The daily gazette., 1879-07-11
FIRST EDITION.
From tho Philadelphia Press.
DELAWA

DELAWARE.
THE HOME OF THE BAYARDs
AND sAULSBURYs.
WILLIAM PENN's REASONS FOR DE-
PRIylNG LORD baltimore OF A
PABr OF THE PENINSULA.
DELAWARE, June 1S78.--The rail-
way passengers, whirling across corner
Of the smallest American Common
wealth, asks In vain for some notion Of
its history. He perceives that the chicken
and stewed oysters are good at the retec-
tory in Wilmington city, and dropping
some easy humor ON the Blue Hens
brood and Diam0nd-backed terrapin, he
gives up the whole solution of Delaware
to the Bayard and Salisbury families.
1t is subject to be modestly ap.
preached, lest one might 20 overheard
by too much precipitation; for Delaware
State has only three counties, only 125,-
OOO people, and 2,120 square miles, with
59s0uls to the mile. 1t is piece of po-
litical carving, set in q niche of Mary
land and with its back to that Catholic
province, as if shutting Maryland away
from the Delaware bay in the interests
OF Pennsylvania. That is precisely the
motive and object of Delaware, as ma
nGuvred by William Penn and his
fathers friend the Duke of York. Al
though the latter, as King James H., lost
his throne for his religion, he assisted
Penn, the Quaker, to wrest the Della
ware "territories" from the Kings fel-
low Catholics, the Calverts. The settle
ment of Maryand's boundary was
thrown into the Court of Chancery, that
purgatory of circumlocutlon, and by the
aid Of certain old claims of conquest from
the Swedes and Dutch by the Duke of
York, Delaware was surveyed out like
trigger under the great gun barrel Of
Pennsylvania. 1t was even then sham
trigger, for its relations to the machinery
of Pennsylvania was almost Immediately
cut of. TIL. Penn family allowed 1t to
possess its own Assembly and judiciary,
and 1t was the step-mother of Pennsyl-
vania. For it was already designed as it
now stands, when the Quaker vessels ap-
peared in the Delaware river, nearly a
century before Mason and Dixon's line
was actually run. Penn made his first
landing in Delaware, and claimed his
originally there. The concep-
tiOn of another great city on the Della
ware was not favorably regarded by the
old settlers, whose interests centred
about New Castle, a place thirty years
Older than Philadelphia. The peace.
maker proprietor, therefore, assented,
after seeking to produce some legislative
union, to two Legislatures and two do
minions, but only one family ownership.
"The Territories on the Delaware"
therefore, remained fast, while Pennsyl-
vania with unlimited boundaries swell
ed onward to her destinies.
Grhe pithiest account of the separa-
ton of Delaware from Pennsylvania is
found in one of Penn's secretary, Lo-
gan's letters, dated March IL, 1909 4:
'sThe government has consisted of two
parts-the province of Pennsylvania, and
the three lower counties on Delaware.
to the first the proprietor has most
clear and undoubted right, both for soil
and government, by the Kings letters
patent, or royal charter; for the latter
he has much less to show. For TIE soil
(of Delaware) he has deeds of feofment
from the Duke of Y ork, but for the gov
ernment thereof not so much as is neces-
sary. The disaffected of Pennsylvania,
after Mr.. Penn's last departure, took ad-
vantage Of clause which he had unhap-
PLY inserted In a charter to the people,
and broke off entirely from those lower
countless" Delaware was, therefore,
willingly dropped by Pennsylvania, as
well as q voluntary seceder. Her inde-
pendent Legislature met at Newcastle,
1901
SMALL DIMENSIONS.
The former little buttress of State,
rounded off at the top by radius line
drawn from the Newcastle Courthouse,
and then made nearly to bisect all the
peninsula north of Cape Henlopen, is
only ten miles wide at the narrowest,
and ninety-five miles long. 1t possesses
two small islands In the channel of the
Delaware, on one of which the United
States has raised the castle of Fort Della
ware for the defense of Philadelphia. 1t
was partly built by General Mcpherson,
who was killed at Atlanta.
Everything about this little State is in
miniature. Its rivers are navigable
creeks: its little shipping p.rts are gen
orally at the creek heads its portage and
public works are short, cutting across the
head of barreled peninsula to the Chesa-
peake, and Its highest hills are mere spurs
Of the stronger Pennsylvania landscape
that sink to soft trance as they behold
the Delaware. All the middle and lower
part OF Delaware is fattish, and the ex-
panded streams, detained by many mill
breasts, rstreat up their courses as lakes
and draw the woodlands into their bosom.
Delaware has only one city in the sense
of population. The State capital is a
pleasant country village on mill stream;
the peach is the forest tree, its pinkish
tints covering the unambitious landscapes
with fleshy skin; the State has the
smallest Legislature and the cheapest
government within our knowledge, still
| assembled under . Constitution made
| forty-eight years ago, and written in but
nine articles. The Constitution is lib
eral charter, made by John NJ. Clayton
mainly, and provides for nine State sena
tors and twenty-one representatives
Rhode Island, with 217,OOO people, ha
seventy-two representatives aud five
counties.
NATURAL RESOURCES.
Delaware is land of loan, mari, clay
and sand, with some extensive marshes
and swamps-thc whole lying in low out
lines. but with head in high relief, like
a cary atid or Hermes. This is the north
ern portion, over which the Brandywint
and several .coincident streams fall IL
picturesque water power, and create
manufacturing interest quite irrelevant