Note 891 — Chapter X

Ibid., p. 107. In advocating political action Mr. Duncan said, "The practice of slaveholding in a slave state need not deter emancipators or others from the privilege of voting for candidates to the legislative bodies, or from using their best endeavors to have men placed in office that would be favorable to the cause of freedom, and who may be best qualified to govern the state or commonwealth, but it ought to prevent any from officiating as a magistrate, when his commission authorizes him to issue a warrant to apprehend the slave when he is guilty of no other crime than that of running away from unmerited bondage." This was not the first time political action was proposed, for Mr. Bourne declared in his work (The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable): "Every voter for a public officer who will not destroy the system, is as culpable as if he participated in the evil, and is responsible for the protraction of the crime." See the Boston Commonwealth, July 25, 1885.