Bunkum

Claptrap. A representative at Washington being asked why he made such a flowery and angry speech, so wholly uncalled for, made answer, “I was not speaking to the House, but to Buncombe,” which he represented (North Carolina).

“America, too, will find that caucuses, stumporatory, and speeches to Buncombe will not carry men to the immortal gods.”—Carlyle: Latter-day Pamphlets (Parliaments, p. 93).