See quotation from Bartlett. See also HUNKERS.
1845. The Whig party were no church-burners nor “barn-burners”—a name which a certain portion of the Democratic party had delighted in [assuming].—Mr. Dixon of Connecticut, in the House of Representatives, Dec. 30: Congressional Globe, p. 117.
a. 1848. This school of Democrats was termed Barn-burners, in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman, who relieved himself of rats by burning down his barns, which they infested.—N.Y. Tribune, no date (Bartlett).
a. 1848. Those friends of mine, the Barnburners, are wide awake; my inveterate enemies, the Hunkers, are getting excited.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ i. 130.
a. 1848. The old Hunkers and the Barnburners could do nothing but disagree.—Id., i. 153.
1848. He was not sure that he Baltimore Convention could nominate anybody; for it would be a heterogeneous assemblage. It would consist of Wilmot-proviso men and anti–Wilmot-proviso men, of Old Hunkers and Barnburners, of fifty-four–forty men and those who only went to forty-nine, of tariff men and anti-tariff men, internal-improvement men and anti–internal-improvement men, spoilers and anti-spoilers, warriors and anti-warriors, indemnifiers and no-indemnifiers, and a variety of other hues and colors too tedious to mention.—Mr. Cocke of Tennessee, House of Repr., May 18: Cong. Globe, p. 781/2.
1848. These Locofocos of the North have yielded everything, until now the Barnburning portion are in open revolt.—Mr. Holmes of N.Y., the same, Aug. 7: id., p. 111, App. (See the whole speech.)
1850. Nor shall the Barnburners, wire-pullers, office-seekers, journalists, and other political quidnuncs, be passed by unceremoniously.—D. G. Mitchell, ‘The Lorgnette,’ i. 9 (1852).
1909. In 1847 Tammany, weakened by the factional fight between Hunkers and Barnburners, was defeated by the Whig candidate.—N.Y. Ev. Post, Nov. 1.
