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 whose delegates attended the Annapolis Convention (see, 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.