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Post by timniesen on Feb 1, 2012 15:44:59 GMT -5
The word filibuster began to be used to refer to the American/Cuban invaders of Spanish Cuba during the Lopez Expeditions of 1849-1850. I have determined the exact date of its passage from Spanish usage (filibustero) into an Americanism (there are two common variations: filibuster and fillibuster) by a study of the New Orleans Crescent and the New Orleans Daily Delta. The word enters American usage in New Orleans, and this term does not commonly appear in the New York City newspapers until 1851. (Although there is one historian who found what I think is an isolated example in 1849 in the New York Commercial Advertiser.) A forthcoming article will reveal this date. A relatively rare precursor is the term "buffalo hunt." This derives from sometime in the middle of the 1840s when one of the various Texas Republic filibuster expeditions against New Mexico ran into a group of traders on the Santa Fee trail, who asked the filibusters their purpose. They replied that they were on a "buffalo hunt." If I remember correctly, this obscure term is used in the Polk diary, although I do not remember its exact context. Tim
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 1, 2012 19:11:52 GMT -5
I don't know much about Cuban filibusters/ filibusteros and etymology in general, but I am part French. Isn't filibustero a slight corruption of the Spanish word flibustero, which was borrowed from the old French word for free-booter or pirate, flibustier? I don't believe anyone (but I might be wrong) can name an exact date when filibustero became filibuster or determine that the latter evolved from Spanish in that manner.
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Post by Kevin Young on Feb 1, 2012 23:03:03 GMT -5
Tim-as you may know the whole Lopez-William Walker-Knights of the Golden Circle deals have been of interest to me. I look forward to seeing your article...
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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 1, 2012 23:44:49 GMT -5
Same here, Tim. Also hope you can explain how this word also came to represent the most extreme examples of politicians blowing hot air for seemingly endless periods of time just to prevent honest votes.
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Post by timniesen on Feb 2, 2012 11:02:24 GMT -5
Folks, The transformation of the Americanism filibuster is quite complex and dialectic. Two meaning would arise in American usage and a third would appear in between them. Its political usage; that is, as a delaying tactic in Congress was coined in 1855. This was not the tactic of blowing hot air in Congress, but rather a collective call for yeas and nays by a group of Congressman. The first real filibuster was used in the bitter battle over the appointment of a Republican Speaker after this party won control of the House in 1858. Near Christmas in that year, Extra Billy Smith of Virgina stood up and talked for a days to stall the vote. The climax was his call for spiked egg nog, and he became quite intoxicated. His tactic worked and the Republicans had to accept a conservative ex-Know-Nothing as their speaker rather than a Radical Republican. As for its transformation from Dutch to French to English, those transfers are beyond the scope of my study. There is a speculation that the term originated in Old English before it became common in Dutch. Only one example has been found. There are two standard studies of this word. The OED and Herbert Matthews's A Dictionary of Americanisms are the standard reference books on this topic. However, both of them speciously cite a Congressional speech by a Senator on January 4, 1853 as an example of a political delaying tactic in Congress. This usage is what I call type D; that is, a long and buncombe speech used for political effect. Tim
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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 2, 2012 12:53:00 GMT -5
Well, nice (?) to know that there were blowhards and jackasses in Congress long before the current crop, some even worse. In the 19th century, there were even fights on the floor. Crockett's own near-duel with another Tennessee congressmen was civil by comparison.
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Post by timniesen on Feb 2, 2012 12:59:13 GMT -5
Allen, Those Senatorial supporters of Manifest Destiny who had supported the election of the Pierce Administration in 1852 launched a series of long-winded speeches in the first week of January 1853. They were called filibusters. This included Senators Lewis Cass and Douglas and others. More later. Tim
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Post by Allen Wiener on Feb 2, 2012 13:26:28 GMT -5
OK, Tim. Interesting where a discussion of language can take you! A lot of history in that!
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Post by timniesen on Feb 2, 2012 16:08:41 GMT -5
The political filibusters of January 1853 were very optimistic that the incoming Pierce Administration would usher in a new era of Manifest Destiny. These pro-filibuster speeches were very long and boring, especially those of Senator Lewis Cass. Finally, Senator Samuel Houston ended the debate with an amazingly funny speech, which broke the audience in the Senate gallery into laughter. Senator Houston compared the Senatorial filibusters with Galapagos turtles, who engaged in mortal combat by huffing and puffing at each other, yet without any effects upon their opponent! The Houston retorts to his opponents in the San Jacinto controversies sometimes included funny comparisons to animals. Houston was a great trial lawyer, and injecting humor in debate was quite an effective technique for him. Tim
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 2, 2012 21:12:02 GMT -5
Folks, The transformation of the Americanism filibuster is quite complex and dialectic. Two meaning would arise in American usage and a third would appear in between them. Its political usage; that is, as a delaying tactic in Congress was coined in 1855. This was not the tactic of blowing hot air in Congress, but rather a collective call for yeas and nays by a group of Congressman. The first real filibuster was used in the bitter battle over the appointment of a Republican Speaker after this party won control of the House in 1858. Near Christmas in that year, Extra Billy Smith of Virgina stood up and talked for a days to stall the vote. The climax was his call for spiked egg nog, and he became quite intoxicated. His tactic worked and the Republicans had to accept a conservative ex-Know-Nothing as their speaker rather than a Radical Republican. As for its transformation from Dutch to French to English, those transfers are beyond the scope of my study. There is a speculation that the term originated in Old English before it became common in Dutch. Only one example has been found. There are two standard studies of this word. The OED and Herbert Matthews's A Dictionary of Americanisms are the standard reference books on this topic. However, both of them speciously cite a Congressional speech by a Senator on January 4, 1853 as an example of a political delaying tactic in Congress. This usage is what I call type D; that is, a long and buncombe speech used for political effect. Tim OIC. I was under the impression from your first post that your pending article was about the origin of the Americanism, filibuster and its transformation from filibustero. You also stated that this evolution occurred on a specific date between 1849-1850 in New Orleans, which would be revealed to us in the article. I only commented on this revelation because it appears so at odds with my earlier reading/ research on naval, pirate and Central American history. Despite the fact that filibuster was used to describe pirates or armed adventurers for a few years before your specific date, I believe it may have been in circulation for at least a few decades with a couple spellings before it was standardized as filibuster or fillibuster in the press. Various dictionaries state that filibuster comes from a Dutch word for pirate, but I don't believe this is completely accurate. I've also read that the original word was fly-boater, which was used to describe the hardy English and French sea rovers that used small, fast, two-masted ships (fly-boats or boots) to attack larger vessels in the Carribean and Atlantic during the 17th Century. The English and American colonists supposedly started off calling them freebooters, while the French, Dutch and other nations had their language variations on fly-boaters. There was actually a notorious French privateer/ pirate felluca called the Flibustier under Captains Dupuis and Dhirui that captured numerous English and American ships during an at least twenty year rampage on the high seas. 1st Mate James Mcall of the brig Baron de Carondelet) and Thomas Atwood (late master of the schooner Jane) called this French ship the Flybuster (American State Papers, Foreign Relations, June 22, 1797, publication 125), while the Sept. 9, 1819 Hallowell Gazette (Maine) also Americanized the French name to Flybuster and states that the name is appropriate for these pirates. Flybuster isn't very far removed in spelling from filibuster, so I see a late 18th or early 19th Century connection between these two English variations. The felluca Flibustier was forgotten and the American corruption, Flybuster sank under the waves of printed popularity for a few years, but apparently resurfaced with new definitions in the mid 19th Century. Good luck on your filibuster article.
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Post by timniesen on Feb 3, 2012 10:35:45 GMT -5
skr, There are other theories of this word's origins that I have not mentioned such as the small pirate vessel origin. About the transfer into American usage-I read the New York Tribune from its start to 1880. There are no examples in that newspaper of the word filibuster/fillibuster from 1841 to March 1851. It is an exchange newspaper; that is, smaller newspapers would exchange their paper in exchange for copies of the Horace Greeley. There may be uncommon transfers from the word Spanish filibustero or French flibustier in American usuage, but they are isolated and not common usuage. I suspect that the New York Commercial Advertiser citation from 1849 fits into that category. Tim P.S. You probably know more about this word's history before it came into American usage than I do. I simply plan a synthesis of the various theories as an introduction to a study of its usage in America in the Nineteenth Century. There is an interesting looking article that I just recently uncovered but have not yet located, which was written by John Lipski, "Filibusero-Origin and Development." Journal of Hispanic Philology 6(1982): 213-238.
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Post by timniesen on Feb 4, 2012 14:04:08 GMT -5
Has anyone read Dr. Bolanas Geyer's books about Walker? They are available online at his website in Nicaragua, but without the bibliographies at the end of each of the five volumes. I should have bought them when they were published. There is a set on the internet for $1,000! That's down from $1,500, however. Tim
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Post by Kevin Young on Feb 4, 2012 15:05:57 GMT -5
Has anyone read Dr. Bolanas Geyer's books about Walker? They are available online at his website in Nicaragua, but without the bibliographies at the end of each of the five volumes. I should have bought them when they were published. there is a set on the internet for $1,000! That's down from $1,500, however. Tim Have not have the pleasure. Sounds interesting. I got the Walker bug about twenty years ago, and bought what I could at the time.
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Post by timniesen on Feb 4, 2012 15:47:53 GMT -5
Kevin, His website is a little hard to find. I tried communicating with him, but I got no response. I think that he may be very ill. He has an almost complete file of Walker's newspaper (one issue missing) that he has promised to post on his website, but it has not yet appeared. The Library Of Congress collection of it is not nearly that complete, perhaps 4/5 of its issues. Tim
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Post by sloanrodgers on Feb 5, 2012 20:22:49 GMT -5
skr, There are other theories of this word's origins that I have not mentioned such as the small pirate vessel origin. About the transfer into American usage-I read the New York Tribune from its start to 1880. There are no examples in that newspaper of the word filibuster/fillibuster from 1841 to March 1851. It is an exchange newspaper; that is, smaller newspapers would exchange their paper in exchange for copies of the Horace Greeley. There may be uncommon transfers from the word Spanish filibustero or French flibustier in American usuage, but they are isolated and not common usuage. I suspect that the New York Commercial Advertiser citation from 1849 fits into that category. Tim P.S. You probably know more about this word's history before it came into American usage than I do. I simply plan a synthesis of the various theories as an introduction to a study of its usage in America in the Nineteenth Century. There is an interesting looking article that I just recently uncovered but have not yet located, which was written by John Lipski, "Filibusero-Origin and Development." Journal of Hispanic Philology 6(1982): 213-238. Yes, there's other theories, but the evolution from fly-boaters is the simplest and easiest to believe given the slight variations in several languages from the root word. So your pending article isn't on the origin of the Americanism, filibuster, only the word's use in Horace Greeley's New York City newspaper? How do you determine whether a particular word is uncommon or not during your short time period (1841-1851) by its admission or omission in a single newspaper? I've found the word filibuster is several New York newspapers and many papers from other states throughout the 1840s and 1850s, which seems like a wider gauge for the word's popularity. There was also a high degree of illiteracy at the time, so the word could have been frequently spoken by people across America, who were unable to record its use for posterity and etymological research purposes. In my opinion, a review of numerous contemporary newspapers, books, magazines, official documents, diaries, etc. is the best way to determine the mid 19th Century popularity of the word filibuster, but I'm not a word hound researcher. Recently, I found this little known history on the origin of the word filibuster in the Dec. 18, 1852 Caledonian (St. Johnsbury, Vermont), which appeared in several American newspapers. Col. Benton on Cuba (excerpt) "About a century ago there was a class of gentry roving the seas, and helping themselves to whatever they wanted, who were able to take from nations or individuals, whom the English called Freebooters, and the French called Flibustiers, and the Spanish called Flibusteros, and which we (Americans) called Flybusters, and whose natural and international law was comprised in the answer to two brief questions: First, whether any man or nation has anything we want? and secondly, are we able to take it? - and these questions being affirmatively answered, take it! was the word. But as all nations agreed to hang such gentry wherever they could find them, the race became extinct and the name obsolete, until modern operators in Cuban bonds and Cuban annexation have revived the name and are getting it stuck upon a part of the people of the United States. Flybuster is now becoming a political designation in our country, and is nothing but the freebooter of the old English done into Flibustier by the French, into Flibustero by the Spanish, and done back into English in the significant, and kindred appellation of Flybuster
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