"This subject reminds me of a queer fellow that went by the name of Paddy Whack, who came over from a place called Knockecroghery, as I think and palmed himself upon a good-natured kinsman of mine, whom we familiarly called Uncle Sam. Pat, . . . was grandson, by the mother's side, to the well known humorist, Paddy from Cork, who wore his coat buttoned behind to keep his belly warm; and the old man was so pleased with his mode of eating buttermilk without any teeth, that he insisted upon having him christened after his name. . . . So he took up the business of patriotism, and fastened himself upon Uncle Sam, who was a liberal, good-hearted old fellow, that kept open house to all comers, and received Pat with kindness and hospitality, because he was poor and an exile."[77]
The first foreigner to use the term was apparently W. Faux, who in a book written between 1819 and 1823 frequently employed it. "Almost all Americans," he quotes a Mr. Perry as saying, "are boys in everything but vice and folly! In their eyes Uncle Sam is a right slick, mighty fine, smart, big man."[78] On November 24, 1821, Hezekiah Niles wrote:
"I am, however, diverted from the subject I meant to speak of—that is, the 'ways and means' to keep the wheels of the government a-going; a most serious concern, especially to those who live upon the treasury, or expect to become rich by plucking 'Uncle Sam's' great grey goose."[79]
In the Baltimore Patriot of November 11, 1824, appeared the following:
"ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL CARICATURE.
. . . It is a proof sheet of a print entitled—'Caucus curs in full YELL, or a WAR WHOOP to saddle on the PEOPLE a PAPPOOSE PRESIDENT.' In the background stands the President's house, on the right of which 'Uncle Sam's Treasury pap house,' with its 'amalgamation-tool department'" (p. 2-2).
In 1826 Mrs. Anne Royall, an eccentric lady who wrote several books of travel, not lacking in sharp hits, remarked:
"It often happened while in Washington, that I met with 'uncle Sam's' men, as they call themselves. Walking in the capitol square one day, I stepped up to a man whom I found there at work, and asked him whom he worked for, (meaning his employer, from whom I wished to obtain some information,) 'me,' said the fellow, 'I work for uncle Sam,' in a tone of unqualified impudence. No matter where you meet those understrappers you may distinguish them by their unparalleled effrontery."[80]
One of Paulding's innumerable skits was "The History of Uncle Sam and his Boys: a Tale for Politicians," originally published in the New York Mirror in 1831. In this we read:
"Once upon a time there lived, and still lives, in a country lying far to the west, a famous squire, rich in lands and paper money. Report made him out to be the son of John Bull, who every one knows has children in all parts of the world. . . . John Bull had christened this son of his by the name of Jonathan; but by and by, when he became a man grown, being a good hearty fellow, about half horse half alligator,[81] his friends and neighbours gave him the nickname of Uncle Sam; a sure sign that they liked him, for I never knew a respectable nickname given to a scurvy fellow in my life. Be this as it may, his family and all his neighbours at last came to call him nothing else but Uncle Sam; and all his beef, pork, and flour, in fact everything that belonged to him, was marked with a huge U. S., six inches long. As I have a great respect for universal example, I shall give him this name in the sequel of my history, which I hereby commend to the special attention of all wise men, more especially the wise men of the east. As to the fools, everybody knows they are so scarce now-a-days, that I hereby snap my fingers and defy them."[82]