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The Water Commissioners' Defence

About This Item

  • Title: The Water Commissioners' Defence
  • Date: 14 March 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01385
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 14 March 1859: 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 Cassandra Jannel Simms Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Water Commissioners' Defence." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01385.xml (TEI)
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THE WATER COMMISSIONERS' DEFENCE

To the exclusion of almost everything else, we give in to-day's paper the reply of the Water Commissioners, together with that of the engineer in chief, Mr. Kirkwood,1 to the accusations of Ald. Backhouse,2 and others, inside the Common Council, and out. We have not space to review these lengthy papers. Suffice it to say that neither Commissioners nor Engineer can be charged with prevarication—they face the music.

We presume that every citizen and tax-payer will carefully peruse these documents, and after so doing he will come to the conclusion that his interests have been well cared for—that the changes of construction which have been made were judicious changes—and that the works promise to be as efficient and durable as they will certainly be cheap. Of the supply of water, of course there never was any doubt.

Some of the language of the Commissioners is open to objection. Hard words convince nobody, but the controvery on the part of the other side has been pursued with considerable bitterness, and hence the desire to retaliate in kind was probably natural. Mr. Kirkwood has not suffered himself to give way to his feelings. We are anxious to hear what the impinged Aldermen will have to say in response to this first formal explanation of the Water Commissioners.

Notes:

1. James P. Kirkwood (1807–1877), a prominent civil engineer and cofounder of the American Society of Civil Engineers (1852), superintended the construction of the Brooklyn Water Works as chief engineer from 1856 to 1862. After his work in Brooklyn, he moved to St. Louis and designed the waterworks which Walt Whitman's brother Jeff would later help construct. Kirkwood eventually became a nationally known independent consultant and wrote the standard text on water filtration. [back]

2. Edward T. Backhouse (1808–1884) served on the board of directors of the King’s County Fire Insurance Company, and was elected as the company’s president in 1865. He also served as an Alderman for the Eleventh Ward in Brooklyn. [back]

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