Richmond (VA) Enquirer, "Hurrah For Sam!," July 20, 1855

            HURRAH FOR SAM!

   We want to hold Sam up for a fight. We like Sam as an opponent much better than we do Greely and Seward's Northern hive of isms. We can and will whip them, it is true, but had as lief make war on a nest of vipers, or yellow jackets. Fighting such enemies is disagreeable, and victory inglorious.

            For it more stirs the blood to rouse the lion 

            Than to start the hare!

   A short while ago, Sam was an enemy worth of our spear. He is now buried, dilapidated and flat on his back. He was stunned by the fall we gave him in Virginia. He got up, brushed his breeches, cried Hurrah for Sam! and hied to Philadelphia.––There, Sam boasted, that, like Olympian Jove, he'd astonish the world by bringing forth from his wise head another Minerva, full of wisdom, and armed for fight. But Barnum's baby-show was going on. Sam peeped in, got to loaging––and brought forth triplets. Not Minervas, but mice. Nor were they all white mice. The eldest born was black as a coal. Sam swore he would not father it, kicked it out of the house, and now the little precarious thing has set up for itself somewhere in the suburbs of Boston, and amuses himself daily by cursing his daddy. The next born was a white mouse,pure white. Sam, however, did'nt like him either, and forthwith despatched him South, and he is now nibbling bread and cheese in a convent in Louisiana. The third––and now Sam thought his travails were ended, and his glory begun––was a large mulatto mouse. This, to be sure, would please everybody. It was neither too black for the South nor too white for the North.––Donelson might fondle it, and Frederick Douglass adopt it. 

   In trying to please everybody, Sam has pleased nobody. The black mouse is all the go in Boston, and the little white one highly respected South.––Sam's big favorite, the mulatto, meets the cold shoulder everywhere. Indeed, since he was introduced into the family, the desertions which began fluring the fight with Wise, multiply every day in number. Retreat is engendering panic, panic begetting a stampede, and the stampede fast becoming a regular leave! qui peut!

   Sam's situation is a most distressing one. In attempting to stand on three stools, (horrible feat for a featherless biped,) he has had a fall that's knocked the breath out of him. We pity sam and have made a new stool for him. We pity Sam and have made a new stool for him. We have dispensed altogether with each of the old and long and lumbering platform. Our pedestal is worth of Sam. He can stand on it, firm as the Colossus of Rhodes, brave as mars, strong as Hercules. It is a small affair, "simplex munditius," but strong as Sebastopol! firm as the rock of Gibraltar. Here it is! HURRAH FOR SAM! Now my dear good fellow, do rise! There, take one arm, one step more, and you are up, and [illegible.] He's up! and "Richard is himself again." See! he pulls off his hat and waves it––"Hurrah for Sam!"––Did Stentor ever howl like that? The bison on the prairies of the West, startled at the sound, rush headlong down a steep––the whales in the ocean dive deep, and deeper into the abyss––the miner in California thinks of earthquakes, and quits his work. All nature trembles in alarm! Do, my friend, try it again! "Hurrah for Sam! Hurrah for Sam! Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies!" My dear fellow! that's the music! Heretofore you blabbed too much.–– Your platform was too long. You drove off the foreigners, and you drove off the Catholics, and their votes tell on election day. You offended the new States, who welcome immigration because their population is sparse. You offended the States Right men, by threatening them with the Supreme Court. You displeased the old States, by proposing to give the regulation of a social and domestic matter, that of immigration to the federal government. New York may wish to check emigration, the West to encourage and promote it; but Virginia and the South are entirely satisfied with things as they are. Different States have different interests and different policies on this subject, and now, by regulating the right of suffrage, can carry out their own policy and promote their own interests. Sam! you must not play the dog in the manger. The Indians wished to do that––a handful to occupy a continent––and witness their fate. Now, Sam, we are but a handful, when we look at our immense domains. No, stick to your present platform, "Hurrah for Sam! Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies." Hear how the boys take it up. From Boston to New Orleans every urchin is exclaiming, "Hurrah for Sam." The rising generation is all with you. We will beat you this time, but if you will stick to the platform you now occupy––"Hurrah for Sam! Ask me now questions and I'll tell you no lies!"––you're bound to succeed. The boys, we repeat, every one under ten years of age, are on your side.