USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume I > Part 8
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It is natural to man to wrangle, and the lower counties, no longer united with the province, had a dispute with the pro- prietary. Business, politics and contracts entered into the dispute. In 1709 an address laying formal complaints against Penn was sent to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, among the signers being James Coutts, Jasper Yeates, Richard Halli- well and Robert French. This document alleged that owing to the resistance of the Friends it was not possible to provide for the public defence, and complained that for the last seven years the lower counties had been deprived of provincial
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courts. Yeates, according to tradition, had started in business at New Castle and had failed to reap the golden harvests he expected. From his standpoint a total separation from Penn- sylvania meant a larger trade, but the motives of his fellow signers are less clear. It is probable that the complaint about the Friends was sincere, nor is there any doubt that it was justified. Some curiosity is still felt about James Coutts, orig- inally a friend of the proprietary, and now prepared to cross the Atlantic and prefer charges against him. The petition was unavailing, for Penn knew of it beforehand, and his state- ments outweighed the appeals of a few discontented people from three faraway counties. It is more than likely that the London dignitaries looked on the petition with disdain and annoyance, for the Delawareans, take them altogether, were a feeble flock, each of the three counties averaging from one hundred to one hundred and twenty families. Confused bits of gossip indicate that Coutts sought to win the Governorship by bribery, that his followers deserted him and flocked to Evans, that Evans refused the offer and that the malcontents were hopelessly rent in pieces.
Governor Gookin in 1717 gave way to Governor Keith, and in 1719 a flood of legislation began. Despite the influence of Penn and the Friends there must have been a strong hostile sen- timent, for not until 1719 did Delaware permit those who had conscientious scruples against oaths to submit their testimony on affirmation. What is more remarkable, the province of Pennsylvania did not grant such liberty of conscience until 1725. The Assembly enacted that robbery, sodomy, buggery, and rape were capital offences ; death without benefit of clergy was denounced against any one who mutilated a fellow creature ; the same penalty hung over the head of the woman who slew her child, born out of wedlock, and the person who aided or abetted the murder of said child. Women convicted of certain felonies were sentenced to imprisonment and brand- ing on the hand. If witnesses were suborned, a fine was im- posed, half to go to the government and half to the injured
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person. Should the offender be unable to pay the fine he was to be imprisoned six months, to stand in the pillory one hour, and to suffer other disabilities inflicted by the law of England. Various felonies might send their author to the gallows, yet left the alternative of the jail and the branding iron. The Assembly sought to promote the construction of mills, it granted permission to survey the town of Dover and lay it off in lots; in 1722 it established an Orphans' court ; the legal rate of interest was reduced from eight to six per cent .; orders were issued to remove the obstructions in the Brandywine. The legislators seem to have been anxious to develop the re- sources of the colony, and they were no harsher than their age.
In 1726, Patrick Gordon became Governor, and in his days quarantine regulations were passed; the law compelled all witnesses legally summoned to testify against the destruction of land-marks; it forbade the construction of dams across rivers and creeks except for the use of mills; it frowned on counterfeiting seals and charters, on inciting riots and holding unlawful assemblies. In each county two justices and six freeholders were to form a board which was to have jurisdic- tion over negroes and mulattoes. Should a black bondman be found guilty of a capital offence, this board was to appraise his value, and two-thirds of the appraised sum was to be paid to his owner. Negroes who carried arins or who met in assem- blies of more than six persons were to receive twenty-one lashes on the bare back. A slave guilty of theft was to receive so many lashes as the board should direct, and his master was to make good the loss. A negro who attempted to assault a white woman was to stand in the pillory for four hours with his ears nailed to the floor, after which his ears were to be cut off close to his head. Land might be sold for debt, but if it appeared that the rent would pay the claim in seven years, creditors were obliged to wait until the expiration of that period. Law and equity courts, with fixed times and places of meeting were established. Relations not wholly unlike
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those of Doctors' Commons existed in the lower counties, for justices who sat in the Court of Common Pleas also sat in the Court of Equity and the prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas was the register of the Court of Chancery.
All free countries must have a political issue which agitates the public mind, drops out of notice, revives, slumbers again, and is reproduced when there is no other subject on the carpet. The worthy Assemblymen and taxpayers of Delaware in 1727 were again roused by the news that Penn's title was question- able, and two years later a libelous article gave them a min- iature Junius excitement. Investigation proved that the article had been written by a clergyman who lived in an odor the reverse of sanctity, and also showed that he had placed a safe distance between himself and the courts of Delaware. Even at that early day peddlers interfered with licensed trad- ers, and laws were passed in the interest of the regular mer- chants. Boundary lines, as in all new colonies, were a source of unending litigation.
In 1734, the Assembly decreed that elections were to take place on the first day of October at the court houses in New Castle, Dover and Lewistown. Each county at that time had six representatives, but the Assembly might increase the num- ber. The Governor was authorized to change the meeting place in case of a contagious disease or invasion from abroad. Within fifty years the Continental Congress was to meet, ad- journ, seek a place of safety, and move so frequently that few can name all the towns at which it sat. A voter must be a subject of Great Britain, twenty-one years old, a resident for two years; be a freeholder within the lower counties with not less than fifty acres of land, twelve acres whereof must be cleared and improved. If he had less than this area he must have forty pounds in money. Bribery, illegal voting and non-voting were all punished by fines. The clerk was per- mitted to write the name of the candidate for whom the illiter- ate voter wished to cast his ballot. A religious test, involving loyalty to the Crown, detestation of Popery, and belief in the
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Scriptures was required, nor could he who refused this oath exercise the franchise. In 1740 a pound was built at New Castle. Law further assured all good people that a regular market would be opened on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and that on those days no provisions except fish, milk and bread could be lawfully sold outside of the market. Bad beef and false weights were condemned, nor could meat be sold on Tues- day or Friday except in June, July and August.
Immigration then as now was a problem. The Swedes had been so anxious to people their colonies that they drove vagrant Finns and mutinous soldiers across the ocean. Now it was declared unlawful to import a convict or pauper with- out paying a duty of five pounds and giving security of fifty pounds for the good behavior of such person for one year. The citizens of the lower counties who imported infants and lunatics were to indemnify the government or to return these unwelcome visitors. Drunkenness and ordinary profanity were punishable by fine and the stocks, while the blasphemer was to stand for two hours in the pillory, to be branded with B on the forehead, and to publicly receive thirty-nine lashes on the bare back. Game had to be protected, and inns were to be scrutinized, nor did the legislators of the day forget the ever interesting subject of fences.
Robert Jenkins was almost as well known in Delaware as the Jenkins of the mutilated ear in Great Britain. In 1739 he left Salem, New Jersey, and went to England, where he induced Abraham Ilive, a Southwark printer, to supply him with a large amount of counterfeit money. Whether Ilive's conscience troubled him, whether he feared the gallows, whether he did not receive enough pay for his work, this generation knows not, but something led him to confess his crime to the authorities, who sent word across the ocean to look out for what might have been a flood of worthless cur- rency. Jenkins had found a berth as cook on board a vessel bound for New York, but when, in 1740, he landed, the gov- ernment was on the lookout for him. As one would expect
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he pleaded that the counterfeit money had been smuggled into his chest by parties unknown, and it was not possible to dis- prove his statement, bence he escaped the gallows from which a petty thief might have swung. In 1742 laws were aimed at horse stealing, and new statutes sought to extirpate dueling and bribery. Wood corders were appointed for every town and village, their office being to measure every cord offered for sale, for which they were to receive sixpence from the pur- chaser. Each county was to furnish twenty-eight grand jurors and forty-eight petit jurors. In the next year the methods of raising taxes were revised.
Thus early Delaware had wrestled with the race problem, smuggling, drunkenness, bribery, repeating at elections, weights and measures, clandestine marriages, colonial defence, judicial oaths, profane swearing, public improvements, corpo- rations, religious establishments, judicial administration, coun- terfeit money, boundaries, land titles, the claims of warring legislative bodies, Indians, pirates and all forms of vice and immorality. She had felt the influence of Sweden, Holland and England, and had learned that when great European powers fall to war outlying colonies feel the strife.
" Delaware " appeared on the first seal used in "the lower Counties," while in 1751 appeared a new seal having "the counties on Delaware." All papers stamped with the old seal were declared by the Assembly to be lawful. Bridges and roads again demanded attention, and legislation of increasing strictness required each citizen to do his share of work on the roads or pay a substitute.
Some idea of the resources of the colony is given by a list of supplies sent in 1755 to Braddock's army. Delaware's patriot- ism forwarded fifty oxen, one hundred sheep, twelve hams, eight cheeses, two dozen flasks of oil, ten loaves of sugar, one cask of raisins, one box of soap and candles, one box of pickles and mustard, eight casks of biscuits, four kegs of sturgeons, one keg of herring, two chests of lemons, two kegs of spirits, one cask of vinegar, one barrel of potatoes and three tubs of
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butter. Financial aid was also extended to the British gov- ernment. A map of Delaware Bay and River was about to be published, but the government postponed the issue on the ground that it might give information to the enemy. Brief embargoes forbidding the exportation of provisions or arms led to opposition among the merchants. New calls for militia led to new trouble with the Friends, and property was seized to pay taxes. Delaware was ready to deal generously with the home government, but, like her larger sisters, objected to the Stamp Act.
A fresh mass of legislation was placed on the statute books in 1769. In 1772 the Assembly had to discuss the controver- sies arising out of the uncertain boundaries and generally straggling streets of Wilmington. Further complaints of re- peating arose, and lotteries became troublesome. In 1775 spe- cial efforts were made to provide employment for the poor. The bills of credit raising thirty thousand pounds warrant the belief that the Blue Hen was getting ready for the coming storm.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
The Revolution was brought about slowly. The overthrow of the British power in America was not a sudden madness, but the culmination of an oppression, through taxes, coercion, and even insults. There were several Acts of Parliament which may be reviewed in order to show this.
In 1660 Parliament enacted that all sugar, tobacco, cotton and wool raised in the colonies should be sent only to Eng- land, Ireland, Wales and the British plantations. In this way the selling markets of the colonists were restricted. In 1663 it was ordered that every article of foreign production needed, except salt and wine from Madeira and the Azores, and provisions from Scotland, must be purchased in England. In this way the buying markets were also restricted. In 1672 a further step was taken by imposing duties on certain produc- tions of the colonies, exported from one to the other, no longer
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leaving the trade between them free. In 1750 the erection of iron mills was prohibited, and they were declared to be nuis- ances, and to be at once abatcd. These acts were not enforced very vigorously, for it would have been unbearable if they had been, and Parliament did not restrict the colonies in every- thing, but encouraged them to produce new articles, such as tar, pitch, turpentine, hemp, raw silk, flax, indigo, staves, masts and yards.
But in 1763 further plans for taxing the colonies were devised, and the next year Parliament asserted its right to tax the colonies at will, and recommended laying a stamp tax on all writs, legal process and mercantile documents, which led to a solemn protest by the colonies addressed to the crown, that "taxes could not be laid on the people but by their con- sent in person or by deputation." Nevertheless, on April 5, 1764, a duty was laid on all sugar, molasses, and a few other articles imported into America for the purpose of raising a revenue ; and a year later, March 22, 1765, the stamp act was passed.
An extract from a letter from George Read to Richard Neave in London, written in July, 1765, from New Castle, may be inserted here, to show the sentiment then existing in the colonies :
" Before you will receive this, I doubt not but you will see in our public papers, the opposition generally made to the distribution of the state papers .. if this law should stand unrepealed, or indeed any other enactment in lieu thereof, imposing an internal tax for the purpose of revenue, the colo- nists will entertain an opinion that they are to become the slaves of Great Britain by the Parliament making laws to de- prive them of their property without their consent by any kind of representation. This will lead them into measures to live as independent of Great Britain as possible, and they will gradually go into the making of woolens and iron mongery, your two great branches of manufactory . .. From this con- sideration alone every friend to the mother country and the
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colonies ought to wish and to afford a helping hand to obtain an alteration in the late system of politics in England."
By the invitation of Massachusetts a general congress was held at New York and nine colonies were represented when it met on October 7, 1765. The Delaware Assembly was not in session when the call for deputies was issued, but the members from each county met and appointed the Speaker, Jacob Kollock, Cæsar Rodney and Thomas Mckean, deputies to the Congress.
The congress took into consideration this method of ap- pointment of delegates, and resolved that "the same are suffi- cient to qualify the gentlemen therein named, to sit in this Congress."
Their instructions were to join with the committees sent by the other provinces in one united and loyal petition to his majesty, and a remonstrance to the honorable house of Com- mons of Great Britain against the Acts of Parliament, and therein dutifully yet most firmly to assert the colonies' right of exclusion from taxation by Parliament and pray that they might not in any instance be stripped of the ancient and most valuable privilege of a trial by their peers and most humbly to implore relief. For some reason Kollock failed to attend, and Rodney and Mckean alone represented Delaware-ample representation.
Their share in this Congress was conspicuous and influen- tial, especially as the latter was one of the committee of three who drew up the address to the British House of Commons. The congress, with less fortitude than that later one of Septem- ber, 1774, for many of the members seemed timid, in a series of resolutions addressed to both Houses of Parliament and to the King, asserted the right to trial by a jury of their peers, against an extended admiralty jurisdiction, freedom from tax- ation except by colonial assemblies, since no representatives of the colonies existed in Parliament, complained of the trade acts, but admitted due submission to the King and Parliament, and also the right of Parliament to legislate generally and to regulate trade.
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The following extract from a letter written by Caesar Rod- ney to his brother Thomas, indicates the perplexing situation of the colonies at that time :
" NEW YORK, Oct. 20, 1765.
"You and many others are surprised perhaps to think that we should sit so long when the business of our meeting seemed to be only the petitioning of the king and remonstrating to both houses of Parliament, but when you consider that we are petitioning and addressing that august body, the great legislature of the empire, for redress of grievances, it was likewise necessary to point out the lib- erty we have and ought to enjoy (as freeborn Englishmen) according to the British Court. . . . This was one of the most difficult tasks I ever saw under- taken, as we had carefully to avoid any infringement of the prerogative of the crown and the power of Parliament, and yet in duty bound fully to assert the rights and privileges of the colonies."
During the existence of the Stamp Act, Thomas Mckean, as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in this State, in November, 1765, ordered the issue and service of the court's process upon unstamped paper. This was the first court in the colonies by which such an order was made and executed.
The Stamp Act Congress is usually spoken of as the First Colonial Congress, but actually it was the second, for pre- viously in 1754 a Congress was called at Albany to prepare for the French and Indian War. This Albany Congress is noteworthy because here Benjamin Franklin presented a plan of union providing for a President-General to be appointed and supported by the crown, and for a grand council of dele- gates to be elected triennially by the colonies according to population, and empowered within limits to levy taxes and make laws for the common interest of England and America. This plan was adopted by the Congress but rejected by the people of the colonies because it gave so much power to the king.
The general tendency towards concerted action and union between the colonies was noticeably growing stronger every year. At the beginning of the movement the people were not nearly so close to each other as we are now. To be sure they all had a sympathy for free institutions and a common hatred
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of oppression, but travel and communication were so slow and expensive that colonies side by side were separated as if by many miles. But the very need of combined resistance to English acts brought about the union which was fatal to England.
As Thomas F. Bayard has so admirably expressed it; " This union was formed not by any single act or declaration, but by the silent and natural growth of the unwritten laws of human sympathy and congenial association, for noble and worthy ends."
Because of the great opposition to it, the Stamp Act was repealed in March, 1766. There was great rejoicing through- out the colonies, and Caesar Rodney, Thomas Mckean and George Read were appointed by the Delaware Assembly to prepare an address to the King expressive of grateful senti- ments. Even at this time, ten years before the Declaration of Independence, this paper, representing the Delaware people, was marked with a sincere devotion to the crown which be- fitted most loyal subjects. But the principle on which the Stamp Act was founded was not given up by Parliament. Before 1763 all taxes laid on the colonies had been only for local expenses and in regulation of trade, but now they were for revenue for the home government. Next was laid the so-called "Commercial" tax on glass, paper, pasteboard, painters' colors and tea. The colonies immediately agreed not to import any of these articles. "The three lower counties on the Delaware " simply adopted the Philadelphia agreement, namely, not to import any goods, wares and merchandise from Great Britain, to countermand all orders for English goods, not to have any dealings with anyone so importing, and any- one breaking this to be declared infamous and a betrayer of his country. Rodney, Mckean and Read formulated a sec- ond address to the King renewing the expression of loyalty but at the same time expressing regret at the new course. There was some violation of this, mostly by. shopkeepers, but considering what a short time before the colony had been loyal
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to England, this resistance, involving as it did inconvenience and loss, was remarkably unanimous. To arrest this violation many of the towns adopted a simple but effective plan. Two committeemen in each town were appointed to watch the trade of shopkeepers, and if they discovered any sale of forbidden articles they reported it to a general committee, of which George Read was chairman, who determined what was to be done thereupon. This was carried out diligently.
In May, 1769, the duties on glass, paper and colors were remitted. The tax on tea, although apparently remitted, was really retained. The price was lowered threepence a pound and a tax of threepence laid on, so that the final cost was only what the cost of the tea itself had been before. But the colo- nists were fighting for the principle and not for the money. The opposition of the colonies exasperated the king and Par- liament and caused them to try coercion. The Boston Port Bill of March, 1774, prohibited landing or shipping any goods at that port after June 18th. Massachusetts appealed to the other colonies not to import or export until this act should be repealed, The colonies were unanimous in denouncing the injustice and unconstitutionality of the act and in upholding Massachusetts. No colony moved more promptly than Dela- ware. On June 29, 1774, at a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of New Castle County, of which meeting Thomas Mckean was chairman, resolutions were adopted declaring the Boston Port Bill unconstitutional, oppressive and dangerous to our liberties. The meeting advocated a Congress of deputies for procuring relief and redress and securing rights and liber- ties ; the appointment of a committee for New Castle County to correspond with the sister colonies, and recommending that the legislature meet to appoint deputies to Congress. The meeting further appointed a committee of thirteen provided for the raising of subscriptions for the relief of Boston, and promising that the inhabitants of New Castle County would adopt and carry into execution every peaceable and constitu- tional measure agreed upon by the colonies. The words
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"peaceable " and " constitutional" are noticeable as they show that a revolution was not desired. indeed even repudiated at this time in Delawarc.
On July 20 a like meeting was held at Dover (of which Caesar Rodney was chairman), in Kent County, adopting re- solutions similar to those of New Castle County, and appoint- ing a committee of thirteen. New Castle County had asked that when the Assembly met to elect delegates, it should meet in New Castle County not later than August 1st. Sussex County, regarding this as rather arrogant and dietorial, threat- ened to choose their deputy to the Congress by popular vote instead of electing representatives and having them choose deputies. But Rodney and others overcame this opposition and the Sussex County inhabitants met at Lewes on July 23, 1774 and adopted resolutions of the same tenor as those of New Castle and Kent, and chose a committee of thirteen.
To stir up the feeling a mass meeting was held in Lewes on July 28, 1774. It was the largest popular meeting ever held up to that time in the State. Thomas Mckean made the principal address, enumerating the principles of the state rights and the British usurpations and oppressions, and con- cluded by showing the expediency of a general Congress to restore friendship with Great Britain, which Congress, he said, ought to continue in future times.
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