ABSTRACT
Abolitionists who put their trust in conventional attitudes and political parties deemed Garrison fantastic; but they themselves had no clear or single program leading to abolition. American abolitionists continued to be anxious over foreign opinion, especially that in Great Britain. Lewis Tappan was a one-man agency for influencing English opinion respecting slavery and, at the least, helped keep English abolitionists informed about American issues. Political abolitionists learned compromise fast, though many compromises they supported in 1860 would have been unacceptable to them twenty years before. Political abolitionism was part of a large, almost august, change which was taking place in the American political constellation. Abolitionists were divided in their attitudes toward Catholics. Like Joshua Giddings, William Slade deplored political abolitionism as a separate cause, and pleaded for a united Whig party which could repel what he deemed to be southern aggressions upon northern liberties.
