Chartists National Convention. 19th-century artwork of the first formal gathering of Chartists at the National Convention of 4 February 1839. Chartism was a political movement in the UK that attempted but failed to achieve reforms such as extending the vote and right to be a Member of Parliament to the working classes. Following a People's Charter of 1838, some 53 delegates met in 1839 from February to May in London. A failed vote in parliament was followed by unrest and petitions. The movement died out in the 1850s. Artwork from 'History of the Chartist Movement' (Robert George Gammage, 1894).