Carpetbagger

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 31 Jul 1999 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>      The Making of America database has another 1868 citation, from the
> NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
>      There are also two hits from REPORT OF THE DEBATES AND PROCEEDINGS OF
> THE CONVENTION FOR THE REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF OHIO,
> 1850-1851.  However, when I tried to click it on, the pages weren't displayed!

I know from past experience that Making of America has screwed up the
Ohio consitutional conventions. The word is undoubtedly used in a later
Ohio convention report, from the 1870s, not in the 1851 edition.

The OED's first use for _carpetbagger_ is dated September 1868.  I have
found this slightly earlier example:

1868 _Notes & Queries_ 30 May 507  The unhappy state of affairs in our
Southern States has added two new words to the English language --
_Mossyback_ and _Carpetbagger_. ... A _Carpetbagger_ is an adventurer from
the Northern States who has come to the South to be elected to office by
the votes of the negroes.  A carpet-bag is sufficient to contain all his
luggage.


Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2