"old hunkers"

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

We have been requested to give a definition of this term. Party nicknames are not often logically justified; and we can only say that that section of the late dominant party in this State (the democratic) which claims to be the more radical, progressive, reformatory, &c.


bestowed the appellation "Old Hunker" on the other section to imdicate that it was distinguished by opposite qualities from those claimed for itself. We believe the title was also intended to indicate that those on whom it was conferred had an appetite for a large hunk of "the spoils"--though we never could discover that they were peculiar in that. On the other band, the opposite school was termed Barnburners, in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman who relieved himself of rats by burning his barns which they infested--just like exterminating all Banks and Corporations to root out the abuses connected therewith. The fitness or unfitness of these family terms of endearment is none of our business.--N. Y. Tribune.

They have gone into such depths of Barnburning Radicalism, that a large portion of the rank and file are determined not to follow.--Ibid.

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