Let every man skin his own skunks.

"A common fellow, a carpenter, who, on the strength of political partizanship, asked Bridge's assistance in cutting out great letters from play-bills &c, in order to print Martin Van Buren Forever, on a flag; - but Bridge refused. 'Let every man skin his own skunks,' says he."

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks, Centenary edition p. 36.