EDWARD EVERETT, GEORGE WASHINGTON & THE POWER OF ORDINARY GREATNESS
On Tuesday, February 23rd I’ll be at the Massachusetts Historical Society at 1154 Boylston Street in Boston. There will be refreshments at 5:30 with the Washington lecture n at 6:00. The event is free but reservations are requested.
Call (617) 646-0560
Richard A. Katula, author of The Eloquence of Edward Everett: America’s Greatest Orator(2009) will discuss the role of the lecture and lyceum movement in the years before the Civil War. Dr. Katula has served as Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University since 1990. In addition to his faculty appointment, Professor Katula serves as Director of the workshop on “The American Lyceum and Public Culture” sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Richard will speak of Edward Everett; I will speak for him.
Since 1997 I have been presenting “Edward Everett: The Other Speaker at Gettysburg.” My man is best known for his 1863 oration at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg which was totally eclipsed by President Lincoln’s brief remarks.
Dr. Katula regards Everett’s Gettysburg Address as his best speech but holds that his oration on The Character of George Washington was his most successful. Indeed, it had a most beneficial result. First delivered in Boston on February 23, 1856, Everett went on to repeat it 137 times around the country, in the North and South. He paid his own expenses and turned over all his earnings to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. This gift allowed the good ladies to purchase Mount Vernon which was falling to rack and ruin. Had it not been for Everett’s Washington address and his generosity, it is doubted Washington’s home would exist today. When he spoke, Everett hoped his words could hold the Union together and prevent a civil war. He quotes from a Jefferson letter to Washington: “North and South will hang together while they have you to hang to.” But to no avail; when Fort Sumter was fired upon — Everett ceased to speak.
As an actor, I’ve never felt comfortable in the 20th Century let alone the 21st. Who knows: I might have made a mark in the 19th? In any case, it is a joy and a privilege to recycle some small part of Edward Everett’s oratory.