October 5, 2008
The Nation
Who You Callin’ a Maverick?
By JOHN SCHWARTZ

There’s that word again: maverick. In Thursday’s vice-presidential debate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the Republican candidate, used it to describe herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, no fewer than six times, at one point calling him “the consummate maverick.”

But to those who know the history of the word, applying it to Mr. McCain is a bit of a stretch — and to one Texas family in particular it is even a bit offensive.

“I’m just enraged that McCain calls himself a maverick,” said Terrellita Maverick, 82, a San Antonio native who proudly carries the name of a family that has been known for its progressive politics since the 1600s, when an early ancestor in Boston got into trouble with the law over his agitation for the rights of indentured servants.

In the 1800s, Samuel Augustus Maverick went to Texas and became known for not branding his cattle. He was more interested in keeping track of the land he owned than the livestock on it, Ms. Maverick said; unbranded cattle, then, were called “Maverick’s.” The name came to mean anyone who didn’t bear another’s brand.

Sam Maverick’s grandson, Fontaine Maury Maverick, was a two-term congressman and a mayor of San Antonio who lost his mayoral re-election bid when conservatives labeled him a Communist. He served in the Roosevelt administration on the Smaller War Plants Corporation and is best known for another coinage. He came up with the term “gobbledygook” in frustration at the convoluted language of bureaucrats.

This Maverick’s son, Maury Jr., was a firebrand civil libertarian and lawyer who defended draft resisters, atheists and others scorned by society. He served in the Texas Legislature during the McCarthy era and wrote fiery columns for The San Antonio Express-News. His final column, published on Feb. 2, 2003, just after he died at 82, was an attack on the coming war in Iraq.

Terrellita Maverick, sister of Maury Jr., is a member emeritus of the board of the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

Considering the family’s long history of association with liberalism and progressive ideals, it should come as no surprise that Ms. Maverick insists that John McCain, who has voted so often with his party, “is in no way a maverick, in uppercase or lowercase.”

“It’s just incredible — the nerve! — to suggest that he’s not part of that Republican herd. Every time we hear it, all my children and I and all my family shrink a little and say, ‘Oh, my God, he said it again.’ ”

“He’s a Republican,” she said. “He’s branded.”

Thanks Wyld for the fascinating epistemology lesson----very cool!!! I've always wondered how and where the term originated. The term "branded" was not originally an innocuous one. Prior to its use to mark ownership of livestock, branding was employed "to punish and identify criminals.....to put a mark of disgrace on.....to stigmatize". I'd say the "mavericks" running for the white house are certainly branded in that sense!!!

Thank you, Wyld, for posting that. It never occurred to me that anyone wouldn't know about the source of the word "maverick," because we learned it in Texas History class from elementary school through high school. I'm glad it's gotten into the mainstream now, because it's a cool history. (Though I don't think the article went into the Maverick family in 1600s Boston, when a family member was considered weird for protesting the bad treatment of indentured servants. That family ROCKS through the ages.)

I fail to see how anyone could vote for a self-proclaimed maverick, especially in this time of insecure economics. it strikes me as reckless.

Did anyone see the movie last night- his story on Biography? I do not know how accurate the story was, and I am moved to compassion for what that man endured for his country, but according to this rendition, his military careeer was directed by the heavy hand of his father. Not exactly operating outside the influence of another.