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.
Verb
acknowledge the corn
(idiomatic) 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.
Quotations
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.
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.
1880, Parliament of Canada, Official report of the debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada:
Will the hon. gentleman acknowledge the corn? He does not do it. He is non-committal.
1892, The American magazine:
They had simply to “acknowledge the corn,” round up, and — “vamoose”; then, so soon as the soldiers had gone back to the fort, there was no law to prevent their returning.