International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Thomas Carlyle remarked that writing a biography of Cromwell required first of all removing a mountain of “dead dogs” that hostile writers had heaped upon his memory. The same is true of many of history's controversial revolutionaries, and Chartism's principal leader, Feargus O'Connor, is certainly among them. Most of the early historians of Chartism denounced O'Connor as an unprincipled demagogue, but more recent studies have produced a much more positive assessment of the quality of his leadership. The powerful mass working-class movement known as Chartism gave rise to a number of competent radical political leaders, but Feargus O'Connor was by far the best known and most important of them. When assailed as a demagogue by his contemporary political rivals and enemies, he met the charge head on: “I say, I am a Demagogue,” he wrote. “The word is derived from the Greek words, ‘demos, populos,’ the people; and ‘ago, duco,’ to lead; and means a leader of the people.” Demagoguery was a natural accusation to hurl against a leader who rose to public attention on the strength of powerful platform oratory and immense charisma. A contemporary observer described “the melodious voice, the musical cadences, the astonishing volubility, the imposing self-confidence of the man, and the gallant air of bold defiance with which he assailed all oppression and tyranny,” all of which combined to ... log in or subscribe to read full text