Edward Everett, best known as an orator and public servant, was one of the first New Englanders to study the new German literature, philosophy, and theology at the University of Göttingen from 1815 to 1819. Unfortunately, Everett grew increasingly conservative after the 1820s, abandoned his German riches, and distanced himself from the emerging Transcendental movement. Nevertheless, Transcendentalists such as
Ralph Waldo Emerson were inspired by his early encouragement of American literary initiative, democratic creativity, and active imagination in their own quests after “the strains of eloquence.”