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A Plagiarist

About This Item

  • Title: A Plagiarist
  • Date: 10 February 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01437
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 10 February 1858: 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: Tara Ballard Kevin McMullen Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "A Plagiarist." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01437.xml (TEI)
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A PLAGIARIST.—

How much difference in criminality is there between a plagiarist and a thief? In our opinion Charles Reade1 is as great a rascal as ever was Jonathan Wild.2 One steals the hard-earned pecuniary savings of his victim; the other abstracts and appropriates to his own use and credit the results of years of study and literary toil. This neighborhood seems cursed with these literary prigs. Our Representative in Congress, Wm. B. Maclay,3 in eulogising the character of General Jackson,4 decked the old hero out in plumes which he had stolen from the Rev. Robert Hall. And now our classic orator, the Hon. E. W. Andrews—the rival of the Hon. E. O. Perrin5 in captivating Williamsburgh audiences—is detected in a similarly dirty trick. Our honorable townman was engaged by the New York Grand Lodge of Masons to deliver an oration on Dr. Kane before them in June last. He complied; and as the newspapers duly informed us, well sustained his reputation for eloquence. Unluckily for the orator, however, the keen-eyed critic of the Boston Transcript has met with the discourse, and has identified it as forming part of a sermon delivered two months before by the Rev. N. H. Chamberlain, of Canton, Mass.

Notes:

1.  [back]

2.  [back]

3. William B. Maclay (1812–1882) was a state representative for New York in the 35th Congress. [back]

4. Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837) and served as a general in the War of 1812. The Whitman family held Jackson in high regard; one of Walt's brothers was named after him. For more information, see David Haven Blake, "Jackson, Andrew (1767–1845)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]

5. Edwin O. Perrin (1822–1889) was a lawyer and politician for the Whig party who had once accompanied Robert J. Walker and Millard Fillmore. He was also nominated as an assemblyman in the 2nd District of New York. [back]

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