This nickname was applied to W. S. Holman of Indiana, who sat in the House of Representatives at Washington from the year 1859, and was also known as “the great objector.” On one occasion he did not object to an appropriation which tended to the benefit of his own district, and another member aptly quoted Byron’s lines (‘Don Juan’),

        ’Tis sweet to hear the honest watchdog’s bark
Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home.
  Another objector was Nathaniel Macon of Georgia (1757–1837), and a third was Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania (1828–1890). In the 1853 quotation the allusion is to George S. Houston of Alabama.

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1853.  If I were to select the man in this House who was the most faithful watchdog over the Treasury of the U.S., I would select the gentleman from Alabama.—Mr. Meade of Va., House of Repr., March 3: Cong. Globe, p. 1141.

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[1862.  The difficulty with the gentleman from Indiana is that he “runs a muck” against every appropriation, right or wrong.—Mr. Justin S. Morrill of Vermont, the same, Jan. 28: id., p. 532/1.]

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