How significant was O'Connor's leadership in the failure of Chartism?

University Degree Creative Arts and Design

Kate McPherson

How significant was O’Connor’s leadership in the failure of Chartism?

(1,163 words)

It can be argued that O’Connor was the main cause of Chartism’s failure.

When he became active in the Chartist movement, he became critical of leaders such as William Lovett and Henry Hetherington who believed in moral force. At a speech held in Manchester on 29th September 1839, he promised his people he would lead them to “death or glory”, and proposed violent action if Parliament did not grant them the six points of the Charter. These speeches outraged leaders such as Lovett, so he was excluded from the platform of a mass meeting which had been organised by the London Working Men’s Association. His speeches and newspaper articles became more threatening so was blamed by the moral force to have caused the failure of The Newport Rising on 4th November 1839.

By May 1847, O’Connor had persuaded over 70,000 people to pay £100,000 into a fund which would enable him to buy the later renamed “O’Connorville”. His Land Scheme was a disaster as the company became bankrupt and the settlers were evicted.

More events like this re-occurred, and at Kennington Common, O’Connor showed signs of desperation. He told the crowds he had collect a petition which had 5,706,000 signatures but when the MPs later examined the petition, they discovered he had lied and it only contained 1,975,496 signatures as the others were forgeries. O’Connor continued to “destroy the credibility of the Chartist movement” (as his critics would say) and he became irrational and assaulted several MPs. After this happened he was committed to a mental asylum and Chartism never recovered. Events such as the Plug Riots all added to the growing evidence against O’Connor as to why he was failing to lead the movement successfully. Fergus O’Connor denounced the strikes in his newspaper, the Northern Star, and even suggested that they had been organised by the middle class organisation, the Anti-Corn League. O’Connor and other leaders such as Julian Harney and Thomas Cooper were all detained and 1500 people were arrested.

However, it can be said that O’Connor’s leadership was not the main reason Chartism failed.

There were many other factors involved in the failure of the Chartist movement.

By 1848 the Chartism movement had achieved very little. The six points were still unattainable, there was discontent in industrial areas and there was no chance that the House of Commons would legislate for the Charter. Robert Stewart claimed in Party and Politics (1830-1852) that Chartism’s fatal weakness was the fact it had no “parliamentary strength” nor did it have the “means of gaining it”. It’s only hope was to develop into ...

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However, it can be said that O’Connor’s leadership was not the main reason Chartism failed.

There were many other factors involved in the failure of the Chartist movement.

The economic view was the fact that it failed after the recovery of the economy. It grew rapidly at the time the economy was undergoing recession. Once it had recovered this period of decline, Chartism felt the negative affect. Negative attitudes in parliament did not help the movement either. The demands of the Charter were not met because the establishment felt it had already changed the constitution and didn’t want to change it again. The Chartists failed to influence the majority in Parliament who also controlled both the Church and the army.

The fact that there were divisions in leadership amongst Chartism also did no favours. During the 1840s, the moral force attitude was born which made followers such as William Lovett and Francis Place believe in a non-violent approach to achieving their success. After the 1832 Reform Act, many working class people were disappointed that they still couldn’t vote. This disappointment became anger after the passing of the 1834 Poor Law. From this, the London Working Men’s Association was formed with William Lovett as their leader. This influential organisation later became the Chartists. But by the early 1840s, O’Connor and others raised doubts about moral force so Lovett left.

In 1842, the idea of physical force which supported an ‘armed struggle’ for getting what was wanted. The Plug Riots in the summer of 1842 and The Newport Rising in November 1839 showed this physical force in action – with un-welcomed consequences.

Other factors that caused the failure of Chartism included regional differences whereby different regions interpreted Chartism in their own ways. The North believed in physical force but areas such as Birmingham believed in moral force.

The strength of the British state was most defiantly the main factor for Chartism failing.

Thanks to the 1832 Reform Act, the political system was stable, with the police and army both staying loyal to the government. With the Kennington Common demonstration on 10th April 1848, the police were well prepared for the Chartists with over 90,000 soldiers, police officers and special constables in place. John Saville believed Chartism was broken by the physical force of the state, and because of this, “false understanding” and “denigration” appeared amongst the people in Britain.

The lack of middle class support was another reason. The physical force element of Chartism caused a lot of middle classed citizens to refuse ideas subjected by Chartism. When the middle class created The Anti-Corn Law in 1832, it proved very successful at gaining support against Chartism. They did not want O’Connor and the rest of the movement interfering with their progress.

But historians such as Mark Hovell in his book The Chartist Movement (1918) believed “Chartism by no means failed.” He thought principles of the Charter had “gradually” become part of the British constitution and this was a huge success for Chartism.

The question that must be asked however is was it just a simple case of Chartism being around at the wrong time and in the wrong place? It can be argued that it failed because of the fact that it didn’t achieve any of the objectives of the Charter and a consequence of this was that the Chartists disappeared from British history. But it could be said that they succeeded a lot in the sense that it existed for a long time and the Charter was recognised. This is shown in the years 1872, 1884 and so forth. O’Connor united the working class people and helped them to stand up for what they believed in. The working class become a class within itself. In 1980 as Edward Royle put it, “The Chartists’ greatest achievement was Chartism, a movement shot through not with despair but hope.”

Although Fergus O’Connor did not help the movement at times with his physical force ideas, and the false propaganda he used such as the fake signatures at Kennington Common gave his enemies more reason to dislike his leadership, he still achieved many goals that Chartism set out to obtain and without his leadership the movement may not have eventually affected changes in the laws and government at times.

Even though Chartism did not last in the short term, its failure was due to many other factors apart from O’Connor which have been previously raised.