Delaware

THE FIRST PERMANENT European settlement in Delaware was a Dutch trading post, established in 1631, but the settlers were all killed the following year, and it was seven years before Swedes established the next settlement. Representative government started in 1682 when William Penn established a general assembly, which ruled over both Pennsylvania and Delaware. The colonial assembly in Delaware was initially uncertain about whether or not to support the Declaration of Independence in 1776, with the decision to support independence only made after Caesar Rodney embarked on his midnight ride. Under the Constitution of 1776, the franchise was extended from property owners to all men. It allowed the general assembly to elect a state president who had a term of office of three years. Of the 10 men elected to that office, only three went through the full term in office, with the last of these, Dr. Joshua Clayton, president when, on December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to vote to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

After the formation of the United States, a new constitution was introduced in 1792, with gubernatorial elections held on the first Tuesday of October, with the governor sworn in on the third Tuesday in January of [Page 167]the following year, the term of office remaining at three years. Joshua Clayton, a member of the Federalist Party, became the first popularly elected governor of Delaware, serving until January 19, 1796. In the 1795 election, Guning Bedford, Sr. won the second gubernatorial election, also as a Federalist, defeating Dr. Archibald Alexander of the Democratic-Republican Party by 2,352 votes (52 percent) to Archibald's 2,142 votes (48 percent). Bedford was only governor for 18 months, dying in office, and his deputy, Daniel Rogers, the speaker of the state senate, took office. In 1798, Richard Bas-sett, another Federalist, again won the gubernatorial election, defeating David Hall by 2,490 votes to 2,068. However, Bassett resigned in 1801 to become one of the “midnight judges” of John Adams, appointed to try to prevent Thomas Jefferson from appointing non-Federalists to the judiciary. His successor, Dr. James Sykes, the speaker of the state senate, took over as governor; at the end of his term he decided not to contest the election, returning to the state senate.

The emergence of an effective two-party system led both parties to move away from committees drawing up party slates, first to decisions made by public meetings, and then by statewide nominating conventions. The closeness of elections led to many accusations of fraud. This was particularly so during the 1801 elections in which David Hall became the first Democratic-Republican governor after winning the election, with 3,475 votes to Nathaniel Mitchell who managed 3,457, one of the closest margins of victory of any governor in the United States. There were many accounts of fraudulent practices in this election, and the result was a voter participation rate of 60 percent in gubernatorial elections, far higher than most other states at the time.

When Hall decided not to contest the 1804 elections, Mitchell defeated Democratic-Republican Joseph Haslet by 341 votes, at the time, a relatively large margin in Delaware. From then until 1830, there were six more Federalist governors and two more Democratic-Republicans (as well as Haslet serving a second non-consecutive term). During this period, there were many changes in Delaware politics influenced by John M. Clayton who urged for constitutional change from his position as state secretary of state. In 1824, only one of Delaware's electoral votes in the presidential election went to John Quincy Adams, but four years later Adams gained all three votes from Delaware, rewarding Clayton with a seat in the U.S. Senate. Many of the changes that Clayton urged led to debate over changing the constitution. After the 1829 election, the last under the 1792 Constitution, David Hazzard of the Democratic-Republican Party introduced a new constitution in 1831.

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