In 1846 his commitment to freethought led to a rift with Lovett, after which Hetherington left the NA to join the atheist George Holyoake at the Literary and Scientific Institution, John Street. The John Street Institution was one of Robert Owen's London bases and during the 1840s Hetherington reconnected with mainstream Owenism. He attended Owen's Rational Society conference in 1845 and, with Owenites such as Holyoake, Lloyd Jones and Robert Buchanan, founded the League of Social Progress in 1848. Both the LWMA and the NA supported pro-democracy movements in Europe and elsewhere. In 1844, following meetings to support the German radical, Wilhelm Weitling, Hetherington helped to form the Democratic Friends of All Nations, and he later joined Giuseppe Mazzini's Peoples' International League. He did not, however, abandon his belief in the Charter. He had joined Lovett in an alliance with Joseph Sturge's Complete Suffrage Movement in 1842, and in 1848 he co-founded the moral-force People's Charter Union. This folded within a year and most of its ruling council, including Hetherington, rejoined the fight for a free press by forming the Newspaper Stamp Abolition Committee. Hetherington caught cholera in August 1849. He refused medicine in the belief that his long-standing teetotalism would protect him from disease. He died at 57 Judd Street, Hanover Square, London, on 24 August. In his "Last Will and Testament" he affirmed his atheism, his support for Robert Owen and his belief that it was "the duty of every man to leave the world better than he found it". His non-religious funeral at Kensal Green Cemetery was attended by two thousand mourners. In 1885 a Reformers' Memorial obelisk, which included Hetherington's name, was erected in the cemetery. During his career Hetherington made a great number of speeches, and many of these were reported in the press. The following are speeches which, by their length, can be considered a good representation of Hetherington's views, plus his ability as a speaker - in essence, they are of article length. There are numerous other occasions when Hetherington spoke at a meeting, but either he spoke only briefly or the reporter edited the speech to the extent that what remains is a short precis, and cannot provide any real information.