Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf
Page Number: 42

8 

ESPINOZA v. MONTANA DEPT. OF REVENUE 

ALITO, J., concurring 

daily reading from the King James Bible, a curriculum that,
Mann said, let the book “speak for itself.”  4 Life and Works 
of Horace Mann 312 (1891) (Mann’s 12th annual report on
the Massachusetts schools; emphasis deleted).  Yet it was 
an affront to many Christians and especially Catholics, not 
to mention non-Christians.11 

Mann’s goal was to “Americanize” the incoming Catholic 
immigrants. 
In  fact,  he  and  other  proponents  of  the
common-school movement used language and made insinu-
ations that today would be considered far more inflamma-
tory. 
In  his  10th  annual  report  on  the  Massachusetts
schools, Mann described the State as “parental,” assuming
the responsibility of weaning children “[f ]or the support of 
the poor, nine-tenths of whose cost originate with foreigners 
or come from one prolific vice,” meaning alcohol.  4 Life and 
Works of Horace Mann, at 132, 134 (emphasis deleted).  In 
other  writing,  he  described  the  common-school  movement 
as “ ‘laboring to elevate mankind into the upper and purer 
regions of civilization, Christianity, and the worship of the 
true God; all those who are obstructing the progress of this
cause are impelling the race backwards into barbarism and 
idolatry.’ ”    Glenn  171–172  (quoting  an  1846  article  by
Mann in the Common School Journal). 

These  “obstructers”  were  Catholic  and  other  religious
groups  and  families  who  objected  to  the  common  schools’ 
religious programming, which, as just seen, was not neutral 
on matters of religion.  Objections met violent response.  In 
Massachusetts  and  elsewhere,  Catholic  students  were 
beaten  and  expelled  for  refusing  to  read  from  the  King 
James Bible.12  In New York, a mob destroyed the residence 
of Bishop John Hughes, who had argued that, if the State 

—————— 

11 See Glenn 166; Lain, God, Civic Virtue, and the American Way: Re-

constructing Engel, 67 Stan. L. Rev. 479, 487–488 (2015). 

12 See Jeffries & Ryan 300.