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CHARTISM.   Term Paper ID:25507 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Origins, platform, ideology, leadership & political & economic effects of 19th Cent. British political reform movement.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Origins, platform, ideology, leadership & political & economic effects of 19th Cent. British political reform movement. Paper Introduction: Chartism was one of the most important political reform movement in Great Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Indeed, this populist and popular movement came nearer to being a mass rebellion than another British movement in modern times. Working people from across Wales, Scotland and England demonstrated in support of both the political and social elements of this program. Chartists drew upon both traditional forms of social protest organization and developed new ways of having their voice heard – publishing newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides. Chartist songs and hymns were sung, Chartist sermons preached and attended to, Chartist plays produced and pageants performed as what might now be called a entire political and social counter-culture was created and reveled in. Chartists took advantage of newly licit forms Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Industrializationalways causes social upheaval, but it was perhaps hardest for the Englishworking class, for they did not have the example of other country's havingalready gone through the process and having - along with their workingclasses - survived. The trade depression of the late 183 s and early 184 s produced asense of unease in the country's working classes, prompting them first toagitate against the New Poor Law and then to support Chartism.13 Thisdepression drew the working class together - although it is important tonote that there was a substantial amount of variation in this single"class", for one of the effects of the Industrial Revolution was to bringabout for the first time in England a hierarchy of poor people (rather thana single group of landless agricultural workers) ranging from trainedworkers like mechanics who could in fact earn a decent wage to domesticservants.14 But regardless of their standing within the working class, thepoor and relatively poor of England were frightened and insecure, as Hovelldescribes. Throughout the manufacturing and mining districts an atmosphere of excitement and terror was spreading during the early months of 1839... 9 Ibid. Moreover, Chartism was set off from earlier Radical movementsbecause it was a product of the Industrial Revolution. Williams, The Rise of Gladstone to the Leadership of theLiberal Party, 1859 to 1868 (New York: Octagon Books, 1973), 123. The People's Charter contained six specific demands, includingsuffrage for all male citizens 21 years of age and over, elections bysecret ballot, annual parliamentary elections, abolition of propertyqualifications for members of Parliament, payment of members of Parliamentand equal electoral districts. The New Poor Law was pernicious to the working classes on a numberof levels: it tended to drive down factory wages, it shifted the entireresponsibility of children born out of wedlock to the mother (unless shecould prove paternity in a court, and it in general blamed the poor forbeing poor.1 Saville summarizes the philosophy behind this law: Pauperism was a defect of character, and there was always work to be had at the prevailing market price if energetically sought. British radicalism was an effort to establish privateeconomic expansion as the principle of the modern state. The Rise of Gladstone to the Leadership of the Liberal Party, 1859 to 1868. Chartist songs and hymns weresung, Chartist sermons preached and attended to, Chartist plays producedand pageants performed as what might now be called a entire political andsocial counter-culture was created and reveled in.[ii] Chartists tookadvantage of newly licit forms of public protest and created others ontheir own.3 The laborers' push to bring about the reforms of Chartism often seemedfrightening to the upper classes, who did not in general like to see largegroups of the working classes gathered together. 18 Ibid., vi. Chartists drew upon both traditional forms of social protestorganization and developed new ways of having their voice heard -publishing newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides. In the longtradition of social reformers, Lovett the cabinet-maker and John Collinsthe tool-maker (for so they signed themselves) outlined the dreams ofChartism from the confines of Warwick Gaol in 184 . 5 Ibid. Of these one was perhapseven more important than the People's Charter - the Reform Act of 1832.8 The Reform Act made the possession of both property and a regularincome requirements to qualify for inclusion into the politicalinstitutions of the country. Much of the essential philosophy of British Radicalism was developedby the philosopher James Mill, the jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham,and the political economist David Ricardo. One hopes that,after all, they found their time in prison well spent. And indeed even to say that it failed is not necessarilytrue. Collectively, this half-dozen set of demands was designed to giveequal access to all (male) citizens to the political processes of thecountry.5 (It should be noted that while the charter called only for malesuffrage, many women were very active in the Chartist movement. 11 John Saville, 1848: The British State and the Chartist Movement(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 13. 14 Donald Read, Peel and the Victorians (Oxford: Basil Blackwell,1987), 119. The Chartistmovement, which the association sponsored, resulted from widespreaddissatisfaction with the Reform Bill of 1832 and the Poor Law of 1834,legislation that the working people (along with some radicals of the middleand upper classes) of the country considered discriminatory to the point ofintentional cruelty. They wrote with the fervorof true believers about the ways in which education could transform anation: According to the mental or moral instruction each person may receive, will he be the better able to withstand social taint and political corruption, and will, by his laudable example and energy, be advancing the welfare of society, while he is promoting his own. 1 Ibid., 35. In many essential ways, the Chartists were like the kind of radicaldefined by (and inspired by) Mill, and certainly some of their particularconcerns (especially that of expanding the suffrage) were the same. [ii]Ibid., 1. Voters had to be men, but no other qualification, whether of race, religion, or educational achievement, was considered apart from property.9 Other legislation of this era was as bitterly resented by the workingclass. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.Hovell, Mark. Never before (or since) has the fact of beingpoor so explicitly been used to exclude the English from their owninstitutions of governance, as Thompson writes: The line drawn for the exercise of the franchise was precisely made to include all members of the upper class and to exclude all wage-labourers. New York: Octagon Books, 1973. Part of the distinction between Radicals like Mill and Chartists likeWilliam Lovett was a matter of class. 17 Elizabeth Cumming, and Wendy Kaplan, The Arts and Crafts Movement(London: Thames and Hudson, 1991), 14. 12 Thompson, 18. 2 Ibid. New York, Pantheon Books, 1984.Williams, W. Hard work and thrift would always ensure a competence, however modest the level at which the individual was working and living.11 One final piece of legislation must be considered as one of themotivating forces of Chartism and one of the reasons that it met with suchsuccess. This mayhave been because by breaking apart forever the connection between home andpaid employment - and by consigning women almost entirely to domesticservice jobs in the waged-labor force - the Industrial Revolution affectedwomen even more dramatically than men.6 Certainly women had beenespecially hard hit by the New Poor Law.7) Before one can understand Chartism - and certainly before one canplace it either within or alongside the context of English politicalradicalism - one must look at the historical conditions that brought itabout. This paper examines why so many people at thattime believed that the political and social changes promised by Chartismwould bring about such a drastic improvement in their overall condition. Or rather one should say that these were the proximal causes of theChartist movement; some of the deeper causes will be discussed below. Bentham and Millwere children - or perhaps grandchildren - of the Enlightenment, thinkersof a nascent modernism. Both would in some ways fail. 19 Saville, 226. Inaddition to examining this issue, this paper also considers whetherChartism was a unique phenomenon or an episode in the tradition of Englishpolitical Radicalism. According to the intellectual and moral spirit which pervades society, will its individual members be improved; and in proportion as it is ignorant or demoralized, will they be deteriorated by its contact: and as despotism or freedom prevail in a nation, will its subjects be imbued with feelings of liberty, or be drilled into passive slaves.16 In some ways the Chartist movement resembled the Arts and CraftsMovement that was to follow it - or rather the two movements may be seen asmirror-images of each other. Justas the New Poor Law and the Reform Bill were themselves attempts to controllong-rising social tensions, Chartism spoke to concerns that had beenbuilding for a generation. Benthamism is a doctrine inspired byideas, but Chartism was spurred forward by a fierce and widespreaddiscontent that resulted from the daily conditions of the lives of workingpeople. E. And yet, despitethe class hegemonic processes that did tend to subvert at least some of theChartist goals, many of them remain alive (and have even been recentlyrejuvenated) in the Labour Party.2 Endnotes ----------------------- [i] Dorothy Thompson, The Chartists: Popular Politics in theIndustrial Revolution (New York, Pantheon Books, 1984), i. Chartism was one of the most important political reform movement inGreat Britain in the first half of the 19th century. Given the consequences of the Industrial Revolution in England, it isnot surprising that a populist labor movement like Chartism should be bornto counter some of the move terrible effects of changing economic andsocial practices on the poor people of the country. 8 Ibid., 5. Chartismsought equality of political access, but more than this it sought toelevate the human spirit and condition in its entirety. 13 Ibid., 11. Chartism: A New Organization of the People. Peel and the Victorians. The Chartists, seeing the misery inflicted byindustrialization and an elitist society, sought to transform the worldthrough education and political suffrage. Radicalism takes its name froma demand made by Charles James Fox to Parliament demanding "a radicalreform" that would extend the franchise to universal manhood suffrage andthe term "Radical" afterward indicated those in support of parliamentaryreform. 15 Mark Hovell, The Chartist Movement (New York: Augustus Kelley,1967), 136. As Thompson notes, the People's Charter was only one of the eventsthat marks the beginning of the Chartist movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.Thompson, Dorothy. After the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, a measure primarilybenefiting the middle class, a group of Radicals allied with the Whigfaction in Parliament worked to extend the vote to the working class. The Arts and Crafts Movement failedbecause all social plans that depend upon the stopping of time's passagemust fail. The Chartists, by virtue of their hours in thesweatshops, were full-blown modernists. Together these "six points" (althoughsometimes one or another of the points was omitted by different Chartistsand the resulting sets of demands called the "five points") had a unifiedpurpose. New York: Humanities Press, 1969 [184 ].Read, Donald. 1848: The British State and the Chartist Movement. There was no way for the English working classes toknow that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The Chartists: Popular Politics in the Industrial Revolution. 7 Thompson, 35. But in fact the movementwas only marred by violence a single time; the rest of its strikes andpublic gatherings came off peacefully.4 Extending from 1838 to 1848, the movement drew its name from thePeople's Charter, the name applied to a legislative program submitted toParliament in 1837 by the London Working Men's Association. BibliographyCumming, Elizabeth, and Wendy Kaplan. "There is," wrote a sympathetic observer later in the year, "among the manufacturing poor, a stern look of discontent, of hatred to all who are rich, a total absence of merry faces: a sallow tinge and dirty skins tell of suffering and brooding over change."15 Having established the outline of the Chartist movement, one may nowcompare it to the English Radical movement. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987.Saville, John. And yetthere were sufficient differences between the older radicals and theChartists that Chartism can more easily be classified as a unique movementthan it can as part of an unbroken line of the Radical reform attempts thatbegan in the 18th century and stretched into the 2 th century. Lovett and Collins wrote in their manifesto that if they should"succeed in arousing the attention of the millions to the great importanceof the subjects treated of in this pamphlet" that they would think theiryears' imprisonment worthwhile.18 All but one (annual elections) of thereforms they advocated for so fiercely were in fact to come about inEngland, and in some measure at least because of them. 3 Ibid., 5. 6 W. 16 William Lovett, and John Collins, Chartism: A New Organization ofthe People (New York: Humanities Press, 1969 [184 ]), 64. Finally, Chartism is set off from other political Radical movements bythe fact that it aimed to encompass far more than simple politics. The Coercion Act for Ireland, passed in 1833, helped spread thesame kind of populist discontent to Ireland, where all ordinary politicalactivity could now be suppressed by "perhaps the most repressive Irishmeasure ever proposed by an English government".12 Not only were Irishworkers suffering from the same economic uncertainties and culturaldislocations as English workers of the time, but they had been stripped ofeven the most peaceable ways of making their discontent felt. New York: Augustus Kelley, 1967.Lovett, William, and John Collins. Members of the Arts and CraftsMovement, seeing the misery inflicted by industrialization and an elitistsociety, tried to make the humble craftsperson into an elite himself (orherself), the only person left with skills quickly being erased by themodern world.17 Chartism, being a form of radicalism, looked to the future.The Arts and Crafts movement looked to the past. The Chartist Movement. Finally, to the extent that Chartism failed, it must be said in itsdefense that all movements of the working classes tend to be "inhibited andconfused"19 by the middle and upper classes of society. The Arts and Crafts Movement. These three developed aphilosophy based on Bentham's principle of "the greatest happiness of thegreatest number." They proposed as a means to this end the removal of allpolitical and social restraints on economic relations, believing thatindividuals are free to the extent that their commercial life isunrestricted. E. Chartism failed for a number of reasons, but in large measurenot because it picked the wrong future but because it picked the rightfuture too early. Indeed, this populistand popular movement came nearer to being a mass rebellion than anotherBritish movement in modern times.[i] Working people from across Wales,Scotland and England demonstrated in support of both the political andsocial elements of this program. They called not onlyfor expanded suffrage but for expanded education and a general increase inthe morality and social commitment of humanity. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.