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The Banquet to Mr. Murphy

About This Item

  • Title: The Banquet to Mr. Murphy
  • Date: 24 July 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01054
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 24 July 1857: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Samantha Gilmore Kaylen Michaelis Jamie DeRousse Jason Stacy Karie Cobb Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Banquet to Mr. Murphy." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01054.xml (TEI)
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THE BANQUET TO MR. MURPHY.

Few men can take so prominent a part in the politics of a city as the Hon. H.C. Murphy1 has filled in Brooklyn, without attracting to themselves a considerable share of personal dislike from political opponents. Mr. Murphy, however, though to opponents the most obnoxious member of his party politically, from his superior ability as a tactician, has nevertheless retained the warm personal esteem of his opponents no less than of his Democratic friends. His appointment by the President as Minister to the Hague, therefore, has been seized on by the leading citizens, of all parties, as a fit occasion on which to express their respect for him, and their sense of the honor conferred on the city by his appointment. On the announcement of Mr. Murphy’s intended departure, a committee of men of all parties was spontaneously formed—consisting we believe of eighteen Democrats and an equal number of the opposition, by whom arrangements have been entered into for a grand banquet to Mr. Murphy, at the Mansion House, on the 5th of August. The company, we understand, will be very select, and the number of tickets to be sold has been limited to 150, so as to leave room for a large margin of invited guests. Among these last we may expect to see not a few of the most distinguished men in public life, of all parties; for Mr. Murphy’s friends and admirers in the country at large, like his popularity at home, are not confined to the ranks of the party of which he is so distinguished a member. We understand that Ex-Senator Dickinson and more than one member of the Cabinet have signified the intention of being present, if possible; as also Gov. King,2 and the two Republican U.S. Senators from this State.

The members of the Committee from this district are Ex-Mayor Wall,3 John T. Runcie, Wm. Marshall, John A. Cross4 and Edmund Driggs.5 The Committee, we are informed, hold another meeting at the Mansion House tonight.

Notes:

1. Henry Cruse Murphy (1810–1882) was an author, diplomat, and translator, and served as Brooklyn mayor (1842–1843) and congressman (1843–1845, 1847–1849). After the Civil War, he was a New York senator (1862–1873). Murphy was a co-founder of the Democratic Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1841) and brushed up against Whitman's radical politics. [back]

2. John A. King (1788–1867) served as the governor of New York from 1857 to 1858. He also owned and worked on a farm in the village of Jamaica, Long Island. Whitman briefly described seeing King and his family residence in "Letters from a Travelling Bachelor, Number IV" (New York Sunday Dispatch [November 4, 1849]). [back]

3. William Wall (1800–1872) served as mayor of Williamsburgh for one year in 1853. He also served as a commissioner of waterworks for Williamsburgh, and later on the Board of Commissioners for the new Brooklyn Water Works. He later went on to become U.S. Representative from New York's 5th District, serving from 1861 to 1863. [back]

4. John A. Cross (1829–1899) served as an alderman of the 7th Ward. He was also the first president of the Dime Savings Bank. [back]

5. Edmund Smith Driggs (1809–1889) was the first president of Williamsburg when it became a village in 1850. [back]

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