330 



EVERETT, EDWARD. 



of Massachusetts by a large majority at the en- 

 suing election. He was afterwards thrice re- 

 elected, holding the executive office for four 

 years. In 1839 he was defeated by Mr. Morton, 

 the Democratic candidate, by a majority of one 

 vote. 



In June, 1840, he sailed with his family for 

 Europe, and passed the summer in France, and 

 the following winter in Florence and its vicinity. 

 He had intended to pass another winter in Italy, 

 but the election of General Harrison to the 

 Presidency, and Mr. Webster's selection as 

 Secretary of State, led to his appointment to 

 the post of Minister Plenipotentiary to Great 

 Britain. Our relations with the British Gov- 

 ernment at this time were less cordial than 

 they had- been. The Northeastern Boundary 

 question, which had long been a matter of con- 

 troversy, had reached a stage in which war 

 seemed inevitable. The recent burning of the 

 Caroline, and the arrest of McLeod, had pro- 

 duced great irritation on both sides of the At- 

 lantic. The case of the Creole, and questions 

 connected with Oregon and Texas, were also 

 adding bitterness to the public feeling. In ad- 

 dition to this, American vessels had been seized 

 and detained by British cruisers on the coast of 

 Africa. On all these questions, except the 

 Northeastern boundary, which was transferred 

 to Washington by the appointment of Lord 

 Ashburton as special ambassador, Mr. Everett 

 was left to negotiate with the British Foreign 

 Secretary, without special instructions, and all 

 of them were managed with consummate ability, 

 the interests of his own country protected, and 

 at the same time the respect and confidence of 

 the English Government secured. In his dis- 

 cussion of the constru%tion of the first article of 

 the convention between the two countries on 

 the subject of the fisheries he obtained for 

 American fishermen the long-disputed right to 

 take fish in the bay of Fundy, and procured at 

 various times, and in spite of great obstacles, 

 the release of between sixty and seventy Amer- 

 ican citizens who had been sent to the penal 

 colony of Van Diemen's Land on conviction of 

 their participation in the Canadian rebellion. 

 Notwithstanding the unpleasant state of feeling 

 which existed when he entered upon his duties, 

 and the gravity of the questions which he was 

 called to discuss with the British Foreign Secre- 

 tary, Mr. Everett was unquestionably the most 

 popular minister who had ever represented the 

 United States near the Court of St. James. His 

 thorough culture, his accomplished manners, 

 and his eloquence, caused him to be very gen- 

 erally admired. The University of Oxford con- 

 ferred on him the honorary degree of D. C. L., 

 and learned societies in great numbers enrolled 

 him as an associate. In 1843 President Tyler 

 offered him the post of Commissioner to China, 

 with a view to establishing commercial relations 

 with that vast empire, but his health and other 

 considerations compelled him to decline. In 

 1846 he returned to the United States, and ac- 

 cepted the appointment of President of Har- 



vard College. His administration of this emi 

 nent post was not attended with any considera- 

 ble success. He failed to win the sympathies 

 of the students. His manners were too formal 

 and reserved for the taste of the "ingenuous 

 youth " under his charge ; his sensitive tem- 

 perament presented a perpetual bait to the 

 spirit of juvenile mischief; his health declined 

 under the annoyances of the situation, and at 

 the close of three years he retired in weariness 

 and disgust from an office for which, it would 

 have seemed, he possessed the most express and 

 admirable qualifications. 



Mr. Everett gave a portion of his leisure, after 

 resigning the presidency of the college, to the 

 preparation of a collected edition of his orations 

 and speeches, which appeared in two volumes 

 8vo, in 1850. He also superintended the pub- 

 lication of the new edition of the works of Mr. 

 Webster, at his special request, and prepared 

 an elaborate memoir, which was prefixed to the 

 first volume. Upon the death of Mr. Webster, 

 in 1852, he was invited by President Fillmore 

 to accept the vacant place of Secretary of State, 

 which office he held during the last four months 

 of Mr. Fillmore's administration, months of in- 

 tense labor and of great anxiety. In these four 

 months, aside from the ordinary duties of the 

 department, he adjusted the perplexing affairs 

 of the Crescent City Steamer and the Lobos 

 Islands, prosecuted with energy the difficult 

 negotiations pertaining to the fisheries, con- 

 cluded an international copyright convention 

 with Great Britain, and a consular convention 

 with France, and in a diplomatic note of great 

 ability declined the proposition of Great Britain 

 and France to enter into a tripartite convention 

 guaranteeing to Spain in perpetuity the exclu- 

 sive possession of Cuba. In March, 1853, he 

 took his seat in the United States Senate, to 

 which he had been elected before leaving the 

 Department of State, and made an able and 

 elaborate speech on the Central American ques- 

 tion. During the summer he replied to Lord 

 John Russell's protest against the doctrines as- 

 serted by the United States Government, in his 

 note declining the tripartite convention, and 

 spoke several times in opposition to the pro- 

 posed new Constitution of Massachusetts. At 

 the opening of the regular session of Congress, 

 Mr. Everett was in his place, and on the 8th 

 of February made an able speech in opposition 

 to the Nebraska-Kansas bill. His health was, 

 however, seriously impaired, and in May, 1854, 

 under the imperative advice of his physician, 

 he resigned his seat in the Senate. A few 

 months of rest and quiet restored him, and 

 having been called to prepare for the Encyclo- 

 pedia Britannica a life of Washington, su fre- 

 quently published in one volume in this country 

 (New York, 1860), he availed himself of the 

 thorough and careful investigations made for 

 that purpose to prepare an address on the 

 character of Washington. The project of pur- 

 chasing Mount Vernon for the General Govern- 

 ment, by a private subscription, had then been 



