To Stump the Democrats. See quotations.
1800. [Oliver Wolcott took Col. Pickering prisoner, and] tied him unto the stump of a tree (from whence comes the New England phrase of Mr. Sedgwick, stump the Democrats). We say he Oliver tied him Timothy to a stump, and left him there all night…. Pray is this the same Mr. Pickering who behaved so well at Lexington, who was stumpt by Oliver Wolcott, and whom the President stumpt again recently?—The Aurora, Phila., June 13.
1800. They believe they no longer can stump the Democrats.—Id., Aug. 5.
1835. He looked kind of stump’t. I bid him good bye, and that he ought to read both sides.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 142 (Phila.).
1842. Mr. Arnold of Tennessee said he had been amazed—or, to use a Western phrase, stumped,—at the position occupied by [certain members of the House of Representatives].—Jan. 27: Cong. Globe, p. 183.
1848. This answer stumped the court. The judge advocate was only mystified; the court was stumped.—Mr. Benton of Missouri, U.S. Senate, July: id., p. 1017, App.
1848. Even our scientific doctor was entirely stumped with regard to it [a certain herb].—C. W. Webber, ‘Old Hicks the Guide,’ p. 83.
