Crusade against Coney Island

Well, really, this is more about politics.

STUMP CANDIDATES--COLONEL JACK ON THE RUN.--The number of stump candidates now before the people are numerous enough we should think, but if they continue to multiply as they have done we don't see how the matter can be regulated unless by every man getting out his own ticket and voting for himself…Of all who have taken the stump, however, none appears to be making such tremendous headway as Colonel Jack. He has got his yards squared and all sail set, and cuts through the political waters like one of the Collins steam ships…

When elected, he shall cause to be passed a bill for the construction of a Canal from the Wallabout to Gowanus, and another for the erection of Long Island into a separate and independent state and the immediate annexation of Coney Island. He shall vote for a port of entry at every seaboard town on our ample coasts…

Mr. Powell will be a dangerous rival, and the Col. must stretch himself to get ahead. If the former candidate succeeds in his designs of a filibustering crusade against the authorities of Coney Island, it will strengthen his chances amazingly, and if he can erect ports of entry at Red Hook Point, Fort Hamilton and Sheeps Head Bay, his popularity will carry him into the halls of Congress in spite of the wind and weather.

--Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Tuesday, October 5, 1852

I'm not sure who these people are, but at any rate, I believe Coney Island didn't become part of Brooklyn until the 1890s.