| Related sites for http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CHmoral.htm |
| Abilene_Christian_University_Library Library hours and departments, electronic resources, and online catalog. | | Spencer_S__Eccles_Health_Sciences_Library Serves the educational, research, and clinical needs of health professionals, students and researchers at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and throughout the Intermountain region. Salt La | | Developments_In_Museum_And_Cultural_Heritage_Information_Standards Information system standards and management of museum collections. | | Spectrum_Yearbooks Colour yearbook and prospectus printing. Specializes in International schools, worldwide delivery. | | Free_Range_Librarian Karen Schneider's meditations about librarianship and any other issue that interests her. | | StoryPlus_Foundation A non-profit organization dedicated to improving children's literacy. Background of the group, newsletter, activities and events, and contribution details. In English and in French. | | Hang_Seng_School_of_Commerce A non-profit educational institution offering a two-year full-time Advanced Level course and a two-year Associate Degree course, to students intending to pursue studies in the business field. | | Hansons Suppliers of display cabinets and busts. Also offers custom units. Includes product specifications. | | Chiltern_Open_Air_Museum This museum at Chalfont St Giles, Bucks. rescues and re-erects historic buildings from medieval to modern. Its collection includes a cottage of around 1600, and a variety of 19th-century buildings. | | Library_Research_Strategy Valparaiso University guide to identifying the steps in doing a research paper. | | Museum_of_Art The Herbert F. Johnson Museum has one of the finest collections of art in New York State and is recognized as one of the most important university museums in the country. | | Flag_of_Tuvalu GIF images of the national flag suitable for web pages, with links to map, geography, population, government, economy and other country facts. | | History_of_the_Flag Includes images of the flag from 1920 to the present. | | Story_of_the_Tiranga Features the story of the tricolor through postage stamps. | | NEA__Tomorrow\'s_Teachers___-_Looking_Good_on_Paper "Having a stellar résumé and portfolio will set you apart from the crowd." | | Committee_on_the_Faculty Includes membership information, faculty handbook, human resources, grievance procedures, and policies for faculty. | | South_Suburban_College Located in South Holland, IL. Student life, admissions, academics, class schedule, calendar, news, services and human resources, business and career institute. | | The_Hoya Twice-weekly "newspaper of record" for Georgetown University. | | Institute_of_Horticultural_Economics Information on staff, research projects, teaching and publications. | | Szkoła_Europejska_–_Gimnazjum,_Liceum Private school in Lodz, Poland. History of school and explanation of programs. [English/Polish] [Diploma] |
|
Moral Force
Home
Email
Search
Author
Site Map
Index Page
Moral Force
Many working people were disappointed when they realised that the 1832 Reform Act did not give them the vote. This disappointment turned to anger when the reformed House of Commons passed the 1834 Poor Law. In June 1836 William Lovett, Henry Hetherington, John Cleave and James Watson formed the London Working Men's Association (LMWA). Although it only ever had a few hundred members, the LMWA became a very influential organisation. At one meeting in 1838 the leaders of the LMWA drew up a Charter of political demands. When supporters of parliamentary reform held a convention the following year, Lovett was chosen as the leader of the group that were now known as the Chartists.
The four main leaders of the Chartist movement had been involved in political campaigns for many years and had all experienced periods of imprisonment. However, they were all strongly opposed to using any methods that would result in violence. Ironically, William Lovett was imprisoned in Warwick Gaol in 1839 for making a speech that was wrongly described as calling for fellow Chartists to use "blood thirsty and unconstitutional force".
Members of the House of Commons who supported the Chartists such as Thomas Attwood, Thomas Wakely, Thomas Duncombe and Joseph Hume constantly emphasized the need to use moral rather than physical force. Lovett, the acknowledged leader of the movement, wrote of how Chartists should "inform the mind" rather than "captivate the senses". William Lovett argued that Chartism intended to succeeded through discussion and publication and "without commotion or violence". Moral Force Chartists believed that peaceful methods of persuasion such as the holding of public meetings, the publication of newspapers and pamphlets and the presentation of petitions to the House of Commons would finally convince those in power to change the parliamentary system.
In the early 1840s the Chartist leadership came under attack from people like Joseph Rayner Stephens, Feargus O'Connor and James Bronterre O'Brien who raised doubts about the Moral Force campaign. Upset by these criticisms, William Lovett and Thomas Attwood decided to retire from active politics. Although some of the original leaders such as Henry Hetherington, John Cleave and James Watson continued to work for the Charter, by 1842 the supporters of physical force were very much in the ascendency.
.
Time Search: Spartacus Educational
Forum Debates
History Debates
Interviews with Historians
(1) William Lovett, Life and Struggles (1876)
As regards the best means of obtaining our Charter. We are of those who are opposed to everything in the shape of a physical or violent revolution, believing that a victory would be a defeat to the just principles of democracy. The political despots; and as such a sanguinary warfare, calling up the passions in the worst forms, must necessarily throw back for centuries our intellectual and moral progress.
(2) R. G. Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement (1894)
Mr. Attwood delivered a speech. He professed himself a peaceful man, and declared that he would never sanction the commission of violence for gaining the people's object, but as he warmed to the subject, he talked about the legislature being unable to resist the demand for two millions of men, which, if not speedily complied with, would result in the two millions being increased to five. If petitioning was found to fail in making the necessary impression, the honourable gentleman suggested a national strike for one week, during which time not a hammer was to be wielded, nor an anvil sounded, not a shuttle moved, throughout the country, and he told his hearers that although he would be opposed to the employment of any violence, if the people were attacked the consequences must fall on the heads of the aggressors. He told the meeting too, that if the government dared to arrest him in the execution of his peaceful purpose, a hundred thousand men would march to demand his release.
(3) William Cobbett, Political Register (7th July, 1832)
The millions have, unquestionably, the same constitutional right to choose those who are to make laws for them, as the body of electors who will enjoy the privilege under the Reform Bill; and, if they have for the present forbone to insist upon that right, their forbearance has not been owing to any doubt of its existence, but to the confident expectation that the comparatively small number of voters who are permitted to enjoy it, will exercise it in a proper manner, and for the benefit of the whole community.
Chartism: A New History
Voices of the People
Enter your search terms
Submit search form
Web
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
Educational Websites
Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History, HistoryWorld, I Love History,
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20, Sintermeerten, ICT4LT
News and Search
Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times,
Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4, ZDNet,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, |
|
