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1850 HORACE MANN, Father of American Education, Historic Autograph Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:700.00 USD Estimated At:900.00 - 1,200.00 USD
1850 HORACE MANN, Father of American Education, Historic Autograph Letter Signed
Autographs
Father of American Education Horace Mann’s Response to the Divisive Slavery Issues of the Compromise of 1850
HORACE MANN (1796-1859). Considered the Father of American Education; President of Antioch College.
September 12, 1850-Dated, Slavery Related, Autograph Letter Signed, "Horace Mann," 1 page, 6.75” x 4.24”, Octavo, at Washington, written to an unknown recipient, Choice Extremely Fine. This Letter reads, in full:

"The intellect of the world must grow stronger, and its heart must grow purer, before the former can adequately comprehend, or the latter appropriately feel, the moral turpitude of the Bill, which the House of Representatives has this day passed, nominally for reclaiming slavery but really for periling the liberties of Freemen. -- (Signed) Horace Mann."
The “Compromise of 1850” was comprised of five statutes enacted in September that attempted to resolve the Territorial and Slavery controversies which were straining the Union between the North and the South. These tensions became especially acute when Congress began to consider whether western lands acquired after the Mexican War would permit Slavery. Adding more “Free State” senators to Congress would destroy the balance between Slave and Free states that had existed since the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

The five statutes called for the admission of California as a Free state; provided for a Territorial government for Utah and New Mexico, established a boundary between Texas and the United States, called for the abolition of the Slave trade in Washington, D.C., and amended the Fugitive Slave Act. The Compromise was possible after the death of President Zachary Taylor, who was in opposition.

Succeeding President Taylor was Millard Fillmore, a strong supporter of the Compromise. It temporarily defused sectional tensions in the U.S., postponing the Secession Crisis and the American Civil War. The various compromises lessened political contention for four years, until the relative lull was shattered by the divisive Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.