THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES
THE CONVENTION GETS UNDER WAY IN LONDON - 4 FEBRUARY 1839
The Convention's first day opened with a motion from John Collins to elect William Lovett the Secretary. Each day a new chairman and secretary were elected to conduct that day's meeting, and on two occasions in February and again in April, Collins chaired the meetings. All told, there were over 70 Delegates (Chartist Convention of 1939, T M Kemnitz) elected by unions nationwide, although a lesser number met at any one time owing to possible legal restrictions and limited means of speedy, nationwide communication. The Birmingham Journal [9 February 1839] reported 68 delegates present on the first day.
The main function of the Convention was to prepare and deliver the National Petition to Parliament. The Petition sought to redress the failings of the 1832 Reform Bill that extended the suffrage to the middle classes. That Bill was not the working man's version of democracy since it still excluded the vast majority of them, leaving only one in eight people with the right to vote.
The main function of the Convention was to prepare and deliver the National Petition to Parliament. The Petition sought to redress the failings of the 1832 Reform Bill that extended the suffrage to the middle classes. That Bill was not the working man's version of democracy since it still excluded the vast majority of them, leaving only one in eight people with the right to vote.
Signatures & National Rent
On the first day of the Convention a list was got up of the number of signatures to the Petition emanating from the delegates' constituents, and the amount of National Rent (money paid by constituents) collected in support of the Convention. Some delegates provided both signatures and money, some delegates had one or the other, and some none at all. Those who brought both signatures and National Rent were referred to as delegates of the first class. [ Birmingham Journal 9th February 1839]
Although there is no official identification of the Delegates in the picture below, many are recognizable. There is a man standing to the left in the foreground. The second man to his right (facing forward, head and shoulders showing) bears a likeness to John Collins. The Convention has been called an unofficial "People's Parliament" and its Delegates added the abbreviation M.C. (Member of the Convention) after their names.
The law placed restrictions on bodies such as the National Convention so that it or its members could not correspond or organize nationally outside of itself. As a result (and this was the obvious intent) the government was legally able to quash or discourage large-scale organized political events.
DISCORD AMONG THE DELEGATES
However, the numbers in attendance and the legality of the Convention were the least of its problems. From the start there was much disagreement, especially on what to do if the government rejected the National Petition demanding political reform. Some favoured violence, others suggested a national strike, there was also talk of officially electing their own "People's Parliament." Still others, led by the militant George Harney, demanded The Charter itself must come into law within a month, and that acts of oppression must be met with resistance - to which John Collins expressed his astonishment and disapproval.
Three Birmingham delegates (Douglas, Salt and Hadley) resigned in the face of such violent talk. They were all middle class men of significant status and means. Their withdrawal opened the door for three working class men (Donaldson, Brown and Powell) who supported militant action. John Donaldson, told the Convention the men of Birmingham were armed to the teeth. Edward Brown, boasted retribution from the people of Birmingham should any delegate become victimized by the government. (He would later be imprisoned for such speeches.)
In the end the Convention compromised by adopting the motto "Peaceably if we may, forcibly if we must" but it only served to show the difference between the moderate, non-violent faction (moral force) and the aggressive, forceful set (physical force). It was a problem that would dog the Chartist Movement in the months to come. It divided its leaders, cost the movement some influential people, and ultimately weakened the cause. |
Support for John Collins
Although the Birmingham replacements (Messrs Brown, Powell and Donaldson) represented the rising tide of militancy amongst the working class of Birmingham, the three were not officially approved delegates of the Birmingham Political Union, having been elected at an unofficial gathering of working men (The Charter newspaper dated 28 April 1839). There was still support for the moderate line of John Collins.
Accordingly, a protest signed by some 80 or more Union members was presented at the Convention urging them to refuse admission to the three Birmingham replacements (Messrs Brown, Powell and Donaldson) who it was said endeavoured to sew dissention among the people of Birmingham by preaching bloodshed and revolution - and had been backed by Fergus O'Connor running interference in Birrmingham affairs.
Nevertheless there had been a significant shift in attitude and power both at the Convention and in Birmingham. Douglas, Salt and Hadley's resignations were greatly criticized by BPU members and Convention delegates alike. Fergus O'Connor called them "deserters," and even though "Collins manfully defended" his colleagues (Chartist Movement, Mark Hovell) their replacements prevailed. |
To all intents and purposes the BPU's middle class leaders had abandoned the cause, and in doing so contributed to the demise of the Birmingham Union.
ADVANCING THE CAUSE
Meanwhile, the National Convention (which had relocated to Dr Johnson's Tavern in Fleet Street, London) approved sending out its most prominent orators as "missionaries" to organize simultaneous nationwide meetings for the newly emerging “Chartist Cause.” A letter dated February 28, 1839 signed by William Lovett, Secretary to the Convention, formally appointed John Collins “Missionary” charged with spreading the word about the People’s Charter, obtaining signatures to the National Petition for Universal Suffrage, and raising funds for Rent. Rent – or National Rent - was the collection of money to help pay for the Convention and support its Chartist lecturers or “missionaries." Collins was also chairman (appointed 13 December 1838) of the Managing Committee for collecting 'rent' or funds on behalf of the Birmingham Political Union.
His missionary duties included Scotland (where he had previously been so successful) as well as the southern counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Berkshire. Scotland would wait until after the Convention moved to Birmingham, and in March he went down south where he encountered much suffering among agricultural workers. In Newberry, Speen Collins took time to visit thirty families, listening to their stories of hardship and distress, reporting back to the Convention the people mainly subsisted on potatoes and turnips.
His missionary duties included Scotland (where he had previously been so successful) as well as the southern counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Berkshire. Scotland would wait until after the Convention moved to Birmingham, and in March he went down south where he encountered much suffering among agricultural workers. In Newberry, Speen Collins took time to visit thirty families, listening to their stories of hardship and distress, reporting back to the Convention the people mainly subsisted on potatoes and turnips.
Meanwhile, the three Birmingham delegates who had condemned the violent language of the London Convention and subsequently resigned, never completed their programme of missionary assignments. Their less than stellar performance and resignations caused them to be publicly criticized at a special meeting called in Birmingham on 6th April.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR PETITION SHEETS
In addition to Collins' missionary duties, the General Convention charged him with responsibility for receiving signed petition sheets in readiness for the National Petition to be presented to the Parliament. Notices to that effect were placed in newspapers. By the time he reported to the Convention the Petition was ready for presentation to Parliament, it contained one and a quarter million signatures from over two hundred towns and villages, weighed a quarter of a ton, and stretched 3 miles long when all the petition sheets were joined together.
On 7th May the Convention delegates formed a procession and escorted the massive rolled-up Petition on a horse-drawn vehicle draped in the Union Jack flag to the house of Thomas Attwood, Member of Parliament for Birmingham. He, however, was less than enthusiastic when they arrived, telling Collins and a small group of leading delegates that "while he undertook to present the Petition, he would have nothing to do with the Charter" and in his opinion the labouring classes were against the Charter!
When the Petition was eventually introduced to Parliament on 14th June it was not well received. They refused to consider its content, and on 12th July the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly against it.
When the Petition was eventually introduced to Parliament on 14th June it was not well received. They refused to consider its content, and on 12th July the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly against it.
THE CONVENTION RELOCATES TO BIRMINGHAM - 13 MAY 1839
A Public Drubbing for the Birmingham "Deserters"
At that same gathering at Holloway Head on 13th May 1839 the Birmingham delegates Douglas, Salt and Hadley, who had resigned from the London Convention, were publicly censured by the physical force champion Feargus O’Connor. John Collins – ever the diplomat and moderate - attempted for a second time to defend "the known and tried friends of the people". Nevertheless, there was too much anti-middle class feeling. The BPU's days in the limelight were over. There had been a Union meeting the month before, but after that its doors remained closed forever more. It was an ignominious ending for the Union, and even as late as October that year the Birmingham "deserters" were still being publicly chastised - except for John Collins who, it was said, "was an honor to the town" (Northern Star 26 October 1839).
Collins Revisits Scotland
With their arrival in Birmingham the Convention delegates assembled for meetings at the Lawrence Street Chapel, said to hold 500 people. Toward the end of the first week the Conference was adjourned (17 May to 1 July 1939) in order to allow delegates to organize more Chartist meetings all over the country. John Collins and others set off on a three week "missionary tour" to promote the National Petition and the Chartist Movement in the major towns in Scotland, ending at Glasgow Green on June 10th.
The Green is purportedly the oldest public space in the United Kingdom, and was the site of the famous Glasgow Demonstration that Collins had helped bring about the previous year. After Glasgow, the men then split up into two groups. Collins and his group took the major towns northeast of the River Forth, Greenock, Bannockburn, and Montrose, ending with large demonstrations at Stirling, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Alcoa. The second group headed westward.
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John Collins in Glasgow - Letter June 21 1839
To Birmingham Female Political Union |
John Collins in Perth. Birmingham Female Political Union
To the Editor of the Birmingham Journal July 6 1839 |
Eventually the two groups came together in Edinburgh for a major rally on Calton Hill in Edinburgh before heading into the border counties with still more rallies in Jedburgh and Dumfries.
Then it was back to Birmingham with Collins stopping on the way to give impressive speeches in the northern towns of Skipton (28th June 1839), Bradford the next day, and Barnsley (1st July). |
It had been some thirteen months since Collins’ previous visit to Scotland and the North on behalf of the Birmingham Political Union, and once again he drew the crowds and was well-pleased with the tour, reporting to the National Convention "he had never seen such spirit manifested in all his life" (The Chartist Movement in Scotland, Alexander Wilson).
The difference, however, is that Collins was no longer a spokesman for the demised Birmingham Political Union, which had been more or less replaced by extremist workingmen with a talent for giving incendiary and seditious speeches. Collins was as he had always been, a man on a mission to improve the country and make working class lives better - except now he was a leader in his own right campaigning for the Chartist Movement.
However, the Chartist Movement was not a unified organization. Increased dissension between moral and physical force factions served to confuse the public. Physical force men insisted "the Government would only yield to force," using language such as "down with the throne and burn the church." More and more the uneducated and hungry poor in Birmingham's Black Country, the surrounding Midlands, and Scotland and the North grew increasingly influenced by this aggressive, fighting talk that sounded good and fed on the frustration of angry men.
However, the Chartist Movement was not a unified organization. Increased dissension between moral and physical force factions served to confuse the public. Physical force men insisted "the Government would only yield to force," using language such as "down with the throne and burn the church." More and more the uneducated and hungry poor in Birmingham's Black Country, the surrounding Midlands, and Scotland and the North grew increasingly influenced by this aggressive, fighting talk that sounded good and fed on the frustration of angry men.
It was a prescription for disaster. Added to this, Lord John Russell, the Home Secretary, issued a form letter to authorities in various towns offering aid, including arms, to put down Chartist associations and gatherings. In Birmingham the magistrates took full advantage of the offer and sent to London for police support to enforce a ban on public meetings. When John Collins returned from Scotland to take his seat at the Convention in Birmingham he stepped into a hornet's nest. An all-out riot incited by police brutality took place on 4th July in the Bull Ring. As a result, John Collins and William Lovett were arrested the next day on charges of libel and sedition. Their offence was for for censoring the police for their brutality and the authorities for preventing the people's right to pubic assembly. In reality, however, it was part of the government's attempt to silence the Chartist Movement.