Conclusion
O'Connor had one fatal defect: his ideas were such a jumble that he could formulate no consistent policy. Among the jumble there did seem to be a consistent belief that he held throughout his days. He believed in a sort of democracy contingent upon a happy state of peasant tillage, a state in which each man was his own master and had his own land to work. He hated oppression, and was truly sympathetic for the conditions of the Irish peasant who was ground down by absentee landlordship. In addition, he was very conscious of the vain struggle going on against the might of the machine and of the plight of the workers involved.
Because of this he was looked upon by the wretched and oppressed all over England as a friend, and they continued to forgive and love him whatever he did amiss. With Chartism in ruin and his land scheme tumbling about him, he never lost his popularity, in spite of the fact that thousands had lost their money on the project.
His agrarian plan had offered the worker hope of escape back to the blessed country of his childhood or of his parents' tales, away from the Malthusian Bastile, and in support of it he was ready to give his every pence.
Lovett, the drafter of the Charter, felt nothing but disgust for O'Connor, and considered him the arch misleader of the people. From the first O'Connor was observed to be the type of gentleman adventurer that the drafter of the Charter wanted to keep out of the movement. Lovett had called him "the great 'I am' of politics"; Bronterre O'Brien nicknamed him "the dictator"; Leeds MP Roebuck called him "a cowardly and malignant demagogue," "a rogue and a liar"; Francis Place said of him that he would use every means he could to lead and mislead the working people.
These statements are as one-sided as they are unfair. He was a leader who possessed great power of reading the minds of the people and of designing his plans of action according to the conditions and circumstances. He was a large hearted person whom George Holyoake characterized as "the most impetuous and most patient of all tribunes who ever led the English Chartists."
Who strove for the patriots — was up night and day
To save them from falling to tyrants a prey?
Twas fearless O'Connor was diligent then:
We'll rally around him, again and again.
from Lion of Freedom
Read more about this topic: Feargus O'Connor
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