Horace Mann

One of these places is the coast of Africa, which is among the most pagan and benighted regions of the earth; the other is the District of Columbia, the capital and seat of government of the United States.

There are now on the surface of the globe two conspicuous places,--places which are attracting the gaze of the whole civilized world,--whither men and women are brought from great distances to be sold, and whence they are carried to great…

In practice, we are where we were then; in spirit, there are proofs that we have gone backward.

Not a single ameliorating law has been passed.

This government, too, is the one which is most boastful and vain-glorious of its freedom; and if the humiliating truth must be spoken, this government is our own.

The priests of Persia declare the sentiment to have come by tradition from Mahomet himself, “that the worst of men is the seller of men.” Not only all civilized nations, but the half civilized, the semi-barbarous, are acting under the…

Denmark has abolished slavery wherever it existed in her possessions.

France has declared that any one who shall voluntarily become the owner of a slave, or shall voluntarily continue to be the owner of a slave cast upon him by bequest or inheritance, shall cease to be a citizen of France.

Great Britain has abolished African slavery throughout all her realms.

Prussia, and all the Germanic powers, with the exception of Austria, have been half revolutionized; and even the icy despotisms of Austria and Russia are forced to relent under those central fires of liberty which burn forever in the human…

Even the Pope of Rome, whose power seemed as eternal as the hills on which he was seated, has sunk under the shock.

A noble catalogue of rights has been wrested by the British commons from the British nobility.

Human rights have been recognized, and their practical enjoyment, to some extent, secured.

It was the clearest proof of the Great Teacher’s mission, that he had “a taste” for going about doing good.

But, sir, just in proportion as the light of civilization and Christianity dawns upon the world, will men be found who have a “taste” for succoring the afflicted and for righting the wronged.

Suppose these things, and in what a different condition would the charities and the sufferings of the world have been!

Seguin and others for training idiots, and for educing docility and decency, and a love of order from those almost imperceptible germs of reason and sense, that barely distinguish them from the brutes!

Suppose the Abbé L’Epée to have had no “taste” for teaching deaf mutes; or the Abbé Hauy for educating the blind; or M.

Suppose Miss Dix to have had no “taste” for carrying solace and comfort and restoration to the insane.

Fry to have had no “taste” for laying open the abominations of the prison-house, and for giving relief to the prisoner.

Suppose Wilberforce and Clarkson to have had no “taste” for quelling the horrors of the African slave trade.

The artist sees beauty; the philosopher sees relations of cause and effect; the benevolent man catches the slightest tone of sorrow; but the insensate heart can wade through tears and see no weeping, and can live amidst groans of anguish…

The image upon the retina is nothing, if there be not an inward sense to discern it.

The eye sees what the mind is disposed to recognize.

My argument will go to show, that, within the limits of this District, slavery ought not to exist in fact, and does not exist in law.