History - Chartism, 1838-50 (Theme 4)

Demands:

• Universal manhood sufferage (all men over the age of 21)
• Vote by secret ballot
• Annual parliaments
• Equal electoral districts
• Abolition of the proporty qualification for MPs
• Payment for MPs

• The new middle class electorate clearly did not desire further reform
• In the December 1832 election, Henry Hunt lost his seat as representative for Preston
• Also, Michael Sadler, who had campaigned for reduced factory hours, lost his seat for Leeds, being replaced by a manufacturer
• The signs were that working and middle-class interests were diverging following the 1832 reform
• Before the 1832 Reform Act Preston had been an open borough (potwalloper) and this allowed Hunt to represent Preston in the first place because ALL male householders and lodgers could votes and stand as MP
  

• The campaign for the abolition of slavery within the British Empire peaked in the early 1830s and was finally successful in 1833
• For, many the campiagn against factory 'slavery' was a smimilar cusade
• Short-time Committees emerged in all the major factory towns, campaigning for reduced hours
• The Factory Act of 1833 only reduced hours for children, but the campiagn provided experience for working-class political organisers & activism 

• The reform of municipal (borough) councils was a natural extension of the 1832 Reform Act, with town councils now having to be elected
• However, only those who paid rates directly - i.e. those who owned property - were able to vote
• This excluded the vast majority of the working class, who did not own property but simply rented
• To make matters worse, many newly elected councils created police forces, which were viewed negatively by the working class

• Another campiagn which sustained working class activism after 1832 was that for the unstamped press
• Since the Six Acts of December 1819, newspapers had to pay stamp duty, increasing the ocst of newspapers to 3d, a price that was too expensive for most workers
• From 1831, Henry Hetherington's Poor Man's Guardian broke the law by being priced at 1d, and selling 15,000 copies each week
• In 1836 the Whig government lowered the duty so that newspapers could now be sold legally at 1.5d

• The protest campaign which fed most directly into Chartism was the Anti-Poor Law Campaign of 1837-8
• Since 1601 (Elizabeth I) a Poor Law system had existed which had seen ratepayers provide for both indoor and outfoor relief for the poor
• However, as the rates increased the Whigs sought to cut costs by their new Poor Law of 1834
• This abolished outdoor relief and forced those in need into workhouses, where conditions were deliberately harsh to discourage claimants
• The proposal to repeal the law was defeated in 1838 by 309 votes to 17

• Traditions of radical reform since 1791-2
• Radical campaigns during 1831-2 
• Disappointments of the 1832 Reform Act
• End of alliance with msot of middle class after 1832
• Inadepquacy & experience of 1833 Factory Act
• Futher betrayal of 1835 Municipal Corporations Act
• 'War of the Unstamped Press', 1831-6
• Anti-Poor Law Campaign, 1837-8

London:The artisan-dominated London Working Men's Associateion (LWMA) was founded in 1836 by William Lovett. Lovett and his associates formulated the Six Points of the Charter in June 1837

Glasgow: However, the document the People's Chater was officially published in Glasgow in May 1838. Members of the LWMA & the BPU joined forces in support of the local cotton spinners' strike

Birmingham: The BPU was reformed in 1838 by its leader, Thomas Attwood, and gave its support to the Charter. The BPU was led by the middle class, but found common cause with other pressure groups during 1838-9

Leeds: The nother wing of the Chartisr movement was based in Leeds where Feargus O'Connor edited Chartist newspaper, the Nothern Star (1837). Her set up the Great Northern Union in June 1838

Newport: Newport in South Wales was the scene of a tragic episode of the early Chartist movement: rising of 7,000 men in November 1839 resulted in the deaths of 22 of the marchers. This marked the end of the first phase

William Lovett

• Occupation: Cabinet-maker
• Support base: London artisans
• Special interests: Education for working class

Thomas Attwood

• Occupation: Banker & MP for Birmingham
• Support base: Birmingham manufacturers
• Special interests: Household sufferage

Feargus O'Connor

• Occupation; Journalist and Lawyer
• Support base: Nothern working class
• Special interests: Political reform; land reform

• The six points of the Charter were drawn up by the LWMA along with six radical MPs in London in June 1837
• The Charter was published in Glasgow in May 1838, & in August a mass meeting in Birmingham accepted the Charter
• The Birmingham meeting brought together on one platform members of the LWMA, the BPU and Feargus O'Connor of the nothern wing of Chartis
• The name evoked memories of Magna Carta, the document which had brought tyrannical government to account in 1215

- The years 1838-9 witnessed a downturn in the economic cycle, boosting Chartisms appeal much like it had for earlier radical movements

• During late 1838 mass meetings were held across the country to:
  • Gather signatures for a petition in favour of the Charter, to present to Parliament
  • Elect delegates to attend a National Convention of Chartist leaders
• The National Convention met in London in February 1839 in order to present the Charter but also to discuss what to do if it were rejected
• Representatives of the LWMA, the BPU and the GNU were all present
• The petition, with 1,200,000 signatures, was submitted in July, but was rejected by 235 votes to 46

• Besides presenting the petition, the Convention also discussed what to do if the petition were rejected
• Historians have sometimes divided the Chartists into advocates of 'moral force' (e.g. Lovett) and those willing to use 'physical force' (e.g. O'Connor)
• However, this is too simplistic, as none of the leaders supported violent revolution 
• Not one of the proposals - exclusive dealing or a 'sacred month' of stikes - was formally adopted, even after the Convention had re-assembled in Birmingham in July to discuss the options
• A government crackdown in Birmingham in Agust (the 'Bull Ring riots') and the arrest of many of the Chartist leaders settled the issue for them

• In the second half of the 1839 most of the Chartist leaders were arrested: Henry Vincent and William Lovett were arrested before the end of the summer
• In this atmosphere of desperation, some Chartsit supported turned to more extreme measures 
• The msot famous example was at Newport, Wales, where 7,000 men marched on the town. The result was that 22 Chartists were killed
• During 1839-41, arounf 500 Chartists were arrested. O'Connor recieved an 18-month sentence in 1840

• In 1839 famous Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle reffered to Chartism as 'bitter discontedment gorwn fierce and mad'. This suggestsed a primarily economic cause for the Chartist movement
• Possible characterisations of Chartism include:
  • A sporadic politcal response to the economic  cycle of the new market economy - Chartism peaked in years of economic slumps: 1837-8, 1842 & 1848
  • A political reaction to the disappointment of the 1832 Reform Act and the class-based legislation of the Parliament
  • The first mass, national working-class movement to act independently of other classes, united by the symbolism of the Charter

Similarities

• Focussed on achieving universal manhood sufferage
• Combined political objectives with economic grievances
• Used petitions and mass demonstrations as tactics
• Generally non-violent but sometimes spilled over into violence

Differences

• Chartism possessed a single unifying symbol - the Charter
• Chartism was a truly national movement, at least in late 1830s
• Chartism benefitted from peacetime conditions, but faced a united middle/upper class opposition
• Chartism had grander schemees - e.g. the National Convention

1. A hostile Parliament

2. A middle/upper-class alliance 

3. An unwillingness to use force

4. Divisions among its leaders

5. Dissagreements over tactics

1. A hostile Parliament

2. A middle/upper-class alliance 

3. An unwillingness to use force

4. Divisions among its leaders

5. Dissagreements over tactics

1816: Spa Fields Meeting

1817: Gagging Acts and Pentridge Rising

1819: Peterloo and the Six Acts

1829: Catholic Emancipation Act

1831: Three Reform Bills and Bristol riots

1832: The 'Great' Reform Act

1833; The Factory Acts

1834: The New Poor Law

1835: The Municiple Corporations Act

1837-8: Anti-Poor Law Campaign

1838: The publication of the Charter

1839: The Chartist National Convention

• The period between summer 1839 and summer 1840 saw the arrests of most of the Chartsist leaders (e.g. Vincent, Lovett, O'Connor), usually on charge of sedition
• However, whilst imprisoned in York Catsle during 1840, Feargus O'Connor continued to write for the Nothern Star, his Leeds-based newspaper
• He also encouraged the establishment of the National Chater Association (NCA)
• Ofter seen as the first working class party, it had 50,000 memebers (subscription payers) by 1842
• However, some other Chartist leaders now focussed on non-political objectives

• William Lovett focussed more on workers' education & self-help (1840-)
• In 1842 a number of Chartists flirted with the rival Complete Sufferage Union
• Henry Vincent promoted his Teetotal Chartist Association (1840-)
• Main political branche continued under O'Connor and the NCA (1840-)

- Feargus O'Connor: 

'" Few leading Chartists left the movement, but I did regard all these trends rather a distraction from the main political campaign"

In the 1850s and 1860s the respectable working class got the vote which would suggest the depite O'Connor's complaints, Lovett was perhaps right with the idea of focus on education and self-help

• Through the NCA, which had 400 branches by 1842, O'Connor (released in Aug. 1841) was able to whip up support for a new petition to Parliament & a new Convention
• His cause was aided by anther economic downturn, a recurring feature of the new market economy
• The petition was presented in May 1842, and had 3 million signatures, showing the breadth of support
• However, Parliament once again rejected the petition, by 287 votes to 49, even more emphatic than in 1839

• Violence during the Chartist years tended to be sporadic & spontaneous, not orchestrated by the leaders
• The combination of the economic slump & the failure of the petition led to a wave of strikes & riots in the north and north Midlands in August 1842 
• The strikers pulled the plugs from boilers to prevent the steam engines from working; factories had to close
• The new Peel government employed General Napier in the north in charge of 6,000 troops; by the end of 1842, about 1.500 people had been put on trial for Chartist-realted offences

• The rejection of the second petition, with more than double the number of signatures than on the first, led some such as Vincent & Lovett to fall away from Chartism
• However, O'Connor refused to yield, and found a new outlet for his energy in the Land Plan of 1845-8
• Like the earlier Spenceans, O'Connor believed the workers' lived could be improved through a return to the land, which had been taken via the Enclosure Acts
• Some 70,000 people paid subscriptions to his National Land Company. The money was used to buy landed estates and then allocate them via the drawing of lots
• Though only 250 people secured a small-holding, the Land Plan kept the Chartist ethos alive at a time of economic recovery

• Despite its failings, the Land Plan had kept the Chartist spirit alive
• Elections in 1847, a trade depression during 1847-8 & revolution in France in Feb. 1848 gave new opportunities
• O'Connor was the only Chartist to be elected (for Nottingham) in 1847
• Signatures for a final petition were gathered & a mass meeting of 20,000 gathered on Kennington Common, London, in April 1848
• However, 7,000 tropps, 4,000 police & 85,000 special constables were gathered, & the petition was rejected for containing 3 million fake signatures

Government tactics used in defeating the Chartists:

• Military action
• Positive legislation
• Invenstment in railways
• Non-cooperation
• Engagement of middle-class
• Arrests