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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
For many public spirited men in Massachusetts, 1837 was a turning point. After more than a decade of agitation for common school reform, the venerable and cumbersome General Court had finally consented to establish a State Board of Education. At the time there was some confusion as to what this new body might accomplish, but it was generally acknowledged that its most important act would be to select the right man as its executive secretary. The establishment of the board was the result of collective effort on the part of various reformers throughout the state, but if there was any man who could claim it as a personal triumph, that man was James Gordon Carter of Lancaster, teacher, editor, and legislator.
1. Cf. Martin, George H., The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System (New York, 1915), 157; Ellwood P. Cubberley, Public Education in the United States (Boston, 1947), 221–22; William M. French, America's Educational Tradition (Boston, 1964), 99–100.Google Scholar
An early biographer of Mann completely ignored the problem, an omission repeated as well by his most recent biographer. Cf. Winship, Albert E., Horace Mann, the Educator (Boston, 1896), 14–19 and Louise Hall Tharp, Until Victory: Horace Mann and Mary Peabody (Boston, 1953), 132–38.Google Scholar
2. Wilder, David, The History of Leominster or the Northern Half of Lancaster, New or Additional Grant from June 26, 1701, the Date of the Deed from George Tahants, Indian Sagamore, to July 4, 1852 (Fitchburg, 1854), 85.Google Scholar
3. Perkins Marvin, Abijah, History of the Town of Lancaster, Massachusetts: from the First Settlement to the Present Time, 1643–1879 (Lancaster, 1879), 438–39.Google Scholar
4. Brooks, Charles, Two Lectures: I. History of the Introduction of State Normal Schools in America. II. A Prospective System of National Education for the United States (Boston, 1864), 11.Google Scholar
5. [Barnard], “Carter, James G.,” American Journal of Education V (September, 1858), 407–16; and Martin, Massachusetts Public School System, 157.Google Scholar
6. Proceedings of the Senate and House of Representatives, upon the Petition of George R. M. Withington and others, Praying that James G. Carter Be Removed from His Office of Justice of the Peace for the County of Worcester … (Boston, 1849), 26.Google Scholar
7. Marvin, , History of Lancaster, 528–29. For an exposition of his use of the inductive method in teaching geography, see Carter's “On the Development of the Intellectual Faculties, and on Teaching Geography,” Introductory Discourse and Lectures Delivered before the American Institute of Instruction in Boston, August 1830 (Boston, 1831), 53–94. A detailed analysis of Carter's pedagogical theories is found in J. J. Chambliss, “James G. Carter on Baconian Induction,” History of Education Quarterly, III (December, 1963), 198–209.Google Scholar
8. Carter publicly expressed his ideas in Letters to the Hon. William Prescott on the Free Schools of New England, with Remarks on the Principles of Instruction (Boston, 1824). Late in the same year and early in 1825 he wrote a series of articles under the nom de plume “Franklin” which appeared in the Boston Patriot. These subsequently were published as Essays upon Popular Education, Containing a Particular Examination of the Schools of Massachusetts, and an Outline of an Institution for the Education of Teachers (Boston, 1826). 8n.d. [1825?] James G. Carter to James Percival, Percival Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.Google Scholar
9. Cubberley, Ellwood P., Public Education in the U. S., 224 and Martin, Massachusetts School System, 148–49.Google Scholar
10. A Geography of Essex County … (Boston, 1830); A Geography of Middlesex County for Young Children (Cambridge, 1830), A Geography of Massachusetts … (Boston, 1830), and with William H. Brooks as co-author A Geography of New Hampshire … (Portsmouth, 1831). For a favorable review of his geography of Massachusetts, see the American Journal of Education, V. (May, 1830), 211–13.Google Scholar
11. Emerson, George B., et al. “Memorial of the Directors of the American Institute of Instruction,” Massachusetts House Documents, 1837 (Boston, 1837), No. 12.Google Scholar
12. Speech of Mr. Carter, of Lancaster, Delivered in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, February, 1837 (Boston, 1837), passim.Google Scholar
13. For a record of Carter's parliamentary strategy, see the Journal of the House, Vol. 59, April 12 and 14, 1837, 485–86, and 502. MS in Massachusetts State Archives.Google Scholar
14. November 14, 1839, Mann Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society (here-after MHS).Google Scholar
15. Bowen, Francis, “Memoir of Edmund Dwight,” American Journal of Education, IV (September, 1857), 15.Google Scholar
16. Carter defended himself in his Letter to the Rev. Nathaniel Thayer D. D. Touching upon His Conduct in Connexion with the Recent Proceedings of the Church in Lancaster under His Pastoral Care; and upon the Rights, Dignity, and Tenure of the Office of Deacon in a Congregational Church (Boston, 1833).Google Scholar
17. [Nathaniel Thayer], Records of the [Lancaster, Massachusetts Congregational] Church in the Case of Deacon James Carter G. and a Reply to the Communication Made by him to the Brethren, on the Day of His Removal from the Office of Deacon (Lancaster, 1832).Google Scholar
18. Carter, , Letter to the Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, 5–6 and 136.Google Scholar
19. The best account of Mann's running battles with the clergy is in Culver, Raymond B., Horace Mann and Religion in the Massachusetts Public Schools (New Haven, 1929). From a survey of the annual school reports of the Massachusetts town school committees between 1835 and 1850, it appears that half of the committee members were often ministers. The following quotations, from two letters in the Mann Papers, MHS suggest the importance of ministerial co-operation:Google Scholar
I devoted Saturday PM to visiting Committee men and teachers in reference to the proposed Institutes in this place. Saw Rev. Mr. Taylor, Rev. Mr. Jackson, Rev. Mr. Loring and Rev. Peter Osgood, of the Committee, and found them all ready to engage in the good work. They will all be present more or less during the session, and Mr. Jackson will probably call a special meeting of the committee in anticipation of the Institute. (W. H. Wells to Horace Mann, September 21, 1846).Google Scholar
I invited in your name the the gentlemen, whom you mentioned, to lecture, and have received returns, the Rev. Mr. Harding will give a lecture—Rev. Mr. Strong declines in consequence of the state of his health—Rev. Mr. Everett will be present on the 20th of August and lecture in the evening—Rev. Mr. Packard Jr. will endeavor to be present and lecture the evening of the 25th—Rev. Mr. Nash, the teacher of Mount Pleasant School, Amherst will be present and lecture on Sabbath evening on some subject appropriate to the time. (John Stacy to Horace Mann, August 10, 1846).Google Scholar
20. Sprague, William B., “Nathaniel Thayer,” Annals of the American Pulpit, VIII (New York, 1865), 246–50 and “Nathaniel Thayer,” Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, ed. James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, (New York, 1889), VI, 73.Google Scholar
21. I. (November, 1826), 651–64.Google Scholar
22. [Ticknor, George], “Letters to the Hon. William Prescott, LL.D, on the Free Schools of New England, with Remarks upon the Principles of Education,” XIX (October, 1824), 448–57 and [Orville Dewey], “Essays upon Popular Education, Containing a Particular Examination of the Schools of Massachusetts, and an Outline of an Institution for the Education of Teachers,” XXIV, (January, 1827), 156–69.Google Scholar
23. Mann, Horace, “Address to the Norfolk Association of Teachers at Dedham,” February [25], 1832, MS in Mann Papers, MHS. Evidence of Mann's interest in the Lyceum movement is found in the Boston Daily Courier , February 26, 1830 and the Boston Daily Advertiser, June 10, 1830.Google Scholar
24. Carter, James G. to Horace Mann, July 21, 1837, Mann Papers, MHS.Google Scholar
25. Shortly after the burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Mann was selected by a blue ribbon citizens' committee from Boston to gather the evidence on the atrocity and submit it to a public hearing. When someone questioned that he might be too orthodox and therefore biased against the Catholic sisters, his friends quickly assured them such was not the case, and Mann subsequently was appointed. An account of this is found in Elizabeth Peabody to Mary Peabody, August 18, 1834, Cuba Journal, MS in Berg Collection, New York Public Library.Google Scholar
26. Thereafter, local problems continued to plague him. He became a president of a bank and later engaged in a public controversy with its directors. In 1848, his conduct as a Justice of the Peace was argued before a joint session of the General Court by two prominent New England lawyers, Rufus Choate and Pliny Merrick. Carter was vindicated, but by this time he was convinced that his future lay elsewhere. Leaving Massachusetts, he headed west, locating in Chicago. For the moment it appeared as if he was finally to find the success that had always eluded him, but he died unexpectedly on July 21, 1849.Google Scholar
For an account of the case before the General Court, see Proceedings of the Senate and House of Representatives, upon the Petition of George R. M. Withington and Others, Praying that James G. Carter Be Removed from His Office of Justice of the Peace … (Boston, 1849).Google Scholar
