Lincoln and Horace Mann: A Readers-Theatre Presentation
Conceived as a relatively short, readers-theatre style presentation on a Leadership and Lincoln theme, this piece draws together scenes, letters, and Lincoln's own words on education to illuminate a side of Abraham Lincoln that few audiences ever encounter. It was developed for a School Business Official Advisory Board meeting in Springfield, with a hoped-for staging at the Old State Capitol or the Lincoln Museum.
At its heart is the largely forgotten connection between Lincoln and Horace Mann, the founder of the American public education system. In 1849, as a freshman congressman from Springfield, Lincoln turned to Mann — then filling the Massachusetts seat of the recently deceased John Quincy Adams — for help drafting a proposal to end slavery in the nation's capital by having the federal government buy and free the slaves of Washington, D.C. Both men were Whigs; both fell short with the proposal; and both, the script reminds us, grew considerably on the subject of race over their lives, risking their careers and reputations in opposing slavery. The irony that the Horace Mann Companies' home office and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum now sit directly across the street from one another in Springfield is not lost on the piece.
The presentation is woven from monologues and quotations: the schoolmaster Newton Bateman recalling the office he shared with Lincoln and the elderly woman who brought the President-elect a pair of hand-knit woolen stockings; the much-maligned tavern partner William Berry defending his good name and his friend Abraham; Lincoln's own lifelong reflections on the value of education; and his tender 1864 reply to Mrs. Horace Mann and the children who petitioned him to free all the little slave children — "Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy."
Scenes and Selections
- Bateman scene — Newton Bateman, State Superintendent of Education, on sharing office space with Lincoln, the woolen stockings, and the rainy February 1861 farewell at the Great Western depot
- William Berry scene — Lincoln's New Salem store partner reclaiming his reputation and his friendship with "a damned good man"
- Mrs. Horace Mann letter — Lincoln's 1864 reply to the children's anti-slavery petition
- Lincoln quotes on education — a sequence drawn from his speeches, eulogies, and autobiography
Cast (proposed)
Casting was still being assembled in the planning notes:
- Ken Bradbury
- Jim Yale
- Fritz Klein
- Marian Levin
- Linda Schneider
- Pam Brown
Production Notes
The show grew out of an invitation to create a theatrical presentation for a School Business Official Advisory Board meeting in Springfield, set for late June or early July, on a Leadership/Lincoln theme. The original brief asked for something short, in readers-theatre style, suitable for the Old State Capitol or the Lincoln Museum. The framing material reflects on honoring imperfect historical figures for their growth, bravery, and sacrifice, closing with Lincoln's own modest words about Bateman: "It was something to me at that time to have him so — for he was a distinguished man in his way and I was nobody."