Note 90 — UNCLE SAM. BY ALBERT MATTHEWS.

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).