Samuel Gridley Howe to Horace Mann, June 8, 1850

Boston, June 8th, 1850.

My Dear Mann:— . . . We depart on Wednesday next. I would I could say with a light heart, but I cannot; my heart is heavy and foreboding: its strings will break with my children tugging from this side the Atlantic.

To you, dear Mann, I know not how to say farewell. I never see you, seldom hear from you, and yet feel as though I was losing a very near and dear companion when I put the ocean between us. But I'll not think about it.

So at last you are down upon the Brazen Faced Thunderer;¹ woe be to him! Much is expected from you, by friends and foes. I overheard accidentally a pretty remark yesterday; one of the Thirty-one [schoolmasters], the leading spirit, was yesterday dining at Parker's near me; he did not see me, but I heard his remark in answer to some one who said, “Webster is down upon Mann, and there'll be a fight:” — “Well! I'll bet Daniel ’ll get worsted — that Horace Mann is a terrible fellow in a controversy.”

We are all so very anxious, we hold our breath; to-morrow morning I shall hear your MS. read, but no one else will, I presume, except William Schouler. I proposed to Sumner to have Downer, upon whose attachment to you I count as upon a natural law, and upon whose quickness of intellect I count as upon an axiom. But Sumner over-ruled.

I can hardly hope you will find time to write to me, but if you do I shall be glad.

Good-bye, God bless you,

Ever yours,

S. G. H.

_______________

¹ Daniel Webster.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 311