subs. phr. (American).—A political intriguer; a schemer. Hence PIPE-LAYING = scheming or intriguing for political purposes. [BARTLETT: circa 1835, a traitorous New York Whig election agent concocted a plot to throw odium on the party, supporting it by correspondence in the form of bogus business letters relating to the Croton water supply then in progress, the number of men hired to vote being spoken of as so many yards of pipe.—Abridged.]
1848. New York Tribune, 30 Oct. The result of the Pennsylvania election would not be in the least doubtful, if we could be assured of fair play and no PIPE-LAYING.
1856. New York Herald, Sept. There is a magnificent scheme of PIPE-LAYING and log-rolling going on in Pennsylvania.
1883. THURLOW WEED, Autobiography, 493. Among the Glentworth papers was a letter in which he said that the men sent from Philadelphia were to be employed in laying the pipes for the introduction of Croton water. The Whig leaders were immediately stigmatised as PIPE-LAYERS, a term persistently applied to them for several years.
1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 March. There are not a few who are PIPE-LAYING and marshalling forces for the fray.
