Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Locofoco \Lo`co*fo"co\, n. [Of uncertain etymol.; perh. for L.
   loco foci instead of fire; or, according to Bartlett, it was
   called so from a self-lighting cigar, with a match
   composition at the end, invented in 1834 by John Marck of New
   York, and called by him locofoco cigar, in imitation of the
   word locomotive, which by the uneducated was supposed to
   mean, self-moving.]
   1. A friction match. [U.S.]

   2. A nickname formerly given to a member of the Democratic
      party. [U.S.]

   Note: The name was first applied, in 1834, to a portion of
         the Democratic party, because, at a meeting in Tammany
         Hall, New York, in which there was great diversity of
         sentiment, the chairman left his seat, and the lights
         were extinguished, for the purpose of dissolving the
         meeting; when those who were opposed to an adjournment
         produced locofoco matches, rekindled the lights,
         continued the meeting, and accomplished their object.