He was in the New York legislature in 1837, and subsequently, removing to New York city, opened a law-office, represented Queens county in the legislature, and the next year was an unsuccessful candidate for attorney-general in the first Republican canvass that was made in New York state. He was again defeated as the candidate of the same party for the U. S. senate in 1857, and alter this event retired from public life.
MANN, Ambrose Dudley, diplomatist, b. in Hanover Court-house, Va., 36 April, 1801; d. in Paris, France, 20 Nov., 1889. He was educated at the U. S. military academy, resigned, was consul to Bremen in 1842, and was appointed to negotiate commercial treaties with Hanover, Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg in 1845, accredited to all the German states, except Prussia, for the same object in 1847, and became commissioner to Hungary in 1849. He was U. S. minister to Switzerland in 1850, and negotiated a reciprocity treaty. On returning home he became assistant secretary of state, serving till 1856. Having devoted himself especially to the development of the material interests of the southern states, he was sent to Europe by the Confederate government on a special mission, in which he was subsequently joined by John Slidell and James M. Mason. After the civil war he resided in France, where he was engaged in the preparation of his “Memoirs,” which are now ready for publication.
MANN, Cyrus, clergyman, b. in Orford, N. H., 3 April, 1785; d. in Stoughton, Mass., 9 Feb., 1859. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1806, and was tutor there in 1809-'14. He was pastor of a Congregational church in Westminster, Mass., in 1815-41, at Plymouth for the next three years, and in 1853-'6 officiated at North Falmouth, Mass. He published “An Epitome of the Evidences of Christianity,” “History of the Temperance Reformation,” and “Memoir of Myra W. Allen.”
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
