offer to his afflicted relatives and
friends our sympathy in their bereavement, which has
suddenly deprived them of the society of one whose affec-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE. 121
tionate intercourse and genial friendship they have been
permitted so long to enjoy.
The resolutions were seconded by James M. Beebe, Esq., in the
following remarks :
MR. PRESIDENT : In rising to "second the resolutions sub
mitted, I shall but give utterance to feelings which fill
the hearts of all present.
It has not been customary for this Association, a body
so largely composed of merchants and business men, to
publicly recognize the departure of those, however emi
nent or worthy, whose career and pursuits in life have
been in a different sphere ; but in the sad event which
has called us together to-day, no precedent is needed for
our guidance and action.
An occasion so fitting and proper for the full and ear
nest expression of the feelings of this Board, has perhaps
never before occurred since our organization ; and we but
honor ourselves in paying the highest tributes to the ex
alted worth and pre-eminent talents of our fellow-citizen,
whose sudden departure from us has caused universal
sorrow.
Mr. Everett will be sadly missed in our own commu
nity, and the place vacated by his death cannot easily be
filled. Always accessible, and ever ready on all proper
occasions claiming his aid and co-operation, to render
cheerful service in the furtherance of every good cause,
the inexhaustible resources of his well-stored mind, and
his unsurpassed eloquence were constantly sought.
His enlightened and comprehensive patriotism, his
16
122 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
noble and untiring efforts in behalf of his country and
her imperilled institutions, so dear to him, have enshrined
his memory in the heart of the nation, which will never
forget the debt of gratitude it owes.
Little more can be expected, in our meeting to-day,
than a brief recurrence to the excellence of character
and efficient services of the departed. A bright example
is afforded by his life, to stimulate and encourage zeal and
fidelity in every good work.
Eobert B. Forbes, Esq., then spoke as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN : In offering my cordial
support to the resolutions, my first sensation is one of
regret that I cannot be endowed with a portion of the
eloquence due to the occasion. If the feelings of my
heart could be uttered by my lips, I might do justice to
the subject.
My relations with Mr. Everett, though never very inti
mate, have been of the most friendly character and long
standing. To no individual in this community have I
been accustomed to look up with more reverence, both
on account of his public works and his private character.
While we sincerely mourn his departure, we cannot but
rejoice that he was spared so long, and that he has gone
to meet his reward, unimpaired by lingering illness, and
in the fulness of his glorious career.
Who is there in this community or in the whole coun
try, who has not been inspired to deeds of patriotism
or charity by his brilliant example and unsurpassed elo
quence, who that could withstand his convincing argu-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRADE. 123
ments, or fail to applaud the grace of his unequalled
style ? None, sir, but those who have no minds to under
stand or no hearts to feel his power.
There are but two things to regret in Mr. Everett s
death : first, that we have no one to fill his place, and
next, that he could not have been spared long enough to
see what he has done so much to bring about the
restoration of our glorious Union. No man living has
done more towards this end than Edward Everett ; and
few men, since the immortal Washington, whose lives
and writings will do more, in the future, to preserve its
integrity when that happy day shall come.
Mr. President, I heartily concur in the language and
in the spirit of the resolutions, and in all that has been
said by the gentleman who has seconded them.
Hon. Joseph M. Wightman also addressed the Board upon the
adoption of the resolutions, as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT : I desire to mingle my feelings of deep
sympathy with the Board on this occasion, and to express
my hearty concurrence in the resolutions, and the appro
priate remarks which have been made in reference to the
death of Mr. Everett.
In the various public positions with which I have been
honored by my fellow-citizens, I have been brought into
frequent intimate relations with Mr. Everett, and my con
nection, both private and official, with him, has always
been characterized by a gentle courtesy, a kindly interest,
and a cordial co-operation, that has entitled him to my
warmest feelings of gratitude while living, and to my
124 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
heartfelt sorrow and regret at his loss. But although the
eloquent voice is hushed forever, and the trusty counsellor
and friend has departed, we feel assured that he has only
left us to repose in peace and happiness in the bosom of
his God.
The resolutions were unanimously adopted.
On motion of Mr. Wightman, it was voted that the resolutions
and the action of the Board in relation thereto be communicated
to the family of the deceased.
Lorenzo Sabine, Secretary of the Board, offered a resolution
that the rooms of the Board be draped in mourning for thirty days.
In moving its adoption, Mr. Sabine said that he, probably, was
the only person now living who could do Mr. Everett full justice
in a single particular, namely, while the departed statesman was
negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty, as Secretary of State ; and that,
refraining on the present occasion, he should state the facts within
his personal knowledge, at another time and in another way.
The resolution was adopted with an amendment recommending
a similar demonstration in the public room of the Merchants Ex
change.
The meeting then adjourned.
PROCEEDINGS
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
I/
PROCEEDINGS OE THE MASSACHUSETTS
HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
A SPECIAL Meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society was
held in the Dowse Library on Monday evening, Jan. 30, to com
memorate their late illustrious associate, Edward Everett. The
attendance was very large.
The meeting was called to order at 7J o clock by the President,
the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, who spoke as follows :
GENTLEMEN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY:
The occasion of this meeting is but too well known to
you all. None of us were strangers to the grief which
pervaded this community on the recent announcement of
the death of Edward Everett. Not a few of us have had
the privilege of uniting with the public authorities, who
hastened to assume the whole charge of his funeral, in
paying the last tribute to Jiis honored remains. And
more than one of us have already had an opportunity of
giving some feeble expression to our sense of the loss
which has been sustained by our city, our Common
wealth, and our whole country.
But we are here this evening to take up the theme
again somewhat more deliberately, as a Society of which
128 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
he was so long one of the most valuable, as well as one
of the most distinguished members. We are here not
merely to unite in lamenting the close of a career which
has been crowded with so many good words and good
works for the community and the country at large, but
to give utterance to our own particular sorrow for the
breach which has been made in our own cherished circle.
Mr. Everett was elected a member of this Society on
the 27th of April, 1820, when he was but twenty-six
years of age ; and, at the time of his death, his name
stood second in order of seniority on the roll of our
resident members. I need not attempt to say to you how
much we have prized his companionship, how often we
have profited of his counsels, or how deeply we have been
indebted to him for substantial services which no one
else could have rendered so well.
His earliest considerable effort in our behalf was a lec
ture delivered before us on the 31st of October, 1833. It
was entitled " Anecdotes of Early Local History," and will
be found in the second volume of his collected works,
noAV lying upon our table, with an extended note or
appendix containing many interesting details concerning
the Society, its objects and its members. But it is only
within the last nine or ten years, and since his public life
so far as office is necessary to constitute public life was
brought to a close, that he has been in the way of taking
an active part in our proceedings. No one can enter the
room in which we are gathered without remembering how
frequently, during that period, his voice has been heard
among us in rendering such honors to others, as now,
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 129
alas, we are so unexpectedly called to pay to himself. No
one can forget his admirable tributes to the beloved Pres-
cott, to the excellent Nathan Hale, to the venerated
Quincy, among our immediate associates; to Daniel D.
Barnard of Albany and Henry D. Gilpin of Philadelphia,
to Washington Irving, to Hallam, to Humboldt, to Mac-
aulay, among our domestic and foreign honorary members.
Still less will any one be likely to forget the noble
eulogy which he pronounced, at our request, on the 9th
of December, 1858, upon that remarkable self-made man
whom we have ever delighted to honor as . our largest
benefactor, and in whose pictured presence we are at this
moment assembled. Often as I have listened to our la
mented friend, since the year 1824, when I followed
him with at least one other whom I see before me to
Plymouth Rock, and heard his splendid discourse on the
Pilgrim Fathers, I can hardly recall anything of his,
more striking of its kind, or more characteristic of its
author, than that elaborate delineation of the life of
Thomas Dowse. No one, certainly, who was present on
the occasion, can fail to recall the exhibition which he
gave us, in its delivery, of the grasp and precision of his
wonderful memory, when in describing the collection
of water colors, now in the Athenaeum gallery, which was
the earliest of Mr. Dowse s possessions, he repeated,
without faltering, the unfamiliar names of more than
thirty of the old masters from whose works they were
copied, and then turning at once to the description of
the library itself, as we see it now around us, proceeded
to recite the names of fifty-three of the ancient authors
MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
of Greek and Eoman literature, of nineteen of the modern
German, of fourteen of the Italian, of forty-seven of the
French, of sixteen or seventeen of the Portuguese and
Spanish, making up in all an aggregate of more than one
hundred and eighty names of artists and authors, many of
them as hard to pronounce as they were difficult to be
remembered, but which he rehearsed, without the aid of
a note and without the hesitation of an instant, with as
much ease and fluency as he doubtless had rolled off
the famous catalogue of the ships, in the second book of
Homer s Iliad, with the text-book in his hand, as a col
lege student or as Greek professor, half a century before !
I need hardly add that with this library, now our most
valued treasure, the name of Mr. Everett will henceforth
be hardly less identified than that of Mr. Dowse himself.
Indeed, he had been associated with it long before it was
so munificently transferred to us. By placing yonder por
trait of him, taken in his earliest manhood, upon the
walls of the humble apartment in which the books were
originally collected, the only portrait ever admitted to
their companionship, our worthy benefactor seems him
self to have designated Edward Everett as the presiding
genius or patron saint of this library ; and as such he will
be enshrined by us, and by all who shall succeed us, as
long as the precious books and the not less precious can
vas shall escape the ravages of time.
I may not omit to remind you that our lamented friend
who was rarely without some labor of love for others
in prospect had at least two matters in hand for us
at the time of his death, which he was hoping, and which
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 131
we all were hoping, that he would soon be able to com
plete. One of them was a memoir of that noble patriot
of South Carolina, James Louis Petigru, whose lifelong
devotion to the cause of the American Union, alike in the
days of nullification and of secession, will secure him the
grateful remembrance of all to whom that Union is dear.
The other was a volume of Washington s private letters,
which he was preparing to publish in our current series
of historical collections. It is hardly a month since he
told me that the letters were all copied, and that he was
sorry to be obliged to postpone the printing of them a
little longer, in order to find time for the annotations
with which he desired to accompany them.
But you do not require to be told, gentlemen, that what
Mr. Everett has done, or has proposed to do, specifically
for our own Society, would constitute a very small part of
all that he has accomplished in that cause of American
history in which we are associated. It is true that he
has composed no independent historical work, nor ever
published any volume of biography more considerable
than the excellent memoir of Washington, which he pre
pared, at the suggestion of his friend Lord Macaulay,
for the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. But
there is no great epoch, there is hardly a single great
event, of our national or of our colonial history, which
he has jiot carefully depicted and brilliantly illustrated
in his occasional discourses. I have sometimes thought
that no more attractive or more instructive history of our
country could be presented to the youth of our land, than
is found in the series of anniversary orations which he
132 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
has delivered during the last forty years. Collect those
orations into a volume by themselves ; arrange them in
their historical order : " The First Settlement of New
England," " The Settlement of Massachusetts," "The
Battle of Bloody Brook in King Philip s War," " The
Seven Years War, the School of the Revolution," " The
First Battles of the Eevolutionary War," "The Bat
tle of Lexington," "The Battle of Bunker Hill,"
"Dorchester in 1630, 1776, and 1855;" combine with
them those " Anecdotes of Early Local History," which
he prepared for our own Society, and add to them his
charming discourses on " The Youth of Washington," and
" The Character of Washington," on " The Boyhood and
the Early Days of Franklin," and his memorable eulogies
on Adams and Jefferson, on Lafayette, on John Quincy
Adams and on Daniel Webster, and I know not in what
other volume the young men, or even the old men,. of
our land could find the history of the glorious past more
accurately or more admirably portrayed. I know not
where they could find the toils and trials and struggles
of our colonial or revolutionary fathers set forth with
greater fulness of detail or greater felicity of illustration.
As one reads those orations and discourses at this mo
ment, they might almost be regarded as successive chap
ters of a continuous and comprehensive work which had
been composed and recited on our great national anni
versaries, just as the chapters of Herodotus are said to
have been recited at the Olympic festivals of ancient
Greece.
Undoubtedly, however, it is rather as an actor and an
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 133
orator in some of the later scenes of our country s
history, than as an author, that Mr. Everett will be
longest remembered. Indeed, since he first entered on
the stage of mature life, there has hardly been a scene
of any sort in that great historic drama, which of late,
alas, has assumed the most terrible form of tragedy, in
which he has not been called to play a more or less
conspicuous part ; and we all know how perfectly every
part which has been assigned him has been performed.
If we follow him from the hour when he left the
University of Cambridge, with the highest academic
honors, at an age when so many others are hardly pre
pared to enter there, down to the fatal day when he
uttered those last impressive words at Faneuil Hall, we
shall find him everywhere occupied with the highest
duties, and everywhere discharging those duties with
consummate ability and unwearied devotion. Varied and
brilliant accomplishments, laborious research, copious
diction, marvellous memory, magnificent rhetoric, a gra
cious presence, a glorious voice, an ardent patriotism
controlling his public career, an unsullied purity crown
ing his private life, what element was there wanting
in him for the complete embodiment of the classic orator,
as Cato and Quinctilian so tersely and yet so compre
hensively defined him eighteen hundred years ago
" Vir bonus, dicendi peritus ! "
But I may not occupy more of your time in these
introductory remarks, intended only to exhibit our de
parted friend in his relations to our own Society, and to
open the way for those who are prepared to do better
MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
justice to his general career and character. Let me
only add that our standing committee have requested our
associates, Mr. Hillard and Dr. Lothrop, to prepare some
appropriate resolutions for the occasion, and that the
Society is now ready to receive them.
Mr. Hillard then proceeded as follows :
The Psalmist says, " The days of our years are three
score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be
fourscore years, yet is their strength, labor and sorrow."
The latter part of this sentence is not altogether true ; at
least, it is not without exceptions as numerous as the
rule. To say nothing of the living, we who have wit
nessed the serene and beautiful old age of Quincy, pro
tracted more than twenty years after threescore years and
ten, will not admit that all of life beyond that limit is of
necessity " labor and sorrow." But in these words there
is much of truth as this, that he who has lived to be
threescore and ten years old should feel that he has had
his fair share of life, and if any more years are dropped
into his lap he must receive them as a gift not promised
at his birth. And thus no man who dies after the age of
seventy can be said to have died unseasonably or prema
turely. But the shock with which the news of Mr.
Everett s death fell upon the community was due to its
unexpectedness as well as its suddenness. We knew
that he was an old man, but we did not feel that he was
such. There was nothing either in his aspect or his life
that warned us of departure or reminded us of decay.
His powers were so vigorous, his industry was so great,
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 135
his sympathies were so active, his eloquence was so rich
and glowing, his elocution still so admirable, that he ap
peared before us as a man in the very prime of life, and
when he died it was as if the sun had gone down at noon.
The impression made by his death was the highest trib
ute that could be paid to the worth, of his life.
In 1819, after an absence of nearly five years, Mr.
Everett returned from Europe at the age of twenty-five,
the most finished and accomplished man that had been
seen in New England, and it will be generally admitted
*
that he maintained this superiority to the last. From
that year down to the hour of his death he was constantly
before the public eye, and never without a marked and
peculiar influence upon the community, especially upon
students and scholars. You and I, Mr. President, are old
enough to have come under the spell of the magician at
that early period of his life, when he presented the most
attractive combination of graceful and blooming youth
with mature intellectual power. The young man of to
day, familiar with that expression of gravity, almost of
sadness, which his countenance has habitually worn of
late, can hardly imagine what he then was, when his
" bosom s lord sat light upon his throne," when the winds
of hope filled his sails, and his looks and movements were
informed with a spirit of morning freshness and vernal
promise.
In the forty-five years which passed between his return
home and his death, Mr. Everett s industry was untiring,
and the amount of work he accomplished was immense.
What he published would alone entitle him to the praise
136 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
of a very industrious man, but this forms but a part of
his labors. Of what has been called the master-vice of
sloth he knew nothing. He was independent of the
amusements and relaxations which most hard-working
men interpose between their hours of toil. He was
always in harness.
Some persons have regretted that he gave so much time
to merely occasional productions, instead of devoting him
self to some one great work ; but without speculating
upon the comparative value of what we have and what we
might have had, it is enough to say that with his genius
and temperament on the one hand, and our institutions and
form of society on the other, it was a sort of necessity
that his mind should have taken the direction that it did.
For he was the child of his time, and was always in har
mony with the spirit of the age and country in which his
lot was cast. He was pre-eminently rich in the fruits of
European culture ; Greece, Rome, England, France, Italy,
and Germany, all helped by liberal contributions to swell
his stores of intellectual wealth, but yet no man was ever
more national in feeling, more patriotic in motive and im
pulse, more thoroughly American in grain and fibre.
Loving books as he did, he would yet have pined and
languished if he had been doomed to live in the unsym
pathetic air of a great library. The presence, the com
prehension, the sympathy of his kind were as necessary
to him as his daily bread.
" Two words," says Macaulay, " form the key of the
Baconian doctrine, Utility and Progress." I think these
two words also go far to reveal and interpret Mr.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 137
Everett s motives and character. Not that he did not
seek honorable distinction, not that he did not take
pleasure in the applause which he had fairly earned ;
but stronger even than these propelling impulses was
his desire to be of service to his fellowmen, to do good
in his day and generation. He loved his country with
a fervid love, and he loved his race with a generous
and comprehensive philanthropy. He was always ready
to work cheerfully in any direction when he thought
he could do any good, though the labor might not be
particularly congenial to. his tastes, and would not add
anything to his literary reputation. The themes which
he handled, during his long life of intellectual action,
were very various, they were treated with great afflu
ence of learning, singular beauty of illustration, and
elaborate and exquisite harmony of style, but always in
such a way as to bear practical fruit, and contribute
to the advancement of society and the elevation of
humanity.
So, too, Mr. Everett was a sincere and consistent
friend of progress. He was, it is true, conservative in
his instincts and convictions; I mean in a large and
liberal, and not in a narrow and technical sense. But
that he was an extreme conservative, or that he valued
an institution simply because it was old, is not only not
true, but, I think, the reverse of truth. He had a
distaste to extreme views of any kind, and, by the
constitution of his mind, was disposed to take that
middle ground which partisan zeal is prone to identify
with timidity or indifference. But he was a man of
18
138 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
generous impulses and large sympathies. No one was
more quick to recognize true progress, and greet it
with a more hospitable welcome. No man of his age
would have more readily and heartily acknowledged the
many points in which the world has advanced since he
was young.
It would not be seasonable here to dwell upon Mr.
Everett s public or political career, but I may be per
mitted to add that I think he had genuine faith in the
institutions of his country, which did not grow fainter
as he grew older. He believed in man s capacity for
self-government, and had confidence in popular instincts.
He was fastidious in his social tastes, but not aristo
cratic ; that is, if he preferred one man to another it
was for essential and not adventitious qualities, for
what they were, and not for what they had. He was
uniformly kind to the young, and always prompt to
recognize and encourage merit in a young person.
Mr. Everett, if not the founder of the school of
American deliberative eloquence, was its most brilliant
representative. In his orations and occasional discourses
will be found his best title to remembrance, and by
them his name will surely be transmitted to future
generations. In judging of them, we must bear in
mind that the aim of the deliberative orator is to treat
a subject in such a way as to secure and fix the atten
tion of a popular audience, and ibis aim Mr. Everett
never lost sight of. If it be said that his discourses
are not marked by originality of construction, or philo
sophical depth of thought, it may be replied that had
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 139
they been so, they would have been less attractive to his
hearers. They are remarkable for a combination of
qualities rarely, if ever before, so happily blended, and
especially for the grace, skill, and tact with which the
resources of the widest cultivation are so used as to
instruct the common mind and touch the* common
heart. For, whatever were the subject, Mr. Everett
always took his audience along with him, from first
to last. He never soared or wandered out of their
sight.
I need not dwell upon the singular beauty and finish
of his elocution. Those who have heard him speak
will need no description of the peculiar charm and
grace of his manner, and no description will give any
adequate impression of it to those who never heard
him. It was a manner easily caricatured but not easily
imitated. His power over an audience remained unim
paired to the last. At the age of seventy he spoke
with all the animation of youth, and easily filled the
largest hall with that rich and flexible voice, the tones
of which time had hardly touched.
His organization was delicate and refined, his tem
perament was sensitive and sympathetic. The opinion
of those whom he loved and esteemed was weighty with
him. Praise was ever cordial to him, and more neces
sary than to most men who had achieved such high and
assured distinction. . Doubtful as the statement may
seem to those who knew him but slightly, or only saw
him on the platform with his "robes and singing gar
lands" about him, he was to the last a modest and
140 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
self-distrustful man. He never appeared in public
without a slight flutter of apprehension lest he should
fall short of that standard which he had created for
himself. His want of self-confidence, and, in later years,
his want of animal spirits, sometimes produced a cold
ness of manner, which, by superficial observers, was set
down to coldness of heart, but most unjustly.
His nature was courteous, gentle, and sweet. Few
men were ever more worthy than he to wear " the
grand old name of gentleman." His manners were
graceful, more scholarly than is usual with men who
had been so much in public life as he, and sometimes
covered with a delicate veil of reserve. Conflict and
contest were distasteful to him, and it was his disposi
tion to follow the things that make for peace. He had
a true respect for the intellectual rights of others, and
it was no fault of his if he ever lost a friend through
difference of opinion.
Permit me to turn for a moment to Mr. Everett s
public life for an illustration of his character. In fo
rensic contests, sarcasm and invective are formidable
and frequent weapons. The House of Commons quailed
before the younger Pitt s terrible powers of sarcasm.
An eminent living statesman and orator of Great Britain
is remarkable for both these qualities. But neither
invective nor sarcasm is to be found in Mr. Everett s
speeches. I think this absence is to be ascribed not
to an intellectual want but to a moral grace.
Great men, public men, have also their inner and
private life, and sometimes this must be thrown by the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
honest painter into shadow. But in Mr. Everett s case
there was no need of this, for his private life was
spotless. In conduct and conversation he always con
formed to the highest standard which public opinion
exacts of the members of that profession to which he
originally belonged. As a brother, husband, father, and
friend, there was no duty that he did not discharge, no
call that he did not obey. He was generous in giving,
and equally generous in sacrificing. Where he was
most known he was best loved. He was wholly free
from that exacting temper in small things which men,
eminent and otherwise estimable, sometimes fall into.
His daily life was made beautiful by a pervading spirit
of thoughtful consideration for those who stood nearest
to him. His household manners were delightful, and
his household discourse was brightened by a lambent
play of wit and humor; qualities which he possessed in
no common measure, though they were rarely displayed
before the public. Could the innermost circle of Mr.
Everett s life be revealed to the general eye, it could
not fail to deepen the sense of bereavement which his
death has awakened, and to increase the reverence with
which his memory is and will be cherished.
No man ever bore his faculties and his eminence
more meekly than he. He never declined the lowly
and commonplace duties of life. He was always ap
proachable and accessible. The constant and various
interruptions to which he was exposed by the innu
merable calls made upon his time and thoughts were
borne by him with singular patience and sweetness.
142 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
His industry was as methodical as it was uniform.
However busy he might be, he could always find time
for any service which a friend required at his hands.
He was scrupulously faithful and exact in small things.
He never broke an appointment or a promise. His
splendid powers worked with all the regularity and
precision of the most nicely adjusted machinery. If he
had undertaken to have a discourse, a report, an arti
cle, ready at a certain time, it might be depended upon
as surely as the rising of the sun.
I feel that I have hardly touched upon the remark
able qualities of Mr. Everett s mind and character, and
yet I have occupied as much of your time as is becom
ing. I have only to offer a few resolutions, in which I
have endeavored briefly and simply to give expression
to what we all feel.
Mr. Hillard then presented the following resolutions :
Resolved, That as members of the Massachusetts His
torical Society, we record, with mingled pride and
sorrow, our sense of what we have lost in the death of
our late illustrious associate, Edward Everett, the wise
statesman, the eloquent orator, the devoted patriot, the
finished scholar, whose long life of singular and un
broken intellectual activity has shed new lustre upon
the name of our country in every part of the civilized
world, and whose noble powers and unrivalled accom
plishments were always inspired by an enlarged and
enlightened philanthropy, and dedicated to the best in
terests of knowlege, virtue, and truth.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 143
Resolved, That we recall with peculiar sensibility the
personal qualities and private virtues of our departed
friend, the purity and beauty of his daily life, his strict
allegiance to duty, the strength and tenderness of his
domestic affections, the uniform conscientiousness which
regulated his conduct, his spirit of self-sacrifice, his
thoughtful consideration for the rights and happiness of
others, and the gentleness with which his great facul
ties and high honors were borne.
Resolved, That the President of the Society be re
quested to transmit these resolutions to the family of
our lamented associate, with an expression of our deep
sympathy with them in their loss, and of our trust that
they may find consolation not merely in the remembrance
of his long, useful, and illustrious career, but in the
hopes and promises of that religion of which he was a
firm believer, and which was ever to him a staff of
support through life.
The resolutions were seconded by Rev. Dr. Lothrop, who
then addressed the meeting, as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT : I rise, at your request and at that of
the standing committee, to second the resolutions which
have just been offered, and to pay my portion of the tribute
of profound, grateful, and affectionate respect, which the
Society would offer this evening to the memory of our emi
nent deceased associate. And as we gather within these
walls and in this room, where we have so often welcomed
his presence, I feel brought back upon me afresh that
sense of loneliness and of personal bereavement, which, in
144 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
common with so many, I had when I first heard that one
who for more than forty years had been the object of my
youthful and my mature admiration, one whose speech
never disappointed me, but had often stirred my heart
with pure and noble emotions, and to whom I and others
had so long been accustomed to turn upon all occasions of
public interest and importance, as the person who could
do and say, in the best way, the best things to be done and
said, was really dead, and that the utterances of his wis
dom and eloquence would never more be heard by us on
earth. My sorrow, however, at his departure, the sorrow
of all of us, I think, must be greatly softened by the
extraordinary felicity of the time and manner of his death,
and by the recollection of the grand and noble career of
which that death was the close.
In view of my profession and the pulpit which it has
been my honor and happiness to occupy in this city, it
may be permitted me, in glancing at his career, to speak
with some particularity of that which was the beginning
of it before the public his brief but honorable connec
tion with the clerical profession, and his short but brilliant
pastorate at Brattle Street Church. Mr. Everett has said,
I believe, that on leaving college his strongest preferences
were for the law ; but the influence and advice of friends,
combining with the promptings of his own heart, the deep
religious instincts of his nature, determined his choice of
the Christian ministry. That determination must now be
regarded as fortunate for him and for us. He left the
pulpit, indeed, shortly after he had entered it; but no
true man ever forgets that he has stood in it, and the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 145
studies, the spiritual discipline and culture of his early
profession seem to me to have exerted upon Mr. Everett s
mind and heart blessed and important influences, which
affected his whole subsequent career, and impregnated his
life and character with the simple but grand dignity of
purity. Graduating in 1811, at the age of seventeen, he
spent two years and a few months at Cambridge, pursuing
theological studies, and discharging at the same time the
onerous duties of a tutorship. On the 10th of December,
1813, a mere youth, who had not yet numbered twenty
winters, he first stood in Brattle Street pulpit to preach as
a candidate. Fame had preceded him, and told of his
talents rich and rare, of his great learning and his great
capacity to learn, marvellous even then in the judgment
of his peers and of the University, of his extraordinary
gift of golden speech, his powers of winning, persuasive
oratory.
The great, though vague and undefined expectations thus
awakened, were not disappointed. I have been told by
many who distinctly remember the occasion, that when he
rose in the pulpit that morning, a youthful modesty, almost
timidity, blending with the dignity which a grave and rev
erent sense of the importance of his office inspired, lent a
fascinating charm to his manner, and that from the
moment he opened his lips, the audience were held spell
bound to the end of the service. When the days of his
engagement were numbered, the universal cry was, " Come
unto us in the name of the Lord ; break unto us the bread
of life, and let all these rich gifts find their usefulness and
their glory in the service of the Master here among us."
19
146 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
He heard the cry as the leadings of Providence, and came.
His ordination, on the 9th of February, 1814, was an
occasion of as deep interest as any event of the kind ever
excited. The most eminent and excellent men of that
day took part in it. It brought a perfect satisfaction to
the people. It awakened the most brilliant anticipations.
It was accompanied not simply with the hope, but with
the conviction, that the former glory of that pulpit, which
the death of Buckminster had veiled for a season, would
be revived with increased and increasing splendor. That
conviction was verified. As the months rolled on, Brattle
Street Church, then near the residences rather than the
business of the people, was crowded Sunday after Sunday
with audiences of the intelligent and the cultivated, who
went away charmed, instructed, religiously impressed; and
the records of the communion show that it was a season of
spiritual growth as well as of outward prosperity. But
the year had not reached its close before painful rumors
began to prevail that this was not to last, and at the end
of thirteen months after his ordination, he resigned his
charge, to accept the Eliot Professorship of Greek Litera
ture in the University at Cambridge, to which he had
been appointed by the corporation, with leave of study
and travel for five years in Europe, in further preparation
for its duties.
He left the clerical profession, and virtually the pulpit,
when he thus left Brattle Street Church. On his return
from Europe, indeed, and for two or three years subse
quent, he preached occasionally, some ten or fifteen,
perhaps twenty times in all. I may be permitted a brief
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 147
allusion to some of these occasions, which I remember.
- First, of course, he preached in what had been his own
pulpit, Brattle Street, in the summer of 1819, a few weeks
after his return. I was one of the mighty company that
thronged the aisles of that church on that day, and, stand
ing on the window-seat nearest the door in the north
gallery, heard him for the first time when I was just old
enough to receive my first idea of eloquence, to understand
and feel something of its power. A month or two later,
in December of that year, I think, he preached a famous
Christmas sermon at King s Chapel, and on the first Sun
day in December, 1820, the Quarterly Charity Lecture, at
the Old South Church, which was crowded to overflowing
to hear him. Another memorable and impressive sermon
of his, preached several times in different pulpits in this
vicinity, and which several gentlemen present must dis
tinctly remember, was on the text, " The time is short."
He preached the sermon at the funeral of the Rev. Dr.
Bently, of Salem, on the 3d of January, 1820, President
Kirkland and Dr. Ware of the University officiating in
the other parts of the service. This arrangement was
probably made in the expectation that Dr. Bently had left
his valuable library to Harvard College. But the doc
torate from Cambridge was conferred too late, and it was
found that the library had been bequeathed to Alleghany
College ; so, to the deep regret of those who heard it,
Mr. Everett s sermon on this occasion was never pub
lished. On the 19th of January, 1821, he preached the
sermon at the dedication of the First Congregational
Church in the city of New York, of which the late Rev.
148 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Wm. Ware subsequently became pastor. This sermon was
published, and is, I belieye, the only sermon he ever pub
lished. It is the only one I have ever seen. In style it is
simple and grave, less rhetorical than his orations. It is
liberal, but conservative, in its theology, broad and catholic
in its charity, fervent in tone and spirit, evidently the
product of a devout heart. This dedication at New York
was the last or among the last occasions on which he
preached. I feel quite confident that he did not preach
after 1821, because the next year, as some who hear
me will remember, in addition to the lectures connected
with his professorship, and other duties at Cambridge,
he was occupied with a course of lectures, whose prep
aration, judging from their learning and brilliancy, must
have cost him no little time and study, on Art and
Architecture, more especially, if my memory serves me,
on Greek and Egyptian Architecture, which he delivered
at what was then called the Pantheon Hall, on Wash
ington Street, a little south of the Boylston Market.
Lectures of this kind were then unusual in Boston, and
these, having in addition to their novelty, the strong
attraction of the name and fame of the lecturer, were
attended by an audience as cultivated and appreciative
as ever assembled for a similar purpose.
From this review it appears that his whole connec
tion with the pulpit, including his preparatory studies
and pastorate before he went to Europe, and the period
during which he preached occasionally after his return,
was only about five years. His exclusive connection
with it as pastor was only one year and a month lack-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 149
ing four days, from the 9th of February, 1814, to the
5th of March 1815. In this brief period he made an
impression, as a preacher, which abides distinct and
clear to this hour in many hearts. He left the pulpit
with the reputation of being the most eminent and
eloquent man in it ; and he left in and with the pro
fession one book his "Defence of Christianity"
which at the time it was published was justly regarded
as one of the most learned and important theological
works that had then been written in America, and
which, considering its contents, the circumstances under
which it was prepared, and the extreme youth of the
author, may stil! be regarded as one of the most ex
traordinary books produced at any time in any profes
sion. It is one of those books, of which the paradox
may be uttered, that its success caused its failure. It
so perfectly accomplished its work that it almost dropt
out of existence. Few of the present generation ever
heard of it, fewer still know anything about it. Copies
of it can now be found only here and there, on the
shelves of Public Libraries, or among the books of
aged clergymen. It was prepared, as some gentlemen
here will remember, in reply to a work by Mr. George
Bethune English, who graduated at Cambridge in 1807,
the year Mr. Everett entered. This gentleman, not
without talents, but erratic in his career, which his
death terminated in 1828, remained at Cambridge four
or five years after graduating, studied theology, and I
believe, preached for a brief period. Being led, appar
ently by the study of the deistical works of Anthony
150 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Collins, to adopt opinions unfavorable to Christianity as
a divine revelation, he published a book entitled. " The
Grounds of Christianity examined by comparing the
New Testament with the Old." This work, plausible in
spirit, having the appearance of great candor in state
ment and fairness in argument, attracted attention and
was much read. It unsettled the faith of many, and,
if left unanswered, seemed destined to do this for many
more.
Mr. Everett did, what several older men, I have
heard, attempted without success ; he made a triumphant
answer to Mr. English s book, in a volume of nearly
five hundred pages, which to this day rAust be regarded
as replete with the learning bearing upon its particu
lar point. Cogent in argument, clear and close in its
reasoning, eloquent often in the fervor and glow of a
devout faith, keen yet kind in its wit and satire, conclu
sive in its exposition of the ignorance of his opponent,
his plagiarism, and his dishonesty in the use of his ma
terials, this book so completely extinguished Mr. English
and his disciples, that it soon ceased to be read itself.
It died out, as I have said, and is now known only to
a few of the older members of the community and the
profession. It is a book of such a character, that any
man at any period of his life might be pardoned the
manifestation of some little self-complacency at finding
himself the author of it. Many have passed a long
life in the profession, and held a high and honorable
position in it, without giving any evidence of the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 151
mastery of so much of the learning that belongs to it
as is contained in this work.
His " Defence of Christianity," written partly before
his ordination and published six months afterwards, in
August, 1814, was Mr. Everett s legacy to the clerical
profession, bequeathed to it before he was invested
with a legal manhood. I am aware that their opinions on
the Prophets and the Old Testament, generally, do not
permit some eminent theological scholars to put a
very high estimate upon Mr. Everett s " Defence of
Christianity," but, for myself, without disparagement of
the good he has done, and the honors he has attained
in other departments, I cannot but think, that if there
be any one event, work, or labor of his varied and
useful life, of which he may, on a just estimate of things,
be most proud, it is that in the days of his early youth,
on the very threshold of his career, he prepared and
published this book, which silenced the voice of infi
delity and gave peace, satisfaction, and a firm faith to
thousands of minds in a young and growing community.
We are not surprised that a career, which began in
such industry, in the exhibition of so much learning and
such fidelity in improving opportunity, should have gone
on to the close increasing in honor and usefulness. I
do not propose to follow this career with such minute
ness all through,- nor would it be proper in me to do so
here ; but as I have spoken of the clergyman, I may be
permitted to say something of the Professor at Cambridge,
as I am the only member of the Society present, who, as a
pupil in the Academic Department of the University,
152 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
had the benefit of his instructions and lectures. Cam
bridge and the family of President Kirkland having been
my home for several years before I entered college in
1821, not long after he entered upon his professorship,
I knew something about the college, and had ample
opportunity of knowing also the fresh impulse which he
gave to the study of Greek, by the general influence of his
reputation as a Greek scholar, by his occasional presence
at our recitations to the tutors in Greek, by his suggestive
directions or advice to such students as wished to give
special attention to this department, but chiefly by his
lectures on the Greek language and literature, which
were delivered to the senior class, in what was then, there
being three, the second or Spring Term of the college
year. The class graduating in 1825, of which I was a
member, was the last of the six classes who had the
benefit of these lectures. From my recollection of them,
from notes taken at the time, and from the printed synop
sis which was furnished for our guidance, I have a strong
impression of the extraordinary character of those lec
tures, as profound, comprehensive, discriminating, and
largely exhaustive of all the learning connected with
their theme. Had he published them when he resigned,
he would have left in his Professor chair a legacy as
remarkable, in its kind, as his legacy to the pulpit in
his " Defence of Christianity," and secured to himself
such a reputation as a Greek scholar, master of all the
learning appertaining to the history and criticism of
Greek literature, as many a man would have been willing
to rest upon for the remainder of his life.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 153
But while professor at Cambridge, Mr. Everett was
interested not simply in his immediate duties, but in
whatever touched the welfare and improvement of the
college. In all departments his influence was felt, and
in one direction he w r as active in a way which had some
connection, I suppose, with his resignation of his profes
sorship to enter upon political life. In 1823, some
of the eminent gentlemen at Cambridge, then resident
professors, took up the thought, not without some quite
substantial reasons, that the " Fellows," as they are term
ed in the Charter, " Members of the Corporation," as we
commonly designate them, should be chosen from among
themselves; that the authoritative body, controlling the
college, having primarily the charge of all its interests,
and the conduct of all its affairs, should be composed of
the working men on the spot, who best understood its
condition and its wants, and were most competent to
carry it on successfully, rather than of gentlemen engaged
in other occupations, and living in Boston, Salem, or some
more distant place. In 1824, they prepared a memorial
to this effect, addressed to the Corporation, who referred
them to the Board of Overseers, before which body,
a hearing, asked for and granted, was subsequently
held. The late Andrews Norton, Dexter Professor of
Sacred Literature, and Mr. Everett, were selected to
represent the memorialists at this hearing. Mr. Norton
read a very able paper, marked by the concise accuracy
of statement and closeness of reasoning for which he
was distinguished. Mr. Everett without manuscript,
with only a few brief memoranda, such as a lawyer
20
154 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
would use before a jury, addressed the Board in a
speech occupying more than two hours. He was inter
rupted at times by gentlemen of the Board adverse to the
position of the memorialists, the accuracy, a pertinence,
or propriety of his statements questioned, and in one
instance, if not more, the decision of the Chair, (Lieut.
Gov. Morton presiding,) that he was " not in order,"
required him to change his line of argument and
remark. Nothing, however, seemed to confuse or discom
pose him. The situation was novel and trying, yet he
sustained himself with an admirable degree of self-posses
sion, and conducted his cause with great ability. I have
always supposed that it was the exhibition of his powers
on this occasion, the coolness and tact with which he
conducted himself in an argument, and sometimes almost
a debate, before a body of eminent men, some of whom
were opposed to his position, that first suggested his
nomination to represent Middlesex in Congress, and that
his splendid and eloquent oration before the Phi Beta
Kappa Society, in August, 1824, only helped to confirm
the purpose of his nomination, and secure his election.
Thus much at least is clear, any distrust that may have
been felt in any quarter as to his fitness or competency
for congressional service, in view of his scholastic train
ing and habits, found a conclusive answer in the manner
in which he bore himself in this hearing before the
Board of Overseers.
But whatever suggested the nomination, it was made,
and he was elected in the autumn of 1824, and, delivering
his lectures for the last time in the spring of 1825, he
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 155
r
resigned and took his seat in Congress in December of
that year. The deep regret felt and expressed by many
at that time, that "so much learning, such various abilities,
persuasive eloquence, and rare combination of qualities,
were lost to the direct service of literature and religion,
must be largely diminished, if not entirely extinguished by
his eminent and brilliant success, by his wide-spread use
fulness in varied departments of public and political life,
by the singular nobleness and purity of his whole career,
and by his constant fidelity and devotedness to the interests
of truth, virtue, and religion. For he seems to me to have
been thus faithful and devoted. I feel disposed to main
tain that Mr. Everett was true always to the spirit of his
early vows, and though he did not continue in the admin
istration of religion as an institution of society, he
continued to cultivate its spirit and power in his heart,
and to make it the controlling inspiration and energy of
his life. It is not necessary, nor would it be proper for
me here, to go into an analysis of his speeches, votes,
or conduct at various junctures in our public affairs during
the last forty years, but it seems to me, that whatever
difference of judgment party predilections may dispose us
to entertain about portions of his public career, a broad,
generous, just, and fair review of the whole of it, will lead
every one to concur in the position, that it was all under
laid and impregnated from the beginning to the end with
a simple, honest, conscientious, patriotic purpose. The
very admirable and beautiful analysis of his character,
which Mr. Hillard has just read before us, seemed to me
to confirm this position, and to give the true explanation
156 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
*
of his course. From his entrance upon public life in
1825, to the spring of 1861, all through those more than
thirty years, in which the struggle between the antago
nistic elements of liberty and slavery in our government
and institutions came up in various forms, he, in common
with many of our greatest statesmen and large masses of
our people, felt that a certain line of policy was the
wisest and the best, most adapted to keep the peace, to
preserve the Union from dissolution, and the Government
and the country from ruin. Therefore, adhering to this
policy, adopted on conviction, he was for patience, for
bearance, compromise, concession, for yielding anything
and everything that could, not simply in justice, but in
generosity and honor, be yielded to satisfy those who
were perpetually holding over us the menace of dissolu
tion. Honestly, and in the spirit of a broad patriotism, to
disarm this menace of all occasion and all justification,
was the purpose of his action and policy while in public
office, and of his efforts as a private citizen, and especially
of that grand national pilgrimage which he made with the
life and character of Washington as the theme of a magni
ficent discourse, which he delivered so many times to such
vast assemblies in all the principal cities of the land, in the
hope that under the shadow of that august name, and by
the glory of a memory so sacred to all of us, he might
allay sectional prejudice and the strife of parties, and
bind all together in a common love and devotion to the
Union. But when this hope failed, and he found that
treason had developed its plans, that rebellion, unfurling its
standard, had inaugurated civil war, then the policy that
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 157
had hitherto guided his life was instantly abandoned. He
fek that there was no longer any room for concession or
compromise, and so gave himself, time, talents, wisdom,
strength, all that he had, in all the ways that he could, to
support the legitimate Government of the United States,
in all the action and policy by which that Government
sought to maintain at all hazards and at any cost
the integrity of the Union and country which that
Government was instituted to preserve. But in all this
he was under the inspiration of a patriotism that always
dwelt in his heart, though in these latter years he seems
to have been raised to an energy, enthusiasm, and earnest
ness of effort, that indicate a deeper and stronger convic
tion that he was right than he exhibited or perhaps ever
experienced before.
This is the true interpretation, I conceive, to be put
upon Mr. Everett s political course as a public man.
In our estimate of him intellectually, it will not be
maintained, I presume, that Mr. Everett was one of
those grand, original, creative, inventive, productive
minds, that strike out new paths in science, philosophy,
or the policies of States. Such minds come upon the
world only in the cycle of centuries. But he had a
mind of vast powers, capable of comprehending princi
ples, gathering up details, and making use of both.
He had a conscientious, unwearied industry, and conse
quently accumulated vast stores of knowledge in all the
departments of art, science, history, and literature. He
had a wonderful memory, raised to its highest power by
constant culture and exercise. He had a rare combi-
158 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
nation of intellectual, moral, and physical faculties, and
above all, he had the power of using all his faculties
and all his acquisitions with grace, beauty, and dignity,
so that he touched nothing that he did not illustrate
and adorn, and came before us ever, on all occasions,
with a freshness and force that charmed and instructed.
As is well known to his intimate friends, he was sin
gularly kind, tender, faithful, and true in every domestic
relation of life, and to all the claims of kindred and
friendship, with a warm heart under a reserved manner,
and a sympathizing spirit under lips often reticent ; and
if, remembering this, we do justice to his private, per
sonal character, and then look at his public career, at
the wide circle of varied offices which he successively
held, at the labor performed, the ability displayed in
each ; if we add to these his works as a scholar and a
literary man, his magnificent orations, all of them such
masterpieces of eloquence, pure and elevating in their
impression ; broad, noble, generous in their thoughts ;
breathing ever the spirit of piety and patriotism, fitted
to instruct our people and unfold our history, while they
adorn our literature, his numerous contributions to the
periodical press, especially those to the North American
Review, often profound discussions of grave questions in
literature and philosophy ; if we then crown all with the
noble and patriotic labors of the last four years, we find
enough surely in this survey to win for him alike our ad
miration and our gratitude ; enough, and more than enough,
to dispose us to bow before his memory in reverence, and
accord to him the name and the fame of being a great
PKOCEEDINGS OE THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 159
man. Where shall we find one who in such varied
spheres has done so much and done it so well ? His was
a noble life and character, and his career, followed from
the beginning to the end, was marvellous in its early
precocity, its growing wisdom, its ever increasing breadth,
and its grand conclusion. He was a Franklin Medal scholar
in the old North Grammar School at the age of ten, a
Franklin Medal scholar at the Public Latin School at thir
teen, chief in his class at Cambridge at seventeen, a tutor
in the University at eighteen, an ordained minister of the
Gospel before he was twenty, appointed to a professorship
of Greek literature before he was twenty-one, elected a
member of Congress at thirty ; and thence, after a few
years service in the halls of national legislation, he was
called to the Chief Magistracy of this State, all of whose
affairs he directed with wisdom, dignity, and usefulness,
and thence to represent his country abroad in one of its
most important and honorable foreign embassies, and
thence, on his return to his native land, to preside over
the interests of learning at its oldest and most advanced
University, and thence to a seat in the National Cabinet
for the Department of State, and thence to a place in
that august body, the Senate of the United States, and
thence, through noble and patriotic labors, to a higher
and broader place than he had ever held before, in the
hearts of his countrymen ; and when he had attained to
this grand preeminence, to be the foremost private
citizen in all the land, holding no public office, but wield
ing a power and doing a service which mere office could
never do, wearing this great distinction with unaffected
160 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
modesty, walking among us with none of the infirmities
but all the glory of age upon his person, and the wisdom
of age in his speech, then the beautiful and fitting end
came, and without a lingering sickness, without a shadow
upon his noble faculties, suddenly he died. Alone in his
solitary preeminence, alone, as it were, he died ; and that
cold Sunday morning air, that brought a chill to our
bodies, as it swept through our streets and by our doors
with its sad announcement, " Edward Everett is dead!"
brought a chill to our hearts which the warmth of many
summers will not dispel, and left an image and a memory
there that will abide with all of us, beautiful and bright,
so long as we live. Mr. President, I second the reso
lutions.
The Hon. John C. Gray then spoke as follows : -
MR. PRESIDENT : Apart from the intimation with
which I have been honored through you and other
respected friends, I might have been prompted by my
own feelings to offer a few remarks on this most sol
emn and interesting occasion. One of the few remaining
companions of my youth has departed. An uninterrupted
friendship of nearly sixty years has been dissolved.
But I am not here to speak of my own loss or my own
feelings, but to contribute in doing justice to the memory
of the deceased. The theme is a most copious one.
It is not my purpose to analyze the character of our
friend, still less to indulge in vague and extravagant
eulogy. I prefer to speak briefly of those points in
his character which have stamped themselves most deeply
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 161
on my own memory. We were of the same class in
college, and for two years of our college life occupied
the same apartment. I have ever looked back on that
association as one of the most valuable, as well as one
of the most gratifying, of my early days. His ripeness
of judgment was not less remarkable than the precocity
of his genius. But there is yet higher praise.
I can say v and you perceive that I had some means
of knowing, that I never knew one who preserved a
more unruffled temper. Not a single instance can I
recollect of irritability. Such a temper must of neces
sity be its own reward, and I think we may fairly
ascribe to it much of his subsequent greatness. For,
sir, among the many weighty truths which fell from
his lips, I recollect none more striking than a remark
in his lecture to the working-men, while recommending
the improvement of their leisure hours. " Generally
speaking," he observes, " our business allows us time
enough, if our passions would but spare us." Never
man more faithfully practised as he preached. In the
course of his life he had his share of those chastening
dispensations which come in various shapes and degrees
to every one. But none of them caused the slightest
remission in his unwearied industry. The great sum
mons- which awaits us all found him at his work, and
so it would have done, come when it might. I shall
say little more of his college life. New England edu
cation was not then what it has since become. Mr.
Everett improved his literary advantages to the utmost,
and bore off the first honors.
21
162 MEMORIAL OF EDWAIID EVERETT.
I pass over his short but brilliant ministry in the
pulpit and his years of assiduous study in foreign
countries. Shortly after his return he assumed the post
of editor of our leading review. It was at a most inter
esting period. This country and Great Britain had
closed their contests by an honorable peace, and there
was on our side a general disposition to cultivate a
friendly and respectful feeling towards our late adver
saries. This certainly was not fully reciprocated. The
leading British reviews seemed to agree in nothing so
much as in speaking of our country and its institutions
with hatred or contempt. Mr. Everett felt it his duty
to stand forth in defence of our good name. It is not
a little to his praise that while he did this most ably
and earnestly, he always preserved the dignity befitting
his cause and himself, and never descended to meet his
antagonists with their own weapons. There is good
reason to believe that his candid and manly appeals to
the good sense of the people of England were not in
vain, and that they contributed to create among educated
Englishmen a feeling better becoming them and more
just to us, a feeling which for a long time seemed prev
alent, and which we had hoped would have been general
and permanent. Mr. Everett s able and eloquent defences
of the good name of his country naturally led to invi
tations to serve her in public trusts.
I will not pretend to say that such invitations were
unacceptable. Suffice it to remark that, if he desired
public life, he never accepted an office which was not
properly offered, never purchased one by pledges in
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 1G3
advance, direct or indirect, and never for a moment
used his position for the emolument of himself or his
friends. What I have more to say will be devoted to
his personal character, A spotless private character has
ever been considered in New England, and I trust not
in New England alone, as one of the elements of true
greatness, and Heaven forbid that it should ever be held
in light estimation ! This merit was his beyond impeach
ment, not his alone, most certainly, but his eminence
in other respects rendered his example in this more
conspicuous, and thus more widely beneficial. Of this
character I shall notice one leading feature, I mean
his wakeful and unremitted disposition to benefit others.
If judged by his fruits, we must allow that Edward
Everett was a most benevolent man. His exertions and
resources of mind, body, or estate were most freely
imparted on every reasonable call, I should say on
every reasonable opportunity. Whether the applicant
was a friend or a stranger, the occasion conspicuous or
unconspicuous, it was enough for him that he could
serve or oblige in great or small. And now, sir, I
will close by a few inquiries. No one will suspect me
of disparaging any of our eminent men, departed or
surviving, when I ask
Has any one among us ever been more distinguished
by a noble use of noble endowment I Has there been
any one less obnoxious to the charge of talents wasted
and time misspent, any one who could say with more
truth in words he once felt compelled to utter, that he
knew not how the bread of idleness tasted] Has any
164 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
one done more, by his wise and eloquent productions, to
elevate, instruct, and refine the minds of his countrymen"?
Finally, has any one been more distinguished by exem
plary fidelity in public office and by constant kindness
and benevolence in private life] Few higher eulogies
can be uttered than the reply which must rise to the
lips of every one.
George Ticknor, Esq. then addressed the meeting as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT : I ask your permission to say a few
words concerning the eminent associate and cherished
friend whom we have lost, so sadly, so suddenly lost.
It is but little that I can say becoming the occasion, so
well was he known of all ; for, in his early youth, he rose
to a height, which has led us to watch and honor and
understand, from the first, his long and brilliant career.
On looking back over the two centuries and a half of
this our New England history, I recollect not more than
three or four persons who, during as many years of a life
protracted as his was beyond threescore and ten, have so
much occupied the attention of the country, I do not
remember a single one, who has presented himself under
such various, distinct, and remarkable aspects to classes
of our community so separate, thus commanding a de
gree of interest from each, whether scholars, theolo
gians, or statesmen, which in the aggregate of its popular
influence has become so extraordinary. For he has been,
to a marvellous degree successful, in whatever he has
touched. His whole way of life for above fifty years
can now be traced back by the monuments which he
PKOCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 165
erected with his own hand as he advanced ; each seem
ing, at the time, to be sufficient for the reputation of one
man. Few here are old enough to remember when the
first of these graceful monuments rose before us ; none
of us I apprehend is so young, that he will survive the
splendor of their long line. And, now that we have
come to its end, and that it seems as if the whole air
were filled with our sorrowful and proud recollections, as
it is with the light at noonday, we feel with renewed
force that we have known him as we have known very
few men of our time. And this is true. How, then,
can I say anything that shall be worthy of memory ;
still less anything that is fit for record]
When he was ten or eleven years of age and I was
about three years older, his family came to live within a
few doors of my father s house and subsequently removed
to a contiguous estate. But, at this time, Mr. President,
when the City of Boston, I suppose, was not one fifth as
large as it is now, neighborhood implied kindly acquaint
ance. I soon knew his elder brother, Alexander, then
the leader of his class at Cambridge, while I was a
student in a class one year later, at Dartmouth College.
I at once conceived a strong admiration for that remark
able scholar; an admiration, let me add, which has never
been diminished since. The younger brother, of whom
I saw little, was then in that humble school in Short
Street which he has made classical by his occasional
allusions to it, and to the two Websters who were his
teachers there. From the elder of these, who was fre
quently at my father s house, I used to hear much about
166 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the extraordinary talents and progress of this younger
Everett ; praise which my admiration of his brother pre
vented me, I fear, from receiving, for a time, with so
glad a welcome as I ought to have done. During the
two or three subsequent years, while the younger brother
was at Exeter or beginning his career at Cambridge, I
knew little of him, though I was much with the elder
and belonged to at least one pleasant club of which he
was a member.
The first occasion on which the younger scholar s de
lightful character broke upon me, with its true attributes,
is still fresh in my recollection. It was in the summer of
1809. Mr. Alexander Everett was then about to embark
for St. Petersburg, as the private secretary of Mr. John
Quincy Adams, and a few nights before he left us, he
gave a supper saddened, indeed, by the parting that was
so soon to follow, but still a most agreeable supper to
eight or ten of his personal friends, one of whom [Dr.
Bigelow] I now see before me ; the last, except myself,
remaining of that well remembered symposium. The
younger brother was there, so full of gayety unassum
ing but irrepressible so full of whatever is attractive in
manner or in conversation, that I was perfectly carried
captive by his light and graceful humor. And this, let
me here say, has always been a true element of his char
acter. He was never at any period of his life a saturnine
man. In his youth he overflowed with animal spirits ;
and, although from the time of his entrance into political
life, with the grave cares and duties that were imposed
upon him, the lightheartedness of his nature was some-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 167
what oppressed or obscured, it was always there. There
was never a time I think excepting in those days of
trial and sorrow that come to all in which, among the
private friends with whom he was most intimate, he was
not cheerful, nay charmingly amusing. It was so the
very day before his death. He was suffering from an
oppression on the lungs; and, as I sat with him, he
could speak only in whispers ; but, even then, his natural
playfulness was not wanting.
But from the time of that delightful supper in 1809,
my regard never failed to be fastened on him. At first,
during his under-graduate s life, at Cambridge, I saw him
seldom. But in that simpler stage of our society, when
the interests of men were so different from what they
have become since, all who concerned themselves about
letters, were familiar with what was done and doing in
Cambridge. Everett, youthful as he was, \vas eminently
the first scholar there, and we all knew it. We all or,
at least, all of us who were young read the " Harvard
Lyceum," which he edited, and which, I may almost say,
he filled with his scholarship and humor.
In 1811 he was graduated with the highest honors,
and pronounced, with extraordinary grage of manner, a
short oration, on if I rightly remember "The Diffi
culties attending a Life of Letters," which delighted a
crowded audience, attracted more than was usual by the
expectations that waited on what is called " The first
part." But thus far, what was most known of his life
was strictly academic, and was only more widely spread
than an academic reputation is wont to be because he
168 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
was himself already so full of recognized promise and
power. His time, in fact, was not yet come. But the next
year it came. He was invited to deliver the customary
poem at Commencement, before the " Phi Beta Kappa
Society." It was not, perhaps, a period, when much
success could have been anticipated for anybody, on a
merely literary occasion. The war with England had
been declared only a few weeks earlier and men felt
gloomy and disheartened at the prospect before them.
Still more recently Buckminster had died, only twenty-
eight years old, but loved and admired, as few men ever
have been in this community; mourned, too, as a loss
to the beginnings of true scholarship among us, which
many a scholar then thought might hardly be repaired.
But, as in all cases of a general stir in the popular feel
ing, there was an excitement abroad which permitted the
minds of men to be turned and wielded in directions
widely different from that of the prevailing current. The
difficulty was to satisfy the demands in such a disturbed
condition of things.
Mr. Everett was then just in that " opening manhood "
which Homer, with his unerring, truth, has called "the
fairest term of life." And how handsome he was, Mr.
President! We all know how remarkable was Milton s
early beauty. An engraving of him a fine one by
Vertue, from a portrait preserved in the Onslow family,
and painted when the poet was about twenty, is well
known. But, sir, so striking was the resemblance of this
engraving to our young friend, that I remember often
seeing a copy of it inscribed with his name in capital let-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 169
ters, and am unable to say that the inscription was amiss.
Radiant, then, with such personal attractions, he rose
before an audience already disposed to receive him with
extraordinary kindness.
His subject was, u American Poets," certainly not a
very promising one. Of course his treatment of it was
essentially didactic ; but there was such a mixture of
good-natured satire in it, so much more praise willingly
accorded than was really deserved, such humorous and
happy allusions to what was local, personal, and familiar
to all, and such solemn and tender passages about the
condition of our society, and its anxieties and losses,
that it was received with an applause which, in some
respects, I have never known equalled. Graver and
grander success I have often known to be achieved, on
greater occasions, not only by others but by himself. But
never did I witness such clear, unmingled delight. Every
thing was forgotten but the speaker and what he chose
we should remember.
This success, it should be recollected, was gained when
Mr. Everett was only a little more than eighteen years
old. But, sir, in fact, it had been gained earlier. The
poem had been read when he was only about seventeen,
before a club of college friends in the latter part of his
senior year, and had now been fitted by a few additions,
for its final destination. Its publication was immediately
demanded and urged. But on the whole it was deter
mined not to give it fully to the world. Four copies,
however, were privately struck off on large" paper, one of
which I received at the time from the author, and thirty-
22
170 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
six more in common octavo, whioh were at once dis
tributed to other eager friends. But this was by no means
enough. A little later, therefore, there were printed,
with slight alterations, sixty copies more, of which he
gave me two, in an extra form, marked with his fair
autograph. I know not where three others are now to
be found ; though I trust, from the great contemporary
interest in the poem itself, and from its real value, that
many copies of it have been saved.
It is written in the versification consecrated by the
success of Dry den and Pope ; and if it contains lines
marked by the characteristics of the early age at which ^ it
was produced, there is yet a power in it, a richness of
thought, and a graceful finish, of which probably few men
at thirty would have been found capable. At any rate, in
the hundred and more years during which verse had then
been printed in these Colonies and States, not two hundred
pages, I think, can now be found, which can be read
with equal interest and pleasure.
It was only a few weeks afterwards, as nearly as I
recollect, that he began to preach. I heard his first two
sermons, delivered to a small congregation in a neighbor
ing town, and I heard him often afterwards. The effect
was always the same. There was not only the attractive
manner, which we had already witnessed and admired,
but there was, besides, a devout tenderness, which had
hardly been foreseen. The main result, however, had
been anticipated. He was, in a few months, settled over
the church in Brattle Street, with the assent and admira
tion of all.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 171
But, in the midst of his success in the pulpit, he was
turned aside to become a controversial theologian. Early
in* the autumn of 1813, Mr. George B. English published
a small book, entitled, " The Grounds of Christianity
Examined by Comparing the New Testament with the
Old." It was, in fact, an attack on the truth of the Chris
tian religion, in the sense of Judaism. Its author, whom
I knew personally, was a young man of very pleasant
intercourse, and a great lover of books, of which he had
read many, but with little order or well-defined purpose.
He would, I think, have been a man of letters, if such a
path had been open to him. A profession, however, was
needful. He studied law, but became dissatisfied with it.
He studied divinity, but was never easy in his course.
His mind was never well balanced, or well settled upon
anything. He was always an adventurer just as much
so in the scholarlike period of his life, as he was after
wards, when he served under Ismail Pasha, in Egypt, and
attempted to revive the ancient war-chariots armed with
scythes.
His ill-constructed book received several answers, direct
and indirect, from the pulpit and the press ; but none of
them was entirely satisfactory, because their authors had
not frequented the strange by-paths of learning in which
Mr. English had for some time been wandering with
perverse preference. Mr. Everett, however, followed
him everywhere with a careful scholarship and exact
logic unknown to his presumptuous adversary. His
" Defence of Christianity" was published in- 1814, and I
still possess one, out of half a dozen copies of it that were
172 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
printed for the author s friends, on extra paper, and are
become curious as showing how ill understood, in those
simpler days, were the dainty luxuries of bibliography.
But the proper end of the hook was quickly attained.
Mr. English s imperfect and unsound learning was demol
ished at a blow ; and. as has just been so happily said by
Dr. Lothrop, the whole controversy, even Mr. Everett s
part of it, is forgotten, because it has been impossible
to keep up any considerable interest in a question which
he had so absolutely settled. Mr. Everett s " Defence,"
however, will always remain a remarkable book. Some
years after its publication, Professor Monk, of Cambridge,
the biographer of Bentley, and himself afterwards Bishop
of Gloucester, told me that he did not think any Episcopal
library in England could be accounted complete which
did not possess a copy of it.
In the winter following the publication of this book
that is, in the winter of 1814-15 he was elected Pro
fessor of Greek Literature. I was then at the South,
having made up my mind to pass some time at the Uni
versity of Gottingen, and was endeavoring, chiefly among
the Germans in the interior of Pennsylvania, to obtain
information concerning the modes of teaching in Ger
many, about which there then prevailed in New England
an absolute ignorance now hardly to be conceived. With
equal surprise and delight, I received letters from my
friend telling me of his appointment, and that, to qualify
himself for the place offered him, he should endeavor to
go with me, upon what we both regarded as a sort of
adventure, to Germany. Perhaps I should add that this
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 173
sudden change in his course of life excited no small com
ment at the time, and that, especially by a part of the
parish whose brilliant anticipations he thus disappointed,
it was not accepted in a kindly spirit. But of its wisdom
and rightfulness there was soon no doubt in the mind of
anybody.
We embarked in April, 1815, and passed a few weeks
in London, during the exciting period of Bonaparte s last
campaign, and just at the time of the battle of Waterloo.
But we were in a hurry to be at work. We hastened,
therefore, through Holland, stopping chiefly to buy books,
and early in August were already in the chosen place of
our destination. It was our purpose to remain there a
year. But the facilities for study were such as we had
never heard or dreamt of. My own residence was in
consequence protracted to a year and nine months, and
Mr. Everett s was protracted yet six months longer
both of us leaving the tempting school at last sorry and
unsatisfied.
How well he employed his time there the great results
shown in his whole subsequent life have enabled the
world to judge. I witnessed the process from day to day.
We were constantly together. Except for the first few
months, when we could not make convenient arrange
ments for it, we lived in contiguous rooms in the same
house the house of Bouterwek, the literary historian,
and a favorite teacher in the university. During the
vacations except one, when he went to the Hague, to
see his brother Alexander, then our Secretary of Legation
in Holland we travelled together about Germany ; and
174 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
every day in term time we went more or less to the same
private teachers, and the same lecturers. But he struck
in his studies much more widely than I did. To say
nothing of his constant, indefatigable labor upon the
Greek with Dissen, he occupied himself a good deal with
Arabic under Eichhorn, he attended lectures upon modern
history by Heeren, and upon the civil law by Hugo, and
he followed besides the courses of other professors, whose
teachings I did not frequent and whose names I no longer
remember.
His power of labor was prodigious ; unequalled in my
experience. One instance of it the more striking, per
haps, because disconnected from his regular studies is,
I think, worth especial notice. We had been in Gottin-
gen, I believe, above a year, and he was desirous to send
home something of what he had learnt about the modes
of teaching, not only there, but in our visits to the univer
sities of Leipzig, Halle, Jena, and Berlin, and to the great
preparatory schools of Meissen, and Pfrote. He had, as
nearly as I can recollect, just begun this task. But how
so voluminous a matter was to be sent home was an
important question. Regular packets there were none,
even between New York and Liverpool. We depended,
therefore, very much on accident altogether on tran
sient vessels. Opportunities from Hamburg were rare
and greatly valued. Just at this time our kind mer
cantile correspondents at that port gave us sudden notice
that a vessel for Boston would sail immediately. There
was not a moment to be lost ; Mr. Everett threw every
thing else aside, and worked for thirty-five consecutive
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 175
hours on his letter, despatching it as the mail was closing.
But, though sadly exhausted by his labor, he was really
uninjured, and in a day or two was fully refreshed and
restored. I need not say that a man who did this was in
earnest in what he undertook. But let me add, Mr.
President, that, by the constant, daily exercise of dispo
sitions and powers like these, he laid during those two or
three years in Gottingen, the real foundations on which
his great subsequent success, in so many widely different
ways, safely rested. I feel as sure of this as I do of any
fact of the sort within my knowledge.
When I left Gottingen, he and a young American
friend [Stephen H. Perkins] then under his charge, and
who still survives accompanied me on my first day s
journey. At Hesse Cassel we separated, thinking to
meet again in the south of Europe, and visit together
Greece and Asia Minor, which, from the time of the
appearance of " Childe Harold," four or five years earlier,
had been much in our young thoughts and imaginations.
But " Forth rushed the Levant and the Ponent winds."
A few months afterwards, at Paris, I received the appoint
ment of Professor of French and Spanish Literature, at
Cambridge ; and, from that moment, it was as plain that
my destination was Madrid, as it was that he was bound
to go to Athens and Constantinople. We did not, there
fore, meet again until his return home, in the autumn of
1819, where I had preceded him by a few months.
From this time Mr. Everett s life has been almost con
stantly a public one, and all have been able to judge him
freely and fully. He began his lectures on Greek litera-
176 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
ture at Cambridge the next summer, and I went from
Boston regularly to hear them, for the pleasure and
instruction they gave me. The notes I then took of them,
and which I still preserve, will bear witness to the merit
just ascribed to them by the friend on my left, who heard
the same course somewhat later.
But Mr. Everett was, in another sense, already a public
man. From the natural concern he felt in the fate of a
country he had so recently visited, he took a great. interest,
as early as 1821-23, in the Greek Revolution, and wrote
and spoke on it, both as a philanthropic and as a political
question. In 1824 he was elected to Congress. There
and elsewhere, like other public men of eminence, he has
had his political trials and his political opponents ; some
times generous, sometimes unworthy, but never touch
ing the unspotted purity of his character and purposes.
All such discussions, however, find no becoming place
within these doors. We recognize here no such divisions
of opinion respecting our lamented associate. We remem
ber his great talents, and the gentleness that added to
their power ; his extraordinary scholarship, and the rich
fruits it bore ; his manifold public services, and the just
honors that have followed them. All this we remember.
In all of it we rejoice. We recollect, too, that for five-and-
forty years, he has been our pride and ornament, as a
member of this Society. But we recognize no external
disturbing element in these our happy recollections. To
us, he has always been the same. At any meeting that
we have held since he became fully known to us and to
the country, the beautiful, appropriate, and truthful reso-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 177
lutions no\v on your table, might if he had just been
taken from us as he has been now have been passed by
us with as much earnestness and unanimity, as they will
be amidst our sorrow to-night. They do but fitly complete
our record of what has always been true. And let us feel
thankful, as we adopt this record and make it our own,
that grand and gratifying as it is neither the next
generation nor any that may follow will desire to have a
word of it obliterated or altered.
Hon. John H. Clifford then proceeded as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT : Having been unable to participate in
the last offices of respect to the remains of our departed
associate, and feeling obliged to decline the distinguished
service to which I was invited, of pronouncing a more
elaborate address upon his life and character before the
two Houses of the Legislature, I could not forego the
opportunity of uniting in this office of commemoration, with
an Association in which he took so generous an interest,
and of which he was so eminent a member.
However inadequate must be any expression of my
sense of the loss we have sustained, I cannot doubt that
the assurance of a simple, heartfelt tribute of personal
affection and gratitude, when he was to be remembered
in a circle like this, would have been more grateful to him
than any studied words of eulogy, though they were pol
ished into a rhetoric as brilliant as his own.
It is thus only, that I desire to speak of him my hon
ored chief, my wise and trusted counsellor my ever
constant friend. It was from his hands that I received,
178 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
now just thirty years ago, my first commission in the
service of the State ; and from that period up to the
close of the last month of the last year, he honored
me with a correspondence which I have carefully pre
served as a precious possession for myself and for my
children. You will pardon me, Mr. President, if, in
this brief review of what I owe to the influence of his
friendship and his counsels, I shall invoke his presence,
still to speak to us, by a free and unreserved reference
to this correspondence.
Admitted to the intimate intercourse of a member of his
military family, during the entire term of his service as
Governor of the Commonwealth, he never afterwards
ceased to manifest the interest in me which that inter
course implied, and the value of which no poor words
of mine, of public or of private acknowledgment can
ever measure or repay. Of that military family, Mr.
President, and " we were seven," who bore his com
mission during those four years of brilliant service to his
native Commonwealth, you and I are the only survivors,
to render these last honors to our illustrious chief.
In the review of his remarkable career, to which,
since its triumphant close on earth, the minds of so
many have been turned who never knew him otherwise
than in his public character, I am persuaded that some
impressions respecting him, which those who were
brought nearest to him know to be utterly unfounded,
are certain to be corrected when the materials of a just
judgment of all that he was, and all that he did, are
open to the examination of his countrymen.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 179
It has been said of him that he was of a cold and
unsympathizing nature. There never was a more mis
taken judgment of any public man than this. If
he possessed any trait more distinctly marked than
another, it was his unfaltering fidelity to his friends,
and his warm and generous interest in everything that
touched their happiness and welfare, as well in the
trials and the sorrows, as in the successes and the sun
shine of life.
While he was representing the country with such
signal ability at the* Court of St. James, and in the
midst of the grave and perplexing questions which he
there discussed and disposed of with such masterly
skill, I had occasion to communicate to him the death
of a much loved child, in whom he had taken great
interest, and who bore his name. In a letter written
on the receipt of the intelligence, and under circum
stances that might well have excused him from an
immediate reply, and which would have excused him,
if that reply had been prompted by anything less than
a sincere and unaffected sympathy, which does not
belong to a cold and formal nature, he says: "I was
staying at Sir Robert Peel s, with a very agreeable
party, consisting of several of the cabinet ministers, and
my diplomatic brethren, when I received your letter,
which has cast a shade of sadness over my visit that
I feel as little inclination as ability to throw off. . .
But let us not speak of our beloved ones as
taken from us. They are, in truth, not lost, but gone
before. They have accomplished, in the dawn of life,
180 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the work which grows harder, the longer the time that
is given us to do it."
Equally erroneous, in my judgment, is the opinion that
Mr. Everett, as a public man, was lacking in moral
courage. There were occasions in his life when it would
have required less courage, and have cost a smaller sacri
fice to escape this imputation, and secure to himself the
popular favor, than it did to invite it. But his resolute
adherence to his own conscientious convictions, his large
and comprehensive patriotism, his unswerving nationality
and love of the Union, and the knowledge which a schol
ar s studies and a statesman s observations had given him
of the perils by which that Union was environed, closed
many an avenue of popularity to him, which bolder, but
not more courageous, public men than he could consent
to walk in.
If timidity consists in an absence of all temerity and
rashness, of entire freedom from that reckless spirit which
so often leads " fools to rush in where angels fear to
tread," let it be ever remembered to his honor, that Mr.
Everett was a timid statesman. But if the virtue of
moderation is still to be counted among the excellent
qualities of a ruler or counsellor, in conducting the com
plex and delicate questions of policy which affect the
well-being of a country like ours, and which bear upon its
future fortunes as well as its present favor, let it also be
remembered that our departed statesman, while he ad
hered inflexibly to his convictions of the right, was not
" ashamed to let his moderation be known unto all men."
In this aspect of his character, it has seemed to me that
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 181
the great Pater Patriee, whom he had so diligently studied,
and his oration upon whom wrought as great a work
upon his countrymen as his unsurpassed biographical
sketch of him in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica " has had
upon the foreign estimate of Washington, was " his great
example, as he was his theme."
It has been not an unfrequent criticism upon Mr. Ever
ett s career, that it was in a certain sense a failure,
because, with his scholarly tastes, his patient industry, his
affluent learning and his great opportunities, he would
leave behind him no " great work" as the fruit of all his
accomplishments and powers. If it be a worthy ambition
in one of great endowments and liberal culture, to do the
greatest good to the greatest number of his fellow-men,
and to make the world better for his having lived in it,
this is a mistaken criticism. It is true his resources were
ample to have accomplished any " great work," such as this
criticism implies, in any of the fields of intellectual activ
ity, from which great scholars gather their ripened har
vests. He could have graced the shelves of our libraries
with precious octavos of history, or science, or literature.
But to have done this he would have foregone that
" greater work " which he did accomplish, and of which
the three volumes already published, to be followed we
trust by many more, will stand forever as the witness and
the memorial " Non omnia omnes possumus." And he
appointed to himself the nobler task of elevating the pub
lic taste, of bringing before a working people the high
est truths of philosophy in a style of adaptation to their
wants before unknown of diffusing throughout the com-
182 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
munity a knowledge of great historical events and their
application to the duties of living men, of implanting in
the breasts of the people a reverence for their God-fearing
ancestors, and in justifying the ways of Providence to
them and their posterity, of displaying before them the
brightest deeds and the most heroic sacrifices of patriot
ism, and thereby inspiring in them the warmest love of
their country, and instructing them in the duties they
owed to her, all these, and more, of the glorious proofs
that his life was a noble success and in no sense a failure,
glow in every page of his writings, not one of which in
dying would he need to blot, from that first lecture
before the Mechanics Institute in Charlestown, down to
that last fervid, Christian appeal in Faneuil Hall.
Mr. President, I speak in the faith of the clearest con
viction, that whatever of unjust, or censorious, or honestly
mistaken judgment, has ever been passed upon our de
parted friend, will be surely modified, if not entirely
reversed, in all candid minds, under the lights with which
a true and complete history of his life will illuminate it,
from its earliest promise to its latest most glorious record.
Already one of his contemporaries, who has made his
own name " imperishable in immortal song," in words of
manly confession, as honorable to their author as they are
just to the memory of him of whom they were spoken,
has anticipated the verdict of history.
" If," says Mr. Bryant, " I have uttered anything in
derogation of Mr. Everett s public character at times when
it seemed to me that he did not resist with becoming
spirit the aggressions of wrong, I now, looking back upon
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 183
his noble record of the last four years, retract it at his
grave, I lay upon his hearse the declaration of my
sorrow that I saw not then the depth of his worth, that
I did not discern under the conservatism that formed a
part of his nature, that generous courage which a great
emergency could so nobly awaken."
But the praises of men were now of little worth, had
we not one source of pride and affection open to us in the
contemplation of this beneficent life, the value of which
no words of eulogy, apt as they are to run into exaggera
tion, can express too strongly. The manifold temptations
of public life, whether insinuating themselves through
our domestic politics, or the social and political ethics of
the national capitol, in the arts of diplomacy or through
the enervating allurements of foreign courts, which in
some of their Protean forms are so apt to assail the home-
taught virtue of our public men, never left a trace of their
influence upon the purity of his unsullied character. To
those who had the closest view of him, there was always
apparent his constant recognition of the presence and
direction of a Higher Power in all the concerns of life.
Abundant illustrations of this, indeed, may be found in his
published works. Who that has read it, who especially
that had your privilege and mine, Mr. President, of listen
ing to it as it fell from his lips, can have forgotten that
magnificent passage, in my judgment the most eloquent
he ever uttered, in his speech at the centennial celebration
at Barnstable in 1839? a passage which the late Chief
Justice Shaw, who was present, declared to me was, in his
opinion, unsurpassed in modern history.
184 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
After describing the condition of " the Mayflower
freighted with the destinies of a continent, as she crept
almost sinking into Provincetown harbor, utterly inca
pable of living through another gale, approaching the
shore precisely where the broad sweep of this remarkable
headland presents almost the only point at which for
hundreds of miles she could with any ease have made a
harbor," he adds : "I feel my spirit raised above the
sphere of mere natural agencies. I see the mountains of
New England rising from their rocky thrones. They rush
forward into the ocean, settling down as they advance ;
and, there they range themselves, a mighty bulwark
around the heaven-directed vessel. Yes, the everlasting
God himself stretches out the arm of his mercy and his
power in substantial manifestations, and gathers the meek
company of his worshippers as in the hollow of his
hand."
But a more striking, because a more spontaneous
expression of the same characteristic spirit, is contained
in a letter of farewell which I received from him, dated at
New York on the day before his embarkation for Europe
with his whole family in the summer of 1840, and of
course written amidst all the distractions incident to the
preparations for his voyage.
The intelligence of the burning of the packet ship
Poland at sea, and the* rescue of her passengers from
imminent peril by a passing vessel, had then just been
received in this country. " The fate of the Poland," he
writes, ;i makes me feel strongly how near to death we
are in the midst of life. I embark with all mv treasures
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 185
with some misgivings. But having undertaken the voyage
from proper motives, I seem to be in the path of duty,
and I am sure I am in the hand of God. There are many
paths to his presence. And whether they lead us singly,
or in families, or companies, whether by a bed of lan
guishing on land, or the blazing deck of a burning vessel,
or the dark abyss of the sea, can be of but little conse
quence in the existence of an undying spirit."
When his own hour had come, Mr. President, it was
through no such avenue of suspense and sufferings as
these that his Heavenly Father took him to himself. But
in welcoming him, as our faith assures us. to the rewards
of a " good and faithful servant," He bore him from our
sight so graciously as to leave us nothing to regret from
him, either in his death or in his life. Why should we
mourn over such a death, the serene close of such a life
on earth, the entrance upon the assured rewards of the
Life Eternal]
" If ever lot was prosperously cast,
If ever life was like the lengthened flow
Of some sweet music, sweetness to the last,
T was his." ....
Not the music of that matchless voice alone, whose
inspiring cadences seem still to linger in our ears, as we
assemble in this room, where it so often charmed and
instructed us, but the diviner harmony to which he gave
such magnificent expression by a rounded and completed
life, a life that was mercifully spared to his country for
its greatest work during its closing years ; whose music,
24
186 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
during those years of a nation s regeneration, was but a
prolongation of the music of the Union, by which he
marched, himself, and inspired his countrymen to march,
to the great conflict with treason and with wrong.
Here, and wherever throughout the world, in all
coming time, the gospel of constitutional liberty is
preached among men, shall this, his last, greatest work,
"be told as a memorial of him." One word more, Mr.
President, and my grateful task is done.
In the correspondence from which I have so freely
quoted, I found, a day or two ago, a striking passage,
which seems to me a fitting close for this feeble tribute to
the memory of a loved and honored friend. In a letter
written to me from Washington early in 1854, the year
that he resigned his place in the Senate of the United
States, he says : "I have never filled an office which I did
not quit more cheerfully than I entered. I am not sure
that it is not so in most cases with the last great act of
retirement, not from the* offices and duties of life, but
from life itself."
Brethren, to what far-off sphere of celestial fruition
may we not, without presumption, in that spirit of faith
which he so strongly cherished, follow our departed
associate, and hear again the music of , that voice, repeat
ing this sentiment, now verified and made certain in the
supreme experience of that last Sabbath morning 1
Dr. Walker spoke as follows : -
Mr. PRESIDENT : Leaving it for others to speak of Mr.
Everett s eminence as a scholar and as a statesman, and
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 187
of the purity and beauty of his daily life, I ask permis
sion to say a few words of his administration as President
of Harvard College. There is, I believe, a prevailing
impression in the community, that this part of his public
career was less successful than the rest. Jf so, it is
to be imputed, in no small measure, to three causes
which have hindered his merits and services as Head
of the University from being duly appreciated.
The first of these causes was his known distaste for the
office. Most of us remember, that when he was appointed
to the place, the community were of one mind as to his
being precisely the man to fill it, with a single excep
tion ; but that was an important exception, for it was
himself. This distaste was never entirely overcome ; and
there are those who have construed it into evidence of
want of success. They might have done so with some
show of reason, if it had grown up in the office ; for, in
that case, it might be regarded as resulting, at least in
some degree, from disappointed hopes. But when it is
considered that the distaste was as strong, and perhaps
stronger, when he accepted tfie office, than when he laid
it down, there would seem to be no ground for such a
construction.
The second cause which has hindered the public from
duly appreciating Mr. Everett s services to the College as
President, is found in the nature of the reforms and
improvements attempted and actually introduced by him.
With his accustomed method and thoroughness, he could
not do otherwise than begin at the beginning. Accord
ingly, one of his first undertakings was to prepare and
188 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
publish, under the proper authorities, a careful revision
of the college laws. This was a most important and
necessary work, which cost months of anxious labor ; yet
not likely to attract public attention, nor even to be known
beyond the precincts of the University. Again, he be
lieved that all improvements in the college, to be of much
solidity, must have their foundation in its improved moral
and religious condition. No president ever labored more
assiduously or more anxiously for this end, nor, consider
ing the time occupied, with more success. Indeed, I
cannot help thinking that it is for the measures he insti
tuted or suggested with a view to promote the moral
elevation of the college, that its friends have most reason
to hold him in grateful remembrance. Yet these also
were matters which, from their very nature, did not admit
of display, and some of them not even of publicity ; nay
more, in the beginning they were not unlikely to occasion
some degree of opposition and trouble.
But the principal cause hindering a due appreciation of
Mr. Everett s presidency of the college, brief as it was, is
doubtless this very brevity. * If his health had permitted
him to retain the office ten years, I have no doubt that
many things which were offensive to him would have
disappeared. His attention, meanwhile, would have been
turned to proper academical reforms, noticeable in them
selves, and bringing the college into notice by extending
its influence and fame. And this, together with the just
pride taken in his distinguished name, and the unsur
passed dignity with which he represented the University
on all public occasions, would have made his administra-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 189
tion forever illustrious in the annals of the college ; and
even, within its limited scope, as illustrious for him as any
other part of his public career. Nor is this all. It would
then have been seen that the first four years, those which
we really had, were an appropriate and necessary intro
duction to the whole ; and as such, they would have come
in for their full share of the glory.
Dr. Holmes read the following Poem :
OUR FIRST CITIZEN.
WINTER S cold drift lies glistening o er his breast ;
For him no spring shall bid the leaf unfold ;
What Love could speak, by sudden grief oppressed,
What swiftly summoned Memory tell, is told.
Even as the bells, in one consenting chime,
Filled with their sweet vibrations all the air,
So joined all voices, in that mournful time,
His genius, wisdom, virtues, to declare.
What place is left for words of measured praise,
Till calm-eyed History, with her iron pen,
Grooves in the unchanging rock the final phrase
That shapes his image in the souls of men?
Yet while the echoes still repeat his name,
While countless tongues his full-orbed life rehearse,
Love, by his beating pulses taught, will claim
The breath of song, the tuneful throb of verse,
190 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Verse that, in ever-changing ebb and flow,
Moves, like the laboring heart,- with rush and rest,
Or swings in solemn cadence, sad and slow,
Like the tired heaving of a grief-worn breast.
This was a mind so rounded, so complete,
No partial gift of Nature in excess,
That, like a single stream where many meet,
Each separate talent counted something less.
A little hillock, if it lonely stand,
Holds o er the fields an undisputed reign,
While the broad summit of the table-land
Seems with its belt of clouds a level plain.
Servant of all his powers, that faithful slave,
Unsleeping Memory, strengthening with his toils,
To every ruder task his shoulder gave,
And loaded every day with golden spoils.
Order, the law of Heaven, was throned supreme
O er action, instinct, impulse, feeling, thought ;
True as the dial s shadow to the beam,
Each hour was equal to the charge it brought.
Too large his compass for the nicer skill
That weighs the world of science grain by grain ;
All realms of knowledge owned the mastering will
That claimed the franchise of his whole domain.
Earth, air, sea, sky, the elemental fire,
Art, history, song, what meanings lie in each
Found in his cunning hand a stringless lyre,
And poured their mingling music through his speech,
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 191
Thence flowed those anthems of our festal days,
Whose ravishing division held apart
The lips of listening throngs in sweet amaze,
Moved in all breasts the self-same human heart.
Subdued his accents, as of one who tries
To press some care, some haunting sadness down ;
His smile half shadow ; and to stranger eyes
The kingly forehead woje an iron crown.
He was not armed to wrestle with the storm,
To fight for homely truth with vulgar power ;
Grace looked from every feature, shaped his form,
The rose of Academe, the perfect flower !
Such was the stately scholar whom we knew
In those ill days of soul-enslaving calm,
Before the blast of Northern vengeance blew
Her snow-wreathed pine against the Southern palm.
Ah, God forgive us ! did we hold too cheap
The heart we might have known, but would not see,
And look to find the nation s friend asleep
Though the dread hour of her Gethsemane?
That wrong is past ; we gave him up to Death
With all a hero s honors round his name :
As martyrs coin their blood, he coined his breath,
And dimmed the scholar s in the patriot s fame.
So shall we blazon on the shaft we raise,
Telling our grief, our pride, to unborn years,
1 He who had lived the mark of all men s praise
Died with the tribute of a nation s tears."
192 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
The Hon. Richard H. Dana then spoke as follows : -
MR. PRESIDENT : This full tide of grief and admiration
has carried along with it all there is of eulogy, and there
seems nothing left for me to-night not wishing to say
over what has been so well said but a single, common
place suggestion, exciting no feeling, and entirely below
the demands of the hour. I would simply remind you,
brethren, that the fame of Mr. Everett has been fairly
earned.
It seems to me that he has earned his fame as fairly as
the painter, the poet, the sculptor, and the composer earn
theirs. The artist submits his picture or statue, the
composer his oratorio, and the poet his epic or lyric to
the judgment of time, and abides the result. Mr.
Everett, for fifty years, year by year, submitted to the
judgment of his age orations, essays, lectures, speeches,
and diplomatic letters, and abided the result. If the
judgment has been favorable to him, what can have been
more fairly earned?
It has not only been earned without fraud on the public
judgment, or mistake or accident, but it has been earned
in strict compliance with the primeval law of labor that
in the sweat of the brow all bread shall be eaten. It has
not been the result of a few happy strokes of genius. He
never did anything except with all the might his mind
and body could lend to it. He was first scholar at Har
vard, because four years of competition left -him so. If
he was in anything more learned than other men, it was
because he did his best with great natural powers. No
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 19JJ
occasions occurred to him that may not occur to all.
What other men made little of, lie made everything of.
He never trusted to genius or to chance. He owes as
little, too, as any man, to the posts he has filled. Many
derive importance from holding offices that connect
them with great events. He stands upon his work, irre
spective of office ; and, indeed, his best and brightest acts
have been those of a private citizen. Yes, brethren,
every stone in the monument he has builded to himself
has been quarried, fashioned, and polished by his" own
hand and eye.
Fairly earned, his fame is also firmly fixed. His style
of thought and expression in written address has been
tried by the tests of novelty and of familiarity, of same
ness and of variety, in old communities and in new
communities ; and that style which forty years before,
in its freshness, charmed the choice spirits of a critical
community of readers and scholars, was found in its
maturity, nay, almost in its age, equal to the conflict
with the trained diplomatists of Europe, before the forum
of nations.
So of his elocution. An orator may, by accidental
charm of voice or manner, or by tricks of speech, gain
celebrity for a time ; but the crucial test comes, and he is
found wanting, or he palls and stales by mere custom.
But Mr. Everett s style of speech has been tried by
every test, applied to every variety of topic, in different
countries, and has survived the changes and chances of
taste and opinion, as potent with the sons and daughters
as with their fathers and mothers. At threescore and
25
194 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
ten the spell of his elocution was as effective as in the
freshness of his youth or the vigor of his manhood. The
eloquence which forty and fifty years ago filled Brattle
Street Church to the window-tops, which, in its new-born
beauty, charmed the select assemblages at Cambridge, Con
cord, and Plymouth, was found in its gray and bent age,
equal more equal tu^n any other to the exigencies
and shocks of the most vast and momentous popular
canvass the world ever knew.
The Hon. B. F. Thomas spoke as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT: If I had consulted my own judgment
only, it would have been to listen to the gentlemen around
me, the early, the life-long companions of the illustrious
dead. I may not claim to have been of Mr. Everett s
intimate friends. Though I have met him occasionally
in private life, my means of knowledge are, after all,
those of a reader and hearer of his public discourse.
Nor have I, during a portion of his public life, been
drawn to him by ties of political affinity and sympathy.
Possibly, following the courtesies of parliamentary assem
blies, these considerations may have led to the request
that I should say a word this evening.
If the object of these services of commemoration were
indiscriminate eulogy, the custom were more honored in
the breach than in the observance ; such service being
good neither for the dead nor the living. If we had no
higher or nobler purpose, we might well turn to the
pressing duties of life and of the hour, and let the dead
bury their dead.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 195
But if we believe the saying of an old historian, cited
by Bolingbroke, that history is philosophy teaching by
examples; if, rejecting the godless speculations of Buckle,
we recognize in history the power and influence of the
individual spirit ; if we see in the lives of great and good
men not only beacon lights on the line of human progress,
but the most efficient of motive powers, the causes cans-
antes; that great and good men not only make history, but
constitute history, and the best part of history ; no work
can be more appropriate to an historical society than the
commemoration of such a life.
As you well observed, Mr. President, the other day in
Faneuil Hall, in a speech, let me say, so worthy of its
theme, one knows hardly where to begin or where
to end. If we had but one word to say, it would be per
haps that Mr. Everett was the most accomplished man
our country had produced ; of the widest, most varied and
finished culture. That using the word " orator," in the
sense in which it has come to us from classic times, he was
our most finished " orator," in fertility of resources, in apt
ness of use in grace of manner, in compass and music of
voice, in curious felicity of diction, seldom if ever surpassed.
Not always evincing magnetic power or projectile force,
or the ars artium celare artem ; but in his best and happiest
moods recalling the lines in which Milton, with such
marvellous beauty, has described Adam, wrapt, entranced
with the last accents that fell from the lips of Raphael :
"The angel ended ; but in Adam s ear
So charming left his voice that he awhile
Thought him still speaking still stood fixed to hear."
196 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Though it was as a graceful and eloquent orator that
Mr. Everett was most widely known to his day and gener
ation, we feel that in saying this we have not got very near
to our subject ; that we have not touched upon the lines of
character which make the life of a great or good man the
worthy subject of study and contemplation.
Outside of revelation, Mr. President, men make their
own gods. They project them from within. They clothe
them with their own passions, they dwarf them by their
own infirmities. So it is in the construction of our heroes
and great men. We not only admire chiefly the qualities
in which we discover some resemblance to our own; but
we are* very apt to dwell on them as the salient points of
character. We insist upon casting men into the moulds
of our own minds. This may be natural, but it is neither
manly nor just. That only is a manly and catholic criti
cism which appreciates and admires qualities utterly
diverse from our own ; which recollects that our antipodes
stand also on the solid earth ; that there may be diversities
of gifts but the same spirit, differences of administration
but the same Lord ; that the eye cannot say to the hand,
I have no need of thee, nor the head to the feet, I have
no need of you ; that this diversity of gifts and tendencies
is part of God s economy for the well-being and progress
of the race.
It is by the conflict and balance of forces that the plan
ets kno*w their places and " each in his motion like an
angel sings." A like conflict and balance of forces is the
law of human life and progress. In the shallow philoso
phy of Pope, there is not a shallower commonplace, than
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 197
" Just as the twig is bent the tree s inclined." You may
twist and distort the growth of the tree, you may prune
it into fantastic shapes, but the tree as God meant it to be
lies wrapt in the germ, before the warm embrace of earth
sends it up to greet the sun. The natural differences of
men overcome and outgrow all culture and discipline.
These two sons of the same parents, bred at the same
fireside, trained in the same schools, surrounded by the
same influences, ripened into manhood, the one shall be
come in politics a radical, the other a conservative. In re
ligion one shall be the most protesting of protestants, the
other repose with a child s trust on the bosom of the church.
In all free governments political parties are formed,
and though they spring up sometimes for local and
temporary purposes, yet as a general fact and in their
last analysis, they will be found to be radical and con
servative, the one having progress as its constant aim,
the other dwelling upon the limitations of progress.
In the best sense of the word Mr. Everett was a con
servative. No man more thoroughly understood or more
fully appreciated the free institutions which the toils and
sacrifices of good and wise and true men of twenty gen
erations had secured to us. He had faith that whatever
of error and imperfection was to be found in the work
of the fathers would be removed by peaceful methods,
by the progress of science, and art, and Christian cul
ture and civilization. With his conservatism was found
a broad, liberal, and catholic spirit. Bred in the extreme
school of Protestantism, he did not understand by liberal
Christianity the negation of things divine, the bowing of
198 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
religion out of the circle of the human mind. He did
not exclude from his idea of mental liberty the " liberty
of obedience ; " the liberty with which Christ makes men
free.
Bred in the school of the Puritans, illustrating their
virtues, admiring their sublime devotion to duty, he could
not have loved Puritanism the less because it was asso
ciated with the venerable past, because time had softened
and hallowed its more rugged features, because distance
lent enchantment to the view.
Bred in a school of politics, which, though of the high
est integrity, had strong sectional tendencies, he was
among the most national of our statesmen. No part of
the land was shut out from his sympathy and regard.
His patriotism covered the country, however bounded.
No word dropped from his lips or pen to promote sec
tional hate or strife. His public life was a ministry of
concord and peace. He .understood the compromises of
the Constitution, and was ready faithfully to abide by
them. He appreciated and admired this marvellous frame
of government, by which, for the first time in history,
central power was reconciled with local independence, the
immunities of free States with the capacities of a great
empire. From the first to the last, through evil report
and through good report, he clung to the Union of these
States and to the Constitution as its only bond. No man
labored more earnestly and devotedly to avert the coming
strife. His dread of civil conflict seemed to wear at times
almost the aspect of timidity. But if he felt more strongly
it was because he foresaw more clearly.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 199
No greater injustice can be done to Mr. Everett, than
by the suggestion that in the last three or four years of
his life his opinions had undergone a radical change, and
that the services of the past three years were a sort of
propitiation and atonement for those that had gone before.
Some of the views of public policy developed by Mr.
Everett within the last two years did not command my
assent. That was equally true with some of his earlier
opinions. But I can see no necessary conflict between
Mr. Everett the conservative statesman, the life-long de
fender of the Union and the Constitution, and Mr. Everett
the ardent supporter of a war to secure from destruction
that Union and Constitution. Difference of judgment as
to what might be effected by force of arms might be the
result of changes in the condition of the country, in the
unity of sentiment and action in the loyal States. What
seemed to him impossible in 1861, might, from the success
of our arms, seem feasible in 1864. So measures that he
deemed to be impolitic at the first period might seem to
him to be demanded by the necessities of the second.
Those differences marked no radical change of principles ;
and one, who differed from him on some few questions of
policy while adhering to his general views, may be
pardoned a word to save him from the too great kindness
of his later friends.
Honor, as the heart shall prompt, his labors to uphold
the arm of government against secession, to give unity to
its counsels and efforts, to bring all men to its standard.
We may honor none the less a life given to what his
nephew and my friend has fitly called the ministry of
200 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
conciliation, to the victories of peace. Nor will we forget
how, at the first glimpse of opportunity, he turned to his
first love ; how, when the cry of suffering came from a
conquered city, his heart went out to meet and to help it ;
how naturally he recurred to the power of Christian sym
pathies and kindness ; how the blessed words of the
royal preacher of Israel sprung to his lips, " If thine
enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink."
Blessed close of a great and good life. Blessed privi
lege to forget for a moment the horrors and glories even
of war, the shouts and waving banners of triumph, to sit
again at the feet of the Divine Master, to lean upon his
bosom, to be kindled by and to radiate his divine love.
Hon. James Savage made the following remarks : -
MR. PRESIDENT: I am a little surprised to be called up ;
and yet, sir, as the catalogue of the Society shows. Mr.
Everett s name stood next to mine, I hope I may be ex
cused if the infirmity of age is more apparent than any
thing else in what I say. I can refer to the early days of
Mr. Everett, which has not been more than once alluded
to, and that before he had adopted the resolution of taking
the profession of a preacher of the Everlasting Gospel.
In this he was most eminently successful, and before that
I remember well, sir, that the boy was father to the man.
No one who then looked at him and heard him, would
have failed to foretell the success which attended him. Of
Mr. Everett, I supposse it can be said as of other men,
that he touched nothing that he did not adorn. I cannot
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 201
give you the Latin, sir, but it is one of the very strong
illustrations of human grace and felicity. It was very
observable. When I was in England I had the advantage
of great attention from Mr. Everett. When their chief
statesman, Sir Robert Peel, was suddenly stricken down
by instant death and when the Earl of Aberdeen,
another great friend of our country, succeeded him, con
tinuing, to maintain all our just rights consistent with the
rights of his own country, I had the advantage of
meeting at Mr. Everett s, more than once or twice, some
of the first gentlemen of England, chiefly official persons,
and there to observe that no man of their own country
was more attended to or less inclined to presume upon
that attention. He seemed to be always the servant of
the public in private as well as in public. I believe that
our country has never had a superior minister anywhere
at any court. I only wish that our present representative,
my younger friend, may make Mr. Everett s place good.
4
Hon. Emory Washburn addressed the meeting as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT : I shall not presume, in such a pres
ence, to speak of Mr. Everett as a scholar, for I should
feel that, by so doing, I was trespassing upon, ground
which would be so much more properly occupied by
others. Nor will the time allotted me, admit of my dwell
ing upon the prominent part which he has taken in the
historic events of the last thirty years of his life.
On the other hand, I cannot pretend to that intimate
relation in t^e associations with him with which I have
been favored, which would justify my attempting to draw
26
202 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the nicer shades of character which intimacy alone en
ables one to analyze and trace. The most I can hope to
do, is to give, in general terms, the results upon my own
mind of the observation of more than forty years, chiefly,
of his public life. And yet I have too often shared in
his acts of personal kindness and courtesy, not to feel that
I have a right to speak, also, of some of those traits of
private character which stand out so prominently- in the
history of his life.
The impression which my study and observation of Mr.
Everett s career have left most strongly defined upon my
own mind, is its harmony and completeness in all its parts
and characteristic qualities. In no field of honor or use
fulness which he was called upon to occupy, did he ever
fail to meet its reasonable requirements, nor did he ever
shrink from the labor which its duties imposed. Many
men have been great in one department of intellectual
power or excellence, without possessing any claims to
distinction in any other. Some cultivate one set of their
powers or faculties, at the expense of the others. And of
many, the judgments which we form, are but the balanc
ing of one quality against another, the good against the
evil, in order to ascertain at what point in the scale of
moral worth we are to place them, in the estimate which
we form of their character. The great warrior may be
the brutal tyrant or the sordid miser. The brilliant poet
may not soar above the atmosphere of his own vices, and
the splendid orator while arousing and wielding the pas
sions of others, at his will, may be the veriest slave of
his own. Examples like these serve to mark the contrast
PROCEEDINGS, OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 203
of good and evil which are found in so many of the men
whom the world has called famous.
But in the life of Mr. Everett, we seek, in vain, for any
such contrasts as these. It was not because there were
not, in the constitution of his mind and character, prominent
and striking qualities, but because there was no occasion
to go through the process of balancing these qualities
against each other, in order to determine the relative rank
of merit in which he is hereafter to be held in the judgment
of posterity. His character in this respect was homoge
neous in its elements, and complete, as well in its parts, as
in the relations of these to each other.
That which must have struck every one who knew Mr.
Everett as worthy of special notice, was the filling up^ if I
may so say, which gave to his life and character that
roundness of proportion which renders it difficult, as we
now look upon it, to say which of the traits for which he
was distinguished, stand out most prominently upon the
canvas. The picture is therefore in danger of being
indistinct, from the absence of shade by which to bring
out its features into bolder relief. He was the scholar at
the same time that he was the orator of the pulpit and of
the senate. He was the statesman and the diplomatist,
the administrative officer, and, for many years of his life,
the leading citizen in all the land. He was the Christian
gentleman and the patriot ; and he won in them all, the
respect and admiration of the country. And yet, who is
now ready to say in which of these he transcended his
own excellence in any other trait into which his character
may be divided? Had he been either of these alone,
204 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD E*VERETT.
there would have been, in the graces and accomplish
ments which he would have brought to its duties, enough
to haVe given to his life in that sphere, the seeming
finish of completeness. This is what I mean by that
filling up which gave such an admirable fulness and
consistency of proportion, in his character and life.
I might illustrate this thought further by referring to
what is familiar, perhaps, to us all. It is more than forty
years since I first heard him in the pulpit. I need not
say with how much delight I listened to the rich and
varied thought,- the beauty of diction, the inimitable power
of description, the affluence of illustration, and the pathos
of appeal which gave so much life to his sermons of that
day. These qualities of high pulpit oratory may not
have been peculiar to him. But there was added to
these, a beauty of countenance, a grace in action, a
sweetness in voice, and an impressive, though almost
measured modulation in tone and cadence, which left
upon the mind of the hearer the conviction that he was
unsurpassed as a rhetorician and an orator.
I afterwards heard him on the floor of Congress, and
there he was no less at home than in the pulpit. And
the dignity of his bearing, the mastery he showed of his
subject, and the eloquence of the language he uttered,
commanded the willing attention of that body, while it
was yet dignified by men of eloquence and a national
fame.
We all know how faithfully and conscientiously he
performed the duties of the Executive of this Common
wealth. Nothing was left undone which courtesy, or
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 205
*
kindness, or etiquette, claimed at his hand, from patiently
listening to the broken language of the wife or mother
pleading for the pardon of a wayward husband or son, to
those dignified state papers which came from his pen
perfect in all their parts. The same may be said of the
manner in which he bore himself at the court of St.
James, and as successor of Mr. Webster, at the head of
our American court at Washington.
And in this, I do not mean to refer so much to great
exhibitions of skill and power as a diplomatist and a
statesman, as to the qualities which belonged to him per
sonally as a man, and which helped to grace and fill up
the measure of his official character.
But this character for completeness to which I have
alluded, may perhaps be better illustrated in the personal
qualities which he exhibited in the amenities of private
life. We have heard him called cold in his sympathies,
and ungenial of manners, in his intercourse with others ;
and I confess that, till .1 knew him, I thought his seeming
reserved, if not austere. But I need not say, in this
presence, how soon this impression was corrected when
one came in direct contact with him, either socially, or in
the ordinary intercourse of private life. There was in
his organization something of that shrinking delicacy
which makes one apparently shy and sensitive. But I
will venture to say, that no one ever went to him for
kindness, or sympathy, or counsel, and found him either
cold or repulsive.
He never forgot the courtesies of the gentleman in his
intercourse with any man, however humble or devoid of
206 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
-it
influence he may have been. He never was surpassed in
the scrupulous punctuality with which he replied to a
correspondent, however unimportant the subject addressed
to him, nor in the indulgence with which he received
and the kindness with which he acknowledged, the well
intended but often equivocal favor of printed works and
papers, with which authors loaded his table and taxed his
time the thing he was the least able to spare.
The kindliness of his nature was manifested in a
hundred different forms, though rarely so as to attract the
observation or applause of others. In all the trying situa
tions in which he was placed, at times, censured by party
antagonism, misconstrued in his motives and his acts, and
smarting under the keen rebuke of public disfavor, I do
not believe any one ever saw him lose the dignity of his
self possession, or heard him indulge in harsh or uncour-
teous language towards his bitterest opponent.
Nor will the world ever know how often the deserving
young man, struggling with adverse circumstances, has
found in him, what he needed more than money a wise
counsellor and a kind friend. Hundreds could now tell
us how he sought them out, aided and encouraged them,
and helped them onward in a career of usefulness and
honor. While his body lay waiting for that august
solemnity in which a whole city, and, I might add, a State
and Nation bore a part, the door bell of his house was
rung, and, upon its being opened, there stood upon the
threshold a young man, a stranger, in the dress of a
junior officer in the navy. He asked permission to come
in and look, once more, upon the form and face of Mr.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 207
Everett. " I am a stranger to you/ said he to the gentle
man in attendance, " but Mr. Everett was the best friend
I ever had ; he procured me the place I now hold, and
from that day has never failed to write me letters of en
couragement and advice, although I had no claim upon
his kindness and generosity."
Of his affluence, whether of wisdom or learning, of
worldly gifts or kindly consideration, he never withheld,
when appealed to by objects of merit and desert.
I desire also to say a single word upon another en or
into which the public mind may have naturally fallen.
Whatever he wrote or delivered was, uniformly, so
finished and perfect in style and language, as well as in
thought, that an impression became general that he had
little ready or spontaneous eloquence, and that, in order
to meet an occasion, he must have time for careful prepa
ration. In the danger which he had to contend with, of
having himself for a rival, he was, undoubtedly, loth to
speak without previous preparation. But his friends
knew th^at he was not only a man of ready and stirring
eloquence, but that, with all the grave, serious, and dig
nified manner which characterized so many of his orations
and public addresses, he had a fund of keen and sprightly
wit, of playful humor, and apt and gentle repartee, which,
at times, electrified the hour, and delighted whoever was
fortunate enough to witness them.
It might seem that for one who, through a long period
of public services, had shown himself worthy to hold a
place in the foremost rank, nothing could be needed to
208 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
fill up and round out a life of so much active usefulness
and honor.
But do we not all feel, now, how much it would have
wanted, if it had lacked the finish with which the history of
the last four years has crowned and completed the work ]
Nobody had a right to doubt the honesty and sincerity of
his convictions and opinions, however much one may
have differed from him in the matters of public policy.
But he saw the coming of that dreadful storm which has
been sweeping over our country, and, like many other
true patriots, he was willing to avert it by a conciliatory
policy, though, by so doing, he subjected himself to the
imputation of timidity or want of heart. But when he
saw that the scheme of the conspirators was not to secure
the rights which were theirs, but to usurp those to which
they Tiad no claim ; when he saw that the purpose at
which they aimed was not peace, but the overthrow, by
war, of the Government under which our country had
grown great and prosperous and happy, he threw the full
weight of his accumulated power of intellect and influ
ence into the struggle, and, in the forgetfulness of old
opinions and cherished associations, he gave up to his
country the stores of learning, the resources of eloquence,
and the gathered energies of an entire life devoted to
diligence and duty. Men no longer called him timid, for
he showed that he had that highest of all courage, which
dares to go against one s own prepossessions and uttered
opinions, when in the light of present events, he looks
back upon the unintentional mistakes of the past. The
nation, the world itself looked on with admiration, as this
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 209
brave old champion in the cause, of right, urged on the
battle by his trumpet call to duty and to arms. And
they felt that his record was complete, his life rounded
out into the full proportions of Christian manliness,
when he uttered that last noble appeal, to crown the
triumphs of a nation s success, by the divine magnanimity
that feeds our enemy and carries him comfort in the hour
of prostration and distress.
While standing upon that lofty eminence of fame, to
which a long and arduous life of noble action had
raised him, it was a kind Providence that spared him
from even the possibility of danger of any coming misap
prehension or mistake. He laid by his armor before the
evening shadows had dimmed a single gleam of its bright
ness. But he went not to his rest till his last day s work
was fully and nobly accomplished. He put off the garb
which he had worn amid the dust and toil of an ever
busy life, to waken to a new existence where, while the
past is secure, the future can never be clouded by the
passions of erring nature, or the frailties of human
judgment.
The fame which, till then, had been in his own keep
ing, he left in charge of the country he had so long
served. And can we doubt that the trust will be sacredly
kept ? They will rear to him statues and monuments.
And they w r ill do more. They will keep these monu
ments and memorials alive, by cherishing the memory
of the man to whom they are reared, in the treasured
offerings of a nation s history.
It will be but another illustration of the immortality
27
210 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
which the fame of a truly great man lends to the works
of art, by which men seek to perpetuate the memory of
the dead. The chisel of the artist may bring out from
the marble the form and features of one whom pride or
affection may seek to honor. But it is ; at last, to history
that we must look, to interpret the record which sculp
ture may have tried to register.
You, sir, beautifully reminded us, on another occasion,
of the search of the Roman orator amongst the rank
weeds and gathered rubbish of the cemetery of Syracuse,
for the forgotten monument of Archimedes, while you
reminded his countrymen that the great American Philos
opher and Statesman, till then, had no memorial of art
reared to him, even in the city where he was born.
But though they answered that appeal with a generous
alacrity, the enduring bronze of which his speaking
statue is fashioned by the skilful cunning of art, would
do little to keep his memory alive for the service of pos
terity, if his name had not been enrolled among the great
names that shed lustre upon the pages of his country s
history.
So it will be with the statue which, as we trust, a
gratified people will place by the side of his great com
patriot, in the front of our Capitol. It is fitting that it
should stand there, a memorial, immortal in the light of
history, of the man, and of a people s gratitude. The
name of Everett, repeated to the inquirer in after ages,
will reanimate that form, and it will speak of the scholar,
the statesman, the orator, the patriot, and the Christian
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 211
gentleman, to whom it shall have been reared by a people
that knew, and loved, and honored him.
The Eev. Mr. Waterston read the following communication
from John G. Whittier, introducing the letter by the words of Dr.
Channing, who said of Mr. Whittier, more than a quarter of a
century ago : His poetry bursts from the soul with the fire and
energy of an ancient prophet. And his noble simplicity of char
acter is the delight of all who know him."
AMESBURY, 27th 1st Month, 1865.
MY DEAR FRIEND : I acknowledge through thee, the
invitation of the standing committee of the Massachusetts
Historical Society to be present at a special meeting of
the Society for the purpose of paying a tribute to the
memory of our late illustrious associate, Edward Everett.
It is a matter of deep regret to me that the state of my
health will not permit me to- be with you on an occasion
of so much interest.
It is most fitting that the members of the Historical
Society of Massachusetts should add their tribute to those
which have been already offered .by all sects, parties, and
associations, to the name and fame of their late asso
ciate. He was himself a maker of history, and part and
parcel of all the noble charities and humanizing influ
ences of nis State and time.
When the grave closed over him who added new lustre
to the old and honored name of Quincy, all eyes instinc
tively turned to Edward Everett as the last of that ven
erated class of patriotic civilians who, outliving all dissent
and jealousy and party prejudice, held their reputation
212 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
by the secure tenure of the universal appreciation of its
worth as a common treasure of the republic. It is not
for me to pronounce his eulogy. Others, better qualified
by their intimate acquaintance with him, have done and
will do justice to his learning, eloquence, varied culture,
and social virtues. My secluded country life has afforded
me few opportunities of personal intercourse with him,
while my pronounced radicalism, on the great question
which has divided popular feeling, rendered our political
paths widely divergent. Both of us early saw the danger
which threatened the country. In the language of the
prophet, we " saw the sword coming upon the land," but
while he believed in the possibility of averting it by
concession and compromise, I, on the contrary, as firmly
believed that such a course could only strengthen and
confirm what I regarded as a gigantic conspiracy against
the rights and liberties, the- union and the life, of the
nation.
Eecent events have certainly not tended to change this
belief on my part ; but in looking over the past, while I
see little or nothing to retract in the matter of opinion, I
am saddened by the reflection, that through the very
intensity of my convictions I may have done injustice to
the motives of those with whom I differed. As respects
Edward Everett, it seems to me that only within the last
four years I have truly known him.
In that brief period, crowded as it is with a whole
life-work of consecration to the union, freedom, and
glory of his country, he not only commanded respect
and reverence, but concentrated upon himself in a most
PROCEEDINGS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 213
remarkable degree the love of all loyal and generous
hearts. We have seen, in these years of trial, very great
sacrifices offered upon the altar of patriotism wealth,
ease, home-love, life itself. But Edward Everett did
more than this ; he laid on that altar not only his time,
talents, and culture, but his pride of opinion, his long-
cherished views of policy, his personal and political
predilections and prejudices, his constitutional fastidious
ness of conservatism, and the carefully elaborated sym
metry of his public reputation. With a rare and noble
magnanimity, he met, without hesitation, the demand of
the great occasion. Breaking away from all the beset-
ments of custom and association, he forgot the things that
are behind, and, with an eye single to present duty,
pressed forward towards the mark of the high calling of
Divine Providence in the events of our time. All honor
to him ! If we mourn that he is now beyond the reach
of our poor human praise, let us reverently trust that he
has received that higher plaudit: "Well done, thou good
and faithful servant ! "
When I last met him, as my colleague in the Electoral
College of Massachusetts, his look of health and vigor
seemed to promise us many years of his wisdom and
usefulness. On greeting him I felt impelled to express
my admiration and grateful appreciation of his patriotic
labors ; and I shall never forget how readily and grace
fully he turned attention from himself to the great cause
in which we had a common interest, and expressed his
thankfulness that he had still a country to serve.
To keep green the memory of such a man is at once a
214 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
privilege and a duty. That stainless life of seventy years
is a priceless legacy. His hands were pure. The shadow
of suspicion never fell on him. If he erred in his
opinions (and that he did so, he had the Christian grace
and courage to own), no selfish interest weighed in the
scale of his judgment against truth.
As our thoughts follow him to his last resting-place,
we are sadly reminded of his own touching lines, written
many years ago at Florence. The name he has left
behind is none the less " pure " that instead of being
" humble," as he then anticipated, it is on the lips of
grateful millions, and written ineffaceably on the record
of his country s trial and triumph :
" Yet not for me when I shall fall asleep
Shall Santa Croce s lamps their vigils keep;
Beyond the main in Auburn s quiet shade,
With those I loved and love my couch be made ;
Spring s pendent branches o er the hillock wave,
And morning s dewdrops glisten on my grave,
While Heaven s great arch shall rise above my bed,
When Santa Croce s crumbles on her dead
Unknown -to erring or to suffering fame,
So ! may leave a pure though humble name "
Congratulating the Society on the prospect of the speedy
consummation of the great objects of our associate s
labors the peace and permanent union of our country,
I am very truly thy friend,
JOHN G. WHITTIER.
EGBERT C. WATERSTON, BOSTON.
The meeting then adjourned.
PROCEEDINGS
THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB
V
PROCEEDINGS OF THE THURSDAY-EVENING
CLUB.
At a meeting of the Thursday-Evening Club, January 26,
1865, at the house of Mr. Gardner Brewer, the following
remarks were made on the death of Mr. Everett, by Dr. J. Mason
Warren :
GENTLEMEN : Since the last meeting of this Club,
death has visited us ; and, in the person of our friend
and President, has called away the first citizen of our
Commonwealth.
Honored alike at home and abroad, his loss will be
felt throughout the length and breadth of the civilized
world ; and his name will justly stand among the most
distinguished of all ages.
Again and again, during the last week, has his eulogy
been pronounced, in terms far more adequate to his
merits than any which I can e^mploy ; yet here, in this
circle of friends, we once more contemplate him in the
private and social relation which he bore to this Associa
tion.
28
218 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
The peculiar organization of our Club designed (to
use the words of Mr. Everett, as spoken here on a former
occasion) to bring together persons of different professions
and pursuits, to converse and communicate with each
other on the scientific improvements of the day, and
other topics connected with social culture and progress ;
thus uniting the active and the professional, the scien
tific and business classes of the community in a friendly
circle has been" successful, in no common degree, in
combining refined social enjoyment with mutual improve
ment in knowledge.
The objects of such an Association were fully appreci
ated by Mr. Everett ; and, from the very commencement
of its meetings, his po-lished eloquence and rare conversa
tional powers have greatly contributed to its success.
Especially to be remembered are the noble eulogies in
which he commemorated the removal by death of several
prominent members of our Club ; and we all remember,
with gratitude and admiration, the splendid tribute,
which, on the late decease of Mr. Frederic Tudor, he
paid to the memory of the friend at whose house, only
two weeks before, we had been so hospitably entertained.
His illustrations of literary and historical subjects, with
which he constantly favored us, are among the happiest
reminiscences of our meetings ; always felicitous in them
selves, and often doubly impressive as emanating from
one who had himself been an actor in the scenes which
he described.
The first meeting of this season was held at his house,
on the anniversary of the landing of our pilgrim fore-
THE THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 219
fathers ; and, in a style clear and masterly, even beyond
his usual manner, he drew a new and vivid picture of
that humble beginning of our national existence. Only a
fortnight ago to-day, I received a note from him, regret
ting much that he was unable, owing to what he thought
a slight illness, to be present at the meeting of that even
ing.
Of the punctuality with which, as President of the
Club, he opened the meetings, you are all aware; for he
well knew the value of time when measured by such re
sults as he was accustomed to attain.
Feeling myself entirely incapable of doing justice to
an occasion like this, I have yet been unwilling to let
the evening pass without adding my feeble testimony
to his entire faithfulness as a member and presiding
officer of this Association. I leave to a gifted mem
ber of our Club the grateful task of giving fit expres
sion to our sense of the great loss which we have sus
tained.
Mr. Edwin P. Whipple said :
It is certainly fit, gentlemen, that the sense of bereave
ment which this city and the whole nation have felt in
the death of Mr. Everett, should find emphatic expression
in the Club of which he was the honored President.
Known to every member as the most exquisitely affable
of presiding officers ; a chairman with the gracious and
graceful manners of a host; ever ready to listen as to
speak ; and masking the eminence, which all were glad to
acknowledge, in that bland and benignant courtesv. of
220 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
which all were made to feel the charm, his presence
gave a peculiar dignity to our meetings which it will be
impossible to replace, and impressed on all of us the con
viction, that, to his other gifts and accomplishments, must
be added the distinction of being the most accomplished
gentleman of his time. Indeed, it is probable, that in
this quality of high-bred and inbred courtesy, which we
all have such good cause to admire and to remember,
may be found the explanation and justification of some
things in his character and career which have been sub
jected to adverse and acrimonious criticism ; and, in the
few remarks I propose to make, allow me to throw into
relations to this felicity of his nature, the powers and
achievements which have made him so widely famous,
and, what is better, so widely mourned.
Mr. Everett was born with that fineness of mental and
of bodily organization, the sensitiveness of which is hardly
yet thoroughly tolerated by the world which still profits
by its superiorities. There was refinement in the very
substance of his being ; by a necessity of his constitution
he disposed everything he perceived into some orderly
relations to ideas of dignity and grace ; he instinctively
shunned what was coarse, discordant, uncomely, unbecom
ing ; and that internal world of thoughts, sentiments, and
dispositions, which each man forms or re-forms for him
self, and in which he really lives, in his case obeyed the
law of comeliness, and came out as naturally in his man
ners as in his writings, in the beautiful urbanity of his
behavior as in the cadenced periods of his eloquence.
The fascination of this must have been felt even in his
THE THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 221
childhood, for he was an orator whose infant prattle
attracted an audience ; and he may be said to have passed
from the cradle into public life. To a swiftness and
accuracy of apprehension which made study the most
delightful and self-rewarding of tasks, he added a gen
eral brightness, vigor, and poise of faculties, which gave
premature promise of the reflection and judgment which
were to come. By some sure instinct, the friends who
seemed combined in a kindly conspiracy to assist and to
spoil him, must have felt that they had to do with a
nature whose innate modesty was its protection from
conceit, and whose ambition to excel was but one form
of its ambition for excellence. The fact to be considered
is, that, in childhood and in youth as in manhood and
age, there was something in him which irresistibly
attracted admiration and esteem, and made men desir
ous of helping him on in the path his genius chose, and
to the goal from which his destiny beckoned.
It will be impossible Here to do more than indicate the
steps of that comprehensive career, so full of distinction
for himself, so full of benefit to the nation, which has
been for the past ten days the theme of so many eulogies :
the college student, bearing away the highest honors
of his class ; the boy-preacher, whose * pulpit eloquence
alternately kindled and melted men of maturest years ; the
Greek Professor, whose knowledge of the finest and most
flexible instrument of human thought extorted the admira
tion of the most accomplished of all the translators of
Plato ; the fertile Writer and wide-ranging Critic, whose
familiarity with many languages only added to the energy
222 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
and elegance with which he wielded the resources of his
own ; the Representative of Middlesex, whose mastery of
the minutest details of political business was not more
evident than his ready grasp of the broader principles of
political science ; the Governor of Massachusetts, whose
wise and able administration gave a new impulse to the
cause of education and to some of the most important of
the arts of peace ; the Ambassador, who co-operated with
his friend, the great Secretary, in converting the provoca
tions to what would have been one of the most calamitous
of all wars into the occasion for negotiating one of the
most beneficent of all treaties ; the President of Harvard,
bringing back to his Alma Mater the culture he had
received from her increased an hundred fold, and present
ing to the students the noble example of a scholarship
which was always teaching, and therefore always learn-
, ing ; the Secretary of State, whose brief possession of
office was yet sufficient to show with what firmness of
purpose he could uphold American honor, and with what
prodigality of information he could expound American
rights ; the Orator of all " occasions," scattering through
many years, and from a hundred platforms, the rich stores
of his varied knowledge, the ripe results of his large
experience, and t,he animating inspirations of his fervid
soul ; the Patriot, who ever made his scholarship, states
manship, and eloquence serviceable and subsidiary to the
interest and glory, of his country, and who, when would-
be parricides lifted their daggers to stab the august mother
who had borne them, flung himself, witft a grand superi
ority to party prejudices, and a brave disdain of conse-
THE THUKSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 223
quences to himself, into the great current of impassioned
purpose which surged up from the nation s heroic heart ;
the Christian philanthropist, who, through a long life,
had been the object of no insult or wrong which could
rouse in him the fierce desire for vengeance, and whose
last public effort was a magnanimous plea for that " retal
iation" which Christianity both allows and enjoins: all
these claims to honor, all this multiform and multiplied
activity, have been the subjects of eager and emulous
panegyric ; and little has been overlooked in the loving
and grateful survey.
Such a career implies the most assiduous self-culture ;
but it was a culture free from the fault of intellectual
selfishness, for it was not centred in itself, but pursued
with a view to the public service ; and the thirst for
acquisition was not stronger than the ardor for communi
cation. Such a career also implies a constant state of
preparation for public duties ; but only by those whose
ambition is to get office, rather than to get qualified for
office, will this peculiarity be sneeringly imputed to a love
of display. Still, the vast publicity which such a career
rendered inevitable would have developed in him some of
the malignant or some of the frivolous vices of public life,
had it not been that a fine modesty tempered his constant
sense of personal efficiency, -had it not been that a cer
tain shyness at the core of his being made it impossible
that his self-reliance should rush rudely out in any of the
brazen forms of self-assertion. And this brings me back
to that essential gentlemanliness of nature, which pene
trated every faculty, and lent its tone to every expression
224 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
of our departed President. This gave him a most sensi
tive regard for the rights and feelings of others, and this
made him instinctively expect the same regard for his
own. He guarded with an almost jealous vigilance the
reserves of his individuality, and resented all uncouth or
unwarranted intrusion into these sanctuaries which his
dignity shielded, with a feeling of grieved surprise. In
his wide converse with men, even in the contentions of
party, his mind ever moved in a certain ideal region of
mutual courtesy and respect. It was to be anticipated,
that, in the rough game of politics, where blows are com
monly given and received with equal carelessness, and
where mutual charges of dishonesty are both expected and
unheeded, such a nature as Mr. Everett s should sometimes
suffer exquisite pain ; that his nerves should quiver in
impatient disgust of such odious publicity ; that he should
be tempted at times to feel that the inconsiderate assailers
of his character
" Made it seem more sweet to be
The little life of bank and brier,
The bird that pipes his lone desire,
And dies unheard within his tree
" Than he who warbles long and loud,
And drops at Glory s temple-gates ;
For whom the carrion- vulture waits
To tear his heart before the crowd ! "
In this sensitiveness, refinement, and courtesy of nature,
in this chivalrous respect for other minds, and tenderness
THE THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 225
for other hearts, is to be found the peculiarity of his ora
tory. He was the last great master of persuasive elo
quence. The circumstances of the time have given to
our public speaking an aggressive and denouncing char
acter, and invective has contemptuously cast persuasion
aside, and almost reduced it to the condition of one of the
lost arts. This is undoubtedly a great evil, for invective
commonly dispenses with insight, is impotent to interpret
what it assails, and fits the tongue of mediocrity as readily
as that of genius. It is true that the mightiest exemplars
of eloquence have been those who have wielded this most
terrific weapon in the armory of the orator with the most
overwhelming effect. Demosthenes, Chatham, Burke,
Mirabeau, men of vivid minds, hot hearts, and audacious
wills, have made themselves the terror of the assemblies
they ruled, by their power of uttering those brief and
dreadful invectives, which " appall the guilty and make
bold the free," which come like the lightning, irradiat
ing for an instant what in an instant they blast. Perhaps
the noblest spectacle in the annals of eloquence is that in
which the mute rage and despair of a hundred millions
of Asiatics found, in the assembly responsible for their
oppression, fiery utterance from the intrepid lips of Burke.
But such men are rightly examples only to their peers ;
a certain autocracy of nature is the animating principle of
their genius ; and, when they are copied simply by the
tongue, they are likely to produce shrews rather than
sages. Mr. Everett followed the bent of his character and
the law of his mind when he aimed to enter into genial
relations with his auditors, and to associate the reception
226 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
of his views with a quickening of their better feelings,
and an addition to their self-respect. Mount Vernon, the
poor of East Tennessee, the poor of Savannah, attest that
his greatest triumphs were those of persuasion. And in
recalling the tones of that melodious voice, whose words
were thus works, one is tempted to think that Force, in
eloquence, is the mailed giant of the feudal age, who,
assailing under a storm of missiles the fortress of his
adversary, makes the tough gates shiver under the
furiously rapid strokes of his battle-axe, and enters as
a victor ; while Persuasion, " with his garland and singing-
robes about him," speaks the magical word which makes
the gates fly open of their own accord, and enters as a
guest.
It is but just, gentlemen, that our lamented President,
the source of so many eulogies, should now be their
therrfe ; that his joy in recognizing eminency in others
should be met by a glad and universal recognition of it in
himself. And, certainly, that spotless private and dis
tinguished public life could have closed at no period when
the heart of the whole loyal nation was more eager to
admire the genius of the orator, and sound the praises
of the patriot, and laud the virtues of the man, than on
the day when his mortal frame, beautiful in life and
beautiful in death, was followed by that long procession
of bereaved citizens, through those mourning streets, to
that consecrated grave !
THE THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 227
Bishop Eastburn said :
I ask the indulgence of my fellow-members of the Club
for a few moments, while I add. to the eloquent words
that have been spoken, my own humble tribute to the
memory of our late illustrious President. Mr. Everett
was kind enough once to say to me, that he wished I
would sometimes offer something, at these meetings, as
a contribution towards the instruction of those who should
be present. My reply to him was, that, surrounded as I
always found myself here by so much science and wisdom,
I felt disposed rather to sit as a silent listener ; and I can
not help a solemn and tender feeling in the reflection, that
when now, for the first time, I am complying with his
request, it is to utter a few words of remembrance over
his recently opened grave.
I beg to call your attention, gentlemen, in the few
words I shall say, to one or two points in Mr. Everett s
illustrious career which have not been dwelt upon by the
speakers who have just addressed us, and which seem
to me to present him in an aspect eminently worthy of
study by the rising youth of this nation.
I very often thought, during the life of our distinguished
President, and have thought more especially since his
death, of the shining example he has set of the assiduous
cultivation of classical learning, as the chief ingredient
in efficient education, and as the great means of giving
superior abilities a commanding influence over men. It
was this that gave the charm to Mr. Everett s oratory, and
carried home with power his advocacy, as a statesman, of
228 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
public measures, and his addresses in behalf of those
efforts for the relief of suffering humanity to which he
devoted the closing years of his life. He seemed to enter
fully into those views of the advantage of classical pur
suits put forth by the great Sir Robert Peel, in a discourse
delivered by him on being installed as Lord Hector of the
University of Glasgow, and which I remember reading
many years ago, where he speaks of the benefits of
classical, as distinguished from mere mathematical train
ing ; and shows the tendency- of the latter to narrow the
mind, and to indispose it, in regard to a certain class of
subjects, to receive any other than a species of evidence
of which these subjects are not susceptible. But, besides
this. Sir Robert exhibited, in a striking manner, the in
estimable value of the study of the great masters, by a
review of the course of Cicero, whose wonderful oratory
received its perfection, and its power of swaying men?
from his cultivation of the great models of Grecian poetry
and eloquence. Now Mr. Everett, as I have said, is a
great example in this respect, and ought to be held up as
such before the young men of this land. And, if he shall
be generally followed, we shall hear less, in the pulpit,
on the platform, and on deliberative floors, of that rant
and bombast which pass with some for eloquence, but
which are as offensive to good taste as they are barren of
effect. Mr. Bullock, in his address at Faneuil Hall on
the day before the funeral of our departed President,
dwelt with great force and eloquence upon this way in
which Mr. Everett trained himself for influence, show
ing that his classical finish was not something standing by
THE THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 229
itself, and apart from his distinction as a statesman, but
was the main element in creating that distinction, and in
giving him the power which he possessed in his signal
public career. And, gentlemen, who has not felt the
control exerted by his brilliant, yet restrained, chastened,
and simple diction? His oratory, sparkling with orna
ment as it was, was at the same time a perfect specimen
of the simplex munditiis. So that, whenever we heard
him, it was like looking at some noble Grecian temple,
in the presence of which the eye is not distracted hither
and thither by tawdry and vulgar details, but takes in at
once the exquisite whole, and is charmed with the beauty
of its architectural lines, and the fair symmetry of its pro
portions.
But, before I sit down, allow me to detain you for a few
moments longer by reminding you of another feature of
Mr. Everett s career, which ought to be impressed on the
youth of this country. I refer to the fact, that this great
man achieved his triumphs, and produced the results
which we have witnessed, by a life of constant and
laborious industry. He eminently taught by his example,
that they who would either attain eminence, or, what is
infinitely more important, would urge mankind onward
to noble purposes, must not rely upon the native genius
with which God has gifted them, but must discipline their
faculties by unremitted labor. My first sight of Mr.
Everett was forty-three years ago, when, in 1822, he came
to New York to deliver the Sermon at the opening of a
place of worship of his denomination. I had not then
entered on my own professional course ; and, with the
230 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
curiosity and enthusiasm of a youth desirous of getting a
near sight of so eminent a man, for even then he was
eminent, although but twenty-eight years of age, I took
a position, after the service was over, in the porch, in
order that I might study his countenance as he passed out
into the street; and, as he walked by me with his slen
der form, in gown and band, with his curling auburn hair,
and his fine contour of head and features, I thought him
the most attractive specimen of radiant classical beauty I
had ever beheld in my life. Now, gentlemen, many of us
have been witnesses of his course from that morning of
his life down to its recent close. And what has this
course been ] Has it been an indolent resting upon the
consciousness of great natural endowments ] No. Has
it been a course marked by fitful and impulsive resort to
study? No. It has been a life of unintermitted labor
of continual storing of the mind of daily addition to
that wealth of resources which was to be the instrument
of power. I have touched upon this feature of Mr.
Everett s distinguished life, because, as I have already
observed, I think it should be placed distinctly before the
young men of this country ; showing them for their in
struction, that influence, and consequent usefulness,
come not from intellect alone, however marvellous, but
from intellect disciplined, regulated, and made efficient,
by the toil which scorns delights, and lives laborious
days/
I thank you for the permission to present these thoughts
to your attention ; for I felt that I could not refrain from
adding my humble tribute to this remarkable man,- here
THE THURSDAY-EVENING CLUB. 231
in one of those assemblies which he has so often adorned
with his presence, and charmed with the contributions of
his eloquent lips.
Dr. A. A. Gould said : -
I am sure that each one of us here associated must feel
thankful to the gentlemen who have so faithfully and
gratefully delineated the exalted character of our late
President, and especially as they recall to us his interest
in our meetings, and the many contributions he himself
made for our entertainment and edification. The break
ing out of the rebellion bore so heavily on his health and
spirits, that he expressed some misgivings as to his ability
to meet with us, and even as to the judiciousness of con
tinuing the meetings of the Club. At the preliminary
meeting this year, however, he seemed quite enthusiastic
in view of our coming entertainments ; and you will all
of you attest to the peculiar geniality with which he
opened our winter s gatherings at his own house.
I venture to propose, what I have no doubt will find an
affirmative response from every one, that the gentlemen
who have addressed us be requested to furnish copies of
their remarks, to be transmitted to the family of our late
President, as a testimonial, from the members of this
Club, of their deep sense of indebtedness to him for his
countenance, and his numerous instructive and entertain
ing contributions at their meetings, as well as of his
exalted private worth and public eminence.
PROCEEDINGS
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY.
I Library.
Of
Calif,
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL
SOCIETY.
A special meeting of the Board of Directors of the New England
Historic-Genealogical Society was held on Tuesday afternoon,
January 17, 1865, to take notice of the death of the Hon. Edward
Everett, a member of the Society from the year of its organization.
William B. Towne was called to the chair, and William Keed
Deane was appointed secretary pro tempore.
John H. Sheppard, the librarian, introduced the subject by these
remarks :
THE sudden death of the Hon. Edward Everett has
called us together not merely to testify our deep sorrow
for the loss of a most influential and honored member of
our Society, but, with other numerous institutions, to offer
our humble tribute of respect to the memory of a very
eminent man of our common country. A great light has
gone down in our political heavens ; a star of the first
magnitude, admired at home and among foreign nations,
whose brilliant rays of science and eloquence have adorned
this Western Hemisphere and made a luminous path, has
set forever. Our nation has met with an irreparable loss,
and particularly in these dark days and troublous times of
236 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
an unholy rebellion, when hiS counsels and voice are so
much needed. His death has cast a gloorn over society
through the length and breadth of the land. It will be
felt in the Cabinet, in the national and legislative halls, on
the battle-field, and everywhere ; for his eloquence was
everywhere heard, as it were, on the wings of the press,
speaking with the voice of one going about to do good ;
and in no place will his death be more lamented than in
a sister city, to relieve which the very last hours of his
exceedingly busy and energetic life were devoted ; yes, the
tears of Savannah will gush forth at the sad news.
Mr. Everett has left us a striking example that old age
does not necessarily impair the intellectual powers, when
they have been vigorously kept in exercise. In his seventy-
first year, his talents were bright and active as ever, and
his judgment and imagination retained the full power of
his earlier days. Pie was, indeed, in se ipso totus, teres atque
rotundus ; there was a wholeness, a polish, and a round
ness in his character, wherein all the rough edges and
sharp angles so often met with, even among distinguished
men, were softened into a pleasing smoothness. On this
melancholy occasion we can only present a few resolu
tions, echoing the words of universal sorrow ; and though
they cannot add to the fame of the illustrious dead, yet
they may evince our grief and sympathy.
Mr. Sheppard then offered the following resolutions : -
Resolved, That, in the death of Hon. Edward Everett, this
Society, of which he was a resident member for nineteen
years, deplores a great loss.
NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 237
Resolved, That, in his death, literature and science are
called to mourn the departure of a very distinguished
scholar and accomplished writer, whose purity and ele
gance of taste, richness of imagination, affluence of lan
guage, and flowing, fascinating style, would, without any
other mark of distinction or celebrity, have made him
an honor and an ornament to our country.
Resolved^ That, in his death, the voice of a most eloquent
man is silent, a voice which left no superior, if, indeed,
it did an equal in this land, and which was ever exerted in
the cause of all that is good or excellent, pertaining to a
nation s welfare.
Resolved^ That, in the death of this statesman and pa
triot, the whole nation has reason to weep and lament ; for
his exalted love of the Union gave to his voice and
counsels a peculiar importance in the present great strug
gle to preserve our nationality from destruction.
Resolved^ That, in his death, we deplore the loss of a
citizen of most exemplary virtues, indefatigable industry,
and faithful adherence to those noble principles of justice
and honor, from the prevalence only of which a nation
can become great and glorious.
Resolved) That we respectfully tender our sympathies to
the bereaved family.
Resolved) That, in testimony of our veneration of the
memory of the deceased, we will attend his funeral on
Thursday next ; and also, that a copy of these Resolutions
be presented to his family.
238 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
After remarks by Samuel G. Drake, Rev. Ellas Nason, John
H. Sheppard, Frederic Kidder, John Ward Dean, William B.
Trask, William Reed Deane, and the presiding officer, the Resolu
tions were unanimously adopted.
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUA
RIAN SOCIETY,
AT A SPECIAL MEETING HELD AT WORCESTER, JAN. 17, 18G5.
The members having been notified of the death of their former
President, Hon. Edward Everett, assembled in their Hall at two
o clock, P. M. Hon. Stephen Salisbury, the President, occupied
the chair. On account of the illness of Hon. Levi Lincoln, whose
relations with Mr. Everett had been many and important, the
meeting was adjourned to Governor Lincoln s residence. After call
ing the Society to order the President spoke as follows :
BRETHREN OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY :
While the voices of our people express their sorrow
and deep concern that one of our most exalted citizens,
who swayed the opinions and destiny of our country from
a sphere above the distractions of political life and the
envious assaults with which public office is infested, I
have invited you to assemble here, not to forget your
duties and interests as citizens, but to remember that this
little company of students of history and antiquarian lore
have los,t their honored Ex-President, Edward Everett,
the associate who had the greatest present ability to pro
mote the objects of your association. The eloquence
31
242 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
that honored the obsequies of the Nestor of your Society,
the Hon. Josiah Quincy, still reechoes in your printed
proceedings, meeting a cordial reception wherever learn
ing, virtue, and a laborious, conscientious, and beneficent
life are held in honor. He stood among us in the majesty
and gathered wisdom of 94 years, and his wise counsels
faltered on his lips when he heard the summons for which
he waited and hastened away. And now a second time
the solemn warning of Providence has addressed this Soci
ety, and from the clear sky in which no threatening cloud
was apparent, another distinguished leader of this frater
nity has been struck down. The last act of his life was
to plant sweet Christian charity among the sufferings and
crimes of wicked and treacherous rebellion, and this effort
is a possible cause of his sudden, and, as we in our igno
rance and impatience are prone to say, his untimely de
parture. Let us rather repeat the familiar words of the
old Roman, that " he was not more happy in the glory of
his life than in the occasion of his death." But I will
not detain you with my own unsatisfactory words from
the utterance of thoughts more worthy of your own feel
ings and of the occasion. In my desire to forward the
deliberations of the hour, I will venture to offer the fol
lowing resolutions :
The American Antiquarian Society, being convened to
take notice of the sudden death of their honored Ex-Presi
dent, Edward Everett, LL. D., who was for nine years
Secretary for foreign Correspondence, and after v^ards for
twelve years the President, it was thereupon
Resolved, That we deeply sympathize in the universal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 243
grief of our country, that a patriot has been taken away
in the fullest strength and glory of his beneficent service,
and his mantle is *not seen to fall on any successor.
Resolved., That with our lamentations for a great public
loss, we will gratefully consider the noble works which
he has recently performed in the defence of our govern
ment and our national privileges ; in the vindication of
the right and the safety of free institutions, and in the
thrice repeated lessons of charity and Christian forgive
ness, enforced by his own unequalled and persuasive
example.
Resolved, That we will embalm with the odor of our
exalted praise the memory of an orator who always car
ried his admiring listeners to higher and happier planes
of thought ; a scholar of incessant and unwearied labor,
who brought up his deep-sought treasures with a fitness
and polish that adapted them to the handling and uses of
common life, and a man who exercised his great powers
for useful ends with a kind and cautious prudence and
constant regard for Christian purity.
Resolved, That it is our privilege to offer a chaplet of
honor and fraternal grief at the tomb of our Ex-President,
who gave to this Society the advantage of the highest
official relations for twenty-one years, and has since been
a fellow-worker by his constant contributions, and espe
cially by his frequent and successful pursuit of the objects
for which this association was formed.
Resolved, That we offer to the children of our respected
associate our sincere condolence, and commend them to
the highest Source of consolation.
244 MEMOKIAL OF EDWAED EVERETT.
Resolved, That as a Society, we will express our respect
by attending the funeral of Mr. Everett on Thursday the
19th instant.
Resolved, That the President of this Society is requested
to transmit a copy of the -above resolutions to the family
of our deceased associate.
The resolutions having been seconded by Rev. Seth Sweetser,
D.D., the chair was addressed by Dr. Sweetser, Rev. Dr. Alonzo
Hill, Hon. Isaac Davis, Hon. Ira M. Barton, Hon. Levi Lincoln,
and Hon. Henry Chapin ; after which the resolutions were unani
mously adopted.
Rev. Dr. Sweetser spoke in substance as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT: It seems hardly fitting that I should
occupy a moment of the time of this meeting. My rela
tions with the distinguished ex-president of this Society
were not such as to justify it. It has not been my privi
lege to come within the circle of his friendship, or to
be associated with him, as others here present have been,
in public services. It would be presumptuous in me to
speak of a personal acquaintance with Mr. Everett. And
yet, sir, in common with the multitude of his friends, I
have felt an admiration for his character and attainments.
Since the intelligence of his sudden death reached and
saddened us, my thoughts have been carried back to the
period of my first knowledge of him. At the time of
my entering college he occupied the chair of Greek Liter
ature in Harvard University, and I well remember the
enthusiasm which he kindled, and the admiration with
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 245
which he inspired those who listened to him, and how his
lecture-room was thronged ; and I remember also what
deep regret w r as felt by the whole college at his with
drawal from the Professorship, which took place soon
after.
We were young and not fitted to appreciate the capacity
of such a mind, or to measure the fulness and richness,
of his classical culture, or the beauty and art with which
he displayed the intellectual and literary treasures of
that land of beauty and art which, to this day, has never
found a rival.
It was the universal feeling that the department and
the college" itself had lost the service of one who, by his
varied attainments and scholarship, was eminently fitted
to elevate the tone of classical learning, and inspire an
interest in the literature of Greece. The regret was
general, and I cannot refrain from saying, that with me
it has never ceased. But, sir, though removed to the stir
and agitating scenes of public life, his eminent abilities
were not lost. I will not speak of his services in the
important positions which he has occupied in the State
and the Nation. There are other gentlemen here who
are better able to do that than I am. I will speak only
of his scholarship.
He was always a scholar. He was a student in the
fullest sense of the word. He never failed in his allegi
ance to scholarship. Under all circumstances he exhib
ited the same purity and richness, the same grace and
elegance. Everything he did was done in the spirit and
tone of a true scholarship. Whether he addressed the
246 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
senate or the popular assembly, or spoke in associations
of literary and scientific men, or in the courts of law,
there was the same completeness and accuracy. What
ever was possible to diligence and assiduous culture he
attained. Whatever could be accumulated, by persistent
research he acquired.
We have not been in the habit of looking upon Mr.
Everett as possessing that boldness and force which push
out beyond the ordinary range of thought ; we have not
classed him with the minds which extend the boundaries
of human knowledge. He was not of that adventurous
wing which shoots up above the flight and sight of other
men. But if he had not these qualities he had what is
perhaps more worthy of honor and admiration. He had
the power of acquiring and accumulating, the faculty
of retaining, arranging, and using, whatever could be
gathered up by unwearied and diversified study. He was
everything that labor and severe training, and the unfal
tering pursuit of his object could make him.
Some years since Mr. Everett was invited, as gentle
men in his position frequently are, to address the Massa
chusetts Bible Society at an anniversary meeting in Boston.
I heard him on that occasion. He spoke from the plat
form as other gentlemen did, connecting his remarks with
those of previous speakers, giving the usual appearance
of extemporaneousness to his address.
A friend asked him for his notes, and his manuscript
was, I apprehend, an index to all his performances. It
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 247
was carefully written and elaborated ; words were selected
with great skill and discrimination ; some were erased and
others inserted in their stead ; and this exactness in the
choice of language, in some instances, was carried to the
fourth and fifth erasure. This was one of the sources of
his success. He never trusted to the uncertainty of hasty
unpremeditated utterances. * He finished and perfected
with accuracy and the most" studious art. He spared no
toil or pains in preparation. He always knew his subject,
his audience, and the occasion. It was in this way that
he was so successful as a public speaker. The rich stores
of his classical reading and the treasures of literature and
science were at his disposal. His wide cultivation, and
the perfection of his exercise in speech, enabled him to
express in the most persuasive and eloquent form the
instructions he imparted.
Now that he is no more with us, as we recall his
genius, his acquisitions, his diligence, we look back upon
him as furnishing to us and coming generations an unsur
passed model in the art of eloquence.
This Society, as an association of scholars, the univer
sity which nurtured him, all lovers of good learning, the
whole republic of letters, the Commonwealth which gave
him birth, and which he so nobly served, and the whole
country, owe to him a debt of honor and of gratitude.
He has been suddenly taken from us. It is not for us
to question the propriety of the time of his departure ;
but for this we have occasion to be thankful, that he was
not taken until he had rendered a service to his country
in its great perils which endears him to the heart of every
248 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
true lover of the Union, and which will prove the freshest
and most enduring brightness in the chaplet of his future
renown.
Eev. Dr. Hill said : -
MR. PRESIDENT : Since the death of Mr. Adams in the
rotunda of our Capitol, in Washington, seventeen years
ago, no event has produced -so profound a sensation as
the sudden demise of the revered ex-president of this
Society. When Mr. Webster died he had lingered ; and
his death was not unexpected nor unprepared for. But
Mr. Everett passed in a moment from the midst of the
activities of life, while his mind was teeming with mighty
projects of usefulness, while his last noble speech in
behalf of forgiveness and charity and the pacification of
the country, was still throbbing on the telegraph wires
and thrilling the heart of a continent.
I did not know him intimately, perhaps few did.
But my memory goes far back in his personal history ; I
have followed him with admiration and been held captive
by the power of his soft persuasion, with thousands of
others, to the last. I have heard him in the pulpit ; and
his youthful figure, cut with classical elegance and set
forth with the high polish of art, as he stood in the desk
of the college chapel, is still before me ; and whole pas
sages of his sermons on those occasions, fascinating with
their splendid rhetoric and pronounced with inimitable
grace of utterance, are still fresh in my recollection. I
was among the privileged few who heard his brilliant
course of lectures on Greek Literature on his return from
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 249
Athens, whose delivery marked for us a new era in our
mental history. I have listened to most, and have read
all of his more elaborate orations, delivered at different
periods, on almost every variety of subjects, and have
always come away from the hearing or the reading his
debtor. I have been present for several years at the
meetings of literary and benevolent associations of which
he was a member, and have noticed his fidelity, the
readiness with which he consecrated his great powers to
their welfare, and the intelligence and earnest devotion
with which he attended to the little details connected
with their prosperity. I wish to say a^few words here
as a grateful tribute to his memory.
Many years ago, when he was a very young man, he
was addressing an assembly of Boston merchants whom
he had invited to meet him at Faneuil Hall, and whom he
was endeavoring to persuade to purchase for the use of
Harvard College, a work of art, the Panorama of Athens,
I think it was, which had jusj arrived from Greece. He
was showing the value of art in a young community like
our own, and in the course of his argument put the
question into the mouth of his hearers, " What is it good
for VI shall never forget the force of manner and expres
sion which he threw into his reply, put also into the form
of a question, " What is anything good for except as it
refines and ennobles and brings out the divine in man ? "
Here we have the key-note which guided, the undertone
which sounded through his whole subsequent life. In all
his speeches, written and unwritten, in all the works that
he did through a period of fifty years, how have they
32
250 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
conspired for the uplifting and refining of our nature.
Point to the word, if you can, employed to disguise the
truth, or suggest the thought which one might not
breathe into the ears of saintly purity. Put your finger,
you cannot, upon the passage set round with the spears
and darts of detraction, serving to arouse a base passion
and to make us less humane. How many will you find,
all scattered through his living example and published
works, which are a noble appeal to our higher sentiments,
and make us love with a deeper sensibility whatever is
beautiful in nature and refined in life. Early moulded by
the models of Grecian art and culture, familiar with the
best thoughts and noblest sentiments of all ages, sparing
no labor to perfect what he undertook to say and do, he
poured forth his honeyed accents, lifted up, electrified, and
melted us by the gorgeous imagery and beautiful dra
pery with which he clothed his thought but touched us
the more deeply because of this undertone of high Chris
tian sentiment which breathed, and this coloring of Chris
tian faith and hope which glowed, through his best
productions.
How broad, how varied, were his accomplishments.
He seems to have studied every subject, and gone to its
depths. Head his lectures before the Mechanics , the Mer
cantile, and Library Associations, his addresses before
Agricultural Societies, and his debates in Congress. He
goes into the details of science, the theory of trade, the
methods of raising crops, and the ways of public policy,
as if each profession had been his especial pursuit and he
had devoted himself to nothing else. He shows a sur-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 251
prising familiarity with every department of knowledge,
and speaks of its practical w r orking as if he had been
engaged in the occupation all his life. But he does more
than this. He goes into the soul of the thing, and shows
how the mechanic and the merchant, the farmer and legis
lator, may transform their callings into liberal pursuits and
make them tributary to the individual growth and the
moral and spiritual elevation of the community.
So also in the refined integrity of his life, his sympathy
with the fine arts, and the devotion of his rich accomplish
ments to the ornament of the Republic, we see the same
great aim throughout. He was the friend of Canova,
and the intimate of some of the most gifted of the modern
poets. He was practised in modern languages so that he
could talk with the ambassadors at the court of St. James,
each in his own tongue. He had carefully studied in the
galleries of art, and in the associations in London com
manded, it is said, high respect for the accuracy of his
judgment and taste, and was an authority there among the
lovers of painting and sculpture. But here he was true too
to the early expressed purpose of his life. He was no
hermit. He did not keep his high gifts for his own uses
and enjoyment ; but spread them abroad, as a sweet fra
grance, for all who would receive them. No man was
summoned so often as he, to speak to his fellow- citizens
to interpret the meaning of great historical events and
mould them to the time ; and no mas. could do more to
make them memorable by the vividness of his imagina
tion and the affluence of his speech. Though he spoke
so often, to hear Mr. Everett was an era in one s life. 1 *
252 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Pictures were drawn upon the tablets of the heart, never
to be erased ; for with him eloquence was a divine
endowment, and must be used only to refine, elevate, and
perfect the soul of man.
For, as I have already intimated, I do not believe he
ever forgot his accountability for his great gifts, or relaxed
in his reverence for all that is Christian in belief and
spiritual in life and hope. He seemed to me to lean more
than most great men for personal guidance and support
on the influence of his traditionary faith. Early attracted
by the fascination and fervid friendship of young Buck-
minster, whose successor he was, at the unripe age of
nineteen, over the most influential congregation in Boston,
he never forgot his first love, nor wavered in his attach
ment to Christian institutions and the means of Christian
culture ; but through a varied experience at home and
abroad, under circumstances of great temptation, remained
true to his early convictions showing by the consistency
and integrity of his daily walk the depth of those convic
tions. When I have preached in the church in which he
worshipped, he was always there, forenoon and afternoon
devout, reverential, and bending his active and affluent
mind to a part in the services. He did not, 1 thought, oc
cupy his pew merely for example s sake ; but sat lowly, as
needing help like the rest of us composed in prayer,
and when the lesson of the day was read true also to
his scholarly habits, -following it in the Greek Testament,
which he kept by his side. This may seem a small mat
ter, but it means much. For when I remember how often
reat scholars, surrounded by their rich libraries, attract-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 253
ed by the fascination of letters, and borne on the tide of
popularity and abundant success, sufficient of themselves,
have been allured away from the highest objects of inter
est, I can honor the illustrious man, who remained stead
fast to the offices of the Church, and confessed his
need of ministrations which have been the guide and
solace of those who possessed no book but one ; minis
trations which have done so much for the good order,
moral and spiritual strength of New England, and made
her what she is. Mr. Everett was never seduced by his
classical studies nor the philosophies of the day from the
deeper philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, but by the
greatness of the contrast could all the more appreciate
the unrivalled beauty and grandeur of his simplest utter
ances ; and so when the cry of woe came up from the
bosom of those who had just now been our enemies, and
a plea must be made for forgiveness and charity, he found
no fitting language in heathen poet or orator but
repeated with a pathos and power which moved the vast
assembly who heard, the words in which the great apostle
has embodied the very soul of his Master, " If thine
enemy hunger feed him. If he thirst give him drink."
Eor the last time he spoke in the name and spirit of
Christ, and never had he spoken so persuasively.
But he has gone. In the silence of the night, before
the Sabbath dawned, the great soul, that never tired
before, went to its re*st. And you have done well, Mr.
President, in your admirable remarks, to quote in their
English dress the fitting words of Tacitus, with whom he
was so familiar "Felix non vitce tantum daritate sed
254 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
etiam opportunitate mortis. 1 " He is gone, the finished
sqholar, the consummate orator, the consistent Christian;
and he should sleep to-day, as Prescott, dying, expressed a
wish to do in his, in that magnificent library which has
been the scene of his vigils, his labors, and his successes.
To-day, lying in his sacred repose, he should be surround
ed by the noble array of scholars, artists, and poets, who,
having inspired him in life, might look down upon him
from the alcoves and walls of that library, in the stillness
of death. To-morrow, friends will tenderly bear him to
Mount Auburn, where his masters and early companions
have gone before, and where living scholars and a grate
ful people will go to mourn over and catch inspiration
from the foremost man that has been among us.
4t
Hon. Isaac Davis spoke thus :
MR. PRESIDENT : The sad and solemn dispensation of
Divine Providence, which has so suddenly removed from
earth to his eternal home one of the brightest ornaments
of our race, touches the sensibilities and awakens the
sympathies of scholars and statesmen, poets and orators,
patriots and freemen, of all who read or speak the
English tongue.
Scarcely has the tomb closed over the remains of one of
the most gifted sons of Massachusetts, who was a member
of this Society, when it again opens to receive a ripe
scholar, a distinguished orator, a devoted patriot and
Christian gentleman, who was for many years its Presi
dent.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 255
Few men of our country very few will fill so large
a space in the history of the nineteenth century as Edward
Everett. At the early age of seventeen he was graduated
at Harvard University with its highest honors ; and first
turning his attention to theology, became pastor of one
of the largest churches in Boston. The Professorship of
Greek Literature having been tendered to him by his
Alma Mater, with the privilege of visiting Europe to
qualify himself more fully for the office, he resigned his
pastorate at the age of twenty and repaired to the Uni
versity of Gottingen, where for two years he assiduously
pursued the studies connected with the duties of the new
office. He afterwards visited Greece and other parts of
Europe ; and returning to America at the age of twenty-
five entered upon the labors of his professorship. He
soon became editor of the North American Review,
which under his care attained to its highest reputation
and widest circulation ; while his lectures on Greek lit
erature and art gave him great distinction as a profound
and finished scholar. In 1824, before the Phi Beta
Kappa Society of the University, he commenced that
series of public addresses on various subjects which have
given him such an exalted fame as an orator. He was
elected to Congress by the unsolicited votes of the citi
zens of Middlesex in the same year ; and for ten years
was a working member, prominent among the distin
guished men, of that body. He retired from Congress,
and for four successive years was elected Governor of
Massachusetts. In 1841, he was appointed Minister to
the Court of St. James, where he remained four years.
256 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
While in England his accomplishments became known to
statesmen and scholars. They were recognized by the
Universities of Cambridge and Oxford ; each conferring
upon him the honorary degree of D. C. L., a distinction
which, I believe, had been conferred by them on no other
American citizen. In 1846, he was chosen President of
Harvard University, and devoted himself to the discharge
of the delicate and responsible duties of that office till his
resignation in 1849. On the death of Mr. Webster he
was appointed Secretary of State of the United States.
On a change of Administration he took his seat in the
Senate of the United States as successor to Hon. John
Davis, who had succeeded him as President of this Soci
ety. In 1854, he was compelled by the state of his
health to retire to private life. In his orations on the
life and character of Washington subsequently delivered,
he faithfully and eloquently warned the citizens of the
Eepublic against secession or disunion and all their at
tendant consequences.
These are some of the incidents in the life of this great
man. Edward Everett is dead ; but the influence of his
genius and industry will live in all coming generations till
the last succession of earth s inhabitants.
Judge Barton said :
I desire Mr. President, merely to allude to my early
recollections of Mr. Everett, as illustrating the justness of
the remarks of the llev. Drs. Sweetser and Hill, as to his
prominent characteristics as a scholar and a man. Those
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 257
recollections are amongst my most cherished memories,
running back to the year 1820, when I entered the Law
School of Harvard University.
Mr. Everett had then just returned from his foreign
travels, and a residence at one of the German Universities,
preparatory to entering upon his duties as Professor of
Greek literature. He had previously ministered with
great distinction in the Brattle Street Church, Boston; and
I first saw him as the officiating clergyman in the College
Chapel at Cambridge. It was said to be his first appear
ance there after his return home. And now, after a lapse
of more than forty years, it may be of some interest to note,
that the text from which he discoursed was the familiar
and beautiful scripture, " The lines have fallen unto us
in pleasant places," &c. The discourse demonstrated,
that while his taste had received the highest culture,
his love for his country had not, as is sometimes the case,
been impaired by absence from it.
The lectures of Mr. Everett on Greek literature, and of
Professor Ticknor on Spanish and French literature, were
in progress ; and by a wise regulation of the College, the
members of the Law School, as resident graduates, were
allowed to attend them. They were of the purest models
of English composition ; and those who failed to improve
from such exemplars, must have been wanting either in
taste or attention.
Mr. Everett, though then a young man, but two or
three years my senior, had already acquired a literary dis
tinction sufficient to satisfy the ordinary aspiration of
scholars, as a reward for the literary labors of a whole
33
258 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
life. Nevertheless, he continued to be a most diligent
student. By a pleasant and noteworthy coincidence, he
had for his study one of the spacious drawing rooms of
the Craigie House, occupied by General Washington,
while in Cambridge, as his Head-Quarters. Decorated
with a large painting of the Colosseum at Rome, and
other illustrations of aifcient works of art. When he
came from his study, Mr. Everett was always prepared
for the occasion on which he was to appear, whether
before the. students or the public. He never trusted to
the inspiration of the moment for his thoughts or words.
And yet his performances never appeared finical nor con
strained. He had thus early acquired that most desirable
literary accomplishment, " the art of concealing art."
We all know the great care and labor he bestowed on his
public literary performances in after life, as graphically
described by Dr. Sweetser. Yet his auditors would never
suspect the facf ; but would take all he eloquently said as
the instant promptings of his subject and the occasion.
The studious and somewhat retired habits of Mr.
Everett, and perhaps his superior position amongst his
fellows, sometimes led to the remark that he was unsocial
in his feelings. If by that was meant that he was cour
teous and dignified in his manners, and that he had little
time or taste for mere commonplace conversation, such
remark had the semblance of truth. But if anything
more was meant, the assertion was the reverse of the
truth.
At the period referred to, there was a club of junior
officers of the College and resident graduates, for irn-
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 259
provement in elocution, and to socialize the young men,
many of whom came together as strangers from different
parts of the country. Mr. Everett was the originator and
inspiring genius of the Association. On one occasion he
recited, with amusing effect, the humorous dialogue found
in the schoolbooks of the day, between three travellers,
on the color of the chameleon :
" Oft has it been my lot to mark
A proud, conceited, talking spark,
Returning -from his finished tour," &c.
The circumstance of his own recent return from a four
or five years tour, with his effective recital of the dia
logue, put the Association on very good terms with the
speaker, and with each other. And I am not aware that
any one afterwards imputed to our distinguished associate
any improper reserve or austerity of manners.
With extraordinary natural talents, and such habits of
study, added to a fine person and melodious voice, the
friends of Mr. Everett might safely predict for him a
successful and brilliant literary career. They were not
disappointed. He soon became the learned man of the
country. To say nothing of his public services, properly
so called, by his connection and cooperation with numer
ous religious, charitable, and literary institutions, at home
and abroad, he conferred upon his country an honor,
equalled only by the distinction he secured to himself.
It was a wise choice when Mr. Everett was elected the
presiding officer of this Society. For though not devoted
to American antiquities as a specialty, he was distin-
260 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
guished for his antiquarian knowledge, as it related to
both the old and the new world. And he brought to our
aid, not merely his great reputation as a general scholar,
but much learning appropriate to our peculiar department
of literature.
Mr. President, one reason for the success of Mr.
Everett in performing the duties of life, should not be
forgotten. It was his early education in Christian theol
ogy. Small and unprincipled men, for their own selfish
purposes, sometimes attempted his disparagement, by
reflecting upon his original profession as a clergyman.
But with men of better minds, it was a ground for their
respect and confidence. And while the best friends of
Mr. Everett would not claim for him what is more than
human, an entire immunity from errors of judgment,
they may safely challenge the proof of an act of his life,
in violation of the principles of Christian ethics, which
he always and everywhere eloquently taught to others.
The controlling influence of religious and Christian
motives in the case of Mr. Everett, has been strikingly
manifested in the last years of his life. What but such
motives could induce the gerat labor of saving and dedi
cating to the memory of the father of his country, that
most befitting monument, the acres he so much cherished
in life at Mount Vernon ? What but such motives could
so deeply move his sympathies for his suffering country
men of East Tennessee 1 And what motives but those
flowing from a Christian faith, strong enough to inspire
the eloquent lips of a dying man, to plead for the suffer
ers of Savannah 1 Thus, cementing with a charity that
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 261
never faileth, the Union restored by our victorious arms f
and illustrating the brave and beautiful sentiment uttered
by Mr. Everett while yet a young man, that " nothing is
too great to be done which is founded on truth and
justice, and which is pursued with the meek and gentle
spirit of Christian love." *
Hon. Levi Lincoln spoke as follows :
MR. PRESIDENT : The startling announcement of the
death of the Hon. Edward Everett has occasioned
a shock to this community, from which those who have
known him long and well have not yet been able to
recover the calmness of entire self-possession. To such
as were his seniors in years, and have, at any time, been
the companions "of his social hours, or his associates in
offices of public service, the event comes with impressive
admonition of the limitation of all human powers, and the
transitoriness of opportunities for earthly usefulness and
distinction. But a few days since, I met him, as an
associate in the presidential electoral college of Massa
chusetts, at that time strong at least in his usual health,
earnest as ever in patriotic duty, confident in anticipation
of triumph and glory to the struggling nation, and
buoyant with the hope that he should himself live to
rejoice in the restored Union of the states, and the uni
versal freedom, peace, and prosperity of the people.
Never was he more genial in himself, or more interest
ing and instructive to others, than after the labors of
* Speech at Washington in 1832, on the colonization and civilization of Africa.
262 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the day, at the festive board which his own generous
hospitality had spread. And now, the seal of the trans
mitted record of his official action, on that occasion, is not
yet broken, at the seat of government, and he who was
placed in honor at the head of the electoral body is no
more of earth. So pass away the venerated and the
loved from the scenes of their loftiest labors.
The character of Gov. Everett is not to be portrayed
with thoughtless haste, or judged by the superficial views
which the mere remembrance of brilliant qualities may
present. With the richest intellectual endowment,
extraordinary mental cultivation, and great aptitude for
communication, he united a persistent labor in acquisi
tion, a clearness of perception, a power of analysis and
concentration, a profoundness of thought, and a consider
ate judgment, which constituted in his person, a com
bination of virtues and graces, rarely if ever excelled.
His early life was that of a scholar and a thinker, his
mature years were a continued harvest of the treasures of
learning and wisdom, which time and study and experi
ence garnered up. It will be the grateful office of some
gifted biographer to present the life of Gov. Everett in
all its attractiveness of erudite knowledge, scientific
accomplishment, and forensic capability, with a power
of reasoning most persuasive, and an eloquence captivat
ing and irresistible.
But it is of Gov. Everett in the relations to the offices
of public employment and trust which he sustained and
adorned, that it rather becomes me to speak. It has
fallen to the lot of few men to fill so many and such
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 263
varied appointments of confidence and high responsibility.
His whole life was almost an unbroken public service.
The ministry to which he was first ordained, was but a
school of moral and Christian instruction and edification
to others. In the university, whether as Professor or
President, he became the educator of the rising genera
tion in the principles and virtues which are alike the founda
tion and the supports of a republican form of government.
In deliberative assemblies and the councils of state, his
eminent capacity and peculiar versatility and adaptation of
talent commended him to frequent demands for official
service, and he filled successively with distinguished
ability and conscientious fidelity, alike to his own great
honor and the approval of the country, the offices of
Representative in Congress, Governor of Massachusetts,
Secretary of State of the United States, and United States
Senator. As minister to England, he sustained the dignity
and vindicated the rights of the nation, and happily
maintained, with signal success, its interest and its honor
intact, and unimpaired by the arts and designs of an
adverse diplomacy. And yet more recently, in this last
great struggle for very existence, into which our once
united and prosperous country has been most wickedly
and deplorably plunged by plotting treason and flagrant
rebellion, who more loyally patriotic; who more effi
ciently active and influential in support of the Govern
ment and in defence of the Republic than Edward
Everett] It may not be doubted that his words of
wondrous eloquence will do much, where even the mis
siles of war would be unheeded, to disabuse prejudice
264 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
and disarm hostility in the rebel states. The Mount
Vernon fund, and the contributions to the relief of the
Tennessee refugees, emphatically and almost exclusively
collections of his unsurpassed sympathy and generosity
and the persistent influence of a noble heart, with his
last stirring utterances in aid of the beneficence of his
fellow-citizens to the famishing people of repentant Sa
vannah, proclaim him foremost among the benefactors of
his country and the age.
I will not even attempt, Mr. President, to fill in the
altogether too imperfect and hasty outline which I have
sketched of the public services of this illustrious Ameri
can citizen. His long life has been a blessing to man
kind. The civilized world will deplore his death. His
name and fame will be immortal.
Hon. Henry Chapin made the following remarks :
MR. PRESIDENT: It is eminently appropriate that the
members of this Society should pay their tribute of respect
to their late distinguished associate, and former president.
By his pure life, his ripe scholarship, his varied acquire
ments, and his peculiar oratorical power, he reflected honor
upon every association with which he was connected. In
all these relations may be most appropriately applied to
him the compliment once given to another, " Nullum quod
tetigit non ornavit"
In certain respects Edward Everett was a very remark
able man. His classic head and face, his elegant form,
his singularly musical voice, his purity and strength of
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 265
diction and his unsurpassed eloquence of speech will not
be soon forgotten by any who have had the privilege to
observe them. I never enjoyed the pleasure of his per
sonal acquaintance. Indeed the idea of seeking it never
occurred to me, but I looked upon his grace of action,
and drank in his eloquent utterances, with unabated inter
est and constant admiration. On all occasions he was a
gentleman, and at all times he bore himself with a quiet
dignity, which was always fit and appropriate. A scholar?
an orator, a patriot, and a Christian, he has filled a place in
the country which no man now living can fill, and he will
long be remembered by those who have listened to his
words as one of the best models of scholarly eloquence
and beautiful thoughts.
An instance of the effect of one of his masterly appeals
will never be forgotten by me. It was on the occasion of
the reception of the representatives of the Sacs and
Foxes at Faneuil Hall. The Hall was filled to its utmost
capacity, and many of course were excluded from entering
it. Upon the arrival of the red men, the audience seemed
moved as by some invisible demon of tumult and confu
sion. It swayed frightfully in every direction. The offi
cers of the law seemed to exert themselves in vain, and
every one who was in a position to observe the surging
mass looked upon it with feelings of anxiety, if not of
dismay. In the midst of the tumult, Gov. Everett arose
upon the platform, and his clear sweet voice sounded
through the Hall with a magical and resistless power.
Said he, " Gentlemen, suffer me to make an appeal to
you." The rest of his language I am unable to recall,
266 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
but in words firm, tender, and persuasive, he spoke of
these untutored children of the forest, coming to the land
of civilization and refinement, and he besought his fel
low citizens so to demean themselves, that those who had
never enjoyed the blessings and privileges which we
enjoy, should carry home with them an exalted idea of
their beneficent and purifying influence. Before he had
half completed his remarks, the tumult had subsided, and
at the close of his appeal that mass of human beings stood
as quiet and still as the marble statues by his side.
I never before nor since beheld a more wonderful exhi
bition of the power of the human voice, and I remember
no speech of his which to me was more eloquent or
effective.
At times the speeches and writings of Mr. Everett, beauti
ful, eloquent, and polished though they are, often failed to
reach the hearts of his hearers. The fault, perhaps, was
either in his temperament, or in his cautious views upon the
topics of the day, which at times almost gave the impres
sion that he lacked depth of conviction. He was naturally
timid and distrustful of change. He was the eloquent
outgrowth of an age of compromise and expediency, and
he presented all there was of that age to respect, in its
most beautiful and attractive form. He revered the past,
but distrusted the future. He believed in facts, but lacked
faith in the power of ideas. He honored precedents, but
doubted theories. He seemed at times almost to rever
ence expediency at tlie expense of absolute right. He
was the eloquent expositor of the past, the beautiful delin
eator of the present, but he was not the bold prophet of
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY. 267
the future. Hence during the vigor of his life, impressed
with an honest fear of evils to come, he seemed to throw
his transcendent talents in the way of progress and reform,
until he was almost crushed beneath their advancing tread,
and the lovers of liberty and right had almost come to
look upon him as an enemy to freedom and humanity.
Blessed be God, the veil lifted at last from his vision.
The first gun which was fired at Fort Sumter drove the
warm blood to his heart ; with true manliness and mag
nanimity he declared that he had been mistaken, and he
girded himself for the conflict. No service during these
years of war has been shunned, no duty has been neglect
ed by him. Throwing both head and heart into the
great struggle for free institutions, he has redeemed him
self in the minds and hearts of his contemporaries, he
has demonstrated to the world his integrity and patriot
ism, and he has placed his name high on the scroll of the
friends of the country, and the defenders of the rights of
man. He died at the zenith of his true fame, his last
days were his best, and the tears of a grateful people do
justice to his memory and to his great and patriotic
services.
MEMORIAL SERVICES
AT THE
EVERETT SCHOOL.
MEMORIAL SERVICES AT THE EVERETT
SCHOOL.
ON the morning of Saturday, January 21, 1865, at nine o clock,
the scholars of the Everett School were assembled in the spacious
hall of the Schoolhouse, on Northampton Street. The Committee
of the School were present, and a large number of the parents of
the children. The Master of the School, Mr. George B. Hyde,
commenced the exercises by reading appropriate selections from the
Scriptures. Prayer was offered by Rev. Robert C. Waterston,
after which a hymn was sung by the members of the first class.
Alden Speare, Esq. Chairman of the Sub-Committee, then
stated the purposes of the present gathering, setting forth the loss
this school had sustained in the death of Mr. Everett, and the mul
titude of reasons which impelled us to pay respect to his memory.
He closed by introducing Frederic F. Thayer, Esq. who, as
Chairman of the Sub-Committee of the School for the year 1860,
was familiar with all the circumstances connected with the naming
and the dedication of the Schoolhouse.
Mr. Thayer spoke as follows :
MR. CHAIRMAN : When, yesterday, I received your
kind invitation to be present here this morning, and to
272 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
say a few words, I confess to mingled emotions of grati
tude for the compliment of the invitation ; and of con
scious inability to say anything worthy of the occasion.
But inasmuch as here I am not a stranger, and lest my
silence might be construed to indicate a diminution of
interest in this School, or an indifference to the occasion,
I shall venture to occupy a few moments of the hour,
set apart for this sad memorial service.
We have reached the last day of a week of mourning.
On its first morning, when all the Christian world was
preparing for the quiet of another Sabbath, the foremost
man among us was called from the turmoils and excite
ments of earth to his everlasting rest. From the crowd
who were accustomed to go to the house of God in com
pany, one was missing ; our hope and our faith prompt
the suggestion, that another had joined the society of
" the spirits of just men made perfect." A mortal,
though loved, honored as few men ever have been, yet
a mortal, by one of the kindliest agencies, through which
the angel of death visits human habitations to execute his
terrible mission, had laid aside the burden of the flesh,
with its anxieties, its struggles, and its sorrows, and put
on the immortal vestments, with the emblematic palm-
wreath and crown. And as the voice of the Christian
minister was lifted to lead the devotions of his people in
prayer to God, for the forgiveness of their sins, in thank
fulness for innumerable blessings, it did not fail to offer
also the petition of a whole people, stricken by sudden
and overwhelming grief. From that day to this, has the
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 273
prayer been repeated aloud in the busy marts of com
merce, and in the privacy of a thousand homes, indicat
ing so sincerely, an expression of bereavement so general,
as almost never to have been equalled in the event of the
death of any citizen. The eloquence of the most gifted,
the learning of the schools, and the heartfelt utterances of
friend to friend, have indicated a realizing sense of the
loss our city, our state, our country, the enlightened
world, have sustained in his death, whose virtues, whose
patriotism, whose learning, all vie with each other most
fittingly to exalt and to commemorate.
Impelled by the same motives which have induced
the numerous societies and associations, of which he was
a member, to assemble that they might properly call to
mind his pleasant connection with them, to be experi
enced no more on earth, and to make a respectful record
to his memory, are we now assembled, the teachers,
the pupils, the Committee, and a portion of the friends of
the Everett School ; to repeat in great measure, it may be,
what others have said before us ; but on this spot, amid
these scenes, wherein he was wont to join us with pleasure,
in this building, which is to bear his name, probably
when all of us, like him. have passed from earth, is to
bear his name to the generations that shall be, until brick
and stone, and mortar shall have crumbled, and the
action of the elements shall have worn away from the
tablet all traces of the letters which compose the illustri
ous name, in this building, within these walls, resonant
with his praise, and tributary of the esteem, with which
35
274 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the men of this generation regarded him, we do gratify
our feelings of reverence and of affection, as we gather
here in sympathy with a whole community ; and among
ourselves, in our own way, to mourn for the lamented
dead, where we have met to rejoice with the honored
living.
I am aware, Mr. Chairman, that I am indebted for the
compliment of an invitation to be present on this occasion
to the fact, that a few years since, it was my privilege to
bear an humble part in connecting Mr. Everett s name
permanently with this school.
To a gentleman, now a member of the Committee, and
myself, were entrusted the arrangements for the dedica
tion, and we entered upon our duties, by waiting upon
Mr. Everett, to inform him of the action of the Board,
and to request his presence at the dedication, which was
to take place on the following Monday, the 17th of
September, the 230th birthday of our city. He cheer
fully complied with our request, and most of us remem
ber with pleasure, his participation in the exercises of
that day, when with his friends, the Hon. Robert C.
Winthrop, President Felton, of blessed memory, Rev. Dr.
George Putnam, of our neighboring city, and Rev. Dr. Eliot,
of Washington University, he joined the city authorities,
and teachers and pupils of the school, in consecrating this
building to the lofty purposes of education, under his
revered name, to hold no unworthy place among the
excellent schools of our metropolis.
That Mr. Everett appreciated what had been accom
plished, in this appropriation of his name, we may learn, if
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 275
we recall the words used by him, on that occasion, where
he says, " Devoted, for a pretty long life, to the public
service, in a variety of pursuits and occupations,. laboring,
I know, I may say diligently, and I hope I may add,
though sometimes with erring judgment, yet always with
honest purpose, for the public good at home and abroad ;
I frankly own, sir, that no public honor, compliment, or
reward which has fallen to my lot, has given me greater
pleasure than the association of my name with one of
these noble public schools of Boston." In full accord
ance with this expression, are other indications which
have come under my personal observation. Both by
letter, and from his own lips, have I had repeated assur
ance that he was deeply interested in the prosperity of
this school ; that he felt a just pride in its reputation and
in its usefulness ; and as he more than once said, he only
waited the time, when his country could be relieved from
threatening perils, to manifest his interest more by his
frequent presence. Alas, for the school, that day will
not come ! Alas ! for us and for the school, the demands
of a bleeding country upon his patriotic services pre
vented his frequent and valuable participation in .cultivat
ing here the arts of peace. But thanks to the Providence
which ordained it, he was found equal to the emergency,
and in the hour of our country s greatest need, when the
hearts of men were failing them from fear, he stood
forth, loftiest among the mighty, the safe counsellor, the
champion of republican institutions in their purity, the
intelligent and eloquent prophet of the ultimate triumph
of liberty. You, my young friends of the school, were
276 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
deprived of his benedictive presence and his valuable
counsels; but his strength of body and mind, and the
earnest prayers of his trusting, Christian heart were given
to his country, which needed th^m more than you. And,
to-day, when we are met to mourn his sudden departure,
we can rejoice, that by the sublime efforts of his genius,
as developed so recently in untried channels, and the con
secration of his matchless powers to sustain all that is
good in the institutions under which we live ; in the out
pourings of his lips that the hungry might be fed, the
naked clothed, and the famishing restored ; and all this,
while not entirely neglecting the multitude of obligations
which had claimed a share in his regards and his services,
under a happier condition of national affairs, he showed
to us and to the whole world that his last days were his
best days, and every day as it came, shortening his career
upon the earth, found him better fitted for heaven.
We can then, and we will mingle gratitude with our
lamentations over his grave, gratitude to God, that to
our times he gave such a complete development of the
highest manhood. We will be grateful for his services to
the world, grateful that his unsurpassed talents were
never used but for the public good, grateful that before
our bodily eyes has been presented, in attractive fo rm
and feature, such an excellent example. In the refined
scholar, in the accomplished orator, in the consummate
statesman, in the perfect gentleman, in the unostentatious
Christian, we find an embodiment of what our free insti
tutions, in their highest culture, directed and controlled
by a living Christianity, will produce. We will be grate-
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 277
ful also for our humble connection with him, trifling
though it be ; for so much as it is, it has been another
bond to whatever is good, and noble, and true. When
ever he has been with us, he did not leave us without his
blessing. And now that he has ascended, I would that all
which is worthy of remembrance and imitation, and
how much was there in such a life as his, I would that
it should be transfigured before us. As we shall see his
living face no more, I rejoice that the devotion of the
master of this school, and his reverence for him who was
worthiest among the living, now sainted among the dead,
prompted his generous heart to secure this splendid
marble bust, cairn, graceful, majestic, like him whose
lineaments it so accurately portrays, but to-day deco
rated with the emblems of sadness, in sympathy with all
around. I rejoice it is here. I rejoice it is to remain
here, to be more precious than before ; to remind all
who enter within these walls that the presiding genius
here is excellence, excellence in conversation, excel
lence in deportment, excellence in intellectual accom
plishments, excellence in Christian graces. Under such
a tutelage, with the throng of cooperating advantages
here enjoyed, we might trust in the most flattering prom
ise of a generation of well educated, well balanced,
firm principled, devoted, Christian women, to bear their
honorable part in the great future of our country.
But, Mr. Chairman and friends, I have consumed the
portion of time which it becomes me to occupy ; and I
must close, although I have just reached that part of my
theme which most attracts me. I must leave to others to
278 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
dwell upon the value of such an example before the
youth of our land. What a wealth of beneficent influence
is treasured up in the story of his life ! Though " being
dead, he yet speaketh." To all alike, young and old, he
speaks, telling of the possibilities wrapped up in this
nature of ours, of the responsibilities which accompany
exalted talents, and how religiously they may be fulfilled;
of the present reward, which waits upon fidelity to duty,
and a compliance with the providential directions of
passing life, telling, how it is possible to be great and
good ; to be kind, and virtuous, and true ; to be learned in
all worldly lore, to hold the loftiest positions among men,
and yet be studious of the precepts of the Master, humbly
following Him who " went about doing good," how it is
possible to move uncontaminated amid the world s glitter
ing fascinations and its fleeting shadows, to turn aside
from the broad highway and its sure destruction, to enter
in at the straight gate, to attain, as he attained, and to
share with him " the peace and the progress of the
skies."
Rev. R. C. Waterston, a member of the Sub-Committee, said:
It is natural that we should strive to recall, as far as
possible, each incident in the life of the illustrious bene
factor who has been so recently taken from us. Every
look and word, all the expressions of counsel and en
couragement which we have heard him utter.
It was one of his great pleasures to visit this school,
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 279
bearing as it did his name; and you, I am quite sure,
always felt it a privilege to welcome him.
In that volume from which we have just heard such
appropriate passages read, we are told that when Peter
was in a certain city of Judea, one who had been actively
useful, had been suddenly taken away. When the Apos
tle met the sorrowing company, they gathered around,
showing the garments they had received, while the friend
now departed was yet living. What a graphic touch of
nature is that !
The instructive prompting of their hearts led them to
recall those grateful reminiscences. It was the finest
tribute which could be paid, surpassing in its simplicity
all human eloquence.
Thus Shakespeare, with his transcendent knowledge of
human nature, makes Mark Antony exclaim over the
body of Julius Csesar :
"You all do know this mantle, I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on."
So in tfie presence of the Apostle, the people gather
about him holding up for his notice the treasured memo
rials of their departed friend, recounting each act of
kindness.
True to the same natural impulse, at the present
moment, societies, associations, and individuals are
meeting together, that they may express those feelings
of respect and affection which gush up with, fresh in
tensity in the heart. Fondly do they dwell upon each
280 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
pleasant remembrance. What lie has said and done in
their behalf. The University, the City, the State, the
Nation, pauses to recount every word and deed.
Ay, even while we speak, the steamer that so lately
left this port, may be entering the harbor of Savannah,
while those who receive the aid which has been thus gen
erously sent, having heard already^ by the swift telegraph,
of this sad event, may exclaim "That eloquent voice
(to be heard no more) gave forth its closing accents in
our behalf. That which we receive, in this hour of need,
comes as from his hand ! "
So also with us, my young friends, we shall do well to
recall in this impressive hour, whatever we may have
known of that life and character. If we have seen that
face, if we have heard that voice, if we have had any
special opportunity at any time or in any way of becom
ing acquainted with a mind which exerted so wide and
so powerful an influence, let us dwell upon it in thought,
let us speak of it frankly one with another.
Thus if you remember Mr. Everett s visits to this
School, if you can recall any of his remarks, you will do
w^ell to retain that recollection as vividly as possible ; to
strengthen the impression, and to add to its value by
speaking of it to others.
I know that he gave a book to each of the older scholars,
the name written out in connection with his own ; with
what constantly increasing interest, will others look upon
that autograph !
My personal acquaintance with Mr. Everett commenced
in 1834:. thirty-one years ago. I had written an article
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 281
for the North American Review, of which he was, at that
time, the editor. He resided at Charlestown, and sent an
invitation for me to come and see him. Never can I for
get his kindness upon that occasion, a kindness which
knew no shadow through thirty years. Within three
days of his death, I received two notes from him, in one
of which he says " I rise from my bed (to which I have
been mostly confined since Monday) to write you." The
day following he says " I was too ill to write at any
length yesterday, and I am not much better to-day."
Then, having added a few lines, he closes with the words
" My head is too cloudy." A startling expression from
him, and, I confess, awakening the first feeling of ap
prehension.
This I received on Friday. On Sunday morning he
was no more here. On that Monday, to which he refers,
he had made his thrilling, and (as we then little knew)
his last speech at Faneuil Hall. That mind which seemed
never cloudy before, had this slight foreshadowing, this
gentle intimation of the swift-approaching event. Now,
even that momentary veil has been withdrawn, and that
mind, with its wonderful powers, has risen into celestial
glory.
How mysterious ! and yet is it not blended with grand
eur ? With every faculty in unsurpassed vigor, active
and useful, never more so, to the whole community and
the entire Nation, suddenly he is uplifted above the things
of time. Sorrowful as we may feel, is there not reason
on his account for exultation ?
As long as the oldest of us here can remember, he has
36
282 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
been one of the most marked men of the country, and
never has he been more honored or beloved than within
the last four years of our country s strife and struggle.
Through these days of calamity and cloud, he has been
firm and fearless. I need not dwell upon that patriotic
devotion which we have all witnessed, and to which we
shall ever recur with gratitude and delight.
My purpose at this time will be, not to dwell upon his
public career, but briefly to consider two or three of those
characteristics, which it may be of advantage for the
pupils of this school, and for the young generally, to keep
in mind.
The first characteristic to which I will refer is, his
COURTESY. This, I believe, he extended at all times, to
all persons, old and young, learned and ignorant, rich and
poor. I doubt if he was ever guilty of a discourteous act
to the least influential person, or even to an opponent.
It is my conviction that this was in him no empty for
mality ; but that it was based upon a thoughtfulness of
the feelings and the rights of others. This respectfulness
of manner, this grace of deportment, so marked, and so
attractive in our distinguished friend, was a trait which the
young may well keep before them as an incentive.
Some things are beyond our reach, but this, to a consider
able degree, is within the attainment of all.
At times, unawares, perhaps, the young acquire a brusk
manner. They become, it may be, abrupt, hasty, pert,
overbearing. They are not properly respectful to the
aged. There is a lack of gentleness in their daily inter
course with their companions.
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 283
In what striking contrast to this was the manner and
the spirit of Edward Everett.
Let the young, when they recall the splendor of those
gifts which made him illustrious, and some of which are
far beyond common acquirement, remember this winning
and admirable trait, by which he imparted pleasure to
many, through all the daily routine of life.
Another remarkable characteristic of Mr. Everett was
his MEMORY.
This was no doubt in him a rare natural endowment.
Still it was strengthened by care and culture. Probably
no man in this country has possessed this faculty and per
fected it to such a degree, unless it was John Quincy
Adams ; but this gift in him, though as extraordinary in
some respects, was less marvellous in others.
John Quincy Adams appeared to remember the name of
every person he had ever known, the ideas of every book
he had ever read, and each fact which had ever presented
itself to his knowledge. And, moreover, he was never at
a loss. The instant that any subject was suggested, at
that instant all his recollections and acquisitions were be
fore him, in perfect order and ready for use. But with
him, as far as I know, it was principally names, facts,
data, the rich ore which he could work abundantly, and
turn evermore to his purpose. All history and literature
seemed familiar to his mind, his eye penetrating through
everything at a glance, and resting .upon the very fact
he needed. But Mr. Everett, while he remembered facts,
names, and data, could,- also recall with unerring exactness
the precise language of an author.
284: MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
We all know how he could with ease repeat, word for
word, orations of one and two hours in length, without
the slightest reference to notes, and this in a natural tone,
without apparent effort, as if every expression was the
spontaneous utterance of the moment.
I will mention a little incident illustrative of his
memory, which happened to come within my knowledge.
A friend of mine in London stated to me that an English
gentleman, having printed a history of one of the inte
rior counties of England, he sent a copy of the work to
our city Library. In writing to Mr. Everett, as one of
the Trustees of the Library, my friend suggested that, as
the book was privately printed, it would doubtless be a
gratification to the author if he should receive some
special acknowledgment.
By the next steamer a letter was received from Mr.
Everett not only expressing thanks for the volume, but
Mr. Everett stated in addition that he was at Oxford when
that gentleman received his degree. That he listened with
great pleasure to a Poem which that gentleman recited at
that time, and that he was particularly impressed by the
following lines. Here he quoted a passage from a Poem
which had never been published, and which Mr. Everett
heard incidentally from a young man at that time quite
unknown, and in connection with the various public
exercises of a Literary Eestival, and yet years after he
could recall those lines, and send them across the Atlantic
to the author, who was as much astonished as if he had
heard a voice coming down to him from the heavens.
It is doubtful if there is another man in the country
SERVICES AT THE EVE11ETT SCHOOL. 285
who could have exercised such a singular power of
memory, or have made such a felicitous use of it.
Mr. Everett s natural gift he used and directed with
consummate care. It would be curious to know more
fully his rules and practices. While at College he com
mitted the whole of Locke on the Human Understanding,
so that he could repeat it word for word, from the intro
duction to the close. And in an address delivered at the
request of the Massachusetts Historical Society, I heard
him repeat more than one hundred and eighty names of
authors and artists of different nations, Greek, Latin, Ger
man, Italian, Spanish, French, in exact order, with as
much apparent ease as he would have spoken his own
name.
This power varies in different persons, but there is no
faculty more perceptibly affected by culture. You may
be sure, my young friends, that by every lesson you learn,
by every paragraph you commit, you are strengthening
this important faculty of mind, which may prove an in
calculable advantage to you in after life. No one can
fully estimate the value of this faculty to such a man as
Mr. Everett. How different he would have been with
that one power wanting ! And how greatly is the world
indebted to him for the diligence and wisdom with which
he employed it.
The next and closing characteristic of which I will
speak is that fidelity which was manifested by Mr. Everett,
not only in great but in minor duties. It was said of
Oberlin that he was conscientious even to the rounding of
an O. Mr. Everett was faithful to the same degree.
286 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Nothing was too minute for his observation or his care.
You see it in every note he* penned, in every word he
uttered. It mattered not whether he was to give an
elaborate oration before some learned University, or a
brief address before some small Society, or simply a
remark to an individual, the words to be spoken were well
considered. There was an appropriateness and a com
pleteness which made it memorable.
Every pamphlet he received he acknowledged with his
own hand, and whatever he did was done promptly. His
industry and punctuality were something extraordinary.
The notes from which I have quoted, received within
three days of his death, are a proof that not even illness
could prevent him from fulfilling, even to within a few
hours of his departure, whatever it was within his power
to do. I confess that -even more than for his most splen
did achievements do I honor him for his life-long fidelity
to the minutest of duties. These were the steps by which
he climbed to surprising elevations. The rounds in that
ladder, which, planted on the earth, reached upward and
upward. Every young person may learn a lesson of wis
dom from Mr. Everett here. Wordsworth tells us that
" The primal duties shine aloft like stars ;
The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless,
Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."
So there were gifts in Mr. Everett which we may never
aspire to possess. They shine aloft like stars, to cheer
and guide us in our pathway ; but there are qualities
which are scattered bountifully within our reach. Let us
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 287
then gain whatever advantage is possible from any portion
of his life, and any characteristics of his mind, which
may offer for us a lesson.
There are those who will remember Mr. Everett chiefly
as the Orator ; some will dwell upon him as the States
man ; some as the man of Letters ; some will recall his
patriotism in these latter days of his country s trial. But
while you think of him as the Scholar, the Patriot, the
Statesman, the Orator, you will think of him, perhaps,
most fondly as the friend of the Everett School. You
will dwell upon him in thought, as he appeared to you
while here. May his example inspire you to constant
diligence, and may the memory of what he accomplished
lead you to perpetual progress.
Mr. Charles W. Slack said : -
MR. CHAIRMAN AND FRIENDS : Mr. Everett s character
was so many-sided that there are few who cannot speak
of some one particular quality that makes his memory and
name respected. For me, two or three will suffice on
this occasion.
1. His deep interest in public education. Himself a
graduate at the age of 10 of the North (now Eliot) School
of this city, his children severally educated, in part, at the
public schools, and his every influence exerted for the
success of the common-school system of our State, he was
particularly near to us who meet on this occasion. As
Governor of Massachusetts, he was largely influential in
giving permanence to the beneficial system of Normal
288 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Schools, which are alike our pride and strength. True
Horace Mann was a potential coadjutor in this good work
of a systematic and progressive scheme of School educa
tion, but Mr. Everett gave the large weight of his official
and personal aid to the work. Then, also, he was largely
the promoter of the lyceum or lecture system, now so
common and so popular. Before his day, the lecture-
course for the instruction of the people was wholly
unknown. How much we are indebted to him for this
great service, we can readily appreciate should we be
deprived of our Mercantile Library, our Parker-frater
nity, our Young Men s Christian Association s Lectures, or,
more recently, those charming lectures of Mr. Emerson,
all of which are the direct result of Mr. Everett s desire
to instruct and benefit the community. Surely, we can
all thank him for these educational advantages to the
common people.
2. His wonderful and systematic industry, joined with
a courteous readiness to aid in any proper work for the
benefit of his fellow-citizens. Think of his long and
varied life ! the tasks imposed upon him in each sphere,
and with what rare fidelity he discharged his several
trusts ! What files of addresses, reports, messages, letters,
orations, attest his knowledge, scholarship, cooperation,
as well as eloquence ! He was ever a cheerful worker. I
think no one ever appealed to him for assistance in a
laudable enterprise that did not, if he were not pre
occupied, receive it cordially and punctually. And this
trait of his punctuality was a marked one. It was as
much a charm of his life as his eloquence. lie never de-
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 289
layed, even in the minutest, and, seemingly, most unim
portant particulars. I remember, last September, being
interested in a meeting in Faneuil Hall, to have realized
the value of this excellence. It was just after the brilliant
success of the indomitable and persistent Sherman, who,
amid the mountains of Georgia, had just planted his
colors in triumph over the city of Atlanta. It was while
the news was coming to us that the brave old Farragut
had defiantly made the passage of the forts in Mobile
Bay, and conquered the second city of the South without
even placing his foot upon the land. Some of us wanted to
celebrate these victories in Faneuil Hall. As one of the
Committee of Arrangements, I called on Mr. Everett, to
aid in its success. He received me cordially, thanked me
heartily for the honor, told me his whole heart and soul
was in response to the glad tidings and the objects of the
meeting, but he had for a few days been very feeble in
health, was busily engaged in the preparation of twelve
lectures upon law for Harvard University, there was
scarce time for him to elaborate a first-class oration for
the occasion, as he should desire, and, very reluctantly, he
must decline the invitation. To assent cheerfully to the
disappointment, for such reasons, was only a duty. " But
you can send a letter, Mr. Everett, to the meeting, can
you not ? " I asked. " With great pleasure," was the cor
dial response, ."if that will be acceptable. Call to
morrow at four o clock, and it shall be ready for you." I
need not say that at the hour named, almost to a minute,
that letter was in my hands, in his well-known, faultless
chirography, no interlineations, every t crossed, every i
37
290 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
dotted, a model for teacher or pupil in any school ; and
this from a man pressed with untold cares, and in the
seventy-first year of his age ! That letter I have now
with me, just as it was prepared for that rejoicing Faneuil
Hall assembly by Mr. Everett himself. I have been
solicited by committees of national fairs, lovers of choice
autographs, and others, to part with it. What committees
and friends could not by entreaty and long persuasion
induce me to surrender, I now cheerfully give to the
Everett School, through its Principal, to be added to such
other souvenirs as may be possessed, as my tribute, as a
past chairman and a past secretary of the Everett School
District Committee, to the memory of a man deserving
to have the School named in his honor.
3. His Nationality. This was deep-seated, far-reach
ing, wholly American. He believed in the American
name, American literature, science, commerce, manufac
tures, and the craft of the artisan. Never was this
quality so brilliantly illustrated as during the last four
years. American law, order, nationality, the sovereignty
of a great people, the perpetuity of the great republic,
were the themes which found expression in a hundred
ways of popular address. He sustained the war, he sus
tained the government, he sustained the administration ,
it was all unselfish, disinterested, cordial, patriotic. No
man can measure the value of this support scarce one
throughout the continent equalled it in influence. This
memory of the departed will to many be the sweetest and
longest enduring.
I fear, Mr. Chairman, I do not join with many in the
SERVICES AT THE EVERETT SCHOOL. 991
feeling of profound sorrow which has attended this depart
ure. I cannot divorce my mind from the thought that it
is a wise consummation of a full-measured and rounded-
out existence here. To me it is in accord with the benefi
cent laws of nature. I know that the wilting and falling
leaves of the flower only indicate that its keenest fragrance
and intensest coloring have been given to its admirers ; I
see the golden fruit, streaked with its ribands of emerald
and ruby, hanging in the autumn sun, and at the favoring
moment it drops, fully ripe, into the lap of mother earth ;
the dying swan, we are told, throws forth its sweetest
notes of song with its expiring breath ; and may we not
believe that, with the same all-wise provision for His
children, the good Father called our departed friend when
his work was fully done, his life wholly completed, and
his memory should be the sweetest to all who remain ?
Let us be thankful we have that memory, that life, that
work, and from them each shall radiate influences which
shall evermore bless and benefit the world.
The master of the School, in a few appropriate remarks,
accepted the gift, and the exercises were closed by singing.
PROCEEDINGS AND RESOLUTIONS
VARIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
OVERSEERS OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
BOSTON, January 26, 1865.
The following Preamble and Resolutions were prefaced with
remarks by the Reverend James Walker, D. D., and presented to
the Board :
Whereas it has pleased God to take from this life the
Hon. Edward Everett, a distinguished member of this
Board ; therefore
Resolved, That we avail ourselves of the earliest oppor
tunity to record our sense of the great loss which Harvard
College has sustained in the death of one of the most
illustrious of her sons.
Resolved, That, as one branch of the government of the
college, we would especially acknowledge his early servi
ces to the University as Professor of Greek Literature,
which were welcomed with so much enthusiasm by the
scholars of that day, and did so much to give an impulse
to classical learning in this country ; and also the unsur
passed dignity with which, in later life, he filled the office
of President, his administration being marked by all his
accustomed care and thoroughness, and only prevented by
296 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
its brevity from becoming one of the most useful and
brilliant the college has known.
Resolved, That, as members of this Board, we regret
that we are no longer to be assisted in our deliberations
by his wisdom and experience in college affairs, nor to
have before us his example in the faithful discharge of
every public trust, recommended by uniform courtesy.
Resolved, That we also sympathize in the general
mourning for the death of a great and good man ; not
forgetting in the eminent scholar, the enlightened states
man, or the conspicuous and revered citizen, one whom
Providence seemed to have raised up, in the troubled
state of the country, to be of great influence in restoring
union and peace.
Resolved, That the secretary be requested to transmit
a copy of these resolutions to the family of Mr. Everett.
The Preamble and Resolutions were seconded in an appropriate
address by Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey ; and after eulogistic remarks
by His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth, President
of the Board, and Philip H. Sears, Esq., Rev. James F. Clarke,
D. D., David H. Mason, Esq., and Hon. Thomas Russell, they
were adopted by a unanimous vote, the members rising from their
seats, in token of affirmation.
Attest : NATH L B. SHURTLEFF,
Secretary of the Overseers.
FACULTY OF HARVARD COLLEGE.
The following resolutions in honor of Mr. Everett were adopted
by the Faculty of Harvard College, January 18, 1865 :
Resolved, That we lament, in the death of Mr. Everett,
the loss of a kind friend, an honorable citizen, a gifted,
well-trained, and patriotic statesman, and a bright example
of finished scholarship.
Resolved, That now, when another thread in the silver
cord of living ex-presidents of the college has been loosed,
we remember with gratitude and admiration the long and
varied services of the departed to the college, as Student,
Graduate, Professor, Governor, President, and Overseer.
Resolved, That as members of the Faculty of instruction
and government, over which Mr. Everett formerly pre
sided with unsurpassed dignity and gentleness, we delight
to trace even now the beneficent influences of his too
brief administration, as of a patient and watchful guar
dian, an inspiring scholar, and a Christian gentleman.
Resolved, That we accept the invitation of the Mayor
of Boston to attend the funeral ceremonies in that city.
CAMBRIDGE, January 18, 1865.
STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE FIRST
CHURCH.
BOSTON, January 17, 1865.
At an adjourned meeting of the Standing Committee of the
First Church, held this day, with members of the congregation,
G. W. Messinger, and S. L. Abbot, the Sub-Committee ap
pointed for that purpose, submitted the following preamble and
resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : -
Whereas, It has pleased the All- wise Disposer of events
to remove from us, by sudden death, our esteemed fellow-
worshipper and beloved friend EDWARD EVERETT, and,
Whereas, We wish to put on record an expression of
our sense of the great private worth which distinguished
him no less than his public virtues ; therefore, be it
Resolved, That, by his decease, the members of the
First Church and congregation have lost one strongly
endeared to them by the association which has bound
them together as worshippers, for many years past.
Resolved, That we gratefully recall the constant inter
est which our departed friend took in the welfare of our
venerable society ; an interest which he manifested to the
last by his regular attendance on the offices of the Sanct
uary.
STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE FIRST CHURCH. 299
Resolved, That we shall always hold his example in
pre:ious remembrance, as of one who, while he dignified
our nation, especially in her hour of trial, by his unselfish
patriotism, humanity, and generous devotion to the cause
of republican liberty, was no less distinguished for the
humility, purity, and Christian excellence of his private
life.
Resolved, That these resolutions be placed on the
records of the First Church, and that a copy be transmit
ted to the family of the deceased, with the assurance of
our most tender sympathy in this hour of their heavy
bereavement.
It was then
Voted, That Thomas B. Wales, Otis Rich, Samuel L.
Abbot, Nathaniel Thayer, George W. Messinger, John
Collamore, D. W. Salisbury, Edward Austin, J. Putnam
Bradlee, Turner Sargent, George W. Wales, Edward
Frothingham, George O. Shattuck, Joseph L. Henshaw,
and Samuel H. Gookin of the congregation, be a committee
to superintend the arrangements at the church during the
funeral services of the late Edward Everett, and to confer
with the committee of the City Government in the matters
relating to the same.
The meeting was then adjourned sine die.
THOMAS B. WALES, Chairman.
GEORGE O. HARRIS, Secretary.
FRANKLIN MEDAL ASSOCIATION.
Pursuant to a call in the newspapers, the Association of Franklin
Medal Scholars met in the Mercantile Building, Summer Street,
on the morning of January 19, to take measures in honor of the
memory of their late President, Hon. Edward Everett. Dr.
M. W. Weld was chosen Chairman.
The following resolutions were offered by Mr. Thomas Gaf-
field:
Whereas, It hath pleased God to remove by the hand
of death our late President, Edward Everett :
Resolved, That while we unite with the head of the
nation, and with the legislative assemblies of the city, the
state, and the country, in mourning the loss of the patriot
and statesman ; with the lovers of liberty throughout the
world, in lamenting the departure of one of its noblest
champions, who, in the hour of his country s trial, came
up so gloriously to the defence of freedom and right, and
to the support of the Government and its defenders on the
land and on the sea ; we especially deplore the loss of
one who was the great American scholar ; one whom we
rejoice to know was nurtured in his youth in those public
schools, which are the honor of our city and our Com-
FRANKLIN MEDAL ASSOCIATION, 3()1
monwealth ; who at the early age of ten years, received
the Franklin prize for superior scholarship at the North
School, and at the age of twelve, a similar token at the
Latin School; whose career of superiority and excellence
in scholarship followed him throughout his college course,
and made him at an early period of life, take rank among
the best writers and the most accomplished orators of the
land, and placed him at a later age at the head of that
University which he always loved, and which always
delighted to honor its most distinguished graduate.
Resolved, That as graduates of our Public Schools, in
which, as in all educational institutions, he took so deep
an interest to the last year of his life, we gratefully revere
the memory of the departed scholar, statesman, and
patriot, and heartily commend to the youth of our city
and our country, the study of his writings, so full of wis
dom and learning, and the imitation of his life, so
crowned with the fruits of literary industry, with the
deeds of noble patriotism, and the works of true Christian
benevolence.
Resolved, That we most deeply sympathize with the
family of the deceased, and reverently point them to the
consolations of that Gospel, which he so earnestly and
eloquently set forth in the days of his early manhood.
Resolved, That the members of this Association attend
the funeral services at the First Church in Chauncy Street,
this day.
Resolved, That a copy of the above resolutions be
transmitted by the secretary to the family of the de
ceased.
302 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
After remarks by Messrs. Gaffield, Stetson, Harris, and Pratt,
the resolutions were unanimously adopted.
Mr. Gaffield then offered the following, which were also unani
mously adopted :
Resolved, That while the memory of Edward Everett
will ever be enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen,
and while the words and the deeds of his life will consti
tute his noblest monument, we cordially unite with our
fellow- citizens in any movement to honor his worth and
commemorate his name.
Resolved, That we heartily approve of the proposition
to erect a statue to his memory, and direct that our
treasurer pay over to the committee appointed for the
purpose at Faneuil Hall, on the 18th inst, the sum of
one thousand dollars, as the subscription of the Association
of Franklin Medal Scholars.
It was moved that a committee of five be appointed by the chair
to represent this Association at the chureh. The motion was
adopted, and the following-named gentlemen were appointed, viz :
Isaac Harris, Thomas Gaffield, S. F. Smith, J. C. Pratt, T. W.
Gould.
The meeting then dissolved.
MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
At a special meeting of the Mercantile Library Association of
Boston, held on Wednesday evening, January 18, 1865, the fol
lowing Resolutions were offered by Charles H. Frothingham, and
were unanimously adopted :
Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from
us by death our late eminent and illustrious citizen, Ed
ward Everett, whose loss is justly regarded as a national
calamity, and strikes with unspeakable sorrow this com
munity in which he had so long lived ; we, the members
of the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, to whom
he was a near neighbor and sincere friend and benefactor,
desiring to express our affectionate regard for his memory,
unanimously adopt the following resolutions :
Resolved, That we are profoundly grateful to Divine
Providence, for his long life filled with honor to himself
and his country ; for his death without suffering, and for
his possession of all his glorious faculties to the last,
unimpaired; and, while humbly submitting to the inscrut
able decree of the Great Disposer of events, we cannot but
deplore the loss to American literature and oratory of
their brightest ornament, and to the Union of its warmest
advocate, whose exalted character, and lofty, disinterested
patriotism would have exerted an influence, at home and
304 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
abroad, more potent than any other citizen, in the final
settlement of our existing difficulties.
Resolved, That we will remember that he was as good
as he was great, and as amiable as he was accomplished.
Like Washington, whom it was his privilege to hold up to
his admiring fellow-countrymen, he possessed that rare
combination of qualities which constitutes an evenly bal
anced mind. Always magnanimous in heart and action, in
justice to man and in obedience to God, he ever showed
those qualities of grace and loveliness which denote the true
Christian gentleman; and especially thankful are we for
those last words in favor of " Christian retaliation " at the
meeting in aid of the suffering poor of Savannah.
Resolved, That while we contemplate the noble portrait
of the Father of his Country, which he presented to us,
and endeavor to hold dear the memory and revere the
name and character of Washington, we will ever associate
with that name that of our late distinguished benefactor,
and we will proudly preserve his bust of which we are
the fortunate possessors.
Resolved, That we will regard him as an example for
our emulation of industry in every station ; of refined
culture, and of patriotic inspiration.
Resolved, That we tender to the family of the deceased
our heartfelt sympathy and condolence in this season of
their affliction, and as a further token of our respect and
love for his memory we will attend his funeral.
A true copy of the record,
HENRY C. PYNE,
Recording Secretary.
FllANKLIN TYPOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.
At the regular monthly meeting of the Franklin Typographical
Society, on the evening of February 4, after the formal business
had been transacted, the President alluded to the decease of Mr.
Everett ; and after referring to the great loss sustained by the whole
country, recalled to notice the generous services which Mr. Everett
rendered the Society five years previously, by delivering before
them his address on the life and character of Benjamin Franklin.
The funds of the Society had at that time become so reduced that
it was much straitened in providing for the needs of its sick mem
bers ; and Mr. Everett, on being applied to, cheerfully consented
to deliver an address in behalf of its treasury, the committee of
arrangements agreeing to give him the remuneration which he
Ordinarily received for such a service. When payment was ten
dered to him, after the address, Mr. Everett declined compensation,
saying that since he made the engagement he had become more fully
acquainted than before with the charitable objects of the Society,
and that he had derived great satisfaction from addressing so intel
ligent a body of men, with whom, he remarked, he placed himself
in magnetic sympathy more readily than with most audiences before
which he was accustomed to appear. The President expressed his
conviction that this act of benevolent kindness, on the part of Mr.
Everett, had been of lasting benefit to the Society, by inducing men
of wealth to regard its claims for aid, which they had previously
overlooked.
When the President had concluded his remarks, Mr. Ambrose
H. Goodridge moved that a committee of three be appointed by
39
306 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
the Chair to report a series of resolutions, expressive of the senti
ments of the members, in relation to the sad event to which allusion
had been made. The Chair appointed as the Committee, Messrs.
Goodridge, C. W. G. Mansfield, and James Cox, who subsequently
reported the following series of resolutions, and they were unani
mously adopted :
Resolved, That in the recent decease of Edward Everett,
the members of the Franklin Typographical Society, in
common with the community in which he lived, and
with the nation of whose history his life forms so impor
tant a part, feel that an irreparable loss has been sustained
by every good and patriotic cause and institution in the
country.
Resolved, That throughout the long and public career
of the eminent statesman, whose demise we mourn, we
recognize the qualities of rare goodness as well as exalted
greatness, prompting him to acts of charity and benevo
lence, in which he engaged with unfaltering zeal.
Resolved^ That we remember with abiding gratitude the
timely and important aid which he rendered to our Society,
a few years since, at a period when its means were greatly
reduced, by his generous and voluntary labors in behalf of
our charitable fund.
Resolved^ That we tender to the family and immediate
friends of the deceased our profound sympathies in their
bereavement.
Resolved) That the secretary be directed to transmit a
copy of these resolutions to the family of the deceased,
and that they be entered upon the records of the Society.
MASSACHUSETTS CHARITABLE MECHANICS 5
ASSOCIATION.
The Government of this Association held a special meeting on
Tuesday, January 17, in the afternoon, to consider the death of
Hon. Edward Everett, an honorary member. Joseph T. Bailey,
Esq., President, announced the sad bereavement which had called
the Trustees together ; and Hon. Wm. W. Clapp, Jr. offered the
following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously
adopted :
The death of the Hon. Edward Everett having removed
from our list of honorary members one, who for many
years has given to us convincing proof of his interest in
our Association, therefore
Resolved, That, in the death of Mr. Everett, we feel
the loss of a prized friend, a wise counsellor, and an
honored benefactor, whose intercourse with us has cheered
and encouraged us, whose heart, constantly devoted to
our good, has successfully manifested its sincerity in kind
ly acts, and whose gifted mind has ever sought our
benefit ; whose deep sympathy with mechanical pursuits
and interest in the artisan have secured for him the
gratitude and respect of the workingman ; and whose
308 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
associations with us we regard with proud satisfaction,
enjoying as we did, so long, the invigorating influence of
his massive character.
Resolved, That we will enter upon our records this
mark of respect to the memory of Mr. Everett, who was
held, while living, in the highest regard by every member
of our Association.
Resolved, That the government will attend the funeral
of Mr. Everett, with such members of the Association as
wish to join with them in paying this tribute of respect.
BUNKER HILL MONUMENT ASSOCIATION.
A special meeting of the directors of the Bunker Hill Monument
Association, was held on the 18th of January, in the Council
Chamber, City Hall, to take suitable action upon the death of Hon.
Edward Everett, who was one of the Yice-Presidents of the
Association. His Honor Mayor Lincoln presided. The following
resolutions were offered by W. W. Wheildon, Esq., and unani
mously adopted by the meeting : -
Resolved, That the government of this Association have
learned with deep emotion the death of their late asso
ciate, Edward Everett, whose services as its first secre
tary, as director and vice-president, for more than forty
years, have been so generously and efficiently rendered,
and whose advice, counsel, and transcendent talents have
been so important in the promotion of the great object of
its organization.
Resolved, That as an evidence of our respect for his
unblemished character, of appreciation of his disinter
ested labors, of acknowledgment of his unvarying cour
tesy and kindness, and as a recognition of his patriotic
devotion to his country, this Board will attend his funeral
and participate in those honors so justly due to his dis
tinguished abilities and his exalted worth.
310 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
Resolved, That the loss of one who was always ready
and present when needed ; who was equally good and
great ; who excelled all others in devotion and effort, and
was constantly outdoing and overdoing himself, leaves
an " aching void" which time itself may not fill.
" Now he is gone! vainly and wearily
Groans the full heart, the yearning sorrow flows
Gone ! and all the zest of life in one long sigh,
Goes with him where he goes."
Resolved, That a committee be appointed to express in
suitable form that respect for his memory, that honor for
his virtues, and that gratitude for his services, entertained
by this Association, to be presented at its next annual
meeting, and placed enduringly upon its records.
The following gentlemen were appointed to constitute the com
mittee designated in the resolutions :
11. C. Winthrop, W. W. Wheildon, J. Mason Warren, Albert
Fearing, J. H. Thorndike, Benjamin T. Reed, Samuel II. Russell,
Henry A Pierce, F. W. Lincoln, Jr., G. W. Warren.
Voted, That the Secretary notify the Chairman of the
City Committee that the Directors will attend the funeral
of Mr. Everett on the 19th instant; and that the members
of the Association be requested to unite with them on the
occasion.
The meeting was then dissolved.
Attest : S. F. McCLEARY, Secretary.
LINCOLN GUARD.
At a meeting of the First Unattached Company of Infantry,
M. Y. M. (Lincoln Guard), Capt. Moses E. Bigelow, at their
armory in South Boston, on Monday Evening, January 16, the
following resolutions were unanimously adopted :
Wliereas, Divine Providence, in his impartial dealings
with man, has, by the very sudden decease of the Hon.
Edward Everett, of this State and city, deprived this
country of one of its firmest friends, in this, her hour of
peril :
Resolved^ That the members of this Company honor the
departed as one of the greatest statesmen of the age, as
a disinterested politician, and as a scholar and orator un
equalled; and that we see in his long and successful
career, a bright incentive to do our duty well, leaving the
reward to the judgment of our fellow-men.
Resolved, That we, in common with the President of the
United States, and her more humble citizens, truly feel
that the country has sustained an irreparable loss, which
we deeply lament.
Resolved, That our commander be authorized to tender
the services of the Company, for military escort and fare-
312 MEMORIAL OF EDWARD EVERETT.
well honors to the remains of this truly great man, to his
Honor the Mayor or such persons as have the funeral
obsequies in charge.
Resolved, That the flag be placed at half-mast on our
armory, until after the funeral.
EDWARD EVERETT.
Born at Dorchester, Mass. April 11, 1794.
Attended Village School in Dorchester, 1797.
Attended school in North Bennet Street, Boston, 1803.
Attended private school, Short Street, Boston, 1804.
Attended Public Latin School, Boston, 1805-06.
Prepared for College at Exeter Academy, 1807.
Entered Harvard College, 1807; graduated 1811.
Appointed Tutor of Latin at Harvard College, 1812.
Pastor, of Brattle Street Church, 1813-14.
Published " Defence of Christianity," 1814,
Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard College, 181525.
Studied at University of Gottingen, 1816-17.
Degree of P. D. conferred at Gottingen, 1817.
Eeturned from Europe in 1819.
Editor of North American Review, 182023.
Delivered Phi Beta Kappa Oration, August, 26, 1824.
Member of Congress from 1825 to 1835.
Degree of LL. D. conferred at Yale College, 1833.
Degree of LL. D. conferred by Harvard College, 1835.
Governor of Massachusetts from 1836 to 1840.
Sailed for Europe, June, 1840.
Minister to the Court of St. James, 1841-44.
Degree of LL. D. conferred by University of Cambridge, Eng
land, 1842.
314 MEMORIAL OF EDWAKD EVEKETT.
Degree of LL. D. conferred by Dublin University, Ireland,
1842.
Degree of J. C. D. conferred by University of Oxford, England,
1843.
President of Harvard College, 1846-1849.
Degree of LL. D. conferred by Dartmouth College, 1849.
Secretary of State of the United States, 1852.
Chosen President of the Board of Trustees Public Library, 1852.
United States Senator from Massachusetts, 1853.
Resigned Senatorship, May, 1855.
Oration on Washington (first time), February 22, 1856.
Nominated for the Vice-Presidency of United States, 1860.
Chairman of Commission on a Military Academy for Massachu
setts, 1863.
Chosen Presidential Elector, 1864.
Address in aid of the citizens of Savannah, January 9, 1865.
Died in Boston, January 15, 1865.
Obsequies in Boston, January 19, 1865.
[He has spoken before the Municipal Authorities of Boston on
the following occasions] :
Boston Public School Examination, July 23, 1837.
Dinner in Faneuil Hall, July 4, 1838.
Railroad Jubilee, September 19, 1851.
Dinner to Thomas Baring, September 16, 1852.
Dinner in Faneuil Hall, July 4, 1853.
Boston School Festival, July 23, 1855.
Dedication of Public Library, January 1, 1858.
Dinner in honor of Mehemmed Pasha, May 25, 1858.
On the death of Rufus Choate, Faneuil Hall, July, 1859.
Eulogy on Daniel Webster, Music Hall, September 17, 1859.
EDWARD EVERETT. 315
Dinner to the Sanitary Convention, June, 1860.
Oration in Music Hall, July 4, 1860.
Dinner to officers of the Russian Fleet, June 7, 1864.
Reception of the officers and crew of the Kearsarge, November
10, 1864.
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