Autographs
Appointed President of Antioch College in Ohio, Horace Mann Accepts an Invitation to Speak to the Ohio Teachers
HORACE MANN (1796-1859). Considered the Father of American Education; President of Antioch College.
November 3, 1853-Dated Autograph Letter Signed, two pages, octavo, approximately 4.75" x 7.25", from Yellow Springs, Ohio, Choice Extremely Fine. Well written upon fresh, bright, clean wove paper, slightly irregular margin at left. Written to L. Andrews, Esq., Mann pens, in full:

"Dear Sir, --- I have the honor to receive from you this day, an invitation to deliver the Annual Address before your State Teachers' Association, in Dec. next. I thank your Society, most sincerely, for the invitation, & yourself for the kind terms in which it has been expressed; & I sincerely hope the time has now come when I can establish cordial relations with a Society which I have long regarded with so much honor & respect.

I should not suffer any ordinary occasion to take me away from the College; but I consider this an extraordinary one; & believe I shall be entirely justified in availing myself of it.

Unless something not now known should interfere to prevent, I shall gladly avail myself of this occasion to show the deep interest which I feel in the noble efforts of the Ohio Teachers of Common Schools. -- Yours very truly, -- (Signed) Horace Mann".

From 1853 until his death in 1859, Horace Mann was President of the newly established Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he taught political economy, intellectual and moral philosophy, and natural theology. The college received insufficient financial support and suffered from the attacks of religious sectaries - he himself was charged with "insincerity" because, previously a Unitarian, he joined the Christian Connexion, by which the college was founded. However, he earned the love of his students, and by his many addresses exerted a beneficial influence upon education in the Midwest.