Carpetbagger

[Fred Shapiro]

On Mon, 8 Oct 2001 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>    I forgot to add that a Harper's Weekly check for "carpet bagger"
> should be made.  It indicates that the term was used in the February
> 11, 1868, Montgomery (Alabama) MAIL.  This is a few days before I
> found "carpet bagger" in another Alabama newspaper.

We're just talking about days here, but for a term of such importance
every little antedating is of interest.  Here's the earliest I've found.
Note that it refers to unspecified earlier usage in the New York Tribune:

1868 _N.Y. Times_ 1 Feb. 1  The _Tribune_ -- organ of the colored people
-- denounces Mr. WARMOTH, the white nominee of that Convention, as a
carpet-bagger, who has too recently arrived in Louisiana.


Fred Shapiro


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