Here are the words for the 2006 edition of Politics in American Literature.
Politics in American Literature • Fall 2006
Dr. Miller, U. of Akron • Word list
The 1828 and 1841 definitions are from Noah Webster’s American Dictionary.
CIVIL - adj - 1. Reduced to order, rule and government; under a regular administration; implying some refinement of manners; not savage or wild. 2. Civilized; courteous; complaisant; gentle and obliging; well-bred; affable; kind; having the manners of a city. [1828] See SAVAGE, COSMOPOLITAN, REFINEMENT, NOBILITY.
COSMOPOLITAN – adj – Belonging to all parts of the world; not restricted to any one country or its inhabitants; having the characteristics which arise from, or are suited to, a range over many different countries; free from national limitations or attachments; also, usually, urban, and intimate with life in the capital. See PROVINCIAL.
DEFERENCE – n - 1. A yielding in opinion; submission of judgment to the opinion or judgment of another. Hence, regard; respect. [1828] See DUTY, GENEROSITY.
DEMAGOGUE – n – 1. A leader of the people; an orator who pleases the populace and influences them to adhere to him. 2. Any leader of the populace; any factious man who has great influence with the great body of people in a city or community. [1828] This word had strongly negative connotations among those who resented the political clout of the lower orders. One man’s great democrat might be another man’s great demagogue. See FACTION.
DEMOCRAT – n – One who adheres to a government by the people, or favors the extension of the right of suffrage to all classes of men. [1828] Early Americans understood “pure democracy” as everyone talking at once. No one denied that some scheme of representation was necessary for the government of large communities, but the more purely “democratic” early Americans wanted representatives who were typical men or, perhaps, “popular favorites” among the lowest class of voters. See REPUBLICAN, FEDERALIST, WHIG.
DISTINCTION – n – 1. The act of separating or distinguishing. 2. A note of mark or difference. . . . 7. Eminence; superiority; elevation of rank in society, or elevation of character; honorable estimation. 8. That which confers eminence or superiority. [1828] See HIERARCHY, LEVELER.
DUTY - n – 1. That which a person owes to another; that which a person is bound, by any natural, moral or legal obligation, to pay, do or perform [1828]. The action and conduct due to a superior or an inferior as such; homage, obedience, or submission, if you are looking up to someone; generosity, compassion, or patronage, if you are looking down on someone. Hierarchical relationships are maintained by the frequent and often trivial performance of duty. Note that individualism and egalitarianism create duty without hierarchy: as Americans approach the Civil War, duty is increasingly figured as a responsibility not to specific people (e.g., your father, the pastor, the President), but to ideals (e.g. love of country). See DEFERENCE, GENEROSITY, HIERARCHY.
EGALITARIAN – adj – That which asserts the equality of mankind. Note this is an early twentieth-century word. The early American term, “leveling,” has negative connotations. See LEVELER, HIERARCHY.
FACTION – n – A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the prince, government or state; usually applied to a minority, but it may be applied to a majority. sometimes a state is divided into factions nearly equal. Rome was almost always disturbed by factions. Republics are proverbial for factions, and factions in monarchies have often effected revolutions. [1828] See PARTY, DEMAGOGUE.
FEDERALIST – n – An appellation in America, given to the friends of the constitution of the United States, at its formation and adoption, and to the political party which favored the administration of President Washington. [1828] Federalists favored a strong executive and worked to create a strong federal government. Their “Democratic-Republican” opponents worked for a weaker executive and greater power at the lower levels of government closer to “the people.” See DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN, WHIG.
FEMINIST – n – An advocate for the social, political, and legal equality of the sexes. See EGALITARIAN.
GENEROSITY – n – The quality of being generous; liberality in principle; a disposition to give liberally or to bestow favors; a quality of the heart or mind opposed to meanness or parsimony; nobleness of soul; magnanimity [1828]. See DUTY, SENSIBILITY, NOBILITY.
GOVERN - v - 1. To direct and control, as the actions or conduct of men; to regulate by authority; to keep within the limits prescribed. 2. To regulate; to influence; to direct. 3. To control; to restrain; to keep in due subjection. [1829] Early Americans typically regarded "self-government" as the path to virtue and authority; a man who lacked the ability to restain, for example, his appetites and passions, was not qualified, in the eyes of most, for high station. See VIRTUE, PASSION.
HIERARCHY – n – The classification of a group of people according to ability or to economic, social, or professional standing; also: the group so classified; a graded or ranked series. Note that hierarchies can be disordered, unclear, and/or the subject of constant negotiation. Note too that a person may hold different stations within different hierarchies separated by time or place. The steady increase of population, internal migration, and individualism, among other factors, makes the social structures of early America increasingly fluid. See DUTY, INDIVIDUALISM.
INDIVIDUALISM – n – The state of individual interest, or attachment to the interest of individuals, in preference to the common interest of society; a feeling, which disposes each member of the community to sever himself, with his family and friends, from the mass of his fellow creatures [1841]. This word was coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his Democracy in America; it did not appear in the first edition of Webster’s American Dictionary. See DUTY, HIERARCHY.
LEVELER – n – One that destroys or attempts to destroy distinctions, and reduce to equality [1828]. See EGALITARIAN, HIERARCHY.
LIBERTY – n – 1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mine. [1828] Early Americans focussed on natural, civil, political, and religious liberty. Civil liberty, for example, "is the liberty of men in a state of society, so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and exedient for the safety and interest of society, state or nation" [1828]. See DUTY, LICENTIOUSNESS.
LICENTIOUSNESS – n – Excessive indulgence of liberty; contempt for the just restraints of law, morality and decorum [1828]. The extent to which restraint was "just" was, of course, much debated; one man's liberty may be another man's licentiousness. A licentious man is also known as a “libertine.” See LIBERTY, DUTY, LEVELER.
MOB – n – A crowd or promiscuous multitude of people, rude, tumultuous and disorderly. [1828] See CIVIL, DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN, DEMAGOGUE.
NOBILITY – n – 1. Dignity of mind; greatness; grandeur; elevation of soul. 2. Antiqutiy of family; descent from noble ancestors; distinction by blood. 3. The qualities which constitute distinction of rank in civil society according to the customs or laws of the country. [1828] See CIVIL, GENEROSITY, GOVERN.
PARTIAL – n – 1. Biased to one party; inclined to favor one party in a cause, or one side of a question, more than the other. 2. Inclined to favor without reason [1828]. See REASON, SOUL, NOBILITY, PROVINCIAL.
PARTY – n – A number of persons united in opinion or design, in opposition to others in the community. It differs from faction, in implying a less dishonorable association, or more justifiable designs. Parties exist in all governments; and free governments are the hot-beds of party. Formerly, the political parties in England were called whigs and tories. [1828] See FACTION.
PASSION – n – 1. The impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; that which is suffered or received. .... 4. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind. 5. Violent agitation or excitement of mind, particularly such as is occasioned by an offense, injury or insult; hence, violent anger. 6. Zeal; ardor; vehement desire. 7. Love [1828]. Passions challenged early Americans seeking the outward self-control that characterized their nobility. The various passions are provoked by different objects: there is greed, for example, which is the agitation caused by the impression of money; also lust, caused by the impression of another body; jealousy, some object of admiration; anger, some irritating thing; etc. and so forth. See REASON, SOUL, VIRTUE.
POLITICS – n – The science of government; that part of ethics which consists in the regulation and government of a nation or state, for the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity; comprehending the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the protection of its citizens in their rights, with the preservation and improvement of their morals. Politics, as a science or an art, is a subject of vast extent and importance. [1828]
POLITICIAN – n – 1. One versed in the science of government and the art of governing; one skilled in politics. 2. A man of artifice or deep contrivance. [1828]
PROVINCIAL – adj and n – Having the manners or speech of a province or ‘the provinces’; exhibiting the character, especially the narrowness of view or interest, associated with or attributed to inhabitants of ‘the provinces’; lacking the culture or polish of the capital; one who dwells in or comes from the ‘provinces’ as distinguished from an inhabitant or native of the capital; hence, a ‘countrified’ person. See COSMOPOLITAN, PARTIAL, NOBILITY.
REASON – n – The faculty of the mind by which it distinguishes truth from falsehood, and good from evil, and which enables the possessor to deduce inferences from facts or from propositions [1828]. See SOUL, PARTIAL.
REPUBLICAN – n – One who favors or prefers a republican form of government. [1828] For early Americans, a “republican form of government” suggests government not by the people but by their representatives. These representatives are not to be typical people, but rather the best people selected by the people with deference. And these representatives should not suffer any “instruction” from constituents. See DEMOCRAT, FEDERALIST, WHIG.
SAVAGE - 1. (adj) Pertaining to the forest; wild; remote from human residence and improvements. 2. (n) A human being in his native state of rudeness; one who is untaught, uncivilized or without cultivation of mind or manners. [1828] See CIVIL, PROVINCIAL.
SENSIBILITY – n - 1. Susceptibility of impressions. 2. Acuteness of sensation. 3. Delicacy of feeling. [1828] Early American readers regarded literature as a way to exercise and cultivate that distinguished sensibility which featured the noble generosity that fit them for high station. See NOBILITY, GENEROSITY.
SOUL – n – 1. The spiritual, rational and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from brutes; that part of man which enables him to think and reason, and which renders him a subject of moral government [1828]. See REASON.
TYRANNY – n – Arbitrary or despotic exercise of power; the exercise of power over subjects and others with a rigor not authorized by law or justice, or not requisite for the purposes of government. Hence tyranny is often synonymous with cruelty and oppression. [1828]
VICE – n – 1. A spot or defect; a fault; a blemish in action or procedure 2. In ethics, any voluntary action or course of conduct which deviates from the rules of moral rectitude. Vice differs from crime, in being less enormous. 3. Depravity or corruption of manners [1828]. See LICENTIOUSNESS.
VIRTUE – n – 1. Strength; that substance or quality of physical bodies, by which they act and produce effects on other bodies. 2. Bravery; valor. 3. Moral goodness; the practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and coversation to the moral law [1828]. See NOBILITY.
WHIG – n – One of a political party which had its origin in England in the seventeenth century, in the reign of Charles I. or II., when great contests existed respecting the royal prerogatives and the rights of the people. Those who supported the king in his high claims, were called tories, and the advocates of popular rights were called whigs. During the revolution in the United States, the friends and supporters of the war and the principles of the revolution, were called whigs, and those who opposed them, were called tories and royalists. [1828] In the 1830s, opponents of Andrew Jackson’s administration attacked the popular favorite as a tyrant, as worst kind of federalist. They adopted the name “Whig” for their political party to argue that they were more truly “democratic” than Jackson and his party. See DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN, FEDERALIST.
The few more:
sentiment – n – a thought prompted by feeling; opinion
feeling – n – sense of perception (e.g., touch)
sympathy – n – fellow-feeling; compassion
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