Discussion has been denounced as agitation, and then it has been dictatorially proclaimed that “agitation must be put down.” Sir, humble as I am, I submit to no such dictation, come from what quarter or from what numbers it may.
Horace Mann: “Discussion has been denounced as agitation, and then it has been dictatorially proclaimed that “agitation must be put…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann defends the right to discuss issues despite attempts to label discussion as agitation.
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Men of Massachusetts! moral and religious men! lovers of freedom and of your country, were you prepared for this?
The kidnapper, Alberti, now lies in a Pennsylvania prison for carrying away a mother and her child; but the mother and the child are now groaning under the lash of a southern taskmaster.
My instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, may all mislead; but from the first time, now years ago, when I heard this subject broached, my instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, have all been in its favor.
The man of independent circumstances has this liberty; and no man’s circumstances, not even the poorest and the humblest, should be so dependent as to take it away.





