The daily gazette., 1876-10-20

VIZ pNNpiiu JCil vi blt Val VIC iltltl StllI W
the front three fnll regiments, viz; Col.
Haslett's; Col. Patterson's and Col. Halls
and partisan company, Col. Allen Nc
Lanes; numbering nearly 2,7OO men.
The number oftroops we furnished as
"Continentals," that is called for by the
Congress, according to the quotas was
4I2o. In addition there were several regi-
ments OF state troops or militia.
The limits of this discourse forbid any,
thing like history of our Revolutionary
soldiers; but in less than month after the
Declaration of Independence we had
eight hundred men in the field, who
fought at Brooklyn, White Plains,
Trenton and Princeton. By April, 1777,
we had another regiment of like number
who fought at Branaywine, Germantown,
Monmouth Camden. Cowpens, Guilford,
Ninety-six and at Eutaw. We had seven
hundred men and McLane's partisan
company in the Battle of Yorktown. In
fact there was not battle, worthy of the
name, during the Revolution except
the Battle of Bunker Hill, in which one
OF the Delaware Regiments did not parti-
cipate.
1t is due to these brave men that their
names, if not cut in tablets of brass or
marble, should be handed down through
The medium of the history of our State.
L can do no more upon this occasion than
ennumerate few of the more prominent
| officers. John Haslet, Cunning Bedford,
John MACPHERSON, Thomas McDonough,
James Tilton, Joseph Montgomery, David
Hall, Charles Pope, John Patten, Joseph
Vaughan, George Purvis, Edward Roche,
Thomas Anderson, Reuben Glider, John
Platt. Allen McLane, Robert Kirkwood,
Alexander Stewart, Genethan Harvey,
William McKennan, John Learmouth,
Caleb P. Bennett, Peter Jacquett, John
Wilson, John Corse, John Rhodes, Will
liam Stewart, and others equally deserv-
ing Of mention if time permitted.
Among our civilians, Caesar Rodney,
George Read and Thomas Mexican are
especially worthy of notice, but of their
labors in the cause of Independence we
! now have no time to speak.
The articles of confederation between
the colonies being very defective, the pres
ent form of government was framed in
convention of delegates from all the
States, and the Constitution was signed
upon September the 18th, A. D., 1887,
and submitted to the States for ratifica-
tion. Delaware, by her convention, rati-
fled it upon December 7th, 1887, and was
thus the first State to adopt the Constitu-
| ton
The experiment of self-government by
the people was thus fully inaugurated.
The nations of the Old World doubted
our success, and prophecies of failure were
rife; but here we are to-day-one hun
dred years after its inauguration-with
country extending from the st Lawrence to
the Rio Grande, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, with 40 millions of people; and
here around us in this exposition are the
ocular evidences of our success in all the
pursuits and arts of life. In this pro-
gress what has been Delaware's part
In the Congress, in the Cabinet, in our
own State offices, Executive and Legsla-
tive, we have had representatives who
have adorned by their talents the posi-
tions held, and illustrated by their con-
| scientious discharge of the duties of their
offices the true American idea of office
holding-that it is not personal emolu-
ment, but efficient and honest discharge
of duty. We have had from our State an
| especial and remarked strength in our
| representation in the United States SEN
ate. We have furnished to the Cabinet
an Attorney General, Hon. Cesar A.
Rodney; two Secretaries of State, the
Hons. Louis McLane and John NJ. Clay
ton; and Secretary of the Treasury,
Hon. Louis McLane.
| In the wars subsequent to the Revolu-
ton We have furnished both gallant SOL
| diers and sailors. With continuous line
of eminent and distinguished Judges in
our Courts, of Lawyers at our Bars +; of
1 PbVsiaianc on6 Glarnx,vnar,. Of sf,,l
Agriculturists and Manufacturers, and of
skilled mechanics, we present roll of
which any State might be proud.
In this connection, upon the behalf of
the descendants of Delawarean, Oliver
Evans, take the liberty of claiming for
him the invention of the high pressure
steam boiler, which is the practical ap-
plicatiOn of steam for railroad travelling.
1t is claimed for him that in 1794-96,
when George Stephenson was an infant,
he sent the plans and specifications of his
engine to England to be patented. But
his agent dying, the patent was not OBJ
tanned, and that in 1914, when George
Stephenson built his first steam carriage,
which ran upon level railway five miles
per hour, that he offered to build one
which would run 10 miles per hour, and
prophesied then that the child was born
who would ride behind an engine which
would make 800 miles per day. 1t is also
claimed that he was the first to suggest
the propelling of boats by steam and
that he was the inventor of the elevator"
now used so extensively in handling
grain.
But in material strength has our State
largely contributed to her own as well as
to the wealth of the whole country.
We have but territory of two thousand
square miles. At the formation of the
Government, 17S0, our population was
81, 9,OOO-by the census of 1870 it was
124 900 and it is now, estimating by the
ratio of increase during the decade pre-
ceding 1870, at least 10000.
Our people being in the main an agri-
cultural one, there was not for several
years succeeding our State formation
very large increase of population. There
were but few manufactures; in fact none
except that of flour, wool, and the smelt-