Australian Patriotic Association

New South Wales - convicts - Emancipists - representative government - Constitution Act of 1842

(APA) (1835–42), A group of influential Australians in New South Wales that sought a grant of representative government for the colony from the British House of Commons. Their efforts aided significantly in the passage of the Constitution Act of 1842 and the incorporation of the city of Sydney as a municipality with a broadly based franchise.

The Australian Patriotic Association stood as a champion of the rights of the less well-to-do and of former convicts (Emancipists). 

Among the group's most notable leaders were W.C. Wentworth, the son of a convict woman and the publisher of the influential newspaper the Australian; Sir John Jamison, a surgeon and founder of the Agricultural Society; and William Bland, a prominent Emancipist doctor.

The group had representatives in England to put their case before the British government, which was then considering a new constitution for New South Wales and municipal incorporation for Sydney.

The efforts of the APA were unsuccessfully opposed by another, more conservative group of colonists that, while favoring representative government, sought to exclude Emancipists from political participation.

With its goals achieved, the APA disbanded in 1842.

Reference

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