Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 20th December 1851, Edition Country of 2, Page 20, HCJAJtCITY OF GEN UINK rOETKV. <lliiiIK<...

Page 20
Page 20
20 of 24

On this page

  • Text (5)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      1216 &Lbt Fl£&3r£T% [Saturday ,

      1216 & lbt fL £ & 3 r £ t % [ Saturday ,

      The Electors And The Elected. To The Cha...

      THE ELECTORS AND THE ELECTED . TO THE CHARTISTS . December 17 , 1851 . Brother Ciiaiitists , —You are being told you cannot elect an Executive of three ( or five ) men , and pay them for labour done , because the last convention did not make such a regulation , and therefore it would be undemocratic to alter the constitution of

      the committee . I don ' t understand such very nice scruples . ^ My notion is that that is the most democratic which is the best for democracy . My notion is , the constituency that sends delegates whom it sends ; that primary assemblies are higher than electe d bodies , and that , therefore , the full free vote of the entire Chartist movement can make any impro vement it pleases in its organization . So much for the objection on the score of democracy . A nice position we should be in at a time of crisis if w e found there was something wron « - in our organization , and we must needs wait et the

      until we could afford the money , and gup machinery requisite for summoning a convention ! If there is an evil , get rid of it as speedily as you can . And here is an occasion when we cannot wait till a convention Is called together . An Executive ( by the rules ) must be elected at once . A convention could not meet in less than six weeks , and , therefore , I su ° - ° -ested the only democratic course left in the emergency , to make forthwith a direct appeal to the Chartist body , whether certain alterations were needed in the formation of an Executive . You are further told you should elect a committee of nine , because the large number " insures a good average attendance . "

      Pay the men , then you can command their at tendance , and discard them if they are negligent ser

      vants . Nine are further recommended , as giving the advantage of a multiplicity of opinions . That is just what we should avoid , it prevents unity of action . One man tells us , "I ' m a Communist , elect none but Communists with me . Another says , " I ' m for supporting the middle-class movement . " Each one tries to divert Chartism into a tool to carry out his own peculiar notions , and thus all pull different ways , and neutralize the Chartist power .

      This comes of " having men given to other movements on our committee . Would you take a blacksmith to plane a board , or a bricklayer to make a pair of shoes ? In the same way in which you want a carpenter to do a carpenter ' s work , or a weaver for weaving , so you want a Chartist for CJiartism . And until you feel and act upon this you will never have Chartist work done properly . One rich gentleman who , if he had given that time to the interests of man which he has devoted to his own , would not possess the riches lie now boasts of . One rich gentleman—and there are others who might be as rich , and perhaps richer , than he , had they not trampled upon Mammon to kneel before humanity , had they not preferred the dungeons with which he taunts them , to the country house in which he revels ,

      one rich gentleman tells us it is -unnecessary and impracticable " to pay an Executive " ! Let the rich man say it is unnecessary—I , the poor man , say it is not , and I am prouder of my poverty than lie is of his riches . He tells us , " We do not want an Executive to live upon our energies and sacrifices ! " Tlieu neither . should he want to live upon the energies and sacrifices of an Executive . It is disgraceful in any movement to ask men to do that for us which avc refuse to do for others . " Impracticable . " What ? wit . li such numbers of rich friends , ready friends , ready to form an Executive all for nothing ? Surely if ho ready to form an Executive ; , they inunt be ready to support , one ! Ife tells us , moreover , that we should " be better served" by rich amateurs than by men whom we paid .

      I > y whom should we be better nerved than by a Harney or a , Kydd ? and ran they serve us unless we give them the means of living ? 1 ' eople have sueh a naughty habit , that they will not live without eating . Tin ; unpaid syntcin , by the inevitable law of bread and cheese , driven such men from our active advocacy ; and tell the rich gentleman that one such man is worth a thousand of bis order , with ten thousand times bis sovereigns to boot .. Another evil in an unpaid Executive is , that . it . renders it . almost imperative that , none but / . rmf / ww mcii hIkmiIiI he ulectcd ; whereas , the metropolis should enjoy no mich monopoly in the committee ; which should not , be tinged by local interests , but represent , a national feeling .

      The writer furl her objects to a . committee exclusively of working men . 1 never proposed it .. What , J n ; iiil was , that the committee shonhl consist , of men who would do our work , and not , coquet with a hundred different things . That wnrt a sham pervernion of my meaning . I perfectly agree with our wealthy monitor that a man , because lie bad heen in prison , is no better than another man . 1 am as opposed to aristocracy of " convicts , " as I am to any other aristocracy ; but , 1 do say this , flint getting into prison is no muse of reproach , an he makes it . And thut it . docs not . " evidence , " as In : nays , " a want of the foresight , calmness , and thought neecHHary to bo poHHCHHcd ; " wince none could bo jnorc uiuereet ,

      thoughtful , and calm , than the leaders of the Trades Unions , and they are in Stafford gaol notwithstanding . Calm or loud , despotism imprisons democracy whenever it grows dangerous . * A more important point is the policy of not electing men pledged to other movements . Our friend talks largely of the " Society for the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge , " the " Antistate Church Society , " and the " Secular School Society . " I said nothing about them— -though , if a man gives his time to them , he cannot be giving it to

      us ; but what I did say was , we should not elect men wedded to a hostile political movement . We are engaged in a strugg le of labour against capital , and we should not elect men united with the capitalist . The question is not , are we to join a " parallel association , " as the writer says , but are we to join a hostile one and have its agents on our Executive , to neutralize and strangle our movement . Such , is the association in No . 11 , Poultryf—unfledged political birds , who have not yet got the first down feathers of democracy upon them .

      Why do I call them hostile 1 Because , in a struggle of labour against capital , every extension of the franchise that increases the power of the rich more than it increases the power of the poor , weakens and lessens the chances of the latter to obtain their rights . I know of no " parallel " association . If Financial Reformers mean the same thing as the Charter , let them give up the field to the working men who raised the Charter fifteen years before the political poultry had ever cackled . But if they mean not the same , and they do not if they mean merely an instalment of the franchise ( as I have elsewhere shown ) , and that an instalment of one hundred per cent , given to the middle class for every ten per cent , given to the working class , and if that

      ten per cent , be given only to the aristocracy of labour , then I say it is a hostile movement , one ruinous to the people ' s cause , and the man who supports it is , though unconsciously , our enemy . I say , " though unconsciously" ; for our argument is not , as this writer tells you , " that all men are villains , but it is that vie wont be made fools and have the old tricks of 1832 played over again . I desire , as well as he , to see Chartism made " loveable " ; but I do not wish to see it made a plaything and a laughing stock of the rich . I would sooner see it hate / til in their eyes than contemptible in our own ! And you may depend upon it , as soon as the rich begin to love it , it will be a thing not worth the affections of the poor .

      Having said this much as to whom I conceive the people should elect , permit me to offer a word to those whom they are electing . There seems a misapprehension on the part of some as to the amount of labour expected from a member of the Executive . I do not believe the Chartists expect unreasonable work from him ; but I think they do expect , and I know they have a right to expect , that their servants shall perform their work , and that it is not unreasonable to expect the member of the Executive who remains in town , to attend at the office for at least as many hours as a banker ' s or a merchant ' s clerk would do , and that each should be prepared to pass in rotatation one month out of the three in the country . I do not see that a man need have the capabilities of a steam-engine to perform that which , in his

      respective line , is performed by every commercial traveller or trader ' s servant . I regret that any should refuse to serve in the people ' s cause , l ' oor chance has Democracy when its best men refuse to serve it . This is false pride , and its errors should be pointed out to a friend ( however intimate or valued ) , for he is no honourable man who does not reprove the errors of a brother as freely as the . sins of a foe . No man should be too proud to live by work ; and if not too proud to take wages from a private employer , no man should be too proud to take them from the noblest of masters—the People , in the holiest of work—their redemption . It is wrong—very wrongto reject the helm when called to it in the most critical and dangerous hour . Is this the way to keep the movement on ? Stray lecturing and isolated tours won ' t do it . The about and cheer of the

      meeting maybe attractive , the independent desultory journey may prove more pleasant . ; but the steady , obedient , and assiduous . service is what , wo . want , and when called to the post of duty , no man should shrink from it in the time of apathy . To the rally , then , every man avIio has a heart in the canst ; . We cannot spare one amid the honest . sterling few who stand unshaken in the vanguard of our battle . Do you nee what , comes of sueh reformers ? You leave ; the helm to the incapable or designing ; , you repress the rising courage of the people ; you hliake their awakening confidence . What must , the people think and feel when they call on thorn ; whom

      they love and trust to serve them , and one bv nrm they answer , " Not I ! " " Not I ! " "Not I ! " t this the way to help democracy , and that in its mnS critical and trying hour ? Oh no ! the Charter I endangered , stand by it ! stand by it ! every man f heart , stand by your ranks ! face round on everv side ! hold up the banner in your centre ; stand firm till the storm has blown by ^ then comes the signal maiich , and we will move onward . b * Ernest Jones .

      * There Liuve Been Many Personal Remarks...

      * There liuve been many personal remarks written . These I do not . answer . Whether I did or did not regularly attend tin ; committee when not , on Chartist foutiint'HH in the country , 1 i ; ih nothing to do with tin ; question , Whether three , live , or nine should foe elected as an Kxcr . utivc , paid or unpaid . The reader i . s referred to the weekly attendance lint , an published in the democratic pupcrH . —E . J . f rurliumuntary and Financial llcform Attaociution .

      Reply To " A Letter To Chartists ." Lond...

      REPLY TO " A LETTER TO CHARTISTS . " London , December 1 , 1851 . Sir , —Genuine criticism is always beneficial and we should be grateful for it ; but , to fulfil its ' office thoroughly , to do its work well , it should be scrupulously accurate , inflexibly just , and always kindly " The critic of a popular movement is the most irnl portant officer thereof : he is a responsible censor " liable to the exercise of his particular function ou himself . Our friendly critic , II . R . N ., in his " Letter to Chartists , " with much truth well spoken , has made no distinctions : we are all swept up into one lot of rubbish . He must know ( as I know ) that the noisy the turbulent , the denunciatory , and abusive persons among the Chartists are the most notorious , perhaps but the least numerous , and who are endured for their proved sincerity in many cases , whilst they are rebuked for their violence . If H . R . N . meant by " the Chartists " only a certain portion of them , he were wise to have said so , and should have stated

      their relative numbers , because it is not true of any of his charges to apply them to the whole body . For example : —All the Chartists have not " set up certain wordy idols " ; do not " suppose that strong words are strong sense" ; do not " ask ? Where ' s Moloch ?'" except to put him out ; do not " mistake sound for sense , and noise for strength" ; do not " denounce all who will denounce everybody "; do not " scorn to be practical " ; do not " revel in the vague "; do not " like to be oppressed "; do not " laud to the skies the great talker and little doer" ; do not " regard talk as an end , not as a means . " With some , nay with many , of the Chartists , their movement is

      * ' a steady gale " intelligently adopted , conscientiously adhered to , candidly avowed , and temperately advocated , -vvho are Chartists and gentlemen , who cannot be vulgar , who work from honesty and earnestness of conviction , and are the very core of the movement , the quiet internal power round which aggregate men who , presenting certain rude appearances of mind and manners , have been readily selected as our models of the "whole by our opponents , but who cannot be so recognized by one of ourselves . Candour requires a disavow al of the misconduct of a few and not a sweeping censure of the many ; when the critic shall select the ac tual offenders , and speak

      of them , we shall listen without feeling any injustice ; when this is not so , we must disavow t he charges as caricature not portraiture , as the exceptional put for the general , the transient for the enduring . Criticism , the result of culture , gives greater light ; instinct of the people , that inspiration of humanity , gives greater heat . I regret to see them put m opposition . Why may we not have the illumination of culture ( which always causes criticism ) with the prolific heat of popular instinct united into one process of radiation over society ? T hat man shall bo the leader who can combine them in his own person .

      Till then let us not have a renewal of the world-oKl contest . —Light trying to put down he at , and heat trying to burn up light . Let these estimable critics remember that all movements have these two parties— -the Girondists and the Mountain ; and the wisdom and policy of a Chartist is to unite these oppositions , to be careful in his censures , to avoid irritations—for no man is unassailable by kindness , nt ) man is proof against irritations ; and there is a danger of doing the wrong we condemn , by denouncing denunciation , and unjustly implicating the innocent in a universal censure . Let H . R--N-l . ' ~

      severe in the path of personal exertion , convincing individual ^ restraining violent feelings in his locality , teaching ami exemplifying mild language , temperate tone , and kind manners , with strong convictions and decitled measures—Hurt ; that others are labouring m the name cour . se , with as certain succchh ; lor t >< . J ' eople arc sound at heart , ami soon respond to the generous call and the ; affectionate example . 1 ' ' '"' . be careful how wt : constant . Iycxpo . se our faults , io exposure hardens them . If wejuntify our opponent by our intliHcreet . confessions , we do a wrong to t . hos - who are the real heart and life of the Chartist , movement , the calm , the temperate , the reflective ^ "" practical men , who are not often the most prominen , , though the most useful , of the Chartists . L < * '

      Hcjajtcity Of Gen Uink Roetkv. <Lliiiik<...

      HCJAJtCITY OF GEN UINK rOETKV . < lliiiIK < . w , Drcdinlter '•' . IHr > ISilt , —Then ; can he no surer evidence of the wjjj " city of genuine poetry at the present day , Hum i - injudicious approbation awarded by critics to <•' Hions pretending to b <> such , however queutioim" ¦¦ Hiieh preleiiHioim may be , whether im to the tttnicu or the moral tone of the productions If tin to " former much ullowanco should l > o made to m ^

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 20, 1851, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20121851/page/20/