acknowledge the corn

Etymology
An American expression. In a Congressional debate in 1828 one of the states which claimed to export corn admitted that the corn was actually used to feed hogs, and exported in that form. - Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable 1970 Centenary Edition.

Verb

 * 1)  To admit to the truth of the point at issue or to a mistake; to cop a plea; or perhaps to admit to a small error but not a larger one.
 * 2) * 1846, Jesse Speight, address to the U.S. Senate:
 * I hope he will give up the argument, or to use a familiar phrase acknowledge the corn.
 * 1) * 1859, J. Underwood, letter to the editor, Samuel W. Cole (editor), The New England Farmer, Volume 11,
 * I should like to take a job of that kind on a wager with him, or any other New Hampshire man, and if I did not come out a little ahead on the "home stretch," why then I would "acknowledge the corn," and own myself beaten.