The word “maverick” is often used to describe someone who
doesn’t fit in with everyone else, or is something of a nonconformist whose
behaviour cannot be predicted. The expression “a maverick politician” means one
who can’t be expected to vote the way the rest of his party votes. But where
does the term “maverick” come from?
Sam Maverick
Samuel Augustus Maverick was a rancher in Texas during the
early 19th century. He displayed his independent streak by being one
of those who fought for the independence of Texas against the government of
Mexico, to which it then belonged. He had been at the siege of the Alamo in
1836 before Santa Anna killed all the occupants, but had left in order to be a
signatory of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
However, that was not why the name Maverick is best
remembered today. Instead, it was his lack of attention to detail when it came
to managing his cattle that got his name into the dictionary.
Maverick came to own a huge amount of land, amounting to
more than 300,000 acres by the time he died in 1870. In 1844 he bought land at
Decrows Point near the Gulf of Mexico coast and also a herd of cattle to graze
it. He stopped living there in 1847, but left the herd in the care of his
slaves.
What they should have done was brand each season’s new
calves so that they could be identified from those of other ranchers when it
came to round-up time. However, this was not always done, so there were some
unbranded cattle wandering about and getting mixed up with those of other
ranchers. Those other ranchers, who were far more careful about these things,
always knew that a cow without a brand was a “Maverick”, and the name stuck.
Sam Maverick got away with it for a number of years, but in
1854 he responded to complaints by taking personal charge of his herd and
making sure that every beast was properly branded.
As is often the case in such matters, the person who was
blamed for the oversight was not really the guilty party. If Sam had gone away
in 1847 having left instructions that branding should be done, but his people
had failed to do so, was it really his fault? Or should he have made sure that
the job was done properly? Whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, to
this day a wayward politician is not a smith or a jones or a robinson but a
maverick!
© John Welford
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