Barn burner (barnber"ner)

[In reference to the story of a farmer who burned his barn to get rid of the rats.] A member of the more progre ive of the two factions into which the Democratic party in the State of New York was long divided, the other faction being called the Hunkers. The Barn burners opposed the extension of the canal system, and after 1846 they opposed the extension of slavery in the Territories. In a few years most of them joined the new Free-soil party. The internal reform of a party cannot be carried out by corrupt leaders. One of the main objects of the reformers was to break the influence of the latter, and to this they owed their appellation of barn burners , their enemies charging them with a readine to burn the building with the vermin, in default of a le radical means of purification. H. von Holst , Const. Hist. (trans.), III. 359.