When I Use the Word “Conservative” to Describe Some Opponents of Reconstruction, Am I Being “Anachronistic”?

When I write about the movement to block Reconstruction, I sometimes refer to Reconstruction’s  opponents as “conservatives.” I have received a steady stream of criticism for this. Many commenters on social media have accused me of anachronism, claiming that this is a modern term being applied to the 1860s. Here is an example:

I don’t know why people think that the word “conservative” is modern, as I have been told at least a dozen times in recent weeks. It was common for politically active people in the 1860s to describe themselves as “liberal”, or “conservative.”

Rather than tell you I am right about this, I will show you. I will post some examples from Southern newspapers of how the term “conservative” was used. I won’t reproduce the entire articles, since I just want to demonstrated that there are numerous examples.

Memphis Daily Avalanche
Saturday, Aug 03, 1867 
Memphis, TN
Vol: Nine
Issue: [181]
Page: 2
Conservatives were quite open in their advocacy for the “supremacy of the white race.”
Memphis Daily Avalanche
Sunday, Jan 19, 1868 
Memphis, TN
Vol: 10
Issue: 322
Page: 3
Here is an article from Georgia in which the conservatives are said to be drawing up an appeal to the white men of the North calling for them to oppose “negro domonation.” The article says that in Virginia the conservatives oppose “negro social and political equality.” The Weekly Telegraph newspaper was a conservative paper.
Macon Weekly Telegraph
Friday, Nov 15, 1867 
Macon, GA
Vol: II
Issue: 51
Page: 1
An article on the North Carolina Conservative Convention which was “mainly in opposition to universal negro suffrage.”
Macon Weekly Telegraph
Friday, Feb 14, 1868 
Macon, GA
Vol: III
Issue: 12
Page: 4
The Texas conservatives sounded the familiar theme of opposition to voting rights for African Americans.
Macon Weekly Telegraph
Friday, Jan 31, 1868 
Macon, GA
Vol: III
Issue: 10
The South Carolina Conservative Convention sounded the familiar warning of conservatives that “negro supremacy” was about to be imposed.
Daily Constitutionalist
Saturday, Nov 09, 1867 
Augusta, GA
Vol: 24
Issue: 275
Page: 3
While many conservatives had been Democrats before the Civil War, many others were Old Whigs or Know Nothings. Even some old Democrats stopped using that title because they felt that Northern Democrats had betrayed them by fighting for the Union. “Conservative” was adopted as a unifying name for those who wanted to restore as much of the old racial hierarchy as possible.
Times-Picayune
Saturday, Feb 01, 1868 
New Orleans, LA
Page: 1
The use of the term “conservative” to describe the opponents of Reconstruction was common in all parts of the South.
Weekly Arkansas Gazette
Tuesday, Jan 07, 1868 
Little Rock, AR
Page: 4
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Author: Patrick Young

2 thoughts on “When I Use the Word “Conservative” to Describe Some Opponents of Reconstruction, Am I Being “Anachronistic”?

  1. Pat, you are correct to use the term “Conservative.” However, you may want to add a brief note in your posts which defines what the term meant in the second half of the 19th century.

    For example, you could say “Joe Blow, in the language of the 19th century, was a conservative – that is, a person who believed x, and y, and z.” (For a discussion of the 19th century use of the term “conservative,” see this link.” The link could be a link to this article, for example.

    This way, folks cannot claim you are using a current meaning of the phrase.

  2. I recently came across a quote from a blatant southern racist who was a chaplain and chief of staff for Stonewall Jackson and went on to pen some of the most racist defenses of the South.

    Here is R.L. Dabney, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/904468.Robert_Lewis_Dabney, talking about Northern Conservatives and American Conservatives with utter disdain.

    Yet I am having trouble exploring just who and what he disdained. Why are Southern Conservatives the only Conservatives in the 19th century? Who were these other Conservatives? Did they call themselves Conservative, or was that just Dabney? Or maybe their opponents labeling them? Is there any continuity between any of these Conservatives and the Conservatives of today

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