Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Congressman Horace Mann to Reverend Samuel J. May, August 4, 1851

WEST NEWTON, Aug. 4, 1851.

REV. S. J. MAY, — . . . Webster has debauched the country, not only on the subject of slavery, but of all decency and truth. Well, I have no doubt who will come out right ten years hence.

Very truly yours, &c.,
H. MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 350

1 comment:

Jim Miller said...

Samuel Joseph May (1797–1871) was a Unitarian minister, educator, and leading social reformer in 19th-century America. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard and later the Harvard Divinity School, where he became deeply influenced by liberal religious thought and humanitarian ideals. A lifelong advocate for abolition, women’s rights, universal education, and temperance, May was an early member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society and worked closely with figures like William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass. He served as a minister in Massachusetts and later in Syracuse, New York, where his church became a hub of anti-slavery activity, including participation in the Underground Railroad. A colleague and correspondent of Horace Mann, May promoted free, nonsectarian public education and helped shape early progressive educational policy. His 1869 memoir, Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict, remains an important firsthand account of antebellum reform movements.