EVERETT 799 tion of the existing political systems of Europe. Upon his return home, in 1819, he entered upon the duties of his professorship, and de- livered to the students a series of lectures upon Greek literature and ancient art, which were afterward repeated before large audiences in Boston. He also became editor of the " North American Review," which he conducted till 1824, contributing to it about 50 articles, to which may be added about 60 more contributed while the " Review " was edited by his brother and others succeeding him. He also prepared a translation of Buttmann's Greek grammar, and a Greek reader based upon that of Jacobs. In 1824 he delivered a discourse before the Phi Beta Kappa society on the " Circumstances favorable to the Progress of Literature in America," at which Lafayette sat by his side. This was the first of a series of discourses pro- nounced by him on public occasions, embracing every variety of topic connected with our na- tional history, character, and prospects, and combining in an eminent degree the peculiar charm of popular oratory with the substantial merits of thought and style. His public life be- gan in 1824, when he was elected to congress, and he served by successive reelections ten years. During the whole period he was a mem- ber of the committee on foreign affairs, and in the 20th congress he was chairman of that com- mittee. He also held a place on all the most im- portant select committees, and in every instance he drew either the majority or minority report. He wrote the minority report of the commit- tee on foreign relations upon the controversy with France in the spring of 1835, and took a leading part in the debate upon the subject. He made two or three reports on the claims of American citizens on foreigft powers, for spo- liations committed on our commerce during the French continental system, and continued the discussion in the "North American Re- view." He always served on the library com- mittee, and generally on that for public build- ings. In 1827 he addressed a series of letters to Mr. Canning on the colonial trade. Besides occasional elaborate public addresses, he pre- pared several articles of high merit for the " North American Review;" among others a paper in the number for October, 1830, in which the South Carolina doctrine of nullification is discussed and controverted. In the autumn of 1834 he declined a renomination to congress, and in 1835 he was elected governor of Massa- chusetts. He was afterward three times re- elected, holding the office four years, and was defeated in 1839 by a majority of one vote. The election of Gen. Harrison in 1840, with the appointment of Daniel Webster as secretary of state, led to the selection of Mr. Everett as minister plenipotentiary to England. The re- lations of the United States with England at that time were grave. The controversy touch- ing the northeastern boundary, which for half a century had been a subject of difference, seemed to have reached a point beyond which 307 VOL. vi. 51 an amicable adjustment was hopeless. The recent burning of the Caroline and the arrest of McLeod had inflamed the public mind in both countries. The case of the Creole, and questions connected with Oregon and Texas were also elements of irritation. American vessels had been seized and detained by Brit- ish cruisers on the coast of Africa. Though the settlement of the northeastern boundary m f t ! 16 Ore n question was transferred to Washington by the appointment on the part of England of Lord Ashburton as special ambassador, yet many important questions were left to Mr. Everett's judgment, unfet- tered by special instructions. Among the most important was that involving the con- struction of the first article of the convention between the two countries on the subject of the fisheries. He secured for American fish- ermen the long disputed right to take fish in the bay of Fundy, and procured the release from the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land of 60 or 70 American citizens convicted of participation in the Canadian rebellion. In the spring of 1843 he was appointed commis- sioner to China, with a view to establish com- mercial relations with that country, but he was compelled to decline. Immediately upon his return to the United States in the autumn of 1845, he was chosen president of Harvard uni- versity. He entered upon the duties of this new trust with characteristic energy and en- thusiasm, but ill health compelled him to re- sign the post at the end of three years. He afterward prepared a collected edition of his orations and speeches (2 vols. 8vo, 1850). He also superintended the publication of the new edition of the works of Webster, at his special request, and prepared an elaborate memoir, which was prefixed to the first volume. Upoa the death of that statesman, in October, 1852, Everett was appointed secretary of state, and held the office during the last four months of President Fillmore's administration. Du- ring his brief term of office he adjusted the perplexing affairs of the Crescent City steamer and the Lobos islands, prosecuted with energy the difficult negotiations pertaining to the fish- eries, concluded an international copyright convention with Great Britain and a consular convention with France, reviewed the whole subject of Central American affairs in their re- lations to the government of the United States and Great Britain, and induced congress to es- tablish a mission of the first class to Central America. A prominent question during hi% administration of the department of state was the joint proposition of Great Britain and France to enter with the United States into a tripartite convention, guaranteeing to Spain in perpetuity the exclusive possession of Cuba. This proposition was declined by the United States, in a diplomatic note drawn up by Mr. Everett. In 1853 he prepared an address for the annual meeting of the American coloniza- tion society in Washington, in exposition and
