Marlowe Mann was a graduate of Harvard in the classic period of the
college. He had many scholarly gifts, and as many noble qualities of soul
as mental endowments. He was used to the oratory of Henry Ware and young
Edward Everett, and had known Charles Sumner and Wendell Phillips at
college, when the Greek mind and models led the young student in his fine
development, and made him a Pericles in his dreams.

But the young student of this heroic training, no matter how well
conditioned his family, usually turned from his graduation to some
especial mission in life. "I must put myself into a cause," said young
Wendell Phillips. Charles Sumner espoused the struggle of the negro for
freedom, and said: "To this cause do I offer all I have." Marlowe Mann was
a member of the historic Old South Church, like Phillips in his early
years. There was an enthusiasm for missions in the churches of Boston
then, and he began to dream of Oregon and the mysterious empire of the
great Northwest, as pictured by the old schoolmaster, Kelley; just at this
time came Dr. Whitman to the East, half frozen from his long ride, and
asked to lead an emigration to Walla Walla, to save the Northern empire to
the territory of the States. He heard the doctor's thrilling story of how
he had unfurled the flag over the open Bible on the crags that looked down
on the valleys of the Oregon, and his resolution was made. He did not
follow Dr. Whitman on the first expedition of colonists, but joined him a
year or two afterward. He built him a log-cabin on the Columbia, and gave
his whole soul to teaching, missionary work among the Indians, and to
bringing emigrants from the East.

The country thrilled him--its magnificent scenery, the grandeur of the
Columbia, the vastness of the territory, and the fertility of the soil.