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Biographical Sketch — Richard Weaver

Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963) rose to become a luminary intellectual among southern conservatives. A native of Ashville, North Carolina, though his father relocated him to Lexington, Kentucky in early childhood. In college, Weaver initially flirted with socialism and Leftist ideology in his youth before sobering up to conservatism. While studying at Vanderbilt, pursuing his Masters in English, Weaver discovered the Southern agrarians, principally John Crowe Ransom, one of his professors. This interlude marked his rejection of socialism. Of his conservatism, Weaver elucidated:

It is my contention that a conservative is a realist ... He believes that there is a creation which was here before him, which exists now not just by his sufferance, and which will be here after he’s gone.

Through, his agrarian mentor, Weaver undoubtedly discovered the writings of many southern conservative luminaries. Weaver taught English at the University of Chicago for most of his career.

Some of the core themes of Weaver's life and work were the defense of private property, which he held to be a "metaphysical right" inherent in nature. He rejected mere utilitarian rationales for private property as insufficient. Similarly, he was a champion of constitutionally limited government. Weaver proclaims,

It took the study of John Calhoun to wake me up to a realization that a constitution is and should be primarily a negative document. A constitution—and we may think primarily of the Constitution of the United States in this connection—is more to be revered for what it prohibits than what it authorizes. A constitution is a series of "thou shall nots" to the government, specifying the ways in which liberties of individuals and of groups are not to be invaded. A constitution is a a protection against the kind of arbitrary interference to which government left to itself is prone. It is right therefore to refer to our Constitution as a charter of liberties through its negative provisions, and it is no accident that in our day the friends of liberty have been pleaders for constitutional government. I think conservatives and libertarians stand together in being this kind of constitutionalist. Both want a settled code of freedom for the individual.

Weaver revered "social bond individualism" and came to utterly disdain the "anarchic individualism" and the autonomous man of secular liberalism. For Weaver, the individual found his place in the community, and he recognized the integral developments to the advance of liberty in the medieval and British tradition which he deeply appreciated. Joseph Stromberg notes, "Richard M. Weaver was a contributor to that strand of American thought which might be called 'libertarian conservatism.'" 1 Weaver himself opined, "My instincts are libertarian, and I am sure that I would have joined effort with the conservatives if I had not been convinced that they are the defenders of freedom today." 2

Richard Weaver was among the first to sense an enemy in fascism, and he like many southern conservatives left little doubt about his defiant stand against the corrupt, totalitarian ideology, which was perceived as much a threat as communism. Meanwhile, American progressives were busy praising the virtues of fascism. In fact, the American ambassador to Italy wrote the forward to Mussolini's biography. In his essay, "The South and the Revolution of Nihilism," Weaver asserted, "That the South was the first section of the United States to sense an enemy in fascism was indicated not only by the polls of opinion, but also by its ardor in preparing for the fight." Weaver adds,

Centralism always points to an alliance between the mass as such and the single leader purporting to be their champion; and, conversely, decentralization leaves the way open for local authority and provides individuals to express themselves as such... It [the South] understands correctly that the promise of fascism to restore ancient virtues is counteracted by this process, and that denial of an ethical basis for the state means the loss of freedom and humanity. 3

1. 1. Stromberg, Joseph. "Richard M. Weaver on Civilization, Ontology, and War." Anti-War.com. http://www.antiwar.com/stromberg/s022701.html
2. 2. Freedom and Virtue: The Libertarian-Conservative Debate. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 1998,) p. xi.
3. 3. Genovese, Eugene, The Southern Tradition: The Achivements and Limitations of an American Conservatism, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1994), p. 91.