About That Everett Gettysburg Address-- Part 3: Education and Political Service

Continued from December 15, 2021.

Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in  1794.  A precocious youth, he graduated from Harvard at age 17, receiving highest honors in spite of being the youngest member of the class.  Three years later, after  earning a Masters of Divinity  degree, he was invited to be the minister of the Brattle Street Church, then Boston's largest and most fashionable congregation and was installed as its minister before reaching his 20th birthday.

After a year in the pulpit, he decided  that he preferred scholarship to the ministry and accepted a faculty appointment in Greek Literature at Harvard.  Since he was only 21 and only had a Master's degree, the university sent him to Europe for two  years of further study.  He completed a Ph.d. in Germany before returning to Harvard in 1819.

Everett was unusual for a 19th century scholar in his having aspirations beyond campus.  He  left teaching to serve five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1825-1835); four (one year) terms as the Massachusetts governor (1836-1839); four years as ambassador to England (1841-1845); Secretary of State  under President Millard Fillmore; one term   in the U.S. Senate (1854-1860)

In the mid 1840s, he took a break from politics to serve as Harvard's  rsident.

A Remarkable Man.  Maj. Charles Winchester Would Be So Proud.  --Old Secesh

RoadTrippin'-- Part 14: In Politics He was, Then Wasn't, Then Was, Last Then First

After Francis E. Warren made his fortune, he went on to get involved in the politics of early Wyoming.  He served twice in the Wyoming Territorial Senate and once as senate president.    He was a member of the Cheyenne City Council (1873-1874),  treasurer of the state on several occasions,  and Mayor of Cheyenne in 1885.

In February  1885, he was appointed Governor of Wyoming Territory by President Chester A. Arthur, but was removed by Democrat  President Grover Cleveland in 1886.  He was reappointed by President  Benjamin Harrison in April 1889 and served until 1890, when he was elected as the State of Wyoming's first governor.

In November 1890, he resigned as governor, having been elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican and served until March 4, 1893, when he resumed his business affairs  However, two years later, he returned to the U.S. Senate and served from March 4, 1895 to his death on November 24, 1929.

With all his seniority in the Senate, he served on and chaired many committees including Irrigation, Claims, Military Affairs, Agriculture and Forestry and Appropriations.  The man clearly had a lot of power.

(Of course, I have to wonder what all this power might have affected the military career of John Pershing and why he received that Medal of Honor so long after the war.)

I have read that he was really good at pork barrel politics and patronage and built a political machine  that was virtually unbeatable.

When he died in 1929, he was the last Civil War veteran to serve in the U.S. Senate and the longest-serving senator at the time.

Way to Accumulate Power.  --Old Secesh