"Let the Empire Come": Imperialism and Its Critics in the Reconstruction South

In 1869, a monarchist newspaper, The Imperialist, caused a “sensation” across the Union. In the South, where it circulated widely, most conservatives read it as a Radical blueprint to dismember the republic. These critics used the paper to rally the white electorate, and their response sheds light on the “phantasms of fear” Mark Summers has argued characterized Reconstruction politics. But the weekly also found adherents in the South. Whether out of admiration for the nation-building efforts of European monarchies, contempt for black suffrage, or hostility to Herrenvolk democracy, they saw a strong centralized government with a king at its head as a path to stabilization that would maintain their power and authority. The monarchist moment in the South was fleeting and never attracted widespread support, but proclamations of fidelity to the principles of The Imperialist illuminate a rarely-explored variant of southern conservatism.