The discovery and colonization of America, and immigration to the United States
Everett is best known for delivering the keynote speech at the dedication of Gettysburg Cemetery immediately preceding Lincoln's famous address. However, he was already an accomplished politician, having served as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts, Governor of Massachusetts, U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom, President of Harvard University, U.S. Secretary of State, and a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. In this lecture, Everett lays out the now familiar myth of America’s discovery by Columbus in 1492, European colonization, the Revolution, westward expansion, and large-scale immigration to take advantage of opportunities afforded by the new nation. He estimates “that there are living at the present day in the United States five millions of persons, foreigners who have immigrated since 1790, and their descendants.” Everett compares the influx of immigrants to the centuries of migration during the Roman Empire but concludes that “The immigrants to America from all countries come to cast in their lot with the native citizens, and to share with us this great inheritance of civil and religious liberty.”
Edward Everett (1794-1865).
The Discovery and Colonization of America, and Immigration to the United States: a Lecture Delivered before the New York Historical Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1853.
Lehigh University Catalog Record: https://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/asa/Record/259344
A version of this text has been digitized and is available through the Internet Archive.