Horace Mann

To-day, in this boasted land of light and liberty, there are three million Caspar Hausers; and, as if this were not enough, it is proposed to multiply their number tenfold, and to fill up all the western world with these proofs of human…

Imagine, then, my strong revulsion of feeling, when the first set, elaborate speech which I heard, was that of the gentleman from Virginia, proposing to extend ignorance to the uttermost bounds of this republic,--to legalize it, to enforce…

There floats not upon the stream of life a wreck of humanity so utterly shattered and crippled, but that its signals of distress should challenge attention and command assistance.

And Doctor Howe, the noble-hearted director of the Institution for the Blind, lately uttered the deepest sentiments of our citizens, when, in speaking of our duties to the blind, the deaf and dumb, and the idiotic, he said, “The sight of…

Last year, the voters of Massachusetts, in their respective towns, voluntarily taxed themselves about a million of dollars for the support of Common Schools.

Add to your virtue knowledge, says the apostle; but here the command is, Be-cloud and be-little by ignorance whatever virtue you may possess.

Whoever intercepts knowledge, therefore, on its passage to a human soul; whoever strikes down the hand that is outstretched to grasp it, is guilty of one of the most heinous of offences.

Knowledge is essential to all rational enjoyment; it is essential to the full and adequate performance of every duty.

It is proposed to create a race of men, to whom all the lights of experience shall be extinguished; whose hundredth generation shall be as ignorant and as barbarous as its first.

From ten thousand confluent streams, the river of truth, widened and deepened, has come down to us; and it is among our choicest delights, that if we can add to its volume, as it rolls on, it will bear a richer freight of blessings to our…

Yet here, in what we call republican America, are fifteen great states, vying with each other to see which will bring the blackest and most impervious pall of ignorance over three millions of human beings; nay, which can do most to stretch…

Look into the statute books of the free states, and you will find law after law, encouragement after encouragement, to secure the diffusion of knowledge.

It exhibits itself in the statute books of the slave states, prohibiting the education of slaves, making it highly penal to teach them so much as the alphabet; dispersing and punishing all meetings where they come together in quest of…

This conscious idea that the state of slavery is a state of war,--a state in which superior force keeps inferior force down,--develops and manifests itself perpetually.

I will show that they are ever trying to degrade him into an animal, although they can never succeed.

No, sir; all the legislation of the slave states proves that they do not treat, and cannot treat, a human being as an animal.

What should we think, sir, of a teacher for our children, or even of a tender of our cattle, who did not recognize the difference between men and mules,--between humanity and horse-flesh?

Does not the gentleman know that, by the same authority, the Israelitish slaves were commanded to despoil their Egyptian masters, and to escape from bondage?

Hence, the state of slavery is a state of war; and though active hostilities may have ceased, they are liable to break out, and may rightfully break out, at any moment.

But this relation between captor and captive precludes the idea of peace; for no peace can be made where there is no free agency.

I deny the right of the captor to the life of his captive; and even if this right were conceded, I deny his right to the life of the captive’s offspring.

Wherever patriotism and philanthropy have glowed brightest; wherever piety and a devout religious sentiment have burned most fervently, there has been the most decided recognition of the universal rights of man.

Whenever we applaud the great champions of liberty, who, by the sacrifice of life in the cause of freedom, have won the homage of the world and an immortality of fame, we record the testimony of our hearts against slavery.

Whatever has been taught by sage, or sung by poet, in favor of freedom, is a virtual condemnation of slavery.

All the noblest instincts of human nature rebel against it.