How Did Horace Mann Contribute To Government

Horace Mann – Part 1

HIST 17B

Huy Nguyen

2/21/2017

Born on May 4, 1763 in Franklin, Massachusetts, Horace Mann grew up to be a Whigs politician of great intellect, dedicated to the progression of modern society in the United States. In his many endeavors with politics, he strove to be an educational reformer and became a Secretary to the Massachusetts Board of Education in the year 1837 before shortly becoming a United States representative in 1848. Horace was a man of firm ideals who believed in the abolishment of slavery, the integration of religious morals in public schools rather than educating theological aspects of it, and the universality of education towards everyone including immigrants in America. In his early childhood, Horace was born into a less fortunate household. His father worked the fields as a farmer and suffice to say, they were no stranger to financial hardships. Horace was very resourceful as a result of his upbringing and met
his educational goals utilizing the town library to great effect. At the age of 20, he was able to enroll at Brown University where he eventually graduated as a valedictorian and began practicing law. Shortly after his studies, he relocated to Boston where he was elected by the town of Dedham as a lawyer to the Massachusetts General Court. During his time in the General Court, he strove to support the mentally ill and their standard of living through the construction of state hospitals. During his time in Boston he further solidified his Unitarian beliefs through many friendships with individuals who held the same values such as Theodore Parker and Mary Peabody, whom the latter would eventually become his betrothed, but the union was not to last as Mary died shortly after.
During the year 1837 when he was elected as the Secretary to the Massachusetts Board of Education, he was an instrumental component in reforming public schools through a set of ideals he believed in.
One of Horace’s belief was the separation of religion and politics, and he advocated for an educational system based on the aggregation of humanity and moral standards that are prevalent in Christian teachings. In doing so, Mann was heavily criticized by both ends of the spectrum. On one side, they argued that Mann’s method in derailing religion within the educational made him an anti-Christian in a sense, while others were convinced that this was nothing more than a deliberate attempt for Mann to further his own agenda in his own belief of a single god and the inner workings of the human mind. The educational system flourished under his administration as the generalization of his principles in teaching didn’t fall too much on the conservative side, but it also did not skew away too far towards liberal
ideals.
After three whole years of working within the Board of Education as a Secretary, he became a U.S. House of Representative in 1848 through the process of election as well as the death of John Quincy Adams, which provided an opening seat. During his time as secretary, he firmly believed in the abolishment of slavery, and wanted nothing more than to rid it from the country. Even while working to expunge the country’s inequality on African Americans, he still spoke out about the importance of education and its effects in advancing this country and its people towards liberation and prosperity. He mentions in one of his quote that “slavery would abolish education, if it should invade a free state; education would abolish slavery, if it could invade a free state,” meaning that without the integration of academic standards within the school system, the country will not progress and there will be little advancement to be made towards a fair nation.