With a few individual exceptions the leaders conceded that Congress had no power to abolish slavery in the States.

Upon the general Government they urged the duty of abolishing both slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia and in all areas under direct federal control.

They further urged upon the Government the strict enforcement of the laws prohibiting the foreign slave-trade and the enactment of laws forbidding the interstate slave-trade.

The constitutionality of these main lines of action has been generally conceded.
Abolitionists were pioneers in the formulation of political platforms.
The declaration of principles drawn up by Garrison in 1833 and adopted by the American Anti-Slavery Society was of the nature of a political platform.

The duty of voting in furtherance of the policy of emancipation was inculcated.