QUESTIONS ADDRESSED TO CANDIDATES FOR THE STATE LEGISLATURE

This circular letter was sent by the delegates of the working men of Philadelphia to each of the candidates whom they proposed to nominate for the State Legislature.

Sir: The Delegates of the Working Men for the city, having placed your name in the list of fourteen, (from which seven will be chosen) as a candidate for the State Legislature; they are desirous (through the medium of the undersigned committee) to obtain your views in relation to the following subjects:

First. An equal and general system of Education.

Second. The banking system, and all other exclusive monopolies, considered with regard to the good or ill effects produced upon the productive classes by their operations.

Third. Lotteries, whether a total abolishment of them is not essential to the moral as well as pecuniary interest of society. Upon the important subject of Education we wish most distinctly to understand whether you do, or do not consider it essential to the welfare of the rising generation, "That an open school and competent teachers for every child in the state, from the lowest branch of an infant school to the lecture rooms of practical science, should be established, and those who superintend them to be chosen by the people."

Our object in soliciting your views, sir, upon these several important points, is to enable us in the discharge of our duty, as delegates, to select such men for the Legislature, as are willing as well as competent, to legislate upon subjects which the Working Men of the city consider of the greatest importance, not only to themselves but the community at large. If your views should be in accordance with the interests of those we have the honor to represent, we request you to allow us to place your name on our Ticket.

We are very respectfully, Sir, your obedient servants,
John Thomason, Thomas Taylor, William English, John Ashton, Jr., Benj. Mifflin, Committee.

N.B. An immediate answer is particularly requested.

New York Free Enquirer, Oct. 7, 1829 (J. R. Commons etal., A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, Vol. 5: The Labor Movement [1910])