Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-03-04

AND STRONG DIFFERENCE or upINIoS-PuBIIC
FEELING RAPIDLY CRYsTAiIzIsu AaAISsT TuF
MEASURE.
a meeting Of citizens was held at tile City
Hall. last evening" for the discussion Of the
cohnty division scheme. The attendance wat
small throughout, being greatest while Mr.. Hlg-
gins was speaking, and then not more. If II
many than one hundred and fifty persons were
present. Very few prominent persons were Oh
hand, and the meeting was apparently ''rnn" by
the same persons who figured IN behalf OF divs-
ion at the Board of Trade, on Tuesday evening.
Gco. ii. Bates, ESD, stated the objects Of the
gathering, and James Bradford presided, with
Geo. W. Bush, DIR. II. i. Askew, philenma
Chandler, q. Febiger, Edward Darlington and
John Jones as yice-Presidents. and Geo. w. Yer.
non aud Marls Taylor as Secretaries. On motion
OF William Reynolds the chair appointed a COM
mttee conaisting OF that gentleman, Geo. If.
Bates, and Dr. U. Harlan committee to pre-
pare resolutions, who reported the following
Resotued by Ne Citizens Of Wilmington III Mass
Meeting Assembled, That we desire and approve
of the division of New Castle county into two
counties, and that we hereby request tho Gener-
al Assembly to paes q Constitutional Amend
ment to that end
Hes0!pefi That committee of twenty citi-
zens be appointed to go to Dover and represent
to the members of the General Assembly the
sentiment of this meeting.
John OByrne was the first speaker, who pre-.
bented the old arguments i'll favor of division
in new way, adding some new thoughts, among
which was the proposition that il tile division
be effected Wilmington would obtain control of
seven miles of river front on the Delaware,
which might prove advantageous in the expan-
sion of the iron building interests. saying
that all the land from Claymont to Edgemoor
il already in the hands of corporations, and that
If WilmingtuS wished to secure this advantage
now is her opportunity. He alao stated a
fact that the tax rats in rural Philadelphia IL
thiity-seven per cent. less than in the surround
ing counties of Delaware, Bucks and Montgom-
cry, arguing therefrom that the taxation would
be correspondngly leas in the hundreds OF
Brandywlne and Christiana under the proposed
new regime. This is certainly an enor.-ED.
COMMERCIAL.
Anthony Higgins being present was called on
to address the meeting, and apparently to the
of at least some of those who
had called him, he spoke against the division of
the county, He sad that lie lived in Whining
ton but was born in a lower hundred, and he
wanted the county to be preserved as it had been
kept since the formation of the State. our people
and or institutions being homogeneous, with
Identical interests planted deep and fructifying
in common soil. He admitted Jealousy On the
part of the rural hundreds against urban pros
perty, hut insisted that the people of Whining
ton stood in their own light when they cease to
draw tile people from the whole county to this
city-to let the tide of business course in and
ont. In the emphasis OF his demand for equal
Mr.. Higgins said he would
yield to no man, as it is a claim OF Justice but
to remedy the evil by county division would, he
only right one wrong by perpetrating
another He would not submit in that way; IL
we must wait let rs do il. but he was positive that
the remedy will be applied in the proper way.
Looking forward to the future, the speaker in-
quired where is the assurance that equality
of representation will be preserved, and argued,
with the probable growth of the city, the impos-
sblity of excepting this giant in swaddling
cothes.' A majority Of people of the county,
he claimed, don't want division, and remarked
that those who do are confined to narrow ter
ritory about Wilmington aud in the lower
part of the county. He thought it not well to
make the community too small, as by so doing
the old bunker spirit is created which liz an ef-
fectual bar to progress, and he attributed our
school and penal systems and the
attendance at New Castle to the
secure manner in which the State is tied in tho
thraldom OF small communities. lie also dis
claimed his opposition to division because of po-
litcal considerations, because it is impossible to
say what will be the situation. ten years hence,
i'll the present prospect of parties. So far as
taxation is concerned he did not think the ont
side hundreds get more than one-half tho
amount paid, and further thought the city had
not been neglected in tho matter of bridges,
while for paupers 1t received an amount in pro-
portion to what it paid in.
VIM. Reynolds and J, r. Heald also spoke in
favor of division, when Henry Blair moved to
some hesitancy and then voted down.
A. III. GrInshaw next addressed the meeting,
first Sharply criticising Dir. Croasdale who had
declared the motion to adjourn (seccnded by
Mr. drimshaw) as an effort to apply e "gag"
to an expression of public opinion. He opposed
the proposition OF division because, he sad tho
county is now smaller than the territory of Phil
adelphia; denied that thore ls any hostility be-
tween the different parts of the present county,
or if there il any, asserted that it was only ID
NJ finn nf
the new county az a tagging on Of Brandywine
and Christians hundreds to tho tail of Whining
ton and inquired if it had been asked by them.
He claimed that if the separation is made, Will
mington county will have to pay for the copying
of the records for if it is not done the visits to
New Castle will have to be kept up on account
of the searching of the records, and ntimated
that the cost of such copying would be immense.
John OByrne thought probably Thousand
dollars.
Mr.. Grimshaw in reply said it cost that to
prepare simple index to single record. and
that this city paid only short time ago, SO, 600,
for mere codification of the ordinances. AZ
far as cost is sconcerned lit will not cost anything,
he said, until the people are called on to pay
their taxes, when it would be found that the eX-
pertinent would not cost less than $500,000.
David Lemon was opposed to division because,
he said, we are now taxed to death, and he was
afraid that the separation would cost not So0O,-
600, but 81 1000 600, as there is always ring
within ring. lie then made an earnest appeal
that the people would not be wheedled in with
the lawyers and lot sellers, and said that 'f the
Court House is brought to Wilmington, it will
bring with it all the lawyers and, Good Lord,
they will eat us all up"
After some further remarks by Mr.. OByrne.
in which he sought to alay the spirit which had
manifested itself both of a personal character
and against county division, the resolutions were
adopted, by q small vote, and the meeting ad-
iourned the President Withholding the an
t.,r tla ,rnif foo If 1--we