locofoco
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun In United States history, one of the equal-rights or radical section of the Democratic party about 1835; by extension, in disparagement, any member of that party.
- noun A kind of self-lighting cigar: so called in New York in 1834.
- noun A friction-match.
Examples
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Here's full particulars of the patriotic locofoco movement yesterday, in which the whigs was so chawed up; and the last Alabama gouging case; and the interesting Arkansas dooel with Bowie knives; and all the Political, Commercial, and Fashionable News.
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So now, said Frazer, he was going for Polk—“the bosom friend of Old Hickory … the man who stood up in defence of the old hero during the panic session … the man who fought so bravely and so undauntingly the whigs of Tennessee—the pure, whole hog, locofoco democrat, who goes against … the ring-streaked and speckled whig party, with all its odious, abominable measures.”
Note
The name 'locofoco' was given in allusion to an incident which occurred at a tumultuous meeting of the Democratic party in Tammany Hall, New York, in 1835, when the radical faction, after their opponents had turned off the gas, relighted the room with candles by the aid of locofoco matches.
