A racoon. From the slyness of this animal, the word came to be used as a nick-name, and was specially applied in 1840 to the adherents of “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” Any defeat of the “Whigs” was termed by the Democrats “skinning the coon.” Afterwards the term “coon” was applied to the negroes.—Notes and Queries, 9 S. xii. 338.
1839. In the Western States, where the racoon is plentiful, they use the abbreviation ’coon when speaking of people.—Marryat, ‘Diary in America,’ ii. 232. (N.E.D.) (Italics in the original.)
1841. The log cabins and coon skin banners, which you used so successfully in the late contest, will not avail you now. No vulgar songs nor idle shows can divert public attention from your acts.—Mr. Weller of Ohio, House of Repr., Feb. 3: Cong. Globe, p. 147, App.
1841. All the coon skins in America will not cover the deformity of the measures which they have brought forward this session.—Mr. Watterson of Tenn., the same, Aug. 26: id., p. 308, App.
1841. See Appendix XXX.
1842. “The old Tip coon” is pictured flat on his back, in consequence of the Virginia elections.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, May 5.
1842. Two years ago we were nearly drowned out by the hard cider, and scratched to pieces by the coons.—Id., Oct. 7.
1842.
| Says I, “Mr. Coon,” and then he smiled, | |
| “You can’t quite come it over this child”; | |
| And then he looked, O Lord! how wild. | |
| His tail hung down a feet. | |
Id., Oct. 11. |
1842. Ohio has gone most unexpectedly for Democracy,—has skinned the coons, and repudiated Coonism, Federalism, Clayism, and every other species of Whiggism.—Id., Oct. 19.
1842.
| His home was in a hollow tree, where everything was found, | |
| Where cider-barrels, coonskins, and log-cabins lay around; | |
| ’Twas there his coonship sat in state, a-watching of the moon, | |
| O the instant you’d lay eyes on him, you’d know that same Old Coon. | |
Id., Oct. 20. |
1843. The beggary which Whiggery (or, to adopt the latest alias Coonery) has brought upon the Government.—Missouri Reporter, March 21: from the Baltimore Republican.
1844. Henry Clay caps are in vogue among the coons of this city. Henry Clay coffins will be in demand after the presidential election.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Aug. 2.
1844. Oct. 12, the same paper displayed a picture of a skinned coon as an emblem of triumph.
1844. He seems to have forgotten that this same party, in 1840, substituted coonery for principles,—that is, coons, coonskins, gourds, badges, hard-cider, cider barrels, canoes, carousals, &c.—Mr. Jameson of Missouri in the House of Repr., Jan. 13: Cong. Globe, p. 81, App.
1844. Mr. Duncan of Ohio exhibited an anatomical drawing of “that same old coon,” and entered into an exposition of the principles of the Whig party.—The same March 6: id., p. 350.
1848. Of the flagellation which [Senator Allen] has inflicted upon John Tyler, I may say, in the homely but expressive phrase of an Ohio editor, “He is your own coon—it is your own privilege to skin him.”—Mr. Borland of Arkansas in the U.S. Senate, May 15: id., p. 557, App.
1848.
| “Yes,” sez Davis o’ Miss., | |
| “The perfection o’ bliss | |
| Is in skinnin’ thet same old coon,” sez he. | |
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ 1st S., No. 5. |
1855. Did the Old Coon dole out $2 a day to you from the White House? No, you had to go back to your farms…. You came back to the Old Democracy in 1844, and helped to skin the Old Coon with a vengeance…. The Old Coon has got into the track. Well, now that we have got hold of Sam, we will track him up.—G. W. Lawson in the Oregon Times, June.
1861. My young massa’s captain of de sodgers, and he ’ll catch de ole coon, and hang him up so high de crows won’t catch him; yas, he will. [This particular “ole coon” is Mr. Lincoln.]—Knick Mag., lviii. 315 (Oct.).
1862. Mr. Lincoln figures as “the Yankee ’Coon” in Punch’s well-known cartoon, Jan. 11.
