Chartism and Parliament: The Struggle for the Vote

In what year and month did William Lovett and the London Working Men's Association publish the People's Charter?

May 1838.

List two of the six political reforms demanded in the People's Charter of 1838.

Any two of: universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, secret ballots, annual parliaments, abolition of property qualifications for MPs, or salaries for MPs.

Which British politician delivered a famous parliamentary speech in May 1842 arguing that universal male suffrage would destroy private property?

Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Explain why Chartists insisted on salaries for Members of Parliament and the abolition of property qualifications.

Without salaries and without the removal of property qualifications, working-class men could neither afford to run for office nor support themselves while serving in Parliament, which left government entirely in the hands of the rich.

How did internal divisions between 'moral force' and 'physical force' Chartists undermine the movement's credibility with Parliament?

Violent rhetoric and events like the Newport Rising of November 1839 allowed MPs to dismiss Chartism as a dangerous, treasonous movement of rioters rather than a legitimate democratic campaign.

Read the following 1842 excerpt from MP Thomas Macaulay: 'I believe that universal suffrage would be fatal to all purposes for which government exists... that it is incompatible with the existence of civilization.' Contrast Macaulay's view of voting rights with the Chartist perspective.

Macaulay viewed the vote as a dangerous weapon that poor majorities would use to seize property and destroy the economic order. In contrast, Chartists viewed the vote as a fundamental right of citizenship that would give working people a peaceful, lawful voice to protect themselves from exploitation.