[Ads-l] Very Slight Antedating of "Lost Cause" (Southern Mythology)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Seems to me this is an unremarkable use of "lost cause."  The Confederacy
turned out literally to be a lost cause.

"The Lost Cause," however. as a sentimentalized, lexicalized concept, is
another story.  In fact, only the 1948 and 2018 exx. in OED strike me as
exemplifying this sense. (With 1866 possibly the ultimate inspiration.)
"The lost cause of the Confederacy" is hardly a lexicalization of the "Lost
Cause."

Possibly not the earliest, but early and unmistakable (Newspapers.com):

1868 _Wheeling Intelligencer_ (Sept. 28) 2: A GREAT SPEECH By [the
Unionist] Ex-Gov. Peirpoint OF VIRGINIA ... by I show you these facts as
showing the moving impulse of the "Lost Cause."... The old system of the
"Lost Cause" strangles commerce, discourages agriculture, denies education
to the poor, and destroys the liberty of masses.

JL

On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Lost Cause (OED, 2., 1865 [16 Nov.])
>
> 1865 Mobile Daily Times 15 Nov. 4/2 (Newspapers.com)
>
> The undersigned is without means to prosecute so large a work ... He
> therefore proposes to publish it by subscription ... and he hopes every
> true man in the South will, as subscriber or contributor, make himself a
> party to an enterprise to rescue the lost cause of the Confederacy ...
> EDWARD A. POLLARD, of Virginia.  New York, Nov. 1, 1865.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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