In a note is given this explanation:
"This cant name for our government has got almost as current as 'John Bull.' The letters U.S. on the government waggons, &c. are supposed to have given rise to it" (p. 3-3).
In the Lansingburgh Gazette of late in September or possibly October 1, 1813, appeared the following:
"Land Privateering.—The following is a short sketch of a recent battle, under the act[52] to encourage land-privateering, between what are called in this part of the country, Uncle Sam's Men and the Men of New-York:—On Friday se'nnight, a quantity of goods were seized pursuant to the act aforesaid, by a custom house officer at Granville, in Washington county, under the pretence that they had been smuggled from Canada. On the Monday succeeding the owner obtained a writ of replevin, and the sheriff, after meeting with some opposition, succeeded, in possessing himself of the goods, according to the laws of this state. Uncle Sam's Men, however, feeling little disposition to be deprived of their booty in this manner, (for secure as they thought of the whole, they had plundered but a small part of the goods,) raised a band of war hawks, and attempted a rescue. The sherriff called the posse of the neighborhood to his assistance, and the parties being nearly equal, altho' the war-hawks were rather the most numerous, a battle royal ensued. It was long and obstinately contested; but ended in the complete discomfiture of Uncle Sam's party, who retired from the conflict, marked with many a broken head and bruised limb, leaving the Men of New-York in possession of the field of battle and the goods."[53]
In a communication dated Burlington, Vermont, October 1, 1813, appeared the following:
"The patriotic Volunteers, who have marched here to guard the public stores in the absence of the regular army, are taking 'long furloughs,' and volunteering for home by tens and fifties, and hundreds.—The pretence is, that Uncle Sam, the now popular explication of the U. S., does not pay well; and that the cold begins to pinch."[54]
From a paper published at Herkimer, New York, on January 27, 1814, is taken the following:
"'Uncle Sam's' hard bargains.—On Thursday afternoon of last week, about thirty sleighs, 'more or less'[55] loaded with the 'weak and wounded, sick and sore' of our armies on the frontiers, passed through this village for Greenbush. Never before have we beheld such a picture. Half-naked, half-frozen, and by their looks half-starved: some with and some without legs, others upon crutches, or supporting each other from falling, with their heads or arms bandaged, and the blood still oozing from their half drest wounds—their meagre, emaciated and ghastly appearance presented at once to the eye of the beholder, a striking picture of the horrors of war and neglect."[56]
In a paper published at Windsor, Vermont, in February, 1814, are found allusions to Secretary Armstrong and Josiah Quincy: