The Anti-Elitist Democrat, Jens Andersen Hansen

This blog is part of a series on 'Democratic Identity in the Age of Revolutions'. Click here to see other posts in the series. 

Democracy became a popular word in Denmark in 1848. It had been, at best, only an occasional guest in political discourse in Denmark before 1848, invoked by a few radical actors and occasionally as a primarily academic concept in other writings. ‘Democrat’ was a still rarer term.  That changed during the summer of 1848 as the word gained traction in revolutionary Europe. Suddenly, people from all sides of the political spectrum in the Danish public sphere started to call themselves Democrats. Inevitably, this soon led to debates about what a true Democrat was. One of the staunch new democrats of 1848 was the newspaper editor Jens Andersen Hansen (I.A. Hansen), for whom being a democrat meant embracing an anti-elitest program. For Hansen and his colleagues, the identity of the democrat lasted well beyond the revolutionary moment as a result of the self-proclaimed ‘democratic party’ of the peasant-farmer left that emerged in 1848.

I.A. Hansen was born in Odense in 1807. His father was a cobbler, and the young Jens was taught his father's profession. Nevertheless, the young Jens was very interested in reading, and though he didn’t receive a scholarly education, he read widely in various fields. In the 1830s and early 40s, he made several unsuccessful attempts at making a living as a cobbler in different towns. He also started publishing newspaper articles on the conditions of urban artisans and occasionally on religious questions.

In 1842, Hansen took a job as a delivery man at the offices of the leading opposition paper in Copenhagen, Fædrelandet (The Fatherland). At the same time, with the support of the network of middle-class liberals around Fædrelandet, Hansen and a schoolteacher friend, Rasmus Sørensen, started a new paper, Almuevennen (Friend of the Commoner). Sørensen soon quit the paper, leaving I.A. Hansen as sole editor – a post he held until 1856, when he united Almuevennen and Morgenposten (the Morning Post), which continued under one or other title until 1872.

Until March 1848, Denmark was an absolute monarchy whose government exercised strict control over the press in the first half of the century, which meant that Hansen faced several charges for sedition in the 1840s. Indeed, he was imprisoned for a short period in 1843 as editor of Fædrelandet for some articles printed there.

Although Hansen did not come from a rural background, Almuevennen became the leading organ for the rising peasant-farmer movement of the 1840s and Hansen the spokesperson for the peasant-farmer population. He advocated for social changes such as the end of the corvee labour, the replacement of the tenancy system with self-ownership, and other policies that would improve the social conditions of the peasant-farmer population. The agendas raised in Almuevennen were not only of economic character but also concerned the cultural status of the peasantry. Hansen railed against peasants being expected to address members of other classes with “De” (plural), while others addressed them with “du” (singular), and against the burden of military service falling only on the sons of the peasant-farmers.

Hansen’s writings were, above all else, anti-elitist. His tone could be bitter or even angry, and his rhetoric was driven by his fury over the inequalities and injustices he saw in the countryside. He used the paper to denounce estate owners who were particularly cruel towards their tenant farmers and he accused the system of not protecting peasants against being beaten up by their estate owners. When a peasant-farmer association was established in 1846 (Bondevennernes Selskab, ‘Association for friends of the peasant’), Hansen travelled around the countryside of Zealand, agitating in its favour.

In January 1848, King Christian VIII suddenly and unexpectedly died. The new king, Frederik VII, lifted the restrictions on the press and announced an impending reform of the absolutist system of state as he acceded to the throne. The revolutionary events in Europe in late February and March superseded the government’s plans. On 21 March, more than 10,000 people marched on the King’s residence, Christiansborg, demanding constitutional changes and a solution to the national conflict in the partly Danish-speaking, partly German-speaking duchies of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenborg. Terrified of revolution, the King dismissed the old ministry, and within a few days, the liberal March Ministry was in office charged with the task of writing a liberal constitution that was to be debated and passed in a national parliament. Absolutism was abolished and, in contrast to most European states, Denmark embraced a new constitution, agreed in the constituent assembly between October 1848 and June 1849, and signed into effect by the now constitutional King on 5 June 1849.

In the immediate aftermath of the March days, the political climate in Denmark was characterised by collaboration between radicals and liberals. One of the fruits of that collaboration was the establishment of a Society for Electoral Reform (Valgreformforeningen), of which Hansen became a member. In August, the Society, the Association for Friends of the Peasant and Hansen’s paper Almuevennen broke ties with liberal centrists, taking up ‘democracy’ as a central catchphrase for their political programme. The society and association joined efforts to elect ‘democratic’ candidates for the constituent assembly, and the identity of the democrat overnight became the hottest political label, interpreted differently across the political spectrum.

For Hansen, the identity of the democrat was synonymous with his anti-elitist ideology. In July and August, he launched a campaign in Almuevennen about whom the peasantry should elect as their representatives to parliament. He argued that the peasantry had previously mainly elected “de kjoleklædte” (men of formal dress/in white ties) to the assemblies of estates and that the flattery and handshakes of the elites had previously seduced peasants and prevented them from electing men from their own social circles. Hansen was intervening in a discourse from the 1830s and 1840s on the engrained social distinctions between the peasantry and the educated classes. Both social groups had been represented in the consultative assemblies of estates, but the unrefined manners and clothing of peasant-farmers in the assemblies were frequently ridiculed, as when one peasant-farmer, who had never seen an orange before, tried to eat it with its peel at a representatives’ dinner. Peasant-farmers’ representatives were also mocked for stumbling on their own words and for the trails their boots left in the fine halls they were invited into.

Hansen turned this discourse upside down, urging the peasantry to vote for democrats and arguing that “de kjoleklædte” were not suitable representatives for the people.

Jens Andersen Hansen (1807-1877).

Hansen identified two political parties in the current political situation: the democrats and the aristocrats. According to Hansen, the ‘liberal-aristocratic party’ considered themselves as possessed of “great intellect”, which made them better equipped to rule. In contrast, according to Hansen, the democrats wanted the people to govern themselves, as they believed the people were best suited to know their own minds and their interests.

For Hansen, being a democrat meant standing on the side of the little man. A democrat was someone who would stand up against the powerful, who would never be too distinguished to talk to the poor, and who would never address the poor using words other than those they would use for him – meaning not using the singular “du” while being addressed with the plural “De”. Hansen further argued that insight into matters of state and society was not vouchsafed only to those distinguished by examinations, money or property. Men of the lower social estates might be more politically cultured and possess more true enlightenment than many of those described as “great scholars” and “millionaires”. The goal for Hansen was the election of democrats, to ensure that a truly democratic constitution could emerge, which was seen as a prerequisite for the successful reform of rural society.

Hansen was himself elected to the constituent assembly 1848-1849. Through the 1850s and 1860s, he was elected as a member of Folketinget, the second chamber of the Danish Parliament, Rigsdagen.  In 1851, he became a board member of the Association for Friends of the Peasant and, from 1855, its leader; in the latter half of the 1850s and until about 1886, he functioned as a leader of the peasant left in parliament. Throughout his political career, he fought to improve the social conditions of the lower social classes. This ambition resulted in him continuously seeking new collaborations either with the liberal centrists or among the political right, depending on what seemed opportune at the given moment. This earned him many political enemies.

The last ten years of Hansen’s life were characterised by declining political influence. Following the 1864 Second Schleswig War, when Denmark lost Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg to Prussia and Austria, he made an alliance with the big estate owners in an attempt to secure universal suffrage. The attempt failed, resulting in the passing of the revised constitution of 1866 that strengthened the influence of the large landowners over the first chamber of parliament.  The last years of his life were also scarred by scandal. Hansen had long struggled with his personal finances and faced personal ruin in the early 1870s. He was also accused of stealing money from the local and regional rural fire assurance associations he had overseen in Zealand and the islands. He died on 1 June 1877 before the investigation of his case was concluded.

Throughout Europe, in 1848, ‘democrat’ conveyed both a commitment to political participation and to basic civil equality. Hansen exemplified both commitments and fought to enshrine them in the Danish constitution and the peasants’ associations. Although less successful on the first front, Denmark remained one of the first to establish a strong peasants’ party committed to a democratic programme.

Anne Engelst Nørgaard, Historical and Classical Studies, NTNU, Tronheim, Norway