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MANN, Horace, a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Franklin, Norfolk County, Mass.,
May 4, 1796; attended the public schools and prepared for college under a private teacher; was
graduated from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1819; tutored there 1819-1821; studied law in
Litchfield, Conn.; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Dedham, Mass., in 1823;
member of the State house of representatives 1827-1833; moved to Boston in 1833; commissioner
for the revision of the Massachusetts statutes in 1835; member of the State senate 1833-1837 and
served as president 1835-1837; secretary of the State board of education 1837-1848 and in this
position reorganized the public-school system; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams; reelected as a Whig to the Thirty-first Congress
and as a Free-Soil candidate to the Thirty-second Congress, and served from April 3, 1848, to March
3, 1853; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1852; declined the nomination for Governor
in 1852 to accept the position of president of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, and served in
that position from 1852 until his death at Yellow Springs, Ohio, August 2, 1859; interment in North
Burial Ground, Providence, R.I.
BibliographyCassara, Ernest. Reformer as Politician: Horace Mann
and the Anti-Slavery Struggle in Congress, 1848-1853. Journal of American Studies 5 (December 1971): 247-64; Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1972.
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