Kmflett's Blog

To the founding fathers of the United States breaking free from the trammels of precedent it seemed sufficient to find certain truths ‘self evident’. But to Major John Cartwwright (1749-1824) publishing his pamphlet Take Your Choice in the same year as the Declaration of Independence (1776) it seemed necessary to shore up his case for annual parliaments, equal electoral districts, payments of Members, and adult manhood Suffrage with reference to Saxon precedent. The ‘good grey Major’ as he became known defined as early as this the main claims of advanced political reformers from 1776 to the Chartists and beyond