The Coolidge examiner., 1933-11-10

1 Gettysburg made speech or exactly
A 4 272 words that has been called "a clas-
\ sic which win endure long as the
lbs Gh English language is spoken" And that
Ah / is one of the midest tributes amid the
HWHEt shower OF extravagant praise which
RZSNE has been lavished upon a speech in
which the speaker himself said "The
- world will little note nor long remem-
Der what say here" thereby proving
himself a poor prophet indeed. no matter how
great he was in nearly every other respect.
So much has been said about Lincolns Gettys
burg address and so much has been written
about it (including a 254page book about 272
word speech , it would seem that we Americans
who are proud to claim this masterpiece OF mod
ern English eloquence as the product of one of
our kind, would know everything about it
even down to the minutest detail. But ii is prob
able that most of us know little more about it
than the fact that Lincoln did deliver an i'm
mortal speech at Gettysburg few months after
the battle. and we have a more or less clear re-
membrance of some OF the phraseology of the
speech, beginning with the sonorous -Four score
and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
upon this continent new nation, conceived in
Liberty. and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal" and continuing to the
magnificent climax of that government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth" But beyond those things.
the average American knows very little about
some of the facts connected with the speech
which make IL one of the most amazing para
doxes in history
Most Americans know that Lincoln was some
thing of an "also RAM far the choice of the
committee in charge OF the celebration at Get
tysburg that day was concerned. They remem-
Der that the honor OF being the "orator OF the
day" fell to Edward Everett and that his one
hour-and-ffty-m minute speech has been forgotten,
while the three-mnute speech of Lincoln seems
destined to Immortality But even though Ever
ett's speech has been forgotten, how many of his
fellow -countrymen know that the man himself
was important enough in American history to de-
serve escaping the oblivion that has engulfed his
speech? So Ii seems worth while to devote lit
tie SPACE to him before continuing the narrative
of the event in which he played leading part
even though the honors of the day went to an
other man.
Everett was born in Dorchester, Mass, April
IL 1874 member of one of the leading families
of New England After several years of travel
in Germany and England he returned to this
country to occupy the chair of Greek literature
at Harvard and to become the editor OF the
North American Review. One of the earliest ex-
amples of the scholar in politics" Everett be-
came successfully congressman, governor Of
Massachusetts. minister plenipotentiary to Eng
land and. after brief interim president of
Harvard. secretary of state in President Fill
mOre's cabinet.
But his chief claim 10 fame lies in his being a
vigorous champion of American institutions when
1t was the fashion in Europe to sneer at our de-
mocracy, and an equally vigorous champion of
honesty in public affairs and of social justice.
He was a resolute opponent of white occupation
of Indian lands without the consent of the red
man. To him also was due the preservation of a
sound currency in the panic of 1887 and tbs es-
tablishment of the first board Of education il the
United States No mean record of accomplish
ment this and when there is added to them the
fact that at the time he was the greatest orator