Page 7
From the New-York
Daily Tribune, Saturday, March 18,
1851.
THE RUM TRAFFIC – The annexed
table is compiled from the returns made to the Chief of Police.
It exhibits the number of licensed and unlicensed rum
shops that existed on the first day of January in the different
Watch Districts of the City, and the number of such places that
are kept open on Sunday:
Patrol Districts
Lic’d Not Lic’d
Sund. Whole No.
First...........................372..........
65...........320.............437
Second.......................171.........
4........... 82.............175
Third..........................240.........
20..........159.............260
Fourth........................382.........
14..........380.............196
Fifth...........................212.........
12..........150.............224
Sixth..........................384.........
176...........404.............410
Seventh......................245.........
20..........250.............265
Eighth........................295.........
31..........215.............316
Ninth..........................210.........
19..........160.............229
Tenth.........................184..........
15..........180.............199
Eleventh....................300..........
180..........200.............400
Twelfth......................185.........
30..........200.............215
Thirteenth..................150.........
20..........100.............103
Fourteenth.................216.........
46...........270.............286
Fifteenth....................137.........
4.......... 95.............142
Sixteenth....................417.........
156..........550.............567
Seventeenth...............257.........
23........... 74..............230
Eighteenth.................220.........
21..........107..............241
_____ ____ _____
_____
Total.......................4,425
756 3,896
5,225
Here are 3,896 weekly violations of
the law in the City with a police force of 600 or 800
well paid men – and with the knowledge of the fact that
nearly 4,000 rum shops are open every Sunday can we wonder that
the jails are filled to over flowing – that the Tombs
want enlarging – and that our Alms-House cost $400,000
per year? – Our Mayor is a good reformer, as far as
he goes, but he falls short of his whole duty. If he
would but
make one descent upon these vile
Sunday retailers of villainous liquors, break them up, he would
receive the warm thanks of thousands. If there is one
crime that disgraces our City more than another, it is the
infamous liquor traffic on the Sabbath.
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_____________________________
The Municipal Police Force of Mayor F.
Wood has been disbanded and the
Metropolitan Police District is established by order of the New
York State Legislature, and the Court of Appeals. This
sets the stage for one of the worst gang riots (on July 4,
1857) in New York history. Next following entry is the
general order issued by Mayor Fernando Wood July 3, 1857.
- G.C.
From the New-York Daily Tribune,
Saturday, July 4, 1857.
THE POLICE DIFFICULTIES.
THE MAYOR SUCCUMBS AND DISBANDS HIS
POLICE.
The Mayor, shortly after reaching his
office yesterday morning ordered his men to report themselves
at their respective Station-Houses and remain for further
orders. The detailed officers at the Essex Market Police
Court were withdrawn, leaving the Court without any officers to
serve procedures.
He soon afterward issued the following
general order, copies of which were forthwith prepared and sent
to the captains of police in the various wards:
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF POLICE
General Order, 775]
New-York, July 3, 1857.
Captain ____ _______, ____ District.
SIR: The Court of Appeals having
decided in favor of the constitutionality of the Act to
establish a Metropolitan Police District, it is our duty to
yield to that decision, and to acknowledge the law as binding
and obligatory upon our conduct.
Whatever may be the opinion of the
great body of the people as to the tyranny and injustice of
legislation which deprives us of the right of self-government,
and however repugnant the law is to our local pride and
independence, we have no present resource but compliance and
submission.
So far, therefore, as the existing
police organization of the city is concerned, as formed
pursuant to the laws passed anterior to 1857, now repealed, we
have no discretion but to abandon and dissolve it at once and
forthwith.
Its official power gone, and we have
no authority to continue it another hour. You will
therefore assemble your men and read to them this order, and
withdraw them from all patrol or other official service.
Whether a municipal day and night watch is consistent
with this decision, and whether it shall be established
pursuant to the ordinance of the Common Council, approved June
2, 1857, is a matter of future determination. I shall
announce the conclusions on that subject at an early day.
You will, in the meantime, and until
further orders, remain in charge of the Station-House and all
the Corporation property entrusted to your care, and require
the officers and men under your command to deliver up to your
custody the Police property in their possessions.
By order, FERNANDO WOOD, Mayor
As soon as this order could be
received and read, stars and buttons were piled and the streets
were inundated with policemen out of uniform. Their
curses of the Mayor were loud as well as deep. “G-d d-n
him,” said a prominent member of the Department,
“he’s been telling us this for three or four weeks
“now, that he had private word from the Judges that
they would decide against the law; and that’s the way
he’s kept us on his side.” Those who two
weeks ago were most determined to fight for him, and who were
obliged to pawn their watches to raise the $5 which was levied
to pay “Charlie O’Connor for defendin’
us,” now that they find how they have been tricked,
are most exasperated against him. Fifteen days ago the
City Hall was filled with uniforms. Yesterday afternoon
not one was worn in it.
A meeting of the Captains was called
for 2’oclock yesterday afternoon. Its purpose was
said to be to countermand the orders issued to them for the
Fourth of July. However, as their occupation is now gone,
even in the opinion of the Mayor himself, the folly of this was
too apparent to allow the farce to be enacted. Still, he
has ordered them to protect the property of the city at the
Station-Houses. As they have been dismissed the service
for some weeks past, and as the Mayor has had no legal control
over them since the law went into effect, this last order is as
much a usurpation of authority as that under which the heads of
the Metropolitan Police were broken.
The Mayor has become responsible for
the costs in the suits against him. They will amount to
about $2,500.
It was currently reported about the
City hall yesterday that on Monday a caucus of the Democratic
Councilmen would be held, in which a preamble and resolution
would be drafted, in view of the decision of the Court of
Appeals, tendering the use of the Station Houses, the
telegraphic apparatus, and the office of the late Chief of
Police, to the Metropolitan Police Commissioners, and that the
same would be introduced into the Board of Councilmen and
adopted.
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