Editing Chartism (section)

==1842==
[[Image:Flag used by British Chartists.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|19th century [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom|British Republican]] Flag proposal<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb}rep.html|title=British republican flag|date=2012-01-20|access-date=2021-05-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028205210/https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb%7Drep.html|archive-date=2020-10-28}}</ref>]]
According to Dorothy Thompson, "1842 was the year in which more energy was hurled against the authorities than in any other of the 19th century".<ref name=Thompson1984/>{{rp|295}}

In early May 1842, a second petition, of over three million signatures, was submitted, and was yet again rejected by Parliament. The ''[[Northern Star (chartist newspaper)|Northern Star]]'' commented on the rejection:
{{blockquote|Three and a half million have quietly, orderly, soberly, peaceably but firmly asked of their rulers to do justice; and their rulers have turned a deaf ear to that protest. Three and a half millions of people have asked permission to detail their wrongs, and enforce their claims for RIGHT, and the 'House' has resolved they should not be heard! Three and a half millions of the slave-class have holden out the olive branch of peace to the enfranchised and privileged classes and sought for a firm and compact union, on the principle of EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW; and the enfranchised and privileged have refused to enter into a treaty! The same class is to be a slave class still. The mark and brand of inferiority are not to be removed. The assumption of inferiority is still to be maintained. The people are not to be free.<ref name=Charlton1997/>{{rp|34}}}}

The depression of 1842 led to [[1842 General Strike|a wave of strikes]], as workers responded to the wage cuts imposed by employers. Calls for the implementation of the Charter were soon included alongside demands for the restoration of wages to previous levels. Working people went on strike in 14 English and 8 Scottish counties, principally in the [[English Midlands|Midlands]], [[Lancashire]], [[Cheshire]], Yorkshire, and the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Typically, strikers resolved to cease work until wages were increased "until the People's charter becomes the Law of the Land". How far these strikes were directly Chartist in inspiration "was then, as now, a subject of much controversy".<ref>Edward Royle, ''Chartism'' (1996), p. 30.</ref>

The ''Leeds Mercury'' headlined them "The Chartist Insurrection", but suspicion also hung over the [[Anti-Corn Law League|Anti–Corn Law League]] that manufacturers among its members deliberately closed mills to stir-up unrest. At the time, these disputes were collectively known as the ''Plug Plot'' as, in many cases, protesters removed the plugs from steam boilers powering industry to prevent their use. Amongst historians writing in the 20th century, the term General Strike was increasingly used.<ref name=Jenkins1980/><ref>F.C. Mather, "The General Strike of 1842", in John Stevenson R. Quinault (eds), ''Popular Protest and Public Order'' (1974).</ref> Some modern historians prefer the description "strike wave".<ref name=Chase2007/><ref name=Charlton1997/>

In contrast, Mick Jenkins in his ''The General Strike of 1842''<ref name=Jenkins1980>{{cite book|title=The General Strike of 1842|url=https://archive.org/details/generalstrikeof10000jenk|url-access=registration|last=Jenkins|first=Mick|publisher=Lawrence and Wishart|location=London|isbn=978-0853155300|date=1980}}</ref> offers a [[Marxism|Marxist]] interpretation, showing the strikes as highly organized with sophisticated political intentions. The unrest began in the Potteries of Staffordshire in early August, spreading north to Cheshire and Lancashire, where at Manchester a meeting of the Chartist national executive endorsed the strikes on the 16th. The strikes had begun spreading in Scotland and West Yorkshire from the 13th.<ref name=Chase2007/>{{rp|223}}

There were outbreaks of serious violence, including property destruction and the ambushing of police convoys, in the Potteries and the West Riding. Though the government deployed soldiers to suppress violence, it was the practical problems in sustaining an indefinite stoppage that ultimately defeated the strikers. The drift back to work began on 19 August. Only Lancashire and Cheshire were still strike-bound by September, the Manchester power loom weavers being the last to return to work on 26 September.<ref name=Chase2007/>{{rp|223}}

The state hit back. Several Chartist leaders were arrested, including O'Connor, [[George Julian Harney]], and [[Thomas Cooper (poet)|Thomas Cooper]]. During the late summer of 1842, hundreds were incarcerated. In the [[1842 Pottery Riots|Pottery Riots]] alone, 116 men and women went to prison. A smaller number, but still amounting to many dozens—such as William Ellis, who was convicted on perjured evidence—were [[Penal transportation|transported]]. One protester, Josiah Heapy, 19 years old, was shot dead. The government's most ambitious prosecution, personally led by the Attorney General, of O'Connor and 57 others, including almost all Chartism's national executive failed: none was convicted of the serious charges, and those found guilty of minor offences were never sentenced. Cooper alone of the national Chartist leadership was convicted at a different trial, having spoken at strike meetings in the Potteries. He wrote a long poem in prison called "The Purgatory of Suicides".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Sedition, Chartism, and Epic Poetry in Thomas Cooper's The Purgatory of Suicides|first=Stephanie|last=Kuduk|date=1 June 2001|journal=Victorian Poetry|volume=39|issue=2|pages=165–186|doi=10.1353/vp.2001.0012|s2cid=154360800}}</ref>

In December 1842 the Chartists held a joint national delegate conference with the National Complete Suffrage Union in Birmingham. Tensions with the NCSU soon surfaced and came to a head over their proposals both for a union with the Anti–Corn Law League, which was also broadly middle class, and for rewriting the People's Charter as a legislative Bill of Rights. In both, O'Connor perceived a threat to his leadership, and, unable to find agreement, the NCSU leader [[Joseph Sturge]] withdrew. In May 1843 [[William Sharman Crawford]] introduced the NCSU-approved bill to "a small and bored" House of Commons.<ref>{{Cite book|last=West|first=Julius|url=https://minorvictorianwriters.org.uk/hovell/c_history_3.htm|title=A History of Chartism, III|publisher=Constable and Company|year=1920|location=London|pages=194–196, 198}}</ref>