The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-07-21
THE DELAWARE sAULsBURYs.


THE DELAWARE SAuLSBURYS.
Three Brothers Candidates for United
States Senator In One Legislature.
The recent death of Willard Sauls-
bury, chancellor of Delaware and for
two terms United States senator, re-
calls some remarkable incidents in the
history of his little state, says the Buff
falo Courier. 1t seems to be the rule
that small states should be ruled by
families For many years the Spragues
contested the control of Rhode Island
with Brown, Ives g. Co., and in the same
way for long the Saulsburys disputed
with the house of Bayard the leader
ship in Delaware. Although the Sauls-
burys did not hand down political hon
ors from father TO son, as the Bayards
did, they too were an old family, and
the late chancellor had in his possession
title deeds to the ancestral farm, which
went back two hundred years His
father, a farmer, was "a prominent man
in Kent county and had been its sheriff.
Willard was educated in Delaware and
Dickinson colleges, began practicing
law in Georgetown, Sussex county, and
soon obtained such hold upon the peo-
pie through his good looks, remarkable
learning, brilliant oratory and popular
manners that at tventy-nine he became
attorney general Of the state. Nine
years later, in 1858, he was elected to
the United States senate, and when his
term expired he was reelected. He bore
a prominent part in the senate and was
stanch union man, but he drank so
| hard that he became a national scandal;
the exhibitions of the late II. II. Riddle
berger never attracted one-tenth as
much attention as did those of the bril-
liant Delawarean.
| In the meantime one of his brothers,
Cove Salisbury, a physician, had be
come speaker of the Delaware senate of
nine members, and by the death of the
republican war governor, William Can
non, had succeeded in 1868 to the chief
magistracy, the Office of lieutenant gov
ernor not existing in Delaware. In
1868 he had been elected governor. The
! Delaware legislature consists of three
senators and seven representatives from
each of the three counties, and when
the time came in 1870 for the election of
a United States senator at the expira-
ton of Wizards second term, fourteen
were for his reelection, fifteen were for
Cove, and one for the third brother OF
the family, Eli, Dover lawyer whose
public services had been confined to a
single term in the Legislature. Nobody
but the three brothers was even men
toned. Finally Eli got another vote.
A delegation went across Dover green
to his Office to see if he would accept.
At first he would not hear of it, but at
length he was persuaded, and in ten
minutes had been elected by combina-
ton of New Castle and Kent counties,
Sussex standing stanchly by Willard.
Willard warmly welcomed Eli as his
successor, and the latter served three
terms, and when he finally retired in
1889 pulled down the democratic con-
troll of the legislature with him, making
way for Anthony Higgins, republican.
Cove returned to the practice of medi-
cine in Dover, where he died In 1861.
In 1878 Willard was appointed chancel.
lor of the state by his brother-in-law
Gov. Ponder. A promise to abstain en-.
tirely from drink was first obtained
from him, and this was kept except fol
one or two lapses of which people gen.
orally did not hear. He worked hard
and is said to have made an excellent
chancellor, though very infrm physi
cally during the last portion of his life
his legs having been paralyzed fol
many years. He was the seventh
chancellor which the state had in one
hundred years. Ex-senator Eli Sauls
bury is still living in Dover near his
brothers house, but is in poor health
When he passes away the power of the
Saulsburys will probably be as extinc
in Delaware as that Of the Claytons
although there is a second generation
which has cut some figure at the bai
and in politics. OF the three brother
Willard was the youngest, having beer
born in 1920; Cove was born in 1915, ant
Eli in 1917.
| - eli.