Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I'll nip him in the bud.

As quoted in: Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present: N to Raz (1902) by John Stephen Farmer, p. 377. Also in: Phrase Origins: A Study of Familiar Expressions (Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1936) by Alfred Hubbard Holt, p. 293