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Brooklyn Police Henceforth

About This Item

  • Title: Brooklyn Police Henceforth
  • Date: 3 July 1857
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01446
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 3 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: Kevin McMullen Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Brooklyn Police Henceforth." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 16 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01446.xml (TEI)
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BROOKLYN POLICE HENCEFORTH.

There is no doubt but the citizens of Brooklyn are nine-tenths of them well satisfied with the decision affirming the Metropolitan Police Law, under which our city is henceforth to be officered.1 Only a few feverish partisans, and a hydrophobia editor or so, will feel bad about it.

Whatever changes occur, they will probably be neither very sudden or violent. Still there will of course be changes. Mayor Powell,2 as Chief Magistrate of the City, should have, and doubtless will have, the most weighty voice in all the doings, appointments, removals, &c., of the Board of Commissioners as far as they relate to Brooklyn. In conjunction with Mr. Stranahan,3 let us now see if the Mayor cannot give us a splendid set of young, strong American men, physically and mentally competent—men that will make "the force" a pride to the whole city. Let us see whether the Metropolitans are indeed to be "no party"—not appointed because they Natives, Democrats, or Republicans—but because they are intelligent, healthy, nimble, firm, clean, brave, and the right sort every way.

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. Samuel S. Powell (1815–1879) served as mayor of Brooklyn from 1857 to 1861, and then again from 1872 to 1873. In 1863, he was nominated to become water commissioner by a previous mayor of Brooklyn, Colonel Alfred M. Wood, but was denied confirmation by the Board of Aldermen. Thomas Jefferson Whitman mentioned Powell's nomination in a December 1863 letter to Walt. [back]

3. James S. T. Stranahan (1808-1898) became a member of the Metropolitan Board of Police in 1857. Prior to this, he served as a U. S. Representative from New York's second district from 1855 to 1857. [back]

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