Wentworth advocated for the rights of emancipists and for representative self-government, professing ideals of free emigration, trial by jury and elected representation.

[2] William Bland was a prominent public figure in the colony of New South Wales, aligning himself with other emancipists and supporting Wentworth's calls for trial by jury, representative government and expanded civil rights for ex-convicts.

[2] It was led by a group of influential colonists in New South Wales and had among its leaders Wentworth and Bland, and sought representative government.

The worst violence was in the vicinity of the Rocks and Millers Point, with supporters of opposing candidates Maurice Charles O'Connell and Robert Cooper storming the polling booth, during which they pulled down the flags of Wentworth and Bland.

[7] The Australasian Chronicle described this violence as such:[8]The most serious part of the rioting, however, was in Gipps Ward, where it was commenced by a large party of the O'Connell and Cooperites, preceded by green banners (some of which, belonging to Cooper's party, were surmounted by loaves), and armed with sticks, palings, and such other weapons of a similar nature as could be gathered on the instant, this riotous body demolished in an instant the flags of Messrs. Wentworth and Bland, and the tables and chairs of their poll clerks.The flag's design, featuring a Union Jack in the canton and a design in the fly, was the precursor to subsequent British colonial flags in Australia.