US Congressman, Senator, Diplomat, 17th Massachusetts Governor, Presidential Cabinet Secretary. Although he had a long and varied political career, and was known as the most famous orator in his time, Edward Everett is most remember today as the speaker who preceded President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. An ordained Unitarian minister, he was elected to Represent MA's 4th District in the United States House of Representatives, serving from 1825 to 1835. Elected as Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1836 to 1840. Appointed as United States Minister to Great Britain by President John Tyler, serving from 1840 to 1845. In November 1852 he was appointed United States Secretary of State by President Millard Fillmore to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Daniel Webster, serving until March 1853. Elected as a Senator from Massachusetts to the United States Senate, serving from 1852 to 1853. In 1860 he was the Constitutional Unionist Party's Vice-Presidential candidate, appearing on the ticket with John Bell of Tennessee in an unsuccessful bid. In November 1863, at the height of the Civil War, he was invited to be the principal speaker at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery on the Gettysburg Battlefield. He spoke to a gathered throng of people for two hours before giving way to President Lincoln, who proceeded to give his immortal "Gettysburg Address", which only lasted a few minutes. Edward Everett immediately grasped the greatness of President Lincoln's speech, and in a letter to the President afterward stated "I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes". He died in Boston, Massachusetts in January 1865, a few months before the end of the Civil War. His letter to Abraham Lincoln was donated to the Library of Congress in 1923 by Robert Todd Lincoln, where is archived today. His son, William Everett, served as a Congressman from Massachusetts.