[89] The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville, first appeared in the columns of the Nova Scotian in 1835-1836, and was first published in book form at Halifax in 1837. In a conversation supposed to have taken place between Edward Everett and Sam Slick, the latter remarked: "Well, I don't know, said I, but somehow or another, I guess you'd found preaching the best speculation in the long run; them are Unitarians pay better than Uncle Sam (we call, said the Clockmaker, the American public Uncle Sam, as you can the British, John Bull)" (The Clockmaker, second edition, Concord, 1838, p. 43).
Mr. Robert G. Haliburton relates this anecdote of Judge Haliburton: "On his arrival in London, the son of Lord Abinger (the famous Sir James Scarlett) who was confined to his bed, asked him to call on his father, as there was a question which he would like to put to him. When he called, his Lordship said, 'I am convinced that there is a veritable Sam Slick in the flesh now selling clocks to the Bluenoses. Am I right?' 'No,' replied the Judge, 'there is no such person. He was a pure accident. I never intended to describe a Yankee clockmaker or Yankee dialect; but Sam Slick slipped into my book before I was aware of it, and once there he was there to stay'" (in Haliburton: a Centenary Chaplet, Toronto, 1897, pp. 25, 26).
[90] Book of the Navy, pp. 297, 298. The story occurs in the "Naval Anecdotes" in the Appendix. Some of the stories and songs in this Appendix appear in the Supplement to Niles' Register, 1816, IX; but the Wilson story is not there.
As an illustration of the extraordinary changes undergone in repetition, I give the story as it was printed in 1870 by Brewer in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: "Sam. Uncle Sam. The United States government. Mr. Frost tells us that the inspectors of Elbert Anderson's store on the Hudson were Ebenezer and his uncle Samuel Wilson, the latter of whom superintended in person the workmen, and went by the name of 'Uncle Sam.' The stores were marked E.A.—U.S. (Elbert Anderson, United States), and one of the employers being asked the meaning, said U. S. stood for 'Uncle Sam.' The joke took, and in the War of Independence the men carried it with them, and it became stereotyped" (p. 783).
Brewer goes on to say: "To stand Sam. To be made to pay the reckoning. This is an Americanism, and arose from the letters U. S. on the knapsacks of the soldiers. The government of Uncle Sam has to pay or 'stand Sam' for all. (See above.)" In 1871 De Vere wrote: "In the army, it seems, even this designation [i. e. Uncle Sam] was deemed too full and formal, and, as early as the year 1827, it became a familiar saying among soldiers, to stand Sam, whenever drinks or refreshments of any kind had to be paid for. As they were accustomed to see Uncle Sam pay for all their wants, to stand Sam, became to their minds equivalent to the ordinary slang phrase: to stand treat" (p. 251). In 1891 J. Maitland said: "Sam, 'to stand Sam' (Amer.), to stand treat" (American Slang Dictionary, p. 229). And in 1891 J. M. Dixon wrote: "Sam.—To stand Sam—to entertain friends; to pay for refreshments. U. Sam is a contraction for 'Uncle Sam,' a jocular name for the U. S. Government. The phrase, therefore, originally means to pay all expenses, as the Government does" (Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases, p. 282). Brewer's statement, having been adopted by several writers, requires consideration. As a matter of fact, not only is the phrase "to stand Sam"—meaning "to be answerable for," "to become surety for," "to pay the reckoning," or "to pay for the drinks,"—not an Americanism, but it has never, so far as I know, even been employed in this country. The words "Sam" and "Sammy" have been used in various senses in English dialects for a hundred and thirty years, an instance dated 1777 being recorded in the English Dialect Dictionary. To the examples of "upon my Sam," an expletive, quoted in the same work from Frank's Nine Days (1879), p. 12, and Zack's On Trial (1899), p. 220, may be added another from R. Marsh's Tom Ossington's Ghost (1900), p. 216. "Sammy," meaning "foolish, silly," was recognized as early as 1823 in Pierce Egan's edition of Grose's Classical Dictionary; and examples dated 1837 and 1843 are quoted in Farmer and Henley's Slang and its Analogues (1903). The expression "to stand Sam" or "to stand Sammy" is recognized in Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words (1847), in Wright's Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English (1857), in Hotten's Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words (1859), in Barrère and Leland's Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1890), in Farmer and Henley's Slang and its Analogues (1903), and in the English Dialect Dictionary. "Landlady," wrote Moncrieff in 1823, "serve them with a glass of tape, all round; and I'll stand Sammy" (Tom and Jerry, III, 5). Besides this extract, Farmer and Henley quote others from Ainsworth's Rookwood (1834), Hindley's Cheap Jack (1876), Black's White Heather (1885), Henley's Villon's Good-Night (1887), Licensed Victuallers' Gazette (1890), and Milliken's 'Arry Ballads (1890); and to these may be added others from Punch, August 20, 1881, LXXXI, 75, and from W. De Morgan's Joseph Vance (1906), p. 465. Every known example is from a British author.
During the ascendancy of the Know-Nothing party, however, the word "Sam" was used in this country for a brief period. "The allusion," wrote Farmer in 1889, "is to Uncle Sam, the national sobriquet, the Know Nothings claiming that in a nation mostly made up of immigrants, only native-born citizens should possess and exercise privileges and powers" (Americanisms Old and New, p. 470). "The name," said H. F. Reddall in 1892, "contains, of course, an allusion to 'Uncle Sam,' the personification of the government of the United States" (Fact, Fancy, and Fable, p. 452). A few examples may be given. In a letter dated Randolph, Pennsylvania, July 14, 1855, a correspondent said: "I take it for granted that you are with us heart and hand in the new movement known as 'Know Somethings;' but I believe quite as readily recognized under the Yankee cognomen, 'Jonathan.' The order is fully organized in this State, and is progressing finely. All the secret organizations therefore of this character are blended, and E. Pluribus Unum. The 'Sams' are going over en masse, and although some of our election returns may be credited to Sam, yet I assure you that all candidates elect are the workmanship of Jonathan. Sam is dead! Plucked up by the roots! Buried in cotton!" (Kansas Herald of Freedom, August 4, 1855, p. 4-3). On February 28, 1856, Congressman Samuel Carruthers wrote: "I went twice (and but twice), into their [Know-Nothing] councils. I 'saw Sam.' It took two visits to see him all over. I made them. I saw enough and determined never to see his face again" (in H. J. Desmond's Know-Nothing Party, 1905, p. 82). In 1858 Governor Wise of Virginia wrote to a committee of the Tammany Society: "As to your other motto—'Civil and Religious Liberty'—ours was saved by the Virginia Democracy in 1855. We struck the dark lantern out of the hands of ineffable Sam, and none now are found so poor as 'hurrah!' for him" (New York Tribune, January 11, 1858, p. 2-6). In 1905 H. J. Desmond remarked: "Those inducted into the first degree do not appear to have been informed as to the name of the order. They were brought into 'the august presence of Sam.'. . . In Illinois the Know-Nothing order split into two factions, 'the Sams' insisting upon an anti-Catholic program and 'the Jonathans' proposing not to antagonize Catholics who owed no civil allegiance as distinguished from spiritual allegiance to the Pope. The Jonathans triumphed" (Know-Nothing Party, pp. 54, 103). Exactly what the Know-Nothings meant by "Sam" is not apparent from these extracts; but fortunately the question need not further detain us.
One more statement may be considered here. In 1882 A. S. Palmer remarked: "Sambo, the ordinary nickname for a negro, often mistaken as a pet name formed from Sam, Samuel, . . . is really borrowed from his Spanish appellation zambo,. . . . A connexion was sometimes imagined perhaps with Uncle Sam, a popular name for the United States" (Folk-Etymology, pp. 338, 339). It may be doubted whether any one has ever seriously advanced the notion that Sambo is formed from Sam or Samuel, or that there is a connection between Sambo and Uncle Sam. "This Negre Sambo comes to me," wrote R. Ligon in 1657, "and seeing the needle wag, desired to know the reason of its stirring" (True & Exact History of the Island of Barbados, pp. 49, 50, 54). Before 1700 we read of "Sambo negro helping caring goods" (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXXIV, 98). In the Boston News-Letter of October 2, 1704, an advertisement stated that "There is a Negro man taken up . . . calls himself Sambo" (p. 2-2). In 1716 "Sambo a negro servant" was married to Hagar (New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXXVIII, 27). In the Boston Gazette of July 22, 1765, "a Negro Man named Sambo" was advertised as a runaway (p. 4-3). In the Massachusetts Spy of February 17, 1813, we read: "The moan of the poor black man interrupted the sweet song of the mocking bird. We could not distinguish all the voices that rose from the field, but the ear caught a fragment of the poor negro's song:—The lash of the driver forced a scream of anguish that moment from Sambo, and we heard no more" (p. 4-2).
[91] Watson's version of 1844 is as follows: "While on this subject, it may be as well to give a passing notice of another national name just growing into common use—we mean the term 'Uncle Sam,' which first came into use in the time of the last war with England; but the cause of its origin is still unknown to millions of our people.—The name grew out of the letters E. A.—U. S., marked upon the army provisions, barrelled up at Troy, for the contractor, Elbert Anderson, and implied the initials of his name, and U. S. for the United States. In happened that these provisions were inspected there by Samuel Wilson, usually called, among his hired men, 'Uncle Sam.' One of his workmen, on being asked the meaning of the letters, E. A.—U.S., replied, archly, it meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam—(Wilson). The joke went round merrily among the men, some of whom going afterwards to the frontiers, and there partaking of the very provisions they had assisted to pack and mark, still adhered to calling it Uncle Sam; and as every thing else of the army appointments bore also the letters U. S., Uncle Sam became a ready name, first for all that appertained to the United States, and, finally, for the United States itself—a cognomen which is as likely to be perpetuated, as that of John Bull for old England" (Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, II, 335).
Watson's version of 1846 differed slightly from the above: "Uncle Sam, is another national appellation applied to us, by ourselves, and which, as it is growing into popular use, and was first used at Troy, New York, it may be interesting to explain, to wit: The name grew out of the letters E. A. U. S. marked upon the army provisions, barrelled up at Troy, during the last war with England, under the contract of Elbert Anderson; and implied his name, and U. S. the United States. The inspector of those provisions, was Samuel Wilson, who was usually called by the people, Uncle Sam. It so happened that one of the workmen, being asked the meaning of the initials on the casks, &c., waggishly replied, they meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam—Wilson. The joke took; and afterwards, when some of the same men were on the frontiers, and saw the same kind of provisions arriving to their use, they would jocosely say, here comes Uncle Sam. From thence it came to pass, that whenever they saw the initials U. S., on any class of stores, they were equally called Uncle Sam's; and finally, it came by an easy transition, to be applied to the United States itself" (Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State, p. 243).
The bibliography of Watson's books on Philadelphia and New York requires a note. In 1830 he published, in one volume, Annals of Philadelphia, being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes & Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants from the Days of the Pilgrim Founders. (Collation: Title, 1 p.; Copyright, 1 p.; Advertisement, pp. iii, iv; Preface, pp. v-vii; Contents, pp. viii-xii; Annals of Philadelphia, pp. 1-740; Appendix: containing Olden Time Researches & Reminiscences, of New York City, pp. 1-78.) In 1832 he published Historic Tales of Olden Time: concerning the Early Settlement and Advancement of New York City and State. In 1833 he published Historic Tales of Olden Time, concerning the Early Settlement and Progress of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. In 1844 he published, in two volumes, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time; being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents of the City and its Inhabitants, and of the Earliest Settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, from the Days of the Founders. This work was copyrighted in 1843, though the title page bears the date 1844. In the advertisement, which is dated July, 1842, Watson says: "The reader will please observe, that this work having been closed in Manuscript, in 1842, that therefore, all reference to any given number of years back, respecting things passed or done so many 'years ago,' is to be understood as counting backward from the year 1842" (p. xi). In 1846 he published Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State, in the Olden Time. In 1857 he published, in two volumes, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time. This edition contains some matter not in the 1844 edition. Finally, in 1877, Willis P. Hazard published, in three volumes, the Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, the first two volumes being identical with the 1857 edition of Watson's work, the third volume an addition by Hazard. The Uncle Sam story first appeared in the 1844 edition of Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania (II, 335); and in the 1846 edition of Annals and Occurrences of New York City and State, in the Olden Time (p. 243), though the two accounts, as seen above, differ somewhat.