Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-04
HORACE MANN.

Horace Mann, whose unexpected death was
announced yesterday, was born in Franklin,
Massachusetts, on the 4th of May, 1885, He
studied at Brown University and graduated in
1919. He soon after removed to Dedham,
studied law in the office of James Richardson,
and practiced his profession for short time
Here he was first elected to the Legislature of
Massachusetts, and represented the town in
three successive sessions of that body.
Changing his residence to Boston he was
chosen in 1885 from the Suffolk District to the
State Senate, of which he was at one time
President
While in the Legislature, he devoted his
fine talents, and remarkable energy to the ac-
complishment of salutary and benefcent re-
forms the fruits of which we now enjoy. While
yet a young man, he was the first to bring for
ward the plan of the State Lunatic Hospital,
and by his assidious and devoted advocacy, to
secure its adoption against the strong opposi-
ton which every new and nntried scheme is
sure to meet in such body. And after its
adoption he assumed the chief care of plan
ming and experimenting the institution till it
was carried into successful operation What
ever good it has accomplished is due in no
slight degree to the humane forethought, and
energy of Horace Mann.
He directed his attention at nearly the
same time to the study of the common
school system of Massachusetts,, and upon the
establishment of the Board of Education in
1887 he accepted the office of Secretary, the
important and laborious duties of which he per-
formed for eleven years, in manner which
conferred equal lustre upon the Office and
himself. The system of school statistics,
and of elementary education now pur-
sued in Massachusetts, and adopted in
Mann, more than of any other. Leaving the Of
flee in 1848, with that respect and affectionate
regard which is always won in the conscien-
tious discharge of duty, he was chosen to fill
the seat in Congress made vacant by the death
of John Quincy Adams, to which place he
was twice reelected. In 1852 he was the Free
Soil candidate for Governor af Massachusetts,.
In 1853 he removed to Ohio, having been elect
ed President of Antioch College, with whose
various fortunes he was identified till the time
of his death. Mr.. Mann was twice married !;
his first wife was Miss Charlotte Messer, the
daughter of Rev. Asa Messer, D. D., for many
years President of Brown University his
second wife was Miss Mary Peabody of Salem.
In his public life, Mr.. Mann was the
most consistent and unselfish of men, Per-
sonal attachments, personal interests, personal
ambition he held second to his sense of duty
and of honor. Allying himself with the party
of freedom in the time of its dark and uncer.
tain promise, he continued its earnest and I'M
finching defender till it became power in
Massachusetts, to be consulted and to be fear
ed. His memorable controversy with Mr..
Webster in which he achieved signal tri-
umph, gave him peculiar prominence, and ex-
cited against him the most bitter feelings on
the part of the friends" of Mr.. Webster,
which they have not forgotten even after
both-the assaiant and the assailed-are laid
in their graves.
But frank, manly. and courageous as he was
in politics, it was in his relations to the cause
of education, and to the moral enterprises
which enlisted his sympathy, that he achieved
his most brilliant and enduring fame. For
these relations he will be remembered with
grateful sorrow by all friends of correct in
struction and of moral progress.