ABSTRACT
By the late 1830s, moral suasion had succeeded in creating a critical mass of antislavery voters who were anxious to take their cause to the polls and to engage more actively in political agitation. Political action doubtless brings temptations and hazards; but so does any successful action. Success is itself dangerous. Political adventurers, loud in their professions, unscrupulous in their means, would attach themselves to us. A large school in politics, both in Great Britain and America, deny the right of instruction; principally on the ground, that if carried out, it would destroy the deliberative character of the representative body, and convert it into a mere instrument to register the edicts of the people. The practice, of exacting pledges from candidates, may be considered liable to similar objections.
