coodies

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

The name of a political sect in the State of New York, which originated in the year 1814. At that time a series of well written articles appeared in a New York paper signed Abimeleck Coody. He professed to be a mechanic. "He was a federalist and addressed himself principally to the party to which he belonged. He endeavored to show the impropriety of opposing the war, and urged them to come forward in defence to their country. He also attacked De Witt Clinton with great severity." The writer was ascertained to be Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck, then as now distinguished for his talents. He was replied to by a writer under the signature of "A Traveller," said to be De Witt Clinton, who thus speaks of this party: "The political sect called the Coodies, of hybrid nature, is composed of the combined spawn of federalism and Jacobinism, and generated in the venomous passions of disappointment and revenge, without any definite character; neither fish, nor flesh, nor bird, nor beast, but a non-descript made up of 'all monstrous, all prodigious things.'"--Hammond's Political Hist. of N. Y.