Middletown transcript., 1897-07-10
ELECTION BRIBERY IN DELA-
WARE.
BY EDWARD NJ. JENKINS.

In view of tie dangers, real IN part,
and perhaps in part imagined, which
assail American politics from the side
of wealth, the new Constitution of the
State-of Delaware, which took effect
June 10th "by proclamation" has
special interest. The new Cons.itu-
tion contains. it is likely, the most
stringent provision which BOW exists
in the United States for the preven-
tion of bribery at elections. In deal
ing with this cri me, trial by jury is set
aside.
The practice of election bribery in
Delaware has long been a reproach
upon the State, lamented by its s'best"
people, wiDked.at by majority, known
to every one, nursed and used by many
politicians, and never, in spite of suf-
ficient statutes, brought to conviction
and punishment. The tradition runs
that this bribery began "about 1840,o
with candidate for sheriff, who
bought votes at a dollar piece. 1t is
probable that the beginning of the
abuse lay further back. From about
that period, however, it took firm root.
Money in large amounts, relatively,
was sent every two years Delaware
elections have long been biennial), into
the middle county, Kent, and the
lower one, Sussex, for the direct and
little-concealed purchase of votes. This
source of income came to be looked
upon as legitimate by many voters. In
1864, said citizen who lived in Sus-
sex, 10,000 was used to buy votes in
that county. In each hundred (town-
ship) there were then from forty to
one hundred votes purchasable. They
were the poor people, the renters"
l0afers at the crossroads taverns, fish
ermen, etc. Some were mere 'foat-
ing" people, whose origin or occupation
was scarcely known. AS much as
thirty dollars vote was paid in Sus-
sex county in 1864. 1--WE had the money
and the men stood out" said the wit
nee on this point.
Such corruption naturally grew by
what it fed upon. Each party was eager
to succeed. The party margin in Del
aware was not large. Normally, until
the colored men got the right to vote,
in 1870, under the operation of the
Fifteenth Amendment, Delaware had
Democratic majority for many years
certainly after the decline of John
M. Clayton's commanding influence,
about 1850. The prize of two United
States Senators in single Congress
sional district is a tempting one. The
contest for the state is waged, usually,
with extreme heat, and the ground is
literally fought over, inch by inch."
1t resulted, therefore, naturally and
logically, that more aud more money
came to be used, and that "decline Of
prices" which affected wheat and cot
ton, peaches and Strawberries, did not
reach the vote market. In 1894 and
again in 1896, large sums were used in
Kent and Sussex counties for direct
bribery at the polls. In the latter year
in Kent, with voting population of
about 5000, newspaper at Dover, the
county seat and State capital, said $685.
600 was used in behalf of certain can
didate for United States Senator; in
Sussex county, with about 10000 vot-
ers, it was said $50, 1000 was used on the
same account. The prices per head
rose that year to unexampled figures.
Thirty dollars was offered ito begin
with,n and there was case, it was re-
ported, in which a man, white, "who
actually owned one of the finest farms
in the peach growing district" per-
mitted himself to be bid for, at the
polls, at Georgetown, the county seat
of Sussex, and "knocked off" at $129,
and deposited bis vote for that sum,
In the Constitutional Convention
which recently adjourned, and whose
work we now speak of, leading MEM
Der said.
81 was talking with a Well-knoWn
gentleman from Kent county this
morning, and he informed me that at
least one-third of the votes in this
county were purchasable. say that
the system touches one voter in every
FIVE in the State. 1t is not confined to
my own county of Sussex, nor to Kent,
1t exists iu New Castle as weil.'
It should be said, too, that the evil
spread from Delaware into Maryland.
The Eastern Shore counties of the
latter State. belonging naturally with
those of Delaware by geography, clim-
ate and intimate association a part
of the Delaware Chesapeake Peninsula
were unlikely to escape infection.
A minister Of the Methodist Church,
writing to me in 1874, said about ons-
fourth of the voters In his district, in
Dorchester County, sold out the gem
eral election in November Of that year.
The prices ranged from the payment Of
the poll-tax up to hundred dollars
each. In Worcester county. he said,
prices ranged from one or two to fif-
teen or twenty dollars. In one case
"a eolored man sold his vote for bar
rel of -four; but after it was opened it
proved to be corHmeal. with mere
surface of flour. He said he was cheat
edln Indirect bribery was skilfuily
practiced also. On the Bay Shore,
oyster schooners were ready heday be-
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