Emphasis Preaching Journal

Joel Robert Poinsett gave his name to the red "flower" we see everywhere at Christmastime. He "discovered" the poinsettia in Mexico and managed to market it in the U. S. It made him wealthy and it made his name a household word in our country. But the "flower" is not really a flower, and it was already a religious symbol when it was cultivated by the Aztecs. Furthermore, do we really want to remember Joel Robert Poinsett in the spirit of Christmas? The truth is, the name of Poinsett was already a household word in Mexico well before our American Civil War. Besides his interest in botany, Poinsett was a high-placed diplomatic official in the service of the United States Government. President Van Buren made him Secretary of War. He had a part in the "Trail of Tears," a sad part of our Native American History. He was a congressman and ambassador-at-large, specializing in relations with Latin America. It was while Poinsett was Special Ambassador to Mexico that he discovered the poinsettia and sent it back East to South Carolina and took steps to popularize the Christmas flower. He also got a reputation in Mexico for being an officious, intrusive interloper. "Poinsettissimo" became the word for intruding oneself into the business of others. Ironically, it was a Christmas day when Poinsett left Mexico, in fear of his life and his name disgraced by the Mexican government, for his unethical part in an internal Mexican political dispute. And like the words boycott and quisling, his name became part of the language -- two languages.
-- Mosley