Central Democratic Association
Encyclopedia
The Central Democratic Association, also known as the Democratic Association or the Democrats, was a political party
of Chartist
s which was prominent in Sheffield
in the mid-nineteenth century.
of cottage
s, including many workers in the city, typically paid their rates indirectly through their landlord
s and were therefore not permitted to vote. This set-up had been unproblematic until the Council was founded, but was now of concern, as the registered voters were generally the wealthier residents. In 1843, only 5,584 people were registered to vote, and this had risen to 8,000 in 1845.
In 1846, a committee of Chartists in the city met to discuss the problem of voter registration
. They decided to focus their campaign for registration by putting up two candidates in the November elections: Thomas Briggs, a farmer, in Brightside
in the annual election, and Isaac Ironside
, an accountant and former support of Robert Owen
, in Ecclesall
in a by-election held soon afterwards. Briggs was easily elected, while Ironside won narrowly on a record turnout: 397 votes to 317 for his Liberal
rival. Voter registration was also up, reaching 11,500 people.
The Liberals dominated the council, and portrayed the Chartists as socialists, and Ironside as a demagogue. The Liberal press in the shape of the Sheffield Independent was initially supportive, but as the group gain success, became increasingly hostile.
In 1847, Ironside was re-elected in Ecclesall, along with another Chartist councillor. Other Chartists were elected in Brightside, St George's, St Philip's and Nether Hallam wards, and by the end of the year they formed a group of nine councillors. In addition, Richard Otley was elected in Ecclesall, but was unseated because he failed to meet the property qualification. This required councillors to have resources worth £1,000 or to occupy property with a rental value above £30 a year. As a result, the Chartist councillors were mostly shopkeepers and craftsmen, with a couple of surgeon
s and a farmer. This was not representative of their electorate.
The Chartists joined a campaign against Wilson Overend, a local magistrate accused of anti-trade union
bias, and later in the year, initiated a campaign in support of former police constable George Bakewell who had been banished from the town by his superintendent after being accused of stealing a pair of trousers. This campaign was supported by Liberal members of the Watch Committee, annoyed that they had not been consulted.
. The group was lightly whip
ped, a situation much criticised by the Sheffield Independent. Its main planks of policy were opposition to high civic salaries, and opposition to the Sheffield City Police, criticising its organisation and calling for a lower police rate. This was supported by the group's efficient administration of the Ecclesall board of highway surveyors.
In 1848, the Chartists won four of the six wards they contested, and by the end of the year had fifteen councillors. This rose to 22 the following year. They still opted not to run in the Park ward as they lacked registered supporters, but as the voter registration drive gained successes, in 1851 they came a close second to the Liberal, and in 1852 the Liberal association decided to avoid a repeat by adopting the Democrat candidate as official.
By this time, Ironside had become recognised as the leader of the group, and had persuaded the council to set up a health committee and to set up a model farm
at Hollow Meadows.
The Chartists set up ward committees which met regularly and were responsible for selecting candidates, canvassing
for them and for encouraging supporters to vote. These committees, known as "wardmotes" and open to all "burgher
s" (loosely defined as the skilled working class
es), were inspired by Joshua Toulmin Smith
's ideas. In 1851, Ironside formalised the network by launching the Sheffield Free Press as a party newspaper, followed by the Central Democratic Ward Association to co-ordinate the ward committees and decide borough-wide strategy. The Liberals largely failed to imitate these structures.
The Association allowed the wardmotes to select any candidate they chose, and while many were active Democrats, other radical
s and independent Chartists were sometimes elected on to their slate. Ironside also saw the wardmotes as a venue for the resolution of local grievances. For example, they took up complaints against pollution
and inadequate street maintenance, and even petty crime
s. On one occasion, Ironside found five youths disturbing the peace
and a wardmote passed a resolution calling for their parents to bring them before the body. When one youth attended the next meeting, he was reprimanded, while the body pressed for summons
for the others. Members of the police force and other relevant bodies were also free to attend the wardmotes to justify their actions, and the Democrats were not universally critical of their actions.
By the 1840s, there was a general consensus in the city that a new Act of Parliament
was needed to replace the Sheffield Improvement Act 1818
. The council opposed the Public Health Act 1848 as centralising, adding expense and placing local boards under central governmental rather than local democratic control. The Chartists also opposed the additional property qualifications it introduced for voters and members of local boards, noting this would disenfranchise many of their supporters.
In 1851, Ironside seconded a council motion to call a public meeting to decide whether a local bill should be applied for that year. The meeting was little-attended, but supported the proposal. The bill claimed for Sheffield a wide range of powers, which would include the absorption of the Church Burgesses
and the Town Trustees
. These two measures were later dropped in order to minimise Parliamentary opposition. A public meeting was held in December and was dominated by Chartists. They opposed it on the grounds that it did not introduce a universal male franchise for the council, and that it would for the first time impose rates on housing with a rateable value of £7 or less per year. The meeting rejected the bill. Ironside also moved to oppose it, but his change in position alienated both colleagues in favour of it and members who had opposed it from the start.
During the 1850s, the Democrats were easily the main opposition on the council. Under their influence, from 1854 to 1857, the council annually voted a petition for parliamentary reform, and also petitioned the monarch on taxation, the Poor Law
and county administration. Ironside was the chair of the city's Highways Board from 1852 to 1854, and led a campaign of street paving and laying deep sewer
s.
Ironside attempted to get Toulmin Smith to stand for the Parliamentary seat of Sheffield
at the 1852 UK general election, but Smith refused. Ironside also became a shareholder in the Sheffield Consumers Gas Company, which engaged in a rivalry with the established Sheffield Gas-Light Company. Disputes over these actions led some former allies to turn against him. In 1853, two former allies organised a campaign against Ironside, and he lost his seat in Ecclesall. He subsequently took a seat in St George's, but in 1854, only two of the nine Democrat candidates were successful, and Ironside again lost his seat.
The Democrats lost influence on the council, but remained influential on the highway and vestry boards. In 1858, they opposed a new bill, sponsored by G. C. Holland, essentially a more limited version of the 1851 proposal. Ironside's support for former diplomat David Urquhart
lost him further support, and by the 1860s, the group was defunct.
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
of Chartist
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
s which was prominent in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
in the mid-nineteenth century.
Establishment
Sheffield Town Council was constituted in 1843. While the town had one of the less restrictive electoral franchises, only ratepayers of three years standing were pemitted to vote. TenantsLeasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
of cottage
Cottage
__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
s, including many workers in the city, typically paid their rates indirectly through their landlord
Landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
s and were therefore not permitted to vote. This set-up had been unproblematic until the Council was founded, but was now of concern, as the registered voters were generally the wealthier residents. In 1843, only 5,584 people were registered to vote, and this had risen to 8,000 in 1845.
In 1846, a committee of Chartists in the city met to discuss the problem of voter registration
Voter registration
Voter registration is the requirement in some democracies for citizens and residents to check in with some central registry specifically for the purpose of being allowed to vote in elections. An effort to get people to register is known as a voter registration drive.-Centralized/compulsory vs...
. They decided to focus their campaign for registration by putting up two candidates in the November elections: Thomas Briggs, a farmer, in Brightside
Brightside, South Yorkshire
Brightside is an industrial area of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England lying on a hill north of Attercliffe and the River Don.Brightside was recorded in the fifteenth century as "Brekesherth", when it was home to some mills...
in the annual election, and Isaac Ironside
Isaac Ironside
Isaac Ironside was a British Chartist and socialist politician.-Early years:Born near Masbrough, Rotherham, Ironside grew up in Sheffield, the son of Samuel Ironside, a Wesleyan lay preacher, and Mary Bradbury...
, an accountant and former support of Robert Owen
Robert Owen
Robert Owen was a Welsh social reformer and one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
, in Ecclesall
Ecclesall
Ecclesall Ward—which includes the neighbourhoods of Bents Green, Ecclesall, Greystones, Millhouses, and Ringinglow—is one of the 28 electoral wards in City of Sheffield, England. It is located in the southwestern part of the city and covers an area of 9.4 km2. The population of...
in a by-election held soon afterwards. Briggs was easily elected, while Ironside won narrowly on a record turnout: 397 votes to 317 for his Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
rival. Voter registration was also up, reaching 11,500 people.
The Liberals dominated the council, and portrayed the Chartists as socialists, and Ironside as a demagogue. The Liberal press in the shape of the Sheffield Independent was initially supportive, but as the group gain success, became increasingly hostile.
In 1847, Ironside was re-elected in Ecclesall, along with another Chartist councillor. Other Chartists were elected in Brightside, St George's, St Philip's and Nether Hallam wards, and by the end of the year they formed a group of nine councillors. In addition, Richard Otley was elected in Ecclesall, but was unseated because he failed to meet the property qualification. This required councillors to have resources worth £1,000 or to occupy property with a rental value above £30 a year. As a result, the Chartist councillors were mostly shopkeepers and craftsmen, with a couple of surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
s and a farmer. This was not representative of their electorate.
The Chartists joined a campaign against Wilson Overend, a local magistrate accused of anti-trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
bias, and later in the year, initiated a campaign in support of former police constable George Bakewell who had been banished from the town by his superintendent after being accused of stealing a pair of trousers. This campaign was supported by Liberal members of the Watch Committee, annoyed that they had not been consulted.
Policies and organisation
Chartist candidates had to give their broad support to Chartist goals, and in particular had to support universal male suffrageUniversal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. The group was lightly whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
ped, a situation much criticised by the Sheffield Independent. Its main planks of policy were opposition to high civic salaries, and opposition to the Sheffield City Police, criticising its organisation and calling for a lower police rate. This was supported by the group's efficient administration of the Ecclesall board of highway surveyors.
In 1848, the Chartists won four of the six wards they contested, and by the end of the year had fifteen councillors. This rose to 22 the following year. They still opted not to run in the Park ward as they lacked registered supporters, but as the voter registration drive gained successes, in 1851 they came a close second to the Liberal, and in 1852 the Liberal association decided to avoid a repeat by adopting the Democrat candidate as official.
By this time, Ironside had become recognised as the leader of the group, and had persuaded the council to set up a health committee and to set up a model farm
Model Farm
A model farm was an 18th–19th century experimental farm, which researched and demonstrated improvements in agricultural techniques, efficiency, and building layout. Education and commitment to improving welfare standards of workers were also aspects of the ideal farm movement...
at Hollow Meadows.
The Chartists set up ward committees which met regularly and were responsible for selecting candidates, canvassing
Canvassing
Canvassing is the systematic initiation of direct contact with a target group of individuals commonly used during political campaigns. A campaign team will knock on doors of private residences within a particular geographic area, engaging in face-to-face personal interaction with voters...
for them and for encouraging supporters to vote. These committees, known as "wardmotes" and open to all "burgher
Burgher
Burgher may refer to:* A citizen of a borough or town, especially one belonging to middle class* A resident of a burgh* A formally defined class in medieval German cities, usually the only group from which city officials could be drawn...
s" (loosely defined as the skilled working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
es), were inspired by Joshua Toulmin Smith
Joshua Toulmin Smith
Joshua Toulmin Smith was a British political theorist, lawyer and local historian of Birmingham.Born in Birmingham as Joshua Smith, he moved to London in 1835 and pursued a career in law, studying at Lincoln's Inn...
's ideas. In 1851, Ironside formalised the network by launching the Sheffield Free Press as a party newspaper, followed by the Central Democratic Ward Association to co-ordinate the ward committees and decide borough-wide strategy. The Liberals largely failed to imitate these structures.
The Association allowed the wardmotes to select any candidate they chose, and while many were active Democrats, other radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
s and independent Chartists were sometimes elected on to their slate. Ironside also saw the wardmotes as a venue for the resolution of local grievances. For example, they took up complaints against pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
and inadequate street maintenance, and even petty crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
s. On one occasion, Ironside found five youths disturbing the peace
Disturbing the Peace
Disturbing the Peace is the second studio album by Alcatrazz, and is the only one featuring Steve Vai on guitar. One of the singles, God Blessed Video, can be found on the fictional radio station, V-Rock, on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Weeks on Chart: 7, Peak: #133...
and a wardmote passed a resolution calling for their parents to bring them before the body. When one youth attended the next meeting, he was reprimanded, while the body pressed for summons
Summons
Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...
for the others. Members of the police force and other relevant bodies were also free to attend the wardmotes to justify their actions, and the Democrats were not universally critical of their actions.
By the 1840s, there was a general consensus in the city that a new Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
was needed to replace the Sheffield Improvement Act 1818
Sheffield Improvement Act 1818
The Sheffield Improvement Act 1818 is an Act of Parliament passed in 1818 regarding the administration of the town of Sheffield in the West Riding of Yorkshire.Prior to 1818, the town was run by a mixture of bodies...
. The council opposed the Public Health Act 1848 as centralising, adding expense and placing local boards under central governmental rather than local democratic control. The Chartists also opposed the additional property qualifications it introduced for voters and members of local boards, noting this would disenfranchise many of their supporters.
In 1851, Ironside seconded a council motion to call a public meeting to decide whether a local bill should be applied for that year. The meeting was little-attended, but supported the proposal. The bill claimed for Sheffield a wide range of powers, which would include the absorption of the Church Burgesses
Church Burgesses
The Church Burgesses, formerly known officially as the Twelve Capital Burgesses and Commonalty of the Town and Parish of Sheffield, are a charitable organisation in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire....
and the Town Trustees
Sheffield Town Trust
The Sheffield Town Trust, formerly officially known as the Burgery of Sheffield, is a charitable trust operating in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.-Mediaeval period:...
. These two measures were later dropped in order to minimise Parliamentary opposition. A public meeting was held in December and was dominated by Chartists. They opposed it on the grounds that it did not introduce a universal male franchise for the council, and that it would for the first time impose rates on housing with a rateable value of £7 or less per year. The meeting rejected the bill. Ironside also moved to oppose it, but his change in position alienated both colleagues in favour of it and members who had opposed it from the start.
Later activities
By 1852, the group was sufficiently successful that six of their candidates were elected without opposition, and a further four in contests, giving the group a total of twenty-six councillors. However, not all councillors stuck to the party line, and as a result, a non-Democrat Mayor of Sheffield was elected.During the 1850s, the Democrats were easily the main opposition on the council. Under their influence, from 1854 to 1857, the council annually voted a petition for parliamentary reform, and also petitioned the monarch on taxation, the Poor Law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
and county administration. Ironside was the chair of the city's Highways Board from 1852 to 1854, and led a campaign of street paving and laying deep sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
s.
Ironside attempted to get Toulmin Smith to stand for the Parliamentary seat of Sheffield
Sheffield (UK Parliament constituency)
Sheffield was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom 1832 to 1885. It elected two Members of Parliament by the bloc vote system of elections....
at the 1852 UK general election, but Smith refused. Ironside also became a shareholder in the Sheffield Consumers Gas Company, which engaged in a rivalry with the established Sheffield Gas-Light Company. Disputes over these actions led some former allies to turn against him. In 1853, two former allies organised a campaign against Ironside, and he lost his seat in Ecclesall. He subsequently took a seat in St George's, but in 1854, only two of the nine Democrat candidates were successful, and Ironside again lost his seat.
The Democrats lost influence on the council, but remained influential on the highway and vestry boards. In 1858, they opposed a new bill, sponsored by G. C. Holland, essentially a more limited version of the 1851 proposal. Ironside's support for former diplomat David Urquhart
David Urquhart
David Urquhart was a Scottish diplomat and writer.. He was a Member of Parliament 1847-52.-Early life and family:...
lost him further support, and by the 1860s, the group was defunct.