liable to be imposed upon by rogues. He was the leader of the working-class agitation for the abolition of the newspaper duties. He was the publisher of a series of radical unstamped newspapers of which the most important were the Poor Man's Guardian, started in 1831 as a weekly penny paper for the people, and the Twopenny Dispatch, started in 1835 on the decease of the Guardian. He was also partially responsible for the Republican, the Radical, and the Destructive or People's Conservative in the years 1831–34. He was an active member of the various unions of which mention has been made. He was a better speaker than Lovett, having more confidence and not being handicapped by physical difficulties. He acted as missionary for the National Union in 1831.[1] He was a downright, clear-headed, and trustworthy man. His fight against the newspaper stamp showed him to be a stubborn and ingenious campaigner, and he no doubt supplied some of the qualities in which Lovett was lacking. He was prosperous in his business after 1835 and was apparently a generous giver.
Hetherington left behind a remarkable statement of his views in 1849:
I calmly and deliberately declare that I do not believe in the popular notion of the existence of an Almighty, All-Wise and Benevolent God, possessing intelligence and conscious of his own operations. … I believe death to be an eternal sleep. … I consider Priestcraft and Superstition the greatest obstacle to human improvement and happiness. I die with a firm conviction that Truth, Justice, and Liberty will never be permanently established on earth till every vestige of Priestcraft and Superstition shall be utterly destroyed. … I have ever considered that the only religion useful to man consists exclusively of the practice of morality and in the mutual exchange of kind actions. In such a religion there is no room for priests. … These are my views and feelings in quitting an existence that has been chequered by the plagues and pleasures of a competitive, scrambling, selfish system: a system in which the moral and social aspirations of the noblest human being are nullified by incessant toil and physical deprivations: by which indeed all men are trained to be either slaves, hypocrites, or criminals. Hence my ardent attachment to the principles of that great and good man Robert Owen. I quit this world with the firm conviction that his system is the only true road to human emancipation: that it is indeed the only just system for regulating the affairs of honest, intelligent human beings—the only one yet made known to the world that is based on truth, justice, and equality.
- ↑ Republican, July 30, 1831.
