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Mayor Wood "Hoist on his own Petard"

About This Item

  • Title: Mayor Wood "Hoist on his own Petard"
  • Date: 26 May 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01359
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 26 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: Kaylen Michaelis Samantha Gilmore Kevin McMullen Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Mayor Wood "Hoist on his own Petard"." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01359.xml (TEI)
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MAYOR WOOD "HOIST ON HIS OWN PETARD."—

As we stated yesterday, the new police law has been decided to be constitutional,1 by the Judges of the Supreme Court of the city and county of New York. From the decision of these city jurists, Mayor Wood,2 the burden of whose song is that the city authorities, and not those of the State, should rule the city, will appeal to the State Judges of the Court of Appeals. Then his Honor relies on the Montgomerie and Dongan charters to justify the continued control of the municipality over the police force; forgetting that the leading provision of those charters is, that the Mayor of New York city shall be appointed by the Governor. Mayor Wood had better submit to the evils now inflicted on him, than fly to those to which the enforcement of these obsolete charters would subject him.

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]

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