Congressman Horace Mann to Theodore Parker, August 10, 1852

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 1852.

REV. THEO. PARKER.

MY DEAR SIR, — I hope you did not think the two queries which I put to Mrs. Mann imposed any necessity on you to write an answer; though I am so glad to hear from you, that I might be tempted to use means a little irregular for that end.

I sent the question about Gen. Scott's supposititious policy because I think justice to be the highest policy. I know you think so too. It being my belief that Scott is an anti-war man and an anti-annexation man, I think it wrong, or rather it would be very wrong in me, to intimate the contrary. Besides, the tendency of all such statements is to put the two Presidential candidates, Scott and Pierce, upon the same ground; whereas I think their principles, desires, and purposes are very diverse. I know there is little if any difference in the platforms; but there may be all the difference there is between life and death in two pilots, though both profess to steer by the same chart. One may wreck you, while the other may get you safely into port.

A strong effort is made, by men who care more for democracy than for antislavery, to make it out that freedom has more to hope from the success of Pierce than from that of Scott; but this I believe to be a great mistake, and I do not think the argument ingenuous.

As to the amount of the Free-soil vote, it must be remembered, that, in 1848, New York alone gave one hundred and twenty thousand votes for Van Buren. Now, if she gives fifty thousand, I shall be agreeably disappointed.

Our loss of Rantoul is very great. I am also struck with exceeding sadness, because this is the second blow that our cause has received. Taylor's death let in the whole pack of slavery bloodhounds, and they have wantoned in their power ever since. Will not Rantoul's death unleash another pack? I fear so. Nothing but my faith in God saves me from despair; for just now I can hardly "walk by sight."

H. M.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 373-4

Congressman Horace Mann, July 15, 1852

WASHINGTON, July 15, 1852.

I walked an hour yesterday, including sunset-time, on the southeast terrace; and a greater variety and variegation of the "fields of air" I never saw. There was no wind; so that the changes were merely atmospheric and chemical. But such rapidity of scene-shifting I never before saw. At every turn I took, a new celestial tapestry was displayed. There was no noise of ropes and pulleys; but the change was complete. The Gobelins could make nothing finer; but oh! for extent and rapidity of production, what are the Gobelins to the great Manufacturer? How I longed for you and the children! own personal pleasures or sufferings. But this summer there is nothing to engross me, and my thoughts fly home, morning, noon, and night. I see nobody, and live a lonely life, and, I fear, an unprofitable one. I am thinking all the time that it is the last summer I shall ever spend in Washington.

I see that Mr. Tallmadge of New York comes into direct collision with Mr. Webster's "retainers" in Boston. He made a public speech in New-York City the evening of the day that Mr. Webster passed through there. In that speech, he said he had seen Mr. Webster that day, who told him there was nothing to be done but to support the regular nominations. This statement the "Boston Journal" says it is "authorized directly and authoritatively to deny." This brings out Mr. Tallmadge, who re-affirms his statement. The truth is, Webster is so deeply wounded he cannot get cured. He would rather defeat everybody than be thus set aside himself.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 374-5

Congressman Horace Mann, July 16, 1852

JULY 16.

Miss Beecher prays, if I want any more comfort in this life, that I will not try to build up a college at the West, and says Mr. Stowe held up his hands in deprecation at the thought. So you see what persons who know about things think our prospect would be.

I should like to see Father Pierce anywhere, even in a picture; but still think that he and I, and such looking people, ought to let those who don't know us inquire how we look, rather than show our faces.

I see that some one, in a Maine paper, says he wanted to nominate Ralph Waldo Emerson for President, and Nathaniel Hawthorne for Vice-President; but, seeing they have such good men as Scott and Graham up, he concludes not to do any thing more about it. Wit ought not to run its head against a stump of any kind. That man forgot that both President and Vice-President cannot come from the same State.

I do feel homesick here. When I was here in the summer of '48, I had so much to do, that I had no time to think how I felt: I was still Secretary then. The next summer I spent here (1850) was the year of the slavery controversy; and I was too much alive to the immense interests at stake to have any consciousness of my

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 375-6

Congressman Horace Mann, July 27, 1852

JULY 27.

. . . I should like to see Rev. Theodore Parker move a table without touching it, directly or indirectly. Suppose what we call electricity is the motive power of the universe, embracing magnetism, caloric, gravitation, &c.; suppose the vital principle in us—at least the principle of mere physical life—is electricity too: may not an organized possessor of this principle be able to exert a force stronger than that which operates upon unorganized bodies, or one organized being be able to exert a controlling influence over another organized being? If so, why may not the battery in a man's brain overcome the natural gravitation of a table? I have seen a magnet, that could lift but a few pounds when acting alone, lift seventeen hundred-weight when a current of magnetism was poured through it. Now, if the brain could evolve this amount, why should not that lift according to its size, structure, &c.? This is all I have to say on the subject.

Kossuth designed to leave, as I suppose, in a way to secure privacy. As for his going incog. for any bad purpose, I do not believe a word of it; nor have I heard a lisp, to prove it, of any credible testimony. A report was sent abroad that he had gone without paying his debts. There could not have been a word of truth in it: a regular Hunker lie.

I agree with you that history is bad reading for children. What, then, must be thought of a great part of the Old Testament, which records as terrible crimes as any to be found on record? It is too terrible a world to make children acquainted with. It is said we must look back to get wisdom to direct us when going forward. I hope we shall soon get wisdom elsewhere, or be so far advanced as to need no past warning. Biography of the right sort of lives is the better reading for children. And science, and the elements of science, what can be better than that, where we do see God in his works? Here the mind will find its true discipline.

I send you a "Liberator," which has a communication from the reformed John Wesley, on the last page; also a speech of Mr. T. Parker's, on the inside. What can Mr. Parker mean by saying, that, if Gen. Scott is elected, we shall probably have an annexation of a "large slice" of Mexico during the next four years? Will the good gained by making a man out worse than he is repay the evil? Mr. Parker has been so much wronged himself, that he should be careful about wronging others.

In 1837, in a speech delivered in New York by Mr. Webster, he said,

"On the general question of slavery, a great portion of the community is already strongly excited. The subject has not only attracted attention as a question of politics, but it has struck a far deeper-toned chord. It has arrested the religious feelings of the country; it has taken strong hold on the consciences of men. He is a rash man indeed, little conversant with human nature, and especially has he a very erroneous estimate of the character of the people of this country, who supposes that a feeling of this kind is to be trifled with or despised. It will assuredly cause itself to be respected. It may be reasoned with; it may be made willing—I believe it is entirely willing to fulfil all existing engagements and all existing ties; to uphold and defend the Constitution as it is established, with whatever regrets about some provisions which it does actually contain: but to coerce it into silence, to endeavor to restrain its free expression, to seek to compress and confine it, warm as it is, and more heated as such endeavors would inevitably render it,— should all this be attempted, I know nothing, even in the Constitution or in the Union itself, which would not be endangered by the explosion which might follow."

What an apostasy has his been!

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 376-7

Congressman Horace Mann to Samuel Downer, July 27, 1852

WASHINGTON, July 27, 1852.

MY DEAR DOWNER, — What is said about the Pittsburg Convention? From what I see and hear, I apprehend the current of feeling in Massachusetts sets in favor of nominating Hale, rather than Chase. For any genuine Free-soiler this would be the worst policy. That nomination should be such as to cut into the Democratic party. Notwithstanding all that some of the Free-soil papers say about the equal proslaveryism of Scott and Pierce, it is not at all improbable there is the whole difference between the annexation and the un-annexation of Cuba, between the division and the non-division of California, in these candidates. How, then, can any real lover of liberty fail to give the scales such a turn as shall check slavery, and hold it at bay? Are not our Free-soil friends, in their zeal to help the fortunes of the coalition, misled on this point? You, who have great influence with them, ought to make that influence felt. I wish you were to be at Pittsburg. The nomination there made may bar slavery, or help it on. To-morrow, Sumner means to speak. He needs combativeness, which he has not got. Don't you think I could spare him a little of mine, with advantage to us both? He will make a great speech, be assured of that. He has all the material of all who have hitherto argued the question; and, besides, the greatest speech can always be made on the right side.

I am awfully homesick. The summer is dull: nothing is upon the tapis in which I take any special interest, and my heart is with my family.

With affectionate regards to you and yours,

I am, as ever, your friend,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 377-8

Congressman Horace Mann to E. W. Clapp, June 24, 1852

WASHINGTON, June 24, 1852.

MY DEAR SIR, — I left home on Saturday, stopped over Sunday in New York, and came on on Monday. At Philadelphia I heard the news of the nomination; and, when I arrived at Baltimore, the first men I saw were some of our Massachusetts Hunker delegates. Sadder-looking men away from a funeral I never saw. The Fillmore and Webster men composed a majority of the convention, and therefore had every thing their own way in the organization; in the Committee on Credentials, by which they let in all their friends, and shut out all their enemies, without reference to the fairness οr unfairness of their election — just as the Democrats did Rantoul; and also in the Committee on Resolutions.

But, when they came to the nomination, the antislavery and anticompromise portion of the convention prevailed; and, if they did not win a full triumph, their enemies suffered a terrible defeat. They withstood not only the Southern slavery phalanx, but all the influence of the Government, and all the mammon Hunkerism of State Street, Wall Street, and Walnut Street. . . .

H. M.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 370

Congressman Horace Mann, June 24, 1852

WASHINGTON, June 24, 1852.

When the Whig Convention nominated Scott, they killed off those who had been most clamorous for slavery, and therefore did a great work. Though not a triumph of antislavery sentiment, therefore, it was a defeat of Hunkerism at the North, and of slavery domination at the South. It was the first antislavery stand in a National Convention that has ever been successful. So far it is matter for thanksgiving and hallelujah. But it adopted the proslavery platform. This was effected by the union of the slavery men of the South, and the Hunkers or Fillmore and Webster men of the North. These together made a large majority; one hundred and forty-nine being a majority. All these men worked together in the organization for the Committee on Credentials and for the Platform Committee, and were, of course, successful. But, when they came to candidates, they split. Nothing could carry enough of the Webster men over to Fillmore, or enough of the Fillmore men over to Webster, to make a majority. A portion of each knew of the other, what all sensible and unbiassed men knew, — that the nomination of the other would be death to the party; and they would not defeat the party, even for the nomination of a favorite. Thus it was done, and thus it was not done.

There is such an infinite difference between Scott and Pierce, that all true antislavery men must desire the success of the former. About ten or a dozen Whigs from the South, and about the same number of Fillmore men, went over for Scott. This is all that could be meant by the South's supporting Scott or abandoning the compromises. They have got them in form, but not much more. The reason why they say Scott adopts the Southern platform is, that he accepts the nomination of the party that adopts the platform; and, indeed, his telegraphic despatch to the convention was, that he accepted the nomination with the platform. But as many interpretations can be given to the platform as to the Thirty-nine Articles. And, besides, the Whig Platform, though disgraceful to human nature, is not so black by many hues as the Democratic.

I read this morning the greater part of Kossuth's speech at the Tabernacle, New York. Is it not his greatest speech?

We are now taking the question, by yeas and nays, on the passage of a bill to give a certain quantity of the public lands to the old States for educational purposes; and it looks as if it would go through the House. I hope so with all my organ of hope.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 370-1

Congressman Horace Mann, June 29, 1852

WASHINGTON, June 29, 1852.

Mr. Clay is dead: he expired between eleven and twelve o'clock this morning. . . . Probably no public man ever had more ardent or more numerous friends. He was a man of great nobleness of heart. He has impressed his mind upon the policy of the country; an impress, however, which is becoming fainter every year. On the slavery question, he has always been far in advance of the people among whom he lived. Had he belonged to the North, he would have become an antislavery man, and not a treacherous or perfidious one like Mr. Webster. He has lived to see Webster die a moral death, and Webster sees him die a natural one. I have no doubt, such has been the secret hostility between them, that each is rejoiced at the fortune of the other. Rivals for public favor for so many years, their competition is now at an end. Both have failed in the supreme object of their ambition. Would that all politicians and all men would learn a lesson from so instructive an example!

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 371-2

Congressman Horace Mann to Mr. Combe, July 1, 1852

WASHINGTON, July 1, 1852.

MY DEAR MR. COMBE, — . . . My friend Henry Barnard, Esq., who for many years was Secretary of the Board of Education, either in Connecticut or in Rhode Island, is about to visit England and Scotland, partly on account of his health, and partly to see your schools. You have always been partial enough to affix a higher value to my services on the subject of education than I could honestly claim or fairly expect. If you will put double all the credit you have ever given to me, and pass it to Mr. Barnard's account, you will hardly do his extraordinary services more than justice. His mind is full of wisdom, and his life has been full of devotion on this subject.

You will have learned, before receiving this, the event of our party Presidential nomination. What an awful moral has been derived from the fate of those who have been false to freedom! Every one of those Northern men, who, for the last half-dozen years, have devoted themselves to slavery, have been set aside; and those men who suffered and indirectly promoted all the atrocities of the Mexican war, though against all their own professions, did, by that very dereliction from duty, raise up two warriors to come in and pluck away the honors they had forfeited their integrity to obtain. Was it not a just retribution?

There is all the difference between the candidates that there is between a hero and his valet de chambre. Scott, too, is an antislavery man. Pierce will be the merest tool of slavery.

The Democratic Convention was almost in toto a proslavery body, and the ultra proslavery portion of it prevailed in the selection of Pierce. In the Whig Convention, the antislavery element prevailed; so that, though the contest is implicated with other matters, and its real issues are somewhat obscured, yet, if Scott is elected, it will be a great antislavery triumph. It was the first time that the antislavery element ever prevailed in any national convention.

Mrs. Mann and the children have gone home. I live here alone, and, of course, forlorn. I hear from them every day, and they are well. With kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Combe,

I remain, as ever, yours truly,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 372-3

Congressman Horace Mann, July 8, 1852

JULY 8, 1852.

I see by the telegraphic report, that at a meeting of the Native-American party at Trenton, N. J., this week, Mr. Webster was nominated for the Presidency. This makes his position supremely ridiculous. It is an insignificant party, founded on the narrow basis of being born in America or out of it. If Mr. Webster does not notice it, there stands the nomination to show his power. If he declines it, everybody will laugh at him.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 373

Congressman Horace Mann to Reverend Cyrus Pierce, March 27, 1852

WASHINGTON, March 27, 1852.

C. PIERCE, Esq.

DEAR SIR,— . . . I found I was doing no good here, and that it seemed impossible for me to effect any; and therefore I took a short excursion into the State of New York, in hopes to redeem a little of my time from worthlessness by preaching the gospel of temperance and education. I spoke on these themes to willing or unwilling ears for about twenty-five successive nights, and returned in better health.

I find people in the western part of the State of New York more alive to the importance of thorough female education than we are in Massachusetts. They are seeking to reach the true point, however, not by public and free institutions for all, but by private institutions for those who can afford it. I spoke on this point to some social parties, not in the way of a lecture, but of a private conversation, with liberty of catechism. At Rochester, a meeting was held for the establishment of a female college whose curriculum of studies should be equal to that of other colleges; and some very sensible and energetic women are engaged in the enterprise. At Lima, about twenty miles from Rochester, they have a college for both sexes; and I was invited and present at two or three social parties where the young lady-students composed a part of the company. They have here a preparatory school of some six hundred or seven hundred pupils, whom I addressed. At M'Grawville, a little farther in the interior, is another college, whose doors are open not only for both sexes, but avowedly for all colors. Another college, already largely endowed,* is about to be opened at Yellow Springs, Ohio. Sixty thousand dollars are to be expended the ensuing summer for buildings. This is established with especial reference to the education of females. (Confidentially, what should you think of your humble servant's complying with a request to preside over this?) I think the young ladies of the West are stronger, larger, and better developed in every way, than those in Boston and its vicinity. A few miles out of Rochester, I attended an examination of a boarding-school, kept by Mrs. Brewster, formerly Miss Bloss, the historian; and I think I never saw twenty young ladies together to be compared to that number in her first class. There was not an ordinary looking person among them; and twenty such foreheads I never beheld before "all in a row." I saw a great many intelligent and earnest people. Doubtless the character of my mission selected this class from among the masses as a magnet will pick out steel filings from sand, and brought them around me; but their existence and their affinities were the main thing to rejoice at. I advocated the Maine Law with the zeal of one crying in the wilderness.

I felt very deeply indebted to you for the pains you took to set me right in the matter of the Normal schoolhouse and premises. I was so much disturbed by the apparent course of, that I wrote him a letter of inquiry, putting the thing in a not unfriendly and uncomplaining manner, and making no reference to any sources of information. He replied at some length, solemnly declaring that he had never given any impression that the property belonged to the school, the Board, or the State; but, on the other hand, had showed Mr. Quincy's letter to all the people of West Newton and elsewhere who had any interest in knowing the facts. What think you of this? If his letter were by me, I would send it to you, that you might know how broad his denials are. It is enough to say they are as broad as language can make them.

As to politics, I do not know as there is any thing here that you do not know as well as we do. Congress does little else but intrigue for the respective candidates. The partisans are now so zealously at work for their respective favorites, that they have little time for assailing their opponents. As soon, however, as the nominations are made, the battle will be set in array, and the batteries will be played with Napoleon-like energy. I did not go to the North at all on a political mission; but still, where there was so much said, I could not but hear some of it. The hostility to Mr. Fillmore, throughout the northern and western parts of New York, is very intense. It is not merely an opposition of principle for his abandonment of all the great doctrines of freedom, but it is personal. The objections to Mr. Webster, so far as principle is concerned, are very much the same as those urged against Mr. Fillmore. As to the candidates of the other party, all you can say is, that one is as bad as possible, and the other a good deal worse. Any idea of getting a man who is as he should be is out of the question. I fear the only resource left us will be to get rid of the worst. But here you will say I touch on the expediency doctrine, which I shall not now attempt to discuss.

M. sends very much love to you both. If R. were here, I know she would do the same; for she has it in her heart. So has

H. MANN.

_______________

* Mr. Mann proved to be mistaken about the endowment of this college. - ED.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 360-2

Congressman Horace Mann to Dr. Edward Jarvis, April 24, 1852

WASHINGTON, April 24, 1852.

DR. JARVIS.

DEAR SIR,— I have just received your favor of the 19th instant, and the accompanying volumes; for which I am greatly obliged to you. If, as Adam Smith said, a man who makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before be a "public benefactor," of what honor is he worthy who diffuses ideas regarding health and life among the people? The doctrines of human physiology have come in just in season to save the race from destruction. Had their advent been delayed much longer, it is doubtful whether men would have been able to discover them at all. They might have gone, like our Western Indians, beyond the gravitating point. You have done your part to save them.

Political parties here seem crystallizing about Fillmore and Scott. Our debates lately are mostly on the Presidential question; but I don't think Mr. Webster's name has been mentioned for three weeks in reference to the matter.

What are you doing at home? From what I hear, the coalition is not making headway. If they are not, then I suppose Hunker Whiggery is. When Mr. Webster is dead, will Hunkerism die? I hope so.

You must see Kossuth. He has the best sort of greatness; that is, goodness. . . .

Yours very truly,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 362-3

Congressman Horace Mann to George Combe, May 8, 1852

WASHINGTON, May 8, 1852.

MY DEAR MR. COMBE,— We are on the verge of a Presidential election. Our political caldron is beginning to seethe vehemently. Macbeth's witches had nothing in theirs so baneful as that which gives character to ours. The political leaders desired to make it palatable to the South; and hence they have saturated its contents with proslavery. Even under the application of the three-fifths basis of the Constitution in regard to the slave-representation in Congress, we can give nearly two-thirds of the Presidential votes. Could we only unite for freedom as the South do for slavery, all would be well; but the lower and hinder half of the brain rules, and we do not. The acquisition of our new territory from Mexico, by robbery under the form of a treaty, gave opportunity for competition between our leaders for Southern support. Mr. Fillmore, the present President, goes for what is called the "finality" of the compromises, and makes himself acceptable to the South by issuing proclamations, and giving instructions to marshals and prosecuting attorneys to enforce the Fugitive-slave Law. Mr. Webster tries to get some new popularity in the same quarter by lauding the same accursed law, and by maintaining that it is not only constitutional, but "proper" in itself. The only Whig candidate who is not fully committed on all these proslavery measures is Gen. Scott; and towards him, therefore, the antislavery part of the Whigs are looking as their only hope. Portions, indeed, of the antislavery men, — the abolitionists and no-government men, who vote nowhere; the Liberty-party men, who will vote for no one who does not represent their views in full; and the extreme men, perhaps, of the Free-soil party, — are as violent against Gen. Scott as against Gen. Cass. This repellency of bigots and partisans seems to act on the law of the "inverse ratio of the squares of the distances;" for they are much more violent against those who almost agree with them than against those who are at the opposite moral pole. How the contest will eventuate, it is impossible to foresee. Should the Whigs indorse the "compromise measures " of 1850, or should they nominate Mr. Fillmore or Mr. Webster, or should Gen. Cass, if nominated, come out in favor of the “compromise measures," the Democrats will certainly prevail. There seems to be but one chance for the Whigs to succeed; namely, the contingency of their nominating Gen. Scott, and then of his non-indorsement of the compromises." Of course, the greater portion of the antislavery people are hoping for this result.

Another great moral question is profoundly agitating the people of the Northern and Eastern States: it is the question of temperance. Between one and two years ago, such a concentration and pressure of influence was brought to bear upon the Legislature of the State of Maine, that though it is said that body was principally composed of anti-temperance men, yet it passed what has now become famous, and will forever be famous in the moral history of mankind, — the MAINE LIQUOR LAW. Its grand features are the search for and the seizure of all intoxicating liquors, and their destruction when adjudicated to have been kept for sale. It goes upon the ground that the Government cannot knock a human passion or a depraved and diseased appetite upon the head, but it can knock a barrel of whiskey or rum upon the head, and thus prevent the gratification of the passion or appetite; and after a time the unfed appetite or passion will die out. The author of this law was Neal Dow, the mayor of the city of Portland. He enforced it, and it has worked wonders. The alms-house ceased to be replenished with inmates; assaults and batteries became rare; the jail-doors stood open; and the police officers held almost sinecures. The success was so great, that the temperance party in other States have made it an element in popular elections; and though in most instances they have been defeated at the first trial, yet they are resolved to return again to the contest. The Legislature of the Territory of Minnesota passed the law, but provided that it should be submitted to the people for ratification; and it has been ratified by a popular vote! And, what is still more important, the Legislature of Massachusetts, now in session, has this very week, after one of the most earnest and protracted contests ever waged, passed a similar law. It is to be submitted to the people next month. If a majority vote for it, it is forthwith to become the law of the State. If a majority vote against it, then it is to be suspended in its operation, and we will agitate anew. But this, perhaps you will say, is an heroic remedy for the evils of intemperance. I acknowledge it. But, when a disease becomes so desperate, I go for heroic remedies. I would resort to surgical practice, and lose a limb to save a life, or deplete the whole body to reduce a topical inflammation that threatens to be fatal. When I saw you, I believe I used occasionally to take a very little wine; and I sometimes, though rarely, drank tea. I believe I had left off coffee long before. But, for many years past, I have abjured wine, coffee, tea, and every thing of a stimulating nature. I confine my beverage to the pure element," and am a great deal better in health for the practice.

My whole family has been in Washington since the commencement of the session. How I wish you could come here and see them! for then one of the greatest desires of my life would be answered; that is, I should see you.

How goes on the work of educating in your island? I had a printed account of an examination in your school; but how is it for the million? . . .

Your friend and disciple,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 363-5

Congressman Horace Mann to Reverend Samuel J. May, January 8, 1852

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, 1852.

REV. S. J. MAY.

DEAR SIR,—It is now a long time since I have received any copies of your shots at Mr. C. So I suppose the war is ended. I did not see his articles; but, from yours, I should suppose you had much the better of him, both in temper and logic. It is curious that you should propose to engage my professional services for your defence in a case arising out of the Fugitive-slave Law, and that so soon my own writings on the subject should require legal defence. I presume you have seen in the "Commonwealth" that Mr. Commissioner Curtis has commenced an action for libel against Mr. Muzzey, the publisher of my speeches, on account of that Lancaster exhibition of himself. What do you say now to being my counsel? Are you ready to do as you would be done by?

I hope you see full debates of Congress—such as are published in the "Globe"—in relation to the reception of Kossuth. The whole opposition to him comes from the South, and from Northern Hunkers who are devoted to the South. The avowed opposition is based on the question of "intervention;" but the real motive is slavery. While they demand that one fugitive shall be fettered and sent home, they cannot bear to see another fêted and honored. You see the cloven foot; indeed, you can see nothing else. With best regards for your family, I am

Very truly yours, &c.,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 356

Congressman Horace Mann to Samuel Downer, February 10, 1852

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 1852.

MY DEAR DOWNER, - There is nothing of much moment transpiring here. Cabell of Florida, in the House, a few days ago laid down the Southern Whig platform, that no man should be supported for President who was not sound on the slavery question; and added, that though Scott, for every other reason, would be his first choice, yet he had not come out in favor of slavery to this time, and he feared it was even now too late. He was determined (Cabell) never to be caught by another Taylor. Murphy, from Georgia, followed on the Democratic side, and prescribed very much the same creed for the Democrats that Cabell had for the Whigs. So you see the bold stand the South is taking. June, they will act up to it. succumb?

They will talk up to it now. Next

Will not both parties at the North

Dismy of Ohio, in the same debate, on being taunted for voting against the Fugitive-slave Law, said he did it because it was not stringent enough!

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 356-7

Congressman Horace Mann, 1852

DANSVILLE, N. Y., 1852.

I have seen only the most meagre account of D——'s and R——'s speeches. I do not see how D—— can come out without being battered and shattered to pieces. Nor ought he to. I think he has been false to great principles, though with such palliations as apostates always find. I think posterity does not look at crimes as the traitors themselves do. With the latter it may not be unmitigated and untempted crime. They have their excuses, their subterfuges, and their casuistry. Görgey doubtless disguised his treason to himself under some plea of benefit to his nation. It is a known fact, that Arnold stoutly contended that he desired to confer a benefit on his country as the motive of his treachery. Judas probably made himself believe that the interests of religion demanded the surrender of his Master. Even Mr. Webster talks to this day as if, in sacrificing the immortal principles of liberty, he had only the good of the Union in view. But when the occasion has passed by, when the event is far removed into the past, then the palliations and the pretexts are lost sight of; and only the black, fatal, damning guilt remains for the detestation and abhorrence of men.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 357

Congressman Horace Mann to Reverend Cyrus Pierce, February 13, 1852

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 13, 1852.

C. PIERCE, Esq.

MY DEAR SIR,—We heard from you authentically through our common friends, from whom we had a very pleasant visit; but directly we have not heard from you at all. We should be pleased to be remembered in your thoughts, and now and then to have an hour of your time; but the claims of old friendship perhaps belong to that class of imperfect obligations which cannot be enforced against the will of the party. Let me assure you, however, that you have no truer friends, no warmer admirers, than Mrs. M—— and R——, to say nothing of the gentleman who first knew you when your fame was insular, and who adhered to you through all seasons and at all times, until it became continental, ay, co-extensive with civilization.

To say that the political aspect of things here is not the worst possible, is about all the praise you can give it. A politician does not sneeze without reference to the next Presidency. All things are carried to that tribunal for decision. The greatest interests and the worst passions are assayed for this end, and their value determined accordingly. The next canvass will doubtless be the most corrupt and corrupting one ever witnessed in this country. It is the general opinion here that there is but one Whig who can by any possibility be elected,—Gen. Scott. The Democrats will triumph over every one else, whoever their candidate may be,—perhaps over him, should he be nominated. I believe Gen. Scott to be a very honorable, high-minded man,—a man of rare talents and attainments. On the other hand, I believe the man whom the people universally call "Old Sam Houston," alias "Old San Jacinto," to be a man of incomparably more character, honesty, and resolution than any other of the Democratic candidates.

Unwell as I am here,—for we made a very respectable hospital here for the last twelve weeks,—I am going to try a little rustication at the North.

I hope to attend the great Temperance Banquet at New York on Wednesday evening next. I am also engaged to deliver a temperance lecture in the same city on Tuesday evening. Indeed, I am to speak four successive evenings, from Tuesday to Friday inclusive; hoping by that means to improve my digestion. After that, I have some idea of going up to see brother May at Syracuse, and congratulate him for the hundredth time that he was not hung in Massachusetts with that dreadful malefactor who included three capital crimes in one act. I think I have told you that story, and have seen you laugh at the predicament in which your brother May might have been placed. It is sometimes very strange how serious people will laugh at serious things. I wish you could meet me at New York or Syracuse, or elsewhere on the way, and let me look again upon that good old horologue whose machinery keeps such excellent time, however much the case may have been battered.

You must see Kossuth, at any expense of ribs or toes; for he will warm your heart. Many of his admirers think him perfect. His enemies will probably succeed in finding foibles enough in his character to prove him human.

Your sincere friend,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 357-9

Congressman Horace Mann, March 1, 1851

NEW YORK, March 1, 1851.

I had a call this morning from a man who wishes to get a grant from Government, and so he is civil to me. It gave me just the feeling I used to have at the selfish civilities of many Boston men, when I was in our Legislature, who used to coax and pet and flatter me, and tell me what fine speeches I made, and make me dine, and force me to drink their wine (for I had not then the full grace of a teetotaler); but as soon as I left that presidency, and became an educationist, they knew me no longer.

The ice on the Susquehanna seemed perfectly strong, and I was not afraid to go where I saw the baggage-cars go. I wished you could have been clairvoyant enough to see me when I stepped on the hither shore; but we suffer in this life for our short-sightedness.

SYRACUSE. — I trust you will now be at ease about me; for here I am in Mr. May's home, and I am to remain here until Monday. He came to the hotel yesterday morning, and, like a true Hopkinsian theologian, made his free grace irresistible, and took me up here. He has a beautiful place, — as beautiful as ours: so I feel quite restored to old comforts again.

We had about ten speeches, and at least six of them were very brilliant. There was an air of boldness, of defiance even, against the crime, and its abettors and promoters, which augurs well for the cause.

Neal Dow, the moral Columbus, was there, — a small, innocent-looking, modest man of middle age, who looks as though he must have felt infinitely surprised, when, as Byron says, he waked up one morning, and found himself famous.

A mighty audience last night, I was told, — not less than five thousand people. I had only a music-stand to put my lecture upon, and was obliged to stand one side of it, a rascally arrangement! Had I not had your plain handwriting, I could not have got along at all: so I thought of you continually, as you helped every sentence out of my mouth. I think of that cough of George's. Do I hear it? or is it imagination?

The temperance camp is all astir. I have just been invited to deliver another temperance lecture before I leave the city.

Dear H. and G., — did I hear my little boys speaking last night with singing voices like birds, and showing glad eyes and smiling faces? or was it a dream?

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 347-8

Congressman Horace Mann to Charles Sumner, April 1851

WASHINGTON, April, 1851.

MY DEAR SUMNER, — Laus Deo! Good, better, best, better yet! By the necessity of the case, you are now to be a politician, — an honest one. Scores have asked whether you would be true. I have underwritten to the amount of forty reputations.

Yours truly,

HORACE MANN.*

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* This note was written on occasion of Mr. Sumner's election to the Senate.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 348

Congressman Horace Mann to the Young Men's Debating Society, 111 Bowery, New York,* June 16, 1851

WEST NEWTON, Monday, June 16, 1851.

I am very glad to be made acquainted with the existence of your society, and feel highly honored by your request for a word of encouragement and counsel.

I have an inexpressible interest in young men, and wish I could live my life over again, that I might cause less of evil and more of good than I have done. But life is a book of which we can have but one edition: as it is first prepared, it must stand forever. Let each day's action, as it adds another page to the indestructible volume, be such that we shall be willing to have an assembled world read it!

You say you constitute a debating society. Will you allow me, as a friend, to make one remark on the subject of the choice of subjects, and another upon your habit of treating them?

I would recommend that you choose topics for discussion which are, as far as possible, both theoretic and practical. The theoretic will exercise your speculative faculties, which are essential to comprehensiveness, forethought, and invention; and the practical will cause you to keep continually in view the uses which may be made of your combination of ideas. Both powers will make the man, so far as the intellect is concerned.

My other remark is, — and I am sure you will think more and more of it the longer you live, — never investigate nor debate for triumph, but always for truth. Never take the affirmative or negative side of a question till after you have mastered it according to the best of your ability, and then adopt the side which judgment and conscience assure you to be right.

The mind is not only the object to be improved, but it is the instrument to work with. How can you improve a moral instrument by forcing it to hide or obscure the truth, and espouse the side of falsehood? If you succeed, you do but injure others by inducing them to adopt errors; but you injure yourself more than any one else. The optician who beclouds the glass through which he looks is a wise man compared with the reasoner who beclouds his faculties. Keep one thing forever in view, — the truth; and if you do this, though it may seem to lead you away from the opinions of men, it will assuredly conduct you to the throne of God.

With sincere hopes for your welfare, I am, dear sir, very truly yours, &c.,

HORACE MANN.

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* In reply to a communication asking his advice in relation to the best manner of debating.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 349-50