Go the whole hog

To proceed thoroughly. The phrase became current in the Andrew Jackson campaign.

1821.  “Going for the whole.” Heading of a paragraph on “a new non-importation system.”—Mass. Spy, Jan. 10.

1828.  [Andrew Jackson] will either go with the party, as they say in New York, or go “the whole hog” as it is phrased elsewhere, making all the places he can for his friends, and shaking the rod of terror at his opponents;—or else he will … be President upon his own strength.—Daniel Webster, January: ‘Life,’ i. 337 (1870).

1829.  From the manner in which the President has exercised his power thus far, I am inclined to think, that he will go “the whole Hog.”—Lorenzo Hoyt to Jesse Hoyt, March 17: ‘Lives of Butler and Hoyt,’ by W. L. Mackenzie, p. 49 (Boston, 1845).

1829.  In to town not forty miles from Hallowell, there lived a decent but zealous wight, who was famous for “going the whole hog” on the federal side.—Mass. Spy, May 10: from the Evening Chronicle.

1829.  The larger serpent had swallowed the better half of his victim, and would, it is supposed, have “gone the whole hog,” had not some mischievous biped nabb’d him.—Mass. Spy, July 1: from the Cambridge (O.) Chronicle.

1829.  Going the Whole Hog. A black fellow, among other perquisites, was allowed the sweepings of the store. He carried off, among the sweepings, a live hog which had been left there by a friend of the proprietor.—Mass. Spy, July 22: from the Boston-Gazette.

1830.  I reckon Squire Lawrie may go the whole hog with her, and make a good operation.—Galt, ‘Lawrie Todd’ (1849), ii. 43. (N.E.D.)

1830.  Mr. Broadhead is now a member of Congress, and “goes the whole” for Jackson.—Mass. Spy, June 9: from the Boston Journal.

1830.  The cook shops [in Canton] are uniformly kept by Jackson men, or at least they ‘go the whole hog,’ in all of them.—N. Ames, ‘A Mariner’s Sketches,’ p. 91.

1830.  As ladies now wear pantaloons and boots, I see no reason why they should not “go the whole hog,” and mount the hat and swallow-tailed coat likewise.—Id., p. 186.

1833.  But did n’t I go the whole animal?… He shook me by the hand, although he know’d I went the whole hog for Jackson.—‘Sketches of D. Crockett,’ pp. 40, 167.

1833.  T. Hamilton quotes a placard, “Jackson for ever. Go the whole hog!” He adds: The expression, I am told, is of Virginian origin. In that state, when a butcher kills a pig, it is usual to demand of each customer, whether he will “go the whole hog.”—‘Men and Manners in America,’ i. 17–8.

1833.  In the western country, to use his own phrase, “he [Mr. Stuart] goes the whole hog,” that is, he finds every thing savage, mean and contemptible.—Knick. Mag., ii. 295.

1834.  I’m flambergasted! If that ain’t what I call goin the whole cretur, he’d go to Congresss from old Kentuck as easy as I could put a gin sling under my jacket.—Caruthers, ‘The Kentuckian in New-York,’ i. 188 (N.Y.).

1835.  The speaker took Frank Thomas, of Maryland, and an anti-bank whole-hog Jacksonman, and made him chairman.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 153 (Phila.).

1836.  I go the whole, sir. Intemperance is one of the greatest evils of our land.—The Jeffersonian (Albany), June 9, p. 136.

1836.  May disgrace follow my career in Texas, if I wouldn’t have become a whole hog Jackson man upon the spot.—‘Col. Crockett in Texas,’ p. 41 (Phila.).

1837.  The Committee on Public Buildings is an entire whole-hog modern Whig committee…. Before the end of the present session he will come out a healthy, sound, and energetic whole-hog Jackson Van Buren anti-bank Democrat, from head to heels.—Mr. Duncan of Ohio, House of Repr., Dec. 18: Cong. Globe, pp. 47–8, App.

1839.  I was determined to go the hull figure, and see all.—Major Jack on board a Whaler, in the Havana (N.Y.) Republican, Aug. 21.

1839.  This [Reading] Room was established by a whole-hog Jackson Van Buren man.—Nantucket Inquirer, Sept. 18.

1840.  I can tell you that he goes the whole figure against rotation in this individual and identical case.—John P. Kennedy, ‘Quodlibet,’ p. 180 (1860).

1840.  Then of course you mean to go the whole quadruped.—‘Valentine Vox,’ chap. xlii.

1841.  We have heard that [General Harrison] goes the whole for the pre-emption principle.—Mr. Buchanan of Pennsylvania, U.S. Senate, Jan. 28: Cong. Globe, p. 201, App.

1841.  [Half measures are] always a good deal more difficult than going the whole hog.—‘The Church Committee,’ p. 110 (Lond.).

1842.  The Quaker, being over rigidly denied the pigments, was the very man to go the whole hogments.—T. Hood, ‘Comic Annual,’ p. 171.

1842.  Going the entire swine. A colored man, being employed to take home a hog for an individual, put it in his pocket, i.e. sold it and pocketed the proceeds.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Jan. 15.

1842.  The friends of Henry Clay are to have a jollification in Kentucky on the 9th of June. They will “go the whole hog,” and furnish brandy and hard cider after an unheard of fashion.—Id., May 21.

1843.  “Going the Whole Figure.”—Heading in ‘The Cincinnati Miscellany,’ ii. 262.

1844.  We go “whole hog” for Jeffersonian democracy.—The Prophet (Mormon), N.Y., Sept. 14.

1847.  I go the whole hog, or none, upon all occasions, in carrying out the principles of the democratic creed.—Mr. Wentworth of Ill., House of Repr., Feb. 2: Cong. Globe, p. 312.

1848.  There’s sea varmint enough in all conscience, sitch as oysters, and clams, and quahogs, and muscles, and crabs, and lobsters. We go the hull shoat with them.—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 22 (Phila.).

a. 1849.  You go the whole hog for democratic or republican principles.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ i. 245.

1850.  

1854.  When it comes to voting, they are in the habit of going the whole hog for the party, regardless of consequences.—Weekly Oregonian, July 15.