 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Traditionalist conservatism in the United States is apolitical andsocial philosophy and variant ofconservatism. It has been influenced by thinkers such asJohn Adams andRussell Kirk.[1][2]
The 2010 bookThe Dilemmas of American Conservatism, edited by Kenneth L. Deutsch and Ethan Fishman, has one paragraph about traditional conservatism. It says it is a variation ofconservatism that is negative to Americanindividualism, American inability to recognize the importance of social bonds and strong anti-authoritarian tradition of the United States. According to Deutsch and Fishman, traditional conservatives derive their views fromAristotle andEdmund Burke. They place emphasis on therule of law as a means for liberty, leading by example in the fostering of reason and the existence of a transcendent morality. These views are only shared by a small minority of the American conservative movement and are exemplified byRussell Kirk,John H. Hallowell andRichard M. Weaver.[3]
In terms of "classical conservatism",[definition needed] the Federalists had no connection with European-style aristocracy, monarchy or established religion. HistorianJohn P. Diggins has said:
Thanks to the framers, American conservatism began on a genuinely lofty plane. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, John Jay, James Wilson, and, above all, John Adams aspired to create a republic in which the values so precious to conservatives might flourish: harmony, stability, virtue, reverence, veneration, loyalty, self-discipline, and moderation. This was classical conservatism in its most authentic expression.[4]
Something akin to Burkean traditionalism[definition needed][relevant?] was transported to the American colonies through the policies and principles of theFederalist Party and its leadership as embodied by John Adams andAlexander Hamilton. Federalists strongly opposed the excesses and instability of the French Revolution, defended traditional Christian morality and supported a new "natural aristocracy" based on "property, education, family status, and sense of ethical responsibility".[5]
John Adams was one of the earliest defenders of a traditional social order in Revolutionary America. In hisDefence of the Constitution (1787), Adams attacked the ideas of radicals likeThomas Paine, who advocated for a unicameral legislature (Adams deemed it too democratic). His translation ofDiscourses on Davila (1790), which also contained his own commentary, was an examination of "human motivation in politics". Adams believed that human motivation inevitably led to dangerous impulses where the government would need to sometimes intervene.[6]
The leader of the Federalist Party was Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury and co-author ofThe Federalist Papers (1787–1788) which was then and to this day remains a major interpretation of the new 1789 Constitution. Hamilton was critical of both Jeffersonian classical liberalism and the radical ideas coming out of the French Revolution. He rejectedlaissez-faire economics and favored a strong central government.[7]
In the era after the Revolutionary Generation, theWhig Party had an approach that resembled Burkean conservatism,[definition needed][relevant?] although Whigs rarely cited Burke. Whig statesmen led the charge for tradition and custom against the prevailing democratic ethos of the Jacksonian Era. Standing for hierarchy and organic society, in many ways their concepts of the Union paralleledBenjamin Disraeli's "One Nation Conservatism".
Along with Henry Clay, the most noteworthy Whig statesman was Boston'sDaniel Webster. A firm Unionist, his most famous speech was his "Second Reply to Hayne" (1829) where he criticized the argument from Southerners such asJohn C. Calhoun that the states had a right to nullify federal laws they deemed unconstitutional.[relevant?][8] Webster rarely mentioned Burke but he occasionally followed similar lines of thought.[9]
Webster's intellectual and political heir wasRufus Choate, who admired Burke.[relevant?][10] Choate was a part of the emerging legal culture inNew England, centered on the newly formedHarvard Law School. He believed that lawyers were preservers and conservers of the Constitution and that it was the duty of the educated to govern political institutions. Choate's most famous address was "The Position and Functions of the American Bar, as an Element of Conservatism in the State" (1845).[relevant?][11]
Two figures in the Northern antebellum period were whatEmory University professor Patrick Allitt referred to as the "Guardians of Civilization":George Ticknor andEdward Everett.[relevant?]
George Ticknor, aDartmouth-educated academic at Harvard, was the chief purveyor of humane learning in the Boston area. A founder of theBoston Public Library and the scion of an old Federalist family, Ticknor educated his students in Romance languages and the works of Dante and Cervantes at home while promoting America abroad to his many international friends, including Lord Byron and Talleyrand.[relevant?][12]
Like Ticknor,Edward Everett was educated at the same German university (Goettigen) and advocated for the U.S. to follow same virtues as the ancient Greeks and eventually went into politics as a Whig. A firm Unionist (like his friendDaniel Webster), Everett deplored the Jacksonian Democracy that swept the nation. A famed orator in his own right, he supported Lincoln against Southern secession.[relevant?][13]
American Catholic journalist and political theorist (and former political and religious radical)Orestes Brownson is best known for writingThe American Republic, an 1865 treatise examining how America fulfills Catholic tradition and Western Civilization. Brownson was critical of both the Northern abolitionists and the Southern secessionists and was himself a solid Unionist.[relevant?][14]
In the 20th century, traditionalist conservatism on both sides of the Atlantic centered on two publications:The Bookman and its successor,The American Review. Owned and edited by the eccentricSeward Collins, these journals published the writings of the British Distributists, the New Humanists, the Southern Agrarians,T. S. Eliot,Christopher Dawson,et al. Eventually, Collins drifted towards support of fascism and as a result lost the support of many of his traditionalist backers. Despite the decline of the journal due to Collins' increasingly radical political views,The American Review left a profound mark on the history of traditionalist conservatism.[15]
Another intellectual branch of early-20th-century traditionalist conservatism was known as theNew Humanism. Led byHarvard University professorIrving Babbitt andPrinceton University professorPaul Elmer More, the New Humanism was a literary and social criticism movement that opposed bothromanticism and naturalism. Beginning in the late 19th century, the New Humanism defended artistic standards and "first principles" (Babbitt's phrase). Reaching an apogee in 1930, Babbitt and More published a variety of books including Babbitt'sLiterature and the American College (1908),Rousseau and Romanticism (1919) andDemocracy and Leadership (1924) and More'sShelburne Essays (1904–1921).[16]
One other group of traditionalist conservatives were theSouthern Agrarians. Originally a group ofVanderbilt University poets and writers known as "the Fugitives", they includedJohn Crowe Ransom,Allen Tate,Donald Davidson andRobert Penn Warren. Adhering to strict literary standards (Warren and traditionalist scholarCleanth Brooks later formulated a form of literary criticism known as the New Criticism), in 1930 some of the Fugitives joined other traditionalist Southern writers to publishI'll Take My Stand, which applied standards sympathetic to local particularism and the agrarian way of life to politics and economics. Condemning northern industrialism and commercialism, the "twelve southerners" who contributed to the book echoed earlier arguments made by the distributists. A few years after the publication ofI'll Take My Stand, some of the Southern Agrarians were joined byHilaire Belloc andHerbert Agar in the publication of a new collection of essays entitledWho Owns America: A New Declaration of Independence.
After World War II, the first stirrings of a "traditionalist movement" took place and among those who launched this movement (and in effect the larger Conservative Movement in America) wasUniversity of Chicago professorRichard M. Weaver. Weaver'sIdeas Have Consequences (1948) chronicled the steady erosion of Western cultural values since theMiddle Ages.[17] In 1949, another professor,Peter Viereck echoed the writings of Weaver with hisConservatism Revisited, which examined the conservative thought of PrinceKlemens Metternich.
After Weaver and Viereck a flowering of conservative scholarship occurred starting with the publication of 1953'sThe New Science of Politics byEric Voegelin, 1953'sThe Quest for Community byRobert A. Nisbet and 1955'sConservatism in America byClinton Rossiter. However, the book that defined the traditionalist school was 1953'sThe Conservative Mind, written byRussell Kirk, which gave a detailed analysis of the intellectual pedigree of Anglo-American traditionalistconservatism.[18]
When these thinkers appeared on the academic scene they became known for rebuking the progressive worldview inherent in an America comfortable withNew Deal economics, a burgeoningmilitary–industrial complex and a consumerist and commercialized citizenry. These conservative scholars and writers garnered the attention of the popular press of the time and before long they were collectively referred to as "the New Conservatives". Among this group were not only Weaver, Viereck, Voegelin, Nisbet, Rossiter and Kirk, but other lesser known thinkers such as John Blum,Daniel Boorstin, McGeorge Bundy, Thomas Cook, Raymond English, John Hallowell, Anthony Harrigan, August Heckscher, Milton Hindus, Klemens von Klemperer,Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Richard Leopold, S. A. Lukacs, Malcolm Moos, Eliseo Vivas, Geoffrey Wagner, Chad Walsh and Francis Wilson,[19] as well as Arthur Bestor,Mel Bradford, C. P. Ives,Stanley Jaki,John Lukacs,Forrest McDonald,Thomas Molnar, Gerhard Neimeyer, James V. Schall, S.J.,Peter J. Stanlis, Stephen J. Tonsor and Frederick Wilhelmsen.[20]
The acknowledged leader of the New Conservatives was independent scholar, writer, critic and man of lettersRussell Kirk. Kirk was a key figure of the conservative movement: he was a friend toWilliam F. Buckley, Jr., a columnist forNational Review, an editor and a syndicated columnist, as well as a historian and horror fiction writer. His most famous work was 1953'sThe Conservative Mind: From Burke to Santayana, later republished asThe Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot. Kirk's writings and legacy are interwoven with the history of traditionalist conservatism. He was influential atThe Heritage Foundation, theIntercollegiate Studies Institute, and other conservative think tanks, especially theRussell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.
The Conservative Mind was written by Kirk as a doctoral dissertation while he was a student at theSt. Andrews University inScotland. Previously the author of a biography of American conservativeJohn Randolph of Roanoke, Kirk'sThe Conservative Mind had laid out six "canons of conservative thought" in the book, including:
The political scientist M. Morton Auerbach criticized the notion of the New Conservatives as conservatives in his 1959 bookThe Conservative Illusion. Auerbach argued that the views and intellectual history of the movement were disconnected from conservatism, and instead can be traced toPlato,Augustine of Hippo andEdmund Burke.[22]
U.S. SenatorBarry Goldwater gained national attention by way ofThe Conscience of a Conservative, a book ghostwritten for him byL. Brent Bozell Jr. (William F. Buckley, Jr.'s Catholic traditionalist brother-in-law). The book advocated a conservative vision in keeping with Buckley'sNational Review and propelled Goldwater to challenge Vice PresidentRichard Nixon, without success, for the 1960 Republican presidential nomination.[23]
In 1964, Goldwater returned to challenge the Eastern Establishment, which since the 1930s had controlled theRepublican Party. In a brutal campaign where he was maligned by liberal Republican primary rivals (Rockefeller, Romney, Scranton, etc.), the press, the Democrats and PresidentLyndon B. Johnson, Goldwater again found allies among conservatives, including the traditionalists.Russell Kirk championed Goldwater's cause as the maturation of the New Right in American politics. Kirk advocated for Goldwater in his syndicated columns and campaigned for him in the primaries.[24] Goldwater's subsequent defeat would result in the New Right regrouping and finding a new figurehead in the late 1970s:Ronald Reagan.
Fundamental differences developed between libertarians and traditional conservatives. Libertarians wanted the free market to be unregulated as possible while traditional conservatives believed that big business, if unconstrained, could impoverish national life and threaten freedom.[25] Libertarians also believed that a strong state would threaten freedom while traditional conservatives regarded a strong state, one which is properly constructed to ensure that not too much power accumulated in any one branch, was necessary to ensure freedom.[25]
 | This sectionpossibly contains originalsynthesis. Source material shouldverifiably mention andrelate to the main topic. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page.(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Traditionalist conservatism has been considered by some[who?] to have been overshadowed by the economic conservatives by the early 21st century.[26]
FormerTennessee Republican SenatorFred Thompson, formerMichigan Republican SenatorSpencer Abraham and formerIllinois Democratic SenatorPaul Simon have all been influenced by traditionalist conservativeRussell Kirk.[27] Thompson gave an interview about Kirk's influence on the Russell Kirk Center's blog.[28] Among the U.S. Congressmen influenced by Kirk are formerIllinois Republican CongressmanHenry Hyde[27] andMichigan Republican CongressmenThaddeus McCotter andDave Camp, the latter two of whom visited the Russell Kirk Center in 2009. In 2010, then-CongressmanMike Pence acknowledged Kirk as a major influence.[29] FormerMichigan Republican GovernorJohn Engler is a close personal friend of the Kirk family[27] and also serves as a trustee of the Wilbur Foundation,[30] which funds programs at theRussell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in Mecosta, Michigan. Engler gave a speech at The Heritage Foundation on Kirk which is available from the Russell Kirk Center's blog.[31]
Traditionalist conservative influences on those who emerged in the 1940s and 1950s as "the New Conservatives" includedBernard Iddings Bell,Gordon Keith Chalmers,Grenville Clark,Peter Drucker,Will Herberg, andRoss J. S. Hoffman.[32]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)