Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Mann, Horace
MANN, Horace, educator, b. in Franklin, Mass.,
4 May, 1796; d. in Yellow Springs, Ohio, 2 Aug.,
1859. His father was a farmer in limited
circumstances, and
the son was forced
to procure by his
own exertions the
means of obtaining
an education.
He earned his
school-books when
a child by braiding
straw, and his
severe and frugal
life taught him
habits of self-reliance
and
independence. From
ten years of age to
twenty he had never
more than six
weeks' schooling
during any year,
and he describes
his instructors as
“very good people, but very poor teachers.” He
was graduated at Brown in 1819, and the theme of
his oration, “The Progressive Character of the
Human Race,” foreshadowed his subsequent career.
After his graduation he was tutor in Latin and
Greek in Brown, entered the Litchfield, Conn.,
law-school in 1821, and in 1823 was admitted to the
bar, opening an office in Dedham, Mass. He was
elected to the legislature in 1827, and in that body
was active in the interests of education, public
charities, and laws for the suppression of
intemperance and lotteries. He established through his
personal exertions the State lunatic asylum at
Worcester, and in 1833 was chairman of its board
of trustees. He continued to be returned to the
legislature as representative from Dedham till his
removal to Boston in 1833, when he entered into
partnership with Edward G. Loring. In the practice
of his profession he adopted the principle
never to take the unjust side of any cause, and he
is said to have gained four fifths of the cases in
which he was engaged, the influence that he
exerted over the juries being due in a great measure
to the confidence that all felt in his honesty of
purpose. He was elected to the state senate from
Boston in 1833, was its president in 1836-'7, and
from the latter year till 1848 was secretary of the
Massachusetts board of education. While in the
legislature he was a member and part of the time
chairman of the committee for the revision of the
state statutes, and a large number of salutary
provisions were incorporated into the code at his
suggestion. After their enactment he was appointed
one of the editors of the work, and prepared its
marginal notes and its references to judicial
decisions. On entering on his duties as secretary to
the Massachusetts board of education he withdrew
from all other professional or business engagements
and from politics. He introduced a thorough
reform into the school system of the state,
procuring the adoption of extensive changes in
the school law, establishing normal schools, and
instituting county educational conventions. He
ascertained the actual condition of each school by
“school registers,” and from the detailed reports
of the school committees made valuable abstracts
that he embodied in his annual reports. Under
the auspices of the board, but at his own expense,
he went to Europe in 1843 to visit schools,
especially in Germany, and his seventh annual report,
published after his return, embodied the results of
his tour. Many editions of this report were printed,
not only in Massachusetts, but in other states,
in some cases by private individuals and in others
by legislatures, and several editions were issued in
England. By his advocacy of the disuse of
corporal punishment in school discipline he was
involved in a controversy with some of the Boston
teachers that resulted in the adoption of his views.
By his lectures and writings he awakened an
interest in the cause of education that had never
before been felt. He gave his legal opinions
gratuitously, superintended the erection of a few
buildings, and drew plans for many others. In his
“Supplementary Report” (1848) he said: “From
the time I accepted the secretaryship in June, 1837,
until May, 1848, when I tendered my resignation
of it, I labored in this cause an average of not less
than fifteen hours a day; from the beginning to
the end of this period I never took a single day for
relaxation, and months and months together passed
without my withdrawing a single evening to call
upon a friend.” In the spring of 1848 he was
elected to congress as a Whig, to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His
first speech in that body was in advocacy of its
right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories,
and in a letter in December of that year he
said: “I think the country is to experience serious
times. Interference with slavery will excite civil
commotion in the south. But it is best to interfere.
Now is the time to see whether the Union is
a rope of sand or a band of steel.” Again he said:
“I consider no evil as great as slavery, and I would
pass the Wilmot proviso whether the south rebel or not.” During the first session he volunteered
as counsel for Drayton and Sayres, who were
indicted for stealing seventy-six slaves in the District
of Columbia, and at the trial was engaged for
twenty-one successive days in their defence. In
1850 he was engaged in a controversy with Daniel
Webster in regard to the extension of slavery and
the fugitive-slave law. Mann was defeated by a
single vote at the ensuing nominating convention
by Mr. Webster's supporters; but, on appealing to
the people as an independent anti-slavery candidate,
he was re-elected, serving from April, 1848,
till March, 1853. In September, 1852, he was
nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Free-soil
party, and the same day was chosen president
of Antioch college, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Failing
in the election for governor, he accepted the
presidency of the college, in which he continued until
his death. He carried that institution through
pecuniary and other difficulties, and satisfied himself
of the practicality of co-education. His death
was hastened by his untiring labors in his office.
He published, besides his annual reports, his
lectures on education, and his voluminous controversial
writings, “A Few Thoughts for a Young Man”
(Boston, 1850); “Slavery: Letters and Speeches”
(1851); “Powers and Duties of Woman” (1853);
and “Sermons” (1861). See “Life of Horace
Mann,” by his wife (1865); “Life and Complete
Works of Horace Mann” (2 vols., Cambridge, 1869);
and “Thoughts selected from the Writings of
Horace Mann” (1869). His lectures on education
were translated into French by Eugene de Guer,
under the title of “De l'importance de l'éducation
dans une république,” with a preface and biographical
sketch by Edouard R. L. Laboulaye (Paris,
1873). — His second wife, Mary Tyler (Peabody),
author, b. in Cambridgeport, Mass., 16 Nov., 1806;
d. in Jamaica Plain, Mass., 11 Feb., 1887, was a
daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Peabody. She resided
in Salem during her youth, and afterward lived
for the most part in or near Boston. During
her husband's life she shared in all his benevolent
and educational work, and her familiarity
with modern languages enabled her to assist him
greatly in his studies of foreign reforms. Her
writings, especially those on the kindergarten system,
with her sister, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, are
distinguished for vigor of thought and felicity of
expression. She published “Flower People” (1838);
“Christianity in the Kitchen, a Physiological Cook-Book”
(Boston, 1857); “Culture in Infancy,” with
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1863); “Life of Horace
Mann” (1865); and “Juanita, a Romance of Real
Life in Cuba,” published after her death (1887).