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.
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.
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