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Special thanks to Joy of Fishes for getting the "By Jingo" song into the diary when I couldn't.
Whenever some faction is lobbying for war, there’s always a lot of talk about “Patriotism,” with a capital “P.” And oddly enough, the war lobbyists always define “patriotism” as enthusiastic support for going to war. If you’re against going to war, then they say you’re “unpatriotic,” or you don’t “love your country,” or you’re not “supporting our troops.” Or in the latest spin, you’re not a true patriot if you don’t believe in “American Exceptionalism.”
Well, I’d like to bring back into common use a very good word for that kind of “patriotism.”
JINGOISM
Here’s how it’s defined on Google:
jin•go•ism
jiNGɡōˌizəm
noun - derogatory
extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy.
synonyms: chauvinism, extreme nationalism, xenophobia, flag-waving;
hawkishness, militarism, belligerence, bellicosity
The origins of the word “jingoism” are a song by G.W. Hunt, and a Letter to the Editor by George Holyoake.
Culled from Wikipedia:
G.W. Hunt wrote the song “By Jingo,” but it became such a signature piece for British music hall star G. H. MacDermott that it was nicknamed “MacDermott’s War Song.” It was especially popular in British pub sing-alongs at time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878).
“By Jingo” (AKA MacDermott's War Song)
The "Dogs of War" are loose and the rugged Russian Bear,
All bent on blood and robbery has crawled out of his lair...
It seems a thrashing now and then, will never help to tame...
That brute, and so he's out upon the "same old game"...
The Lion did his best... to find him some excuse...
To crawl back to his den again. All efforts were no use...
He hunger'd for his victim. He's pleased when blood is shed...
But let us hope his crimes may all recoil on his own head...
Chorus:
We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do...
We've got the ships, we've got the men, and got the money too!
We've fought the Bear before... and while we're Britons true,
The Russians shall not have Constantinople...
The misdeeds of the Turks have been "spouted" through all lands,
But how about the Russians, can they show spotless hands?
They slaughtered well at Khiva, in Siberia icy cold.
How many subjects done to death we'll ne'er perhaps be told.
They butchered the Circassians, man, woman yes and child.
With cruelties their Generals their murderous hours beguiled,
And poor unhappy Poland their cruel yoke must bear,
While prayers for "Freedom and Revenge" go up into the air.
(Chorus)
May he who 'gan the quarrel soon have to bite the dust.
The Turk should be thrice armed for "he hath his quarrel just."
'Tis said that countless thousands should die through cruel war,
But let us hope most fervently ere long it shall be o'er.
Let them be warned: Old England is brave Old England still.
We've proved our might, we've claimed our right, and ever, ever will.
Should we have to draw the sword our way to victory we'll forge,
With the Battle cry of Britons, "Old England and St George!"
The phrase "by Jingo" was a long-established minced oath, used to avoid saying "by Jesus." (A minced oath is “a euphemistic expression formed by misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo term to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics.” -
Google again)
Referring to Hunt’s song, "jingoes" was coined as a political label by the prominent British radical George Holyoake. Holyoake was a socialist and an atheist, who also created the word “secularism” as an alternative for “atheism,” after he was arrested for “blasphemy in a public lecture,” convicted, and served six months in prison in 1842. He was the last person in Britain to be arrested for this offense.
He wrote a letter, “The Jingoes in the Park,” which was printed in the Daily News, March 13, 1878. I couldn’t find a copy of his letter, but I did find this later commentary by Holyoake:
ONE Sunday afternoon, in March, 1878, a meeting was held in Hyde Park in support of Mr. Gladstone's policy on the Eastern Question** The two principal persons taking part in it were the Honourable Auberon Herbert and Mr. Bradlaugh.
The chief supporters of the Conservative Government** of the day were the music-hall politicians, a class of persons little distinguished for sober discernment in public affairs or for patriotic service. A wild and vain glorious ditty, calculated to excite the contempt of foreigners, was sung with ostentatious applause in their convivial halls. Its best known lines were " "We don't want to fight, But by Jingo if we do, We have the ships, we have the men, And have the money too."
A certain Lieutenant Armitt, not much heard of previously in war or politics, assembled these jocund politicians in the park, and a conflict ensued. It was reported in the papers that Mr. Herbert was chased and had his clothes torn, and that Mr. Bradlaugh drew a new truncheon from his pocket, which he fortunately did not use, probably because those who knew him thought it undesirable to incite him to do it, as he was not a man to be intimidated in maintaining the right of public meeting.
Afterwards a portion of the assembly set out to Harley Street, and broke Mr. Gladstone's windows. The poet of the music-hall patriots received a Royal letter of approval of his production, and those vinous politicians thought themselves called upon to give some public proof of their quality.
It was not advisable that truncheons should be produced at a Sunday meeting by any party. As I was an advocate of the freer use of Sunday than was customary, I thought fighting on that day would compromise the claim, and that a belligerent meeting was better held on the Saturday, since the Sunday succeeding would give the humbler combatants time to recover before their workshop duties on Monday commenced. I, therefore, said the leaders of the Jingoes were better left to their own devices on church day.
I entitled my letter to the Daily News "The Jingoes in the Park." This was the origin of the term "Jingoes," and was the first time it was used. The public reading it in the Daily News on the morning of March 13, 1878, the term was taken up generally, and it was added to the nomenclature of political literature. We had then a Music Hall majority in the House of Commons, and the patriotism of the singing saloons and the spread-eagleism of Lord Cranbrook** would produce a bad impression of England on the public opinion of Europe if no one expressed dissent.
** BACKGROUND: In 1876, Gladstone, the Liberal Party leader, wrote a pamphlet, "The Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East," condemning massacres carried out by the Turks while suppressing the latest Balkan revolt. The Conservative Party, which supported the Ottoman Sultanate, was led by Benjamin Disraeli, and Lord Cranbrook was Secretary of State for War from 1874 to 1878.
The Crimean War (1853-1856) led to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), which caused a rift in the Ottoman Empire’s alliance with Britain against Russian incursion, which in turn brought about a new alliance between Turkey and Germany, planting seeds which would bear bitter fruit in World War I.
If you find this confusing, don’t worry – it’s a perfectly normal reaction to the extremely tangled history of the Ottoman Empire (1350-1918) and the ever-changing European alliances.
____________________
“If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, it is not merely because evil deeds may be performed in the name of patriotism, but because patriotic fervor can obliterate moral distinctions altogether.”
— Ralph B. Perry, American Philosopher
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Printed Material, 1870s | The National Archives
discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/