Edward Everett was one of 19th century America's most distinguished orators and statesmen. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1794, he had a remarkable career spanning education, politics, and diplomacy. After graduating from Harvard at age 17, he became a Unitarian minister before returning to Harvard as a professor of Greek literature. He later served as president of Harvard from 1846 to 1849.

Everett's political career was equally impressive. He served as a U.S. Representative (1825-1835), Governor of Massachusetts (1836-1840), U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain (1841-1845), U.S. Secretary of State under President Fillmore (1852-1853), and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1853-1854). He was the Whig Party's vice-presidential nominee in 1860 on the Constitutional Union ticket.

Despite his many accomplishments, Everett is perhaps best remembered today for delivering the main oration at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863. His carefully crafted two-hour speech was overshadowed in history by President Abraham Lincoln's brief but powerful Gettysburg Address delivered the same day.

At Gettysburg, Edward Everett delivered a sweeping two-hour oration that was considered the main speech of the cemetery dedication ceremony. His meticulously researched address provided a detailed account of the three-day battle, praised the valor of Union soldiers, contextualized the conflict within both American and world history, and emphasized the constitutional principles at stake in the Civil War. Drawing on classical references and historical parallels, Everett's oration employed the grand, ornate rhetorical style that had made him famous as America's preeminent ceremonial speaker. The day after the ceremony, Everett wrote to Lincoln, graciously acknowledging that the President's brief 272-word address had more perfectly captured the essence of the occasion than his own lengthy oration, writing, "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."

This fine sixth-plate daguerreotype was likely made in the early 1860s, around the time of his speech at Gettysburg. Everett died in January 1865 at age 70, having devoted his final years to raising funds for the preservation of Mount Vernon.