Book Review

Canada and the United States

For decades, historians have seen little to admire in the Mugwumps, the elite critics of American politics in the late nineteenth century. In this slim volume, David M. Tucker seeks to refurbish their image. Tucker rejects the portrayal of these men as ineffectual dilettantes or disappointed office seekers or whining victims of status decline. Rather, he sees them as worthy and necessary exponents of public morality who had greater impact on the politics of their time than is commonly recognized.

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Tucker traces the origins of the Mugwump outlook to the antebellum training in moral philosophy that many received in colleges where the main texts in ethics were Francis Wayland's Elements of Moral Science and Elements of Political Economy (both 1837). As the sectional conflict intensified, the abolition movement served as a practicum capping their moral education. Although Darwinism overpowered their religious faith, they retained a belief in moral imperatives rooted in social scientific laws governing human relations. Believing themselves particularly qualified to guide their country as public moralists, "they vigorously pursued their benevolent duty to direct America toward virtue, civilization, and progress" (p. 14).

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