The holding of extreme opinions. Ultraist. One who holds such opinions.
1850. I have eschewed and abhorred ultraism at both ends of the Union. “A plague o’ both your houses,” has been my constant ejaculation…. [I cannot give] satisfaction to ultraists anywhere and on any subject.—Mr. Winthrop of Mass., House of Repr., Feb. 21: Cong. Globe, p. 190, App.
1850. Without the least disrespect to any one, I will say that I meant to declare that I was not an ultraist of the Wigfall genus.—Mr. Foote of Mississippi, U.S. Senate, May 16: id., p. 586, App.
1850. It is a favorite policy of some of the ultraists in my own part of the country to stigmatize the Constitution of the U.S. as a pro-slavery compact.—Mr. Winthrop of Mass., House of Repr., May 8: id., p. 522, App.
1850. I have avowed myself here, and at home, and everywhere, against ultraism. I do not go with the gentlemen of the South in their ultraism, nor do I go with the gentlemen of the North in their ultraism.—Mr. Casey of Pa., the same, June 15: id., p. 1217.
1861. The demands of returning public justice made even the sincere gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Lovejoy] recede from his ultraism.—Mr. Samuel S. Cox of Ohio, the same, Jan. 14: id., p. 374/2.
1862. If you want to have men in the slave States co-operate with you in the arduous struggle of breaking down the ultraism and madness of pro-slavery in the border States, you must not yourselves run into the ultraism and madness of abolition.—Mr. George P. Fisher of Delaware, the same. May 12: id., p. 2067/1–2.
1862. Judge Story, an honest, honorable, kind-hearted man, but as ultra in all these obnoxious doctrines of Federal power as any judge that ever sat on the bench.—Mr. John P. Hale of N. Hampshire, U.S. Senate July 3: id., p. 3100/2.
