Radicalism and Reputation: The Career of Bronterre O’Brien by Turner Michael J

Author:Turner, Michael J. [Turner, Michael J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628952858
Publisher: Michigan State University Press

CHAPTER 5

America’s Democratic Promise

Before, during, and after O’Brien’s time, most reform groups in Britain were generally well disposed toward America. They admired its written constitution and guarantee of personal rights; its republican system and democratic suffrage; its religious toleration and the absence of an established church; its freedom from the weight of tradition, rank, class, and aristocracy; its well-developed local government and sense of active civic participation; its promise of liberty, opportunity, and progress. America seemed to represent what Britain could and should be. From John Wilkes in the 1760s, through John Cartwright and Thomas Paine, through William Cobbett in the early nineteenth century, and on into the mid-Victorian years, there was an unbroken thread in British radicalism, one typified by tributes to and friendship toward America. Chartists were influenced by this tendency and helped to prolong it. The United States offered them a model. O’Brien encouraged them in this optimistic conceptualization of America, and one of the striking consistencies in his career is the way he thought about and used America in his political activities.

The American Revolution added to the radical tradition and its vocabulary in the late eighteenth century and was a motive force for campaigners of subsequent generations. 1 America’s contribution to Chartism went beyond inspiration and ideas. There were also personnel. One American-born leader of early Chartism was Augustus Beaumont, who became active in London politics before founding the Northern Liberator in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1837. 2 O’Brien knew him well. He considered Beaumont “as noble and kindly a spirit as ever breathed in human form. . . . Honoured be his name, and cherished be his memory for the good he has done!” 3

Respect for the U.S. Constitution was reflected in some of the proposals for reform in Britain. Chartist propaganda was filled with American references. The vote as a prerequisite for freedom was a constant theme, and the wide suffrage in America was regarded as a security against tyranny and corruption. Chartists also discussed the British worker and the slave in America in the same breath. The latter had no rights, but British laborers were also the “enslaved many,” as an address from the Chartists of Finsbury put it in 1839. 4 Chartists could therefore use negative as well as commendable features of American society in their reform mobilization at home.

At the time of the Bull Ring Riots in Birmingham in 1839, it was claimed that the authorities had moved against the Chartists without just cause. Many made a comparison with the Boston Tea Party of 1773 and repeated the slogan “No taxation without representation.” As Malcolm Chase explains, “Both were defining moments that misled government into supposing it had justification for suppression.” Chartists openly venerated historical figures who had committed themselves to the cause of liberty, especially during the American Revolution. George Washington and other American heroes were a staple part of Chartist iconography. Portraits, statuettes, and other symbols could be found in the home as well as on display during meetings and processions.

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