Elias Smith : reformer, preacher, journalist, doctor. Horace Mann : Christian statesman and educator

ELIAS SMITH

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor

HORACE MANN

Christian Statesman a^ic^ Bducstor

BOOKLET— FIVE

J. F. BURNETT

Minister in the Christian Church

CONGREGAnONAL LIBRARY

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ELIAS SMITH
Founder of Religious Journalism

ELIAS SMITH

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor

HORACE MANN

Christian Statesman ancf Educator

J. F. BURNETT

Minister in the Christian Church

FOREWORD

This is one of a series of booklets prepared and
issued under the direction of the Secretary for
Department of Publishing of The American Chris-
tian Convention, that the members of our
churches and Sunday-schools may be well in-
formed as to the history and distinctive princi-
ples of

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
which accepts and proclaims :

The Lord Jesus Christ as the head of the church.

Christian our only name.

The Bible our rule of faith and practice.

Individual interpretation of the Scriptures, the
right and duty of all.

Christian character the test of fellowship.

The union of all the followers of Christ, to the
end that the world may believe.

Several of the booklets are from the pen of
John Franklin Burnett, D. D., who has given many
years of his life to research and investigation of
the subjects he presents. Others are by men of
outstanding ability who have given many years
of service in the Christian Church. They will
present the distinctive principles of the Christian
church as essentials in Christian life and the basis
for church unity.

While the booklets have not been prepared es-

Foreword

pecially for study books, yet the subject matter
presented can be studied with profit by the indiv-
idual, students, Christian Endeavor societies, Sun-
day-school classes, etc., particularly as a part of
programs for stated week-day meetings. It is the
hope of the Secretary for the Department of Pub-
lishing that they will be given by pastors to all
new members as they are accepted into church.
They are also intended for general distribution,
by pastors and religious workers in our churches,
to those who may be interested in the church and
principles of the Christians.

No. 1 is The Origin and Principles of the Chris-
tians with an account of the co-ordinating of the
bodies of different sections.

No. 2 is a historical and biographical sketch of
Rev. James O'Kelly, who courageously stood for
individual liberty in religious thought and wor-
ship.

No. 3 sketches the life of Rev. Abner Jones, a
pioneer in the thought that character and life are
the true test of religious fellowship as over
against dogma.

No. 4 is a sketch of the life of Rev. Barton W.
Stone, a scholar and religious teacher who advo-
cated that the Bible is the book of life, and the
only rule of faith and practice necessary for a
Christian, as over against any formulated creed.

No. 5 combines sketches of Elias Smith, pub-
lisher, and Horace Mann, educator.

Foreword

No. 6 gives sketches of the pioneer women
workers of the Christian Church.

That all who use these booklets judiciously may
be supplied, they will be sent free on request and
payment of postage, 15c. for one dozen, 40c. for
fifty, 75c. for one hundred. Order them from
The American Christian Convention, or The
Christian Publishing Association. Both are in the
Christian Publishing Association Building, Day-
ton, Ohio.

If the hopes and wishes of the Department of
Publishing are even in a measure realized, the ef-
fort and expense of the publication of the series
will be justified.

0. W. Whitelock,
Secretary for Publishing.

ELIAS SMITH

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor

"What care I for cast or creed?
It is the deed, it is the deed.
What for class, or what for clan?
It is the man, it is the man.
It is of love and joy and woe,
For who is high and who is low.
Mountain, valley, sky and sea
Are all for humanity.

"What care I for robe or stole?

It is the soul, it is the soul.

What for the crown or for the chest?

It is the soul within the breast,

It is the faith, it is the hope.

It is the struggle up the slope.

It is the brain and the eye to see

One God and one humanity."

— Robert Loveman.

"Noble souls, through dust and heat,
Rise from disaster and defeat

The stronger.
And conscious still of the divine
Within them, lie on earth supine

No longer."

The student of character easily discovers two
dasses of mind which stand in conflict to each
other, and which quite equally divide leadership
in directing society through its many changes.
The first of these are the conservatives, who see
all possible good in the days that have been ; who

8 Elias Smith

are satisfied with the attainments of the past ; who
seek salvation through its light, and regard all
innovations as perilous. Such ones have no place
for, nor patience with, the reformer. The second
are the bold, aggressive men who emphasize the
doctrine of progress, embody some new and revo-
lutionary idea which they persistently push. To
such ones the past is a gray old hypocrite; they
call it the dead past, liar, tyrant, thief ; they speak
of it as slow and stupid. The truth such pioneers
bring, they present in strong terms. They are
brave and fearless. They arouse, agitate, disturb,
change, rebuild.

To the latter class the subject of this sketch be-
longed, for the prominent characteristic of his
life and labor was reform. Though his spirit was
kindly, there were times when his words seemed
to hiss by the heat of his temper. This is ac-
counted for somewhat by the spirit of the times
in which he lived. He was bom in the town of
Lyme, county of New London, Connecticut, June
17, 1769, and was six years old when the em-
battled farmers met the English at Bunker Hill.
His youthful ears heard the "shot that was heard
around the world," and he caught the spirit of
what it meant. Even at that early age there was
born in him a hatred for Tories and Regulars,
which more or less influenced all his after years,
for in his old age he declared that though his
hatred for the Tories and Regulars had departed
from out his life, he still had an aversion to their

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 9

principles. There were times when he seemed to
have an aversion toward almost everything and
everybody. He says there were times when he
was mad at himself and everybody else. During
his life he developed an intense hatred for every-
thing ecclesiastical, from the title Reverend to
powdered wig and sermon notes that pertained to
the established clergy, whether Congregational or
Episcopalian; he could not long endure the toil
of the pastorate ; he loathed black clothes, saying
they were more fit for a coffin than for a man;
he was tormented with broadcloth coats ; he des-
pised the three cornered hats when worn by
clergymen ; he cast aside for himself all minister-
ial paraphernalia, and refused all ministerial and
scholastic titles; he felt himself hampered by the
doctrines he was expected to preach, and longed
for the liberty of the gospel ; he turned from Cal-
vinism to Universalism, and back again.* Any
proposed system of theology was promptly and
decisively rejected when sumitted to him; what
he liked one day, he might not like the next ; what
he taught today, he might deny tomorrow, except
those fundamental truths which he had discovered
for himself by searching the Word of God. From
these he never departed, and for them he had
no apology nor modification. To him the doctrine
of the trinity, close communion, vicarious atone-

*NoTE : — He was a Universalist the first time for fifteen days, when
he returned to his former belief. For a second, third and even a fourth
time he espoused Universalism for brief periods of time, and then de-
nounced it.

10 Elias Smith

ment, election and reprobation, were repulsive,
and he did not hesitate to attack them with terse,
crisp, fearless denunciation. He defined the min-
istry as follows : "Those whom God has made and
sent ; those whom men have made and sent ; those
whom the devil made and sent; those who made
themselves ; and those who never were made."

One thing should not be overlooked: When he
spoke he spoke in his own name, and in no other.
He did not give the opinions of sects or groups of
men, but his own. He held himself alone respon-
sible for what he taught. No man needed to listen
to him to tind what others taught. What other
men believed, was to him of little moment. He
listened to their arguments, but always felt free to
accept or reject, as his judgment might approve.
He rejected once for all the livery of all parties.
When he learned of a people that took the name
Christian, to the exclusion of all others, he was
glad, and joined them. The name was then un-
popular, but perhaps for that reason he accepted
it. Had it been the popular name, he might have
refused it. He shrunk from the narrow walls of
sect and party. He feared and refused the shackles
which parties impose. He did not regard himself
as belonging to a sect, but to a community of
minds that loved the truth, and sought to know it.
He sought to escape the narrow walls of any par-
ticular church, and to live under the open sky in
the broad light, seeing with his own eyes^ hearing

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 11

with his own ears, and following the truth as God
enabled him to know the truth.

The sketch of Elder Smith, as given in this
booklet, is not historical, and must be brief, and
confined to his character, and for that reason the
above facts are mentioned here.

Two incidents in his early life will indicate quite
fully the character of the man, who through all
his years decided quickly and acted promptly.
When he was about eight years old his mother,
who was a member of the Congregational Church,
desired to have him sprinkled. She feared that
his father, being a Baptist, might object. She
had, however, the support of a brother, who prom-
ised to aid her in her desire. His father, while
he would not approve of the act, promised not to
interfere, and to aid in having hinl go to church
on the occasion. When Elias heard of the pro-
posed sprinkling, he was greatly troubled, and
made up his mind that he would never submit.
On the day appointed for the christening he was
induced to go to church, for he much desired to
meet a cousin, whom he knew would attend. The
forenoon service was concluded, and a recess taken
between that and the one of the afternoon. When
the afternoon service was about to open, young
Smith espied a basin of water before the altar.
He inquired of his cousin what it meant, and was
told that it was for the christening, and that he
was to be baptized. Immediately he rebelled, and
started to leave the house. His cousin persuaded

12 Elias Smith

him to remain, promising him to open the door
of the pew if he decided to escape. When the min-
ister went down the aisle to lead the boys forward,
the cousin opened the door, and Elias made a bolt
for the meeting-house door, was followed by his
uncle, caught, dragged back before the sacred
desk, and, as he puts it, "so confined, hands and
feet, that I was obliged to receive what they called
the seal of the covenant. I felt," said he, "such
malice against the minister, and my uncle, that
had my strength been equal to my desire we should
all have been like Samson and the Philistines, with
the house over our heads." He says, "My mother
was greatly mortified at by stubbornness, and I
at what caused it. 1 wiped off what they called
the seal of the covenant in such a manner as to
convince all spectators that the compelled was
greatly enraged." From that day on Elias Smith
was a sworn antagonist of child sprinkling, and
his antagonism was open and forceful. A year
later he witnessed a baptism by immersion, but
took the precaution to do so from a safe and secure
distance, for he was fearful that he might be
forced to submit to this mode also. As young as
he was, he contrasted the two modes, and in after
years declared that he was well pleased with what
he saw on that occasion.

In 1782 his father, with his family, removed
from Lyme to Woodstock, Vermont, a distance of
a hundred and eighty miles. The larger part of
this distance Elias had to travel on foot, but he

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 13

says he enjoyed it, for the reason that he saw
*'new towns, large villages, elegant buildings,
magnificent bridges, lofty mountains and deep val-
leys." When they came to the place his father had
selected, and he saw the cabin he had erected, the
spirit of revolt asserted itself, and he determined
to return at once to Connecticut, and suiting the
action to the word, he started. He says :

* 'After going to it and taking a general view of
the house and land around, before the team came
up, I determined within myself to return to Con-
necticut— thinking it better to be there to dig
clams for my living, than to be in such a place. I
was disappointed, grieved, vexed and mad, to
think of living in such a place. Though I was
some over thirteen years, I cried ; part of the time
because I was disappointed, and sometimes for
madness. With this fixed determination to re-
turn, I went down to the team, and passed by the
team down the steep and dismal hill as fast as
possible. My father, observing my rapid course,
called after me, asking me where I was going ; and
commanded me to return to him. I feared to dis-
obey him and returned. He asked me where I
was going ; my reply was, to Connecticut. He or-
dered me to return. This order I obeyed, though
with great reluctance, as it appeared to me better
to die than be confined to such a place.

"The dwelling place stood on the north side of
a very large hill, half a mile from any house.
Around the house, as it was called, there were
twelve acres of land, that the trees were cut down
and lay in different directions, excepting a small
place where the house stood. There was no way
to look, to see far, without looking up, as the trees

14 Elias Smith

around prevented seeing any house or cleared
land, in any direction whatever. The house was
made of split bass-wood logs, locked together at
the corners. There was no floor to the house, nor
was there any roof to it. The grass had grown
up within these wooden walls, and there was one
large stump in the middle of the house ; to height-
en my trouble, as I thought, my father said would
do for a light stand. We made a fire by the side of
a log, cooked some dinner, and let our horse eat
down the grass in the house, before we prepared
it for a lodging place for a night. My father had
prepared boards for a chamber floor, and shingles
for the roof, but had not time to put them on be-
fore he returned. The shingles consisted of brown
ash bark, eight feet long, and from four to six feet
wide. We corded up our beadsteads on the ground ;
and before night placed over our heads several of
those large pieces of bark, and at night, without
any floor but the ground, having no door, with
a few pieces of bark over our heads to keep off the
dew, we lay down to sleep and all rested quietly
till morning.''

When only five years old he was greatly con-
cerned about his soul, probably influenced by the
Northern Lights, which at that time were visible,
and which many people believed a token of some
dreadful calamity. At the age of sixteen he was
converted, but many times afterward doubted its
genuineness. He had made up his mind, from
reading the Scriptures, that immersion was the
true mode of baptism, and accordingly was bap-
tized at Woodstock, Vermont, by a Baptist preach-
er, at which time he was received to membership

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 15

in the Baptist church. Soon after his baptism
his mind was greatly disturbed on the subject of
preaching. After much deliberation and resist-
ence he yielded to the call and entered the ministry
of the Baptist church. He preached his first ser-
mon in July, 1790. One reason for his hesitation
in entering the ministry was his lack of educa-
tional preparation. (His schools days ended before
he was thirteen years old). Subsequently, he at-
tended school thirteen days to learn grammar, two
days to learn arithmetic, and eight evenings to
learn music. He taught all of these in the dis-
trict schools with creditable efficiency. He was
ordained a Baptist clergyman in August, 1792, at
Lee, N. H. From that time on his labors were
incessant in the interest of the church to which
he belonged, though all the while he felt himself
in bondage. He traveled over a large part of New
England, and wherever he went he was greeted
with large audiences of willing hearers. In 1798
he was formally installed pastor of the church at
Woburn, by a council, among which were D. D.s
and M. A.s all dressed in black and wearing bands.
The whole proceeding was distasteful and loath-
some to the young preacher, and his soul cried out
in bitter protest, in a wail for deliverance, and
yet he was passive. The slavery was more galling
than ever, and yet he continued a member of the
church, and a Baptist clergyman. But inevitably
the tie was to snap, and his soul find liberty. By
the year 1807 his mind was fully made up to quit

16 Elias Smith

the ministry of the Baptist church, and he found
the courage to follow his conviction of duty. Of
this experience and decision he says :

*Tor many weeks my mind was greatly troubled
on account of the doctrine I had preached, my
connection with the Baptists, the situation of my
family, the trouble to be endured in consequence
of leaving that place, and my connection with the
church. By leaving them, my house and all there
must be given up; and I was quite certain the
most influential would be against me. My final
determination was to risk all the consequence of
being dismissed from what they called my pas-
toral charge. This was done in manner and form.
A committee was appointed to settle with me.
They owed me according to anti-christian bargain,
for preaching Calvinism, about one hundred and
seventy dollars, and I took their note for the same.
This v/as a sin committed ignorantly, which I be-
lieve is forgiven me, and which no poverty I hope
will ever persuade me to do again.

* 'Having settled my affairs in the month of Sep-
tember, 1801, 1 took my everlasting leave from in-
stallations and hireling plans, such bondage as I
had endured there, and sat out in a chaise, with
my wife and throe children, one of which was born
there, April 22, 1799; for Salisbury, N. H., and ar-
rived there in a few days."

His mental disturbance must have been severe,
for he says :

"At the time of leaving Woburn, it was my de-
termination to preach no more, if I could I'emain
in silence, choosing to labor hard for a living
rather than to be so tormented with the doctrines
I had preached, the bondage endured, and the cruel

Vol. I. THE No. HI.

Christian's Magazine^

Reviewer, and religious Intelligencer ;*

COMSISTINC OF SUBJECTS

Hhtorical.Doctnna!, Experimental, Pracikaly and
Poetical :—

BY ELIAS SMITH.

« Three Shepherds alfo I cut off in one month, and noy fou!
kathcd them, and their foul alfo abhorred me."

Zachariah xi. 8.

PORTSMOUTH, «, B.

Printed for the Editor.-^

Sold by him in Portfrnouth ; by Daniel ConaRt,

Bofton, No. 9, Backrtreet ; by Fierce and Trow.

bridge, Freetown ; Timothy Kezer, Kennebunk j

Jotham Cook, Main-ftreet, Portland ; Thomas

Trundy, Wifcaffet ; Uriah Smith, Wood-

ftock ; William Dana, Lebanon ; He<.

zekiah Buzzel, Gilmanton ;

John Williams, Haverhill ; Bar*-

nard B. Macanalty, Salem ^

and other Bookfellers.

1805.

fJEEALD OF GOSPEL LIBbE'i".

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Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 17

treatment of such as would be my friends when
bound to them, and enemies when free from such
bondage."

And later on he says :

**While meditating upon these doctrines and my
own situation, and saying, 'What shall I do?'
there was a gentle whisper to my understanding
in these words: 'Drop them both and search the
Scriptures.' This command was immediately
consented to; and instantly my mind was freed
from the entanglement before experienced, and
immediately I sung, 'Our soul is escaped as a bird
out of the snare of the fowler, the snare is broken
and we are escaped, our help is in the name of the
Lord.' From that moment, my mind was delivered
from Calvinism, universalism and deism, three
doctrines of men, which people love who do not
love holiness. These three things I had been
troubled with at times, for many years, but they
left me then."

In his distress he looked about for companion-
ship, and to his delight and surprise he found
others who, like himself, were struggling for light
and liberty. A number of them met at Sandbor-
ton, in the spring of 1802, and organized what
they called "The Christian Conference." The
membership was almost wholly of Baptist clergy-
men. Smith had written out a series of articles
setting forth his belief, which were read at the
meeting. In September of the same year "The
Christian Conference" met, at which time the ar-
ticles were highly approved, and arrangements
made for their publication. He says, "This was a
bold and important step at this time, for by these

18 Elias Smith

articles we (iondemned all others. The next step
was to diso^yn these, and hear Christ in all things."
Elder Smith had, previous to thi? time, deliberate-
ly concluded to disown all names but the name
Christian, and had taught that the name Christian
was the only one for Christ's followers to wear.
In the year 1802 he began his work in Portsmouth,
N. H., where in 1803 he organized a "Church of
Christ," owning Him as their only Master, Lord
and Lawgiver, and agreeing to consider themselves
Christian without the addition of any unscrip-
tural name. The Baptist churches at Brentwood,
Berwick, Madbury, and some other towns, were
asked to send their elders and chosen brethren to
meet with them, and see if they could give them
the hand of fellowship as a "Church of Christ"
according to the New Testament. They came and
organized a council, proposing to constitute a
church according to the order of the Baptists.
Elder Smith told them they need not do that, for
they were already a church, whether the Council
acknowledged them so or not. They agreed to
consider them a "Church of Christ" in fellowship
with them. Smith says. They thought we were
Baptists, though we were called by another name.
In June, 1803, Elder Abner Jones visited Ports-
mouth. Smith says that Jones was the first free
man he had ever met. He declares that before
Jones came he thought himself almost alone in
the world, though the Baptists thought he be-
lonofed to their faith and order. He was with

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 19

them, he says, in body, not having formally with-
drawn in any public way, and was then a member
of 'The Christian Conference." Elder Jones at-
tended several sessions of this Conference, but
w^ould not join it because of the articles of faith
which had been drawn up and adopted, declaring
them both needless and harmful. The church at
Portsmouth soon laid the articles aside, and at
Hopkinton in 1805 'The Christian Conference"
agreed they were useless, and that the New Testa-
ment was the only and all-sufficient rule for Chris-
tians.

It was at this point, and at this time, that all
barriers were removed and Elias Smith came fully
into the fellowship of the Christians, and the
Church at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, became a
Christian Church in the sense in which we use it
when we say Christian Church. The road over
which Smith traveled was long, rocky, and full of
thorns, but he traveled on, and reached the goal.
He believed that beyond the circle of all he knew
was the boundless area of eternal truth, and like
Columbus in seeking a new world, he risked his all
on the unknovv^n sea that he might find the truth
as it is in Christ Jesus, and he came to a safe port,
and anchored safely in the harbor of the sure
V/ord of God.

In 1805, Elder Smith began the publication of a
magazine. He named it *The Christian's Maga-
zine." A reproduction of the title page of this
periodical may be found on insert page of this

20 Elias Smith

booklet. It was published once in three months,
and paid for when delivered to subscribers, at
twelve and one-half cents each. In this publica-
tion he scathingly criticized the established min-
istry of the church, and their popular sermons.
He held a pen in one hand, and a battle axe in the
other. All that pent-up feeling against useless
forms, powdered wigs and church paraphernalia
now had outlet through this printed mouthpiece.
His hitherto trammeled mind simply reveled in
the luxury of its freedom, and riotously went
forth to kill and to make alive.

A Mr. Isaic Wilber, then a member of Congress,
proposed to Elder Smith to publish a religious
newspaper, through which to advocate religious
liberty. This proposition appealed to him, and
especially so seeing that Mr. Wilber offered liber-
al financial support, but it was promptly declined,
lest by accepting it he would abridge his own lib-
erty of utterance, and unpleasantly involve his
friend.

On September 1, 1808, he issued the first num-
ber of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, saying at the
time that it was the first religious newspaper of
the world. After a hundred years that statement
stands authenticated. Many investigations have
been made concerning the claim of the Herald of
Gospel Liberty to priority, all of which have con-
tributed evidence to the correctness of the claim
made by its founder and first editor. This paper
has had a continuous existence in fact, though

Reformer, Preacher, Journalist, Doctor 21

not in form, nor name, since its beginning in 1808.
It is now (1921) published at Dayton, Ohio, and
is issued weekly. Rev. Alva Martin Kerr, D. D.,
is editor, and Mr. Netum Rathbun is business
manager.

Elder Smith was untiring in the matter of pub-
lishing, including in his literature, pamphlets,
printed sermons, books, and working several
months on a New Testament Dictionary. Among
the contributions to the kingdom of God, the
church paper takes high place, and had Elias
Smith done no more than to give to the church
the religious newspaper, he would be entitled to
enrollment among the world's worthies. The re-
ligious newspaper ranl^s with churches, colleges
and philanthropies as an indispensable institution
to Christian progress. Not one of these could
live without the church paper. The conservation
and the preservation of the church's prosperity,
character and efficiency are in the hands of the
editor of the church paper, more than any other
one person. His opportunity is to construct or
destroy, to elevate or degrade, to build up or tear
down, to inspire or discourage, to unite or divide
the church. To have spiritual life there must be
interest, and to have interest there must be infor-
mation, and to have information there must be
communication, and to this last and all important
place the church paper has come in such a time of
need.

The church paper is the open avenue for official

22 Elias Smith

communication between conventions, conferences
and boards. The proceedings of our general con-
vention, local conferences, and various boards
would be known to a limited number only, were
it not for this avenue of information. And the
same is true regarding the fellowship of the
church. The church paper brings the entire
brotherhood into fellowship ; and without it, such
fellowship could not exist, the loss of which would
be incalculable. Then, too, it is the unifying force
of the whole church, and as such directs the energy
of the church toward one common denominational
purpose. Were it not so, much of the energy of
the church would be spent in the interest of such
diversified activities as to make any united effort
impossible. And it should be remembered that
the church paper is the most effective method of
interdenominational acquaintance and co-opera-
tion. The various denominations come to know
each other quite largely through their church pa-
pers, and it is safe to say that no one thing has
done more to break down denominational preju-
dices, and create a spirit of Christian unity, than
this denominational acquaintance one with an-
other.

Every week the editor of the church paper
speaks to thousands of hearers, and together they
speak to millions, and not one of them all who
does not owe a debt of gratitude to Elias Smith,
who, with a holy courage and a firm faith, went
forth in this line of Christian activity. Smith

Christian Statesman and Educator 23

did not have a constituency on which to depend,
nor a purse sufficient for his needs, nor an organ-
ization to back his efforts, and but few friends to
give him sympathy and encouragement, but with
determination that marked his every effort he
launched upon the great disturbed sea of human
thought, this invaluable avenue of information
and inspiration. As I write I am wondering if
there is one editor of today who sits in his easy
chair, in his well-furnished office, with its mahog-
any furniture, and its telephone, with its modem
typewriter and efficient stenographer, his errand
boy, and all the other conveniences which they
now have, ever has any real appreciation of the
man to whom the honor of giving the world its
first religious newspaper belongs.

But there is another field in which Elder Smith
served, and that, too, with zeal, and in which he
reached a high proficiency. He practiced the
''Thomsonian System" of medicine, and built up
a lucrative practice, and many remarkable cures
are accredited to his skill as a physician. Mor-
rill, in "History of the Christian Denomination,"
closes his historical sketch of Elias Smith in the
following words :

'The career of this man was very remarkable
and very romantic and checkered. As a minister
of the Gospel he had remarkable success in revi-
val work, but failed as a settled pastor. As a re-
former he was extreme in denunciation, but utter-
ly fearless in championing what he believed was
the truth. Through all his vagaries he clung to

24 Horace Mann

the Bible as inspired and God-given. He had a
true vision of religious liberty, and never lost op-
portunity to declare his position. When traveling
and lecturing on Thomsonian medicine, he also
preached as occasion offered itself. As a journal-
ist and author he was both prolific and brilliant,
compelling attention. In the medical profession
?ie won success and notoriety. Had his education
been commensurate with his ability, his life-story
would read much differently. With a character
above reproach, a tender conscience, and a keen
sense of liberty, he preserved his manhood
through every trial. His labors were prodigious,
and in the early nineteenth century New England
he was a commanding figure. His portrait, pub-
lished in 1816, indicates a stature a little above
medium, a well-knit body endowed with great
power of endurance ; his forehead was high, with
hair combed well back ; the features strong, prom-
inent, with some irregularity of outline; the eyes
rather severe and showing effects of early strain
and soreness. As a speaker his presence was com-
manding and his address engaging; for he spoke
entirely without notes, with natural voice and ease,
avoiding the boisterous manner then quite com-
mon with ministers declaiming off-hand."
He died in Lynn, Mass., June 29, 1846.

The house in which The Herald of Gospel Liberty was first printed,
Portsmouth, N. H'., 1808.

The house in which The Herald of Gospel Liberty is now printed.
Daytcn, Ohio, 1921

HORACE MANN

HORACE MANN

Christian Statesman ancC Educator

We must educate! We must educate! or we must per-
ish by our own prosperity. — Beecher.

The truest and highest education is that of the will.
Man may not need mathematics in the next world, but he
will need the education of the will. That will always be
valuable. We think too much of the intellect. Man may
know as much as devils, and be as rebellious. We want
educated wills. — Craig.

"There is nothing we can not overcome.

Say not thine evil instinct is inherited.
Or that some trait inborn makes thine whole life forlorn,

And calls down punishment that is not merited.
Back of thy parents and grandparents lies

The great eternal will. That too is thine

Inheritance, strong, beautiful, divine,
Stout lever of success for him who tries.
Pry up thy thoughts with that great lever, will.

However deeply rooted sin's propensity —
However firmly set — I tell thee, firmer yet

Is that vast power that comes from truth's immensity.
Thou are a part of that great world, I say;

Its forces lie within thee stronger far

Than all thy mortal sins and frailties are.
Believe thyself divine and watch and pray.
There is no noble height thou canst not climb:

All triumphs may be thine in time's futurity.
If whatsoe'er thy fault, thou dost not faint nor halt,

But lean upon the staff of God's security.
Earth has no claim the soul can not contest.

Know thyself part of the eternal Source

And naught can stand before thy spirit's force.
The soul's divine inheritance is best.'*

28 Horace Mann

The richest production of any country is the
great man. He is more than mountains, rivers,
seas and lakes. He is more valuable than gold,
silver and precious stones. There is nothing so
great and so good as he. The thoughts of such a
man live and throb through succeeding genera-
tions. His voice is heard in the parliament of na-
tions, and the congress of states. He is cotempar-
ary with the present, though bom in ages past.
So far as a man is great and good, he belongs to
all time, and so far as he is not this, it is needless
to know him. The present should reverently re-
gard the past, for it had its great men whom,
perhaps, though the world forgets, may in an im-
portant sense still become its teachers. As a peo-
ple we are grateful to God for our schools, our
literature and our pulpits, but we are more grate-
ful for the few or many great men he has given
us, among whom we mention the Hon. Horace
Mann, the Christian statesman and educator.

It has not been long enough since Mr. Mann's
departure for him to become a memory, if indeed
he ever shall. It seems but yesterday since his
impressive form was seen amid the trees and
shrubbery of the college campus, and his voice
heard in the lecture and recitation room.

Horace Mann was born in Franklin, Mass., May
4, 1796. After he completed his course in Brown
University, he studied law. He was a member of
the State Legislature in 1827, and in 1836 was
President of the State Senate, and for eleven years

Christian Statesman and Educator 29

Secretary of the State Board of Education. In
1848 he was elected to the United States Congress,
in place of ex-President John Q. Adams. On Sep-
tember 15, 1852, he was nominated for Governor
of Massachusetts, by the Free Soil Party, and on
the same day was offered the presidency of An-
tioch College, situated in what was then a real
frontier community of Ohio.

He accepted the presidency of the college, and
at the close of his term in Congress, entered upon
his duties. That Mr. Mann stood high in his party
is revealed by the following paragraphs taken
from a few of the many speeches made after his
nomination, and before it was known that he had
accepted the presidency of Antioch College :

"As to the candidate we have nominated, I shall
say nothing but that his fame is as wide as the
universe. It was my fortune to be, some time
since, in Guildhall, London, when a debate was go-
ing on. The question was, whether they should
instruct their representatives in favor of secular
education. They voted that they would not do it.
But a gentleman then rose, and read some statis-
tics from one of the Reports of the Hon. Horace
Mann. That extract reversed the vote in the Com-
mon Council of London. I never felt prouder of
my country. I call upon the young men of the
Commonwealth, who have grown up under the in-
spiration of his free schools, to sustain their cham-
pion, and to carry his name over the hills and
through the pleasant valleys of Massachusetts
during the present canvass, with that enthusiasm
which shall result in a glorious victory." — Hon.
Anson Burlingame.

so Horace Mann

"Gentlemen, you have selected, as your stan-
dard-bearer in the coming contest, one of the
ablest men of Massachusetts, and of the country.
For six years he has on the floor of Congress,
with fidelity, maintained the principles of the *old
man eloquent,' whose successor he is. The Whigs
in convention assembled, a few days after the
death of Mr. Adams, whose closing years were
devoted to freedom and humanity, resolved that
they wished their representative to follow in the
track of Mr. Adams, and to be true to liberty.
Mr. Mann was the nominee of that convention.

"Within a few days he has uttered, on the floor
of Congress, one of the most brilliant speeches for
liberty that ever fell from human lips in our own
or any other country. Over the struggles of the
future it will exert an influence perhaps un-
equalled by any effort of our time." — Hon. Henry
Wilson.

The American Christian Convention — then The
General Christian Convention — met in Marion,
N. Y., October 2, 1850. The main work for which
the Convention assembled was to consider the
question of education, and to found a college of
high rank and suitable equipment, which would
not only represent the Christians in educational
matters, but which would also represent the prin-
ciples of the people founding it. The Convention
v/as composed of representative men, from all sec-
tions of the United States, and from sections in
Canada in which the Christians had churches. The
temper and determination of the Convention was
set forth in the following resolution, offered by
Dr. J. E. Frees, of Philadelphia :

Christian Statesman and Educator 31

Resolved, That our responsibility to the com-
munity, and the advancement of our interest as
a denomination, demand the establishment of a
college.

The resolution was debated at length, and unani-
mously and enthusiastically adopted.

Immediately upon the adoption of the resolu-
tion, the Convention raised a committee of thirty-
four, on Ways and Means, with a sub-committee
of thirteen for executive purposes. This Provis-
ional Committee was empowered to locate said
college in some "accessible, healthy place, offering
sufficient inducements." It was resolved "that we
agree on the sum of one hundred thousand dollars
as the standard of our zeal and our efforts in rais-
ing the means for establishing the contemplated
college." It was also resolved "that the sum stated
by the committee shall be raised by the disposal
of scholarships at one hundred dollars each, which
scholarship shall be negotiable. Whoever then sub-
scribes and pays one hundred dollars will own a
scholarship, giving such persons the right to keep
one student in college continually, free from edu-
cational charges, and whosoever subscribes and
pays fifty dollars, will have a like privilege half
the time." It was provided that no one should be
allowed to vote who did not own one full share of
stock, and no one was allowed to own more than
ten shares. It was also resolved "that at least
two-thirds of the Board of Trustees, and a ma-
jority of the Board of Instruction, shall at all times

82 Horace Mann

belong to the Christian Church." And it was re-
solved "that the college shall afford equal privil-
eges to students of both sexes." And last of all
it was resolved "that our proposed college shall
be known by the name of Antioch College." Yel-
low Springs, Ohio, offered the "sufficient induce-
ment" and the college was located there. Horace
Mann was the first president, serving from 1852
to 1859. The college almost leaped into popularity
and prosperity, so far as its influence and attend-
ance went. This was partly due to the ability and
fame of its president, and partly to its morale.
The enrollment of students in 1855-6 reached
three hundred and fifty-three, and in 1856-7 five
hundred and thirty-nine. At a public meeting,
held during the presidency of Dr. D. A. Long, Rev.
E. A. DeVore gave an address, in which he said
that Horace Mann, the first president, gave dis-
tinction to Antioch College. Immediately Dr. De-
Vore concluded his address. Rev. Jenkyn Lloyd
Jones arose and said, "Horace Mann did not give
distinction to Antioch College, but Antioch Col-
lege gave distinction to Horace Mann." He then
went on to say that any college, anywhere, founded
as Antioch College was founded, and for the pur-
pose for which it was founded, and standing for
the principles for which it stood (here he men-
tioned the principles of the Christian Church)
would give distinction to any man — even as great
a man as Horace Mann.

It would require a real imaginative genius to

Christian Statesman and Educator P>3

give the reader a picture of the primitive condi-
tion of that part of Ohio in which Antioch College
is located, as it was in 1852. It is difficult to im-
agine the feeling of a cultured New England edu-
cator when first he saw the state of the country,
then undeveloped, in which he had chosen to spend
his energies. Some one had written that "the
change from the quiet comfort of a New England
home would be found matter both for laughter
and for tears." When he first saw it the site was
a wheatfield, and only two years before the for-
est trees had been cleared from the college site
and adjacent fields, and the huge stumps were
still standing. There was great discomfort in the
college buildings. The stoves, which were to heat
the entire structure, did not arrive for quite a
while after the school opened, and the first meals
eaten in the dining-room were from tables made
by spreading boards across the joists, the dining
hall not yet being completed, except the frame
work. Stock was running at large in the village
and surrounding neighborhood. Twice Mr. Mann
planted his garden with seeds and plants from his
New England home, only to have it destroyed by
the stock that had free range of the streets and
alleys. All this, and much more, did Mr. Mann
have to endure, for there were various kinds and
degrees of trouble, which he either had to settle
or ignore, the latter not being like him to do.
Many of the troubles he rose above, and pushed on
his work. Mrs. Mann, in "Life of Horace Mann,'*

34 Horace Mann

says: "Several years after coming to Antioch,
when driving one day over one of those broad
wastes, when occasionally a solitary log-house
showed that human interests were beginning to
be linked with nature, his companion remarked,
*I should not like to be a pioneer.' 'Are we not
pioneers?' he answered, not bitterly, but sadly;
for he had already been made to feel that the bor-
ders of civilization are, in their social aspects, but
a short way removed from barbarism."

His educational career not only included his
work as President of Antioch College, but educa-
tional lectures, which he gave in many cities, and
on many occasions ; the secretaryship of the State
Board of Education for eleven years; developing
the common school system; the establishment of
Normal Schools, and a visit to European coun-
tries, especially Germany, in order to study the
school systems there, that he might the better
serve the interest of education in America.

The force of the man as teacher and mental in-
spirer is beautifully and impressively set forth
in a letter by the Rev. H. C. Badger, who was a
student in Antioch College at the time Mr. Mann
was President. He says :

"His mode of teaching was suggestive and stim-
ulating ; not so holding his flock to the dusty, trav-
el-worn path as to forbid their free access to every
inviting meadow or spring by the way. It was
his wont to hear us recite a few hours each week,
assigning special lessons to special pupils, giving
each some question, some theory, some matter-of-

Christian Statesman and Educator 35

fact inquiry, on which each could pursue investi-
gations at leisure, and prepare a paper to be read
before the whole class, and be commented upon
by himself. The range of these topics (when poli-
tical economy was the subject) — taking in ques-
tions of agriculture and soil-fertilization, of canals
and railroads, of commerce, of cotton-gins or
steam-ploughs, of population, of schools and
churches and public charities in their economic
relations, and of those rising civilizations which
bear up art and foster science, both necessitating
and making possible greater civil and spiritual
freedom, yet having their roots among these lower
material conditions — illustrates the comprehen-
siveness of Mr. Mann's favorite methods of edu-
cating and instructing our minds.

"But even this was not so peculiar to him as a
certain personal impulse he imparted to all who
came in contact with him, — the impetus with
which his mind smote our minds, rousing us, and
kindling a heat of enthusiasm, as it were, by the
very power of that spiritual percussion. It was
in this that he was so incomparable. A man might
as well hope to dwell near the sun unmoved as not
to glow when brought to feel his fervid love of
truth and heartfelt zeal in its quest. The fresh de-
light of childhood seemed miraculously prolonged
through his life; truth never palled upon his
mind; the world never wore a sickly light. And
this cheerful spirit, which was at bottom nothing
but the most living faith in God and man, was so
contagious, that indifference, misanthropy, des-
pair of attaining truth, gave way before it, or
were transformed into a like hearty enthusiasm.

"Then, in guiding the new-roused impulse, he
was so conscientious and candid, so careful not to

36 Horace Mann

trench on the borders of individuality, nor to let
our loving respect for him so fix our eyes on his
opinion that we should lose the beckon of some
proximate truth, that v^e felt him as gentle to
guide as he was powerful to inspire."

In his early life he was not identified with any
church, though none who knew him would ques-
tion his faith, or his character. He and his wife
and his niece united with the Christian Church
at Yellow Springs, Ohio, under the pastoral care
of Rev. D. F. Ladley, the first pastor of the church.
Mr. Mann's membership was based upon his dec-
laration of faith.

Rev. N. Summerbell, who later on was pastor of
the church, but yet during Mr. Mann's life, says :
"The Christian Church at Yellow Springs, Ohio,
was the only church of which he was ever a mem-
ber, or the leading principles of which he fully
indorsed."

From The Life of Horace Mann, by Mrs. Mann,
I take the following :

The circumstances of his joining the Christian
denomination, of which he speaks himself in one
of his letters, has been made the occasion of tra-
ducing his character for truth and openness. Any
man can be accused of insincerity by those who
disagree with him. He has been accused of it,
in politics by those who were angry with him for
not adopting their views, and because he chose to
make his own discriminations, and reserve to him-
self the right of breaking away from party, when
he thought parties forgot great principles in their
partizan zeal ; and he has been accused of it in re-

Christian Statesman and Educator 37

ligious matters, both by those whose latitudinar-
ian views went beyond all freedom of thought that
he attained, and by those who feared all freedom
of thought.

But the whole matter is definitely settled by Mr.
Mann himself, who, in a letter to Samuel Downer,
dated Yellow Springs, Ohio, November 9, 1853,
says:

Last Sunday, Mrs. M — (Mann), R — , and I
joined the Christian Church. We thought our in-
fluence for good over the students would be in-
creased. We had no ceremony of baptism; we
subscribed to no creed. We assented to taking the
Bible for the "man of our counsel," as it was ex-
pressed, with the liberty of interpretation for our-
selves; and we acknowledged Christian character
to be the only true test of Christian fellowship.
That is all.

I was requested to speak for myself before the
church. I said that, ever since I had known the
theological views of the Christian denomination,
I had found them to be more coincident with my
own than those of any other denomination; that
I believed the whole duty of man consisted in
knowing and doing the will of God ; that I desired
to express this belief and to show my regard for
those who held it by uniting with them; that my
views for years had undergone no change. And
then I entered an explicit caveat against the idea
that belonging to any visible church was essential
to salvation, quoting the case of Cornelius, the
centurion. I was unanimously voted in ; and so of
the others, without their saying anything, except
through me, that they also wished to join.

Horace Mann said of the Christians :

They call themselves Christians, not invidious-

38 Horace Mann

ly, but devoutly. They take the Bible as their rule
of faith and practice, and in a true Protestant
spirit allow liberty of interpretation.

It may not be fair to Mr. Mann, nor correct in
statement, to say anything more about his relig-
ious belief than he himself has said, and yet I
feel justified in saying that he believed in one
God, the Creator and Ruler over all things; in
Jesus Christ as the manifestation of God in hu-
man conditions; in the office of Jesus Christ as
supreme in human redemption ; he did not believe
in the Calvinistic teaching concerning sin and the
atonement; neither did he believe that the death
of Christ was to satisfy the law broken by Adam
for all his posterity. He believed that the race
v/as not lost by Adam's transgression, but that
it had been ascending steadily from creation. He
believed in the possibility of developing human
life into the likeness of Jesus Christ. It is auito
evident that Mr. Mann believed in Christianity on
other grounds than through the miracles recorded
of it, and it is equally evident that religion in its
most all-embracing sense was the native atmos-
phere of his soul. The Rev. 0. J. Wait had ad-
dressed a letter to him asking a number of ques-
tions about his religious belief, to one of which
he replies as follows:

*'You ask me whether, 'if my lectures should
move the whole school to devotion and tender sol-
icitude for their salvation, I would oppose such
results.* Well do you say that you 'do not hesi-
tate at my answer/ Had you not added this, I

Christian Statesman and Educator 39

should have exclaimed, 'May God pardon you for
such a question!' The most rapturous moments
of my life are when young people come to me in
private, or write to me, saying that their whole
view and plan of life, their ideas of duty and of
destiny, have been changed by what they have
heard from me. Thanks be to God, the occasions
of this kind are not few, but many; and there is
scarcely a week in my life, when, by letter or other-
wise, I have not some such assurance."

I can close this brief sketch with no more fitting
tribute than in the closing paragraph of his last
Baccalaureate Sermon. It was given to the stu-
dents of Antioch College in 1859 :

"So, in the infinitely nobler battle in which you
are engaged against error and wTong, if ever re-
pulsed or stricken down, may you always be sol-
aced and cheered by the exulting cry of triumph
over some abuse in Church or State, some vice
or folly in society, some false opinion or cruelty
or guilt w^hich you have overcome ! And I beseech
you to treasure up in your hearts these my part-
ing words : Be ashamed to die until you have won
some victory for humanity."

He died at Yellow Springs, Ohio, August 2,
1859, and his remains rest in the North Burial
Ground, of the city of Providence.

Date Due

Library Bureau Cat. No. 1137

HORACE MANN

Date Due

,;,r-

•

MAY 1

I

.

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