Under Dr. Taylor's hand the question was resolved
into this form : " If two devils are candidates for
the office, and the election of one is inevitable, is
it not one's duty to vote for the least, in order to
secure the greater good ? " He contended that if
this is not done, one becomes responsible for the



THE THEOLOGICAL SITUATION 45

evil wrought by the greater devil. BushneU con-
troverted this position ia " The Christian Free-
man " (December 12, 1844), in an article of four
columns, lifting the question out of the region of
temporary expediency into that of morals. His
main point was that to vote for bad men under
the stress of such a principle would be to organ-
ize immdrality into the life of the nation, and
so fail of the greater good. The question was a
weak one, but full of mischief. BushneU's treat-
ment of it was masterly. It is not contained in
his collected writings, but nothing that he said on
political subjects was more timely and effective.
Taking a petty question for a text, he wrote a
paper on the nature and authority of civil gov-
ernment. The point he made underlay the anti-
slavery movement, the resistance to the Fugitive
Slave Law, the outcry of the North against Web-
ster's 7th of March speech, and entered into the
thought that issued in the Free Soil party. He
taught the people that the only way to secure
the greatest good was along the path of absolute
righteousness, and not in vain attempts to measure
consequences. Dr. Taylor maintained that conse-
quences create duty, a principle that determined
political action in the country for twenty years.
