[‘ An issue or talking point used to influence voters temporarily, typically in the period preceding an election.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈɡʊdᵻnʌf ˈmɔːɡ(ə)n/, U.S. /ˈɡʊdəˌnəf ˈmɔrɡən/
Etymology: < good-enough adj. + the name of William Morgan, a New York Freemason who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1826.
The term originated at the time of the Anti-Masonic Movement in 1828. Public resentment against Freemasons, who were regarded as a secretive elite, had run high for some time. Morgan had fallen out with his lodge and intended to publish a book detailing the secrets of the Freemasons; shortly afterwards, he disappeared. It was widely believed that Morgan had been kidnapped or even murdered by former fellow Masons, and anti-Masonic politicians were quick to exploit this popular suspicion. Before the election of 1828, Thurlow Weed, a political organizer of the newly founded Anti-Masonic Party, was alleged to have remarked that a corpse found floating in the Niagara River was a ‘good-enough Morgan’ until after the election:
1827 /Rochester (N.Y.) Daily Advertiser/ 1 Nov. 2/2 There was full as much as met the ear in the boast of one who pretended to trace the hand of Providence in the discovery of the body, viz. that it was a ‘good enough Morgan for their purpose till after election'.
/U.S./ /Polit./ Now rare.
An issue or talking point used to influence voters temporarily, typically in the period preceding an election.
1840 P. S. Townsend /Let./ 5 Jan. in /Bull. Hist. Med./ (1950) *24* 453 To punish Noah for espousing Henry Clay so warmly & not falling into the ‘Good enough Morgan’s’ Chas. King’s friend Scott’s nomination.
1856 /Congress. Globe/ 27 Aug. 53/1 You will have victims who can answer as ‘good enough Morgans’ at least until after the election.
1880 /Daily Inter-Ocean (Chicago)/ 3 June 10/3 The third-term twaddle is a ‘good enough Morgan’ until after the convention.
1904 /Buffalo Commerc./ 25 May 6 A pretty thin disguise, too. But it’s a ‘good enough Morgan’ until the next general election.
1950 /Berks. (Pittsfield, Mass.) Evening Eagle/ 12 June 14/2 In the present state of public mind it is a ‘good enough Morgan till after election’ and, in truth, it is a pretty good Morgan by any standard.