The legend in the District is that the term ‘lobbyist’
originated at the Willard Hotel when Ulysses S. Grant was in office
(1869-1877). Apparently President Grant would frequent the Willard Hotel to
enjoy brandy and a cigar, and while he was there, he’d be hounded by
petitioners asking for legislative favors or jobs. It is said that President
Grant coined the term by referring to the petitioners as “those damn
lobbyists.” The legend has been forwarded by the Washington Post, The Hill, the
American Society of News Editors, and, of course, the PR director of the
Willard Hotel.
It’s a fun story to tell tourists, and it makes the Willard
Hotel even more of a landmark, but the legend is just not true. The verb ‘to
lobby’ first appeared in print in the United States in the 1830′s, at least
thirty years before Ulysses S. Grant came to Washington. The term is believed
to have originated in British Parliament, and referred to the lobbies outside
the chambers where wheeling and dealing took place. “Lobbyist” was in common
usage in Britain in the 1840′s.
Jesse Sheidlower,
editor-at-large for the Oxford English Dictionary, believes the term was used
as early as 1640 in England to describe the lobbies that were open to
constituents to interact with their representatives.
