Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Published Writings
  3. Periodicals
  4. Journalism
  5. per.01355

The Democratic Party—And the New Police Bill

About This Item

  • Title: The Democratic Party—And the New Police Bill
  • Date: 12 May 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01355
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 12 May 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: Thara Michaelis Kaylen Michaelis Samantha Gilmore Kevin McMullen Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Democratic Party—And the New Police Bill." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01355.xml (TEI)
image 1image 2image 3image 4cropped image 1

The Democratic Party—and the New Police Bill.

Passing the neighborhood of the New York City Hall this forenoon, we noticed carpenters busily at work putting up a platform for the Democratic meeting to-night, which is intended to protest, in the name of the people of New York and Brooklyn cities, against the New Police Bill.1 Of course there will be the usual quantity and quality of patriotism at this meeting to-night, all got up for effect, but well understood by those behind the scenes as so much acting, not a bit more real than the acting of actors in the Broadway and Bowery theatre.

As to the popular feeling in reference to the New Police Bill, we believe that nineteen-twentieths of the intelligent citizens of Brooklyn and New York are anxious that it should have a fair trial—as we presume it will have, in despite of Fernando Wood and to-night's meeting.2

Notes:

1. The Metropolitan Police Act of April 1857 was passed by the New York State Legislature in order to dissolve New York City's Municipal Police and replace them with the State-controlled Metropolitan force, overseen by a board of commissioners. This new force covered the combined areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Westchester County and was considered controversial in scope, with some parties arguing that the Act was unconstitutional. Embedded within the Act was a series of provisions that impacted both the sale of and access to alcohol. [back]

2. Fernando Wood (1812–1881), a Democrat, was mayor of New York City from 1855–1857 and 1860–1861. He was widely regarded as corrupt. During his time at the Brooklyn Daily Times, Whitman penned numerous fiery articles against "King Fernando." [back]

Back to top