[1] "Delatores, genus hominum publico exitio repertum ... per praemia
eliciebantur" (Tacitus, _Annals_, iv. 30).
DELAUNAY, ELIE (1828-1891), French painter, was born at Nantes and
studied under Flandrin and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He worked in the
classicist manner of Ingres until, after winning the Prix de Rome, he
went to Italy in 1856, and abandoned the ideal of Raphaelesque
perfection for the sincerity and severity of the quattrocentists. As a
pure and firm draughtsman he stands second only to Ingres. After his
return from Rome he was entrusted with many important commissions for
decorative paintings, such as the frescoes in the church of St Nicholas
at Nantes; the three panels of "Apollo," "Orpheus" and "Amphion" at the
Paris opera-house; and twelve paintings for the great hall of the
council of state in the Palais Royal. His "Scenes from the Life of St
Genevieve," which he designed for the Pantheon, remained unfinished at
his death. The Luxembourg Museum has his famous "Plague in Rome" and a
nude figure of "Diana"; and the Nantes Museum, the "Lesson on the
Flute." In the last decade of his life he achieved great popularity as a
portrait painter.
DELAUNAY, LOUIS ARSENE (1826-1903), French actor, was born in Paris, the
son of a wine-seller. He studied at the Conservatoire, and made his
first formal appearance on the stage in 1845, in _Tartuffe_ at the
Odeon. After three years at this house he made his debut at the Comedie
Francaise as Dorante in Corneille's _Le Menteur_, and began a long and
brilliant career in young lover parts. He continued to act as _jeune
premier_ until he was sixty, his grace, marvellous diction and passion
enchanting his audiences. It was especially in the plays of Alfred de
Musset that his gifts found their happiest expression. In the
thirty-seven years during which he was a member of the Comedie
Francaise, Delaunay took or created nearly two hundred parts. He retired
in 1887, having been made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1883.
DELAVIGNE, JEAN FRANCOIS CASIMIR (1793-1843), French poet and dramatist,
was born on the 4th of April 1793 at Havre. His father sent him at an
early age to Paris, there to be educated at the Lycee Napoleon.
Constitutionally of an ardent and sympathetic temperament, he enlarged
his outlook by extensive miscellaneous reading. On the 20th of March
1811 the empress Marie Louise gave birth to a son, named in his very
cradle king of Rome. This event was celebrated by Delavigne in a
_Dithyrambe sur la naissance du roi de Rome_, which secured for him a
sinecure in the revenue office.
About this time he competed twice for an academy prize, but without
success. Delavigne, inspired by the catastrophe of 1815, wrote two
impassioned poems, the first entitled Waterloo, the second, _Devastation
du musee_, both written in the heat of patriotic enthusiasm, and teeming
with popular political allusions. A third, but of inferior merit, _Sur
le besoin de s'unir apres le depart des etrangers_, was afterwards
added. These stirring pieces, termed by him _Messeniennes_, sounded a
keynote which found an echo in the hearts of all. Twenty-five thousand
copies were sold; Delavigne was famous. He was appointed to an honorary
librarianship, with no duties to discharge. In 1819 his play _Les vepres
Siciliennes_ was performed at the Odeon, then just rebuilt; it had
previously been refused for the Theatre Francais. On the night of the
first representation, which was warmly received, Picard, the manager,
threw himself into the arms of his elated friend, exclaiming, "You have
saved us! You are the founder of the second French Theatre." This
success was followed up by the production of the _Comediens_ (1820), a
poor play, with little plot, and the _Paria_ (1821), with still less,
but containing some well-written choruses. The latter piece obtained a
longer lease of life than its intrinsic literary merits warranted, on
account of the popularity of the political opinions freely expressed in
it--so freely expressed, indeed, that the displeasure of the king was
incurred, and Delavigne lost his post. But Louis Philippe, duke of
Orleans, willing to gain the people's good wishes by complimenting their
favourite, wrote to him as follows: "The thunder has descended on your
house; I offer you an apartment in mine." Accordingly Delavigne became
librarian at the Palais Royal, a position retained during the remainder
of his life. It was here that he wrote the _Ecole des vieillards_
(1823), his best comedy, which gained his election to the Academy in
1825. To this period also belong _La Princesse Aurelie_ (1828), and
_Marino Faliero_ (1829), a drama in the romantic style.
For his success as a writer Delavigne was in no small measure indebted
to the stirring nature of the times in which he lived. The
_Messeniennes_, which first introduced him to universal notice, had
their origin in the excitement consequent on the occupation of France by
the allies in 1815. Another crisis in his life and in the history of his
country, the revolution of 1830, stimulated him to the production of a
second masterpiece, _La Parisienne_. This song, set to music by Auber,
was on the lips of every Frenchman, and rivalled in popularity the
_Marseillaise_. A companion piece, _La Varsovienne_, was written for the
Poles, by whom it was sung on the march to battle. Other works of
Delavigne followed each other in rapid succession--_Louis XI_ (1832),
_Les Enfants d'Edouard_ (1833), _Don Juan d'Autriche_ (1835), _Une
Famille au temps du Luther_ (1836), _La Popularite_ (1838), _La Fille du
Cid_ (1839), _Le Conseiller rapporteur_ (1840), and _Charles VI_ (1843),
an opera partly written by his brother. In 1843 he quitted Paris to seek
in Italy the health his labours had cost him. At Lyons his strength
altogether gave way, and he died on the 11th of December.
By many of his own time Delavigne was looked upon as unsurpassed and
unsurpassable. Every one bought and read his works. But the applause of
the moment was gained at the sacrifice of lasting fame. As a writer he
had many excellences. He expressed himself in a terse and vigorous
style. The poet of reason rather than of imagination, he recognized his
own province, and was rarely tempted to flights of fancy beyond his
powers. He wrote always as he would have spoken, from sincere
conviction. In private life he was in every way estimable,--upright,
amiable, devoid of all jealousy, and generous to a fault.
His _Poesies_ and his _Theatre_ were published in 1863. His _Oeuvres
completes_ (new edition, 1855) contains a biographical notice by his
brother, Germain Delavigne, who is best known as a librettist in
opera. See also Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits litteraires_, vol. v.; A.
Favrot, _Etude sur Casimir Delavigne_ (1894); and F. Vuacheux,
_Casimir Delavigne_ (1893).
DELAWARE, a South Atlantic state of the United States of America, one of
the thirteen original states, situated between 38 deg. 27' and 39 deg.
50' N. lat. and between 75 deg. 2' and 75 deg. 47' W. long. (For map see
MARYLAND.) It is bounded N. and N.W. by Pennsylvania, E. by the Delaware
river and Delaware Bay, which separate it from New Jersey, and by the
Atlantic Ocean; S. and W. by Maryland. With the exception of Rhode
Island it is the smallest state in the Union, its area being 2370 sq.
m., of which 405 sq. m. are water surface.
_Physical Features._--Delaware lies on the Atlantic coastal plain, and
is for the most part level and relatively low, its average elevation
above the sea being about 50 ft. It is situated in the eastern part of
the peninsula formed by Chesapeake Bay and the estuary of the Delaware
river. In the extreme N. the country is rolling, with moderately high
hills, moderately deep valleys and rapid streams. West of Wilmington
there rises a ridge which crosses the state in a north-westerly
direction and forms a watershed between Christiana and Brandywine
creeks, its highest elevation above sea-level being 280 ft. South of the
Christiana there begins another elevation, sandy and marshy, which
extends almost the entire length of the state from N.W. to S.E., and
forms a second water-parting. The streams that drain the state are small
and insignificant. Those of the N. flow into Brandywine and Christiana
creeks, whose estuary into Delaware river forms Wilmington harbour;
those of the S.W. have a common outlet in the Nanticoke river of
Maryland; those of the E. empty into Delaware Bay and the Atlantic
Ocean. The principal harbours are those of Wilmington, New Castle and
Lewes. The shore of the bay is marshy, that of the Atlantic is sandy. In
Kent county there are more than 60,000 acres of tidal marshland, some of
which has been reclaimed by means of dykes; Cypress Swamp in the extreme
S. has an area of 50,000 acres. The soils of the N. are clays, sometimes
mixed with loam; those of the central part are mainly loams; while those
of the S. are sands.
Minerals are found only in the N. part of the state. Those of economic
value are kaolin, mined chiefly in the vicinity of Hockessin, New Castle
county, the static kaolin product being exceeded in 1903 only by that of
Pennsylvania among the states of the United States; granite, used for
road-making and rough construction work, found near Wilmington; and
brick and tile clays; but the value of their total product in 1902 was
less than $500,000. In 1906 the total mineral product was valued at
$814,126, of which $237,768 represented clay products and $146,346
stone. In 1902 only 2.2% of the wage-earners were engaged in mining.
The forests, which once afforded excellent timber, including white oak
for shipbuilding, have been greatly reduced by constant cutting; in 1900
it was estimated that 700 sq. m. were wooded, but practically none of
this stand was of commercial importance. The fisheries, chiefly oyster,
sturgeon and shad, yield an annual product valued at about $250,000.
The proximity of the Delaware and Chesapeake bays help to give Delaware
a mild and temperate climate. The mean annual temperature is
approximately 55 deg. F., ranging from 52 deg. in the S. to 56 deg. in
the N., and the extremes of heat and cold are 103 deg. in the summer and
-17 deg. in the winter. The annual rainfall, greater on the coast than
inland, ranges from 40 to 45 in.
_Industry and Trade._--Delaware is pre-eminently an agricultural state.
In 1900 85% of its total land surface was enclosed in farms--a slight
decline since 1880. Seven-tenths of this was improved land, and the
expenditure per farm for fertilizers, greater in 1890 than the average
of the Atlantic states, approximated $55 per farm in 1900. In 1899
Delaware spent more per acre for fertilizers than any of the other
states except New Jersey, Rhode Island and Maryland. The average size of
farms, as in the other states, has declined, falling from 124.6 acres in
1880 to 110.1 acres in 1900. A large proportion of farms (49.7%) were
operated by the owners, and the prevailing form of tenantry was the
share system by which 42.5% of the farms were cultivated, while 8.24% of
the farms were operated by negroes; these represented less than 4% of
the total value of farm property, the average value of farms operated by
negroes being $17 per acre, that of farms operated by whites, $23 per
acre. The total value of farm products in 1900 was $9,190,777, an
increase of 30% over that of 1890, while the cultivation of cereals
suffered on account of the competition of the western states. Indian
corn and wheat form the two largest crops, their product in 1900 being
respectively 24% and 52% greater than in 1890; but these crops when
compared with those of other states are relatively unimportant. In 1906
the acreage of Indian corn was 196,472 acres with a yield of 5,894,160
bushels valued at $2,475,547, and the acreage of wheat was 121,745 acres
with a yield of 1,947,920 bushels valued at $1,383,023. The value of the
fruit crop, for which Delaware has long been noted, also increased
during the same decade, but disease and frost caused a marked decline in
the production of peaches, a loss balanced by an increased production of
apples, pears and other orchard fruits. Large quantities of small
fruits, particularly of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, are
produced, the southern portion of Sussex county being particularly
favourable for strawberry culture. The vicissitudes of fruit raising
have also caused increasing attention to be paid to market gardening,
dairying and stock raising, particularly to market gardening, an
industry which is favoured by the proximity of large cities. The same
influence also explains, partly at least, the decrease (of 13%) in the
value of farm property between 1890 and 1900.
The development of manufacturing in Delaware has not been so extensive
as its favourable situation relative to the other states, the facilities
for water and railway transportation, and the proximity of the coal and
iron fields of Pennsylvania, would seem to warrant. In 1905 the
wage-earners engaged in manufacturing (under the factory system)
numbered 18,475, and the total capital invested in manufacturing was
$50,925,630; the gross value of products was $41,160,276; the net value
(deducting the value of material purchased in partly manufactured form)
was $16,276,470. The principal industry was the manufacture of iron and
steel products, which, including steel and rolling mills, car, foundry
and machine shops, and shipyards, represented more than 30% of the total
capital, and approximately 25% of the total gross product of the
manufactures in the state. The tanning, currying and finishing of
leather ranks second in importance, with a gross product ($10,250,842)
9% greater than that of 1900, and constituting about one-fourth of the
gross factory product of the state in 1905; and the manufacture of food
products ranked third, the value of the products of the fruit canning
and preserving industry having more than doubled in the decade
1890-1900, but falling off a little more than 7% in 1900-1905. The
manufacture of paper and wood pulp showed an increased product in 1905
19.1% greater than in 1900; and flour and grist mill products were
valued in 1905 43.6% higher than in 1900. In the grand total of
manufactured products, however, the state showed in 1905 a decrease of
4% from 1900. The great manufacturing centre is Wilmington, where in
1905 almost two-thirds of the capital was invested, and nearly
three-fourths of the product was turned out. There is much manufacturing
also at New Castle.
Delaware has good facilities for transportation. Its railway mileage in
January 1907 was 333.6 m; the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington
(Pennsylvania system), the Baltimore & Philadelphia (Baltimore & Ohio
system), and the Wilmington & Northern (Philadelphia & Reading system)
cross the northern part of the state, while the Delaware railway (leased
by the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington) runs the length of the
state below Wilmington, and another line, the Maryland, Delaware &
Virginia (controlled by the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic railway,
which is related to the Pennsylvania system), connects Lewes, Del., with
Love Point, Md., on the Chesapeake Bay. There is no state railway
commission, and the farmers of southern Delaware have suffered from
excessive freight rates. The Delaware & Chesapeake Canal (13(1/2) m.
long, 66 ft. wide and 10 ft. deep) crosses the N. part of the state,
connecting Delaware river and Chesapeake Bay, and thus affords
transportation by water from Baltimore to Philadelphia. The canal was
completed in 1829; in 1907 a commission appointed by the president to
report on a route for a waterway between Chesapeake and Delaware bays
selected the route of this canal. The states of Maryland and Delaware
aided in its construction, and in 1828 the national government also made
an appropriation. Wilmington is a customs district in which New Castle
and Lewes are included; but its trade is largely coastwise. Rehoboth and
Indian River bays are navigable for vessels of less than 6 ft. draft.
Opposite Lewes is the Delaware Breakwater (begun in 1818 and completed
in 1869, at a cost of more than $2,000,000), which forms a harbour 16
ft. deep. In 1897-1901 the United States government constructed a
harbour of refuge, formed by a second breakwater 2(1/4) m. N. of the
existing one; its protected anchorage is 552 acres and the cost was more
than $2,090,000. The harbour is about equidistant from New York,
Philadelphia, and the capes of Chesapeake Bay, and is used chiefly by
vessels awaiting orders to ports for discharge or landing. The national
government also made appropriations for opening an inland waterway from
Lewes to Chincoteague Bay, Virginia, for improving Wilmington harbour,
and for making navigable several of the larger streams of the state.
_Population._--The population in 1880 was 146,608; in 1890, 168,493, an
increase of 14.9%; in 1900, 184,735, a further increase of 9.6%; in
1910, 202,322. The rate of increase before 1850 was considerably smaller
than the rate after that date. Of the population in 1900, 92.5% was
native born and 7.5% was foreign-born. The negro population was 30,697,
or 16.6% of the total. In Indian River Hundred, Sussex county, there
formerly lived a community of people,--many of whom are of the fair
Caucasian type,--called "Indians" or "Moors"; they are now quite
generally dispersed throughout the state, especially in Kent and Sussex
counties. Their origin is unknown, but according to local tradition they
are the descendants of some Moorish sailors who were cast ashore many
years ago in a shipwreck; their own tradition is that they are descended
from the children of an Irish mother and a negro father, these children
having intermarried with Indians of the Nanticoke tribe. They have,
where practicable, separate churches and schools, the latter receiving
state aid. The urban population of Delaware (i.e. of Wilmington, the
only city having more than 5000 inhabitants) was, in 1900, 41.4% of the
state's population. There were thirty-five incorporated cities and
towns. The largest of these was the city of Wilmington, with 76,508
inhabitants. The city next in size, New Castle, had a population of
3380, while the largest town, Dover, the capital of the state, had 3329.
The total number of communicants of all denominations in 1906 was
71,251,--32,402 Methodists, 24,228 Roman Catholics, 5200 Presbyterians,
3796 Protestant Episcopalians, and 2921 Baptists.
_Government._--The constitution by which Delaware is governed was
adopted in 1897. Like the previous constitutions of 1776, 1792 and 1831,
it was promulgated by a constitutional convention without submission to
the people for ratification, and amendments may be adopted by a
two-thirds vote of each house in two consecutive legislatures. Its
character is distinctly democratic. The property qualification of state
senators and the restriction of suffrage to those who have paid county
or poll taxes are abolished; but suffrage is limited to male adults who
can read the state constitution in English, and can write their names,
unless physically disqualified, and who have registered. In 1907 an
amendment to the constitution was adopted, which struck out from the
instrument the clause requiring the payment of a registration fee of one
dollar by each elector. Important innovations in the constitution of
1897 are the office of lieutenant-governor, and the veto power of the
governor which may extend to parts and clauses of appropriation bills,
but a bill may be passed over his veto by a three-fifths vote of each
house of the legislature, and a bill becomes a law if not returned to
the legislature within ten days after its reception by the governor,
unless the session of the legislature shall have expired in the
meantime. The governor's regular term in office is four years, and he is
ineligible for a third term. All his appointments to offices where the
salary is more than $500 must be confirmed by the senate; all pardons
must be approved by a board of pardons. Representation in the
legislature is according to districts, members of the lower house being
chosen for two, and members of the upper house for four years. Members
of the lower house must be at least twenty-four years of age, members of
the senate at least twenty-seven; members of both houses must at the
time of their election have been citizens of the state for at least
three years. In November 1906 the people of the state voted (17,248 for;
2162 against) in favour of the provision of a system of advisory
initiative and advisory referendum; and in March 1907 the general
assembly passed an act providing initiative and referendum in the
municipal affairs in the city of Wilmington. The organization of the
judiciary is similar to that under the old English system. Six judges--a
chancellor, a chief justice, and four associate justices--of whom there
shall be at least one resident in each of the three counties, and not
more than three shall belong to the same political party, are appointed
by the governor, with the consent of the senate, for a term of twelve
years. A certain number of them hold courts of chancery, general
sessions, oyer and terminer, and an orphans' court; the six together
constitute the supreme court, but the judge from whose decision appeal
is made may not hear the appealed case unless the appeal is made at his
own instance. Bribery may be punished by fine, imprisonment and
disfranchisement for ten years. Corporations cannot be created by a
special act of the legislature, and no corporation may issue stock
except for an equivalent value of money, labour or property. In order to
attract capital to the state, the legislature has reduced the taxes on
corporations, has forbidden the repeal of charters, and has given
permission for the organization of corporations with both the power and
name of trust companies. Legislative divorces are forbidden by the
constitution, and a statute of 1901 subjects wife-beaters to corporal
punishment. Although punishment by whipping and by standing in the
pillory was prohibited by an act of Congress in 1839, in so far as the
Federal government had jurisdiction, both these forms of punishment were
retained in Delaware, and standing in the pillory was prescribed by
statute as a punishment for a number of offences, including various
kinds of larceny and forgery, highway robbery, and even pretending "to
exercise the art of witchcraft, fortune-telling or dealing with
spirits," at least until 1893. In 1905, by a law approved on the 20th of
March, the pillory was abolished. The whipping-post was in 1908 still
maintained in Delaware, and whipping continued to be prescribed as a
punishment for a variety of offences, although in 1889 a law was passed
which prescribed that "hereafter no female convicted of any crime in
this state shall be whipped or made to stand in the pillory," and a law
passed in 1883 prescribed that "in case of conviction of larceny, when
the prisoner is of tender years, or is charged for the first time (being
shown to have before had a good character), the court may in its
discretion omit from the sentence the infliction of lashes." An old law
still on the statute-books when the edition of the revised statutes was
issued in 1893, prescribes that "the punishment of whipping shall be
inflicted publicly by strokes on the bare back, well laid on."
The unit of local government is the "hundred," which corresponds to the
township of Pennsylvania. The employment of children under fourteen
years of age in factories is forbidden by statute. Divorces are granted
for adultery, desertion for three years, habitual drunkenness, impotence
at the time of marriage, fraud, lack of marriageable age (eighteen for
males, sixteen for females), and failure of husband to provide for his
wife during three consecutive years. The marriages of whites with
negroes and of insane persons are null; but the children of the married
insane are legitimate.
In 1908 the state debt was $816,785, and the assets in bonds, railway
mortgages and bank stocks exceeded the liabilities by $717,779. Besides
the income from interest and dividends on investments, the state
revenues are derived from taxes on licences, on commissions to public
officers, on railway, telegraph and telephone, express, and banking
companies, and to a slight extent from taxes on collateral inheritance.
_Education._--The charitable and penal administration of Delaware is not
well developed. There is a state hospital for the insane at Farnhurst.
Other dependent citizens are cared for in the institutions of other
states at public expense. In 1899 a county workhouse was established in
New Castle county, in which persons under sentence must labour eight
hours a day, pay being allowed for extra hours, and a diminution of
sentence for good behaviour. At Wilmington is the Ferris industrial
school for boys, a private reformatory institution to which New Castle
county gives $146 for each boy; and the Delaware industrial school for
girls, also at Wilmington, receives financial support from both county
and state.
The educational system of the state has been considerably improved
within recent years. The maintenance of a system of public schools is
rendered compulsory by the state constitution, and a new compulsory
school law came into effect in 1907. The first public school law, passed
in 1829, was based largely on the principle of "local option," each
school district being left free to determine the character of its own
school or even to decide, if it wished, against having any school at
all. The system thus established proved to be very unsatisfactory, and a
new school law in 1875 brought about a greater degree of uniformity and
centralization through its provisions for the appointment of a state
superintendent of free schools and a state board of education. In 1888,
however, the state superintendency was abolished, and county
superintendencies were created instead, the legislature thus returning,
in a measure, to the old system of local control. Centralization was
again secured, in 1898, by the passage of a law reorganizing and
increasing the powers of the state board of education. The state school
fund, ranging from about $150,000 to $160,000 a year, is apportioned
among the school districts, according to the number of teachers
employed, and is used exclusively for teachers' salaries and the
supplying of free text-books. This fund is supplemented by local
taxation. No discrimination is allowed on account of race or colour; but
separate schools are provided for white and coloured children. Delaware
College (non-sectarian) at Newark, founded in 1833 as Newark College and
rechartered, after suspension from 1859 to 1870, under the present name,
as a state institution, derives most of its financial support from the
United States Land Grant of 1862 and the supplementary appropriation of
1890, and is the seat of an agricultural experiment station, established
in 1888 under the so-called "Hatch Bill" of 1887. In 1906-1907 Delaware
College had 20 instructors and 130 students. The college is a part of
the free school system of Delaware, and tuition is free to all students
from the state. There is an agricultural college for negroes at Dover;
this college receives one-fifth of the appropriation made by the
so-called "new Morrill Bill" of 1890.
_History._--Delaware river and bay were first explored on behalf of the
Dutch by Henry Hudson in 1609, and more thoroughly in 1615-1616 by
Cornelius Hendrikson, whose reports did much to cause the incorporation
of the Dutch West India Company. The first settlement on Delaware soil
was made under the auspices of members of this company in 1631 near the
site of the present Lewes. The leaders, one of whom was Captain David P.
de Vries, wished "to plant a colony for the cultivation of grain and
tobacco as well as to carry on the whale fishery in that region." The
settlement, however, was soon completely destroyed by the Indians. (See
LEWES.) A more successful effort at colonization was made under the
auspices of the South Company of Sweden, a corporation organized in 1624
as the "Australian Company," by William Usselinx, who had also been the
chief organizer of the Dutch West India Company, and now secured a
charter or _manifest_ from Gustavus Adolphus. The privileges of the
company were extended to Germans in 1633, and about 1640 the Dutch
members were bought out. In 1638 Peter Minuit on behalf of this company
established a settlement at what is now Wilmington, naming it, in
honour of the infant queen Christina, Christinaham, and naming the
entire territory, bought by Minuit from the Minquas Indians and
extending indefinitely westward from the Delaware river between Bombay
Hook and the mouth of the Schuylkill river, "New Sweden." This territory
was subsequently considerably enlarged. In 1642 mature plans for
colonization were adopted. A new company, officially known as the West
India, American, or New Sweden Company, but like its predecessor
popularly known as the South Company, was chartered, and a governor,
Johan Printz (c. 1600-1663) was sent out by the crown. He arrived early
in 1643 and subsequently established settlements on the island of
Tinicum, near the present Chester, Pennsylvania, at the mouth of Salem
Creek, New Jersey, and near the mouth of the Schuylkill river. Friction
had soon arisen with New Netherland, although, owing to their common
dislike of the English, the Swedes and the Dutch had maintained a formal
friendship. In 1651, however, Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New
Netherland, and more aggressive than his predecessors, built Fort
Casimir, near what is now New Castle. In 1654 Printz's successor, Johan
Claudius Rising, who had arrived from Sweden with a large number of
colonists, expelled the Dutch from Fort Casimir. In retaliation,
Stuyvesant, in 1655, with seven vessels and as many hundred men,
recaptured the fort and also captured Fort Christina (Wilmington). New
Sweden thus passed into the control of the Dutch, and became a
dependency of New Netherland. In 1656, however, the Dutch West India
Company sold part of what had been New Sweden to the city of Amsterdam,
which in the following year established a settlement called "New Amstel"
at Fort Casimir (New Castle). This settlement was badly administered and
made little progress.
In 1663 the whole of the Delaware country came under the jurisdiction of
the city of Amsterdam, but in the following year this territory, with
New Netherland, was seized by the English. For a brief interval, in
1673-1674, the Dutch were again in control, but in the latter year, by
the treaty of Westminster, the "three counties on the Delaware" again
became part of the English possessions in America held by the duke of
York, later James II. His formal grant from Charles II. was not received
until March 1683. In order that no other settlements should encroach
upon his centre of government, New Castle, the northern boundary was
determined by drawing an arc of a circle, 12 m. in radius, and with New
Castle as the centre. This accounts for the present curved boundary line
between Delaware and Pennsylvania. Previously, however, in August 1680,
the duke of York had leased this territory for 10,000 years to William
Penn, to whom he conveyed it by a deed of feoffment in August 1682; but
differences in race and religion, economic rivalry between New Castle
and the Pennsylvania towns, and petty political quarrels over
representation and office holding, similar to those in the other
American colonies, were so intense that Penn in 1691 appointed a special
deputy governor for the "lower counties." Although reunited with the
"province" of Pennsylvania in 1693, the so-called "territories" or
"lower counties" secured a separate legislature in 1704, and a separate
executive council in 1710; the governor of Pennsylvania, however, was
the chief executive until 1776. A protracted boundary dispute with
Maryland, which colony at first claimed the whole of Delaware under Lord
Baltimore's charter, was not settled until 1767, when the present line
separating Delaware and Maryland was adopted. In the War of Independence
Delaware furnished only one regiment to the American army, but that was
one of the best in the service. One of its companies carried a number of
gamecocks said to have been the brood of a blue hen; hence the soldiers,
and later the people of the state, have been popularly known as the
"Blue Hen's Chickens."
In 1776 a state government was organized, representative of the Delaware
state, the term "State of Delaware" being first adopted in the
constitution of 1792. One of the peculiarities of the government was
that in addition to the regular executive, legislative and judicial
departments there was a privy council without whose approval the
governor's power was little more than nominal. In 1786 Delaware was one
of the five states whose delegates attended the Annapolis Convention
(see ANNAPOLIS, Maryland), and it was the first (on the 7th of December
1787) to ratify the Federal constitution. From then until 1850 it was
controlled by the Federalist or Whig parties. In 1850 the Democrats, who
had before then elected a few governors and United States senators,
secured control of the entire administration--a control unarrested,
except in 1863, until the last decade of the 19th century. Although it
was a slave state, the majority of the people of Delaware opposed
secession in 1861, and the legislature promptly answered President
Lincoln's call to arms; yet, while 14,000 of the 40,000 males between
the ages of fourteen and sixty served in the Union army, there were many
sympathizers with the Confederacy in the southern part of the state.
In 1866, 1867 and 1869, respectively, the legislature refused to ratify
the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Federal
constitution. The provision of the state constitution that restricted
suffrage to those who had paid county or poll taxes and made the tax
lists the basis for the lists of qualified voters, opened the way for
the disfranchisement of many negroes by fraudulent means. Consequently
the levy court of New Castle county was indicted in the United States
circuit court in 1872, and one of its members was convicted. Again in
1880 the circuit court, by virtue of the Federal statute of 1872 on
elections, appointed supervisors of elections in Delaware. The negro
vote has steadily increased in importance, and in 1900 was approximately
one-fifth of the total vote of the state. In 1901 the legislature
ratified the three amendments rejected in former years. Another
political problem has been that of representation. According to the
constitution of 1831 the unit of representation in the legislature was
the county; inasmuch as the population of New Castle county has exceeded
after 1870 that of both Kent and Sussex, the inequality became a cause
of discontent. This is partly eradicated by the new constitution of
1897, which reapportioned representation according to electoral
districts, so that New Castle has seven senators and fifteen
representatives, while each of the other counties has seven senators and
ten representatives.
In 1889 the Republicans for the first time since the Civil War secured a
majority in the legislature, and elected Anthony J. Higgins to the
United States Senate. In that year a capitalist and promoter, J. Edward
Addicks (b. 1841, in Pennsylvania), became a citizen of the state, and
after securing for himself the control of the Wilmington gas supply,
systematically set about building up a personal "machine" that would
secure his election to the national Senate as a Republican. His purpose
was thwarted in 1893, when a Democratic majority chose, for a second
term, George Gray (b. 1840), who from 1879 to 1885 had been the
attorney-general of the state and subsequently was a member of the
Spanish-American Peace Commission at Paris in 1898 and became a judge of
the United States circuit court, third judicial circuit, in 1899. Mr
Addicks was an avowed candidate in 1895, but the opposition of the
Regular Republicans, who accused him of corruption and who held the
balance of power, prevented an election. In 1897, the legislature being
again Democratic, Richard R. Kenney (b. 1856) was chosen to fill the
vacancy for the remainder of the unexpired term. Meanwhile the two
Republican factions continued to oppose one another, and both sent
delegates to the national party convention in 1896, the "regular"
delegation being seated. The expiration of Senator Gray's term in 1899
left a vacancy, but although the Republicans again had a clear majority
the resolution of the Regulars prevented the Union Republicans, as the
supporters of Addicks called themselves, from seating their patron. Both
the Regular and Union factions sent delegations to the national party
convention in 1900, where the refusal of the Regulars to compromise led
to the recognition of the Union delegates. Despite this apparent
abandonment of their cause by the national organization, the Regulars
continued their opposition, the state being wholly without
representation in the Senate from the expiration of Senator Kenney's
term in 1901 until 1903, when a compromise was effected whereby two
Republicans, one of each faction, were chosen, one condition being that
Addicks should not be the candidate of the Union Republicans. Both
factions were recognized by the national convention of 1904, but the
legislature of 1905 adjourned without being able to fill a vacancy in
the Senate which had again occurred. The deadlock, however, was broken
at the special session of the legislature called in 1906, and in June of
that year Henry A. Du Pont was elected senator.