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The Dynamics of Violence in Chartism: A Case Study in Northeastern England*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

William Henry Maehl Jr.
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Extract

The theme of violence in Chartism has always attracted historians. To a large extent, although less so recently, they have accepted the Chartists' division of themselves into advocates of “moral” and “physical” force. Historical writers have found a ready supply of stirring quotes in Chartist speeches to illustrate the passions of a people aroused. And they have dwelt on the actual and potential demonstrations of violence with a lingering fascination. Yet, in all this discussion there has been little systematic examination of the phenomenon of violence in Chartism or any attempt to assess its relative degree of intensity. True enough, recent study by George Rudé on protest and crime in the first half of the nineteenth century has been illuminating, and Dorothy Thompson provided some stimulating analysis in the introduction to The Early Chartists. But no full scale study of the role of violence yet exists.

A helpful move in that direction was made recently in an article by Thomas Milton Kemnitz on the variety of Chartist strategies. Alongside the traditionally recognized policies of moral and physical force, Kemnitz argues that there was a third strategy of intimidation through “the language of menace.” Its chief practitioner, he suggests, was Feargus O'Connor, who modelled his Chartist agitation on experience with Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform. Although Kemnitz presents no explicit evidence that O'Connor consciously adopted a course which stood midway between moral and physical force, it is certainly demonstrable that the effects of O'Connor's actions were psychologically rather than physically coercive. Kemnitz assists us when he suggests that we think of Chartist pressure in terms of gradations of coercion rather than just two alternatives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Summer 1975 , pp. 101 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1975

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Footnotes

*

The author wishes to express his gratitude to the Faculty Research Committee of the University of Oklahoma and the American Philosophical Society for their assistance and encouragement in the research upon which this paper is based.

References

1 Rudé, George, “Protest and Punishment in Nineteenth-Century Britain.” Albion. Vol. V (Spring, 1973): 1–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Thompson, Dorothy, ed., The Early Chartists (London, 1971). pp. 16–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Kemnitz, Thomas Milton. “Approaches to the Chartist Movement: Feargus O'Connor and Chartist Strategy.” Albion. Vol. V (Spring. 1973): 67–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. Supplement. January 5. 1889. p. 1.Google Scholar

4 Rowe, D.J.. “Some Aspects of Chartism on Tyncside.” International Review of Social History. Vol. XVI (1971): 17–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Rowe's critical comments are directed against an article of mine, “Chartist Disturbances in Northeastern England, 1839,” International Review of Social History, Vol. VIII (1963): 389–414Google Scholar. Although he selects certain points for disagreement, he omits mention of the many close parallels between the two discussions.

5 Rowe, p. 22. Even if this were accurate, which it is not, it would not in itself refute the judgment that local Chartism attained unusual militancy.

6 Rowe comments that the importance I attributed to the coal miners was “too simple” and “basically untrue.” leaving the impression that I had acknowledged the participation of no other worker groups. He then proceeds to list a variety of occupations among Chartists, almost all of which were mentioned in my article prior to my comment on coal miners. Compare Rowe, p. 23 with Maehl, pp. 392-93.

7 At Mr. Rowe's request, I prepared a short commentary and bibliographical article for the Bulletin of the Northeast Group for the Study of Labour History (Bulletin no. 3. October 1969). The Bulletin circulates in mimeographed form to members of the Study Group. That article anticipates much of the new information and many of the sources in Mr. Rowe's article, although he did not cite it.

8 See. for example, the appeals of the short-lived Newcastle Press (July 13, 1833-October 4. 1834) and the Newcastle Standard (November 26, 1836-April 15, 1837). For local criticism of the Poor Law, see Blakcy, Robert, Exposure of the Cruelty…of the New Poor Law Bill (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1837).Google Scholar

9 Northern Liberator, June 9. 1838; Sunderland Herald, June 9. 1838. A Birmingham deputation had unveiled the Petition before a meeting in Glasgow on May 21. John Collins came from there to the Northeast where the first presentations to English audiences were made.

10 Rowe. p. 20.

11 Ibid., p. 25.

12 Ibid., pp. 24.27.

13 Ibid., p. 23. The 1.280,000 signatures on the Petition totalled 6.9 of the 1841 population ol Great Britain and 4.8 of the population of Great Britain and Ireland. As a resident of a stale that permits initiative petitions, I can testify to the difficulty of collecting those proportions of signatures in relation to votes cast in a preceding lection, much less those proportions of the total population.

14 Some helpful considerations are: United States. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Report (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1968)Google ScholarPubMed; United States. National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, Report (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970)Google ScholarPubMed; Graham, Hugh Davis and Gurr, Ted Robert, History of Violence in America (New York, 1969)Google Scholar; Nieburg, H.L.. Political Violence (New York, 1969)Google Scholar; Gurr, Ted Robert, Why Men Rebel (Princeton, N.J., 1970)Google Scholar; Edelman, Murray, Politics as Symbolic Action: Mass Arousal and Quiescence (Chicago, 1971)Google Scholar; van den Haag, Ernest, Political Violence and Civil Disobedience (New York, 1972)Google Scholar; Hibbs, Douglas A. Jr., Mass Political Violence: A Cross National Causal Analysis (New York, 1973)Google Scholar; von der Mehden, Fred R.. Comparative Political Violence (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1973).Google Scholar

15 Nieburg. pp. 5-17.

16 Gurr. p. 11.

17 Rowe, for instance, uses the term Northeast without defining it, although he hints vaguely that it lies between Yorkshire and Lancashire on the one hand and Scotland on the other. Yet in practice, he seems to mean Tyneside, that is, Newcasllcupon Tyne and the communities in its immediate vicinity. This ambiguity contributes to his misunderstanding of the coal miners' importance.

18 Briggs, Asa. Chartist Studies (London, 1959), p. 3.Google Scholar

19 Northern Liberator. October 27, 1838.

20 Ibid., June 30, 1838. There is some dispute as to whether the appearance of troops at this Coronation Day meeting on the Town Moor was deliberate harrassment or not. According to the Northern Liberator report, near the beginning of the meeting a cavalry and infantry force marched from their nearby barracks to another part of the Town Moor to fire a Coronation Day salute. They passed within 100 paces of the crowd. On their later return, they passed much closer to the meeting, the infantry and cavalry marching on different sides of the crowd, and an officer rode his horse close to the edge of the meeting to observe. Fcargus O'Connor, who was a speaker at the meeting, later claimed that the troops had actually passed through the crowd, dividing it into three segments on their return. (Northern Star, June 30. 1839; Northern Liberator, July 7, 1839.) The Newcastle Chartists launched a protest to the Home Office, through the good offices of the London Working Men's Association. After investigation. S.M. Phillipps of the Home Office, replied, denying any intention to interfere with the meeting, (H.O. 43/55, f. 370). Independently, one of the magistrates. Dr. Thomas E. Headlam, wrote to the deputy lord lieutenant. Lord Howiek, denying any intention of interference, (Headlam to Howiek, July 2, 1838, Papers of the Third Earl Grey, Prior's Kitchen, Durham Cathedral, Box 107, File 5). I he local Chartists made no subsequent issue of the incident following the Home Office reply.

21 Northern Liberator. December 29, 1838.

22 Sunderland Herald. February 1. 1839.

23 Ibid., April 5. 1839.

24 Ibid., May 10. 1839.

25 Northern Liberator, February 9, 1839. What Lowery's role could have been in plans for arming or a possible conspiracy is difficult to assess. He had a reputation as a militant speaker and he advocated strong positions, such as the Sacred Month, as a delegate to the General Convention, but he avoided advocacy of violence. For a fuller discussion of his position, which parallels Kemnitz's middle strategy, see Harrison, Brian and Hollis, Patricia, “Chartism, Liberalism and the Life of Robert Lowery,” English Historical Review, Vol. LXXXII (1967): 511–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Duke of Northumberland to Lord John Russell, February 27, I 839; John Fife to Russell. February 22. 1839, H.O. 40/46; General Jackson to S.M. Phillipps, March 2, 10, 1839. H.O. 40/53, If. 295-98; 216-17.

27 Gateshead Observer, March 30, 1839; Jackson to Phillipps, April 25, 1839. H.O. 40/53. f. 324.

28 Schoyen, A R.. The Chartist Challenge (London, 1958), pp. 57–64.Google Scholar

29 Gateshead Observer, April 27. 1839.

30 See Gateshead Observer, May 4, 1839, for an example of this stalemate.

31 National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Report, pp. 67-73.

32 Maehl, . “Chartist Disturbances,” p. 394.Google Scholar

33 Enclosure in Fife to Russell, July 20, 1839, H.O. 40/46. An identical handbill was issued in Sunderland by the Durham County Charter Association.

34 Fife to Russell, July 19, 1839, H.O. 40/46.

35 Town Council Reports (1839), pp. 15–18Google Scholar; Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, March 8, 1873; Harney Account, ibid., July 19, 1890; Letter from a participant in the procession, ibid., August 9, 1890. The Northern Liberator, August 3, 1839, denied that any objects were thrown, while Gammage, R.G. in his History of the Chartist Movement, 2nd ed. (Newcastle, 1894)Google Scholar claimed “but few were made use of” in spite of their accessibility, (p. 149).

36 Fife to Russell, August 4. 6. 1839. H.O. 40/46.

37 Northern Liberator, August 10, 1839; Quoted in Cole, G.D.H. and Filson, A W.. eds., British Working Class Movements: Select Documents, 1789-1875 (New York, 1965). p. 367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Fife to Russell. August 10. 1839. H.O. 40/46.

39 Northern Liberator. August 10. 1839.

40 Handbill enclosed in Fife to Russell. August 10. 1839. H.O. 40/46.

41 H.O. 40 51. f. 134.

42 Durham Advertiser, August 16. 1839; Newcastle Courant, August 16. 1839.

43 Charles William Bigge to Howiek. August 8. 1839. Third Earl Grey Papers. Box 78. File 4; John Buddle to Marquess of Londonderry. August 12. 1839. John Buddle Papers. North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers. Letter Books II. item 14: Newcastle Journal, August 17. 1839.

44 Newcastle Courant. August 16. 1839.

45 Gurr. p. 335.

46 The principal narraiive accounts of conspiratorial activities in autumn 1839 come from persons who were close to the events themselves. They are: (I) a narrative report of John Taylor to William Lovett, June 10, 1841, William Lovett Papers, Birmingham Public Library (hereafter cited as Taylor Narrative); (2) evidence from the Russophobe David Urquhart in the Urquhart Bequest MSS. Balliol College Library. Oxford. Series 1. E. and the Sheffield Free Press Serials, no. 13. “The Chartist Correspondence”; (3) a public exchange of correspondence between William Ashton. William Hill and Feargus O'Connor. Northern Star, May 3, 17. 1845; (4) passages in the autobiography of Robert Lowery, published in a series of 33 articles in the Weekly Record ol the Temperance Movement between April 12. 1856 and May 30. 1857: and (5) the strange autobiography of Devyr, Thomas Ainge. Odd Book of the Nineteenth Century (Grcenpoint. N.Y., 1882)Google Scholar. These can be supplemented by isolated items in manuscript collections and hints in the Chartist press.

47 Taylor Narrative.

48 Northern Liberator, December 7. 1839.

49 “The Chartist Correspondence.” Letter No. X. Enclosure 2.

50 A. J. Peacock, Bradford Chartism, 1838-40. Borthwick Papers. No. 36 (York: I University of York. Borthwick Institute of Historical Research. 1969). p. 39: Northern Liberator. December 21. 28. 1839.

51 Duke of Northumberland to Lord Normanby. December 14. 1839. H.O. 40/46; Duke of Northumberland Letter Books. Alnwick Castle. Northumberland. November 12. 1831-August 1, 1844. pp. 286-90.

52 Northern Star, December 21, 28, 1839, May 3, 1845; Northern Liberator, December 28, 1839. Robert Lowery reported in his memoir that the Convention delegates seemed relieved when the West Riding leaders had taken the initiative and had released them from the responsibility of decision. (Temperance Weekly Record, February 28, 1857, p. 74).

53 Taylor Narrative; Devyr, , Odd Book, pp. 199–204Google Scholar. Devyr, , Odd Book, pp. 204–208.Google Scholar

54 Newcastle Chronicle, February 8, 1840; Newcastle Journal, January 25. 1840. Devyr. James Ayre. William Thomason and John Mason were reported to have “suddenly decamped.”

56 Devyr, . Odd Book, pp. 208–209Google Scholar; Tyne Mercury, February 4. 1840. The pair may have consulted with Taylor before their emigration, for Taylor mentioned to Lovett that “the two most looked after in my district” made their departure for America from his lodgings. (Taylor Narrative).