ticut. Two years
later, at the age of twenty-seven, he was admitted to the bar.

=As Statesman.=--He was called upon to serve his state in the
legislature, and later as representative in Congress.[166]

The year 1837 marks a new epoch in the educational history of
Massachusetts. "Although Massachusetts had had schools for nearly two
centuries, the free school had been, to a great degree, a charity school
the country over.... Horace Mann, like Thomas Jefferson, saw clearly
that there could be no evolution of a free people without intelligence
and morality, and looked upon the common school as the fundamental means
of development of men and women who could govern themselves. He saw
clearly that the whole problem of the republic which was presenting
itself to intelligent educated men rested upon the idea of public
education."[167]

=As Educator.=--Accordingly, having secured the passage of a law
establishing a State Board of Education, Mr. Mann was made its
secretary at a salary of one thousand dollars a year. To accept this
work, he gave up a lucrative law practice, fine prospects of political
preferment, and probable fortune, as well as professional fame. He
entered upon an educational campaign full of discouragement, colossal in
its undertaking, and sure to arouse bitterest animosities. Of this
period Colonel Parker says, "The story of his early struggles in this
direction has not yet been written. When it is, it will reveal a
profound depth of heroism rarely equaled in the history of the world."
Mr. Mann visited all parts of the state, lecturing to parents and
stimulating the teachers. He was often received with coldness, sometimes
with active hostility.

=His Annual Reports.=--But he persevered until the whole state was
awakened. He continued in this work for twelve years, and presented its
results in his Annual Reports, the most remarkable documents of American
educational literature.[168] In the meantime, he visited Europe, studied
the schools, and gave the results of his investigations in his
celebrated Seventh Annual Report.

Mr. Martin summarizes the work of Horace Mann during these twelve years
as follows: "In the evolution of the Massachusetts public schools during
these twelve years of Mr. Mann's labors, statistics tell us that the
appropriations for public schools had doubled; that more than two
million dollars had been spent in providing better schoolhouses; that
the wages of men as teachers had increa