Tory

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The term Tory (from Irish Gaelic tóraighe, an outlaw or guerrilla fighter, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms — literally meaning "pursued man", see also Rapparee) applied to the Tory Party, the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. To this day it is often used as a shortened form for Conservatives. Its usage also applied to the pre-1965 Scottish Unionist Party which operated independently of, although in association with, the Conservative Party in England and Wales.

A similar 'Tory' exists in Canada to describe its Conservative Party. It was also used during the American Revolutionary War to refer to British Loyalists in the colonies. During the American Civil War, supporters of the Confederacy extended the term to Southern Unionists.

Contents 1 United Kingdom 1.1 British cultural references 2 Canada 3 American Revolution 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] United Kingdom

The use of the term which is overwhelmingly the most common is as a colloquial term for members and supporters of the Conservative Party. The party as a whole is thus 'the Tories'.

However other usages exist. The late Enoch Powell, proudly regarded himself as a 'Tory', precisely because of its supposed reactionary or die hard connotations. This is particularly true of Monarchists, who refer to its use as one in favour of personal execution of royal powers.

It entered English politics during the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678–1681. The Whigs (initially an insult — 'whiggamore,' a cattle driver) were those who supported the exclusion of James VII & II from the thrones of Scotland and England & Ireland (the 'Petitioners'), and the Tories (from the Irish term tóraidhe, modern Irish tóraí — outlaw, robber) were those who opposed it (the Abhorrers). The root of tóraidhe is the Irish word tóir, meaning 'pursuit', since outlaws were "pursued men".

James II's attacks on the Church of England led some Tories to support the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and during the reigns of William III and Queen Anne they fiercely competed with the Whigs for power, although both monarchs generally tried to employ both Whigs and Tories in ministerial positions. However, the stresses of the continuing War of the Spanish Succession led most of the Tories to withdraw into opposition by 1708, leading to an almost entirely Whig ministry. Queen Anne's discomfort with being dependent on the Whigs led to a reaction in 1710, when she sacked her Whig ministers and replaced them with the Tory ministry of Harley and Bolingbroke, which in 1713 negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of the Spanish Succession but which was denounced by George, Elector of Hanover, who would succeed Anne.

In 1714, Bolingbroke sought to bring about a Jacobite restoration, but the plans were thwarted by Anne's death and George's accession. The following year he supported the Jacobite uprising (the "Fifteen"). George I, who had already formed a Whig ministry upon his accession in 1714, dismissed the remaining Tories from office and as a party they were confined to the wilderness for half a century, though occasionally individual Tories held office in the Whig ministries of George I and George II. The Tories ended their opposition in 1757 when they gave support to the coalition government of William Pitt the Elder and the Duke of Newcastle. Upon the accession of George III the old political distinctions dissolved into a mass of personal factions, most regarding themselves as 'Whigs'. However Tory sentiments remained, most prominently with the writer and critic Samuel Johnson.

The label 'Tory' came to be applied to the Prime Ministers Lord Bute (1762–1763) and Lord North (1770–1782) though it is difficult to trace a continuous "Tory Party" either from Bolingbroke or subsequently to William Pitt the Younger and the later Tories, and both ministries largely relied on the support of factions (particularly the Grenvillites and the Bedfordites) who generally saw themselves as Whigs.

In the late 18th century, the label of Tory came to be applied to believers in the right of Kings to determine the direction of the state rather than to act merely in accordance with the wishes of parliament, politicians and the powerful families who largely dominated the parliamentary system in the absence of universal suffrage, secret ballots and equal constituencies.

Applied by their opponents to Parliamentary supporters of the ministry of Lord North (1770–1782) and again of those who supported the younger William Pitt (1783–1801), the term came to represent the political current opposed to the 'Old Whigs' and the radicalism unleashed by the American and French Revolutions. This was reinforced by the breakup of the Whig party in 1794 when the conservative group led by the Duke of Portland joined Pitt's government - leaving an opposition rump led by Charles James Fox. The fear of the Jacobins in France it could be argued helped to make the term 'Tory' respectable once again - by contrast the Foxite Whigs were portrayed as revolutionary demons by cartoonists like James Gillray. However, Pitt rejected the Tory label, preferring to refer to himself as an 'independent Whig'. The group surrounding Pitt the Younger came to be the dominant force in British politics from 1783 until 1830 and after Pitt's death the term 'Tory' was increasingly used by its members instead of 'Pittite' or 'Friends of Mr Pitt'. The first prominent 'new Tory' to accept the old name was George Canning. Despite this, as late as 1812 the government still preferred to label themselves a 'Whig Administration' but very soon after the description 'Tory' had come back into general use for Lord Liverpool's government.

Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry and the Church of England (and in Scotland the Episcopal Church), while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders (or "land magnates") and the Nonconformist Protestant churches. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. Neither group could be considered a true political party in the modern sense.

After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1834 'Tamworth Manifesto' outlined a new 'Conservative' philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good. From then on the subsequent Peel administrations have been labelled "Conservative" rather than "Tory", but the older term remains in use even today.

When the Conservative Party split in 1846 on the issue of Free Trade, the protectionist wing of the party rejected the term Conservative and preferred for to be known as Protectionists or even revive the older term of 'Tory' as an official name. However by the time the Peelites (as Peel's Conservative supporters became so described) eventually joined the Whigs and Radicals to form the Liberal Party in 1859, the remaining Tories had under the leadership of the former Whig Earl of Derby and a former Radical parliamentary candidate Benjamin Disraeli, adopted the 'Conservative' label as the official name of their party.

[edit] British cultural references

Although the term 'Tory' is widely used in England to refer to members of the Conservative Party, it can be considered abusive, especially when used by opponents of the party.

'Captain Tory' is a popular term used to refer to a staunch supporter of the Conservative Party in Newcastle Upon Tyne and the wider region of North East England. This term is generally used in a derisory manner, owing to popular hostility toward the Conservative Party within the region.

[edit] Canada

The term was used to designate the pre-Confederation British ruling classes of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, known as the Family Compact and the Chateau Clique, an elite within the governing classes, and often members within a section of society known as the United Empire Loyalists.

In post-Confederation Canada the terms "Red Tory" and "Blue Tory" have long been used to describe the two wings of the Conservative and previously the Progressive Conservative (PC) parties. The diadic tensions originally arose out of the 1854 political union of British-Canadian Tories, French-Canadian traditionalists, and the Monarchist and Loyalist leaning sections of the emerging commercial classes at the time - many of whom were uncomfortable with the pro-American and annexationist tendencies within the liberal Grits. Tory strength and prominence in the political culture was a feature of life in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and Manitoba.

By the 1930s, the factions within Canadian Toryism were associated with either the urban business elites, or with rural traditionalists from the country's hinterland. Over time, however, the term Blue Tory has come to embody the more ideologically neo-liberal (in the manner of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan) elements in the party, while a Red Tory is a member of the more moderate wing of the party (in the manner of John Farthing and George Grant). They are generally unified by their adherence to the monarchy, and the British Crown in right of Canada.

Throughout the course of Canadian history, the Conservative Party was generally controlled by Macdonaldian tory elements, which in Canada meant an adherence to the English-Canadian traditions of Monarchy, Empire-Commonwealth, parliamentary government, nationalism, protectionism, social reform, and eventually, acceptance of the necessity of the welfare state. By the 1970s the Progressive Conservative Party was a Keynesian-consensus party.

With the onset of stagflation in the 1970s, some Canadian Tories came under the influence of neo-liberal developments in Great Britain and the United States, which highlighted the need for privatization and supply-side interventions. In Canada, these tories have been labeled neoconservatives - which has a somewhat different connotation in the US. By the early 1980s there was no clear neoconservative in the Tory leadership cadre, but Brian Mulroney, who became leader in 1983, eventually came to adopt many policies from the Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan governments.

As Mulroney took the Progressive Conservative Party further in this direction, with policy innovations in the areas of deregulation, privatization, free-trade, and a consumption tax called the Goods and Services Tax (GST), many traditionally-minded Tories became concerned that a political and cultural schism was occurring within the party.

The 1986 creation of the Reform Party of Canada attracted some of the neo-liberals and social conservatives away from the Tory party, and as some of the neoconservative policies of the Mulroney government proved unpopular, some of the provincial-rights elements moved towards Reform as well. In 1993, Mulroney resigned, rather than fight an election based on his record after almost nine years in power. This left the PCs in disarray and scrambling to understand how to make toryism relevant in provinces such as Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia that had never had a strong tory tradition and political culture.

Thereafter in the 1990s, the PCs were a small party in the Canadian House of Commons, and could only exert legislative pressure on the government through their power in the Senate of Canada. Eventually, through death and retirements, this power waned. Joe Clark returned as leader, but the schism with the Reformers effectively watered down the combined Blue and Red Tory vote in Canada.

By the late 1990s, there was some talk of the necessity of uniting the right in Canada, if there was any hope of deterring further Liberal majorities. Many tories - both red and blue - were opposed to any such notion, while others took the view that all would have to be pragmatic if there was any hope of reviving a strong party system. The Canadian Alliance party (as the Reform Party had become), and some leading tories came together on an informal basis to see if they could find common ground. While the Tory Leader Joe Clark rebuffed the notion, the talks moved ahead and eventually in December 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties voted to disband and integrate into a new party called the Conservative Party of Canada.

After the merger of the PCs with the Canadian Alliance in 2003, there was some debate as to whether the "Tory" appellation should survive at the federal level. Although it was widely believed that some Alliance members would take offence to the term, it was officially accepted by the newly-merged party during the 2004 leadership convention. Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, and the Prime Minister as a result of the January 23, 2006 election, regularly refers to himself as a Tory and has suggested that the new party is a natural evolution of the conservative political movement in Canada. However many former Progressive Conservatives who opposed the merger take offence to the new party using the term, as do some members of the former Reform/Alliance wing who do not wish to be associated with the "Tory" governments of Canada's past, or the values of traditional Tory thought.

[edit] American Revolution

Before the War of Independence, the founders of Anglican and Catholic colonies were generally well disposed towards the Stuart dynasty. Their affections were alienated by a new, foreign dynasty which seemed to little know or care for the Tudor-Stuart legacy in the New World. Those who founded the Puritan colonies of New England were Cromwellians and Orangists.

It is interesting to note the chief allies of the American Patriots were Whigs such as Charles James Fox and Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, each with direct ties to the House of Stuart and probably resentful of the Hanoverian succession--with its dire consequences in the old colonial empire in North America.

The term Tory or Loyalists was used in the American Revolution to describe those who remained loyal to the British Crown. Since early in the eighteenth century, Tory had described those upholding the right of the Kings over parliament. During the revolution, particularly after the Declaration of Independence in 1776 this use was extended to cover anyone who remained loyal to the British Crown. Those Loyalists who settled in Canada, Nova Scotia, or the Bahamas after the American Revolution are known as United Empire Loyalists.

Tory was frequently used as a revolutionary's pejorative, e.g., a "Tory militia" was a militia unit which took the British side during the War.

The British term Whig, referring to the anti-Tory political movement in England, had a much longer life in the American political discourse, especially through the United States Whig Party.

[edit] See also

• Ultra-Tories

[edit] External links

• Tory Act

[edit] References

Canada section:

• W. Christian and C. Campbell (eds), Parties, Leaders and Ideologies in Canada
• J. Farthing, Freedom Wears a Crown
• G. Grant, Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism
• G. Horowitz, "Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism in Canada: An Interpretation", CJEPS (1966).