When the State calls for defenders, when it calls for money, no consideration of poverty or ignorance can be pleaded in refusal or delay of the call.
Required, as we are universally, to support and obey the laws, nature and reason entitle us to demand that in the making of the laws the universal
voice shall be implicitly listened to. We perform the duties of freemen; we must have the privileges of freemen. Therefore, we demand universal
suffrage...
The main argument in the excerpt above from the first petition of the Chartists is:
people of all races should be free.
Britain should establish colonies before other nations do.
since the laborers do all of the work, they should earn all of the profits.
British citizens who have the duties of citizenship should have the right to vote.
