Old Hunker: the conservative division of the 1840s Democratic Party in New York
Hunkers were the opposite of their radical opponents in the Democratic Party, the Barnburners. They preferred old-style machine politics, were against business reform, supported bank charters, and opposed anti-slavery agitation, considering it no business of New York's. Hunkers were more interested in hunkering down with whatever political gains they could gather. One newspaper editorial of the time suggests that the name refers to their taste for "a large hunk of the spoils."
One possible origin of Hunker is the Dutch word honk, meaning home base in a game. In nineteenth-century New York, to reach hunk was children's slang for safely reaching "home" during Tag or similar games. Another possibility is that the label derives from a popular nineteenth-century nickname for a surly, miserly old man, Old Hunks.