is credited to Mr. Oliver P. Morton, who, elected United States senator in 1867, and again in 1873, took a prominent part as a leader of the more radical Republicans, favouring a stern policy of coercion in the reconstruction of the Southern States. He was one of the Presidential Candidates at the Cincinnati Convention of 1876, his name standing second on the first ballot. Happily, however, his opinions were too pronounced to unite the factions of his party, and the ultimate choice fell upon Mr. Hayes.
1888. Coldwater (Mich.) Sun, Jan. The bloody shirt is gradually fading away. The white-winged dove of peace spreads her wings here and there, patriotism forgets and forgives old differences, sectionalism is gradually giving way to love of country—the whole country. In fact the ill-feeling between the North and South would have died out years ago among the veterans of both sections, had they been left to themselves, and the politicians been as patriotic as they.
1888. New York Weekly Times, Mar. 21. It is reprehensible to the last degree for the Bourbons of the South to continue to play on the colour line—the Southern bloody shirt—and then denounce Republican extremists for doing the same thing at the North.
Bloomer, subs. (Australian prison
slang).—A mistake. Said to be
an abbreviated form of 'blooming
error.'—See Blooming.
Blooming, often Bloomin', ppl, adj.
(common).—This word, similar
in type to 'blessed,' 'blamed,'
and other words of the kind, is,
as used by the lower classes, a
euphemism for bloody (q.v.), but
it is also frequently employed as
a mere meaningless intensitive.
Like the last-named word, little
count is taken of its exact
primary meaning. Its slang use
may be traced to that figurative
sense of the orthodox word,
which signifies 'in the bloom
of health and beauty,' 'in
the prime,' 'flourishing,' etc.
Some uncertainty exists as to
the origin of this not over-ornamental
addition to our
expletive vocabulary. If the
word is used by Granvil (see quot.)
in its modern sense, then the
phrase is very much older than
has hitherto been imagined.
Barring this, it would seem that
we are indebted for it to the
Californian coast, although there
is little doubt that the chief
instrument in its acclimatization
in England was Mr. Alfred
G. Vance, the comic singer,
well-known in connection with
'Jolly dogs,' and other extensively
popular music-hall
songs. As before stated, it
has very largely supplanted
'bloody'; bally (q.v.) is
also used in the same manner.
Its applications are manifold.
One is requested not to
make any blooming mistake
or error; another 'showing off,'
or 'putting on side,' is told not
to be so blooming flash; an
excessively stupid man is spoken
of as a blooming idiot; and an
inquisitive individual is told
more forcibly than politely,
perhaps, 'you asks me no
bloomin' imper'int questions,
an' I tells yer no bloomin'
lies.'
1726. Rev. J. Granvil, Sadducismns triumphatus [under the head of 'The Demon of Tedworth' (1661). Granvil makes mention that on one occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and] company coming up, the room was presently filled with a blooming noisome smell.
