Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/818

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798 EVERETT EVERETT, Alexander Hill, an American di- plomatist and author, born in Boston, March 19, 1792, died in Canton, China, May 29, 1847. He graduated at Harvard college in 1806 with the highest honors of his class, although he was the youngest of its members, and in 1807 began to study law in the office of John Quincy Adams. He was attached to Mr. Adams's le- gation at St. Petersburg in 1809-'! 1, and after visiting England and France commenced the practice of the law in Boston in 1812. He contributed articles to some of the periodicals of the day, and wrote for one of the Boston journals a series of political papers sustaining the policy of the administration hi the war with Great Britain. In 1814 he was secretary of legation to the Netherlands, and on the re- tirement of Mr. Eustis from that mission in 1818, he was appointed his successor, with the rank of charge 1 d'affaires. During his resi- dence in the Netherlands he was a frequent contributor to the " North American Review," mostly upon subjects drawn from French lit- erature, and prepared a work which was pub- lished in 1821 in London and Boston, under the title of "Europe, or a General Survey of the Political Situation of the Principal Powers, with Conjectures on their Future Prospects." This work attracted much attention, and was translated into German, French, and Spanish. In 1822 he published at London and Boston a work entitled "New Ideas on Population," in opposition to the views of Malthus. In 1824 he returned to the United States, and in 1825 was appointed minister plenipoten- tiary to Spain. While at this post, as the rep- resentative of the only government that had then acknowledged the independence of the South American republics, he became the me- dium of communication between them and their mother country, and their virtual rep- resentative. Here he wrote a work entitled " America, or a General Survey of the Politi- cal Situation of the Principal Powers of the Western Continent, with Conjectures on their Future Prospects " (Philadelphia, 1827 ; Lon- don, 1828), intended as a complement to his former publication on Europe. This was also translated into German, French, and Spanish. He promoted the Spanish studies of Washing- ton Irving, who was an attache 1 of his lega- tion, and also aided Prescott in procuring ma- terials for the history of Ferdinand and Isabella. In 1829 he returned home, and for about five years conducted the " North American Re- view " as editor and proprietor. He defended in several elaborate papers the policy of a pro- tective tariff, and some articles, in which he reviewed the course and policy of the federal and democratic parties from a historical point of observation, are among his ablest produc- tions. He was chosen to the senate of Massa- chusetts in 1830, and continued a member of that or the other branch of the legislature for the ensuing five years. He had thus far been a member of the national republican or whig party, and had drafted the address reported by the convention which in 1831 nominated Henry Clay for the presidency ; but during the second term of Jackson's presidency, and after the proclamation against nullification, he became an adherent of the administration. In 1836, 1838, and 1840 he was an unsuccessful candi- date for congress. In 1840 he was sent by the government upon a confidential mission to Cuba, and passed two months at Havana. In June, 1841, he accepted the office of presi- dent of Jefferson college, Louisiana, but de- clining health soon compelled him to return to the north. He still continued his contri- butions to periodical literature, and a duode- cimo volume of selections from his critical and miscellaneous essays was published in Bos- ton in 1845, and a second series in 1847. A small volume of poems, original and trans- lated, was published by him in New York in 1845. In the same year he was appointed com- missioner to China, and set out for his post in July ; but on arriving at Rio de Janeiro his infirm health compelled him to return home. He sailed a second time in 1846, and arrived in Canton, where he was prostrated by disease. EVERETT, Edward, an American statesman, orator, and author, brother of the preceding, born in Dorchester, Mass., April 11, 1794, died in Boston, Jan. 15, 1865. He entered Harvard college in 1807, and graduated in 1811, at the age of 17, with the highest honors. While an undergraduate he was the principal conductor of a magazine published by the stu- dents, called the " Harvard Lyceum." He be- came a tutor in the college, and at the same time pursued his studies in divinity. In 1812 lie delivered a poem before the Phi Beta Kap- pa society on American poets. In 1813 he was settled as pastor over the Brattle street church in Boston, and immediately won repu- tation by the eloquence and power of his dis- courses. In 1814 he published a " Defence of Christianity," in reply to the work of George Bethune English entitled "The Grounds of Christianity Examined, by comparing the New Testament with the Old." In the same year he was chosen Eliot professor of Greek in Harvard college, and to qualify himself for his duties, in the spring of 1815 he entered upon an extended course of European travel and study. After a brief stay in England, he went to the university of Gottingen, where he re- mained for two years. In the winter of 1817- '18 he was at Paris. In the spring of 1818 he went to England, where he became acquainted with many of the leading men of the day, in- cluding Scott, Jeffrey, Campbell, Mackintosh, Romilly, and Davy. Returning to the conti- nent, he passed the winter in Italy, and thence made a journey into Greece, returning through Wallachia and Hungary to Vienna. During his residence in Europe, his range of study em- braced the ancient classics, the modern lan- guages, the history and principles of the civil and public law, and a comprehensive examina-