DELAWARE DURING THE CIVIL WAR

A Political History

by

Harold Bell Hancock

A Delaware Heritage Press Book

Telephone:

(302) 744-5077

Website:

heritage.delaware.gov

Copyright © 1961
by the
Historical Society of Delaware

Reprinted, January 1, 2003 and Digitally Reprinted, April 12, 2011
by the
Delaware Heritage Commission
121 Duke of York Street Dover, DE 19901

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced for profit without written permission from the Delaware Heritage Commission.

ISBN (hardcover edition): ISBN: 0-924117-24-9

ISBN (ePub edition): ISBN: 978-0-924117-43-5

Acknowledgments

At the time the author wrote his doctoral thesis in 1954 upon the effect of the Civil War in Delaware, the topic had been largely neglected. Since then, the activities of the Fort Delaware Society, roundtable clubs, and a commission to plan commemorative events have stimulated interest.

The most important source of information lies in the manuscript and newspaper collection of the Historical Society of Delaware. Valuable material was examined at the State Archives, Wilmington Public Library, Longwood Library, Memorial Library at the University of Delaware, National Archives, and Library of Congress, and individuals permitted papers in their personal possession to be consulted.

The author is indebted to many persons for assistance. Miss Ruthanna Hindes, Mrs. Marie Windell, and Miss Gertrude Brincklé, who were then on the staff of the Historical Society of Delaware, graciously extended aid and service far beyond the line of duty. Mr. Leon deValinger, Jr. and Miss Virginia Shaw of the State Archives and Dr. John A. Munroe and Dr. H. Clay Reed of the University of Delaware made available material of importance. Through the courtesy of Mr. Frank L. Battan, the author was permitted to examine manuscripts in the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library before they were fully catalogued. At Otterbein College he received encouragement from Mrs. Mary Crumrine, Dean and Mrs. Marion Chase, and his tireless student assistants, Duane Hopkins and Karl Dilley. At Ohio State University his research was guided by Dr. Henry H. Simms.

The author is grateful to the directors of the Historical Society of Delaware for publishing this study in book form after it had first appeared in installments in Delaware History. It is particularly fitting that they have provided for the publication during the centennial of the Civil War.

HAROLD HANCOCK

TO ELIZABETH AND MARTY

Illustrations

[A] A Procession of Wide Awakes in the Campaign of 1860

[B] Democratic Leaders - James A. Bayard, Thomas F. Bayard, Willard Saulsbury, and Samuel Townsend

[C] The Opposition - George P. Fisher, Nathaniel B. Smithers, Governor William Cannon, and Joseph P. Comegys

[D] "The Lincoln Quickstep"

[E] The News From Fort Sumter

[F] "Sounds From Fort Delaware"

[G] Delaware Fractional Currency

[H] The State Capitol in 1850

[I] Prisoners at Fort Delaware

[J] A Lottery Wheel Used in a Civil War Draft

[K] An Attack On A Copperhead

[L] Victory Handbill

[M] Mourning Handbill

[N] Lincoln Memorial Picture

[A] A Procession of Wide Awakes in the Campaign of 1860

This parade of the supporters of Lincoln and Hamlin was published in Harpers' Weekly, Oct 13, 1860. While it depicts a scene outside the state, the banners and signs are similar to those described in Wilmington newspapers, and the uniforms have the same design as a Wide Awake cap and cape which was worn by a supporter of the Lincoln ticket and is now in the museum of the Historical Society.

[B] Democratic Leaders

The photograph of James A. Bayard, Jr. made by a Wilmington studio, is in the files of the Historical Society. The portrait of his son, Thomas F. Bayard, is reproduced from an original painting which is in the possission of Mrs. Thomas F. Bayard, of Wilmington. The artist is unknown.

The photograph of Willard Saulsbury, made by a Wilmington studio, is in the possession of the Historical Society. The one of Townsend is reproduced from a photograph (which Townsend himself believed to have been taken in 1864), through the courtesy of Mrs. J. Wilmer Fennermore, of Townsend, Delaware.

[C] The Opposition

The photographs of George P. Fisher and Nathaniel B. Smithers are from the files of the Historical Society.

The photograph of Governon Cannon, also in the files of the Historical Society, is dated on the reverse, 1864. The photograph of Joseph P. Comegys, made by a Wilmington studio, is also from the files of the Historical Society. The latter's portrait, painted by Laussat R. Rogers and presented to the state in 1914, is based in part, on this photograph.

[D] "The Lincoln Quickstep," By Charles Grobe

Copies of this music are in the collection of Brown University Library, and the covers are reproduced by special permission.

CHAPTER I

The Campaign and Election of 1860

THE history of the political strife and tension in Delaware during the Civil War has never been written. No military battles were fought in Delaware, the state did not join the Confederacy, the fate of the nation did not hinge upon its statesmen or its action, and yet the story of those troubled years in a border state is worth telling. Here Lincoln introduced his plan of compensated emancipation, federal troops interfered in elections, and a military prison confined thousands of Confederates. Many persons sympathized with the South and some joined the Confederate army, while others as staunchly backed Lincoln and the Union. Out of the holocaust came a heritage which has influenced Delaware politics to the present time.

Briefly, the political history of Delaware in the period is the story of the reaction to national events of a border state with peculiar problems. The Civil War posed the problem whether Delaware belonged to the South or to the North, and the response was the confused answers of a disturbed people.

Delaware, usually classed with the Middle Atlantic and border states, a part of the coastal plain, and drained by a number of small navigable streams, is exceedingly flat, with an average elevation of sixty feet. A standard jest of Delawareans is that there are two counties at high tide and three at low. Mineral resources are lacking, and the inhabitants in 1860 depended mainly upon agriculture for a living.[1]

The population in that year numbered 112,216, of which 90,589 were white. Less than ten per cent were born outside of the United States, and of these almost all lived in New Castle County. In order of importance, the principal foreign groups were Irish, English, and German. More than ten per cent of the inhabitants had migrated to the state from either Pennsylvania or Maryland, and conversely more Delawareans had moved to those two states than anywhere else.

The Negro population in 1860 totaled 21,627, of which 19,829 were free and 1,798 slave.[2] Under the law code of 1852 the free Negro faced many restrictions. While he was permitted to own real estate and to seek redress in courts for grievances, he was denied permission to attend political meetings, whether formal gatherings or informal treats, to own or possess firearms, to vote or hold office, to testify in criminal cases if a competent white witness had been present, or to participate in any way in cases involving a charge of bastardy against a white man.[3] Only the African School Society in Wilmington concerned itself with Negro education.[4] The great majority engaged in agricultural or domestic work.[5]

Every decade for fifty years had seen a decrease in the slave population in Delaware. Quakers and abolitionists escorted some to freedom over the underground railroad, and others were freed by their owners.[6] Although 587 persons were listed as slaveowners, only eight owned over fifteen slaves. No restrictions were placed upon emancipation.[7] Conclusions in a special study of slavery are that "slavery did not appear in Delaware in its most repulsive garb," that "of the fifteen slave states Delaware possessed the most liberal slave code of all," and that "slavery in Delaware existed in a comparatively mild form."[8] While the institution was of negligible importance from the point of view of numbers, it was significant as a political symbol.

New Castle County in 1860 was the most progressive and prosperous of the three Counties. With the largest population, it contained few slaves and most of the state's foreign born. Towns of some importance were New Castle, Newark, Middletown, and Odessa. All of these were dwarfed by Wilmington with a population of 21,258, about half the population of the county. As a cultural leader, it provided occasional theatrical attractions, lectures, and concerts. It was the home of the best private schools, the only college, and the most active societies. Adjacent to or in the city were the most important manufacturing enterprises in the state, and their owners shared many common economic problems and interests with industrialists in nearby Philadelphia.[9]

Agriculturally, New Castle County led the way. In 1860 it produced the largest amounts of wheat, oats, fruit, and vegetables. Here, agricultural societies were very active, the first experiments with fruit growing, machines, and fertilizers were conducted, and the best farm land was located. The Delaware and Chesapeake Canal and the first railroads built in the state provided satisfactory transportation.[10]

The two lower counties in 1860 lagged behind New Castle County in almost every respect, regardless of whether the yardstick of comparison was agricultural progress, manufacturing, educational facilities, or wealth. The inhabitants of both were engaged primarily in agriculture or in services to a rural population. Steamboats remained an important means of communication, but the railroad, completed in 1860, worked to end the isolation of the section, to bind it more firmly to the North, and to prepare the way for agricultural change.

Kent County contained the smallest population of the three. In addition to being the largest town, Dover was also the county seat and capital of the state. Other important towns were Smyrna, Milford, Felton, and Camden. Slower than New Castle County in adapting to nineteenth century changes, Kent County was ahead of Sussex County. Truly, it was the "middle" county.

Sussex County was the largest county in area, the most sparsely populated, and the most isolated. Towns of some significance were Georgetown, Lewes, Seaford, Bridgeville, and Selbyville. With the largest slave population and the fewest aliens, it displayed many characteristics of southern communities. Many southerners lived there, many of the inhabitants had migrated to the southern states, especially to nearby Maryland, and the ties of friendship and marriage were strong with the South. Agricultural improvements were slow to be accepted as is evidenced by the use of a large number of oxen, the continued raising of cereal crops by time-honored methods on worn-out soil, and the small attention paid to truck crops and fruit. The educational facilities were extremely poor, and the incomes were the lowest in the state. The events of 1861 brought to the fore its southern sympathies.[11]

In the two previous decades an agricultural revolution in New Castle County introduced machinery, crop rotation, and new methods of farming. Taking advantage of its location near large cities and its excellent transportation facilities by rail and water, it found profit in peaches, truck crops, and dairying. Observers regarded the section as a "paradise, the garden spot of the State," compared it favorably "in every respect with the crack counties in the large neighboring states, or indeed with any of the States," and said that it presented "all that is delightful in agriculture."[12]

Conditions in Kent and Sussex counties were less satisfactory. Even Governor William Burton, a native of Sussex County, in his inaugural address in 1859 admitted the backwardness of lower Delaware; and a correspondent of a Philadelphia newspaper in the same year could find only "the beginning" of improvement.[13] The secretary of the Kent County Agricultural Society in 1860 thought that three things had contributed to the advancement made thus far: steamboats and railroads, lime and guano, and the Agricultural Society.[14] Following the lead of New Castle County, Kent and Sussex in the next decades gradually turned to dairy products, fruit, and vegetables. The transition was slow, and a state publication in 1884 noted that the "lower part of Kent County, and much of Sussex was still waiting the magic touch that shall make the desert bloom as the rose."[15] In all parts of the state in 1860, the most important crops were corn and wheat, and in southern Delaware these were frequently raised and harvested in the same way as they had been a hundred years before. It had been confidently asserted for years that the peninsula was destined to "become the great fruit and vegetable garden for Philadelphia, New York, and Boston," but the prediction was slow in fulfillment.[16]

Manufacturing for other than local use was confined to Wilmington and its immediate neighborhood, which possessed the water power, transportation facilities, capital, and nearby markets lacking elsewhere in the state. "Within ten miles of Wilmington," stated the city directory for 1845, "there are at least 100 important manufacturies, rendering it the largest manufacturing district in the Atlantic States south of Philadelphia."[17] The following industries in New Castle County produced goods valued at more than $400,000: car wheels, carriages, cotton goods, flour and meal, gunpowder, morocco leather, and shipbuilding. Wilmington was especially proud of the great variety of items that it manufactured and of being called "Queen of the Carriage Builders."[18]

The Civil War stimulated activity. The Board of Trade in its annual report in 1868 claimed that "Wilmington manufactures more iron vessels than all the rest of the United States combined, that we rate first in powder, second in carriages and second in leather, and that the proportion of manufactures to each inhabitant, is much greater than in Philadelphia, and excelled by very few, if any other cities in the Union."[19]

Much of the prosperity of agriculture and industry was based upon the improved system of transportation that developed before 1860. During the summer months steamboats operated from Philadelphia and New York to carry freight and passengers to Lewes, Dover, Smyrna, and Delaware City. Farmers in lower New Castle County were greatly benefited by the construction of the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal in 1825. A railroad between New Castle on the Delaware River and Frenchtown on Chesapeake Bay began operations in 1831, using horses at first to pull cars along its sixteen-mile length. The construction of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad in 1837 benefited northern Delaware. The Delaware Railroad reached Dover in 1856 but was not completed the length of the state until 1860. Plans for branches were interrupted by the coming of the war.[20]

The construction of a railroad to the southern boundary line was revolutionary in its economic effects. A resident of Lewes said about his town: "It seemed to be finished until the Rail Road was completed: then it awakened from its long sleep and made quite an improvement."[21] The historian of Seaford observed, "Thirty years before it was built, the poverty and forlorn appearance of Sussex County had become a jest. Thirty years afterwards, beauty, thrift, and enterprise meet the traveler everywhere across the peninsula."[22] Between 1860 and 1865 revenue from passenger and freight traffic over the Delaware Railroad almost doubled.[23] The completion of the railroad in 1860 was a significant factor in bringing southern and northern Delaware closer together during a critical period.

A revealing commentary upon economic conditions in the three counties was provided by the internal revenue reports of 1863 and 1864. In 1863 New Castle County residents paid $221,155 in taxes, while Kent and Sussex counties lagged behind with payments of $46,885 and $9,126. An analysis of the returns of 1864 shows that fifty persons in New Castle County had incomes of over $10,000, and thirteen of this number had incomes of over $20,000. Heading the list with an income of $119,453, was Henry duPont, president of the DuPont Company, and second son of Eleuthere Irenée duPont, its founder. Eighty-eight persons in New Castle County in 1864 reported incomes from $5,000 to $10,000. With few exceptions, they were manufacturers or owners of stores. Engaged in economic activities similar to those of their neighbors in adjacent sections of Pennsylvania, they would be naturally expected to assume somewhat the same attitude upon political questions.[24]

How different is the picture in lower Delaware! Only five persons in Kent County in 1864 reported incomes of between $10,000 and $20,000, and fourteen paid taxes on incomes between $5,000 and $10,000. No one in Sussex County reported an income of more than $10,000, and only three persons paid taxes on incomes between $5,000 and $10,000. Sources of income in almost every case were from agriculture. The economic pattern and way of life in Kent and Sussex counties were similar to those of nearby counties in Maryland, and the people in lower Delaware, like those on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, criticized the Lincoln government for beginning the war and for attacking the South. Even if one allows for inaccuracies in returns, intentional or otherwise, the differences between northern and southern Delaware are striking.

In its educational pattern Delaware as a whole more closely followed the southern states than the northern. The first public school law in 1829 provided for the distribution of a limited amount of school funds and permitted districts to raise taxes to the amount of $300. An important change in 1861 made compulsory some local assessment and increased the maximum tax for a district to $400. The instruction furnished was of a low level with partially trained teachers, jerry-built schoolhouses, and inadequate supervision. Suggestive of the differences in the type of education provided in the three counties is an analysis of the State Auditor's Report for 1860: New Castle County spent over $11 per pupil during a term of ten months, Kent County spent $7 per pupil during a term of almost nine months, and Sussex County allotted only a little more than $5 per pupil for a term of five months. Secondary education was controlled by academies, which existed in almost every town. The one college in the state in 1860 was St. Mary's, a Roman Catholic College for men, since Delaware College had closed at the end of the previous year because of a combination of financial troubles and unfavorable publicity following the death of a student in an accidental shooting. Efforts to improve the standards of schools and to spend more money on them were defeated by frugal legislators.[25]

Religion in Delaware was dominated by the Methodists, who controlled more churches than all other denominations combined. Episcopalians, Friends, and Presbyterians were especially strong in New Castle County. The Catholics had churches only in northern Delaware, and those were mainly to serve Irish immigrants. While no denomination here was affiliated with the southern churches which had already split off prior to the war, the Lewes Presbytery, whose members came from Kent and Sussex counties as well as Maryland, showed decided southern sympathies. In all Protestant denominations there were ministers and laymen who felt a kinship with the South. Congregations and ministers in New Castle County, regardless of denomination, became the champions of the North during the Civil War.[26]

The pace of life in rural Delaware in 1860 was leisurely. Many customs and traditions had been unchanged for a hundred years. Kent and Sussex counties were peculiarly isolated from contact with the outside world because of the inadequacy of the means of transportation. In contrast, New Castle County with its favorable location, its efficient system of transportation, and its numerous industries accepted change more readily.

Most Delawareans lived on farms or in small communities. A former resident, in his interesting reminiscences of farm life in Sussex County, has described conditions as they existed on April 11, 1861. He remembered those days as "a slow age-an age of oxen, sandy roads, big farms, and crude machinery." Wheat was still sowed by hand, cut with a sickle, and cradled. The farmer depended upon his own efforts for fruit, berries, vegetables, flour, and meat. Clothing was largely loomed at home, shoes frequently were manufactured and repaired on the farm, and a young man before marriage may have built with his own hands the house which he and his bride would occupy. Commerce was confined to the shipping of bark, wood, and grain from the nearest town, Millsboro, and there were no industries of more than local importance. Hard times during the war forced almost complete reliance upon homespun flax and wool, home-made sorghum molasses, and roasted grain or dried sweet-potato cubes for coffee. Not until after the war ended did such conveniences as a cook stove, a parlor stove, a reaper, and a thrasher appear on his father's farm. Similar reminiscences by Mary Parker Welch confirm this picture of life in Sussex County almost a century ago.[27]

Judge Walter A. Powell, a Delaware historian, has described with wit and humor his childhood in Farmington, Kent County, in the 1860's. "Every farm had its loom, spinning wheel, candle mould, quilting frames, and sausage grinders," he recalled. On the whole, life was "simple and wholesome." The circus took the place of the theatre and the village store was the club. Social life revolved around such activities as singing schools, corn huskings, spelling bees, reading, and summer visits to nearby beaches. Religious influences were strong, and in many homes the father of a family read the Bible aloud at bedtime. However, even in agricultural areas in New Castle County, this picture is not different. Thomas J. Clayton's memoirs present a similar picture of life in rural New Castle County in the fifties.[28]

While the great majority of Delawareans lived in rural simplicity, a small group had the financial means to lead a different kind of life. The letters of the Bayards, the duPonts, and the Ridgelys reveal that they sent their children to academies and colleges, had trouble in finding servants, enjoyed trips to Saratoga, Cape May, and Europe, entertained visiting statesmen and celebrities, and in general enjoyed a high standard of living. In sharp contrast was the condition of the poor whites who lived in the swamps and forests of lower Delaware or in the slums of Wilmington. The free Negroes and slaves worked mainly upon farms.

Delaware in 1860 was definitely a border state. When the Civil War broke out, it is thus understandable that the people in northern Delaware viewed the struggle in a different light than those in Kent and Sussex counties.

In the campaign of 1860 the confusion on the national scene was reflected in Delaware. Four parties nominated presidential electors. The Democrats were divided nationally by differences over a candidate and a platform, while locally they were harassed by disagreement among the followers of Delaware's two Senators and by the attack of some disgruntled office seekers. The Republicans and Constitutional Unionists engaged in a tug of war over a defunct local party, the People's party. These conflicting elements made the election outcome uncertain.

The pattern of election procedure was complicated. The city of Wilmington was divided into wards, but in the remainder of the state the political subdivisions of the counties were called hundreds, like those in colonial Maryland and Virginia. In a presidential year, hundreds' meetings elected members of either county or state conventions, which in turn chose delegates to national gatherings. Each party usually allotted Delaware six votes, two for each of its three members of Congress. After the presidential nomination, county and state ratification meetings named local candidates. Wilmington resented the fact that New Castle County with its large population did not receive a larger representation in state conventions.[29]

On the whole, the Democrats had dominated politics in Delaware in the 1850's, and Democratic candidates received Delaware's three electoral votes in 1852 and 1856. With the disappearance of the Whigs, opponents of the Democrats turned to the Know-Nothing party, which in 1854 swept into office its gubernatorial candidate and legislative ticket. The legislature in 1855 passed a prohibition law, which was extremely unpopular. To the stand of the Know-Nothing party on liquor and to the accusation of abolitionism was ascribed its defeat by the Democrats in 1856. The newly-fledged Republican party received only 307 votes.[30]

In 1858 the remnants of the Whigs and Know-Nothing party and a few Republicans formed the People's party, with a platform of protective tariff, immigration restriction, and resubmission of the Kansas constitution to the people of the territory. Its candidate for governor was defeated by 207 votes, but its legislative ticket in New Castle County was elected. The members of the organization in 1860 had to decide whether to continue as a local movement, or to join one of the national parties opposed to the Democrats.[31]

The Democrats in 1860 were in an unhappy position in Delaware. Reflecting the national division, some of them favored Douglas for president, while others welcomed anyone else. A number of disjointed factions composed the party: slaveowners, friends of the South, opponents of temperance, and the Irish of New Castle County. The backbone of the party was the farmers of Kent and Sussex counties, who had some of the same problems and interests as the southern Democrats. Even though many did not own slaves, they were particularly sensitive to what they referred to as the "nigger" question and the status of the free Negro.[32]

Senators James A. Bayard and Willard Saulsbury did not trust one another, and each was fighting for the sole control of the state organization. Bayard, who came from an aristocratic family, two of whose members had already served as senators, was first elected to the Senate in 1850. Through patronage, oratory, and legal ability, he had built up a considerable following. His ambitious son, Thomas F. Bayard, was his first lieutenant. With the aid of the "Customhouse squad" and other federal officeholders, he controlled New Castle County and was strongly backed by influential persons in the lower counties, who were opposed to the Saulsburys. The Delaware Gazette inWilmington was an outlet for his opinions. He was considered a presidential possibility in 1860.[33]

Willard Saulsbury began a family dynasty in 1859 by being elected to the Senate. Commonly considered the most brilliant member of the Sussex bar, he had previously served a term as attorney-general. After two terms as senator, his drinking habits had attracted unpleasant notoriety, and his brother-in-law, then governor of the state, reputedly appointed him chancellor in 1873 upon his promise to reform. His record as Delaware's highest judicial officer was outstanding. His brothers, Eli and Gove, followed in his footsteps in the Senate for the next twenty years. The Saulsbury wing of the Democratic party, the faction called "the party of the three brothers," was commonly accused by its opponents of influencing elections by a combination of patronage, lottery money, and alleged corruption. Through the Delawarean, a Dover newspaper, they appealed to prejudice upon racial issues.[34]

Special mention should be made of the connection of Sam Townsend, of New Castle County, with the Democratic party. An eccentric and outspoken politician, railroad promoter, founder of the town of Townsend, pioneer peach planter and packer of canned fruit, friend of lotteries, and believer in a white man's party, for forty years he was a cross for some Democrats to bear within or without the party. In 1860 he was a follower of Douglas, and with the editor of the newly established Delaware Inquirer, James A. Montgomery, he was endeavoring to lead the Democratic party to the support of squatter sovereignty.[35]

In spite of the opposition of Townsend and some of his friends, James A. Bayard and Representative William G. Whiteley, who were hostile to Douglas, were chosen by a New County convention in February to act as delegates at the Charleston convention. Senator Saulsbury and former Governor William Ross were sent by Sussex County, and John Barr Pennington and John H. Bewley represented Kent County.[36]

Townsend wrote Douglas that the Bayard men had acted "in an outrageous manner" at the New Castle County convention, but that he had decided against calling a separate county meeting until after the national convention. He advised:

We talk of and shall form a Popular Sovereignty Douglas Democratic Party in New Castle County. We will not put up any longer with the tyranny of the administration men. We was [sic] willing if we could do so, without a sacrifice of Principle [to] unite with them to fight against the Republicans, but we find we cannot do so. They are mad and worried to think their day of tyranny and Plunder is drawing to a close and would rather, it appears, if they cannot continue at the public till, see the opposition elected than a Popular Sovereignty Democrat.

He was willing to wager $1,000 that Bayard would never again be sent to the Senate.[37] In another letter, Townsend informed Douglas that he had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the delegates from Kent and Sussex counties to endorse the Illinois Senator for President. Townsend was particularly interested in securing the support of Saulsbury and wrote:

If Salisbury [sic] had a little more Nerve, and was not so peculiarly situated, he would proclaim himself openly your friend. The lower portion of this state where he comes from is ultra Slavery, and Bayard panders to that feeling to such an extent that Salisbury is afraid he will supplant him or weaken him, and it is a fixed determination here in Delaware with your and Salisbury's friends that James A. Bayard Never Shall go to the Senate after his present term. Townsend, as Douglas'" first friend" in the state, hoped for the speedy nomination of the Senator at the national convention and for a liberal platform.[38]

Senator Bayard informed his son in March that he was weary of politics. "I am sick of Delaware politics and mean to stand above them," he wrote. "I am perfectly indifferent as to what is done in Kent or Sussex, all I care about is to see that the State does not become abolitionist or squatter sovereignized." In spite of such sentiments, he continued to be active upon the local and national scene. In another letter to his son, he expressed opposition to the nomination of Douglas as President, preferring Robert M. Hunter, of Virginia, but expected that Breckinridge would be nominated. He did not consider that he himself possessed "a shadow of a chance."[39]

At the Charleston convention in April, Senator Bayard played an influential part. When a dispute developed over both squatter sovereignty and candidates, Bayard explained to the convention that he did not "consider it within the scope of my authority to fetter my constituents by the decision of a convention, which is no longer a unit; which is broken by the secession of six, eight, or nine states of the Union"; on this ground Whiteley and he then withdrew. After some hesitation the rest of the Delaware delegation remained in the meeting and voted for Hunter, whom Bayard himself had supported.[40] Bayard and Whiteley joined the seceders, who were also meeting in Charleston, and Bayard was elected permanent chairman of the new convention there. In an hour-long speech he pleaded for a harmony which he thought possible only without Douglas, attacked the spirit of prevailing corruption and bargaining in Charleston, and accused the New York delegation of being responsible for much political friction. Upon the third day of the session he requested and received permission to retire.[41] Both conventions adjourned to meet later in Baltimore.

The Gazette suspended judgment concerning the action of the New Castle County delegates, but the Dover Delawarean began a series of bitter editorials about their secession." To his constituents Bayard explained that he withdrew from the first convention because he wanted the meeting to elect a candidate first and to write the platform second. Acting in that order, the convention might have rallied to a candidate, and the supporters of squatter sovereignty have been less influential. Two other reasons for his actions, he said, were his disbelief in the conventions' function as a national assembly after seven states had departed and his opposition to Douglas and squatter's rights. While he condemned the first convention for not representing the nation, and the second for representing an even smaller minority, he had returned to his constituents for instruction, and perhaps he may have hoped for harmony at the Democratic convention in Baltimore.[42]

At a New Castle County meeting at the end of May, Bayard and Whiteley defended their withdrawal from one Charleston convention to attend another and attacked Douglas. The New Castle County meeting voted to approve their course of action and re-elected them to represent the county at the Baltimore convention.[43] The followers of Douglas protested the proceedings, and an irregular county meeting chose Townsend and James A. Montgomery as delegates to the Baltimore convention.[44]

Townsend wrote Douglas that he was optimistic about the possibility of being seated and that he expected to be supported by the delegates from Kent and Sussex counties.[45] When Townsend and Whiteley appeared before the committee on credentials, heated words led to an exchange of blows. The next morning Whiteley visited Townsend's hotel, and the fight continued. Townsend "nocked" him down and gave him "a good sound drubbing." A pistol fell from Whiteley's coat as he rose from the floor, and Townsend pocketed it until police arrived. When the majority and minority reports of the committee on credentials were presented, they both recommended the seating of Bayard and Whiteley, and the action was approved by a vote of the convention.[46] The bitterness between the friends of Douglas and his enemies soon led to a split in the convention.

Delegates from Delaware were present in Baltimore at the time of the nomination of each presidential candidate, but none voted for any nominee. If Bayard had not been summoned to Washington upon urgent business, he probably would have cast a ballot for Breckinridge, since he left word with a friend that he was "with this convention in sentiment and heart" and would support its candidate for President. Apparently the Kent and Sussex delegates hesitated to take a stand until after they had consulted their constituents.[47] Whether the majority of Democrats in Delaware would support Douglas or Breckinridge during the coming campaign remained to be seen.

The major objective of the People's party in 1860, as in 1858, was to defeat the Democrats, but exactly how this might be accomplished was a matter for dispute. Some favored joining either the Republican or the Constitutional Union party, while others wished to remain a local party with no national affiliations. Shrewd Republicans soon realized that it was desirable to nominate their own electors, but that chances for victory on the local level would be greatly enhanced if they co-operated with the People's party. In the confusion that prevailed, the Republican strategy was successful in preventing the local organization from joining the Constitutional Union party and in keeping themselves from being disowned for abolitionist tendencies.

The leaders of the People's party were men who had formerly been affiliated with the Whig and Know-Nothing parties. Their opponents accused them, with some justification, of becoming "abolitionized." Their platform of 1858, which included a high tariff provision and favored referring the Kansas constitution to a territorial vote, exhibited Republican leanings. The Congressional nominee had refused to state whether he would co-operate with the Republicans in Congress if he were elected. It was also significant that the only victory of the party had come in New Castle County, the home of Delaware manufacturing and later a stronghold of the Republican party.[48]

The rise of the Republican party since 1856 had been rapid. Only Edward G. Bradford of New Castle County had attended the national convention in 1856, and the party was generally considered to be dominated by fanatics. It received only 307 votes, and not a single vote had come from Kent and Sussex counties. In 1858 the members had co-operated with the People's party. Propaganda, hard work, and a general disgust with the Democratic party had done their work. The most important element in the Republican party was the New Castle County manufacturers and their employees, who, like their friends in Pennsylvania, favored a high tariff and a check upon slavery expansion. Abolitionists, disgruntled Democrats, and former Whigs and Know-Nothings, most of whom were members of the People's party, were prominent in its councils. The leaders included Judge E. W. Gilpin, Thomas M. Rodney, and Dr. A. H. Grimshaw in New Castle County, Nathaniel B. Smithers in Kent County, and Dr. J. S. Prettyman and Judge Caleb S. Layton in Sussex County. The only Republican newspaper in the state was the Peninsular News and Advertiser, published by Prettyman in Milford. The Delaware Journal and the Delaware Republican were opposed to the Democrats and eventually became Republican organs.[49]

The Constitutional Union party in Delaware was weak and disorganized. In February, former Governor William Temple and former Senator Joseph P. Comegys, of Kent County, were commissioned to form a party in Delaware dedicated to preserving the Union and to halting the agitation over slavery. Both Republicans and Democrats immediately denounced the effort to form a third party, which might deflect votes, and each claimed to be a party interested in preserving the Union. Nothing was done towards organization, until the founders failed to capture the People's party convention in June; then it was too late to form an effective machine. The opposition claimed that the Constitutional Union movement was composed of elderly, conservative men who were out of office, and that it took no stand upon the issues of the day. The two organizers came to favor complete separation from the People's party, but the majority of the members did not support the break. Under different leadership such a party might have provided a real challenge to the Democrats. The polls in November revealed that it was the second strongest party, probably because many Delawareans feared that disunion might result from a Breckinridge or Lincoln victory.[50]

Whether Delaware would be represented at the Republican convention was uncertain in the winter of 1860. E. G. Bradford thought that "any attempt to send Republican delegates from this state would be idle" because none could be obtained from the lower counties.[51] The editor of the Democratic Gazette asserted that less than one hundred men below the Christiana River wanted representation at the Republican convention; but the Republican editor of the Peninsular News and Advertiser declared that more than that number existed in two of the hundreds in Sussex County.[52] The Young Men's Association of the People's party in Wilmington urged co-operation with the Republican party because the platform would probably include planks in favor of protection of American industry and against the extension of slavery in territories.[53] The Republican in April claimed that nine-tenths of the People's party favored representation at the Republican national convention and printed a list of persons from each county who had signed petitions in favor of the proposal.[54]

When the state convention of the People's party assembled in Dover in April, it was largely under the control of the Republicans. A resolution to elect delegates to the Constitutional Union convention was voted down. A motion by George P. Fisher to refuse to send representatives to any convention and to remain a local party carried, but with the proviso that those members who wished to organize meetings for the purpose of electing delegates to national conventions were permitted to do so without forfeiting membership in the People's party.[55]

A Republican convention, held in Dover on May 1, chose Nathaniel B. Smithers to head the delegation to attend the Chicago convention, and Edward Bates was favored for the presidential nomination. Congressman Thomas Corwin of Ohio addressed the well-attended meeting on national issues. Resolutions opposed the extension of slavery into territories, denounced squatter sovereignty, and endorsed high tariffs and a homestead bill.[56] The Delaware delegation did not take a prominent part in the proceedings of the national convention in Chicago. On the first ballot it voted for Bates, but on the second and third ballots it supported Lincoln, whose praises were soon being sung by the Republican Peninsular News and Advertiser and the People's party organs, the Delaware Journal, and the Republican.[57]

Poorly-attended county conventions of the Constitutional Union party named nine delegates, including Comegys and Temple, to the Baltimore conclave. The Delaware representatives took no active part in the national convention, but the nomination of Bell and Everett was satisfactory to the local members of the party.[58]

After the four national conventions adjourned, many questions still remained unanswered in the state. Would Senator Bayard be successful in securing the backing of the Democratic organization for Breckinridge, or would the Saulsbury faction compromise either with Bayard or with the Constitutional Unionists, which might make more certain a state victory for the Democrats? Would the Townsendites persist in going their own way, or would they compromise with the Bayard or Saulsbury faction? Would the Constitutional Unionists or the Republicans secure control of the People's party, or would it continue to exist as a state party only? These were some of the questions that remained to baffle politicians in the campaign of 1860.

Even before the excitement over conventions had died down, politicians were speculating over possible winning combinations. The Bayard men were against any compromise with the Douglas followers on principle, but in the lower counties the desire for victory was stronger than conviction. Both the Republicans and Constitutional Unionists looked hopefully to the People's party for aid. The Republicans, supporting Lincoln, and the Democrats for Breckinridge expected assistance from the Bell men, of whom they both spoke with approbation. Could compromise avert the appearance of four sets of candidates for local and state offices?

The enthusiasm on every side that greeted the nomination of Breckinridge and Lane, said the Democratic Gazette, made victory certain. A salute from one hundred guns greeted the nomination in New Castle; Breckinridge and Lane clubs were organized in several parts of the state; and, at the Democratic ratification meeting in New Castle County, Senator Bayard pointed out the dangers to the Union of a sectional party, such as the Republican, declared the desire for personal aggrandizement to be the reason for Douglas' nomination, and urged Delawareans to show Douglas in letters of fire that "not a corporal's guard" backed him.[59] When the Democratic Delawarean suggested the nomination of an electoral ticket unpledged to the support of any specific Democrat, the Gazette and the Breckinridge and Lane Association in Wilmington indignantly rejected the notion.[60] On the other hand, the Kent County ratification meeting of Democrats favored compromise county, state, and electoral tickets.[61]

Bayard and his friends, who opposed both compromise and Douglas, exerted themselves to control the Democratic state convention in August, while the "party of the three brothers who desired victory at any price," put forth equally strenuous efforts. In every hundred there were spirited contests. From Saratoga Springs, New York, Senator Bayard wrote his son that he watched with anxiety the contest. "I would rather the split came ten years hence," he declared, "and come it will, but the character of the party requires that we should disavow the wretched resolutions in Kent, which attempt to carry on a political contest without principles or candidates."[62] The result of the battle for delegates was that the Bayard supporters were almost completely victorious over the Saulsbury faction in New Castle and Sussex counties and even had partial success in Kent County.[63]

In the platform committee at the Dover convention, a struggle over resolutions brought into focus the differences between the Democratic factions. Thomas F. Bayard offered some resolutions endorsing Breckinridge, and Eli Saulsbury followed with others upholding Douglas and his principles. After Bayard agreed to some modifications, including dropping an attack upon squatter sovereignty, his proposals were accepted. On the convention floor, the fight was renewed. Eli Saulsbury introduced resolutions to have the national electors instructed to vote for either Breckinridge or Douglas, depending upon which one won in the election; if neither was the victor, the electors could use their own judgment in voting in the electoral college for a Democratic candidate. After a bitter discussion between Bayard and Saulsbury over this implied support of Douglas, the proposal was defeated. The resolutions, finally adopted, endorsed Breckinridge and Lane, condemned the Republicans as a sectional and abolitionist party, and omitted any reference to Douglas. Benjamin Biggs, of Middletown, was nominated for Congress.[64]

Thomas F. Bayard in two indignant letters complained to his father of harsh treatment at the hands of the Saulsburys. It was his opinion that they had "not a drop of honest manly blood in their veins." The real reasons, he said, behind their desire for fusion were two:

Firstly-the Saulsburys wanted a qualified endorsement of the Maryland Institute ticket-so that the presence of Saulsbury Pennington & Co at the Front Street Convention when Douglas was nominated might meet a quasi-approval. . . .

[Secondly] Ross told me plainly that there were about 500 men in Kent & Sussex who expected to make a fee out of the Lottery men at the next Legislature and were each seeking to put some one man on the ticket whose vote thus could be held in their power and for sale.

He continued to fear that local compromise tickets might yet be worked out.[65] Senator Bayard, on the contrary, wrote from Newport, Rhode Island, that he was still concerned about carrying the electoral ticket and did not wish to break with the Saulsburys. "I see no hope for the preservation of the Union if Lincoln is elected," he mourned." $2,000,000,000 of property will not be surrendered without a struggle, and yet there seems no alternative between that & a formation of the Confederacy."[66]

The Douglas men were pleased by the nomination of their idol by one national convention but dismayed by the split in the Democratic party, which made his victory improbable. Most of the Douglas men in Delaware favored co-operation with other Democrats, but the rejection by the Breckinridge convention in Dover of such a proposal necessitated action. Townsend wrote Douglas that he was devoting all his time, energy, and money to activating the party, though other sources indicate that little was being done and that outside of New Castle County no ratification meetings or rallies were held.[67] A writer to the New York Herald reported that the party was composed of personal enemies of Senator Bayard, disappointed office seekers, and Irish Catholics. He was willing to bet one thousand dollars that Douglas would not receive the electoral vote of the state, and one hundred dollars that it would not be given to Bell or Lincoln.[68] Samuel Francis duPont predicted that "the Douglas vote will be confined to the Paddies, but this will not draw enough from the regular Democratic ticket to defeat it."[69]

The majority of the delegates at the Constitutional Union convention in Dover were from New Castle County. Resolutions praised Douglas and squatter sovereignty and condemned secession at both Charleston and Baltimore and the action of the New Castle County delegates. After George Cummins refused the congressional nomination, Elias S. Reed, a Dover lawyer, accepted the honor. In his acceptance speech he predicted victory over the disunionists and traitors in Delaware under the control of the Wilmington Democratic junto, commonly called the "Customhouse squad."[70]

The Bayardites were successful in preventing fusion with "Sam Townsend and company" in New Castle County, i. e., the Douglas faction, but in lower Delaware the office-seeking "bread-and-butter" men had different ideas. The Douglas supporters in New Castle County nominated an independent local ticket, but in both Kent and Sussex counties, the Breckinridge and Douglas men came to an understanding about nominations for county offices.[71] In Sussex County James A. Moore, William Cannon, and Willard Saulsbury struggled for control. The Senator was said to have deposited in a Georgetown store ten gallons of whiskey (at $3.00 each) and to be ladling it out freely in an effort to fuse the left and right wings of the party. His tactics were fairly successful, though results of a secret understanding and alliance against the Saulsburys between members of the People's party and some Democrats were visible upon election day.[72]

Whether the People's party would disband, or remain a local party, or officially join the Republican or Constitutional Union party was uncertain in the spring of 1860. All of these courses of action had been suggested at one time or another by its friends and enemies. Republicans strongly favored its continuation as a local group, while Constitutional Unionists and Democrats urged its disbandment.

When the People's party met in convention in Dover in June, former Governor William Temple spoke and announced that, in his opinion, there was no need for the party to exist, since almost everyone present was either a Republican or a Constitutional Unionist. George P. Fisher disagreed, for he felt that the best way to defeat the Democrats was to permit each member to vote as he wished for President but to unite on a state and county ticket. Other prominent members concurred, and it was decided to meet in July to name a ticket.[73] At the July meeting, a motion to endorse the nominees and platform of the Constitutional Union party was defeated. The People's party platform of 1858 was reaffirmed, and George P. Fisher, a supporter of Bell, was chosen to run for Congress. County conventions arranged legislative and local tickets.[74]

The Republicans were enthusiastic about the nomination of Lincoln. The news was welcomed in Wilmington in May by the firing of one hundred guns. A spirited ratification meeting in Wilmington reminded one editor of the glorious days of 1840 and 1844. Cheers echoed when the national platform was read, and the plank for protection of American industry received an especially vociferous acclamation.[75] Lincoln and Hamlin clubs and Wide Awake clubs were organized.[76] In honor of the presidential candidate, Harry Tatnall, of Wilmington, composed the "Railsplitter's Polka," and Charles Grobe, also of Wilmington, wrote the "Lincoln Quickstep." The first verse of the latter read:

Honest Old Abe has split many a rail;

He is up to his work, and he'll surely not fail.

He has guided his flatboat through many a strait, And watchful he'll

prove at the Helm of the State.

The first edition of Grobe's work was illustrated with a cover picture of a beardless Lincoln, but the second, which was published at the conclusion of the campaign, bore on the front a picture of the new President with a beard.[77] The Democratic Gazette complained bitterly that the Journal and Republican, which still posed as People's party organs, were veering close to Black Republicanism.[78] Two Wilmington Republicans assured the chairman of the Republican National Committee that Delaware "will show a bolder front in the coming time" than in 1856.

At a Republican state convention in Milford, electors were named, but it was left to the People's party to nominate a candidate for Congress and county tickets. John R. Latimer, of Wilmington, one of the electoral nominees, pointed out that only four years earlier a despised corporal's guard had met in convention at Dover, but now the Republicans were assembled at the very gateway to Sussex County, a slavery stronghold.[79] E. G. Bradford reviewed the two vital issues of the campaign, the nonextension of slavery and home protection for industry, and resolutions in their favor were passed.[80]

After the national Constitutional Union convention, weeks passed and nothing was heard of the party's activities in Delaware. In the middle of June, the Democratic editor of the Gazette asked if "the insidious leprosy of abolitionism" had paralyzed the Bell men. Were the Constitutional Unionists to receive the head of the People's party, and the Republicans the tail, or were the Republicans to swallow both of its allies? [81] Early in July Joseph P. Comegys, the leader of the Constitutional Unionists, wrote John Bell an account of political conditions within the state. He predicted victory "beyond a doubt," though some opponents of the Democrats hesitated "to throw away their votes" on a third party, and many had previously promised to aid the Republicans. He faced this problem:

The grand cause of the retardation of our action has been the disposition on the part of some of our leaders to keep up the People's Party organization. Professing to be for our candidates, they have yet (some of them) been quite active, privately, in trying to reconcile our voters to regard Lincoln with favor-for ends of course personal to themselves.

Some political leaders were still working to set up a state ticket upon which both the Republicans and Constitutional Unionists could agree, but Comegys was determined to defeat compromise with the Republicans on any subject, since he considered the Lincoln party to be dangerous to the peace of the country. He predicted that one result of the state convention on July 17 would be a completely independent ticket.[82]

Such may have been the inclinations of the Delaware leader of the party, but the majority of the members had other ideas. At the Dover convention, an unenthusiastic and small meeting passed brief resolutions urging a return to the principles of the Compromise of 1850, condemning the agitation over the slavery question, and approving the national platform and candidate. A separate electoral ticket was nominated, but the People's party candidates for Congress and the legislature were accepted. Comegys warned the members of the convention to beware of the Black Republicans who had infested the meeting place and advised severing relations with the People's party, which was acting as a drag upon a ship, but his admonitions were unheeded.[83] Thus the efforts of the Republicans to unite completely all elements opposed to the Democrats were defeated.

Samuel Francis duPont, with Republican sympathies, attributed to Comegys the failure of the Constitutional Unionists and Republicans to agree upon a common electoral ticket and wrote to a friend that the disgruntled politician was working in close harmony with the Democrats. In August duPont viewed the political prospects in the state in this fashion:

The opposition[to the Democrats] . . . should & would have united all its elements, but for one newspaper & two or three individuals. The attempt to nominate a member of Congress at the B[ell] & E[verett] convention to which you alluded was to separate the opposition still more, but failed fortunately, & the regular People's or opposition convention, a very full one, particularly from the slave counties have nominated Mr. Fisher, who will be elected I think without doubt...

Mr. DP thinks the B & E ticket will carry in the State. The Irish, a large section in this county, will go to a man for Douglas-the Custom H., Post Off. & the Bayard & Whiteley men all for Breckinridge-

In a later letter his brother's prediction about Bell's victory was corrected; Henry duPont, president of the DuPont Company, thought that Breckinridge would carry the state.[84]

Nominations by state conventions did not clarify the political picture in Delaware. Maneuvers looking towards combinations and understandings continued to the eve of the election. The Democrats fused on the local level in Kent and Sussex counties, but in New Castle County the enmity of Bayard and Townsend resulted in separate tickets. The Douglas Democrats nominated electors and a congressional candidate. The Constitutional Unionists and Republicans each named different electors but co-operated to nominate a congressman and candidates for local offices. Political and personal differences among Democratic leaders and between Fisher, of the People's party, and the Constitutional Unionists made the outcome uncertain.

Delaware has never been the scene of a more active political campaign than that in 1860. Every hamlet saw displays of fireworks, torchlight processions, and patriotic floats in connection with political rallies. Fist fights, heckling, and the throwing of rotten eggs characterized the campaign in some localities. The editor of the Georgetown Messenger thought that the confused condition of parties in some localities. The editor of the Georgetown Messenger thought that the confused condition of parties in Sussex County made any prediction of the outcome inpossible, and he believed that, as usual, the party with the most rum and money would succeed. Both of these statements could have been applied equally weel to the other counties.[85]

Politicians looked for guidance to the Wilmington municipal election in September and to the "little election" in October when local inspectors and assessors were chosen throughout the state. Nine Republicans, four Breckinridge men, and one Douglas follower were elected to the city council.[86] In general, the results were disappointing to the Democrats and pleasing to the Republicans, though the latter were alarmed at the lack of support from Constitutional Unionists.[87] In October, the Breckenridge forces won complete victories in Kent and Sussex counties, while they divided offices with the Republicans in New Castle County.[88] Captain Samuel Francis DuPont wrote to a friend:

Delaware did about as badly as it could at the "Little Election." The elements of the opposition[to the Democrats] had been coming together when Mr. Comegys came up from Dover & induced the Bell men to nominate straight tickets for assessors &c. I understand they looked silly & blue after the Election.[89]

The Republicans blamed their poor showing upon the failure of the Bell men to support them. On the basis of the returns, the Democratic Delawarean predicted a 1,000 majority for Breckinridge.[90]

It is clear that the Breckinridge press considered the principal rival to be feared was the Republican party. Numerous editorials pleaded with the Douglas and Bell men to combine forces against the sectional party and attempted to demonstrate conclusively that the differences between the platforms of the opponents of the Republicans were those of tweedledum and tweedledee. A vote for Douglas or Bell would be wasted and would aid Lincoln.[91]

In the fall the Democrats smeared the Republicans and their principal ally as "nigger lovers." The People's party was described as a preparatory school leading to the high school of abolitionism and composed principally of abolitionists. The Republicans were accused not only of teaching and practicing the doctrines of abolitionism and of equality of races but also of expressing the determination "to break up the institution of slavery, if it must be even by the torch of the incendiary and the knife of the midnight assassin."[92] The presidential candidate himself, who possessed the constancy of a weathercock, was said to be "a very dark white man-so deeply tinted with soot that probably he has doubts as to which race he really belongs."[93] A local Democratic orator in Wilmington described the Republicans as a party whose leading principle was Negro equality. If they won the election, they would inaugurate a revolution of blood, "a revolution which in the accomplishment of its unhallowed purposes of personal ambition and sectional domination is to disband the army and navy, pack the Supreme Court with the pliant instruments of Abolitionism, and institute a crusade of dragonade against institutions and property."[94] An editorial in the Democratic Gazette asserted that the doctrine of equality would seat the black man at the white man's tables, marry him to his daughters, place him on juries, and elect him to the legislature.[95] A speech by Senator Bayard in Milford was summarized by the Republican Peninsular News and Advertiser as: "Nigger! Nigger! Nigger! Abolitionist! Abolitionist! Marry Nigger! Marry Nigger! Nigger Equality! Nigger Equality!"[96]

The most important meeting of the Breckinridge Democrats was addressed by William Y. Yancey, of Alabama. He denied that he was a disunionist, though his opponents had pictured him as being "27 feet high, weighing 3,000 pounds, eating boiled nigger for breakfast, and roasted Union men for dinner."[97] Their largest parade occurred on the eve of the election. Almost 2,000 men marched through Wilmington in a procession one and a half miles in length to the accompaniment of illuminations, fireworks, and cheers.[98]

While this faction of the Democratic party displayed considerable confidence, the Douglas men despaired. Only in New Castle County where the personal enmity of Bayard and Townsend prevented an adjustment of differences was there a Douglas organization with meetings and a county ticket; elsewhere the two Democratic factions fused. An observer in Sussex County thought that Douglas did not have any more chance there than "a bobtail bull in flytime," and the same statement could have been made about Kent County.[99] The Republicans and Breckinridge followers throughout the state urged the Douglas men to join them, in order that votes would not be thrown away on a third party. At the largest meeting of the Douglas followers in Wilmington in September, Dr. William White told an audience that the hope of victory was slight, but that believers in popular sovereignty should be happy to battle on behalf of righteousness. He declared that Douglas was "the best-abused man" in the United States, and thought that, if Lincoln won, the Democratic seceders at Charleston must take the blame. With the Constitution in one hand and the principles of free government in the other, the party entered the political arena. Only 700 supporters participated in the party's pre-election parade in Wilmington.[100]

The Republicans were aggressively confident and anticipated success in both the nation and the state. While they feared the Breckinridge men, they expected help from the Douglas and Bell followers to down the supporters of slavery. Their strategy to keep alive the People's party was succeeding brilliantly, although they were commonly charged to be sectional, abolitionist, and "nigger lovers," and it was rumored that their success would necessarily destroy the Union. Spirited campaigning was carried on in meetings in every part of the state.

A Republican demonstration in Wilmington in October impressed a woman diarist. She was dazzled by the combination of the illuminations, fireworks, transparencies, and length of the great torchlight procession. "The Republicans introduced this custom," she wrote, "& the other parties had to follow suit or be distanced in the race, but the other parties are not hopeful & feel as if they were working against time & tide, & the Republican demonstrations are far more brilliant & imposing than any others." She had "very little doubt" about the election result, was "very glad for the North once more to hold the sceptre and for the free soil element to gain the ascendency in the councils of our Nation," but regretted that Seward was not the candidate, since "it takes the zest from the Victory when the Victor does not secure the prize."[101]

On the eve of the election, the Republicans assembled a parade in Wilmington in which over 2,000 men took part. The loyal Republican reported that in numbers and elaboration it "far exceeded any other demonstration in the State." Wide Awake clubs, many of whose members owned uniforms of colorful capes and caps, came to participate from nearby places within and without the state. The most attractive feature of the procession was a float with a beautiful Liberty Tree of thirty-three branches, under which stood a representation of Lincoln; a placard read:

Yes, I will protect that tree;

Harm not a single bough;

In youth it sheltered me,

And I'll protect it now.[102]

The Constitutional Unionists were unhappy about the trend of political events. Their own followers were few, and most of the People's party favored the Republicans. Even George P. Fisher, the congressional nominee, was said to be looking with increasing favor upon the Republicans.

The greatest demonstration of the Constitutional Unionists was a parade for Bell in Wilmington in September, with 850 persons in line. In the procession were bells in all conceivable fashions; thirty-three girls in red, white, and blue costumes represented the states of the Union; and, disguised as Macbeth, Lincoln appeared on a transparency, saying "Silence that dreadful Bell." A Republican observer received a headache from the continuous ringing, but to a Unionist it was a pleasing sound, as one wrote to his son:

...the 'Union Clubs' had a fine Torch light procession, the tinkling and louder notes of Bells of various sizes was heard all over the City-the procession is said to have been the largest we have had, and what with the Music, Banners, Transparencies, ship, mounted horse, and great blaze of light, with some of the houses along line of route illuminated, and the cheering! and good humor which seemed to prevail, made the pageant an imposing one-let the Bells ring all over the Union calling together all the Conservatives and good Citizens to place at the 'helm of State' those who have the welfare of the Good Ship,' our country, at heart.[103]

Afterwards at a political rally of the Constitutional Unionists, Joseph P. Comegys reviewed the progress of the campaign, admitting that the Douglas men did not have "the ghost of a chance," calling the Breckinridge men disunionists, and labeling the Republicans as "the worst and most inveterate enemy." George P. Fisher addressed the crowd briefly and described himself as an old-line Whig and Bell man, but Comegys then raised embarassing questions about Fisher's connections with the Republicans; friends of Fisher attempted to reply, and general disorder followed.[104] Fisher refused to answer satisfactorily a query by letter from the president of the Constitutional Union Club in Smyrna concerning his stand upon the extension of slavery, the candidates and platforms, and the tariff. The Dover lawyer's brief and evasive reply, which stated that he favored Bell, the Constitution and the Union, and the People's party platform of 1858, was denounced by Constitutional Unionists.[105] The Republicans were said to be pleased at the adroitness of the replies of the "mum" candidate. Comegys advised the formation of Constitutional Union county tickets, and a Kent County meeting sought unsuccessfully for a new congressional nominee. Although Fisher's noncommital answers did lose him some votes, frankness might have lost him more.[106]

Excitement neared a climax in the week before the election. A Wilmingtonian wrote to his son in the navy:

On Monday of last week we had a Breckinridge procession which went to the country to join in some demonstration. On Tuesday night the 'Bell and Everett' turned out with Torches & music. Monday the 'Wide Awakes' went to Centerville[.] Same night the Douglass [sic] men had a procession in which they were joined by company's [sic] from Phila-and on Thursday night a grand demonstration, the largest, by the Breckinridge party, said to be one mile long-Big gun brooms Torches transparencies-flags-wreathes, Demi-johns, etc. etc. on Friday night-the Wide Awakes went to New Castle-and on Saturday night Breckinridges went over.

On Wednesday evening next the Republicans are to make their last grand demonstration by as brilliant a procession as they can muster-and it is probable that the Saturday evening previous to[the] day of election which takes place on Tuesday 6 Nov.-the Conservatives the C[ons]t[itution]al Unionists-the Bell and Everett party-whose generous sympathys [sic] are for the good of the whole country will have a strong turnout and parade. So you see how things are moving politically here.[107]

Encouraged by conflicting predictions of the results, politicians engaged in a last minute scramble to secure additional support. In an effort to carry at least one slave state, the Republican National Committee supplied funds and speakers for a "regular siege" of Kent and Sussex counties.[108] Five leaders of the Democratic party in Sussex County on October 31 asked Thomas F. Bayard to furnish them with $1,000, since the Republicans were gaining strength daily.[109] The Republican foresaw a Lincoln victory in the state, though the Gazette denied that the free soil party could win in view of the Democratic majorities in the two southern counties.[110]

The proceedings upon election day were quiet and orderly. It took longer than usual to determine the results because of the heavy vote and scratched tickets. The Breckinridge electors won in each county, though the combined total of the Bell and Lincoln electors surpassed that cast for the Breckinridge electors. The Douglas electors trailed a poor fourth. The Republicans were second in New Castle and Kent counties, but in Sussex County the substantial Bell vote established the Constitutional Unionists as the second strongest party in the state.[111]

Fisher was elected to Congress because of his great lead in New Castle County, though he had trailed in Kent County and had won by only seventeen votes in Sussex County. The few hundred votes cast for Elias S. Reed defeated Benjamin T. Biggs. The People's party legislative ticket won in New Castle County by majorities in excess of 600. In Sussex County an understanding between the People's party and the enemies of the Saulsburys had resulted in the election of one state senator, four representatives, and three members of the Levy Court by the People's party, and of the sheriff, coroner, three representatives, and two members of the Levy Court by the anti-Saulsbury Democrats.[112]

The Republicans were jubilant over the election of Lincoln and Fisher but dismayed that their campaign in the state had not resulted in victory outside of the northern county. They were bitter at the "carving and hacking" of the totals for Fisher and the slate of the Lincoln electors by votes for the Constitutional Unionists.[113] Fisher informed Thurlow Weed that only by illness had he been prevented from doubling his majority and that Bayard and Saulsbury could easily be defeated two years hence.[114]

Reflecting the views of the Saulsburys, the Delawarean declared that there had been no hope for a Democratic victory since the secession at Baltimore and attributed the triumph of Lincoln to the "folly of his enemies." The state results "vindicated" the Kent County policy of having one Democratic electoral ticket; combination would have given electors 1,000 more votes, thereby electing Biggs and saving Sussex County.[115]

Comegys was completely crushed by the result. In a letter to John Bell on November 12, he congratulated Bell upon the limited success of the Constitutional Unionists and hoped that Bell might become a member of Lincoln's cabinet. As Comegys viewed the results in Delaware, they were these:

Delaware had been delivered "bound hand & foot" to the Republicans. Such is the effect, for tho' Breck. had carried the States Presidentially-yet Geo. P. Fisher has been elected to Congress by votes that represent, in fact, Republican sentiment. He, tho', professing to be your friend, is at heart a Republican, and the whole body of the Republicans in Delaware voted for him, & that cheerfully. They have him in their hand. He breathes, politically, at their pleasure. Unless he proves entirely subservient to their purposes, they will "let him down the wind."

The Northern men seem to have determined to try the effect of another strain upon the already chafed cable that holds the Ship of State to her moorings. God grant that she may survive the trial, but things at the South lead us to be uncertain that she will. There is no telling what appears at the time to be a trifling cause may effect momentous results.[116]

The Democrats won the election by playing upon the fears of Delawareans that the Republicans were enemies of slavery, believers in Negro equality, and dissolvers of the Union. In spite of Republican orators, the tariff question, which appealed mainly to New Castle County manufacturers, was lost sight of in the last months of the campaign and did not influence many votes outside of that locality. The majority of the rural population emphatically sided with the South, and the status of the Negro had more to do with the result than any other single factor. The Democrats had discovered the formula for political success in the concern of many Delawareans over the rights and privileges of the Negro, and they used it repeatedly throughout the remainder of the century.

CHAPTER II

The Coming of the War

AND now I hope the agitation of the 'slavery question' will forever cease," Anna M. Ferris, of Wilmington, wrote in her diary the day after the presidential election of 1860.[1] Such hopes led only to disappointment. Delawareans might disagree about the causes of the crisis but did little except wring their hands and participate in peace movements while the Confederacy was being formed. Her best-known statesman, James A. Bayard, said, "Our course in Delaware, owing to her feebleness politically, ought to be to watch the progress of events, which we can neither control nor retard in the slightest degree."[2]

A study of the files of all available Delaware newspapers published shortly after Lincoln's election shows the universal demand within the state for peace. The independent Smyrna Times, hoping to save the Union, thought that the South should wait before withdrawing until some act of aggression had been committed by the Republicans and Lincoln; both sides were at fault and amendments or a convention might heal the breach between the sections.[3]

The independent Delaware Republican blamed such fireaters as the Bayards, Comegys, and Yancey for the troubles. The South Carolina affair was a "tempest in a teapot," which called for a touch oil Jacksonism. An editorial entitled, "Let Us Reason Together," pointed out that the best chance for redress for the South lay within the Union. If the South persisted in its course, the choice of Delaware would depend upon the action of the other border states.[4] The editor of the Delaware Journal declared that a secessionist was such a rare animal in the state that Barnum could make a fortune exhibiting him and expressed general agreement with the Republican.[5]

The Democratic Delawarean, sympathizing deeply with the South, did not feel that secession was justified but did not offer a solution to the difficulties. It blamed the Black Republicans for the crisis, pleaded with the South to remain within the Union, and urged a political or constitutional remedy. An editorial upon "Party Versus Country" condemned

secession and disunion as unjustifiable and ruinous and treasonable . . . the apprehensions of abolitionism in the Southern mind, leading naturally, if not necessarily, to the thought of separation as a remedy for wrongs already committed. Inside the Union and not out is the place to seek redress. . . . The Republican party has produced the alienation of fraternal feeling between people of two sections and threatens to overthrow the Union. Ultra fanatics control the Republican party rather than conservative members. With them party is over country. 'Tis treason.[6]

The Democratic Gazette saw "the real cause of the secession movement" in the general hatred of the South and of its institutions, created by the Republicans, but pleaded with its southern friends to wait for Lincoln's action. Its solution was a program to reassure the South: fugitives were to be returned to their masters, who would pay the charges for apprehension; constitutional amendments should guarantee to the South equality and protection; and the northern states should be forced to obey.[7] As talk of coercion of the South increased, the tone of the Gazette became hysterical. Any attempt to use force against that section would end in war.

. . . while a potato could be grown or a pine knot found to light[the South's] ... liberty-loving sons in following the trail of the invading foe, tyranny would be shorn of its victory and submission could be enforced only by the death of the last of her heroic race.[8]

In December, 1860, this Democratic organ summarized the Southern problem as follows: "We deplore her wrongs; would have her rights conceded and maintained, and persuade her back; but in God's name, for our own future comfort, let her go in peace, rather than bring upon the country the horrors of a civil war."[9]

During the same month, James A. Bayard wrote his son: "I can yet form no positive opinion, but things look gloomy & I think the Cotton States have determined to leave the Union . . . by Feby. 11 and with some earlier . . . nearly all the members from those States will withdraw from Congress within 20 days." He also blamed the crisis upon the antislavery fanatics. While he looked with favor upon the Crittenden resolutions, he favored a convention of all the states, although he believed that Delaware could be only a bystander.[10] If the move for separation continued, a convention might arrange the terms of peaceful severance. If war came, he feared a stalemate from exhaustion would create eventually two "nationalities." He continued to hope that some way might yet be found to preserve the Union.[11]

The other Democratic Senator, Willard Saulsbury, brought applause from the galleries in Congress on December 5 in his defense of the Union:

My state having been the first to adopt the Constitution will be the last to . . . lead to the separation of . . . this glorious Union . . . Sir, when that Union shall be destroyed by the madness and folly of others (if unfortunately it shall be so destroyed) , it will be time enough then for Delaware and her Representatives to say what shall be her course.[12]

Republican sympathizers, like Captain Samuel Francis du-Pont, faced a dilemma: "if S. C. is allowed to withdraw, then our Nationality has been a failure, a compact without solid foundation. On the other hand, coercion creates a Southern Confederacy & sooner or later a Civil War. One thing certain, there never was so little cause for secession."[13] Another Northern supporter in Wilmington confided to her diary: "This threat has so long been held over us that we had almost ceased to think it meant anything, but now the South is angry & in earnest, & a new Era has arrived in our politics at the worst possible time, as the President himself seems to be among the traitors."[14] An Army captain and a friend of Lincoln, who at Christmas was visiting relatives in Seaford, Sussex County, reassured the President-Elect that the postmaster and Captain Martin, father of the consul to Mantanzas, Cuba, were "the only professed disunionists" in the town and that "they were not in earnest." Southern feeling existed at points in Delaware having steamboat connections with Baltimore, but he guaranteed "to keep the whole peninsula including the two counties of Virginia in the present Union with not exceeding five hundred men."[15] "Everybody and his wife and children talk of nothing so much as secession, and since the stepping out of South Carolina they talk more," was reported on Christmas Day in a shoe advertisement, but such conversation was only a nine-day wonder and "not lasting like the shoes of Birnie's."[16]

As in many other towns, the Wilmington supporters of the Union arranged a meeting in December to consider the crisis. Over the speakers' stand, a transparency read: "Compromise is peculiarly appropriate between citizens of a Republic as between members of a family; for whatever is conceded is conceded to our brethren." An address, prepared by a special committee and read by the mayor, implored the South to put off the day of secession and wait for concessions. The North should repeal its liberty laws, Congress should enact a new fugitive slave law, and the Supreme Court should alone determine the rights of slaveowners in territories. Delaware, which sympathized with the South, would be glad to confer with other states in a national convention at any time. Among the resolutions, the most important declared "the great purpose . . . should be conciliation," and another requested the local congressmen to support any peaceful solution of the crisis.[17]

The suggested solutions were varied. One politician blamed the Republican party for the crisis, another requested the calling of a national convention to adjust differences, and a third advocated the summoning of a state convention to consider Delaware's stand. Letters from Senators Bayard and Saulsbury were read. Bayard was unwilling to attend the Wilmington meeting, which he deemed unprofitable, but he looked with favor upon the calling of a national convention. Saulsbury blamed the crisis mostly upon northern agitators, who should be banned from political rostrums and pulpits. Every effort should be made to preserve the Union as it was, but if Delaware must choose, he advised:

Delaware should not enter into any confederacy in which either S. C. or New England States are parties, unless all the states shall again be reunited, into one confederacy . . . let Delaware preserve her separate and independent position until the conservative central states-slaveholding and non-slaveholding-shall unite in a new republic whatever may be the fate of the extremes, let the great centre be composed and secure.

Perhaps Bayard was right in predicting that the meeting would be of "no benefit," though it did serve as a catharsis for the pent-up feelings of the disturbed citizens.[18]

Both Republicans and Democrats admitted that business was disturbed by the political situation, though the former attributed the hard times to the action of South Carolina and the latter to the election of Lincoln. "The Phila. banks, have followed all the Southern Banks and suspended specie payments 'today at 1 o'clock," lamented William Canby, a banker of Wilmington, in his diary in November." I hope 'the South' will get enough of it before it is over." The Wilmington banks soon followed the lead of others." The Banks Suspended-times hard-the South threatening to withdraw from the Union," wrote a storekeeper of Sussex County in his diary. A resident of Lewes, Sussex County, reported in November that business was greatly depressed because of the suspension of the Philadelphia banks and the excitement in the South. Not a cotton factory in the vicinity of Wilmington was in full operation in December, and one which employed 200 hands closed completely. "A mechanic who is sure of employment through the winter even at reduced rates may consider himself lucky," observed the Gazette."Secession times" led "Cheap John," a Wilmington merchant, to distribute one thousand loaves of bread among the poor on Christmas morning. A member of the Wilmington city council who found unemployment and suffering among the poor greater than in any other winter secured an appropriation of two hundred dollars for relief. In spite of the political uncertainty, Wilmington stores were jammed with shoppers during the Christmas season, and plenty was reported the rule among citizens and want the exception. Probably most Delawareans agreed with a Wilmington resident, who wrote that Christmas day was "the most gloomy one perhaps our country has seen since the dark days at Valley Forge."[19]

Political leadership was confused, echoes from the campaign persisted, and members of parties were shifting allegiance. The Bayards, Saulsburys, Representative Whiteley, and former Governor William H. Ross continued to be prominent in the councils of the Democratic party. The Republican leaders of the campaign, with the addition of the convert, George P. Fisher, dominated the Republican party. Douglas and Bell men chose sides in the next months.

The governor of Delaware in 1861 was William Burton of Georgetown, a Democrat, who had been elected for a four-year term in 1858. Many Republicans considered that the elderly politician was completely under the influence of Judge Edward Wootten and his son Alfred who had married Burton's daughter. Some Democrats believed that the Saulsburys had made him governor with the expectation that his early death would pave the way for the presiding officer of the Senate, Gove Saulsbury, to assume office.[20]

The even division of parties suggested an imminent legislative deadlock. Five Democrats and four Republicans composed the Senate, and eleven members of the People's party and ten Democrats, the House of Representatives. No member of either house was particularly outstanding, and influences from outside the legislative chambers were important in shaping deliberations. Several members changed parties during the session.

In his message to the General Assembly in January, Governor Burton blamed the controversy upon the war that the fanatical antislavery element was waging upon two thousand millions of property in slaves. To prevent civil strife, northern states must "blot forever from their statute books" laws obstructing the enforcement of the fugitive slave law, which would settle the slavery question in the territories upon a constitutional basis. His most fervent prayer was for the restoration of peace.[21]

Governor Thomas Hicks, of Maryland, suggested to Governor Burton the formation of a central confederacy of border states if the Union were dissolved. But Delaware could not exist as an independent sovereignty outside the Union, Burton replied; while most of the commercial relations of the state were with the North, "a majority of our citizens, if not in all three of our Counties, at least in the two lower ones, sympathize with the South." Whether economic interest or pro-Southern feeling would govern the action of citizens in any proposed state convention, he did not know, though the idea of a central confederacy had never been discussed. No publicity was given to the exchange of letters, and probably most members of the legislature knew nothing about them. In principle it resembled the implications of the suggestion of Senator Saulsbury to the Wilmington Union meeting in December.[22]

A joint session of the legislature heard Judge Henry Dickinson, of Mississippi, comment upon the fears of the South and the course of events in his state. While he extended no formal invitation to Delaware to join the Confederacy, he announced "that he had found brothers with brotherly hearts in Delaware, and that a similarity of grievance, of feeling, and hope of redress made them so." However, without discussion, the two houses, despite their even division, immediately and unanimously passed a resolution, offered by Dr. John A. Moore, that "we express our unqualified disapproval of the remedy for existing difficulties suggested by the resolutions of the Legislature of Mississippi."[23] In such manner, the state of Delaware rejected out of hand the Southern solution for the crisis, secession and confederacy.

Despite this setback, Dickinson sent the following telegram to Governor John J. Pettus, of Mississippi:

The Governor, officers of state, and six-sevenths of the people of Delaware are cordially with Mississippi in the Southern cause. The present legislature opposed to immediate secession. The people will demand a convention and Delaware will cooperate with Mississippi.[24]

No action was taken by the Delaware governor or legislature upon a subsequent request from the state of Alabama to consult with Delaware on the rights of the southern states, but the commissioner, David Clopton, concluded that many Delawareans, though opposed to dissolving the Union, sympathized with the southern cause. However, the legislature, not having been elected to deal with the crisis, felt it unwise to express its southern sympathies, he believed, and a state convention would probably be called to determine a course of action for the people of Delaware, who favored a convention of either the southern or all the states to adjust and compromise the crisis.[25]

In reply to a request from Georgia for Delaware to join the Confederacy, the legislature stated that Georgia should be encouraged to remain within the Union and "as Delaware was the first to adopt, so will she be the last to abandon the Federal Constitution." Nevertheless, from his conversations with Delaware political leaders, the commissioner reported in March to the Georgia governor that "whenever Virginia and Maryland shall withdraw from the Union, Delaware would follow in their footsteps." Although the Alabama representative recognized southern sympathies in both legislature and the public, the commissioner from Georgia, D. C. Campbell, felt that Delawareans might unite their destinies with the Confederacy, but the legislature was not "a true exponent" of these sentiments.[26] Whether or not his hopes affected his judgment on the direction of public opinion, the legislature at least, though divided equally, exemplified his evaluation of its attitude in its unanimous adoption of Moore's resolution rejecting secession.

The General Assembly, continuing to hope for a peaceful settlement of the crisis, passed resolutions in January, which, it claimed, reflected the will of a majority of Delawareans, instructing the state congressmen to advocate the Crittenden proposals or any other fair proposition of reconciliation. Three Democrats and two Constitutional Unionists were appointed by the legislature to represent the state at a conference summoned by Virginia in Washington to consider plans to save the Union. They were instructed to co-operate in every way possible, for Delaware, as the first state, "will be the last to do any act tending to destroy the integrity of the Union."[27] But the course of national events was not affected in any way by the action or inaction of Delaware.

"Secession, Major Anderson, Fort Sumpter [sic], Fort Moultrie-these are in everybody's mouths; even the good things of Christmas scarcely diverted public attention from the 'fuss' at Charleston,"reported the Republican at the beginning of the new year.

Anna Ferris recorded in her diary on the first day of January:

The opening year must be the most important of any in the present century. We are in the midst of a revolution that must decide the future of our country, & is most important to the destinies of humanity. The excitement & interest is intense, and each day is eagerly waited for, for the consequences it may bring. The greatest apprehensions so far have been caused by the meekness and vacillation of the government, & the uncertainty whether it would do its duty, indeed whether its whole power & influence were not used on the wrong side-Several members of the cabinet are Secessionists, & the President seems entirely swayed by their Councils & the North is left to fight its battles alone.

So far however the North stood firm, & the dominant party has shown no signs of fear, & no disposition to sacrifice the great interests of freedom & humanity to the clamor & the insolent demands of the Slavery power. So that we hope the new year may open a new era in our political history, & though confusion & strife now prevail, I trust we shall soon again possess the blessings of prosperity & peace, without sacrifice of the great interests of freedom & humanity.[28]

In general, Delawareans praised the Moore resolution condemning the program offered by Dickinson, the Mississippi commissioner. Even the Democratic Delawarean thought that Judge Dickinson had not proved the right of a state to secede and that southern grievances could best be redressed within the Union. In the opinion of its editor, the resolution reflected the attitude of ninety-nine of one hundred Delawareans. The independent Smyrna Times found the resolution approved by the entire community, except for a few fanatics. While the Democratic Gazette thought that his proposal should have been given the courtesy of a discussion, it opposed joining the Confederacy.

Years later, Dr. Moore revealed that the rejection, which he had presented, had been written by Eli Saulsbury. "No one so far as I know, advocated the secession of Delaware," he wrote over forty years later, "But there were many people & some members of the Legislature who sympathized with the South, and were willing that the seceding States should be the Judges of their own interests & actions.[29]

Delawareans throughout January and February looked to the adoption of the Crittenden amendments and action by the Washington peace conference to save the Union. The only member of the General Assembly who persisted in opposition to the Crittenden plan, Edward Betts, a Republican, of Wilmington, was hanged in effigy in Middletown and threatened with tar and feathers. Bayard introduced in the Senate a petition from 125 residents of Wilmington who urged a speedy ratification, and the Gazette claimed that only five hundred of the twenty-eight hundred voters in the city would have refused to sign the document. The overwhelming vote in the Legislature proves, concluded this Democratic newspaper, that "in Delaware, partisan-ism is ready to yield to the demand for the peace of the country-saving and excepting the little faction of Republicanism." All of Delaware's congressmen favored acceptance, and Senator Saulsbury warned" if any future Gibbon shall describe the decline and fall of this great Republic, he will date that fall from the rejection of the resolutions offered by the Senator from Kentucky."[30]

Other Delawareans were also pessimistic about the chances of preserving the Union." It looks now as though nothing but the interposition of Divine Providence can avert from us the evils of a Civil War," a New Castle County farmer wrote in his diary in February," as the fanatics both North and South appear determined to hold on to their extreme opinions and to plunge the country into a war rather than give way the least."[31]

Senator Bayard, then in Washington, wrote in January to his son, Thomas F., of his anxiety over the political situation:

We are now in the midst of a Revolution, and they[the people of Delaware] seem to be blind to it, and such wretched intriguers as Saulsbury are seeking to gain popularity by singing hosannas to a Union, which is gone, I fear, inevitably. But the question of peace or war is still open, and the indecisions of most of the Border States, is only increasing the chances in favor of War.

As he saw the situation, Delaware would follow Maryland. The Union, already "hopelessly gone," could not be saved by the peace conference in Washington, composed of commissioners which included from Delaware two "dunkerheads" and three smooth vulgar hypocrites. In his opinion, Buchanan was "utterly unequal to such a crisis."[32]

Thomas F. Bayard was swayed by similar fears: "all hopes of . . . restoration[of the Union] will fly with the attempt of coercion," he informed a friend in February. In case of conflict, he would be in stern opposition to the antislavery men, expected Delaware to follow a like course, and predicted that Delawareans would prove worthy of their Revolutionary sires. In January he was offered by the administration the post of Under Secretary of State but declined for unspecified reasons."[33]

William Canby, a Wilmington banker, whose hopes rose and fell, expected the Washington conference to "give us peace or war-I sincerely trust it will be the former," he wrote in his diary on February 4. When a seventh state, Texas, had seceded, he complained that the peace commissioners had accomplished nothing, but with misplaced optimism he noted on the last day of February: "Our Citizens have been overjoyed at the news[of the conference] from Washington this morning, flags are going up all over the city." The conference had submitted propositions to Congress, which, he hoped, would be adopted."[34]

While many talked of peace, some prepared for war. In January, former Governor William H. Ross asked Thomas Bayard, acting as his father's agent, to send some arms to Sussex County, where they would be placed "in the right kind of hands," presumably Democratic. A week later two wagons of equipment were moved from Georgetown to Seaford for the use of a "secessionist company" near Ross' home. Young Bayard enlisted sixty former members of the Breckinridge and Lane Club in a company of Delaware Guards in January, and about the same time other Democrats in New Castle Hundred organized a militia company.[35]

A controversy arose over the disposition of federal firearms placed by the governor at the Delaware Military Academy, in Wilmington. At T. F. Bayard's suggestion, Governor Burton requested Theodore Hyatt, the superintendent and a Republican, to surrender them to the Democratic Delaware Guards. A resolution was introduced in the House, inquiring for the whereabouts of the weapons, and a bill was prepared by Hyatt's Republican friends, giving him exclusive control of the arms. By the end of the month a compromise had been arranged to leave the seventy rifles, sabres, and accouterments in the possession of the school except when needed for drill by the Delaware Guards.[36]

Fears circulated that Delaware might be visited by marauding bands, might become the battleground between North and South, or might witness civil war between citizens who were sympathetic with the North or the South. "There seems to be a pervading restlessness and feeling of insecurity," commented the editor of the Smyrna Times in February, "and the people are not only arming organized companies, but privately, for the protection of their persons and families." He noted that one firm in Wilmington had sold 1,500 pistols and that militia companies, all of which were said to be sympathetic with secession, had been formed in Milford, Wilmington, Odessa, Dover, and Newark.[37]

The only important military post in the state, Fort Delaware, on a small island near Delaware City in the Delaware River, was virtually unmanned and unarmed at the beginning of the year. When rumors circulated that southern sympathizers in Delaware planned to seize it, some big guns from Philadelphia were sent to equip it in February, and thirty men from Governor's Island in New York were added to its garrison. Representative William Whiteley, then in Washington, observed in February to the younger Bayard, "Does not the arming & manning of Fort Delaware arise from the formation of our military companies? Some fool wrote to our old fool here ([General Winfield] Scott) and told him there was danger." The prospects for internal security and for peace within the state were not reassuring.[38]

Throughout January and February, the Democratic Gazette and Delawarean and the independent Republican and Smyrna Times urged the preservation of the Union at any price, though the tense situation made them also consider the position of the state in time of war. An editorial in the Gazette upon "Northern and Southern Action" raised important questions concerning Delaware's stand:

Is Delaware ready to unite with the tyrannical cry for war, now raised by the fanatical press and politicians of the North? . . . Are her people ready to join the forces of those who would drive the white man from his burning house to the swamps, and with the bloody knife fresh reeking from the gaping wounds of the defenceless wife and unoffending children, arm the slave, and bid him use it in acquiring his freedom?

No. The hearts of Delaware's sons throb with kindness for their brethren of all sections. A few may unite in the mad rage which has carried the northern mind into that fearful frenzy which makes it seek the blood of a fellow, but nineteen out of every twenty of our people are wedded to peace; and, we believe, full that proportion of them are ready to yield to the South every right she claims under the constitution; and she claims no right that she is not clearly entitled to.

We are not in favor of secession; we have opposed it. We are in favor of the Union and have urged compromise and concession, which is the only way in which it can be preserved. But we have no knife for the neck of a brother who only asks for his rights under the Constitution. If the North will not yield these rights, then we say the North should let him go in peace.

The editor claimed that Thomas Garrett, Delaware abolitionist, and the Republican party took the same stand on questions and that those views were repugnant to three-fourths of the people in the state. Another Democratic editorial accused the Delaware Journal (later Republican) and the independent Republican of rejecting the Crittenden compromise and of advocating war. It warned that in case of conflict northern Delaware might become the camping ground of invaders from the north. "By way of obstruction to this, every bridge near our city would be cut down, and every high road barricaded with fallen trees by willing hands." The ensuing struggle within the state would see fields laid waste, fences destroyed, cattle slain, and lives lost.[39]

The Democratic Delawarean thought that Delaware was more interested in peace than any other state because it might become a battleground. Its citizens were "almost unanimous" in opposition both to secession and to coercion. If a peaceful separation could be arranged, measures of reconciliation might eventually re-establish the Union on a firmer basis. Lincoln's policy of coercion could only result in war, and it was better that the cotton states secede and public property, such as forts and revenue cutters, be lost, than endless conflict ensue. If war did come, Lincoln and his advisers should tremble, for "he that draweth the sword, sometimes perishes by it, and Lincoln might find that truth verified in the end. Let him beware, 'Caesar had his Brutus.' "[40]

The independent Republican blamed the crisis upon southem fire-eaters. The Republican party had no intention of abolishing slavery in the South, Lincoln's inauguration would not destroy the Union, and a policy of coercion was not to be considered-unless the South attempted to break up the Union. Delaware's position in the controversy was with the North rather than with the South. "Our highest desire is for the maintenance of the union of the States, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws."[41]

The independent Smyrna Times refused to consider the possibility of dissolution. Eight-tenths of Americans stood for the Union first and worried about arrangements for its perpetuity afterward. "Our people are ten to one in favor of compromise, and are nearly, if not quite, to that extent opposed to coercion, "summarized the editor of the Smyrna Times in February, and the Gazette editor approved the statement, as would have probably most Delawareans,[42] but they stood by helplessly, as the course of events swept the nation into war.

Peace proposals by statesmen, legislatures, and conventions had made no progress, and the public waited for the new President to act. Many Democrats expected his inauguration to be followed by war immediately, while many Republicans hoped that peace might come from strong leadership. Anna Ferris wrote in her diary on March 4: "President Lincoln was safely inaugurated today. What his influence can do for the country in its present convulsed and sorry state we cannot conjecture, but must wait and hope."[43]

Various responses greeted the President's inaugural address. William Canby, of Wilmington, considered the paper "excellent" and hoped that the President would turn out to be "a second Jackson." The Delaware Republican found the speech conciliatory and masterful in style; the Peninsular News and Advertiser believed that the government could now be depended upon to preserve the Union at all costs; but the Delawarean could discover "no policy" in the address; and the Gazette offered a reward of five thousand dollars to anyone who could tell whether the message spoke for peace or war. If the President wanted peace, he should withdraw Major Robert Anderson from Fort Sumter and leave the problem to Congress and the people.[44]

In a speech before the Senate in March, James A. Bayard, who had hoped for a compromise from the convention of all states, was now convinced that only two alternatives remained: a war of subjugation by the national government or assent to peaceful severance and recognition of independence. Maintaining that the main cause of sectional alienation was slavery, he offered resolutions to the effect that since war could not restore the Union or attain any beneficial result, the President should be authorized to negotiate and conclude a treaty with the seceded states. Judah P. Benjamin wrote Senator Bayard an interesting letter in March describing the new constitution of the Confederacy. "You will be with us in November in spite of everything," he predicted. "God grant your little state a chance to live under it in the Confederacy, & that we may once again sit side by side in a Senate of patriots and statesmen free from your nightmare of Red and mine of Black republicanism."[45]

The newspapers in March and early April continued to press for a peaceful settlement. The Gazette attacked the "suicidal" policy of "Lincoln, Chase and Company," which it alleged, was leading the country into war. All attempted compromises fell through because of the dictation of this tyrant, who wished to solve the problems "by the bullet, not ballot." In a civil war more Northern than Southern soldiers would die, and the majority of the Northerners who voted against Lincoln would rebel. Within six months he would be on his way back to Springfield. The editor agreed with Bayard that the "best and only mode for peace" was through the recognition of the Confederacy. If civil war resulted from the sending of ships to South Carolina by Lincoln, he would be remembered "in after ages as a monster, who should have been deprived of life before he committed the folly of plunging the two nations into war."[46]

The independent Republican viewed the crisis as the work of the politicians and demagogues of the South, primarily, though to some extent, also, of the Garrison abolitionists. The Republican party opposed the extension of slavery but was willing to permit each state to control its own institutions. The newspaper supported the Union as it was, its preservation, and the enforcement of the laws; it was prepared to "support our Country and Country's flag against all foes whether foreign or domestic." To argue, as the editor of the Gazette did, that the South was acting on the defensive in robbing the treasury, seizing forts, and confiscating public property was "supremely ridiculous" and "treason." The Republican did not advocate war but wanted forts and property in the South defended from attack.[47]

The independent Smyrna Times urged the federal evacuation of Sumter. The seceding states might be persuaded but not forced either to yield the fort or return it to the Union. The President should positively assure the South that his policy was for peace. War would not bring the South back into the Union but destroy both sections. If persuasion failed, let the South go.[48]

Many Delaware Republicans visited "the Court of St. Abe," in Washington, after the inauguration to collect their rewards. Thomas M. Rodney, having failed to see Secretary of State Seward on a visit to the capital in March, left a letter defending his record as a Republican leader and elector in 1856 and 1860. Under the arrangement of allowing each county one major office, E. G. Bradford, of New Castle County, became United States District Attorney; Nathaniel B. Smithers, of Kent County, Provost-Marshal; and Dr. J. S. Prettyman, of Sussex County, consul at Glasgow, Scotland. Rodney was appointed collector of the port of Wilmington, Fisher's father-in-law became collector of the port of New Castle, and one of Smither's relatives served as a consul in Turkey. There was a complete change of officials in post offices, customhouses, and lighthouses under the disposal of patronage by Fisher.[49]

While the press strongly urged the preservation of the Union, some Democrats and Republicans in the state prepared for internal or external war. Captain Samuel duPont, who had been placed in charge of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, received on April 8 an excited request from Robert Milligan, of Wilmington, for one thousand ball cartridges for altered muskets, which his men needed for drill. Trouble was to be expected in Delaware when Virginia and Maryland should secede, and a "secession convention" had been held in Wilmington just before James A. Bayard went south. While the Delaware Guards, of which Thomas F. Bayard was first lieutenant, numbered 170 and possessed the best arms in the state, including two brass field pieces, Milligan's company had only forty altered muskets. "I have no doubt myself," he wrote, "that before this month expires we shall have to try our strength at crossed bayonets, with these Breckinridge traitors. My men, not having the advantage of the drill room, must rely upon cold steel, and their innate pluck in a righteous cause to carry them through successfully."[50]

A rabid Republican, Dr. A. H. Grimshaw, postmaster of Wilmington, viewed the situation by April 13, as follows:

Our Governor is a Secessionist, most of our Breckinridge men are the same. All the arms are in the hands of these men, who have formed companies and are drilling under a paid officer from Philad.

In New Castle five miles from Fort Delaware (nearly opposite) , Ogle, late Sheriff, has a company and cannon. The Union men have not a single gun. J. M. Barr, editor of the Commonwealth, nominally a Bell & Everett paper, is a dangerous man, most abusive, to this day of the administration. He is Captain of the Company. I joined the "National Guards", an Irish Company; they refused as a company to sign a paper offering service to the Government. We have no arms, we can get no arms. I enrolled sixty odd men & drilled them for some time, but having no arms I disbanded the company.

Is the Administration going to allow Traitors in the rear of the Capitol to arm & equip without any counter-movement?

With encouragement Grimshaw felt that he could form two companies of Bell and Lincoln men in the city. Ogle's brother, Benjamin, the chief carpenter at Fort Delaware, was "a secessionist and a traitor," and yet he was allowed to remain inside the fort, which possessed only a corporal's guard to defend it. Disunionists might come from nearby Maryland twelve miles away, and within fifteen minutes five hundred or more would be landed from boats on Pea Patch Island. Ten of the tiny garrison had already deserted, and he wondered who might have induced them to do so. The Captain of the revenue cutter on the river was "not worth a straw" and would surrender his vessel on demand from such Democrats as James A. Bayard or Jesse Sharpe, while the Captain's son had sported a secession cockade upon one occasion in a newspaper office and headed a secession company. If Grimshaw could get arms, he would organize a force immediately; otherwise, he would serve as a surgeon "anywhere, or in any capacity in which I can be useful." Grimshaw sent a letter of similar import to the Secretary of War. On April 17 he was informed that the carpenter was dismissed, but that all requests for federal arms would be handled by the Delaware governor.[51]

In Sussex County the Democrats prepared for internal or external strife. Former Governor Ross on April 15 asked Judge Edward Wootten to use his influence with Governor Burton to prevent an unwise political appointment in Sussex County, which might stand in the way of healing Democratic campaign wounds. "We are now in the midst of a civil war," he complained. "We shall have to have a hand to hand encounter with the Republicans, and yet Governor Burton is about to take a step which will divide our party and cause the Democrats on the eastern side of the county to refuse to support the Governor in any of his measures." Would Wootten not intervene to save Governor Burton from committing "political suicide?"[52]

The public awaited impatiently the decision on Fort Sumter by the President and his cabinet. At last an expedition sailed from New York but found upon its arrival on April 12 that the fort was already being bombarded. The relief expedition was in the charge of a Delawarean, John P. Gillis, who penned an interesting description of the event in a letter to his son. He had feared that all might have perished from the bombardment, but "was most happy on my visit there the morning of the 14th to find that a merciful interposition of providence had spared them all alive, only a few wounded. . . ." He had the honor of bringing Major Anderson from Fort Sumter, and was told that "the Major did not surrender, but evacuated the Fort with his 'old flag' flying-marching out to the true and faithful tune of 'Yankee Doodle.' "[53]

The news that Fort Sumter was being fired upon arrived in Wilmington on April 13, and great excitement followed. The telegraph office was surrounded by people anxious to know the latest intelligence, every train was met by crowds eager for news, and the newspapers published extras. The Delaware Inquirer issued two fliers during the evening. The first was headed: "War Begun! Fire opened on Fort Sumter," while the second read: "Fort Sumter HAS SURRENDERED! Confcderate [sic] Flag now floats over its walls!!! None of the Garrison or Confederated Troops Hurt." Could the report of the attack be true, or was it another false rumor such as had once before swept through the city? On the Sabbath additional confirmation appeared of the happenings at Fort Sumter."[54]

[E] The News From Fort Sumter

The illustrations above reproduce in full the two fliers published by the Delaware Inquirer, Apr. 13, 1861

How one Delawarean reacted to the exciting events of these days is interestingly told in the diary of Anna Ferris:

April 12. We are now every hour looking for the tidings that war has actually begun-the most unjustifiable & wicked war ever actually begun & how it will end no one can tell, except that the North has Providence & the Strong batallions both on her side-Still the South is united & determined & has the advantage of previous preparation and the first results may be disastrous to us-It is only five days since vessels were sent to Fort Sumter to relieve Major Anderson & supply him with provisions -& the whole country is waiting the result with the most intense anxiety & painful suspense-Still there is a feeling of relief & hope that the Government has at last taken a determined position & a rapidly increasing confidence in its ability & firmness-forbearance & patience were exhausted & we must now abide the result-

April 13. If the Telegraph can be depended on, Fort Sumter was attacked yesterday before the war vessels arrived there-this much is probably true, but the reports as to the actual state of things cannot be relied on, as the South has the control of the Telegraph-

April 14. The reports today are that Fort Sumter has surrendered & that the Southern Flag is flying in the place of the old "Stars & Stripes", but that no lives have been lost-This is too improbable to be believed-

April 15. Tidings today, though probably not entirely reliable, are sufficiently so to confirm the disastrous reports of yesterday-Major Anderson surrendered the Fort before the ships came to his relief & the Confederate Flag floats in place of the National Emblem-The President this morning issued a Proclamation calling out the militia of the States to the amount of 75,000, & we are now in the midst of Revolution & Civil War-The feeling of shame, indignation, and dread is indescribable.[55]

The occupation of Fort Sumter by southern troops and Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 men left little doubt in the minds of Delawareans that this was war, regardless of their wishes. Writing from Mobile, Alabama, James A. Bayard informed his son that a state of war existed, and Charles I. du-Pont concurred. "I consider the Union gone forever," the latter moaned." Eight millions of people whether agreed or not, will not quail for five times 75,000. . . . We have nothing to do in the quarrels of either section and if we had we could affect nothing."[56]

Union feeling outweighed all other in Wilmington and in New Castle County. Everyone felt inclined to rally around the flag, to unite in an effort to preserve the Union, and to defend the state. The sound of drum and fife advertised the militia companies, seeking recruits. Loyal citizens displayed red, white, and blue rosettes or miniature flags to show their patriotism.

Henry duPont wrote to his brother on April 16 that "just now there seems to be no necessity for protection here. The Union feeling is intense & the few Secessionists in Wilmington dumb & powerless." A week later he reported that "everything is quiet here now, and I feel sure that the current of public opinion in this state is strong for the Union, so strong that its opponents are silenced & obliged to go with it; and I believe a large portion of the Breckinridge Democrats are determined to stand up for the Union-some from principle & others from Expediency-. . . . In this county Union sentiment is all prevailing." "There appears to be but one sentiment in this community, now, whatever may have been the difference of opinion heretofore," observed the editor of the Democratic Gazette on April 26; "the government must be sustained and rebellion put down at all hazards." The editor of the independent Republican similarly declared, "We are glad to hear that nearly every man in our city professes to be a Union man, and the only difference of opinion is in regard to how it can best be preserved." How significant was to be this difference of opinion! [57]

The first public demonstration in Wilmington of Union feeling was a large meeting on April 16. Local orators pointed out that the firing upon Fort Sumter had divided men into two classes, patriots and traitors. Resolutions approved the President's request for troops, urged the obliteration of party ties, and recommended sustaining the government, the Union, and the constitution. A special resolution, introduced by a political enemy of James A. Bayard, repudiated his principles as unworthy of a patriot and a Delawarean, and a special committee was appointed to visit the "secessionists" at the customhouse and post office to demand that they display flags. The meeting adjourned with cheers for the Star-Spangled Banner and for Major Anderson. Nothing was said about how the South might be compelled to remain within the Union.[58]

The war seemed close at hand on April 17 when Massachusetts and Pennsylvania volunteers, who had been attacked in Baltimore on the way to the national capital, retreated through Wilmington by train. A Pennsylvania colonel from a coach platform told a turbulent crowd at the station that this little skirmish had only whetted the appetite of his militia company for a bigger one; and Representative George Fisher made a stirring appeal to the excited citizens at the depot to enlist in militia companies. That evening a former resident of the city, I. R. Trimble, led a company of Maryland secessionists in an attack upon the bridges and tracks of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad between Wilmington and Baltimore. Communication by rail to Washington was disrupted for several months, while workmen from Wilmington rebuilt the bridges and tracks. During the summer, re-enforcements for Washington proceeded by rail to Perryville, Maryland, embarked on steamers for Annapolis, and then completed their journey by rail.[59]

The excitement in Wilmington was intense. Armed volunteers patrolled the streets for several days, and Union supporters fed the retreating soldiers with food and coffee as they passed through the Wilmington station. Anna Ferris wrote an account of these events in her diary:

The excitement & suspense are almost intolerable, & the circumstances transpiring around us seem incredible. Yesterday the Massachusetts & Pennsylvania volunteers were attacked by a mob in Baltimore & a number on both sides killed & wounded-& last night the Bridges on our railroad were burned to prevent any more troops being forwarded for the defense of the National Capital-All at once the flames of Civil War seem raging around us-We hear of our friends & acquaintances enlisting in various places & feel an anxiety & dread that we never dreamed of before-The telegraph wires have been cut, Rail roads torn up, & mails from the South suspended, and we are all the time agitated by alarming & conflicting rumors.

We seem threatened not only with war but anarchy, as the Capital & the Government are in great danger, & the means for their defense very much obstructed & cut off-Baltimore is in possession of the mob, & under martial law, and we feel the greatest anxiety about our friends there, but can hear nothing from them-All other interests are suspended & everybody is absorbed by the anxiety prevailing for the welfare & existence of our country.[60]

It was a time of alarming and conflicting rumors. The DuPont Company was accused of selling ammunition to the South, though a company order on April 16 confined shipments to the loyal states. Maryland secessionists were said to be planning an attack upon the gunpowder works along the Brandywine, and two southern spies in female attire were actually captured upon the DuPont grounds. Pennsylvania militia companies were stationed at nearby Brandywine Springs to guard the plant. The President of the DuPont Company, Henry duPont, was so alarmed by reports that secessionists planned to seize a gunpowder magazine near the Delaware River that he, his son, and three nephews armed with revolvers personally supervised the removal of its contents.[61] In spite of indignant denials in the Democratic Gazette, the independent Republican insisted that Delaware secessionists were thinking of attacking northern troops as they passed through the Wilmington station, that T. F. Bayard's militia company of Delaware Guards was secessionist, that southern sympathizers intended to occupy Fort Delaware, and that secessionists plotted to breach the walls and drain the water from the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. The Secretary of War was so disturbed by some of these reports that he sent two hundred men to re-enforce the feeble garrison of thirty men at Fort Delaware and ordered Pennsylvania militia to patrol the canal.[62]

During these troubled times the people met frequently in public gatherings to discuss the crisis. The citizens of Wilmington resolved on April 18 that peace was preferable to war, that it was the duty of every citizen to uphold the Union, that the volunteer companies should be organized under the auspices of the city council, and that abusive language and threats should be avoided. The city council on April 20 provided a room for drill, asked well-to-do citizens to contribute to the support of soldiers, appropriated eight thousand dollars for equipment, and requested the Secretary of War to furnish arms.[63]

At a Union meeting of New Castle County on April 22, orators pleaded for the preservation of the Union by peaceful means and opposed coercion of the South. Resolutions supported the Union, urged the discarding of party preferences, and asked citizens to hold further local meetings to express opinions about the crisis. Patriots were advised to enlist in militia companies, and a committee of fourteen was appointed to co-operate with the Wilmington city council for public defense. To Charles I. duPont, the sentiments expressed at this meeting demonstrated the "undoubted" loyalty of the state; among the speeches, that of Alfred Wootten, a Democrat and son-in-law of the Governor, "showed fully that the proper patriotic spirit pervades the State." Mrs. Wootten was thrilled by the Union feeling displayed at the meeting and wrote her mother:

Men here have forgotten whether they formerly called themselves Republicans, Democrats or Unionists-All are banded together in a common brotherhood for the defence of our homes and our lines against the encroachments of either Army. Alfred is all right. He made a glorious speech here yesterday to a tremendous mass of people-to keep the Stars & Stripes waving-. . . . While we love the South and appreciate the gross injustice that she has suffered, we still prefer the Union, even as it is to the Reign of Anarchy and ruin that must follow this bloody contest-[64]

A general agreement upon the necessity of preserving the Union seemed to exist among the population in Wilmington and in New Castle County during these few weeks. Meetings in the towns of Newark and New Castle and in St. George's and Red Lion hundreds, for example, raised flags, passed patriotic resolutions, and affirmed in substance "By the Eternal, the Union shall be preserved."[65] A few days after the fall of Fort Sumter, fifteen hundred men had enlisted in the local Wilmington militia and were ready for any military service. Local committees in Wilmington solicited funds for the relief of families of volunteers, druggists and physicians offered free services, and several employers promised that after the war jobs would be waiting for employees who joined the armed forces.[66] Clergymen of all denominations in New Castle County-Episcopalian, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian-urged the male members of their congregations to take up arms to defend the Union. The foremost ministerial leader in Wilmington, the Reverend George Wiswell of the Central Presbyterian Church, in a sermon described this as a holy war and advocated coercion as the best way to curb southern wickedness. On July 4, four militia companies stacked their arms beside the doors of his church and entered the flag-trimmed sanctuary to hear him read the Declaration of Independence and deliver a patriotic sermon. The American Presbyterian, a denominational weekly attributed to "the boldness and vigor of this minister" much of the strength of national sentiment in Wilmington.[67]

Such harmony soon disappeared. In almost every town and hundred the Democrats and their opponents organized separate meetings to express conflicting views about the crisis. In Mill Creek Hundred, for example, one Union meeting endorsed a coercive policy against the South and asked for contributions to be used to outfit the militia and to aid the families of volunteers.

Within two weeks, another Union meeting recommended that the "olive branch of peace" continue to be extended through negotiation and compromise in order to avoid a fratricidal conflict. Coercive war would load the country with a heavy debt, leave unsolved sectional difficulties, and, in case of victory, would raise the difficult question of how to hold the conquered states as provinces. The same pattern was repeated elsewhere in New Castle County.[68]

Unionists began to believe that all southern sympathizers were traitors. The editor of the Gazette was requested by a committee to display a flag, and when bad weather prevented his immediate compliance, he was threatened with bodily harm.[69] A prominent Democrat, of New Castle, who was supposed to have said that he would hang out a Palmetto, that is, South Carolina flag, if he had one, was threatened by an infuriated mob, and men in Wilmington talked of visiting the county seat and tearing down his home.[70]

When Elliott Johnston, a resident of Baltimore, visited Wilmington in April to attend the wedding of his brother, the visitor became inebriated and hurrahed for Jeff Davis. He was thereupon assaulted by a gang of ruffians and jailed overnight for his own protection. Next morning at the railway station, where Union sympathizers frequently gathered, he cursed the people of Delaware and said that he hoped to meet them at the point of a bayonet in less than three weeks. A mob of two hundred men-one account reported two thousand-pursued him in a carriage up Market Street. Some of the pursuers thought that Jeff Davis or Senator Bayard was the object of the chase. Fortunately, the Southerner found refuge at the home of relatives, where the waving of an American flag and soothing words from the mayor saved him from the fury of the mob. One spectator who viewed its "fiendish" spirit wondered if life and property in the city were safe.[71] A naval officer on duty wrote his sons in Wilmington early in May that he would be offended if Edward, then eighteen, talked about politics, commanded him to discard completely his Democratic views, and suggested that the boy enlist to serve with him aboard ship.[72]

Senator Bayard made a grave error of judgment when he chose to travel for a month during the excitement in the South, visiting Montgomery, Mobile, New Orleans, and Louisville. The approach of war during April caused him to regret his departure from Delaware on the eighth. From Montgomery, on April 16, he wrote that the southern states wished to remain neutral; war would result only if the South were invaded, but upon hearing the next day at Mobile of Lincoln's proclamation, he concluded that war had arrived. Although a general convention should be called to determine whether Delaware would stand with the North or South, Delaware was "tied hand and foot," to the North, unless Maryland and Virginia joined the Confederacy. In his opinion, the President's call for troops would be ignored, "for it is nothing more than a call for men to invade the South, and every man who consents to be enrolled will be compelled to march South if the madness of the Administration orders him." From New Orleans on April 22, he warned that if Delaware supported the North, she would become "a mere county of Pennsylvania." The South was "righ" in the contest and wanted not war but only to be let alone. A Northern invasion would be "a costly experiment and utterly impracticable." From Louisville on April 26 he reported to his son that if the people of Delaware submitted to Northern despotism, it was not the state for either to live in. In any contest of arms, he predicted that the South would emerge triumphant.[73]

By April 29 war feeling so dominated the state, Thomas F. Bayard informed his father, that those who disagreed were cowed into compliance or silence. "The Abolitionists are rampant, waving American flags, subscribing money freely and urging mob spirit whenever they can," he wrote. "We seem to be a mere servile dependency of Pennsylvania, and her word is law to Delaware." The actions of his father in the South had been misrepresented, and the Senator must be careful in his speech and future plans. At all times he should carry a revolver, and to evade a possible mob at the Wilmington depot, it was advisable that he return home by way of Chestertown, Maryland, and Smyrna, Delaware, rather than by the usual rail route through Baltimore. "Astonished" at the tone of his son's letter, the Senator believed "a reign of terror" must be in effect in Wilmington, but he agreed to follow the travel route suggested.[74]

Upon Senator Bayard's arrival in Wilmington on May 4, he was shown a telegram which accused him of planning to lead the state out of the Union with the help of Confederate support from Montgomery and of being a prince in the Order of the Golden Circle, both charges which he denied. A few days later when he and his daughters went by rail to Philadelphia, a telegram sent from Wilmington and announcing the time of his arrival made possible the gathering at the station of a mob headed by a man who had been tarred and feathered in Georgia. To defeat the mob's attempt to tar and feather Bayard, in return, or possibly to lynch him, the Philadelphia police removed him from the train a few blocks from the station and escorted him to the mayor's office.[75] Upon the very morning of the attempted assault, Captain S. F. duPont, of the Philadelphia Navy Yard, offered his services in any capacity to ensure the Senator's safety.[76] The Philadelphia Bulletin believed that the act, involving only a few lawless men, was condemned by nine-tenths of the community, and both the Gazette and Republican disapproved the attack.[77]

Senator Bayard felt it necessary to explain by a public letter to the people of Delaware that his trip to the South was for business and social reasons. He stood by his opinion expressed in the Senate that peaceful separation was preferable to war; if the people of Delaware felt differently, he would resign.[78] There is no evidence to substantiate the theory that his visit to the South was for other than these reasons. His letters to his son indicate that he realized the impossibility of leading the state into the Confederacy from a practical point of view. Upon his return, the Republican pointed out mildly and without mentioning treason that the newspaper disagreed with the Senator in politics.[79] During the next year, however, the editor printed triumphantly a clipping from an obscure Georgia newspaper, which alleged that Bayard had been in Montgomery to discuss the entrance of Delaware into the new government, and thereafter the charge was made in every campaign. It would be naive, indeed, to assume that when Bayard was in Montgomery, he did not discuss politics. From the letters to his son, it is clear that while he deeply sympathized with the South, he knew that the action of Delaware depended upon Maryland's decision. He strongly endorsed a state convention as an index of public opinion but did not expect it to lead the state out of the Union.[80]

With considerable justification a prominent Wilmington Republican claimed in December that the example of Wilmington had kept Delaware on the right path in April. "Had not Wilmington started and sustained with its money the first arming of Volunteers," he asserted, "we should not have had out, one man of the three months men. Delaware called Lockwood to command her 1st Regiment. Lockwood has restored the peninsular [sic] to its allegiance. We all remember the 14th, 15th to 19th April, the burning of our R. R. bridges kindled the spark in Wilmington, which fired the loyalty of our State which before was at least supine, if not doubtful."[81]

Within six weeks after Fort Sumter, the excitement, expressed by meetings, flag raisings, and enlistments began to die down in New Castle County. Many people waited expectantly for the first battle to settle the issue. The great majority undoubtedly favored the preservation of the Union, if not by peace then by war. With anxiety they heard from lower Delaware reports of only half-hearted support of the Union.

Most Delawareans in Kent and Sussex counties were convinced that the South had been wronged, but few were prepared to fight on the rebel side, to furnish information or supplies, or to advocate the state's joining the Confederacy. In brief, a strong desire for neutrality existed, and there were few secessionists.

An excellent summary of the ideas of many Delawareans in Kent County is presented in a letter of April 26 from the Secretary of State, Edward Ridgely, of Dover, to Mrs. Charles I. duPont. During the campaign of 1860 he had been a Constitutional Unionist, but during the next spring he joined the Democrats. He explained:

I am not a secessionist, as has been falsely represented, but at the same time I am opposed to any policy that might tend, either directly or indirectly, to coerce the seceded States. I believe that such a step would forever destroy the possibility of a reunion and a return to that brotherly love and affection that formerly prevailed among the members of this once united Confederacy. I do not think that the states have any right under the constitution to secede. But the right of rebellion, whenever a governor fails to carry out the objects for which governments were instituted: to wit the protection of life, liberty, and property, is undoubted.

The war was caused by the "triumph of a political party, whose only principle (let politicians say what they may) is a war upon an institution of which they know nothing and in which they have no personal interest." The Republicans had spurned the Crittenden resolutions, peace congress, and other proposals which might have terminated the difficulties. If the government had pursued a mild, prudent course, he believed, none but the cotton states would have seceded, and before many months they would have been applying for re-admission. To some extent the attack upon Fort Sumter was justified" by the vacillating course of that weak timid man who now occupies the chair of state." Lincoln had virtually promised to evacuate the fort and then changed his mind; Sumter would have been of value to the Union only if a coercive policy was intended. "Why not let them depart in peace," he asked, "and save us the horrors of a Civil War?" Those who did not hurrah for Lincoln, like his brother Henry and himself, were being branded as traitors and secessionists.[82]

Similar opinions were reflected in a letter of Henry Ridgely, of Dover, also to Mrs. duPont. The seceded states should have waited longer to see what Lincoln intended to do, but at this point there were only two alternatives: to let them go in peace or to drive them back again at the point of a bayonet. He opposed war because the general government had no constitutional power to coerce the states and because deadly hatred between the two sections would be engendered. What would a northern victory bring? Every man, woman, and child in the South must be exterminated, or a vast standing army must be quartered there to keep the section in subjugation.[83]

Both newspapers in Kent County were strongly in favor of the preservation of the Union. The Smyrna Times had been independent but became Republican during the following summer. In the first issue after Fort Sumter, its editor expressed the feeling of many people in the area. He deplored the beginning of "a civil war, the most horrible of all wars," and foresaw the spectacle of a divided country, broken political promises, and the prostration of business. From every side now came the cry "To Arms! To Arms!" Although the fall of Sumter had been expected, the news was a shock. The editor charged that had the North acted in a spirit of compromise and the South moved less hastily, a way out of the difficulty might have been found. Many had hoped to avoid a rift, but "as it had to come, the feeling seems to have been, let it come-anything but this dread suspense." Though some sympathized with the cotton states, the greater portion clung to the Stars and Stripes. Throughout the summer the newspaper advocated any solution of the crisis except war.[84]

The Delawarean in Dover was a staunch defender of the Democratic point of view, reflecting especially the opinions of the Saulsburys. Every right-thinking citizen, said the editor, deplored the inauguration of a war, which was begun in folly and would end in ruin. While secession was illegal and unjustifiable, the attempt to subjugate the South was "madness in the extreme" and would destroy both sections. "We assume that four-fifths of Delawareans have no taste for or approbation of the fratricidal war into which we were plunged by ambitious demagogues of the North and South," asserted the editor.[85]

The people in Kent County were slower to respond to the course of events by holding meetings and demonstrations than those in New Castle County. The citizens of Felton in April held a flag raising and a week later they formed a Union Guard.[86]"In Camden Union men contributed money for uniforms for a new militia company and for the support of soldiers' families.[87] In June the entire county, except for Dover and Smyrna, was reported to be Unionist in feeling,[88] but Willow Grove and Kitts Hammock had acquired reputations as secessional strongholds."[89] An observer in July, however, believed that the county manifested "strong Union and PEACE sentiments," and that the existence of secessionists was a myth.[90]

For a Kent County Union meeting, planned to be held in May, Charles I. duPont, of Brandywine Hundred, was invited to address the audience, but he refused on the following grounds:

"My first service is to throw politics to the Dogs," he advised, "& let them devour its carcass; all party ties should be forgotten in the great effort to save our Union. Abolitionism, Native Americanism, Know-Nothingism, the prescribing of valued citizens for their religious opinions-all are passed away, and the task is now to save our Nationality." He wanted the country to extend from Maine to Florida and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The rebellion had reached such a stage that only force could subdue it. Delaware's ties were with the North. "I am opposed to war," he wrote, "it is a relic of barbarism, but these Southern politicians are now the aggressors, and let the consequences be as they may, the loss of hundreds of thousands of men, and hundreds of millions of dollars, our Government and Union, we must support."[91]

Before a large audience at the Kent County Union meeting in Dover, May 18, fourteen speakers presented their different views on the course that the national government should take. All breathed ardent attachment to the Union, condemned secession, and expressed reverence for the flag and constitution, but they disagreed over coercion. Eight orators opposed the civil war and coercion, favoring amicable means to restore the Union, while six wanted the vigorous enforcement of the laws, the recovery of lost government property at all hazards, and the preservation of the Union at any price, by the sword if necessary.[92]

This division is reflected in the two reports of the committee on resolutions. The majority report, presented by Eli Saulsbury, condemned abolitionists and secessionists, blamed the action of the South for beginning the war, praised the state legislature for seeking a way out of the difficulties, and looked to Congress or a national convention to settle the crisis peacefully. The minority report, read by George P. Fisher, denied the right of secession, advocated the use of force to put down the rebellion, requested Delaware congressmen to take an oath of allegiance to the central government, and asked the Governor to summon the legislature to make military appropriations. Although many abstained, the majority report was supported by 434, the minority by 294.[93] If the meeting was an index of the feelings of the country's inhabitants, it demonstrated that the majority sympathized with the South and wished to avoid war.

One strong secessionist from Kent County was Charles du-Pont Bird, of Dover, a student at Loyola College in Baltimore. His letter, of April 24, to the governor of Virginia, which was thought important enough to forward to General Robert E. Lee, read in part:

A strong feeling in the two lower counties of Delaware is aroused in favor of Delaware joining the Southern Confederacy. With a man or two from you to give directions and a hint that arms and men would come if necessary, the people of Sussex themselves would destroy the Delaware railroad terminating at Seaford, on the Nanticoke. This railroad, I am confident, the General Government of Lincoln wish to secure, that they may transport troops by the Nanticoke River to the Chesapeake, and thence to Washington by the Potomac River. A vessel or two sunk in the Nanticoke will hinder this design. There is considerable trestling work on the Delaware railroad near Dover which would retard that road if it were broken. The arms that Delaware owns are in the hands of the secessionists. The powder mills on the Brandywine (owned by relations of mine) should be secured at all hazards. With a not very large force, if we cannot hold them, they should be destroyed. Some of the Du Ponts are friendly to the South. If it is possible to guard these works for a few weeks the stock of powder for the Southern Confederacy would be largely increased.[94]

These views were optimistic exaggerations of the secessionist feeling in Delaware.

Of the three counties, Sussex was the most pro-Southern, though few genuine secessionists appeared within its borders. Undoubtedly, the great majority stood for the preservation of the Union by peaceful means and opposed coercion. The county in 1861 possessed two newspapers, the rabidly Republican Peninsular News and Advertiser, whose files for April and May are not in existence, and the independent Georgetown Messenger, which stood for the preservation and defense of the Union. The opinions of the latter editor, somewhat in advance of his readers, recommended on April 17 hanging secessionists to preserve the government and free institutions. After a mob threatened his establishment, he retreated to an explanation that he desired to see no particular person lynched and cheerfully maintained that all parties were combining to support the administration. In his opinion, the true issue was not the North against the South, or abolitionism versus slavery, but the rebels against the government, and he did not see how anyone under the circumstances could forsake "the glorious Union with its Star-Spangled Banner." In April he estimated that one-fourth of the county was secessionist, but by May he reduced the total to five hundred persons.[95]

Union demonstrations within the county were few, but the news of the evacuation of Fort Sumter fell on Lewes "like a bombshell." "Many men who have heretofore laid quiet," a local writer asserted, "have come out in strong terms for the support of the laws, and have laid down whatever previous party prejudices they have held, and are now without any reservation, ready and willing to give their lives and means to the support of the right, the perpetuity of our glorious institutions, and the putting down and forever quelling treason in high places and low."A few days later the president of the Lewes town commissioners complained to the federal Secretary of Treasury that the harbor was completely exposed and asked for cannon. "Our citizens are in much excitement, "the local official reported," and we have but few Southern Sympathizers in our midst, most of whom are the Custom House retainers."Within the next few weeks two Union meetings were held, and two militia companies were organized.[96] In Seaford guns were fired by Southern sympathizers who rejoiced at the fall of Fort Sumter. A Democratic militia company already existed in the town, but another company was formed at a Union meeting, whose members offered their time, money, and lives to protect the existing government.[97] Flag raisings and Union meetings occurred during the summer at New Market near Milton, in Cedar Creek Hundred, and at Laurel.[98] It was not until the middle of September in remote Indian River Hundred that a storekeeper noted laconically in his diary," Mustered at the Schoolhouse-then Marched to the Store, raised flag on pole with eagle in a patriotic demonstration."[99] By the end of the summer Union men had organized companies of loyal men in each town in Sussex County.

The ultra-Republican postmaster of Wilmington, Dr. A. H. Grimshaw, received a report by Caleb S. Layton, of Sussex County, one of the most prominent local Republicans there: "Sussex is sound to the core . . . We give secession & secessionists no quarter in this county & feel entirely competent to take care of them." Flags were waving in Georgetown, his son was organizing a militia company of sixty men, and although Governor Burton had issued an order transferring control of federal military equipment from Union men to a secessionist, Union supporters refused to obey the command. Loyal companies were appearing at many places in the county. Layton had purchased a rifle-musket, a bayonet, a pair of Colt revolvers, and an old trooper's sword for his own protection, but he did not expect that he would have to use them.[100]

Three days before a Union meeting in Sussex County, to be held May 7, the editor of the Peninsular News and Advertiser sent Dr. Grimshaw an alarming account. The secessionists were seeking to control the Union meeting, and since trouble was expected, he asked for a Colt revolver, bullet molds, and a "good Bowie knife." May people believed that "secession is rapidly poisoning the minds of all the Democrats in this State" and that a conspiracy existed to lead the state into the Confederacy at the first opportunity.[101]

Fortunately, no disturbance marred the Sussex County meeting of two thousand persons, all of whom were now Union men without their previous party ties, according to Layton, the principal speaker. He declared that the "wicked men" who levied war against the government would soon be crushed. The interests and trade of Delaware lay with the North, her men and money should be pledged to the government, and she must support Lincoln, or troops from Philadelphia might overrun the state. Resolutions endorsed the Union, the Crittenden resolutions, and Saulsbury's conduct as senator, and the existence of civil war was regretted. All law-abiding citizens should back the government, but the right to disagree with the present administration on party issues was reserved.

One dissenter, John W. Houston, a Democrat, who could not attend, answered the query of where the state was to go by "nowhere." "Stay at home in the Union until the crack of doom, or until it goes to pieces, if pieces it must," he advised, "and we are left standing solitary and alone with our feet planted firmly on the rock of the Constitution and with dying gasp still hugging to our breast the flag of our country, as the last survivor of the federation of the American States."

On the whole, the proceedings of the meeting were well received. The Delawarean believed that the resolutions were approved by "five-sixths of the bona fide citizens of the state; indeed, we may say of all the citizens of the state except the ultraabolitionized Republicans and possibly a very few would-be secessionists." However, a resident of Laurel reported that the people in his town were disinterested in the resolutions and proceedings and that four-fifths of the people in the vicinity of Laurel were southern sympathizers.[102]

Nevertheless, the Wilmington newspapers in May declared that Delaware was still loyal to the Union. The independent Republican asserted that not a man in Wilmington or in New Castle County would acknowledge that he was a secessionist, but in Kent one in ten would admit the charge, and in Sussex one in fifty. The editor of the Republican Delaware Journal reported that many gentlemen from lower Delaware were" unanimous in the opinion that Union feeling predominates everywhere, except in Smyrna." Reviewing the proceedings of the county meetings, the editor of the Democratic Gazette felt encouraged, for "in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, the voice of the people with an unanimity as perfect as at any previous time has acknowledged their devotion to the Union. But they differ as to the policy by which the Union should be maintained." In his opinion, Southern sympathies would not influence Delaware, its secession was an "utter impossibility," and not a solitary citizen of the state had entered the Confederate Army.[103]

While the county meetings and other events demonstrated the variety of opinions held by Delawareans during the crisis, the main currents were unmistakable. Most Democrats saw the North as an aggressor, preferred peace to war, and were willing to have the South secede rather than engage in conflict. Time and patience might reunite the country, while the use of force would raise more problems than it could solve. Most Republicans blamed the South for the crisis and were determined to maintain the Union at all costs, even by war. These opposing beliefs were clearly expressed at two meetings in Dover in June, both called "Union," the first held by those opposing the Democrats and the second by the latter, in reply.

At the first, a crowd of twenty-five hundred, dominated by elements determined to preserve the Union by any possible means, heard S. M. Harrington, Representative George P. Fisher, and Attorney-General Alfred Wootten. Harrington hoped that the question of Delaware's loyalty to the Union, which some erroneously supposed to be in doubt, would be settled by the convention. In his opinion, the number of southern sympathizers and the intensity of their feeling had been exaggerated, for if a poll were taken, less than five hundred persons would be found who believed in the legality and expediency of secession. While he could point to some as "secessionists, state-rights men, anti-coercionists, defenders of the government within state limits, peace men, and Christian loyalists," he still believed that the people in the state were loyal in sentiment.

Representative Fisher, as a Bell supporter, endorsed the constitution, flag, and the laws. Since his oath of allegiance was first to the United States and then to the state of Delaware, he denounced the idea of state sovereignty held by the South. The time had now arrived for the use of force, and the governor should summon the legislature to consider equipping the state militia.

To the surprise of many spectators, Attorney-General Alfred P. Wootten, the son-in-law of Governor Burton and a prominent Democrat, explained that he did not agree with all the decisions of the Governor, among them, the latter's refusal to summon the legislature. The President, he said, was merely acting upon the defensive, and Delawareans in general favored sustaining the federal government. Wootten would support the party which stood for the preservation of the Union, and if it were the Republican party, he should be counted among its members. He attacked Bayard and Saulsbury, who, he said, would stand by to see the national capital burned. An account of the meeting by A. H. G.[Dr. Grimshaw?], written from Willow Grove, Delaware, accused Wootten of being intoxicated at the time. Resolutions denied that the states had the right to secede at will, contended that armed rebellion must be met with force, and argued that the people were now summoned to coerce their enemies rather than their brothers. The Governor was asked to convene the legislature to aid the militia, those who had promptly volunteered were commended, and citizens were asked to look after the needs of soldiers' families. Congressmen from the state who did not endorse the resolutions were requested to resign, and a special resolution urged Bayard to resign from the Senate.[104]

Those elements who were opposed to coercion of the South held the second Union meeting of twenty-five hundred persons in Dover in June for addresses by former Representative Whiteley and Thomas F. Bayard. Whiteley termed all men who favored war the real disunionists. He thought that the "first gun[fired] at Fort Sumter was the[death] knell of the . . . Union," and since the South could not be conquered, its independence should be recognized at once in order to stop this "War, unconstitutionally inaugurated by Abraham Lincoln,[which] will bankrupt us." He would be glad to lend his right leg for the purpose of kicking out Lincoln's cabinet for repeated violations of the Constitution. Bayard's speech was much milder, more conciliatory, and advocated a peaceful separation by the South. In his opinion, the executive was violating the constitution by exceeding his powers to carry on an unconstitutional and unjustifiable war, and if its object was subjugation of the South, no man then living would see its end. His father, the Senator, had proposed that both the members of the legislature and he resign, and then the people's choice for peace or war would determine the attitude of members of a new General Assembly and a new senator.[105]

The two most significant resolutions indicated the feeling of the majority of the Democrats in the state:

That whilst we deeply deplore the revolution which has severed eleven states from the Union, we prefer Peace to Civil War, and believe that if a reconciliation by peaceful means shall become impossible, the acknowledgment of the independence of the Confederate States is preferable to an attempt to conquer and hold them as subjugated provinces.

That the reign of terror attempted to be inaugurated by the War Party, by denouncing all men as disunionists, secessionists, and traitors, who are opposed to Civil War and, to the palpable and gross violations of the Constitution, committed by the present administration, will not deter us from the expression of our opinions, both privately and publicly.

Other resolutions condemned the erection of a consolidated government upon the ruins of state governments, thanked Delaware's senators for supporting peace, suggested that they advocate recognition of the independence of the Confederacy if peace could be obtained in no other way, praised Bayard's services as senator, and rejected his suggestion of resigning. The meeting saw no necessity for convening the legislature.[106] Senator Saulsbury contended in Congress that the opinions expressed at this meeting were those of the great majority of Delawareans, and the Delawarean and Gazette believed that peaceful adjustment was the solution approved by two-thirds of Saulsbury's constituents and four-fifths of Delawareans outside of Wilmington.[107]

Yet loyal men were alarmed at the strong "secession" feeling shown at the second Union meeting. Henry duPont felt that the proceedings indicated "a strong disunion sentiment among the participators of that meeting, and[we must] admonish the Union men of this State, that it is imperative they should be placed in a position, to repel & put down any mad Schemes of Secession, which under certain contingencies, might be undertaken by reckless men, who no doubt have been, and may yet be, acting in unison with those who have precipitated other States into open Rebellion against the Government."[108]

Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for 1861 reported that a large majority of Delawareans were prepared to sustain the government and defend the Union, but others, as elsewhere in the nation, thought that the power of the North was insufficient to bring the southern states back into the Union, and if they did return, they must come back voluntarily. Followers of this latter point of view were divided between those who favored joining the Confederate states and those who expected the seceding states to return by means of conciliation: "in Delaware there were not only many citizens opposed to war, but there were a few who heartily desired the success of the Confederate States."[109]

Almost fifty years later, a prominent Democrat recalled that

Delaware never seceded or attempted to secede . . . Yet as a sovereign and law-abiding people, she emphatically demanded that in the preservation of the Union, the Constitution and laws of the country also be preserved. The majority of the people of Delaware favored a peaceful settlement of the controversy between the States, and if that could not be accomplished (rather than to enter into a long, bloody and devastating war) , let the Southern States go and form a government of their own.[110]

In 1861 the majority in New Castle County were willing to go to war; the majority in lower Delaware opposed it, though they did not advocate joining the Confederacy. The result was a tug of war within the state between North and South, involving militia companies, political parties, and personal relations. As each of the three counties divided, Delaware faced unhappy times ahead.

[F] "Sounds from Fort Delaware"

From the title page of sheet music for the piano, "Sounds from Fort Delaware," by T.M. Todd, published in Philadelphia, 1863, by Lee and Walker, 722 Chestnut Street.

[G] Delaware Fractional Currency

The two fractional notes above are reproduced from items in the currency collection in the library of the Historical Society of Delaware.

CHAPTER III

A Divided House

THE first reaction of Delawareans to Fort Sumter was the resolution to preserve the Union at all costs and to adjust differences by peaceful compromise. Gradually came the realization that war might break out. If so, some advocated the use of force to preserve the Union, and others were willing to let the South depart in peace. The news of Bull Run announced that war existed, however unwelcome, and the gap between friends and enemies of the South became wider in each community. During the next eighteen months, war affected every phase of life-friendships, religion, business, and the pursuit of day-to-day living. Sympathizers with the South smuggled goods, provided military intelligence for the Confederacy, and disapproved of Lincoln's plan of compensated emancipation for slaves in the state. Friends of the North supervised the filling of Delaware's military quota, reported "secessionist" activities to Washington, and defended Lincoln's proposal.

Old friendships broke under the strain of political tensions. A young schoolmaster at Camden in Kent County wrote his sweetheart in Maryland in July, 1861, "Lou, there is a great deal of excitement here at this time. People are almost forgetting their former relations and are heard to use threats towards their former friendships, which almost causes one to think he is not in a civilized but barbarous community." A prominent Democrat, who had spent his youth in Camden, recalled at a later time that tensions appeared in the village after Fort Sumter and sharpened after Bull Run. He remembered:

At first we all lived as I have said peacefully and happily together. We all deplored the beginning of the war and the firing of the confederate guns on Fort Sumter, although our social relations were not much disturbed thereby. The real question as we then understood it, was the integrity and preservation of the union, and we talked about it and discussed it without personal bitterness of feeling. But, when, in a short time thereafter, the purposes of Mr. Lincoln and his administration were disclosed, the lines were tightly drawn, not only in little Camden, but throughout the entire country. Their open and flagrant violations of the constitution and laws of the United States and the commission of the most arbitrary and tyranous [sic] acts in the prosecution of the war with the avowed purpose of liberating the slaves of the south were more than any true lover of his country could stand, without emphatic protest, if nothing more. These acts at that time, coming so suddenly upon us, caused a marked and almost total disassociation of democrats and republicans,-both old and young. . . .

This[Battle of Bull Run] was the last straw upon the Camel's back. The boys, as well as the men, the grown up women as well as the dear young girls of my boyhood days, arrayed themselves against each other in bitter hostility, and as it was sometimes said, one half of the town did not speak or associate with the other half. Our pleasant little social gatherings were doomed and apparently ended for all time. Most of the leading boys and young men of the town were democrats and in full sympathy with the south, whose sovereign rights were being destroyed and taken away from it.[1]

Edward Noble Vallandigham in an anonymous memoir, written many years after the Civil War, recalled that members of his family faced a difficult time in Newark. His father's brother was a prominent Democratic congressman, and Republicans viewed the family with suspicion. One of Edward's brothers was arrested about the time when he was almost ready to lead a band of Marylanders into the Confederacy, and another was banished to the South. Both eventually joined the Confederate army. His father, who was the pastor of two large country churches, was required to take an oath of allegiance in which he promised not to aid or comfort his sons in the southern army. Edward observed:

A Copperhead household in a Border State was in anomalous position, especially when one of the name was almost daily denounced in the newspapers for sensational acts of opposition to Mr. Lincoln's administration. My childish prayers went up for Jefferson Davis' government. My toy ships were named for the Confederate privateers. Day after day I left the sidewalk and took to the dusty or miry street rather than pass beneath the American flag, which waved from the front of the village post office. I distinctly recall the family gathering and the expressions of satisfaction when I brought home from a knot of street gossips news of the disastrous Federal defeat at Ball's Bluff. We passed our loyal neighbors with averted eyes, and firmly believed them the instigators of the petty persecutions that we suffered. My loyal schoolmates taunted me with my hated name, and occasionally expressed their disapproval in acts. . . .

Strong as effective public opinion was against the Copperheads, a Copperhead family in our village did not suffer odium in mere lonely rectitude. In fact, there was heart-warming little assemblies at one house or another, when minds were freed, and congratulations were extended. Boxes of clothing and dainties were made up for the Confederate prisoners in a neighboring fort, though we willingly believed that the best of all we sent was confiscated and enjoyed by the jailors. There were stories of unnecessary suffering at the fort of three hundred wretched prisoners huddled together with only one stove to warm them in winter. Now and then some one whispered a tale of an escaping prisoner sheltered and sent on his way in a safe disguise. At such gatherings there was a quiet exchange of news from the Confederacy, for other families than ours had sons and brothers in the Confederate service. Now and then some one brought to the meeting a Confederate flag, and saucy girls occasionally wore in public the colors of the Confederacy.[2]

Many families were divided in sympathy. One resident in Wilmington had two sons in the rebel army and two in the Union army. Another had two sons in the Confederate forces. In some cases brothers faced brothers at Bull Run. Young Alfred Wootten, who was attorney-general of the state and active in Democratic politics, placed his country before his party and wrote a sharp letter to his father in which he criticized him and Governor Burton for not standing by the Union.[3] Many families had relatives in the South. The DuPonts had distant cousins in South Carolina, the Houstons in Sussex County received letters from relatives in Missouri throughout the war, and some members of the Johns family in New Castle had married Virginians. By June, 1861, a resident of New Castle found that political differences among persons at a party could make an evening pass "uncomfortably and tediously." When Mrs. S. F. duPont was in New Castle in April, 1862, she observed, "I constantly hear of persons whose wives, or sisters-in-law, or some of their family, are southern sympathizers. Here, in New Castle, there are abundance of this class." One prominent citizen in the town was reported to have prayed for divine guidance of Jefferson Davis at the time of his inauguration, and the daughter of this man had written from Richmond that the South's "righteous cause" must ultimately triumph. The niece of another resident had married a Confederate officer.[4]

Delawareans were much more inclined to express their sympathy for the South by talking loudly of southern rights than by enlisting. In New Castle County, Newark was said to be a "hotbed of secession," and the Newark Home Guards, in new gray uniforms with black trim, administered an oath of allegiance to several citizens. In Wilmington a mob threatened to destroy the Gazette, but the intervention of the mayor and United States marshal saved the editor and office from harm. After Bull Run, secessionists in New Castle drank toasts to the enrichment of the soil of Virginia by the flesh and blood of every volunteer and to the liberation of Delaware from Yankee control. To the alarm of Republicans, a teacher in St. Georges encouraged her pupils to cheer for the Confederacy and Jeff Davis.[5]

Reports about secessionist tendencies in Kent County were alarming and persistent. Kitts Hammock was said to be "the chief resort of the treason-mongers and secessionists in Kent county," and Willow Grove and Hazletville, close to the Maryland border, were believed to be "a hotbed of secession." The United States marshal was informed in an unsigned letter that if he visited Kitts Hammock, Hazletville, or Whiteleysburg, he would do well to bring his coffin and grave digger with him. The writer declared that it would take half of "Abe's nigger army" to arrest anyone in those towns and that eventually the Confederate forces were "bound to shine."[6] Only the intervention of Representative George P. Fisher prevented Dr. James C. Bird, of Dover, a known secessionist sympathizer, from receiving from the war department a commission in the Second Delaware Regiment upon the recommendation of Governor Burton. In Magnolia "traitors" stole thirty sets of arms and terrorized Negroes in nocturnal visits.[7] Near Willow Grove a Negro meetinghouse was burned by a group of southern sympathizers in August, 1862; afterwards they threatened to lynch a Negro upon whose property it stood and who had encouraged members of his race to defend themselves against assault.[8] In Smyrna near the railroad station, George Fisher was hanged in effigy. A sign around the neck of the figure read, "Ah! George you have for some time tride [sic] the reins of our noble Diamond State, now try the rope and oblige the true harted [sic] citizens of Delaware." On the bottoms of the boots were the names of Enoch Spruance and Edwin Wilmer, prominent Republicans in the town.[9] "Secessionists" were accused of breaking into the armory of the McClellan Home Guard in Smyrna and of stealing some new muskets and spiking others.[10]

In Sussex County also there were known to be sympathizers with the southern states. By early August, 1861, the editor of the Georgetown Messenger believed that a large proportion of the inhabitants of the county favored the Confederacy, and he observed that there was much rejoicing over the defeat of Union troops.[11] The customs inspector in Seaford reported that there were in the vicinity a substantial number of "traitors," whom he considered the "satellites" of Senator Bayard. He hoped that they would dare to raise the palmetto flag when "we will 'give 'em fits.' "Edward L. Martin, of Seaford, captain of the local militia company, who was supposedly responsible for firing guns in honor of the seizure of Fort Sumter, was alleged to be the ringleader of recruiting and smuggling.[12] The former governor, William Ross, in June, 1861, received a large shipment of arms, which it was said he intended to forward to Virginia.[13] Numerous other evidences of pro-Southern feeling in Sussex County could be cited.

A glance at a map will show that Delaware was in a position to contribute aid to the Confederacy. Supplies, information, and medicine were shipped to Sussex County and adjacent areas in Maryland and then smuggled to Virginia by water. The Nanticoke River, which led into Chesapeake Bay from Sussex County, was a center of the traffic. An "underground railroad" transported recruits to the Confederacy. Thomas M. Rodney, collector of the port of Wilmington, appointed agents in towns in lower Delaware to check suspicious activities, but their efforts were futile." I am satisfied that goods, contrabands, and supplies for the rebellious Virginians pass daily over this road," wrote a resident of Dover in June, 1861, about shipments on the Delaware Railroad. He believed that a large amount of the merchandise forwarded to Seaford, Delaware, and Salisbury, Maryland, was transported down the Nanticoke and Wicomico rivers through Chesapeake Bay to Virginia. The president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad complained in May to a Philadelphia express agent that "the Virginians smuggled pistols and percussion caps over the Delaware Railroad" and that a Wilmington express agent boasted that he could furnish such articles to anyone on the peninsula. The Wilmington employee denied the charges.[14] After talking with a mail clerk on the Delaware Railroad, Dr. A. H. Grimshaw informed the Secretary of Navy in June, "I believe that constant communication is carried on through the navigable waters of Delaware and Maryland, and that I could carry any material I chose from Philadelphia to Virginia at any time." The collector of customs in Baltimore forwarded to Rodney a letter from two informants in September; it revealed that "the first and most important route" of the traffic was from Baltimore to Wilmington, then via the Delaware Railroad to Seaford, from which port the Chesapeake Bay was easily accessible. Large quantities of quinine had been shipped to Seaford in fruit cans. Efforts to check such commerce met with little success.[15] During the summer of 1861, two sloops, one loaded with hay and the other with hardware, both of which were headed for Virginia, were confiscated in the Nanticoke River, and a few boxes of Indian rubber coats and marine compasses were seized, but these items were felt to be only a small fraction of the trade.[16]

Some Delawareans enlisted in the Confederate army. Former Governor Ross wrote to a friend in May, 1861, that his son Caleb and three other young men had gone to Baltimore to enlist. "Of course I shall be charged with having sent him and every other young man who may leave the county," he declared. "For that reason I had better leave the country for a while."Within a month he had sailed for Europe, though when he returned a year later, as abusive as ever, he hoped that the intervention of England and France would soon bring speedy victory to the Confederacy. During his absence his son had died of typhoid fever, contracted while serving with the Confederate army in Virginia.[17] Several youths left Georgetown in July, 1861, to enlist. The Confederate government set up in August a recruiting office to encourage enlistments from the border states, including Delaware. In the late fall two Confederate officials attempted to recruit soldiers in the state but seemingly met with little success, although by the summer of 1862 the sons of some of the most prominent Democrats in Sussex County were in the Confederate army.[18]

How the underground railroad to the South worked is described in an account by one of its passengers, Henry Hollyday, of Queen Anne's County, Maryland. In September, 1862, he arrived in Smyrna and was driven in a carriage to Dover. Although the Dover station was surrounded by "Blue Boys," he boarded a train for Seaford without trouble. Upon his arrival he gave a password to a southern sympathizer, was cordially received, and was spirited to a hiding place in Dorchester County, Maryland, before being conveyed in a dugout across the Nanticoke River. With two Irishmen, two young Maryland farmers, and six Delawareans, he crossed Chesapeake Bay in a thirty-three foot canoe. In spite of being fired upon by a Union gunboat, he reached the Virginia shore safely within less than ten days after leaving home and was soon in Richmond. Probably two or three hundred Delawareans followed this route to the Confederacy.[19]

Political feeling was displayed in the churches of all denominations, although geographical influences were more important in determining political allegiance than denominational affiliation. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and Episcopalians in New Castle County were usually supporters of the Union, while those in lower Delaware sympathized with the South. Bishop Alfred Lee, of the Episcopal Church, was a leader in the Union cause, but clergymen and congregations of his denomination did not support him unanimously. After Lincoln's inauguration, an Episcopalian minister in Seaford refused to read a prayer for the President unless directed by his vestrymen and Bishop Lee.

When his compliance was ordered by Lee, he resigned in May and departed for Canada from the Wilmington depot, where a fellow cleric heard his praise of the South and boasts of possible rebel victories.[20] Special financial assistance was given the rector of the Episcopal Church in Dover, "his Union principles having led to the diminution of his salary," but he resigned after preaching a fiery Thanksgiving sermon in which he praised the righteous cause of the North and condemned secession. At a diocese meeting in Dover in June, Bishop Lee preached a pro-Northern sermon, but the convention took no official notice of the war.[21]

Under the leadership of the Reverend George Wiswell, the Wilmington Presbytery in September, 1861, unanimously adopted resolutions in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war against the South. Typical of these sentiments was a resolution which read: "That we believe every man at this time is either a friend or foe to his country, that there is no such thing as neutrality, and that disloyalty in covertly or openly, directly or indirectly, aiding or abetting the enemies of our government is abhorrent, and in every way to be deprecated." The Wilmington Presbytery in September, 1862, found that with few exceptions "the whole Presbytery is devotedly loyal to the Church and Country in its present trials."The Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, whose pastor was the Reverend Wiswell, was singled out for special praise; twenty of its members had enlisted, but they were described as" praying men still, carrying their piety to camps and sending back their 'greenbacks' to Mission and Sabbath Schools."[22]

Congregations were less ardent about the Union cause than their pastors. The minister of the Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church, near Centerville, preached a patriotic sermon in September, 1861, in which he praised Lincoln and expressed confidence in the eventual success of the Union army, but he aroused the hostility of some members of his congregation.

Years later he added this postscript to his sermon notes upon that occasion: "This sermon caused great consternation. Southern sympathizers seceded from the church, and there was kept alive a personal antagonism during my pastorate of eleven years in Lower Brandywine, Delaware."[23] The Reverend George Foot of the nearby Glasgow Presbyterian Church was forced to resign his charge in 1862 because of congregational opposition to his patriotic sermons. In Dover the pastor of the Presbyterian Church caused "a stampede of traitors" from his congregation by praying for the recovery of wounded Union soldiers, but he later resigned the post. A suspected secessionist estimated that two-thirds of the members of the Dover church and half of Kent County favored the Confederacy.[24]

The most detailed analysis of the attitude of Presbyterians towards the conflict was presented in 1862 by the Reverend William Aikman, of Wilmington, who wrote in part:

It gives me very great satisfaction, however, to be able to say that all of our New School ministers and churches have in all parts of the State been true to liberty and the Union. Indeed, I do not think it too much to say that the noble position of Delaware, standing aloof from secession, and strong in the cause of the Union, is largely due to the influence of the ministers of our denomination.

Our churches have, without exception, throughout the State been known as most devotedly loyal to the Government. They have all sent their members to the war, and two of our pastors (Messrs. Gaylord and Emerson) have their sons in the army and navy. As elsewhere we have maintained our "Aid Societies" in perhaps every church, and always done what we could to support the Government in its struggle with treason. I believe that our New School Church has had a very great-as great perhaps as any other-influence in lifting public sentiment to its present advanced position.

On the other hand, he denounced the Old School Presbyterians, since he knew "of but a single 0. S. Church in the state, which anyone pretends is entirely loyal." One prominent church of this faction had been called "an ambulance for sick and wounded secessionists," while the pastors of several others were "if not openly secessionists, yet are men of more than questionable loyalty." In one incident a minority of Union members had been expelled, and in Dover a patriotic minister had been forced to resign. "I know of scarcely more than a single church of that denomination," wrote the Wilmington clergyman, "where an outspoken word for freedom, or even a clearly expressed prayer for the Union and the success of the cause would be tolerated." He believed that the Methodists, Episcopalians, and Baptists were loyal and that Old School Presbyterians stood alone in the "treason." In the same year, moreover, Aikman argued that the Negroes were destined to be freed.[25]

Dissension also appeared in other denominations. Even the Quakers took sides, and one Wilmington resident wrote a naval officer:

I have not much faith in the Anti fighting properties of many of our Quaker friends-it is a very good excuse to avoid paying considerable money towards the war, even towards supporting the wives and children that have[been] left-but as they have done all they could to hiss on the fight, I have not much faith in the conscientious scruples & it is now no uncommon sight to see some stiff old Quaker Ladies Knitting Mittens for the poor soldiers[,] which have a place for the forefinger, so they can pull a trigger.[26]

The patriotism of the pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Wilmington was brought to Lincoln's attention, and the President is supposed to have said, "That one, little, loyal, clearheaded Baptist minister of Wilmington, James S. Dickerson, saved Delaware to the Union."[27] The Reverend William England, of the Methodist Church in Milford, in a sermon in 1862 praised the patriotic leadership of three ministers, Bishop Alfred Lee, of the Episcopal Church, the Reverend George Wiswell, of the Presbyterian Church, and the Reverend James E. Smith, of the Methodist Church, who, "like true watchmen," were fighting to preserve their constitutional heritage. The editor of the Journal added to the honor roll the name of this Milford pastor, who was courageously filling a post from which one loyal minister had already been ejected by his pro-Southern congregation.[28]

A problem of greater concern to Republicans was the control of federal arms in the state by Democrats. With the cooperation of Governor Burton, all such equipment had been received by sixteen Democratic militia companies, whose members were said by Republicans to be secessionists. If a "Judgment Day" came between these opposing political parties, what would the defenseless Republicans do? The predictions of former Governor Ross and of Dr. Grimshaw in April, 1861, that armed conflict in the state between these parties was not far off seemed likely to be fulfilled during the summer in lower Delaware. At Magnolia in Kent County, charges were made that cheers greeted every southern advance, that a storekeeper refused to post the President's call for troops, and that thirty rifles had been stolen by secessionists, though these accusations were later denied as "malicious falsehoods."[29] Bitter political feeling in Smyrna resulted in the organization of separate Fourth of July celebrations for Republicans and Democrats. The "secessionist" sympathies of a militia company in Camden caused several people to warn Major-General Henry duPont, in charge of the state militia, against supplying it with arms.[30]

In Sussex County rival militia companies appeared in Milford, Georgetown, Lewes, and Seaford, and the editor of the Republican claimed that the Union companies would "stand by the Union until Gabriel blows his last trumpet."[31] From Georgetown in May, 1861, Judge Caleb S. Layton wrote Major-General duPont that one company in the vicinity was composed of Union supporters, "good men and true," while the "disunion element" was headed by Caleb Paynter. Even though Layton's son had been ordered by the Governor to give the equipment of the loyal company to the secessionists, he had refused. The Judge reported that in the locality there were "some Secessionite Enemies: Men, who whilst they may deny that they are such, are opposed to coercion-and who have refused to unite with the Union Companies by taking an oath to support the Const.[itution]." A correspondent from Lewes also reminded Major-General duPont in June of that town's exposure to attack by land or sea: [32] ". . if there should be any failure in Washington or any success in the Southern movement there are many men in Sussex and men of influence who will be governed by prejudice against the Administration and give trouble to the peace of this State and if the South is arming on the Sea, our Town may see trouble, and we have not any defence."[33] From the Captain of the Clayton Home Guards on the border of Kent and Sussex counties came this almost illegible letter in July:

Cant you furnish us with Better guns We are at your Scerves at any time we are union men and will go the hole hog-We have a great meney trators about us but Since we have got our guns they have bin qwite-we had a great day at Williamsville on the 4 of July I think there was from 12 to 1500 people-and there was Sume Trators We had a Sham Battle and they see that we underst. how to use the guns they have bin a Little Shie Ever Since [34]

Men came to feel that the formation of a Sussex County regiment might be the solution to secession difficulties there. William Marshall wrote Major-General duPont in August that such a step would be "a death knell to any secession schemes which have been or may hereafter be inaugurated by Davis, Bayard, Salsbury & Co. to carry this state out of the sisterhood, or to enlist the sympathies of our people on the side of Southern rebellion,' or favor the state rights doctrine." In September eleven loyal companies met in Georgetown to consider forming a regiment. Unrepresented were the Kenshaw Blues, of Laurel, with a Captain Collins; the Georgetown Infantry, Captain Caleb Paynter; and the Seaford Cavalry, Captain Edward L. Martin, since those companies were considered to be "secessionist."[35]

With the assistance of New Castle County Republicans, steps were taken to arm the loyal companies and disarm pro-Southern groups. The DuPonts had been concerned about protection of their powder mills, and Henry duPont estimated in April that 800 sets of arms were needed to equip his employees and to establish a permanent guard to protect the mill. He wanted soldiers to be stationed at either Fort Delaware or Wilmington in case the "CSA" made a demonstration against Wilmington. If Virginia joined the Confederacy, the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore tracks might make a convenient line of defense, and the mills might still be protected. Secretary of War Cameron rejected Henry duPont's request for arms and suggested that he contact the regional commander in Philadelphia.[36] Major General Robert Patterson was impressed by the need to protect the powder mill and provided 400 muskets to which Captain S. F. duPont at the Philadelphia navy yard added 100 carbines. Local militia defended the property until the end of April, when Pennsylvania troops were stationed at nearby Brandywine Springs. An interview with Lincoln by Henry Winter Davis on April 28 resulted in a special order by which additional arms were provided for the area.[37]

Governor Burton was in a difficult position. It was generally believed that the chief executive wanted to stand by the Union, but that unfavorable influences around him, such as those of Judge Wootten, former Governor Ross, and Thomas F. Bayard permitted him to see only the Democratic point of view. In a letter to the Secretary of War in April, 1861, the Governor expressed the view of most of the Democrats of the state:

In my judgment a large majority of the citizens of this State are opposed to any policy that tend[s] directly or indirectly to coerce the seceded States, and they would therefore be unwilling to be placed in a position in which they might at any time be compelled to wage war against those, whom they have always regarded as Brethren and thereby destroy the possibility of a reunion and a return to that brotherly love and affection which formerly existed between all the members of this once happy confederacy.[38]

The confusion in his mind is well shown by the conflicting directives he issued as commander-in-chief. On May 11, Order Number 1 named Henry duPont head of the militia with the rank of major-general, and Order Number 2 directed that all arms be surrendered to him unless the users were immediately entering the armed services. Although Burton later claimed that his sole purpose was for the proper supervision of the arms, much excitement among the Democratic companies followed the issuing of the command; consequently, on May 14 he revoked the second order. More disturbances resulted, and he issued an explanation on May 18 and appealed to all law-abiding citizens to refrain from violence. Major-General duPont was ordered to confiscate only arms being improperly used. The disgruntled officer wished to resign, but his friends persuaded him to continue. William Ross praised the countermanding order "as a step in the right direction. I hope you will remain firm and not commit our State further in support of the Black Republican war policy," he counseled the Governor." I will die a thousand deaths rather than make war upon our brethren in Virginia."[39] On June 6, Governor Burton informed Major-General duPont that he was not in favor of taking arms away from the Delaware companies or of administering an oath of loyalty. "The people of Delaware have always been loyal," he wrote, "and I cannot but believe that they are still loyal and to order an oath to be administered to them which is not authorised by law would indicate a distrust of their loyalty and reflect upon them as good citizens."[40]

Thomas Bayard was the unofficial major-general of the Democratic party. On April 13, a Democratic leader in Sussex County sent him a young man, William James, of Laurel, who as "one of the right stripe" wished to join the Confederate army. By the end of the month he was in Dixie. John P. Cochran, later governor of Delaware, asked Bayard in April for 50 guns for the protection of Middletown, as "we are in a defenceless condition and liable to attack at any time from the miserable scoundrels in our neighborhood "; he intended to organize a military company. A plea for help from Odessa in July explained that Major-General duPont had furnished the war party there and in Townsend with eighty muskets, but that the Bell and Douglas men had no arms to offer to recruits. Captain N. B. Knight in Camden in July asked for arms to curb the arrogance and insolence of the "Lincoln hirelings." Unfortunately, from the Democratic point of view he had no equipment to issue.[41]

Some people looked to Delaware's new member of the House of Representatives for aid. The organizer of the Newark Home Guards asked Fisher for arms on April 23. His company consisted of eighty men, but one hundred could have been as easily obtained. Those whom he suspected of secessionist proclivities he marked with an "X," and he had placed four such symbols after the name of Irving Vallandigham, son of a Delaware College professor and Presbyterian minister and the nephew of a well-known pro-Southern congressman from Ohio. "We are formed for home protection," he wrote, "but will see that the flag of our country is maintained in its integrity."[42]

The militia situation remained unfavorable for supporters of the administration. Fisher informed Secretary of War Cameron on April 30 that something must be done to alleviate conditions. Upon the basis of an incident in Georgetown, he cautioned: "Do not trust too confidently upon the patriotism of our Governor. He has just ordered arms that had been drawn by a volunteer company in the lower part of the state under the laws of the state to be delivered up. This company is composed of loyal men, while Captain Martin of Seaford who fired salutes in honor of the capture of Fort Sumpter [sic] is allowed to retain his arms. I should not wonder if the Governor's orders shd., if executed or attempted, bring about a collision."[43]

In a review of the situation in June, Major-General duPont pointed out that during the presidential election a certain "clique" had enrolled volunteer companies and had drawn all the arms controlled by the state of any value, some groups holding two or three times the number needed. Through these companies, Breckinridge men controlled some neighborhoods in which they were in a minority. "In every town or village, where the Union men have succeeded in procuring arms," he observed, "a most healthy reaction has taken place, men quitting the Clique companies, and enrolling themselves in the Union companies, the moment they saw the latter in a position to maintain the Law at all hazards." He was anxious to obtain arms for distribution among the loyal companies. Political pressure by Representative Fisher resulted in the shipping of one thousand sets of arms to the state in July. Four hundred sets were sent to Kent County, while each of the other two counties received three hundred. DuPont made certain that they were issued only to Union men.[44]

The first order of Major-General duPont was issued on July 12; all commanders of volunteers were requested to report the number of weapons and recruits in each company. In Order Number 2 upon the same day, he organized the First Regiment of Delaware Volunteers in New Castle County and equipped it with 636 guns provided by the Wilmington city council. In the fall, the Second and Third Regiments were formed in lower Delaware. These three regiments were to be used only for the defense of the state and were not to be employed outside its borders.[45]

Continued insolence and arrogance on the part of alleged secessionist companies could not be permitted to continue indefinitely. Thomas M. Rodney, collector of the port of Wilmington, informed General McClellan on September 28 that the Virginia counties on the peninsula were filled with well-armed and defiant traitors." This feeling extends itself to the neighboring counties of Maryland and Delaware," he asserted, "and if these Virginia counties are permitted to hold an armed defiance towards the government of the United States, we have no right to expect anything else but trouble in our little State, seeing that our officers including the Governor and United States Senators are[as] disloyal traitors as any officers at the head of the Confederate fiends." He recommended a short visit from some of "the four thousand peacemakers" from Fortress Monroe. From other sources came the alarming information that Captain Edward L. Martin in Seaford had assembled arms for shipping to Virginia and equipment for a company of cavalry.[46]

A company of the Second Delaware Regiment arrived in Seaford in October, confiscated weapons in possession of Martin's militia company, and compelled him to swear allegiance. Then a visit was paid to Georgetown, where most of the equipment belonging to C. R. Paynter's company was seized, and the captain was forced to take an oath of allegiance. At Laurel four men who had concealed a government balloon were arrested and imprisoned for about a month. The secession hotbed of Willow Grove in Kent County was searched, equipment belonging to a pro-Southern company appropriated, and Captain Whiteley W. Meredith imprisoned in Salisbury for a few days until he promised to support the federal government. Within six days, 550 muskets, 100 rifles, 100 carbines, 70 sabres, 50 pistols, and two pieces of cannon were removed from the control of southern sympathizers. A Maryland company visited Wilmington and New Castle in November and confiscated additional weapons from three pro-Southern militia companies.

Unionists must have breathed easier after the removal of these weapons from the hands of their opponents.[47]

Some alleged disloyal companies still possessed arms, and the advice of Major-General duPont was solicited. He wrote to General Lockwood in December, 1861:

In regard to disarming certain other companies in this State, my views are, that a citizen who is not loyal is not entitled to hold the arms of the state-a citizen's rights are guaranteed to him under the Constitution, on the presupposition that he is loyal-if he becomes disloyal, he forfeits his rights-I think that the disarming should be thorough, making no exceptions, & seeing that all the arms are turned over, under your requisition to the parties empowered to collect them.[48]

Two companies of Colonel Wallace's Regiment of Maryland Volunteers appeared in Dover in March and blocked all exits from the capital. The captain of the pro-Southern Haslet Guard was asked to surrender the arms of his company; upon his refusal, he was arrested, as were several residents who used abusive language. Entrance was forced into the statehouse, which was then used as headquarters for the troops. One soldier who used his saddle as a pillow reported that he slept for several nights upon the speaker's platform in the House of Representatives. Eventually the arms were surrendered, and the two Maryland companies departed with five prisoners. In spite of a threatening and sullen mob, departure at the depot was peaceful.[49]

Weapons were also collected in Smyrna and New Castle. In Wilmington Captain George R. Riddle and Lieutenant Thomas F. Bayard, of the Delaware Guard, at first refused to surrender equipment, and they were arrested, but later the arms were given up and the two prisoners paroled. When the companies departed from Wilmington, they took along as prisoners three persons who had shown sympathy for the Confederacy in various ways. One, John Lambson, was a law student in Bayard's office, who later wrote from Camp Wallace near Salisbury a letter of complaint about the lack of bed clothing and cramped conditions. He reported that in an adjacent cell were the prisoners from Dover.[50]

Thomas F. Bayard attributed the raid to the "spite of the Republicans," while his father thought that "the hound or whelp Fisher was at the bottom of it, or else Smithers or Harrington." Saulsbury and Bayard complained of the arrest of Lieutenant Bayard to the Secretary of War, who consulted General Dix. The latter advised Wallace to parole Bayard. Upon his release the enraged Democrat inquired of General Dix upon whose authority the invasion had taken place. Bayard was informed that Major-General duPont had approved the disarmament.[51] A letter by Bayard to duPont brought the reply that if the secessionist companies had been loyal to the Union there would have been no reason for the arms seizures and arrests. Mrs. Sophie duPont wrote an interesting account of the incident to her husband, in which she stated that Bayard wished to become a martyr until he found that he might be imprisoned "in the interesting deserts of Accomac county, Virginia," when he changed his mind.[52]

While the Republican press chortled over the discomfiture of its opponents, the pro-Southern newspapers were bitter in their complaints. The Gazette viewed the incident as "altogether unnecessary," and the Delawarean thought that "no greater indignity has ever been offered to any portion of the people of Delaware." The Saulsbury organ blamed the attack upon "malicious, unprincipled demagogues in our midst-men, too, who occupy leading positions in the Republican party" and who gave the erroneous impression that "all Democrats were secessionist and traitors."[53]

Saulsbury in the Senate declared that the seizure of arms was unnecessary and defended the reputation of the persons arrested. The reply of Republican George Fisher in the House was an attack upon the character of most of the members of the Haslet Guard. The captain of the company, Charles McWhorter, whom Fisher classified as disloyal, owned, he said, a race horse named "Jeff Davis," and, after a trotting exhibition, called for a Union flag, saying "Take that damned old rag and wipe out the horse's mouth." Fisher accused a nephew of Senator Saulsbury who belonged to the company of expressing joy at the result of the first battle of Bull Run and of hoping that every Union volunteer who went South might fall in a similar battle. At a drinking party in a Dover hotel, another member, he reported, proposed this toast: "Here's to General Beauregard, whose voice was heard to thunder tones on the plains of Manassas, when the Yankee hordes, like whipped hounds, were driven howling back to their kennels."[54]

The indignant soldiers denied these charges. McWhorter challenged Fisher to a duel, and after the Congressman's refusal, he accused him of "wilful misrepresentation and slander" in his charges. Other militia members also denied Fisher's accusation and, in the eyes of many Republicans and Democrats, Fisher had made himself ridiculous by stooping to the level of relating such trivia.[55]

During the summer Union men worried about Governor Burton's response to Lincoln's requests for troops. Would he honor such calls or refuse? His reply to Secretary of War Cameron on April 25 revealed that he would co-operate to some degree. He claimed that state law did not permit him to place the militia under federal control but asserted that he would urge companies to volunteer their services. On May 1, he issued a proclamation encouraging enlistment. The 780 men needed to fill Delaware's quota were soon obtained. Companies A and B were organized from members of the Bell and Everett campaign clubs in Wilmington, Company C was formed by Joseph M. Barr, editor of the Commonwealth and former Constitutional Unionist, Company D came from western Kent County, and small groups of men came from other parts of the state.[56]

The First Delaware Volunteer Infantry went off to war when the recruits were ordered to guard the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad. On May 28, an enormous crowd gathered at the depot to witness the departure; several ladies fainted, and touching scenes were enacted as friends and families were separated. The stars and stripes were hung from almost every house along the track. Poorly clothed, provisioned, and drilled, the recruits were in excellent spirits and returned cheer after cheer for the Union "with a will and determination that showed they were ready to do and dare, should occasion ever require their presence before the enemy." After three months of service on patrol duty, the regiment was paid off and disbanded. Most of the volunteers re-enlisted for three years, and by special permission they were permitted to call themselves the First Delaware Regiment, although another regiment had already started to organize during their absence. In September the remnants of the three-months volunteers with some new recruits reported to Camp Brandywine and in October departed for Fortress Monroe.[57]

Lincoln issued a call for 400,000 men in May. Delaware's quota was 2,000, and Governor Burton by proclamation again urged citizens to volunteer, though he refused to summon a special session of the legislature to consider paying bounties. Consequently, five months were required to organize the Second Delaware Regiment, which was eventually filled out with men from Pennsylvania and Maryland. The soldiers assembled at Camp Andrews near Hare's Corner in New Castle County and left for Fortress Monroe in October.[58]

At the end of the year, Unionists could view with pride the military record of the state. Lincoln's demands for troops had been met in spite of the opposition of many Democrats. The Secretary of War in his annual report credited the state with 775 three-month volunteers and 2,000 three-year recruits. In his opinion, the state had faced the possibility of an insurrection in July, but "the good sense and patriotism of the people have triumphed over the unholy schemes of traitors." So satisfactory were conditions that the Secretary suggested the possibility of Delaware's annexing Virginia and Maryland counties on the peninsula. In Lincoln's message to Congress in December, the President mentioned the state in such a way that Delawareans never forgot his words. Referring to the Mason and Dixon line, he said, "South of the line, noble little Delaware led off right from the first."[59]

Lincoln's requests for troops in the summer of 1862 were met without enthusiasm. Delaware's quota under the two calls was 3,440 men. The Third Delaware Regiment from the southern part of the state left for the front in August, 1862. The First Delaware Battery of Field Artillery was authorized in August, and George P. Fisher promoted the formation of a company of 1,200 cavalrymen in September. The Fifth and Sixth Regiments were organized in the fall of 1862 to serve for nine months but saw little service.[60]

For a time it was uncertain if Governor Burton would cooperate with the governors of northern states in endorsing the President's demands for troops, but on July 2, 1862, he telegraphed Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, that "I cordially join the several Governors of the loyal states to request the President to call out as many men as will be sufficient to crush this rebellion." In early August he informed the War Department that he would comply with all regulations to the best of his ability and that he expected to appoint draft officials during the following week. On August 18 he was notified that 1,241 men were required to complete the quota.[61]

Friends of the Union at a Wilmington meeting emphatically seconded the President's call for troops. Resolutions expressed the determination of the citizens to support the war until the rebellion was crushed and to see that Delaware fulfilled her quota. The city of Wilmington was requested to appropriate funds to encourage enlistments. A few days later the city council set aside $25,000.00 in order to provide $50.00 bounty money for each soldier in the Fourth Delaware Regiment. Another inducement for enlistment was a gift of $75.00 and sixty acres of land from the federal government. A Union meeting of citizens from New Castle County asked the Levy Court to furnish $50,000.00 for the same purpose, but that body doubted its having the necessary authority.[62]

Burton was slow to appoint draft officials, and many persons refused to perform these duties. The Delaware Journal observed that in Brandywine and Christiana hundreds in. New Castle County nearly every man claimed to be or was classified as "a cripple or an invalid "; at that rate, it predicted, the draft would provide less than one thousand men from the state. In Duck Creek Hundred in Kent County, many men feigned injuries or ill health. "Fishermen who think nothing of being in the Bay all day and sleeping upon the beach at night," the Smyrna Times reported; "farmers who can endure any amount of labor and exposure; others who can wade through marshes from morning to night in sporting seasons without suffering the least inconvenience have been furnished exemption papers, in some cases to their own surprise." In Baltimore Hundred, in Sussex County, the Governor was unable to find anyone willing to accept appointment. Probably political pressure from Fisher and Cannon in view of the approaching election forced the Secretary of War to announce on October 10 that the Delaware quota was filled and that the necessity for the draft was over.[63]

Republicans and Democrats also disagreed about Lincoln's plan of compensated emancipation for Delaware. Two undated drafts of such a plan for the state exist in Lincoln's handwriting. In November, 1861, Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair summoned by telegraph Representative George Fisher to Washington upon urgent business. The President in a long interview with Fisher suggested a plan of compensated emancipation and urged that the Delaware legislature then in session consider it. Lincoln recommended that the federal government buy the slaves at $300.00 each. Fisher held out for $500.00; any difference between the actual and real value of the slaves was to be used for public improvements and education. The President finally agreed, told him to consult the Assistant Secretary of War, T. A. Scott, about the terms, but wished to talk himself with a Delaware slaveowner.[64]

Fisher arranged for Benjamin Burton, a Republican of Indian River Hundred in Sussex County, to go to Washington. As the owner of twenty-eight slaves, he was the largest slave-holder in the state. In the interview Burton asked the President whether he was sure that Congress would support the proposition. Lincoln quickly replied, "Mr. Burton, you tend to your end of the swingle tree, and I'll tend to mine." He explained that Congress had been polled and that he was sure of success. Among other things that Lincoln told him were: "If I can get this plan started in Delaware I have no fear but that all the other border states will accept it. . . . This is the cheapest and most humane way of ending this war and saving lives." Burton assured the President that Delaware slaveowners would be glad to dispose of their Negroes at a fair valuation, and Lincoln was "delighted." Upon his return Burton presented the plan to some friends but, with the exception of the approval of one slave-owner who feared that the slave would be freed eventually without compensation, encountered opposition.[65]

In Dover, Fisher and Nathaniel B. Smithers drew up a bill which emancipated all slaves over thirty-five years of age. The remainder would be freed by 1872, with the exception of children who were apprenticed until they reached the age of maturity. Funds for payment were to come from a federal appropriation of $900,000.00. A poll of the members of the General Assembly revealed that with the support of two Democrats, Wilson L. Cannon and Jacob Moore, the proposal would pass in the Senate, but that in the House of Representatives, Robert A. Cochran, the only member who had been elected as a true Lincoln man, was opposed, and therefore the bill would be defeated by one vote. Under the circumstances the measure was not introduced, though news of the plan leaked out. Later it was charged that friends of the bill had distributed among themselves $35,000.00.[66]

The Republican newspapers devoted considerable space to the emancipation proposal. The Republican praised the plan as a "God-send" to many owners, as slaves were depreciating in value and the institution was tottering. Such a golden opportunity" might never appear again. The Smyrna Times favored the measure but feared it would not pass since there was strong opposition in upper Kent County. The Delawarean observed, "This is the first step; if it shall succeed, others will follow tending to elevate the Negro to an equality with the white man or rather to degrade the white man by obliterating the distinction between the[two] races." The newspaper opposed the bill because of its "iniquity," because of the mystery surrounding it, and because of the interference of the general government in state affairs. A correspondent in the Gazette considered that the less than three hundred abolitionists in the state were behind the plan to upset the peace and security of Delaware.[67]

How a prominent Republican viewed the proposal was evidenced in a letter written by Charles I. duPont. The government plan to free Negroes in the border states might be "a handle for their general emancipation" everywhere, though many favored suppressing the rebellion first before considering the question of Negro bondage. "As far as Delaware is concerned," he observed, "it will prove a God send to many a slave owner in Kent & Sussex counties, where they say, that now the hogs eat all the corn, the Negroes the hogs, and the Sheriff the master." Emancipation was "sure to come soon," and all agreed that the price of land would rise $20.00 per acre, though politics and stump speeches might postpone its passage for several years, in order that Bayard, Saulsbury, or lesser politicans might be elected to office.[68]

Delaware's three congressmen disagreed about the wisdom of the proposal. Representative Fisher observed that the cost of freeing the Negro in Delaware would be less than the cost of the war for half a day and would provide a substantial sum for colonizing not only the freed slaves but the entire Negro population elsewhere. "In my humble judgment," he concluded, "this plan of gradual emancipation by the states, in which they are themselves to take the full initiative, is the very best that could possibly be suggested or devised."[69] Senator Saulsbury opposed the plan and declared in the Senate:

God, nature, everything has made a distinction between the white man and negro, . . . I never had an ancestor that was not a slaveholder, as far as they have ever existed in this country; and I never had an ancestor that would hold a negro for life, but always set him free at twenty-one years of age; but I say to you, sir . .. that we mean that the United States of America from the northern lakes to the southern Gulf, from the Atlantic on the one side to the Pacific on the other, shall be the white man's home; and not only the white man's home, but the white man shall govern, and the nigger never shall be his equal.[70]

In a speech in the Senate on emancipation in the District of Columbia, Senator Bayard referred to Delaware, and the Delaware Journal printed his words for the next month as an endorsement of emancipation in the state. He said:

In the State of Delaware I admit that slavery does not exist as a valuable source of prosperity. I admit unhesitatingly that if tomorrow we could substitute for the negro population of Delaware, slave and free, the same number of white men, and get rid of the inferior race, our wealth would be quadrupled.

In a letter to his son he expressed the hope that the measure would be defeated in the state legislature, since its rejection would "kill Republicanism in Delaware."[71]

Democrats in the Delaware House of Representatives introduced resolutions in opposition to the plan. These pointed out that the members were not elected to consider emancipation, that it would be injurious to the peace and harmony of the state, and that Congress had no right "to appropriate a dollar for the purchase of the slaves." The most significant resolution read:

When the people of Delaware desire to abolish slavery within her borders, they will do so in their own way, having due regard to strict equity; that any interference from without, and all suggestions of saving expense to the people, or others of like character, are improper to be made to an honorable people such as we represent, and are hereby repelled; that though the State of Delaware is small and her people none of the richest, they are beyond the reach of any who would promote an end by improper interference and solicitations.[72]

In the summer of 1862 Fort Delaware received the largest group of prisoners since the war began. In April, 250 prisoners were confined. Captives from the battle of the Wilderness swelled the figures to 3,500. With assistance from New Castle, 200 escaped in July in one night. With the exception of 100 officers, who were quartered in barracks outside the walls, all the prisoners were confined in crowded cells. In August, 3,000 prisoners were sent south to be exchanged at a rendezvous along the James River in Virginia; 370 preferred to take the oath of allegiance, and some joined the Fourth Delaware Regiment. Every Union victory or defeat during the remainder of the war was reflected in an increase in the population of Fort Delaware.[73]

Wilmington was uneasy at the time of Lee's invasion of Maryland in September. Henry and Lammot duPont were called to Washington and informed that the enemy planned to attack the gunpowder mills with 3,000 cavalrymen, but that the government would defend the works with 2,500 Pennsylvania militia. Two rebel spies were later arrested on the grounds. The mayor of Wilmington summoned a public meeting to consider the question of defense, and a National Guard was formed, which drilled two hours each day. The feeling that the war was close at hand was emphasized by the hundreds of wounded soldiers passing through the Wilmington station by train. William Canby noted in his diary, "Fourteen hundred of the sick & wounded soldiers passed thro' here today, & our citizens went down in large numbers to feed them, taking coffee, bread, meat, peaches, apples, and everything they could spare from their homes." Anna Ferris observed:

Our lives except the necessary & daily routine are all absorbed in the war. Its tragedies come to our knowledge all the time, trains of sick & wounded men are constantly passing thro' our city to the Hospitals & many domestic histories are full of tragic interest. I must see a woman today whose husband was shot on picket duty...These humble suf-ferers are the real martyrs of the war, and every battle makes thousands of them, but the homes of sick & poor all over the land are "houses of mourning.[74]

Shortly after the Union victory at Antietam in September, 1862, came the President's announcement in the Emancipation Proclamation that slaves in rebellious states would be freed after January 1, 1863. To the editor of the Journal, it appeared that "no public document ever bore to the people more important language than this. None fraught with more decided results ever startled the world. It is essentially a proclamation of Peace, as it will prove to be a speedy and certain death blow to the rebellion." Anna Ferris believed that "its effects no one can perhaps foresee. One party hails it as the beginning of the millenium, and the other deprecates it as giving increased bitterness to the present struggle." In her opinion, it had put the nation "right with God." A different reaction was noted by the brother of Samuel Townsend, Edmund, who was an officer in the Fourth Delaware Regiment at Harper's Ferry. During a party in his tent, he found "that their is a general murmer among the officers about President Lincoln's proclimation." They also concluded that they "were pretty tiered of army life and if unckle Sam had bursted and could not pay us off we would resign and take a due bill for our pay or quit on the square." The colonel of the regiment was resigning since he was" down on these damned Yankey abolishenest Generals."[75]

In spite of the excitement connected with military matters, the ordinary activities of life continued. Of great concern to businessmen was the depression in the summer of 1861. Reduced wages, unemployment, and closed factories characterized business in Wilmington in the summer after Fort Sumter. The DuPont Company "lost by secession" $150,000.00 when southern firms failed to meet their obligations. Because of the low price for grain, business conditions in the lower part of the state were equally bad.[76]

By fall, however, there was a definite upswing after the placing of government contracts and the increased demand for grain. A contract for 72 ambulances, which the government placed with a carriage manufacturer in Wilmington in June, benefited 300 persons. In July other manufacturers were awarded contracts for 100 baggage wagons, 1,000 tents, 1,200 sets of harness, and 72 additional ambulances. One Wilmington manufacturer had completed an order for 704 wagons for the government by September, and another began the manufacture of 10,000 pairs of shoes in the same month. Pusey, Jones, and Company received a contract of $100,000.00 for equipping the sloop of war "Juanita" in October. A cloth manufacturer in Newark received a government order for 80,000 yards of woolen cloth in July; by the end of the war he owned eight small factories which were operated day and night. Lower Delaware benefited from the high prices for wheat, and Milford shipyards boomed.[77] The prosperous condition of business resulted in a lack of small coins. Many towns and merchants issued "shinplasters" of small denomination to circulate as money. Examples of some of these are shown in the accompanying illustration.[78]

Union men impatiently awaited military victories. A Wilmington Republican wrote in October, 1861:

The whole proceedings at Washington (military) is a mistery [sic] to me, with an overwhelming force, McClellan seems to be satisfied to rest secure in his inactivity, while Kentucky and Missouri are in the agonies of death-how is it, that every where the rebels outnumber our men, beating us in activity and numbers, shut out by the blockade from all supplies, without money, without hospital stores, sulphur, saltpetre, coffee, leather, &c. . . . The amount of troops passing through here is incredible. I ascertained this morning at our depot that during the last fourteen days, 24,000 went south and 2,000 North, the latter to New York to embark with the expedition south. . . . The passage of troops and munitions has ceased to excite curiosity and were it not for a few soldiers about our streets all is as quiet here as if we were in profound peace. . . .

. . . What does it mean, Is it a trial whose bread and pork will fail first-It seems so.[79]

To the friends of the Union, it seemed in the spring of 1862 as if the war were at a standstill. One Wilmington observer wrote:

we are still kept in the same state of anxious hopes and fears, that have possessed us for months. we send for the early morning papers[,] again in the evening for late papers. we read the same dull "all quiet on the Potomac" "no news from Fortress Monroe," until patience is exhausted; President and General, order an advance, troops remain in Camp. we meet in the street and at the corners, discuss (some "cuss") the affairs of the nation and the conduct of Generals, with a large spice of "nigger" mixed up with every topic. . . . I walk the streets of[the] W.[est] side about the neighbourhood, see no change, and were it not for the flags displayed, we would see no evidence that our country was engaged in a bloody war, for these and all other blessings, thanks be to God.[80]

The tensions, suspicions, and misunderstandings that existed between Republicans and Democrats were demonstrated in the campaign and election of 1862. Most of the Constitutional Unionists followed Fisher into the Republican party, though William Temple and J. P. Comegys became Democrats. So bitter were the Douglas Democrats at the defeat of their idol that they joined the Republican party, though Samuel Townsend and congressional nominee Elias S. Reed supported the Democrats. The Republicans gained 4,000 more votes and the Democrats 1,000 more votes than they had in 1860, but the Democrats still continued to win almost every election. In order to make their party more popular, the Republicans changed the name to Union party.[81]

Congressman Fisher was uncertain about his chances for nomination and re-election. James T. Heald, a real estate operator and prominent Wilmington Republican, announced to a group of his friends that he was determined to kill Fisher politically and that one thousand men had promised to oppose the Republican congressman. A correspondent in the Republican thought that Fisher and the emancipation bill should both be abandoned as liabilities, though the editor disagreed. In a public letter Fisher stated that he hoped Delaware would sustain his course, but "it may be, however, I will go under at home for a time-it may be forever".[82]

After county meetings, a state convention was called in August to launch officially the Union party. Resolutions in support of the Union and in condemnation of the rebellion were passed, although no direct stand was taken for emancipation.

The opposition was attacked for appealing to "popular prejudice upon the absurd and threadbare pretext, Negro equality." One resolution read, "That while we deny that this war is or ought to be prosecuted for the purpose of the extinction of African Slavery, we see no reason why the slave of the rebel should not be liable to seizure as any other property, nor why the Negro should not be made to throw up entrenchments on the one side to maintain as well as on the other to destroy the Government." George Fisher was unanimously nominated for Congress, and William Cannon was chosen as a candidate for the gubernatorial office.[83]

Up to this time Cannon had been a key figure in the Democratic party in Sussex County. He was a self-made man, who had become wealthy through a combination of merchandising, farming, and banking. With an income of $5,000.00, he was the richest man in Sussex County in 1864. Twice he had been elected to the House of Representatives and once as state treasurer. Samuel Townsend in 1860 predicted that Cannon would surely be the next candidate for governor. The exact reasons why he became a Republican will probably never be known. A biographical article in 1882 and a recent study of the Cannon family stress his genuine devotion to the Union; a letter by a politician forty years after the nomination mentions that Cannon "became sore" after having been rejected three times by the Democrats as a gubernatorial candidate and turned to the opposition. His political connections in Sussex County might be of assistance to the Republican party.[84]

County conventions of the Democrats prepared the way for a state convention in September. The platform declared that the people of Delaware "alone" should be permitted to determine whether they wanted to abolish slavery and that the Democratic party was" unalterably opposed to the scheme advocated by the Black-Republican-Abolition-Disunion party for the abolition of slavery in this state."It was the opinion of the convention:

that the evident intent of the Republican party is to place the negro on a footing of equality with the white man, and that the constant inter-meddling of Congress during its last session with the question of slavery, (although the Last Abolitionized Republican Convention in this State affected to slur over the question as "threadbare") affords ample evidence that such intent exists, and that they are prepared to degrade the white race to a level with the negroes at the bidding of false philanthropy and fanatical madness.

Former Governor William Temple, who had been a leader of the Constitutional Union party in 1860, was chosen for Congress, and Samuel Jefferson, a prominent Democrat in New Castle County, was selected for Governor.[85]

In a criticism of the state convention of the "BreckinridgeLocofoco-Disunion-Peace Party," the Smyrna Times found "Mr. Negro" at the center of the resolutions, and "Negro Equality" the argument par excellence presented by every speaker. Where were planks expressing thanks to the volunteers, sympathy for soldiers, and the desire that the rebellion be crushed? A Philadelphia newspaper viewed the proceedings as "worthy of a convention of South Carolina in the early days of secession."[86]

By the end of the summer, leading Republicans were concerned about the election. In August Thomas M. Rodney wrote Secretary of War Stanton that the removal of the Fourth Delaware Regiment, which included 600 Union men, would surely hand the state over in November "to the tender mercies of the traitor Bayard and the drunkard Saulsbury." Several troubled Republicans in August discussed their problems with President Lincoln, who asked them to put their requests in writing. George Fisher summarized the demands under eight headings. He asked that the inauguration of the draft be postponed until September 15, that the Third Delaware Regiment already in the field and a company of cavalry and artillery in process of formation be counted in the quota, and that Colonel Grimshaw be granted additional time to find recruits for the Fourth Delaware Regiment. He requested that no troops be taken from the state until after the election, that the draft be placed under a marshal, and that the war department, instead of the governor, appoint officers of the volunteer home guard. "I deem it my duty," the Congressman concluded, "to say that with the present programme we do but waste our strength in Delaware by offering opposition to the disunionists in Delaware at the approaching election." Of the 11,000 voters in the state, 2,000 were already in the field, and the draft would reduce the number by 500 to 1,000. With such a handicap he would refuse to run for Congress.[87] Lincoln answered two days later that he was "painfully surprised," since the Secretary of War had assured him that the Delaware delegation was "fully satisfied" with existing arrangements. After reviewing the eight points, Lincoln accepted all but postponing the draft and placing its control under a marshal, since the Governor was "apparently doing right." He assured Fisher that he was sincerely interested in his re-election.[88]

Fisher continued to be concerned about the prospects of the party in the state, and in September asked Secretary of State Seward for assistance. Rebel sympathizers were growing bolder every day and claimed 1,000 majority. The Union men were so despondent that it was almost impossible to hold a meeting in the lower part of the state. "Without help from abroad we shall be, I fear, completely demolished," he added. "Can you not put us right on the track?" Fisher also asked Thurlow Weed for assistance. "We are in imminent danger of losing everything here except our legislative ticket in New Castle county-the antislavery portion of the State," he lamented. "Your aid is indispensible." He did not make it clear whether he expected financial or military aid. Several times during October Fisher and Cannon asked the Secretary of War for troops to be used in November to assure a "fair election and to keep the peace."[89]

During the campaign the Republicans repeatedly charged that their opponents were traitors and secessionists. Typical of these accusations was a resolution passed in Middletown at their largest political rally, which read:

That the mis-called Democratic party of this State is in earnest sympathy with this rebellion; that it has abandoned all the principles of true Democracy; that it seeks, under the specious cry of peace, to recognize the so-called Southern Confederacy, and thereby to destroy the Union; and that its success in this State would be hailed with joy by the wicked leaders of rebellion, and would give them encouragement to prolong this war upon the Union, and to transfer it to Delaware with the hope of obtaining active sympathy and assistance.

Charges were made that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate had recruited a militia company so disloyal that it was refused arms and had disbanded. The Democratic congressional candidate was accused of saying at one raising that the American flag was not worth the cost of the muslin in it, of refusing to close his store upon Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, and of expressing the wish that the streets of Smyrna would run with blood rather than that young men be drafted to fight their brothers in the Confederacy.[90]

The Democrats monotonously emphasized the Negro issue. The call for the Kent County ratification convention in September invited all to attend who opposed "the sectional Republican-Abolition and Disunion party," legislation in behalf of the Negro, and the abolition of slavery. Nine legislative candidates in Sussex County issued "An Address to the Free Voters," in which they denied being secessionists and attempting to lead the state out of the Union; they were subject to such attacks simply because they were running" upon the Democratic ticket-the ticket of the only true Union party-the only organized party in opposition to abolitionism and the equality of the negro with the white man." After some hesitation Samuel Townsend appealed to the Douglas men to return to the Democratic fold. The abolition of slavery would add 2,000 to the 20,000 free Negroes already in the state. "In a short time, they might equal the white population and cause a massacre," he declared, "and if such an occurrence happens in Delaware, white people need not expect any aid or assistance from the Sumnerites; therefore, I say Douglas men, honest Union men, for God's sake unite with any party that will ward off this abolition blow."[91]

The Democratic and Republican press viewed differently the issues involved in the state campaign. The Republican considered the real question to be, "Shall the National Administration be sustained in its effort to suppress the rebellion; or shall we resort to parley, truce, and finally the destruction of the Union and the establishment of the Secession Confederacy?" The Democratic Delawarean thought that the campaign asked, "Shall Constitutional Liberty survive or perish?" It expected the state in November to proclaim "the attachment of her people to the Union as it was, and the Constitution as it is."[92]

A novelty appeared in the election when General John E. Wool, accompanied by Maryland and New York troops, landed at Seaford two days before the voting and dispatched soldiers to most of the polling places in Kent and Sussex counties. Colonel A. H. Grimshaw stationed soldiers from the Fourth Delaware Regiment at several localities in New Castle County. The Democratic Gazette considered that the troops were "certainly unnecessary, unconstitutional, and as a precedent unwise,"while the opposition Republican and Journal felt that their presence assured a fair and peaceful election for everyone.[93]

The results of the election were exceedingly close. Cannon's majority was 111, while Temple became representative by a margin of 37 votes. New Castle County voted overwhelmingly Republican, but the lower counties were Democratic. Cannon ran ahead of Fisher in each county and thus won by a few votes, while the Lincoln favorite trailed so far in lower Delaware that his majority in New Castle County was not able to save him. The Senate consisted of four Union men and five Democrats, and the House was comprised of seven Union members and fourteen Democrats.[94]

The Democrats rejoiced at controlling both houses of the legislature and at the election of Temple as congressman but regretted that Cannon had been elected governor. In view of the expenditure of thousands of dollars and of the use of soldiers at polling places, the Gazette considered that the Democrats had achieved a substantial victory. "That the Democratic party of Delaware has been enabled to defeat such a combination of purse and sword is one of the most remarkable events of the day," wrote the editor of the Gazette;"nothing, it seems to us, but the interposition of the hand of Providence could have saved us from utter defeat."[95]

The Republicans rejoiced at the election of Cannon but were disappointed that they had not achieved other gains. The most important reason for the rejection of Fisher was his connection with the graduated emancipation bill and his antislavery record in Congress. In a campaign speech of 1866, he pointed out that in 1862 he had been accused of being a drunkard, coward, and traitor. Above all, he had been characterized as a "blackhearted abolitionist who desired not only to steal all the negro slaves in Delaware from their masters but to elevate them above the white race, their former masters, and to compel by law the intermarriage of whites and blacks." In 1882 he attributed his defeat twenty years earlier to the absence of 3,000 men from Delaware, who were fighting the enemy.[96] While accusations against the Republicans of favoring emancipation and equality for Negroes were the most important reasons for their defeat, such factors as heavy taxation, resentment over the stationing of soldiers at the polling places, and the arrest of peaceable citizens also contributed to the Democratic victory.

In 1861 and 1862 neither Republicans nor Democrats received the support of an absolute majority of the inhabitants of the state, and the balance of power made each political group push forward aggressively to obtain victory at the next election. Friends, families, militia companies, and churches were divided in feeling, and the intervening years witnessed no diminution of bitterness between the opposing parties.

[H] The State Capitol in 1850

The illustration above is reporduced from an instert on "A Map of the State of Delaware," based on original surveys by Jacob Price and Samuel M. Rea and published by R.P. Smith, Philadelphia, in 1850. It was in this building in Dover that the Maryland troops were quartered during the so-called "invasion" of the state in March, 1862.

CHAPTER IV

Two Years of Tension

BAD feelings between Republicans and Democrats in Delaware continued in 1863 and 1864. The Democratic legislature appointed a committee to investigate the election of 1862 and passed "rebel" acts which annoyed Governor William Cannon and his friends. The Republicans obtained troops to use at the polls at election time and organized loyal men into Union Leagues. Tension was heightened by fear of Confederate invasion into the state and by disturbing news from the front. These were grim years.

Several thousand people assembled upon Dover Green to see Cannon take the oath of office as governor in January, 1863. It was rumored that he would be forcibly prevented from assuming office, but the inaugural ceremonies passed off without incident. The House of Representatives granted and then withdrew permission to hold the inaugural reception in its meeting place, and the festivities were moved to the courthouse.[1]

In his address to the legislature, Cannon praised the quantity and quality of Delaware soldiers. "Comparatively feeble in her resources, embarrassed by her border location and thwarted by the presence of an existing sympathy with the people of the revolting States, that hindered the progress of enlistment," he declared, "the State of Delaware exhibits a proportion of troops alike creditable to herself and useful to the Republic." Antietam and Fredericksburg attested to the courage of her soldiers. He asserted that there has existed, in this State, from the beginning, an element of disloyalty[which] is unquestionable," and he defended the arrest of citizens by federal officials on the grounds that the safety of the republic was worth more than the liberty or life of any individual. The use of troops in the last election was "eminently prudent," and similar circumstances would require their use again. "In no case did they interfere with the exercise of the right of suffrage by any voter," he believed, "and in all respects their presence was salutary in securing good order and preventing probable collision among our own people." The census returns indicated that slavery would soon be extinguished in the state. If Congress formulated a graduated compensation plan for Delaware, he advised its acceptance, though personally he preferred having the state to develop its own scheme without compensation. In his opinion, there was no probability of free Negroes' obtaining complete social and political equality;" the Negro is, and so long as he is among us, ought to remain an inferior being under tutelage."[2]

[I] Prisoners at Fort Delaware

Reproduced from an illustration entitiled, "Preambulating the Island," from United States Bonds, a Journal of Current Events during an Imprisonment of Fifteen Months, at Fort Delaware, by I. W. K. Handy.

[J] A Lottery Wheel Used in a Civil War Draft

The glass-sided lottery wheel is on display in the museum of the Historical Society. The revolving glass cylinder is 23 3/4 inches in diameter and 5 1/2 inches deep. Through the sliding aperture, now hanging free on the right in this photograph, were inserted the names, written on small sheets and enclosed in blank envelopes.

[K] An Attack on a Copperhead

Loyal Delawareans (the Blue Hen's Chickens) attack a Copperhead (i.e. a Southern sympathizer). Copies of this drawing were sold at the Great Sanitary Fair in Philadelphia, in June 1864. Reproduced from a print in the museum of the Historical Society.

A joint committee of the House and Senate to whom the message was referred for consideration charged that its spirit and language were "not only impertinent, but insolent in the extreme and entirely unbecoming a State Executive,"especially one elected by" fraud and violence and against the known wish of a majority of the citizens of Delaware." The arrest of citizens in the past eighteen months was based upon" malicious misrepresentations," and the sufferer was always a Democrat and the accuser, a Republican. In conclusion, the committee claimed that Cannon had been elected by federal bayonets, not by the will of the people.[3]

The General Assembly rejected several of Cannon's recommendations. The Governor proposed that several hundred acres of land near Lewes be granted the federal government for military purposes, but the legislature set aside only forty acres and included a restriction that nonresident Negroes could not be employed upon the project. The General Assembly did not act upon the Governor's recommendation that $25,000.00 be provided for the relief of soldiers' families. While the chief executive had defended the use of troops at the November election, the legislature passed a measure which made liable to fine or imprisonment anyone who was responsible for stationing troops at polling places on election day; under its provisions election judges or inspectors who administered oaths of allegiance could be fined.[4] "An Act to Prevent Illegal Arrests" made it unlawful to arrest a white person without a warrant and prohibited the removal of prisoners from the state without the approval of the governor. Though the chief executive did not have the power to veto bills, Cannon issued a scorching denunciation of the law and indicated that he did not intend to carry out its provisions. He believed that the disloyalty of many Delawareans justified the infrequent arrests. "That there has been from the beginning of the rebellion a considerable number of our people ready to participate in armed resistance to the lawful authorities whenever a fair opportunity should occur, I have no doubt," he declared. His predecessor had claimed that a majority of the citizens of the lower counties were sympathetic with the South. "Without admitting the correctness of estimate of numbers, I do not doubt of the existence of widespread disaffection," Cannon added. The joint committee to which had been referred Cannon's inaugural address also considered his special message to the General Assembly on the measure to prevent illegal arrests. It cited the message as "the first example in the history of this State of an attempted unwarranted interference with the exercise of legislative power by the General Assembly" and made the governor liable to impeachment and removal from office.[5]

Before adjournment, the General Assembly heard and approved the report of a joint investigating committee on the election of 1862. Hearings involving 124 witnesses lasted for two months and were published along with the report of the committee in a book with the binder's title, The Military Invasion of Delaware.

Republican witnesses offered their reasons for having troops present on election day. At the "little," or inspectors', election in October, Democrats had crowded around some polling places in lower Delaware to prevent Union men from voting and had hinted that southern sympathizers from Maryland would appear in November to help dominate the proceedings. During the fall known secessionists in Kent and Sussex counties had assembled arms and munitions and had assisted persons in joining the Confederate army. Persons in Broad Creek Hundred in Sussex County had rejoiced at Confederate victories, one man saying "that United States troops who were killed in battle were dead and in hell." Another man in the same hundred had said, "He would fight for Stonewall Jackson; he would vote for him; he would send him a beef if he could; he would render him and his cause any assistance he could if he had the chance." Governor Cannon concluded that "a fair election" in Little Creek, Broad Creek, Dagsborough, and Baltimore hundreds would be impossible because there would be "a conflict between the Union men and those who intended to prevent them from voting." He and Congressman George P. Fisher separately applied to E. M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, for assistance.[6] After Cannon received no response, he wrote on November 1 to Colonel James Wallace, who was in charge of the Maryland Home Guard at Salisbury, and requested that troops be sent to four polling places in Sussex County.[7]

A week before the election neither Cannon nor Fisher was certain that soldiers would be in the state upon election day. In desperation, prominent Republicans met in conference in Wilmington on Friday, October 31, and selected Colonel Henry S. McComb and Daniel J. Layton to visit Washington to secure assistance. Probably the Secretary of War had already made his decision, for on Saturday afternoon General John E. Wool sailed from Baltimore with troops in three steamers, bound for Seaford. Layton accompanied him, while McComb returned to Wilmington with blank commissions, signed by the Secretary of War, for the provost marshals who would command the troops at the voting places.[8]

There arrived in Seaford on Monday morning, November 3, 750 soldiers from Salisbury, under the command of Colonel Wallace, and at two o'clock the steamers docked with General Wool's forces. Provost marshals with forty or fifty soldiers were stationed at all the polling places in Kent and Sussex counties except two. In New Castle County a portion of the Fourth Regiment under Colonel A. H. Grimshaw was posted at three voting booths. General Wool informed a Democratic delegation headed by former Governor Ross that the soldiers were there to ascertain that an orderly election took place.[9]

Democratic witnesses reported that many acts of violence and of injustice were committed by soldiers on election day. Two lines of soldiers with drawn swords stood before the voting window in Georgetown. When an Englishman appeared without naturalization papers at the voting place in Laurel, a soldier commanded the inspector, "Take the vote, or I will smash the ballot-boxes and the whole damned concern," and the trembling official accepted the ballot. In Baltimore and Broad Creek hundreds, many respectable citizens and owners of large properties were required to take an oath of allegiance to the federal government. In several instances Republican ballots were substituted for Democratic ones in the hands of timid or intoxicated voters. At Dover, soldiers charged persons near the polling place with fixed bayonets; among others, an aged man was knocked down, another voter was stamped upon, and one soldier, in pursuit of a third, wanted to "kill the damned secessionist." These incidents could be multiplied. Under such circumstances many Democrats refused to cast their ballots.[10]

Provost marshals and Republican election officials defended the use of troops. Provost Marshal William Betts, of Broad Creek Hundred, summarized well the thoughts of Union men in his testimony when he said, "The troops were at the election, which everybody knows; and, in my opinion,-as well as a great many others-we could not have voted that day, nor had an election, without the presence of those troops; and that there would have been bloodshed and murder in general on the election ground."[11]

Naturally, the Republicans interpreted as prejudiced the conclusions of the Democratic committee in its report to the legislature. The principal questions considered were: what federal troops had accomplished in the state in the fall of 1861 and 1862, whether Governor Burton or someone else had requested the presence of troops at the recent election, whether the soldiers had acted in a partisan manner, whether their presence was necessary, and what were the character and conduct of the provost marshals.

Troops had appeared in the state on three occasions. In the fall of 1861, they had disarmed Democratic militia companies in all three counties; in October, 1862, a company of 120 cavalrymen intimidated citizens and attended Republican rallies; and in November, 1862, 1,200 soldiers were stationed at almost all polling places in the state.

Governor William Burton had not applied for soldiers at election time and knew nothing of their coming. Cannon's testimony established the fact "beyond cavil or controversy" that he and George Fisher were the persons responsible.

Over one hundred witnesses testified that the whole power of the military forces was "used to promote the success of the Republican ticket, and to trample upon the rights of Democrats by requiring the taking of unconstitutional test-oaths; the preventing them from going to the polls to vote, except at such time and such way as the Republican partizan Provost Marshals might determine; by the arrest and incarceration of some, the frightening and driving from the polls of others, and the general effort to intimidate and humiliate all who did not avow themselves the willing slaves of despotic or irresponsible power."

While eight witnesses who were candidates upon the Republican ticket or provost marshals thought that the presence of troops was essential, eighty or more proved "conclusively that troops were not necessary on the day of the election, either to preserve the public peace or insure a fair election. . . ."

The committee expressed "in conclusion their unqualified condemnation, both of the action of the Federal administration and the traitorous conspirators among our own citizens, who, for partizan purposes alone, sought to defeat the fair expression of the popular will at the polls by the potent influence of Federal bayonets." This act branded the national administration "with infamy and everlasting disgrace," whose criminality found "a parallel in the disgraceful, wicked, damning treachery of the ingrate conspirators in our own midst, who, with malign hearts and lying lips, assured the administration of the necessity for its interference with the domestic concerns of Delaware. . . . No language could betray their baseness. No time can efface their guilt, or remove the stigma from their memory. Your Committee will therefore turn from objects so loathing, and leave them to the judgment of their fellow men, objects of contempt and scorn."[12]

Whether the military invasion of Delaware was justified is a matter for dispute. In the opinion of the writer, although certain election irregularities were encouraged by their presence, the use of soldiers was defensible and prevented worse disorders.

During the following year, political tension in the state remained high over the policies of the administration. Despite the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation freed only slaves in rebellious states and not those in Delaware, Republicans in the state welcomed its promulgation on January 1, 1863. Anna Ferris recorded in her diary, "Today the final Proclamation of Emancipation was issued by the President! Will it be merely a decree of the Government, that may fall to the ground, or is it a decree of the Almighty that will live through all the future? It is impossible to say, we can only pray that events may confirm it." Democrats viewed the freeing of thousands of Negroes with misgivings. In disgust a poorly-educated soldier in the First Delaware Regiment wrote home that "it was for to protect our union that i voltneard and would be willing to dei for it but not for the nigers. . . . i thought when i voltneard it was to fite for the union. i see deferent now. my opinuen of the war is that it is a speculation and niger war. the offers want to keep the war a going as long as the greenbacks is good."[13]

In the opinion of Union men, the attacks upon the administration by Willard Saulsbury and James A. Bayard disgraced the state. Saulsbury created a sensation in the Senate in January, 1863, when he referred to Lincoln as "a weak and imbecile man, the weakest that I ever knew in a high place," and claimed that he "never did see or converse with so weak and imbecile a man as Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States." A few minutes later he said that if he were to describe "a tyrant" or "a despot, a man perfectly regardless of every Constitutional right of the people, whose sworn servant, not ruler, he is, I would paint the hideous form of Abraham Lincoln." He added, "If that be treason-," but cries from the floor prevented his continuing.[14]

Senator Bayard assailed the grant by the majority of absolute powers to the President and wrote his son in February that the Republicans were attempting to set up "a despotism." In a letter to a friend in April, he accused the Republicans of plotting "to conquer and exterminate the White Race at the South, if in their power, but their more immediate object is to subvert the institutions of the country & establish a centralized despotism by arms to perpetuate their power." In his opinion, Congress was granting Lincoln the same opportunity to usurp absolute power that had been presented to Louis Napoleon.[15]

Two organizations that were formed during 1863 bolstered the morale of Republicans. A Union League was started in Wilmington in March, and its headquarters in the Saville Building became the focal point of Republican activities in the state. Branches soon appeared in a number of towns. The Delaware Improvement Association, which was also known as the Society for Promoting Northern Immigration into Delaware, was organized, with the principal purpose being "the improvement of the State by the introduction of agriculturists, artisans, manufacturers, and tradesmen from other States." Its president was Governor Cannon. Within two months after its founding, 2,000 circulars had been distributed, and a dozen farms had been sold through its efforts, but it met with only moderate success in attracting settlers to the state.[16]

At the beginning of 1863, Delaware had four infantry regiments in the field, in addition to a company of artillery and a company of cavalry. In the fall of 1862, the Fifth and Sixth Delaware Volunteer Regiments of nine-months' men had been organized, but its members were permitted to remain in civilian life until they were called to active duty in the summer of 1863.[17] Delaware's quota under Lincoln's call for troops in May was 2,454, and enrolling headquarters were established in Smyrna. Colonel Edwin Wilmer, who was also commanding officer of the Sixth Regiment, was appointed Provost Marshal to direct proceedings there. Trouble was expected at the first drawing of numbers for the draft on August 12, and the Provost Marshal warned the crowd that the soldiers at the scene had been ordered to shoot with bullets, not blanks, in case of disorder. A young blind man, a Mr. Reybold, drew tickets from a tin lottery wheel.[18]

Democrats complained that an unusually large proportion of the drafted men came from their party, a fact which the Republican explained by pointing to the large number of Union men already in the field. The Georgetown Messenger reported that men were using their life's savings and selling property to obtain the $300.00 necessary to hire a substitute. Some Democrats formed clubs, which guaranteed the payment of commutation fees for drafted members. An alarmed subordinate of Colonel Wilmer's predicted that there "would not be 200 men raised in the whole state by the draft, and nearly all of them from New Castle county, as anti-draft beneficial societies had been formed in the two lower counties, and the copperheads had subscribed heavily to buy off all their men, in consequence of which everyone would be bought off."[19]

Reports soon reached Wilmer of resistance to the draft. An employee of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad was arrested for forming a club to oppose its operation. A schoolmaster in western Kent County in July advised all men to arm themselves, and "when the enrolling master came around to shoot him dead & when asked who dun [sic] it, not to say." He expected that thousands would refuse to submit to the draft; in any case, Confederate troops would soon appear from the Virginia counties upon the peninsula to hand Delaware over "to the bosom of President Davis." At Sandtown, in western Kent County, the home of enrolling officer John Green was surrounded by a dozen men, who fired twenty bullets into it. A note, which was stuck in a split stick in the yard, read:

MR. JOHN GREEN

This is to notify that you must resine within two days and if you donte we will kill you at the risk of our Lives. you must knot inrole another man from tonight your grave is dug now and we will put you in it in the shortest notis the next notis will be given by Powder and ball.

KILL DEVIL

Believing that a majority of the inhabitants in the vicinity were secessionists, Green applied to Wilmer for protection. Thirty cavalrymen visited the area and arrested eight men, who were shortly released after taking an oath of allegiance. Under these circumstances filling the state's quota proceeded slowly.[20]

The office of the provost marshal was also concerned with disloyalty and secessionist activities. From June 8, 1863, to January 1, 1864, fifty-two arrests were made. Most persons were released upon taking an oath of allegiance, but a few were sent to Fort Delaware. An Irishman in Smyrna was temporarily confined for saying that "his heart beat for the C. S. A. and he wished all the men that went down to fight for the U. S. A. would be killed and thrown into ditches." Another resident in Smyrna was arrested for exclaiming, "I wish all the Union men were in hell. While old Abe is in office, we are sure to go to Hell."A Smyrna dentist was ordered to Fort Delaware for drinking the health of Jefferson Davis, for denouncing the government as "a damned despotism," and for boasting of having forwarded to the Confederacy twenty-five recruits.[21]

Letters to the Provost Marshal in 1863 are filled with accusations of disloyalty. A Confederate soldier was arrested in Laurel at the home of his father, a Methodist minister, as he was driving away in a borrowed dearborn with merchandise for the South. A Unionist, of Gumborough, Sussex County, reported that a neighbor made "a practice of huraing [sic] for Jeff when he gets tight and that is frequently." Another resident of Gumboro was accused of proposing to assemble a band of 200 men near Millsboro to kill the black Republicans; in the few days before federal troops arrived, he expected to accomplish a great deal. A resident of Broad Creek Hundred said that he "would be damned if he would ever let any of his children fight in war, that he had right smart of money and about 2,000 bushels of corn and 1,000 lbs. of pork and wished the southern men had it to support them to fight the damned Yankees."A citizen of Baltimore Hundred expressed the hope that Lincoln and his cabinet would "burn up."[22]

Evidence that illicit trade was carried on with the enemy disturbed Union men, such as Thomas M. Rodney, collector of the port of Wilmington. Secretary of the Treasury Chase advised Rodney in January "that most of the contraband goods, reaching the Maryland Peninsula, passes on the Delaware R. R., via Bridgeville, Seaford, Laurel, and Salisbury." A large quantity of drugs addressed to a physician in Vienna, Maryland, was confiscated in January at Seaford, and drugs worth $5,000.00 and addressed to persons in Seaford and Bridgeville were confiscated in Philadelphia in March. Two rebels were arrested in Smyrna in March with trunks containing silk, pipes, and violin strings destined for the South. In spite of Rodney's protests, a schooner with medical supplies worth $5,000.00, which had been seized in the Nanticoke River in March, was released. A regulation was put in effect that shippers of goods by railway below the town of New Castle must show that merchandise was not intended for the South.[23] Democrats were delighted when the detested inspector at Seaford himself was arrested for interfering with the arrest of a deserter. In May six prominent men in Seaford were arrested for smuggling, and four were deported to the Confederacy. In June two small vessels that engaged in contraband trade were confiscated. Seaford remained the center of the traffic throughout the war.[24]

Churches in New Castle County generally continued to favor a vigorous prosecution of the war, while those in the lower counties sympathized with the South. During the year patriotic sermons by Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal clergymen in Wilmington were praised by the Republican press. On the other hand, the Reverend James Vallandigham, who was pastor of White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church near. Newark and a brother of an Ohio copperhead congressman, was temporarily arrested for his pro-Southern preaching. It was claimed that his political sentiments matched those of three-fourths, or perhaps nine-tenths, of his neighbors.[25]

In Kent County the elders of the Presbyterian Church in Felton barred the Reverend L. C. Lockwood from the edifice for supporting the Union party. Later in the year his preaching in a Methodist church at nearby Canterbury caused a dozen pro-Southerners to "skedadle." Finally, he became an agent for the Delaware Improvement Company.[26]

The Reverend Isaac Handy, an Old School Presbyterian clergyman of Portsmouth, Virginia, received special permission from military authorities to visit his wife's relatives in Bridgeville in July, 1863. During his stay he visited a former charge at Port Penn, in New Castle County, and made the statement "that he did not regard the flag as any more than a rag, for it belonged to a government of tyranny and oppression," and he also refused to shake hands with the Republican pastor of the church. Subsequently, he was arrested and spent the remainder of the war in Fort Delaware, where he penned a full description of his experiences under the title of United States Bonds, or Duress by Federal Authority.[27]

News that Lee's army was advancing towards the border of Pennsylvania in June alarmed Delawareans. Members of the Fifth and Sixth Regiments of nine-months' men were called out to assist in guarding the lines of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad and the prisoners at Fort Delaware. The citizens of Wilmington were summoned to an emergency meeting 'on June 29 to organize the defenses of the city. The mayor of Wilmington on June 30 appealed to all male citizens to volunteer in some military capacity. Governor Cannon issued a stirring appeal to Delawareans to look after the families of volunteers. The state was placed under martial law on July 3. Business was suspended, and large numbers of employees from shops and factories enlisted.[28]

The people were excited by rumors. A real estate agent named William Bright was said to be in correspondence with General Lee and was accused of encouraging him to attack the unprotected shipyards, machine shops, and powder works. He was sent to Fort Delaware. Thomas F. Bayard, who was supposedly a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, was said to be "hatching treason" with his friends in meetings at Friendship Engine House. Mrs. Alfred duPont feared that the invaders might burn the powder mills and the homes near them; if the rebels appeared, she planned to drop "bottles of wine into the pond lest the marauders should increase their appetite for destruction by drinking it." Admiral S. F. duPont informed a friend that his wife had written that:

. . . our mills are stopped, crops cut & laying in the fields-our gardners & coachmen gone-our young nephews feed their mother's cows & water the horses &c. Two hundred men stepped out of the Powder Mills on the receipt of a telegraphic message & two nephews, partners in that great concern, went off as Captains of companies-this Regt., the 5th, it was understood was to be a home guard-Surely the tables have turned on us.[29]

Because of the threat of invasion, the Fourth of July on Saturday began quietly in Wilmington. Only a handful of people attended services at the city hall and heard the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence. In the evening arrived news that Meade had repulsed Lee at Gettysburg. The Journal issued an extra, jubilant crowds thronged the streets, and a great display of fireworks followed. Fifty guns were fired in honor of the Union victory.[30]

Sunday was another day of excitement. Crowds hovered around the depot all day, seeking details of the battle and inquiring about friends. After the bellman announced that a train load of wounded soldiers would pass through the station at eleven o'clock in the morning, five thousand citizens appeared there with all kinds of food. Churches were almost deserted. During the next few days hundreds of citizens met every train; as one resident wrote, "the whole city resolves itself into a Volunteer Refreshment Saloon!! and send[s] food & refreshment to them while they stop." The Delaware State Association for the Relief of Sick and Wounded Soldiers sent representatives to Gettysburg with medical supplies; they also compiled a list of Delawareans wounded and killed in battle.[31]

On July 7, news arrived in Wilmington of the surrender of Vicksburg. Anna Ferris wrote an account of the reception of the news in her diary:

About two o'clock this day, just as we were taking our afternoon naps, we were awakened by the clamor of the bells all over town, evidently sending abroad some intimation of good tidings. As the recent victories were quite enough reason for their joyous peal, I did not at first think of anything else, but looking out the window soon perceived there was some new excitement. The Stars & Stripes floated from every pole, people stopped to, congratulate each other in the streets, & the sound of cannon soon began to fill the air, & the joyful tidings "Vicksburg has surrendered" was heard on all sides. The Dispatches from Admiral Porter announcing its surrender on the 4th were printed & distributed.

Tonight the League Rooms were illuminated & Rockets & Fireworks still flash across the sky, although it is now midnight.

It is 18 months since the bells rang for any victories. Now we feel that our National Anniversary is consecrated again & sing Te Deum with thankful heart.

The Journal issued an extra; bells pealed from churches, engine houses, and workshops; and the firing of pistols, firecrackers, and cannon welcomed the announcement. In the evening a brass band headed an impromptu procession through the streets, and at intervals cheers were given for Grant, Meade, the President, and the Union.[32]

The Second Delaware Regiment gave an excellent account of itself at Gettysburg on the Union side, but some Delawareans fought in the Confederate ranks. Four prisoners at Fort Delaware, including a relative of Willard Saulsbury, were natives of the state. A former New Castle resident, while fighting for the Confederacy, lost a foot at Gettysburg. Two other men, the sons of prominent Sussex County Democrats, were also glimpsed upon the battlefield. Hiram Ross Messick, of Seaford, was confined in Fort McHenry after being captured at Gettysburg. Samuel Boyer Davis, however, the grandson of a Delaware hero of the War of 1812, was more enterprising. Wounded on the battlefield and taken to a hospital in Chester, he escaped by walking to New Castle, taking a train to Dover, and driving a carriage from there to Easton, Maryland.[33]

Fort Delaware became crowded with prisoners. On March 1, 1863, there were 1,000 prisoners; by July 1, 3,576, and by the end of August the total was 12,787. Harper's Magazine printed a picture of prisoners captured at Vicksburg filing into Fort Delaware. The Second Delaware Battery, which was organized during the summer, was composed mainly of former prisoners, who had taken an oath of allegiance to the Union. During the summer a popular song was published entitled "Sounds from Fort Delaware."[34]

The death of Representative William Temple in May necessitated another election. The Republicans in early October nominated Nathaniel B. Smithers, a well-known Dover lawyer, and the Democrats chose Charles H. Brown, an elderly politician who had once been active in Pennsylvania political life. The Democrats were strangely apathetic during the campaign, perhaps because some of their leaders had in mind a new method of protesting the unfair election tactics of the Republicans. The Union men imported numerous speakers from other states and organized many meetings. The Georgetown Union advised its readers that "every vote cast for Brown is in the endorsement of treason and will gladden the heart of Jefferson Davis; every vote cast for Smithers is for Delaware and the Union and will gladden the heart of the President!" The Journal believed that the election of Brown would cause as much rejoicing in Richmond as a Confederate military victory.[35]

The "indefatigable" Governor made the usual arrangements to secure troops from Washington for the polling places and the return of some Delaware soldiers to vote. On November 13, Major General Schenck issued army order No. 59, which authorized election officials to administer oaths of allegiance to persons suspected of disloyalty. Governor Cannon urged Delawareans to obey the order. A few days later soldiers from the Third and Fourth Regiments arrived to vote, and Maryland troops appeared to be stationed at polling places.[36]

Probably the Democrats had anticipated the use of soldiers at the polls. A meeting of leading Democrats from New Castle County was held in New Castle on November 17. An appeal was issued to Democratic election officials and voters in the county to boycott the polls, with the hope that the House of Representatives would declare the returns null and void. Democrats in lower Delaware followed the same course. The result was that only thirteen Democrats in the entire state cast ballots! Smithers' majority was 7,299. The Delaware press wrangled for the next month over whether the use of troops at polling places was necessary. The Republican House of Representatives seated Smithers without question.[37]

The unhappy relations between Governor Cannon and the legislature continued at the next session in January, 1864. The chief executive's brief message mainly renewed recommendations that he had made previously. He requested that the General Assembly appropriate $425.00 as Delaware's share of establishing a national cemetery at Gettysburg, that land near Lewes be ceded without restrictions to the federal government, that a bounty be provided to encourage the enlistment of Negro and white soldiers, and that provision be made for soldiers' families. Without exception the measures that Cannon recommended were rejected. Even a motion in the House to thank the Delaware soldiers in the field and express words of consolation to the families of deceased volunteers was defeated by a party vote of 14 to 7. The Journal, in a mourning column, printed the uncapitalized names of the members who had defeated the proposal.[38]

The only significant measure to become law was "An Act for the Relief of Persons subject to Military Duty." It provided that white persons who enlisted for three years prior to March 1, 1864, would receive a bounty of $200.00. If a white man was drafted and wished to avoid military service, the state would give him $200.00 of the $300.00 necessary for the commutation fee. A sum of $500,000.00 was allotted to set the plan in operation. The Governor expressed his personal disapproval of the measure, and cries arose from the Republican press about the disloyalty of the Democratic members of the General Assembly.[39]

Lincoln issued calls for troops in February, March, and July, 1864, and Delaware lagged in meeting its quotas. Governor Cannon summoned a special session of the legislature in July to consider bounty laws, especially since Congress had abolished commutation. Democrats were bitterly opposed to increasing the amount of the bounty. Thomas F. Bayard wrote to one of the members of the General Assembly that he had noted Cannon's proclamation asking for an appropriation "to carry on this great John Brown raid-sometimes called in mockery, 'a war for the Union.' " He asked the legislative member to use his influence to reject Cannon's proposal "in toto." "The insolence of this so-called 'Governor '-," he wrote, "a wretch holding a place obtained by fraud, perjury and military force for which nature gave him no single qualification-nor to which was he ever called by the vote of our people, now presuming to call upon a Legislative majority of State-Rights Peace Democrats to vote moneys, to be expended under his direction to raise troops, who are first, to be used to reelect Lincoln, and then to spread new fury and devastation among Southern homes." If Lincoln secured half the men that he requested, the entire nation except New England would be placed under martial law. "For God's sake," he advised, "let Delaware men consider that the negro substitutes they may furnish will be their guards at the polls-and their jailers in Bastilles!" If the draft were carried through, all hopes of peace and civil liberty would disappear for a generation.[40]

In a message to the General Assembly on July 28, Cannon reported that Delaware thus far had provided 8,743 men for the Union armies. Under the bounty act, the state had paid $47,000.00 to volunteers and $182,440.00 in commutation fees. On July 1, the state's deficiency was 814 men, and the call of July 18 increased the total of 3,259. He recommended that both white and black men be encouraged to enlist by liberal bounties, in order that the draft might be kept out of the state.[41]

A joint committee reported upon the Governor's message. If Cannon really wished to exempt the state from the draft, he would advocate ending the war by compromise and concession. What was the Governor's reputation?

No one has contributed so much as he has done to the unjust and cruel oppression of the people of the State. By direct appeals to Federal power he has caused a majority of the legal voters of this State to be deprived by military force of the enjoyment of their constitutional rights as electors, that he and those with whom he politically acts might profit from their injuries. He has caused some of them unjustly and unlawfully to be dragged from their homes and to be incarcerated in military prisons, and to experience sufferings greater than those generally meeted [sic] out to convicted felons.-He has caused fathers and mothers, wives and children, relatives and friends, to shed tears of bitterness on account of the wrongs inflicted though his agency, from no nobler motive than that he and others, against the will of the people, might obtain and be continued in political power in this State.

His message demonstrated "that his principal, if not sole object, in convening the General Assembly was, that he might have an opportunity to recommend the passage of an act by them providing the ways and means to enable him to recruit negro soldiers[in seceding states]. "The latter were a class" little elevated above savage tribes "and completely unfitted in every way to become soldiers. Before adjournment on August 12, the General Assembly passed an act, which provided for $200.00 bounties for white volunteers who enlisted before September 5, 1864. A white person who secured a white substitute was allotted $500.00. It was known that if Delaware's quota was not filled by September 5, another draft would be necessary.[42]

Union men, especially in New Castle County, were determined that the quota would be met. The Wilmington city council appropriated $15,000.00 for bounties to be divided among the wards, and private citizens raised special funds. Substitute brokers offered $800.00 for a three-year service, and a Wilmington business man paid $750.00 for a substitute. Wilmington by its exertions avoided the draft, but in rural New Castle County and elsewhere deficiencies made necessary another spin of the lottery wheel in the city hall in late September.[43]

An adjourned session of the legislature in late October passed two laws concerning elections. One act encouraged citizens who were prevented from voting by action of Delawareans to bring civil suit for trespass. Another provided that if troops appeared at a polling place, five or more voters might withdraw, elect an inspector, and legally cast their ballots at any place in the hundred. A joint resolution protested against military interference at the elections of 1862 and 1863 and expressed the hope that elections in the state in the future would be free from military intervention.[44]

Saulsbury continued his fight against the tyranny of the Lincoln administration throughout 1864, but Bayard resigned his office. New regulations required that all senators take an oath of allegiance. Bayard took the oath, but resigned in protest at the unconstitutional requirement. In a farewell speech he reviewed some of the events that he had seen happen in Delaware in the past few years:

I have lived to see the elective franchise trodden under foot in my native State by the iron heel of the soldier, and "Order No. 55[59]," not the people of Delaware, represented in one Hall of Congress. I have lived to see her citizens torn from their homes, and separated from their families on the warrant of[a]self-styled detective, without any charge expressed on its face, and without any known accuser; and then, without hearing or trial, these citizens banished from their State, beyond the protection of the laws, into a State in which the laws of the United States are now neither enforced nor enforceable. Yet in the State of Delaware the Courts have always been open, and at no period has there existed the semblance of a conspiracy or combination to resist the authority of the United States.

Standing almost alone in the Senate, he had lost hope that he could any longer be of service to his country or state, and he welcomed retirement to private life. The General Assembly accepted his resignation and elected to the Senate George Riddle, a New Castle County manufacturer.[45]

The approach of General Jubal A. Early's Confederate forces towards Washington in July, 1864, alarmed Delawareans. At five o'clock on Sunday morning, July 10, word was received in Wilmington that General Lew Wallace's forces were retreating towards Baltimore and that the safety of Delaware was imperiled. At an emergency meeting steps were taken to enlist 500 men for thirty days. Secretary of State Samuel M. Harrington and Colonel Edwin Wilmer toured the lower part of the state in a special train and returned in the evening with 300 men.[46]

At bedtime Anna Ferris recorded the events of the tumultous Sunday in her diary:

The Churches adjourned their services that the congregations might attend a town meeting, & the sounds of drum & fife calling the citizens to arms have been heard instead of the "church going bells." Great excitement is felt, but not so much alarm as on former occasions of the same kind, for our immediate safety. But hundreds of citizens throng the recruiting offices to offer their services for the crisis. It is now bedtime & the sound of the drum & of marching feet announce the arrival of recruits from the lower part of the State by cars.[47]

On Monday reports circulated that Baltimore and Washington were in the hands of rebels and that raiders were near the gunpowder works. On Tuesday rebel cavalry captured two morning trains on their way to Wilmington from Baltimore. Governor Cannon issued a special appeal for cavalry, and Secretary Harrington urged citizens to fill up the Seventh Regiment or to join the Eighth Regiment, composed of men who were too old for regular army duty. Resolutions were passed at a public meeting to close all places of business until the regiments were filled and to label those who refused to enlist "copperheads." On Wednesday it was reported that rebel forces might appear at any time upon the outskirts of Wilmington. The mayor of the city asked all citizens to suspend their ordinary activities and to organize to defend their homes. In the evening word arrived that rebel forces were retreating from Washington, and as Anna Ferris noted in her diary on Thursday, "the 'great scare' is over."[48]

Some Delawareans continued to show sympathy for the Southern cause. The "Book of Arrests" kept by the Provost Marshal revealed that sixty-three persons were arrested for disaffection of one kind or another between January 1, and August 12, 1864. Newspapers give other evidence of disloyalty. Three men from Sussex County were arrested on a boat in Chesapeake Bay and accused of spying; all were members of the First Maryland Rebel Cavalry. Four men from Seaford were imprisoned in Baltimore on charges of blockade running. A doctor in Delaware City was confined for aiding prisoners to escape from nearby Fort Delaware with gifts of money and clothing.[49]

An interesting case involving recruiting for the Confederacy was tried in the United States District Court in 1864. Edwin Martin and William duLaney of Seaford were accused of aiding Hiram Ross Messick to join the Confederate army in October, 1862. Messick had been captured at Gettysburg and had finally been persuaded to reveal the names of those persons who had induced him to enlist; in return he was to be released from Fort Delaware. According to his story, Martin and DuLaney had arranged for a small boat to pick up eleven men along the shores of the Nanticoke River. Four of this group had been put ashore at Pontico, Maryland, and the remainder had been landed in Virginia. In response to questions, Messick said that at the beginning of the war he had favored the Confederacy, but that his experiences in the South had turned him into a Union man. DuLaney was freed, but Martin was fined $1,000.00 and sentenced to pay the cost of the prosecution and to free his slaves. It is surprising that the verdict was not more harsh and that other Delawareans involved were not tried also.[50]

As the Union armies advanced deeper into the South, the number of prisoners at Fort Delaware grew steadily. By the end of February, 8,000 persons were confined, and by the end of May, the total had swelled to 10,500. Southern sympathizers, such as Thomas F. Bayard, sent gifts of food, clothing, and money to the prisoners, while Union men felt that they were much better treated than Northerners in Libby Prison in Richmond.[51]

The commander at Fort Delaware issued an appeal for food and clothing for his charges. Twenty-five young Democrats of New Castle arranged a picnic at nearby McCrone's Woods for the benefit of the prisoners in late July, supposedly with permission for the proper authorities. The affair had hardly begun, wehn Provost-Marshal Edwin Wilmer appeared with cavalry, took the names of all male participants, and ordered them to report to his office in Wilmington the next morning. They were temporarily confined in the guqrdhouse, with the addition of a spectator, who explained that the reason for the arrests was "because Abe Lincoln is President," and then all sere sent of to Fort McHenry.[52]

The young "copperheads" considered the affair a lark, and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves during their confinement near Baltimore, as one prisoner revealed in a letter to his sweetheart. They were incarcerated in a large barracks and spent their time in smoking, writing, reading, eating, and playing cards. Some of the prisoners pulled each other out of bed in the middle of the night and sang and danced to the annoyance of older men, who responded with a volley of shoes and oaths.[53]

At the request of Senator George Riddle, the Secretary of War ordered their release. Upon their arrival in the Wilmington depot, cheers welcomed the "martyrs," several prisoners delivered brief remarks, and a brass band led an informal parade through the streets. "Loyal Men" attended a meeting, which condemned the speedy release of the prisoners, but the latter remained free.[54]

Delawareans were greatly interested in the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia, organized for the benefit of the United State Sanitary Commission. Months before the opening, committees were collecting materials and holding benefits. Anna Ferris noted in April that:

. . . everybody is at work to do what they can for the cause. Human ingenuity is taxed to produce what results it can with the needle, & in the knitting line & in the higher line of art equal efforts are made. Collections of trophies, curiosities, antiquities, relics, works of art, autographs, etc. are gathered. Concerts, charades, tableux, readings, private theatricals are given & everybody is baptized to one purpose & spirit & all are working together for one end.[55]

In the Delaware section, flags, military trophies, fancy work, historical and art objects were displayed, and visitors could purchase certain items or view the interior of "Uncle Tom's cabin" for a small fee. Badges were distributed with the motto, "The Blue Hen will Protect Her Chickens," and a Philadelphia artist drew a picture of a rooster and chicks attacking a copperhead, which was lithographed and sold in large quantities. A Wilmington manufacturer won with a $10.00 chance an elaborate $1,000.00 dollhouse, which is now displayed in the museum of the Historical Society of Delaware. When Lincoln visited the exhibit in July, he was presented with a silver pitcher valued at $750.00, which had been purchased by dollar contributions from Delawareans. These endeavors raised $33,745.00 for the Union cause.[56]

Republican politicians in the state were not enthusiastic about the nomination of Lincoln for a second term, but there was little alternative, and the Delaware delegation to the Baltimore convention voted for Lincoln and Johnson. Delaware Democrats hoped to see a peace platform and a peace candidate at their Chicago convention. A Democratic leader in Sussex County wrote Thomas F. Bayard that "the masses of the people of this County are opposed to the prosecution of this war" and that a peace candidate, a peace platform, and "an untrammeled election" would ensure the largest majority ever given in Sussex County for the Democrats. After some hesitation, county conventions nominated delegates to the national convention. In spite of the support of Horatio Seymour by the Delawareans, McClellan and Pendleton were nominated.[57]

Both the Democratic Gazette and Delawarean pretended to be pleased by the selection. The Saulsbury organ claimed that the nomination made certain the return of peace and the restoration of the Union, as the voter was given the choice "between Abraham Lincoln, the ignorant, obscene joker, the tyrant, usurper, and despot, as the candidate of the Abolitionists on the one side, and George McClellan, the patriot soldier, Christian gentleman and able defender of individual and state's rights." Republican Anna Ferris feared that McClellan's name might be "a spell to conjure with."[58]

The correspondence of Thomas F. Bayard indicates that Democratic politicians were distressed at the nomination of McClellan and at his interpretation of the "peace plank" in the platform. A New Castle County politician, for example, declared that he would not vote for anyone who had taken part in the war or who had supported coercion. He expected to support the state and county ticket but would not use his influence for or against McClellan. In view of the general dissatisfaction with McClellan's nomination, James A. Bayard wrote his son on October 12, "I think the jig is up & Lincoln certain of reelection."[59]

Republicans were at first unsure that Lincoln would be re-elected, but military victories in the fall made certain his victory. On September 12, Governor Cannon penned an interesting reply to the questions of three New York politicians about Lincoln's chances, and his letter revealed that Union men in the state were less than enthusiastic about Lincoln:

1. Is the reelection of Mr. Lincoln a probability?

It now is.

2. Can this State (Delaware) be carried for Mr. Lincoln? It can be, and I think, will be.

3. Do the interests of the Union Party, and so of the Country require the substitution of another candidate in the place of Mr. Lincoln? They do not now.

One month ago, Mr. Lincoln's reelection would have been an improbability-perhaps, an impossibility. One month ago, the success of the Union Party required the substitution of another candidate. Even now, the true interests of the Country would be better served by an abler and more vigorous administration, guided by the counsels of wiser and better men.

But the dissatisfaction and the despondency that existed all over the Country have been changed into acquiescence and hope by the recent brilliant victories that Providence has vouchsafed to our arms. The utmost harmony now prevails in the Union ranks, and the settled determination seems to be to accept Mr. Lincoln with all his faults, real or supposed.

Cannon, believing that the Republicans would win because of division within the Democratic party, expected to work hard in Delaware and to contribute to Union victory.[60]

Not much campaigning was done in Delaware until the state conventions met. A Union convention in Dover in late September expressed mild approval of the nomination of Lincoln and Johnson, criticized the unpatriotic record of the Democratic legislature, and chose Nathaniel B. Smithers as Congressional nominee. The Democratic convention, held in Dover in early October, congratulated the Democratic majority in the General Assembly upon a fine record, advocated immediate suspension of hostilities and exhaustion of every peaceful means to end the war, and contended that the election of McClellan would bring peace. John A. Nicholson, of Dover, was nominated for Congress.[61]

While the Republicans were encouraged in September by a victory in the Wilmington municipal election, which was interpreted to mean that the city would have a majority of 1,000 for Lincoln in November, the Democrats were cheered in October by the election of every inspector and assessor in all three counties at the "little election." Admiral S. F. duPont commented upon these trends in a letter in October:

I presume the Delaware 'little Election' means that the Democrats will swamp the State on any general ticket-Electoral or Representative. I think the Republicans were caught napping, too, but I believe will carry this County, where they have had five or six hundred majority always, but Smithers & the Legislature, & the Electoral ticket are gone, I think.

Later in the month, DuPont observed, "I notice everywhere that Lincoln has been swallowed as a choice of evils, not a word of respect for him personally falls from any man's lips."[62]

The largest Republican gathering of the campaign was an afternoon rally in Middletown followed by a parade and meeting in Wilmington in the evening. Three thousand people attended the Middletown meeting, and thousands in the evening witnessed the lengthy torchlight procession and later heard speakers from Pennsylvania. Five thousand Democrats assembled for an ox roast in Dover in October, saw a parade two and a half miles long, and heard attacks upon the Lincoln administration. From this gathering, the editor of the Gazette reported that "everyone retired fully convinced that Delaware was sure for McClellan, Pendleton, Nicholson, and PEACE." The Gazette considered the Democratic parade in Wilmington on the eve of the election to exceed anything ever seen in the state. The 2,000 torches, the 5,000 persons in the parade, and the floats made it "the Greatest and Grandest Pageant Ever Witnessed in Delaware." Transparencies proclaimed, "The Union is the one condition of peace, we ask no more! McClellan.," "No more drafts, no more taxes, no negro equality!," and "The White Man's Ticket: McClellan, Pendleton, and Nicholson."[63]

No new issues appeared during the campaign. Democrats in Delaware publicly interpreted the platform and statements of McClellan as endorsing an immediate peace and restoration of the Union, though privately they had doubts. The old charges of heavy taxation, Negro equality, infringement of civil liberty, and military interference in elections were aired. Republicans made the usual accusations that all Democrats were secessionists and pointed to the record of Democratic legislators to prove the statement. Peace could only be successfully obtained by military victory, not by negotiations.

Governor Cannon visited Washington about ten days before the election. When he did not find Secretary of War Stanton in his office on October 27, he left the following note:

DEAR SIR

I would respectfully make application for a military force sufficient to guard our polls, to keep the peace and prevent riot and bloodshed.

CANNON

From his hotel he forwarded another message to Stanton, requesting that the men in the First, Third, and Fourth Delaware Infantry be granted a short furlough at the time of the election, for "we cannot carry the state without them." On October 28, he informed Major-General Lew Wallace that at the election" a fair and free expression of the popular will may be prevented. In my judgment, every necessary precaution should be taken to overawe and prevent any lawless demonstration, and to secure the exercise of the right of suffrage to all who may be qualified to vote"; therefore, he requested that troops be stationed at all polling places.[64]

Two days before the election, soldiers from the First, Third, and Fourth Regiments arrived in Wilmington and, after being feted in city hall, scattered to their homes to vote. On November 7, soldiers from a New York regiment were stationed at polling places.[65]

Anna Ferris found the suspense almost unbearable and wrote in her diary on November 7:

As the day of the election draws near, the anxiety & excitement become more intense & pervade all classes. It is impossible to pass anyone in the street and catch a word that is spoken, without finding that the one subject is agitated by all. Even the children are all partisans & echo the party war cry as soon as they are out of school. The question is so vital, so absorbing, so fraught with the issue of life, no one can stand aside. Even father who never voted before intends to vote tomorrow for Lincoln. To us the conflict is light & darkness, good & evi1.[66]

A New Castle County farmer wrote in his diary on November 8, "This is election day, and I feel that the fate of our nation depends on it, if Mr. Lincoln is reelected all will go well and I believe this cursed Rebellion will soon be brought to a close." Contrary to expectations, the election passed off peaceably, and Anna Ferris observed that" it has been the most quiet election day that we have had for years."A soldier voter at Felton, in Kent County, found that "their was no fus their all day. the Blew Jackets was their to tend to the Election. So it all past of Quiat." The peace and quiet were in contrast to proceedings at elections in 1862 and 1863. Democrats avoided irritating the soldiers, and soldiers permitted Democrats to vote without undue interference.[67]

The voting followed the customary pattern. Republicans won in New Castle County by large majorities, but in Kent and Sussex counties the Democratic leads were so tremendous that McClellan and Nicholson carried the state. Delaware was one of the three states in the nation that voted for McClellan. New Castle County returned Republicans to the General Assembly, but the lower counties elected Democrats.[68]

Republicans rejoiced at the triumph of Lincoln, but regretted that Delaware was not among his supporters. A Wilmington banker declared that "all our Exultations for the great result elsewhere cannot quite overcome our Sorrow and Shame for our State, which is thus chained to Slavery & to its disgraceful representation in Congress for another term-the lower counties are hopelessly benighted." Anna Ferris was distressed to find Delaware in the Democratic column." She[Delaware] is chained to Slavery & Democracy for a new term," she complained." In the midst of the general joy & triumph we feel grieved & humiliated, but not disappointed. It was too much to hope that our benighted lower counties should be so suddenly enlightened."[69]

The Republican attributed McClellan's victory in the state to rebel sympathies, ignorance, and bribery. It declared that about 2,000 men in Kent and Sussex counties had been bribed to vote for McClellan. The Journal, which was also Republican in politics, believed that 400 fraudulent Democratic ballots had been cast in the election in Wilmington alone and that thousands of dollars had been spent by Democrats in buying votes in lower Delaware. The Democratic Delawarean thought that the results were a protest by thousands of conservative men against presidential tyranny and against assaults in the state upon civil liberty. It accused the Republicans of fraud in the Wilmington returns. Smithers' biographer believed that his defeat was due to the "combined influence of the opposing party, negro equality, and the draft." In spite of these charges and countercharges, the election of 1864 in the state was conducted as fairly as any during the Civil War, and the returns clearly indicated that Delawareans, in spite of military interference and the return of Delaware Regiments, preferred Democratic candidates.[70]

Union men could look back over the year of 1864 with satisfaction. Atlanta had fallen, Lincoln had been triumphantly re-elected, and Savannah had been presented to the President as a Christmas gift. As the hearts of Union men were gladdened, sympathizers with the Confederacy became depressed. From London, England, former Governor William Ross wrote to a friend at the end of the year that the United States was "doomed." The events of April and May, 1861, had demonstrated that the people had gone "stark mad," and he did not believe that recovery would occur until they were "irretrievably ruined." The advance of northern forces into the South depressed him. "It[victory] is certainly lost unless they play their last trump card which I do not believe they will do," he wrote. "I mean arm their slaves under a promise of freedom. Without that they will be conquered, then will begin a change in our form of government that no one will mistake. The North will say that necessity compells them to treat the South as conquered provinces. That to invite the South back to terms of equality would be to invite them to secede again. That they can be held and governed in but one way, and that is by force." The war had almost ruined him, as he had invested $62,000.00 in border-state bonds, which were now completely worthless. In his exile he had written few letters except to his wife, for he feared to compromise his friends. "Not that I am guilty of any act against the government of the U. S.," he added, "but I am considered to entertain opinions which are pronounced by some people as disloyal. For that reason I remain out of the country, hoping that the American people may some day return to their reason when I may return in safety to spend the remainder of my days in a country ruined by the madness and fanaticism of its own people."[71]

From the Union point of view, definite progress had been made towards ending the war in 1863 and 1864. Southern sympathizers were consequently dejected. Politically, Delaware remained in the Democratic column, and the use of troops at the polls only confirmed the people's choice of parties. Certainly, the end of the struggle could not be far off.

CHAPTER V

The End of the War

IN January, 1865, the end of the war still seemed remote. Sherman was in Savannah, but Grant had been unable to break through the defenses of Richmond. A peace conference was soon to end in failure. On the local scene, Democrats and Republicans viewed each other with extreme suspicion. Democrats feared arrest and interference at the polls by federal troops, and Republicans believed that their political opponents sent information, supplies, and recruits to the Confederacy.

In his annual message in January, Governor Cannon recommended that bounties be granted to encourage enlistments, that resolutions of appreciation be passed in honor of volunteers, and that land for a fort near Lewes be granted to the federal government without restrictions. Since Delaware had all of the disadvantages of slavery and none of its benefits-if there were any-he urged its speedy abolition by state law. Recognition of the large population of New Castle County should be made by increasing its share of representation in the General Assembly.[1]

As usual, the Democratic majority treated his recommendations with contempt. No resolutions of thanks were extended to the volunteers, land in Sussex County was proffered to the federal government on the same terms as in the last session, and nothing was done to change the equal representation of the three counties in the General Assembly. A bill to permit the city of Wilmington to borrow $30,000 to use for military bounties was defeated.[2] The most important measure passed during the session dealt with general military bounties. The new law provided for counties of $200 for white volunteers. Substitutes who served for one year were paid $300; for two years, $400; and for three years, $500. Union men were disgusted that the "copperhead" legislature offered greater inducements to men to obtain substitutes than to serve their country.[3]

Both Representative Nathaniel B. Smithers and Governor Cannon favored ratification by the legislature of the Thirteenth Amendment. Smithers told the House of Representatives that his constituents desired the abolition of slavery. He claimed that the institution had never been regarded in the state "with affection by the people." It was not protected in the state constitution and could be terminated by an ordinary act of legislation. He concluded, "Nowhere does it exist in so mild a form-the master subject to so many restraints, or the slave guaranteed such substantial protection."[4] Governor Cannon in February submitted the proposed amendment to the General Assembly and urged its immediate ratification. Instead, a joint resolution declared that the intended constitutional change was "violative of the reserved rights of the several states" and "contrary to the principle upon which the government was framed," as well as "an insuperable barrier to the restoration of the seceded states to the federal Union"; therefore, the members of the Assembly asserted" their unqualified disapproval of said proposed amendment."[5]

Union men complained bitterly about the actions of the" rebel "legislature. A correspondent of the Journal suggested that the Republican delegation from New Castle County withdraw and that federal troops be summoned to clear the legislative halls. The editor of the Journal proposed that 5,000 Republican voters from New Castle County march in a body to Dover and demand a favorable vote upon the amendment, just as the people of Rhode Island had once done at the time of Dorr's insurrection. What Saulsbury was in the Senate, the majority were in the General Assembly?" the advocates of human bondage, the friends and sympathizers of Jefferson Davis, the aiders and abettors of the Rebellion, ignorant representatives of a constituency debased and demoralized by the damning touch of slavery." A writer in the Republican thought that the record of the body in holding on to the "everlasting nigger," in refusing a bounty to Negro soldiers, and in rejecting a proposal to provide a decent burial place for those who had fallen at Gettysburg would disgrace the Hottentots."[6]

In March, 1865, Union men were grieved to learn of the death of Governor Cannon at his home in Bridgeville. Republicans had looked to him for strong leadership in every crisis, and he had much to do with seeing that the state remained loyal. Democrats recalled that he had once been a member of their party, but they also remembered that he had been mainly responsible for bringing troops into the state in the elections of 1862, 1863, and 1864. His successor was Dr. Gove Saulsbury, presiding officer of the Senate and a Democrat.[7]

Democrats were extremely disappointed that negotiations between high Confederate and northern officials in February did not produce peace. The Delawarean complained that Lincoln had organized the conference only to entertain the people and to divert their minds from conscription. What did he care that "great rivers of blood" continued to flow or that the country was "drained of its last man and of its last dollar"? The conference had demonstrated again "his little mind, his pettifogging disposition, and his inability to rise from the level of the pot-house politician to the position of statesman."[8]

Thomas F. Bayard saw nothing in the future but gloom and disaster. "Things look dark ahead," he wrote to a friend in January, "and a foreign war seems to me imminent. The people of the North are so eaten up by love of gain that a great war of suffering might be a pacification. Never was there a more corrupt group than that at Washington." In March he observed:

The people seem to think this war is over and the southern armies bound hand and foot. History-Reason-Common-sense (as it is called) -should prevent this delusion. But nothing will dispel it but rude facts.

If this war had a truly military or political result in view, a distinct object to be accomplished, it would be possible to form some opinion of its duration and effects. But as it is a wicked crusade of fanaticism and hatred as blind as it is bitter, it has no object but to gratify hatred and lust.[9]

News that Petersburg and Richmond had fallen arrived in Wilmington in the morning of Monday, April 3. Anna Ferris believed that it was "one of the dates that we feel must be forever memorable in the annals of our country." Citizens were reported "nearly crasy" upon receipt of the news, and the city was said to be "wild with excitement." Places of business were closed, bells were rung, firecrackers were exploded, and flags were displayed. In the evening the Mayor presided at a public meeting, which was followed by a mammoth parade.[10] In lower Delaware the news was received by most persons with delight. In Smyrna the intelligence ran through the town like an "electric shock," Union men openly rejoicing and their political opponents retiring quietly to their homes. In Georgetown bells on various buildings were rung so violently that they could be heard eight miles in the country. A huge pyre of hogsheads, boxes, and pine wood was burned in the public square. In its next issue the Georgetown Union welcomed the victory in large headlines.[11] News of Lee's surrender reached Wilmington on Sunday night, April 9, about ten o'clock. Anna Ferris wrote in her diary:

Just at the close of this quiet Sabbath, as we were preparing to go to bed, we were startled again into lively excitement by the ringing of the bells, announcing this time truly the surrender of Lee & his army to Gen. Grant! No words can express our glowing gratitude. It is now past midnight & the bells are still ringing & the cannons firing, but at last they speak of peace & good will to men and we trust will

Ring out the thorns and wars of old,

Ring in the thousand years of peace.[12]

Other observers reported that there was much celebrating, in spite of its being the Sabbath.

The streets were soon thronged with people, cheering for Grant, Sherman, and the army. After Colonel Wilmer read the official telegrams with the news from the steps of city hall, the assembled crowd sang the Star-Spangled Banner. A large number of citizens participated in a parade led by the Water-Witch fire engine, which blew its whistle to the accompaniment of screams and cheers of ladies along the sidewalk. Houses were illuminated, bells rung, and bonfires burned until the wee hours of the morning.[13]

On Monday stores were closed, and the celebration continued. In the afternoon a turbulent mob visited the homes of prominent Democrats with demands for the display of patriotic emblems. Thomas Bayard considered that Colonel Wilmer and his deputies were directly responsible for the affair, while "the Mayor was absent, his police half neutral, and the military in direct collusion." He noted that even ministers of the gospel lent the sanctity of their voices to this invasion of private rights.

[L] Victory Handbill

This handbill, announcing "a grand celebration" in honor of the fall of Petersburg and Richmond and the surrender of General Lee, is reproduced from an item in the file of the Historical Society of Delaware.

[M] Mourning Handbill

This handbill, issued by the military authorities after the assassination of President Lincoln, is reproduced from an item in the files of the Historical Society of Delaware.

Bayard himself was forced to borrow from a Quaker neighbor a child's flag, which he displayed in a window, and Senator George Riddle also was compelled by the mob to wave a flag. After one Democrat dropped a flagstaff with a nail in it, such a tumult arose that the excited "copperhead" fired several shots over the heads of the crowd. Subsequently, his windows were broken, a flag nailed over his door, and he was marched off to jail by the Provost-Marshal. Bayard reported that one resident at first refused to hoist the American flag and was beaten by some ruffians until he complied with the request.[14] Newspapers confirm Bayard's account of this turbulent day. Even the Gazette welcomed "Grant's bloodless victory," which it regarded as "a harbinger of peace to our afflicted land." The newspaper reported that the people of Wilmington never did seem "more thoroughly grateful for any event" and compared Grant and Lee to Scipio Africanus and Hannibal respectively, one deserving praise for offering liberal terms and the other for preventing the spilling of blood by accepting them.[15]

In lower Delaware similar celebrations took place. In Smyrna the town was illuminated, fireworks were exploded, and "everybody looked happy." The festivities were slightly marred by the appearance of the McClellan Band, which played Dixie, Ye Sons of the South, and Awake the Glory; the band was followed by a procession of Democrats, who in the past had cheered for Jeff Davis and had frequently expressed the hope that Lincoln would be hanged. In Georgetown the "people generally went crazy over the glorious news," and a great celebration took place.[16]

Delawareans were interested in conditions in the fallen Confederate capital, and welcomed letters like that which a young sailor on board the USS Commodore Morris off Norfolk penned to his sister on April 10. He considered it an honor to live in a time of such wonderful victories and thoroughly enjoyed a visit to Richmond, which included an inspection of Jefferson Davis' mansion, the capitol, and Libby Prison. On the other hand, it was sad to visit a place in which almost every woman was dressed in mourning for a father, a brother, or a husband.[17]

In the midst of victory celebrations came word to Wilmington on the morning of April 15 that the President had died from an attack by an assassin. "We laid down last night with a sense of peace and happiness long unknown," wrote Anna Ferris in her diary, "we awoke this morning to a consciousness of horror & grief never known before! It is really dreadful to write the words that express such a horrible crime-the President has been assassinated! No words can possibly express the feeling it creates."[18] Another Wilmington diarist on the same day thought that the news was "too dreadful to think of and what will be the effect on our country at this time God only knows." On April 16 he reported "that nothing else is thought of or talked of than the cruel horrible murder of our beloved President, everything is being draped in mourning and almost everyone looks as though they had lost a dear friend."[19] A Wilmington woman noted that many who heard the news remarked, "' They have killed their best friend.' " She added, "I verily believe God will bring to justice even in this world, the conspirators who planned that crime, but how it makes me shudder to think of the Devil's awful power on earth."[20] The son-in-law of Governor Cannon surrounded the entry of Lincoln's death in his diary with black. "His death horrified the nation," he wrote, "his death made a million tearful mourners, and a nation overwhelmed with sadness. A greater than Washington has fallen!!!!"[21] Thomas F. Bayard was sickened and disgusted by "this foul murder." "It is the first assissination of a public servant we have ever known in the country," he wrote. "And it is disgraceful and horrible." ...Assassination if unAmerican. The Nation had many and great faults, but they were open and bold. This murder seeemed insane and has no extenuation if the accounts given be true."[22]

The press universally condemned the outrage. "The foulest deed that ever sullies the name of humanity," lamented the editor of the Georgetown Union. "Aye! the blackest that ever earth witnessed or hell devised took place on Friday evening last when a fiend incarnate murdered in cold blood our nation's saviour, Abraham Lincoln." The editor of the Smyrna Times compared his martyrdom at this critical moment to the removal of Moses when his followers were about to enter the Promised Land or to the death of John the Baptist when Christianity was beginning. "No event has ever taken place which has created such universal sorrow among our people as the atrocious murder of President Lincoln," declared the Journal. The Delawarean reported that never had the community been so much disturbed by a piece of news and feared that hopes of a speedy peace and of the restoration of good will would be dashed to the ground.[23]

On the other hand, a minority openly rejoiced at the removal of the President. Two men in New Castle County were confined for expressing pleasure at the assassination, and another was arrested on suspicion of being implicated in the murder. In Middletown one "copperhead" thought that the news was the best that he had heard in four years, believed that he should have been assassinated long ago, and expressed a desire to have his body for soap grease.[24] In Smyrna the Episcopalian rector was reprimanded for objecting to draping the church in black, and in Dover mourning was torn down or bedaubed with filth.[25] At the Methodist church in Camden the "copperhead" minister concluded some remarks about Lincoln by saying, "If I were to tell you that I approve of all the measures of the late President, my friends, you would not believe me." Amidst a scene of wild confusion, some left the church and others shouted for him to sit down.[26] An ardent Republican in Georgetown reported to military authorities that Willard Saulsbury in December had foretold the death of Lincoln by violence in the spring and that three weeks before the assassination he had renewed the prediction.[27]

After the surrender of Confederate forces and the burial of Lincoln came the beginning of readjustment. "So far as actual fighting is concerned," the editor of the Gazette observed at the end of April, "we presume it may be said with a moderate degree of certainty that the 'war is over.' "Following the surrender of a portion of the Confederate army and navy in Texas in May, a Wilmington resident wrote in his diary that "thanks to a kind Providence we have peace once more & this horrid rebellion is at an end."[28]

Soldiers from the First Delaware Regiment participated in May in the Grand Review of the Army in Washington, which was witnessed by some Delawareans. Companies from the Third, Fourth, and Eighth Delaware Regiments paraded through the streets of Wilmington in June to the accompaniment of cheers before receiving their back pay and being mustered out.[29] Demobilization of other groups followed rapidly, and on July 14 Anna Ferris wrote in her diary that the last Delaware soldiers had been welcomed back to the state with a collation in the Wilmington Institute. Originally these men from the Second and Third Regiments had numbered 1700, but some had not reenlisted and many had been killed or wounded; so that only sixty-five of the original number remained in service. She concluded, "This is probably the last we shall see of the war & we are thankful to have no more 'surrender campaigners.' The 'Crimson flower of battle' blooms no longer, & instead we have the 'White Lilies of Peace.' "[30]

" The question of the hour is 'What shall be done for those whom the nation delighteth to honor?' " noted in May the Reverend L. C. Lockwood, agent of the Delaware Improvement Association. He was instrumental in organizing a Soldiers' Homestead Commission which encouraged northern veterans to settle on farms in lower Delaware. Minor aims included assistance in finding employment and in arranging scholarships in colleges. Under northern auspices the new town of Lincoln in Sussex County was laid out, but within a year it was declared officially a failure.[31] Petitions in August were forwarded from Delaware soldiers to Congressmen asking for a federal bounty, and committees were appointed to correspond with soldiers in other states with the same objective. A Soldiers' Local Union was formed in Wilmington in October to aid sick and destitute soldiers as well as orphans and widows of veterans. Republican candidates soon learned the importance of emphasizing an army record. "Many" Union men in August recommended George Day, "a returned volunteer and Union loving citizen," for city assessor. With the assistance of veterans, Republicans rolled up a large majority in September in the Wilmington municipal election.[32]

In Sussex County the Georgetown Union reported in July that every stage brought back soldiers to beat swords into plowshares and to help redeem the honor of the state by voting the Union ticket. Many soldiers who had been reported dead or missing returned ill and emaciated from Confederate prisons.[33] On the other hand, a sizable number of Confederate veterans returned, and some residents were cursing the appearance of the "Lincoln hirelings" and patting the Johnny Rebs on the back.[34] No particular policy was followed concerning Confederate veterans. A resident of Laurel suggested that they should be barred from the state, and a Georgetown Republican asked instructions from military authorities about the treatment of a returned Confederate, but apparently no action was taken.[35] Such a person as Russell Hobbs, who had been a member of the crew of the Alabama, was pardoned in June, 1865, by President Johnson. According to Hobbs, he had originally been on a vessel which had been captured by the Alabama, and he was forced to enter Confederate service. Eventually he had broken his leg and had been put ashore. He returned to Georgetown, but he was arrested in July, 1864, and placed in prison until he received a pardon.[36] John K. Lambson, who had been arrested in 1863 for expressing disloyal sentiments, had been deported to the South, and his property sold. His application for pardon, which was supported by letters of Governor Gove Saulsbury and Senator George Riddle, was granted in September, 1865.[37]

At Fort Delaware on April 4, 1865, a 100-gun salute was fired in honor of the fall of Richmond, and on April 10, 200 guns hailed the surrender of Lee's army. There were 8,000 prisoners on the island on May 23, but hundreds were taking the oath of allegiance, with the expectation of being speedily released. Several thousand were freed during the next month, and on June 27 General Grant directed that the remainder, with the exception of four, should be granted their freedom. The last two prisoners were released in November, the commander of the prison was mustered out of service in December, and Fort Delaware relapsed into its neglected state of prewar days.[38]

Slaves remained unfreed in Delaware until the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified by sufficient states to put it into effect in December, 1865. Most Republicans welcomed the amendment, though they were less enthusiastic about social and political rights. Democrats emphatically opposed emancipation and Negro equality. Governor Gove Saulsbury in his inaugural address in June reprimanded Congress for interfering with the institution. He declared that the true position of the Negro was as a subordinate race excluded from all political and social privileges. He believed that history had repeatedly demonstrated that blacks were incapable of the higher order of intellectual and moral development and that the superior group would only be debased by mingling with the inferior. "The finger of the Almighty has traced in indelible lines the distinction between the Negro and white races, and any attempt to obliterate that distinction is the result of either a blind fanaticism or a wicked and perverse infidelity," he concluded.[39]

The Democratic and Republican press took opposite sides on the issue of emancipation. The Delawarean and the Gazette harped on the dangers of Negro suffrage and equality. A correspondent in the Delawarean thought that history had demonstrated Negroes to be completely incapable of self-government or of elevating themselves to the condition of civilized men. The dangerous experiment of Negro suffrage in the South would end in bloodshed, crime, and the ruin of the American republic. The editor of the Delawarean feared that the abolitionists aimed "at nothing less than the perfect equality, politically and socially, of the white and Negro races." The leaders of the movement in the state might sugarcoat the pill, the editor believed, but they would have it.[40] The Smyrna Times regretted that the legislature had not ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, since freeing the slave would make the state "bud and blossom as the rose." The Georgetown Union thought that the little commonwealth was rendered "ridiculous in the eyes of the whole country and even of the whole world by silly persistence in upholding an institution so clearly numbered amongst the things that were." Delawareans were trying to breathe life into a decaying carcass. The newspaper saluted the unique position of its inhabitants in relation to the institution in a poem, which charged that Delaware would ever be "slavery's home."[41]

Race relations remained in a delicate state of tension throughout 1865. In Sussex County near Centreville a Negro church meeting in May was broken up by a gang of ruffians, and a group of white persons complained to military authorities. The slave trade was reported to be still carried on in lower Delaware, and the case of a Negro girl sold by her Maryland owner to a farmer near Centreville was cited. An army colonel who investigated the incident reported that Negroes did not enjoy civil rights and added:

I am convinced that the colored people of this District need the strong arm of the Federal Authority for their protection. The civil authorities of the lower part of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland accord them no rights; their churches are burned, their schools broken up, and their persons and property abused and destroyed by vicious white men with impunity; and their appeals to the civil authorities are utterly disregarded.[42]

Several Negro veterans were arrested near Milton in Sussex County during the summer for possessing firearms contrary to state law, even though they had been given the weapons at the time of their discharge from the Union Army. In August a Negro was sold into servitude for seven years from the steps of the courthouse in Sussex County for $64 as part of his sentence by a state court, and similar disposal of several cases occurred in Kent County in October. In view of the impending Thirteenth Amendment, the Journal thought that such purchases were "ticklish investments." An army officer in December investigated several incidents in Sussex County in which Negroes had been molested. Near Millsboro several white people had broken the windows of the home of a Negro and had driven away his family. In Dagsboro a Negro minister had been forced to leave the county. At Seaford three former Confederate soldiers had led an attack upon a Negro congregation, had broken several windows in the church, and had searched several church members for weapons. Former Governor William Ross was believed to be the ringleader of the Seaford affair.[43]

With the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December, the Journal thought that "Delaware today enters upon a new era in her history." A Wilmington banker wrote in his diary, "I am glad for one that I have lived to this day." On the other hand, the Delawarean believed that the enactment freed few slaves in the state, since many had run away or had been released during the war, that Negroes were better off as slaves, and that the real aim of the amendment was the equality of races.[44]

Republicans and Democrats disagreed about how the defeated South should be treated. In general, Democrats favored a forgive-and-forget policy, while Republicans advocated severe punishment of leaders. Rather surprisingly, ex-Representative Nathaniel B. Smithers, a Republican, pleaded for leniency at a Dover victory celebration in April. Since no two persons could agree exactly upon whom to punish, he argued that it was best to be magnanimous and to forgive. He "almost" hoped that the leaders would escape to another country to avoid their just deserts.[45]

Union men in May were delighted at the capture of Jefferson Davis, who they expected would shortly be hanged. The son-in-law of Governor Cannon expressed pleasure at the news and wrote in his diary, "The blood of a million men is upon his soul. He ought to be hung as the foulest malefactor-as one of the murderers of Lincoln, one of nature's noblemen." The erroneous report that Davis had attempted to avoid capture by escaping disguised as a woman led the Journal to comment that "after the authorities shall have divested him of his hoopskirts and other delicate et ceteras belonging to his wife's wardrobe that he will be taken to some convenient field and hung by the neck until he is dead, without the benefit of breeches or clergy." His effigy was hanged in Wilmington attired in woman's clothing.[46]

The Republican and Democratic press expressed different views as to how southerners should be treated. The independent Smyrna Times recommended that only the leaders should be punished. The Republican suggested placing Lee and Davis in an eight-foot square pen for a year on southern prison fare and then hanging them. The editor asked persons who favored the restoration of rights and privileges to the ex-rebels to think of the horrible conditions in southern hospitals and prisons. A correspondent in the Republican thought that southern atrocities during the war ruled out any notion of leniency and recalled:

From the first battle of Bull Run to the exit of Jeff in petticoats, the most devilish cruelty that humanity could invent has been practiced by them. Carving the bones of our soldiers into trinkets to adorn southern beauty. Starving our prisoners by the thousands. Introducing the yellow fever. Burning our cities by the incendiary's torch. Search history in vain for the savage nation that has ever practised such barbarities.[47]

" Shall They Be Punished?" inquired an editorial in the Journal. The newspaper feared that rebels everywhere, both secretly and openly, were plotting to seize the reins of government. It declared that Union men, who had been maimed for life by rebel bullets or had been starved in southern prisons, demanded the punishment of Lee and Davis as well as many of the rank and file. During the summer the editor of the Georgetown Union traveled far and wide to canvass public opinion, and the universal demand of all loyal men was that Jefferson Davis should be hanged and that the masses of southern people, who had been the "willing tools" of the leaders, should be severely punished. On the other hand, a new editor in September urged the extension of the hand of fellowship and of charity to the conquered brethren of the South. Democratic newspapers, such as the Gazette and Delawarean, pleaded for forgiveness for a defeated people, who had shown themselves to be truly repentant and humbled.[48]

Democratic opinion concerning President Andrew Johnson rapidly changed. When he had been inaugurated as vice-president in March, 1865, he was ill and took some spirits. His intoxicated condition was commented upon freely in the press. An editorial in the Gazette asked, "Is He a Miserable Drunkard?" and denounced the conferring of political honors upon a man of such low moral character. The Georgetown Union agreed that "Johnson publicly disgraced himself at the inauguration by a maudlin incoherent speech given when beastly drunk." but contended that the Gazette did not have the right to criticize since one of the Democratic Senators from Delaware was notorious for his drinking.[49] Johnson's pro-southern policy led the Gazette to declare within a month after Lincoln's death that the new president was "a statesman equal in originality to most of the great men of his day, while as an executive officer he has scarcely an equal." Later in May the newspaper noted with approval his opposition to Negro suffrage and classified him as a Conservative State Rights Democrat. The Delawarean also supported Johnson. In December it acclaimed his message to Congress "as much in advance of anything Mr. Lincoln ever wrote" and on the whole, "satisfactory, more satisfactory than expected, and it is evidence that the President is no radical."[50] While Johnson's popularity grew with the Democrats, it declined with the Republicans. A correspondent in the Republican in June complained bitterly that "Old Andy," whom the Democrats had once regarded as a drunken vagabond, was now considered to be an honest man and a good Democrat. The Georgetown Union in an editorial on "Dissatisfaction with the Policy of the Government" in September observed that there were many criticisms concerning the administration, which made no distinction in treatment of its friends and foes. As much as possible, the Republican press ignored Johnson's policies.[51]

Union men in April were disturbed by the arrest of Provost-Marshal Edwin Wilmer for irregularities in office. Three Democratic commissioners, who had been appointed by the legislature to distribute military bounties, had written to Senator George Riddle about their suspicions, and Riddle had referred the letter to Secretary of War Stanton, who had sent an investigator. Upon the latter's recommendation Wilmer had been dismissed. On April 27, 1865, 114 Republicans petitioned President Johnson for his reinstatement. In a statement to the President on April 30, the Provost-Marshal General upheld the dismissal, since the affidavits of seven of Wilmer's clerks and the statements of many loyal men convincingly demonstrated that the officer was guilty. Subsequently Wilmer was reinstated, in order that he could be tried before a military court.[52]

At court-martial proceedings in Washington in May, Wilmer was charged with accepting "kickbacks" from his employees, of receiving gifts from substitute brokers, and of selling for his own gain large quantities of discarded clothing belonging to soldiers. He was also accused of leaving carelessly exposed numerous signed papers in blank, of instigating a riot against prominent Democrats at the time of Lee's surrender, and of refusing to accept recruits unless they entered the army as substitutes. Wilmer's defense was conducted by Samuel M. Harrington, a Wilmington lawyer, and by Colonel S. M. Bowman. According to them, Wilmer was the victim of propaganda dispersed by the disloyalists of Delaware. The army investigator had listened only to the reports of "copperheads." The Provost-Marshal had received gifts from his employees and draft brokers, but they were voluntary, not compulsory, presents. He was not guilty of causing a riot, which was the result of the righteous wrath of Union men against disloyalists. The two lawyers attempted to show that the Democratic witnesses were Confederate sympathizers. Any funds that he had received were spent in furthering the Union cause. Largely through his efforts troops had been assembled to defend the state from Confederate attack in July, 1863, and July, 1864. Through his complete attention to Union matters, Wilmer had lost his own business and had been ruined financially. The Provost-Marshal was a martyr being gored to death by disunionists. In spite of the efforts of the defense and of his friends, he was found guilty on almost all charges and sentenced to prison for two years and to pay a fine of $10,000.[53]

Wilmer's friends had only begun to fight. The acting Judge-Advocate reviewed the case and recommended to the Secretary of War on June 12 that the sentence be sustained because of the criminality involved, in spite of Wilmer's previous good character. This report was laid before the President, who found no reason to exercise clemency.[54] Twenty-one Republicans from Delaware petitioned the President to grant a pardon on June 24 because Wilmer had labored day and night to advance the interest of the government, because he owned no property with which to pay the fine, because his large family was suffering during his absence, and because he was guilty of mere errors of judgment. The President on August 17 received a report from the Acting Judge-Advocate General, who adhered to the previous judgment that the sentence should stand.[55]

On September 21, Wilmer personally applied to the President for a pardon. He alleged that the prosecution was undertaken at the insistence of disloyalists in Delaware, that the charges had not been sustained, and that he had been a faithful and efficient officer of the government. He had used all his own funds for the Union cause and had even placed his own son, a lad of fifteen years, in the army. Any money that he had obtained through gifts or the sale of clothing had been used for political purposes. At the time of Lee's invasion in July, 1863, and of the great scare in July, 1864, he had saved the state. It was well known "that he raised more men and more money to pay bounties and performed more labor to sustain the government and the Union cause than any one man in Delaware." He and his friends were astonished at the verdict of the court; "the common sentiment is that a great wrong has been done a faithful and efficient officer-that the Union cause has been damaged in Delaware and the enemies of the government made to rejoice." Revocation of the sentence would be an act of simple justice to himself and his family and pleasing to the loyal citizens of Delaware. The President at last heeded his plea and granted him a pardon in October. Political pressure had succeeded in freeing him.[56]

Economic adjustment to postwar conditions was difficult in 1865 because of high prices and wages. When Wilmington merchants would not lower the price of coal, aroused citizens held a meeting and imported 150 tons directly from Pennsylvania. Wilmington teachers asked for higher salaries, the Tailors' Union raised the charge for making coats, and morocco dressers went on strike when their demands were not met. An attempt was made to form a Trades Assembly of all organized labor in the city. Manufacturers had to adjust to peacetime demands, and farmers suffered from lower prices for grain, while the cost of living and the wages of farm laborers remained high.[57]

In summarizing, what conclusions can be drawn concerning the political aspects of the war in Delaware? How much pro-southern feeling existed in the state prior to the Civil War? How did the Breckinridge Democrats win the election of 1860 in the state? What did Delawareans think should be done about the crisis between the time of Lincoln's election and the firing upon Fort Sumter? How did the beginning of the war affect public opinion? Were there many people in the state who could be classified as secessionists? Did many Delawareans serve in the southern army? What influence did the Civil War have on existing parties? What heritage did the War leave on politics and elsewhere?

On the eve of the Civil War, Kent and Sussex counties were pro-southern in feeling, while New Castle County was pro-northern. The historian of an earlier period of Delaware history has said that "New Castle County was the Rhode Island of Delaware-the county that was otherwise." He has pointed out that lower Delaware was agricultural, conservative, and English in stock, while New Castle County contained important industries, was liberal politically, and was heterogeneous in population. His statement concerning the dissimilarities between the northern and southern counties could be applied to conditions in 1860. Important differences in culture, education, incomes, and religion existed and conditioned the attitude of the two sections towards the Civil War. Two governors from different parties, commissioners from southern states, politicians, and other observers commented upon the southern tendencies of Kent and Sussex counties.[58]

The Breckinridge Democrats won the election of 1860 because Delawareans became convinced that a Republican victory meant the abolition of slavery, a change in the status of the free Negro, and the dissolution of the Union. The Breckinridge men possessed a strong political machine and were led by able politicians, who were closely affiliated with the South. Douglas' ideas were never popular in the state, and his followers were led by an eccentric "sorehead" whom no one trusted. Many conservative men supported the Constitutionalists, who received the second largest number of votes in the state. Under more vigorous leadership this total might have been increased. It was soon apparent to most observers that the true contest in the nation was between Republicans and the Breckinridge Democrats. The former emphasized that they favored a high tariff and did not advocate the abolition of slavery, but only opposed its extension. In the last months of the campaign Democrats discovered that the Negro issue had greater appeal than any other. Voters were told repeatedly that the Republicans were the enemies of slavery, believers in Negro equality, and potential dissolvers of the Union. The rural population was especially influenced by this approach. So successful were the Democrats in using the Negro issue in 1860 that a precedent was established for future campaigns.

During the four months after the election of Lincoln, Delawareans demonstrated that they emphatically hoped for the preservation of the Union. Every peace proposal was eagerly endorsed. The legislature unanimously rejected invitations to join the Confederacy. Suggestions by Republicans that the use of force might become necessary were condemned, as were proposals by Democrats to let the South go. Believing with Senator Saulsbury that Delaware was the first state to join the Union and should be the last to leave it, the majority of the inhabitants sympathized with the South but clung to the Union. Unable to control the tide of events, Delawareans stood by helplessly as the nation was swept into war.

The firing upon Fort Sumter shocked Delawareans. Hysteria gripped citizens when they realized that the Union was dissolving, and hastily organized meetings endorsed its preservation at all costs. Such a gathering was the New Castle County meeting in April, 1861. Within a month division between those who favored using force and those who advocated peaceful separation appeared, as evidenced in county meetings in Kent and Sussex. The subsequent "peace" meetings sponsored independently by the Republicans and the Democrats testified to the same division of opinion. The majority of the inhabitants in New Castle County were willing to go to war; the majority of the people in Kent and Sussex counties wished to let the South go in peace. These opposing attitudes were conditioned by cultural, economic, and occupational differences. The result was a tug of war within the state between North and South, involving militia companies, political parties, and personal relationships. As a dividing state, Delaware faced unhappy times ahead.

While many people in Delaware were pro-southern in feeling, there were few genuine secessionists-that is, those who wished to see the state in the Confederacy or who were willing to join the rebel army and to face real danger on behalf of the southern cause. Southern sympathizers criticized the Lincoln administration for unconstitutional measures, for political arrests, and for trying to free the Negro, but their support of the Confederacy would not go beyond such actions. Only a few extremists would have welcomed the coming of Confederate forces to the state. An example of a secessionist was former Governor William Ross, whose son died from typhoid fever while in the Confederate army, who lost a fortune in southern bonds, and who went abroad to avoid arrest for incriminating activities. Such persons as Hugh Martin, John Martin, Whiteley Meredith, and John K. Lambson may be placed in the same category. Senators Willard Saulsbury and James A. Bayard, as well as Thomas F. Bayard, may be correctly classified as Peace Democrats. Careful investigation has not revealed that any of these three were guilty of treason-in spite of repeated accusations on the floor of Congress and in the Republican press.

A question which is difficult to answer is how many Delawareans served in the Confederate army. One historian has estimated that the number was 2,000. Research reveals the names of about fifty. Before a congressional committee in 1867, a Republican leader in Sussex County mentioned that over 20 men from that section joined the Confederate army, and a Republican officeholder in Wilmington believed that the total was less than 200 from all three counties. Indications are that a figure from 200 to 500 is much nearer the correct estimate than 2,000. It should be remembered that Delaware furnished more men to the northern army in proportion to its population than any other state.[59]

The Civil War had a great influence upon political parties. The Breckinridge wing was controlled by the Bayards and Saulsburys, who feuded among themselves. A much smaller group which was headed by eccentric Sam Townsend supported Douglas. As election time neared, the Douglas and Breckinridge men combined in the lower counties upon local candidates. Breckinridge followers were chosen as electors and also secured control of the legislature. While some Douglas and Breckinridge men joined the Republican party after Fort Sumter, defections were few, and Democratic state candidates usually received 8,000 votes in subsequent contests. Democratic policies and politics were completely dominated by the Bayards and Saulsburys. In spite of some feuding, it was usually necessary to receive the approval of both factions before selecting a platform or a candidate. The speeches of Senator Willard Saulsbury and Senator James A. Bayard interpreted correctly the feelings of a majority of Delawareans upon the issues of the day. After the Civil War Thomas F. Bayard and one or another of the three Saulsburys continued to dominate Democratic politics.

The Civil War almost doubled the size of the Republican party. In 1860 it ran a poor third, but through absorption of many Constitutional Unionists, some Douglas followers, and a few Breckinridge men, it offered the Democrats a close contest in every election. The name was changed in 1862 to Union Party, in order that it might have greater appeal. With the exception of victories won by George P. Fisher as a joint candidate of the Constitutional Unionists and the Republicans in 1860, by Governor Cannon in 1862, and by N. B. Smithers in the "boycott" election of 1863, Republican state candidates and electors were defeated in every election, in spite of the expnditures of large sums of money and the use of troops at the polls in 1862, 1863, and 1864. New Castle County returned Republican members to the General Assembly in each contest. In the campaign of 1860, Nathaniel B. Smithers was by far the most important Republican leader in the state. George P. Fisher, Constitutional Unionist, revealed his true colors as a Republican after his election in 1860 as Representative and soon became liaison man between the Lincoln administration and local politicians. An important recruit gained by the Republicans was Governor William Cannon, whose efforts to keep the state loyal aroused the bitter ire of Democrats. Important leaders of the Republican party in New Castle County included E. G. Bradford, Thomas M. Rodney, Dr. A. H. Grimshaw, Reverend George Wiswell, and Henry duPont. Fisher and Smithers controlled Kent County. In Sussex County the principal figures were J. S. Prettyman, C. S. Layton, and Cannon.

The stronghold of the Republican party was in Wilmington, just as the center of Democratic strength was in Kent and Sussex Counties. The Democrats won almost every election during the Civil War by stressing the dangers of emancipation and of Negro equality. They accused the opposition on numerous occasions of causing the arrest of peaceable citizens, of calling for the use of troops in elections, and of attacking state's rights. The Republicans repeatedly charged that the Democrats were "traitors," who placed obstacles in the way of encouraging enlistments, who refused to vote appropriations for soldiers' families, bounties, or a cemetery at Gettysburg, and who refused to consider the status of the Negro and slavery realistically. Probably the most important heritage of these troubled years was that Delaware became a Democratic state and henceforth with the exception of 1872 returned Democratic congressmen and electors for a quarter of a century.

Denominations, family relationships, and friendships suffered from the impact of the war. Churches in New Castle County, regardless of denomination, supported the Union, while members of congregations in Kent and Sussex Counties demonstrated frequently southern sympathies. The Old-School Presbyterians, whose churches were mainly in the southern part of the state, were extremely pro-southern, while the Wilmington Presbytery was noted for its loyalty. Staunch friends of the Union were Bishop Alfred E. Lee (Episcopalian) , Reverend George Wiswell (Presbyterian) , and Reverend J. S. Dickerson (Baptist) . Many instances of brothers serving on opposite sides, of friendships terminated, and of neighbors reported for disloyalty could be mentioned. A resident of Dover in 1902 delivered a speech, in which he recalled some of the bitter experiences of Civil War days and pointed out that much of that harsh heritage still lingered. His words are worth quoting at length:

In no State of the Union was public sentiment more divided, and party feeling more intense and bitter, than in Delaware. The fact that it remained in the Union was, by no means, evidence that it was a Union State in sentiment. It contributed to the national army, without regard to politics, its quota of brave soldiers. Braver men never fought on any battlefield; but the influential men, those who were recognized as leaders, were nearly all Southern sympathizers. The sentiments expressed at the convention held at Montgomery, Alabama, found a responsive echo in the little State House on the "green" South Carolina's Act of Secession was warmly applauded here, and Delaware only waited for Maryland to take the step that she would have followed in [sic]. But she remained, in name, a Union State, torn by the bitterest and most intense hatred on the part of her Southern sympathizers, and the most flagrant abuse of power, on the part of her Union men, who were clothed with a little brief authority.

The old resident, in looking backward, sees bosom friends who differed, quarreled over their differences, and went to their graves, hating one another, leaving the old hatred to their children, in many instances, their only legacy. He sees families divided, separated in anger, never to get together again. He sees the best men under suspicion and surveillance, by one faction, or secretly plotting. He sees friends snatched from their homes, and robbed of their liberty, on flimsy and trumped-up charges, and left to languish in dingy forts and filthy prisons, and he sees a Government officer leaping from a back window of the Capital Hotel, at night, to escape the merciless hands of men, whose friends he had arrested for treasonable utterances. He sees soldiers at the polls, and U. S. Marshals at men's elbows, as a warning that to have an opinion was a dangerous thing; and he sees a Union man shot down on his way home, by an unknown hand, for no other reasons than because he had an opinion, and expressed it too freely. He sees a mob of desperate men attack, in the street, a handful of soldier boys, who were home on a furlough, because they wore the blue; and he hears a timid woman pleading with a band of drunken soldiers, that they might not harm her aged father, whose only crime was that he had a son, whom he loved well, in the rebel army.[60]

The words of this aged Republican who saw injustices done by both Republicans and Democrats during the Civil War show that the "Road to Reunion" was practically completed in the state by the turn of the century.

As a border state, Delaware paid homage to both sections, but gave complete allegiance to neither. In feeling the majority of the people were pro-southern, but few were secessionist. Those years left deep marks upon the social and political life of the state which are still visible today.

[N] Lincoln Memorial Picture

This engraving from the Delaware Journal, April 28, 1865, is the only picture of Lincoln that appeared in any Delaware newspaper during the war.

Bibliography

A. PRIMARY SOURCES

I. MANUSCRIPTS

African School Association, Minutes. Historical Society of Delaware. Amnesty Papers. War Department, National Archives.

" Annual Assessment of Incomes, Carriages and Plate for 1864 in Delaware." Fiscal Section, National Archives. Typed copy edited by Harold B. Hancock in Historical Society of Delaware.

Appointment Papers, Delaware. Department of Justice, National Archives. Bayard, James A. Papers. Library of Congress.

Bayard, Thomas F Papers. Historical Society of Delaware.

Bayard, Thomas F. Papers. Library of Congress.

Black, Jeremiah S. Papers. Library of Congress.

Brincklé, Anna and Reverend Samuel C. Typed Letters. Possession of Miss Gertrude Brincklé, Wilmington.

Broadside Collection. Historical Society of Delaware.

Brobson, James. Papers. Historical Society of Delaware.

Burton, William and Wootten, Edward. Burton-Wootten Letters. Delaware State Archives.

Burton, William, and Cannon, William. Executive Papers. Delaware State Archives.

Canby, Samuel. Diary. Historical Society of Delaware.

Canby, William. Diary. Historical Society of Delaware.

Cannon, William. Papers. Private Possesion.

Civil War Collection. Huntington Library, Stanford University. Civil War Papers. New York Historical Society.

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Corbitt, Daniel and Higgins, Anthony. Corbitt-Higgins Letters. Historical Society of Delaware.

Currency Collection. Historical Society of Delaware.

Delaware State Association for the Care of the Sick and Wounded

Soldiers, Minutes, 1862-1865. Historical Society of Delaware. Douglas, Stephen A. Papers. Library, University of Chicago. Du Pont, Henry. Papers. Eleutherian Mills Historical Library.

Du Pont, Samuel Frank. Papers. Eleutherian Mills Historical Library.

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Felton, S. M. Papers. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Ferris, Anna. Diary. Friends' Historical Society, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Fisher, George P. Papers. Library of Congress.

Gillis, John P. Papers. Historical Society of Delawar e.

Hall, David. Diary. Private Possession.

Heydrick, Charles. Diary. Delaware State Archives.

Hitch, Samuel. Diary. Delaware State Archives.

Houston, John. Letters. Possession of Miss Elizabeth Houston, George. town.

Lincoln Collection. Library of Congress.

Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church, Minutes. Historical Society of Delaware.

Middle Department, Letters Sent and Received, 1861-1865. War Department, National Archives.

Moore, James A. Papers. Historical Society of Delaware.

Murphey, Reverend Thomas M. Papers. Delaware State Archives. Mustard, D. L. Scrapbook. Delaware State Archives.

Polk-Yeatman Collection. Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.

Provost Marshal Papers, Delaware. War Department, National Archives. Pusey Genealogy. Historical Society of Delaware.

Reed, William T. Diary. Possession of Judge Richard S. Rodney, New Castle, Delaware.

Reynolds, Thomas M. Letters. Memorial Library, University of Delaware.

Ridgely Collection. Delaware State Archives.

Rodney, Thomas M. Papers. Historical Society of Delaware. Ross, William. Letters. Historical Society of Delaware.

Secretary of War. Letters to and from, 1860-1865. War Department, National Archives.

Seward, William. Letters. Library, University of Rochester. Smith, Franklin E. Papers. Library, Duke University.

Stanton, E. M. Papers. Library of Congress.

Townsend, Samuel. Letters. Delaware State Archives.

Townsend, Samuel. Letters. Memorial Library, University of Delaware. Treasury Department. Letters to and from, 1861-1865. Treasury Department, National Archives.

U. S. vs. Martin and duLaney, U. S. District Records, 1864. U. S. District Court, Wilmington, Delaware.

Weed, Thurlow. Papers. Library, University of Rochester.

Wilmer, Edwin. Court-Martial Papers. War Department, National Archives.

Wilmington Presbytery, Minutes. Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

II. UNPUBLISHED WORKS

Cooper, Alexander B. "The Bench and Bar of Delaware." Historical Society of Delaware.

Cooper, Alexander B. "Memories of Myself and My Times." Historical Society of Delaware.

" Investigation of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives into the Question as to Whether Delaware had a Republican Form of Government, 1867." Legislative Division, National Archives.

Massey, Gordon Valentine. "The Cannons of Nanticoke." Possession of author.

Prettyman, Miles. "The Civil War Period in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland as Reflected in Letters to my Family." Senior Thesis, 1950, Memorial Library, University Delaware.

Reed, Mrs. Marion B. "The Underground Railroad in Delaware." Master's Thesis, 1928, University of Pennsylvania.

Shorter, Charles. "Slavery in Delaware." Master's Thesis, 1934, Howard University.

Spruance, John S. "Delaware in the Civil War." Honor's Paper, 1936, Princeton University.

Tancil, Sallie E. "Public Education for Negroes in Delaware." Master's Thesis, 1942, Howard University.

Wilson, Emerson. "Fort Delaware." Historical Society of Delaware.

III. BOOKS

Angle, Paul. New Letters and Papers of Lincoln. Boston: 1930.

Basler, Roy, ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 8 vols. New Brunswick: 1953.

Clayton, Thomas J. Rambles and Reflections at Home and Abroad. Chester: 1892.

Dickerson, Emma R. James Stokes Dickerson: Memories of his Life. New York: 1879.

Handy, Reverend I. W. K. United States Bonds; or Duress by Federal Authority. Baltimore: 1874.

Mearns, David C., ed. The Lincoln Papers. 2 vols. New York: 1948.

Murphey, Reverend Thomas G. Four Years in the War: the History of the First Regiment of Delaware Veteran Volunteers. Philadelphia:1864.

Nicolay, J. G. and John Hay. Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works. 12 vols. New York: 1905.

Robinson, John Bell. Pictures of Slavery and Anti-Slavery. Philadelphia: 1863.

Stille, Charles J., ed. Memorial of the Great Central Fair for the United States Sanitary Commission. Philadelphia: 1864.

White, Dorothy Welch, ed. Memoirs of Mary Parker Welch. New York: 1947.

IV. PERIODICALS AND ANNUALS

Aikman, William. "The Future of the Colored Race in America," Presbyterian Quarterly Review, X (July, 1862) , 103-10.

American Annual Cyclopedia, 1861-1865. New York: 1869-1873.

Boyd, William. Delaware State Directory, 1859-1860. Wilmington: 1860.

Conwell, Joseph A. "A Sussex County Farmer Boy, Sixty-Five Years Ago," and "A Letter from Joseph Alfred Conwell," 110-20, in The Conwell Family (mimeographed) , St. Paul, Minnesota, n. d.

Directory of the City of Wilmington, 1845. Wilmington: 1845.

Hollyday, Frederic B., ed. "Running the Blockade: How Henry Hollyday Joined the Confederacy," Maryland Historical Magazine, XLI (March, 1946) , 1-10.

Reed, Henry Clay, "Lincoln's Compensated Emancipation Plan," Delaware Notes, 7th Series (Newark, Del.: 1931) , 27-28.

Sons of Delaware Yearbook, 1902. Dover: 1902.

Tenth Annual Report of the Delaware Railroad. Dover: 1865. Vallandigham, Edward Noble. "A House Divided," Putnam's Monthly, II (July, 1907).

Wilmington Directory for 1862-63. . . . Wilmington: 1862.

V. PAMPHLETS

Du Pont, Colonel Henry A. Henry du Pont. Wilmington: 1923.

Grobe, Charles. Lincoln Quick Step. 2 ed. Philadelphia: 1860.

Halstead, Muriat. Caucuses of 1860: A History of the National Political Conventions of the Current Presidential Campaign. Columbus: 1860.

Harrington, S. M., Jr. and Colonel S. M. Bowman. Argument of Samuel M. Harrington, Jr., of Wilmington, Delaware, and Colonel S. M. Bowman, U. S. A., in Defense of Edwin Wilmer, Provost-Marshal of Delaware before a Court-Martial in Washington City, D. C., June 2d, 1865. Philadelphia: 1865.

Hazzard, R. B. History of Seaford. Seaford: 1894.

Historical Discourse and Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Second Baptist Church, Wilmington, Delaware. Wilmington: 1885.

History of the Delaware Department of the Great Central Fair held in Philadelphia, 1864. Wilmington: 1864.

National Democratic Executive Committee, ed. Proceedings of National Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore. Washington: 1860.

Parkhurst, John G., ed. Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, Held in 1860 at Charleston and Baltimore. Cleveland: 1860.

Powell, Walter A. Annals of a Village in Kent County, Delaware. Dover, n. d.

Speech of Hon. C. S. Layton at a Union Meeting, May 7, 1861. Wilmington: 1861.

Spruance, John S. Delaware Stays in the Union. Newark: 1955.

State of Political Parties by a Citizen of New Castle County. Wilmington: 1860.

Tatnall, Harry. The Rail Splitters Polka. Philadelphia: 1860.

Todd, T. M. Sounds from Fort Delaware. Philadelphia: 1863.

White, Dr. William H. Speech of William H. White . . .on Friday, June 29, 1860. Wilmington: 1860.

Wilson, W. Emerson. Fort Delaware. Newark: 1957.

Wiswell, Reverend George F. Eleven Years of Church History. Wilmingington: 1868.

State Sovereignty-Federal Sovereignty-Our Country, July 4, 1861. Wilmington: 1861.

VI. STATE AND FEDERAL PUBLICATIONS

Delaware (State). Laws of the State of Delaware, 1861-1866. Dover: 1861-1866.
- Report of the Committee of the General Assembly of the State of Delaware...in Regard to the Interference by United States Troops with the general Election. Dover: 1863.
- Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware, 1859-1866. Dover and Wilmington, 1860-1867.
- Journal of the Senate of the State of Delaware, 1859-1866. Dover and Wilmington: 1860-1867.

- Revised Statutes of the State of Delaware, 1852. Dover: 1852.

United States. Agriculture of the United States in 1860. Washington: 1864.
- Congressional Globe. 1860-1865. Washington: 1860-1866.
- "Journal of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865," I (58th Congress, 2nd Session, 1903-4) , Senate Document No. 234. Washington: 1904.
- Manufactures of the United States in 1860. Washington: 1865.
- Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion. 2nd Series; 28 vols. Washington: 1897-1917.
- Population of the United States in 1860. Washington: 1864.
- Statistics of the United States, including Mortality, Property, etc., 1860. Washington: 1866.
- War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 4th Series; 128 vols. Washington: 1880-1901.

VII. NEWSPAPERS

American Presbyterian, July 4, 18, 1861. Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Campaigner (Wilmington) , July 4, 1860. Library, University of Chicago.

Delaware Gazette (Wilmington) , January, 1860-December, 1865. Historical Society of Delaware and Library of Congress.

Delaware Inquirer (Wilmington) , April 13, 1861 (Extra). Historical Society of Delaware.

Delaware Journal (Wilmington) , July, 1861?December, 1865. Historical Society of Delaware and Library of Congress.

Delaware Republican (Wilmington), January, 1860:December, 1865. Wilmington Public Library.

Delawarean (Dover) , January, 1860?December, 1865. Historical Society of Delaware and Memorial Library, University of Delaware.

Delmarva Star (Wilmington) , February 9, 1919. Wilmington Public Library.

Georgetown Messenger (Georgetown) , January, 1859?December, 1861 (scattered). Memorial Library, University of Delaware.

Georgetown Union (Georgetown) , January, 1863?December, 1865. Library of Congress and Memorial Library, University of Delaware.

"Military Invasion of Delaware," Evening Journal, March 15, 1923. Wilmington Public Library.

Our Daily Fare (Philadelphia) , June 4-10, 1864. Historical Society of Delaware.

Peninsular News and Advertiser (Milford) , January, 1861?December, 1863 (scattered). Library of Congress.

Pyle, Katherine. A History of Delaware (Scrapbook of newspaper clippings from Delmarvia Star, 1924). Wilmington Public Library.

Regimental Flag, 1862 (scattered). Historical Society of Delaware and Wilmington Public Library.

Smithers, William T. "The Dover Green," Sentinel (Dover) , March 7, 1902 (private possession).

Smyrna Times (Smyrna) , January, 1860?December, 1865. Smyrna Times Office and Library of Congress.

Sunday Star, November 5, 1933. Wilmington Public Library.

B. SECONDARY SOURCES

I. BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS DEALING WITH DELAWARE AND DELAWAREANS

Bevan, Wilson L. History of Delaware. 4 vols. New York: 1929.

Conrad, Henry C. History of the State of Delaware. 3 vols. Wilmington: 1908.

Dutton, William S. Du Pont: One Hundred and Forty Years. New York: 1942.

Eckman, Jeanette, ed. Delaware: A Guide to the First State. New York: 1955.

Edwards, Richard, ed. Industries of Wilmington. Wilmington: 1880.

Fort Delaware Notes. I-V. 1950-1954.

Henry, Allan J., ed. The Life of Alexis Irenée du Pont. 2 vols. Philadelphia: 1945.

Homes and Lands in Delaware. Dover: 1884.

Lincoln, Anna T. Wilmington: Four Centuries under Three Flags. Rutland, Vt.: 1937.

Lore, C. B. "The Life and Character of George P. Fisher," Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, XXXVI (1902).

McCarter, J. M. and B. F. Jackson, eds., Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware. Wilmington: 1882.

Munroe, John A. Federalist Delaware, 1775-1815. New Brunswick, New Jersey: 1954.

Powell, Lyman P. The History of Education in Delaware. Washington: 1893.

Powell, Walter A. A History cf Delaware. Boston: 1928.

Reed, Henry Clay, ed. Delaware: A History f the First State. 3 vols. New York: 1947.

Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Delaware. 2 vols. Philadelphia: 1888.

Seville, William Peteers," Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, V (1884).

Smithers, William T. "Memoir of Nathaniel B. Smithers," Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, XXIII (1899).

Spencer, Edward. An Outline of the Public Life and Services of Thomas F Bayard. New York: 1880.

Tansill, C. C. The Congressional Career of Thomas F. Bayard. Washington: 1946.

II. OTHER SECONDARY WORKS

Carman, H. L. and R. H. Luthin. Lincoln and the Patronage. New York: 1943.

Crenshaw, Ollinger. The Slave States in the Presidential Election of 1860. Baltimore: 1945.

Johnson, Allen, ed. Dictionary of American Biography. 21 vols. New York: 1929.

Livermore, T. L. Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, 1861-1865. New York: 1901.

Luthin, R. H. The First Lincoln Campaign. Cambridge: 1944.

Meade, Robert D. Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate Statesman. New York: 1943.

Parks, J. H. John Bell cf Tennessee. Baton Rouge: 1930.

Potter, David. Lincoln and his Party in the Secession Crisis. New Haven: 1942.

Radcliffe, George L. Governor Thomas Hicks of Maryland and the Civil War. Baltimore: 1901.

Siebert, W. H. The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom. New York: 1898.

Vallandigham, James L. Life cf Clement L. Vallandigham. Baltimore: 1872.

Vander Velde, Lewis G. The Presbyterian Churches and the Federal Union, 1861-1869. Cambridge: 1932.

Footnotes

DELAWARE DURING THE CIVIL WAR
A POLITICAL HISTORY

by

Harold Bell Hancock

Footnotes

CHAPTER I: THE CAMPAIGN AND ELECTION OF 1860

[1] Jeannette Eckman (ed.), Delaware: A Guide to the First State (New York, 1955), pp. 7-10.

[2] Population of the United States in 1860 (Washington, 1864), pp. 46-48.

Selected Population Statistics

White

Free Colored

Slave

Total

Kent

20,330

7,271

203

27,804

New Castle

46,355

8,188

254

54,797

Sussex

23,904

4,370

1,341

29,615

Total

30,589

19,829

1,798

112,216

Slaveholders

Principal Foreign Groups

Kent

66

Irish

5,832

New Castle

86

English

1,581

Sussex

435

German

1,263

587

Living in Delaware from Maryland

5,110

Living in Delaware from Pennsylvania

7,852

Living in Maryland from Delaware

4,744

Living in Pennsylvania from Delaware

12,383

[3] Revised Statutes of the State of Delaware, 1852 (Dover, 1852), pp. 143-47.

[4] African School Association, Minutes, passim (MS in the Historical Society of Delaware).

[5] Charles Shorter, "Slavery in Delaware" (Unpublished Master's thesis, Howard University, 1934), passim.

[6] An interesting study of the underground railroad with special attention to Thomas Garrett, Quaker abolitionist, is Marion Bjornsen Reed, "The Underground Railroad in Delaware" (Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1928).

[7] Population of the United States in 1860, p. 48; Statutes of Delaware, 1852, pp. 250-59.

[8] Shorter, "Slavery in Delaware," p. 44.

[9] Anna T. Lincoln, Wilmington, Delaware: Three Centuries under Four Flags (Rutland, Vt.; 1937), pp. 248, 286-87, 303-5.

[10] Harold Hancock, "Agriculture in Delaware, 1789-1900," Chapt. XVI, in H. Clay Reed (ed.), Delaware: A History of the First State, I (New York, 1947), 183; John S. Spruance, "The Civil War, 1850-1865," ibid., pp. 163-82.

[11] Joseph A. Conwell, "A Sussex Farmer Boy Sixty-Five Years Ago," The Conwell Family (St. Paul, Minn.; mimeographed), pp. 110-15; Dorothy Welch White (ed.), Memoirs of Mary Parker Welch (New York, 1947), passim.

[12] Reed, Delaware, I, 375-76; Agriculture of the United States in 1860 (Washington, D. C., 1864), pp. 16-17.

[13] Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware (Dover, 1859), p. 6; Georgetown Messenger, Nov. 3, 1859, quoting the Philadelphia North American.

[14] Delawarean, Mar. 14, 1860. The secretary was Manlove Hayes, well-informed farmer and railroad executive.

[15] Homes and Lands in Delaware (Dover, 1884), p. 24.

[16] Reed, Delaware, I, 375.

[17] Directory of the City of Wilmington, 1845 (Wilmington, 1845), pp. 53-54.

[18] Manufactures of the United States in 1860 (Washington, D. C., 1864), pp. 53-54; Reed, Delaware, I, 423.

[19] Board of Trade, Wilmington, Delaware, First Annual Report of the Board of Trade (Wilmington, 1868), p. 6.

[20] Manlove Hayes, "History of the Delaware Railroad," in J. M. McCarter and B. F. Jackson (eds.), Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware (Wilmington, 1882), pp. 152-76.

[21] D. L. Mustard Scrapbook (MS in the Delaware State Archives), p. 5.

[22] R. B. Hazzard, History of Seaford (Seaford, 1890), p. 54.

[23] Tenth Annual Report of the Delaware Railroad (Dover, 1865), Appendix.

[24] ''Annual Assessment of Incomes, Carriages and Plate, for 1864 in Delaware" (MS in Fiscal section, National Archives) ; Delaware Gazette, Feb. 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, 24, Mar. 3, 14, 17, 24, 31, Apr. 7, 14, May 24, 1865. A typed copy of the manuscript in the National Archives, with reported incomes and names listed according to the hundreds of the state, has been deposited in the library of the Historical Society by the author.

[25] Lyman P. Powell, The History of Education in Delaware (Washington, D. C.,1893), pp. 143-47; Aaron B. Marvel, State Auditor, "Report of the Finances of the State of Delaware, 1860,"in Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware, 1861 (Wilmington, 1861), pp. 69, 103, 143. The average expenditure per pupil was obtained by totaling the receipts from contributions, the school fund, and tuition for each country and then dividing by the number of pupils.

[26] Statistics of the United States, including Mortality, Property, etc. in 1860 (Washington, 1866), p. 362; J. W. Christie, "Presbyterianism in Delaware," N. W. Rightmyer, "The Episcopal Church in Delaware," and E. C. Hallman, "Methodism in Delaware," in Reed, Delaware, II, offer a general background survey of the separate churches; see pp. 655-56, 667, 677-78 for the Civil War period.

[27] Conwell, Conwell Family, pp. 110-14; White, Memoirs of Mary Parker Welch, passim. The author of the present article thinks that Conwell exaggerated economic hardships in Sussex County during the Civil War.

[28] Walter A. Powell, Annals of a Village in Kent County, Delaware (Dover, n. d.), passim; Thomas J. Clayton, Rambles and Reflections at Home and Abroad (Chester, 1892), pp. 396-442.

[29] Delaware Guide (1955), p. 67.

[30] George P. Fisher, "Political Parties" in McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, pp. 210-11; Reed, Delaware, I, 163-82.

[31] McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, p. 210.

[32] Ibid.

[33] "James A. Bayard," ibid., pp. 534-35.

[34] "Willard Saulsbury," "Eli Saulsbury," and "Gove Saulsbury," ibid., pp. 238, 354, 357-58.

[35] "Samuel Townsend," ibid., pp. 537-38.

[36] Gazette, Feb. 21, Mar. 16, 20, 23, 1860; Delawarean, Mar. 17, 24, 1860. John

H. Bewley, a member of the House of Representatives from Kent County in 1862, was a commissioner of the town of Smyrna in 1864 and elected state senator from Kent County in the same year. On Feb. 8, 1865, he voted against the thirteenth amendment to the federal constitution, which had been submitted to the state senates, and which provided for the abolition of slavery. In Talbott's Delaware State Directory, 1865-66, he is listed (page 91) as general merchant, Commerce Street, Smyrna. Henry A. Conrad, History of Delaware (Wilmington, 1908), I, 214, 267, 279.

John Barr Pennington, long prominent in the Democratic party, had studied law with Martin W. Bates and was elected a member of the State House of Representatives in 1856. He was clerk of the House in 1859, 1863, and 1871, U.S. district attorney for Delaware during Johnson's administration, and attorney-general for Delaware, 1874-79. McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, pp. 514-15; Conrad, History, I, 279.

[37] S. Townsend to S. A. Douglas, Feb. 20, 1860, Douglas Papers (University of Chicago Library).

[38] Ibid., Mar. 28, 1860.

[39] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Mar. 24, 1860, Bayard Papers, II (Library of Congress).

[40] National Democratic Executive Committee (ed.), Proceedings of the National Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore (Washington, 1860), pp. 127, 130, 141; Gazette, May 8, 11, 1860.

[41] Ibid., May 4, 8, 1860.

[42] Ibid., May 4, 15, 1860; Delawarean, May 12, June 2, 1860.

[43] Gazette, May 29, 1860; Republican, May 31, 1860.

[44] See the leaflet "To the Democratic National Convention which will assemble at Baltimore, June 18th," Bayard Scrapbook, 1860, Bayard Papers.

[45] S. Townsend to S. A. Douglas, July 2, 1860, Douglas Papers; Republican, June 25, 29, 1860.

[46] Republican, June 29, 1860.

[47] John G. Parkhurst (ed.), Official Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, Held in 1860, at Charleston and Baltimore (Cleveland, 1860), pp. 151, 163; Murat Halstead, Caucuses of 1860: A History of the National Political Conventions of the Current Presidential Campaign (Columbus, 1860), pp. 242, 244.

[48] McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, p. 210; Republican, Feb. 16, 1860.

[49] McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, p. 210.

[50] Ibid.

[51] S. F. duPont to H. W. Davis, Jan. 13, 1860, S. F. duPont Papers (Eleutherian Mills Historical Library).

[52] Republican, Feb. 16, 1860.

[53] Ibid., Mar. 15, 1860.

[54] Ibid., Apr. 5, 1860.

[55] Ibid., Apr. 9, 1860; Smyrna Times, Apr. 12, 1860.

[56] Ibid., May 3, 1860; Republican, May 8, 1860; Gazette, May 4, 1860.

[57] Halstead, Caucuses, pp. 146, 147. The six delegates were N. B. Smithers, J. C. Clark, B. C. Hopkins, Davis Thompson, J. T. Heald, and Alfred Short.

[58] Republican, May 10, 1860; Delawarean, May 5, 1860. The delegates were W. Temple, J. P. Comegys, J. R. Lofland, C. Cullen, W. Allegood, L. L. Lyons, J. M. Barr, H. P. Blandy, and G. W. Karsner.

[59] Gazette, June 26, 29, July 10, 1860.

[60] Gazette, July 4, 1860; Delawarean, June 30, 1860; letter from Secretaries Thomas F. Bayard and C. P. Johnson, of the Breckinridge and Lane Association, July 20, 1860, to Democrats, Bayard Scrapbook, 1860.

[61] Gazette, July 20, 1860.

[62] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Aug. 5, 1860, Bayard Papers.

[63] Edward Wootten to T. F. Bayard, Aug. 22, 1860, Bayard Papers, II.

[64] Delawarean, Aug. 11, 1860; Smyrna Times, Aug. 16, 1860.

[65] T. F. Bayard to J. A. Bayard, Aug. 11, 15, 1860, Bayard Papers, II. The "regular" delegates who nominated Douglas continued their meetings in the old Front Street Theater, while the "bolters" held their meetings in the Maryland Institute.

[66] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Aug. 17, 1860, Bayard Papers, II

[67] Gazette, July 30, 1860; S. 'Townsend to S. A. Douglas, July 2, 1860, Douglas Papers.

[68] Gazette, July 10, 1860, quoting from the New York Herald.

[69] S. F. duPont to H. W. Davis, Aug. 20, 1860, S. F. duPont Papers.

[70] Republican, Aug. 30, 1860; Smyrna Times, Aug. 30, 1860; Delawarean, Sept. 1, 1860.

[71] Republican, Oct. 3, 1860; E. S. Reed to S. Townsend, Sept. 19, 1860, Townsend Papers (Delaware State Archives).

[72] Edward Wootten to J. A. Bayard, Sept. 22, 1860, Bayard Papers, II; Republican, Sept. 27, 1860.

[73] Gazette, June 8, 1860; Republican, June 11, 1860.

[74] Republican, July 30, 1860; Smyrna Times, Aug. 30, 1860; Delawarean, Sept. 1, 1860.

[75] Republican, May 21, July 4, 1860

[76] Ibid., June 7, 1860.

[77] Ibid., July 5, 1860; copies of these pieces of sheet music are in the collection of Brown University Library, and the covers of the "Lincoln Quickstep" are reproduced by special permission.

[78] Gazette, June 18, 1860.

[79] J. R. Latimer and T. M. Rodney to E. D. Morgan, June 7, 1860, Thomas M. Rodney Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[80] Republican, June 28, 1860; Gazette, June 29, 1860.

[81] Gazette, June 19, 1860.

[82] J.P. Comegys to John Bell, July 9, 1860, Polk-Yeatman Papers (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library).

[83] Smyrna Times, July 19, 1860; Gazette, July 20, 1860.

[84] S. F. duPont to H. W. Davis, Aug. 6, 20, 28, 1860, S. F. duPont Papers.

[85] Georgetown Messenger, Oct. 11, 1860.

[86] Republican, Sept. 6, 1860.

[87] Ibid., Sept. 6, 1860.

[88] Gazette, Oct. 5, 1860.

[89] S. F. duPont to H. W. Davis, Oct. 10, 1860, S. F. duPont Papers.

[90] Delawarean, Oct. 6, 1860.

[91] Gazette, Nov. 2, 1860.

[92] Ibid., Oct. 9, 1860; Delawarean, Sept. 1, 29, 1860.

[93] Delawarean, Nov. 3, 1860.

[94] Gazette, Oct. 9, 1860.

[95] Ibid., Oct. 16, 1860.

[96] Republican, Oct. 16, 1860, quoting from the Peninsular News and Advertiser.

[97] Republican, Oct. 11, 1860; Gazette, Sept. 28, 1860.

[98] Republican, Oct. 29, 1860; Gazette, Oct. 26, 1860.

[99] Gazette, Aug. 3, 1860.

[100] Ibid., Sept. 7, 1860; Republican, Sept. 10, Oct. 29, 1860.

[101] Anna Ferris, Diary, Oct. 22, 1860, Ferris Papers (Friends Historical Society, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania).

[102] From the popular "Woodman, Spare That Tree." Gazette, Nov. 2, 1860; Republican, Nov. 1, 1860.

[103] Gazette, Sept. 18, 1860; Republican, Sept. 24, 1860; Anna Ferris, Diary, Sept. 17, 1860, Ferris Papers; J. P. Gillis to son, Sept. 22, 1860, Gillis Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[104] Republican, Sept. 27, 1860.

[105] Ibid., Oct. 3, 1860.

[106] Ibid., Oct. 11, 1860; Gazette, Oct. 9, 1860.

[107] J. P. Gillis to son, Oct. 29, 1860, Gillis Papers.

[108] Gazette, Nov. 2, 1860.

[109] C. Wright, W. Cannon, H. Martin, W. Ross, and L. R. Jacobs to T. F. Bayard, Oct. 31, 1860, Bayard Papers.

[110] Gazette, Nov. 2, 1860; Republican, Nov. 1, 1860.

[111] Delawarean, Nov. 10, 1860; Republican, Nov. 8, 12, 1860; Journal, Nov. 14, 1860.

Electoral Returns

Breckinridge

Douglas

Bell

Lincoln

New Castle

3,003

718

1,575

2,073

Kent

2,077

143

717

1,067

Sussex

2,243

140

1,541

671

Total

7,323

1,001

3,833

3,811

[112] Republican, Nov. 2, 1860; Smyrna Times, Nov. 8, 1860.

[113] Republican, Nov. 12, 1860.

[114] G. P. Fisher to T. Weed, Nov. 19, 1860, Weed Papers (University of Rochester Library).

[115] Delawarean, Nov. 10, 1860.

[116] J. P. Comegys to John Bell, Nov. 12, 1860, Polk-Yeatman Papers.

Footnotes

CHAPTER II: THE COMING OF THE WAR

[1] Anna Ferris, Diary, Nov. 6, 1860, Ferris Papers (Friends' Historical Society, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania).

[2] James A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Dec. 14, 1860, Bayard Papers (Library ofCongress). Since this paper refers to Bayard Papers in both the LC and the Historical Society of Delaware (HSD), they will be so differentiated below.

[3] Smyrna Times, Nov. 15, 22, 1860.

[4] Delaware Republican (Wilmington), Nov. 22, Dec. 13, 20, 1860; Jan. 3, 1861.

[5] Delaware Journal, quoted in Smyrna Times, Nov. 23, 1860.

[6] Delawarean (Dover), Nov. 17, 24, Dec. 15, 20, 1860.

[7] Delaware Gazette (Wilmington), Nov. 13, 20, 27, Dec. 28, 1860.

[8] Ibid., Dec. 25, 1860.

[9] Ibid., Dec. 25, 1860.

[10] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Dec. 4, 1860, Bayard Papers (LC).

[11] The Crittenden Compromise was the most important proposal, 1860-1861, to attempt to solve the conflict between North and South. Slavery was to be prohibited in all territories north of 36° 30' and protected south of that line. After admission as a state, each could determine the status of slavery according to its state constitution. Congress could not abolish slavery in the slaveholding states nor the District of Columbia; it might prohibit the interstate transportation of slaves and pay owners of fugitives where the marshall could not act. All laws in conflict with the Fugitive Slave Law were void. According to the Crittenden resolution adopted in the House, July 22, 1861, the North's objectives were to preserve the Constitution and the Union and not to interfere with slavery or to subjugate the South.

[12] Congressional Globe (36th Cong., 2d sess., 1859-60), I, 14. Joseph A. Conwell, "A Sussex Farmer Boy Sixty-Five Years Ago" (St. Paul, Minn., n. d., mimeographed), p. 111. Conwell thought that Saulsbury's remarks "settled" Delaware's attitude.

[13] S. F. duPont to H. W. Davis, Nov. 16, 1860, S. F. duPont Papers (Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania).

[14] Ferris Diary, Dec. 14, 1860.

[15] Capt. G. W. Hazzard to A. Lincoln, Dec. 24, 1860, in David C. Mearns (ed.), The Lincoln Papers, H (New York, 1948), 352.

[16] Gazette, Dec. 25, 1860.

[17] Republican, Dec. 20, 1860; Gazette, Dec. 18, 1860.

[18] Republican, Dec. 20, 1860.

[19] William Canby, Diary, Nov. 22, 1860 (Historical Society of Delaware) : David Hall, Diary, Dec. 4, 1860 (MS in private possession) ; Republican, Dec. 17, 1860; Jan. 3, 15, 1861; Gazette, Dec. 7, 18, 1860: Isaac Starr to J. P. Gillis, Dec. 28, 1860, Gillis Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[20] A. H. Grimshaw to E. Stanton, Sec. of War, Oct. 5, 1860, Franklin E. Smith Papers (Duke University).

[21] Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware...1861 (Wilmington, 1861), pp. 12-26.

[22] Hicks to Burton, Jan. 2, 1861; Burton to Hicks, Jan. 8, 1861, quoted in "Civil War Governor's Answer to Maryland Secessionist Spiked Central Confederacy," Sunday Star (Wilmington), Nov. 5, 1933; Walter A. Powell, A History of Delaware (Boston, 1925), pp. 252-53.

Senator Saulsbury's suggestion is described, above, in paragraph with note # 18.

[23] House Journal, 1861, p. 102; Laws of the State of Delaware...1861 (Dover, 1861), p. 191; Delawarean, Jan. 5, 1861; Gazette, Jan. 8, 1861.

[24] The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series IV, Vol. I (Washington, 1900), 22. The telegram was signed, "Henry Dickinson, Alex.[sic] R. Wootten attorney-general of... Delaware." Alfred, not Alexander, held that office. Wootten's signature would indicate at least a joint agreement, but the incorrect name suggests that Dickinson was the sole author. If this misrepresentation of the situation is typical of his reporting, the accuracy of his other statements is dubious.

[25] Ibid., I, 33-34. David Clopton, Washington, D.C., Jan. 8, 1861, to Governor E. B. Moore, Montgomery, Ala.

[26] D. C. Campbell, Milledgeville, Mar. 4, 1861, to the Convention of Georgia. He, therefore, was advised to address himself to the governor alone. Ibid., I, 122-23; Journal of the Senate of...Delaware...1861 (Dover, 1861), pp. 151, 155-56.

[27] House Journal, 1861, pp. 140, 235, 239.

[28] Republican, Jan. 3, 1861; Ferris Diary, Jan. 1, 1861.

[29] Delawarean, Jan. 5, 1861; Smyrna Times, Jan. 10, 1861; Gazette, Jan. 11, 1861; Dr. John A. Moore to J. B. Moore, July 3, 1902; and Dr. Moore's untitled reminiscences concerning the resolution, J. B. Moore Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[30] Delawarean, Jan. 19, Feb. 2, 1861. An editorial in the latter issue was entitled, "Delaware in Favor of the Crittenden Resolutions." See also Republican, Jan. 24, 1861, and Gazette, Jan. 18, 1861. Saulsbury's speech is in Congressional Globe (36th Cong., 2d sess., 1860-61), I, 290.

[31] Samuel Canby, Diary, Feb. 7, 1861 (Historical Society of Delaware).

[32] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Jan. 26, 28, Feb. 1, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC].

[33] T. F. Bayard to Rodman Gibbons, Feb. 24, 1861, Bayard Papers (HSD) ; T. F. Bayard to J. S. Black, Jan. 7, 1861, J. S. Black Papers (Library of Congress)

[34] William Canby, Diary, Feb. 8, 28, 1861.

[35] William Ross to T. F. Bayard, Jan. 17, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC); memorandum, Delaware Guards," containing signatures of members, ibid.; Smyrna Times, Jan. 24, 1861; Gazette, Jan. 22, 1861

[36] A. R. Miller to T. F. Bayard, Jan. 24, 1861: John Dale to T. F. Bayard, Jan. 29, 1861. T. F. Bayard to R. S. Anders, Jan. $1, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC).

[37] Delawarean, Jan. 26, 1861; Smyrna Times, Feb. 7, 1861.

[38] Gazette, Feb. 8, 1861; Republican, Feb. 11, 1861; Smyrna Times, Feb. 7, 14. 1861; W. Whiteley to T. F. Bayard, Feb. 13, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC).

[39] Gazette, Jan. 8, 25, 1861.

[40] Delawarean, Jan. 12, Feb. 16, 1861.

[41] Editorial entitled, "Stand by the Authorities." Republican, Jan. 24, 28, 1861.

[42] Smyrna Times, Feb. 7, 1861; Gazette, Feb. 8, 1861.

[43] Ferris Diary, Mar. 4, 1861.

[44] William Canby, Diary, Mar. 5, 1861; Republican, Mar. 7, 1861; Peninsular News and Advertiser, quoted in Gazette, Mar. 12, 1861; Delawarean, Apr. 6, 1861.

45. Congressional Globe (36th Cong., 2d sess., 1860-61), IV, 1477-78; Robert D. Meade, Judah P. Benjamin: Confederate Statesman (New York, 1943), pp. 164-65.

[46] Gazette, Mar. 22, Apr. 5, 9, 1861.

[47] Republican, Mar. 21, Apr. 11, 1861.

[48] Smyrna Times, Apr. 4, 1861.

[49] T. M. Rodney to Secretary Seward, Mar. 25, 1861, and G. P. Fisher to the Secretary of Interior, Mar. 14, 1861, in Appointment Papers, Department of Justice (National Archives) ; Delawarean, Mar. 16, 1861; H. J. Carman and R. H. Luthin, Lincoln and the Patronage (New York, 1943), pp. 213-14.

[50] R. J. Milligan to S. F. duPont, Apr. 8, 1861, S. F. DuPont Papers.

[51] A. H. Grimshaw to Col. W. H. Lamon, Apr. 13, 1861, Civil War Collection (Huntington Library).

[52] W. H. Ross to Edward Wooten, Apr. 15, 1861, Burton-Wootten Papers (Delaware State Archives).

Ross asked Wootten to excuse his imperfect letter, for he had been drinking during his interview with Burton. Another well-known Democrat, Curtis W. Wright, concurred in Ross' political views and signed the letter.

[53] J. P. Gillis to J. P. Gillis, Jr., Apr. 18, 1861, Gillis Papers.

[54] Delaware Inquirer (Extras), Apr. 13, 1861.

[55] Ferris Diary, Apr. 12, 13, 14, 15, 1861.

[56] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Apr. 17, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC) ; C. I. duPont to S. F.

[57] Henry duPont to S. F. duPont, Apr. 16,[1, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers; Gazette, Apr. 26, 1861; Republican, Apr. 22, 1861.

[58] Republican, Apr. 18, 1861; Gazette, Apr. 19, 1861. The resolution was introduced by James A. Montgomery, publisher of the Commonwealth.

[59] Armed workmen from the Wilmington shops rebuilt the bridges, and local volunteers patrolled the tracks for the remainder of the summer. Trimble later became an officer in the Confederate Army. Gazette (Extra), Apr. 21, 1861; Republican, Apr. 25. 1861.

[60] Ferris Diary, Apr. 20, 1861.

[61] William S. Dutton, Du Pont: One Hundred and Forty Years (New York, 1942), p. 92; Gazette, Apr. 23, 1861; Republican, May 6, 1861; Mrs. Sophie duPont to H. W. Davis, Apr. 29, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers; Dr. S. C. Brincklé to E. Brincklé, Apr. 17, 1861, Brincklé Papers (possession of Miss Gertrude Brincklé, Wilmington). In part, the last named letter read: "I do hope the DuPont's have done making powder for Bragg and Blackguard. They have fallen very much in my estimation since I heard of it. Do they know that it is treason to give aid and comfort to the enemy? I thought they were such strong union men. I know it to be a fact that they have sold it to theml "

[62] Thomas Webster to Gov. A. Curtin, Apr. 20-24, 1861, S. M. Felton Collection (Historical Society of Pennsylvania) ; Smyrna Times, Apr. 25, 1861; Delawarean, Apr. 27, 1861; Republican, May 6, 1861.

[63] Republican, Apr. 22, 1861; Gazette, Apr. 21, 1861.

[64] Republican, Apr. 25, 1861; Charles I. duPont to S. F. duPont, Apr. 22, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers; Mrs. Rhoda Wootten to Mrs. William Burton, Apr. 23, 1861, Burton-Wootten Papers. The militia were to aid "by arms, if all other means fail, in restoring peace."

[65] Republican, Apr. 22, 25, 29, 1861; William T. Read, Diary, Apr. 30, 1861 (MS in the library of Judge Richard S. Rodney). In Newark plans were made to raise a flag, decorated with the above quotation.

[66] Mayor to City Council; Republican, Apr. 22, May 16, 1861; Gazette, Apr. 23, 1861.

[67] Examples of sermons or proceedings in which congregations or ministers endorsed the use of coercion against the South are to be found in the following materials: Allan J. Henry (ed.), The Life of Alexis Irenée duPont, II (Philadelphia, 1945), 157; Emma R. Dickerson, James Stokes Dickerson, Memories of His Life (New York, 1879), p. 104; Republican, Apr. 25, May 2, 13, 16, 1861; American Presbyterian, July 18, Aug. 1, 1861; George Wiswell, State Sovereignty-Federal Sovereignty-Our Country, July 4, 1861 (Wilmington, 1861), pp. 1-4.

[68] Republican, Apr. 22, 25, 29, May 3, 1861; Gazette, May 24, 1861.

[69] Gazette, Apr. 19, 1861.

[70] Read Diary, Apr. 19, 1861.

[71] Perhaps the unnamed relative was James E. Price, Sr., who lived at 1317 Market Street, and was the father of the bride, Margaret, who married Josiah L. Johnston. The Wilmington Directory for 1862-63...(Wilmington, 1862], p.128; Pusey Genealogy (MS Collection, Historical Society of Delaware) ; Republican, Apr. 29, 1861; Mrs. Rhoda Wootten to Mrs. William Burton, May 1, 1861, Burton-Wootten Papers; William Canby, Diary, Apr. 26, 1861, and attached undated clipping from the Public Ledger. Delaware Gazette, Apr. 30, 1861.

[72] J. P. Gillis to Edward T. and J. P., Jr., May 7, 1861, Gillis Papers.

[73] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Apr. 16, 17, 22, 26, May 1, 1861; T. F. Bayard to J. A. Bayard, Apr. 29, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC) ; Delawarean, May 25, 1861.

[74] T. F. Bayard to J. A. Bayard, Apr. 29, 1861; and J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, May 1, 1861, Bayard Papers (LC); Delawarean, May 25, 1861.

[75] Gazette, May 10, 1861, Republican, May 25, 1861.

[76] J. A. Bayard to S. F. DuPont, May 11, 1861, S. F. DuPont Papers. The attempt at violence, wrote Bayard, had been made "by an organized and prearranged mob, and I had a narrow escape from its clutches...[the Philadelphia newspapers] are all distorted and yet have all one general object the palliation if not justification of an intended outrage by mob action, which only failed in accomplishment by accident." Henceforth, he would not hazard his own life and his friends by going to Philadelphia.

[77] Republican, May 13, 1861; Bulletin (Philadelphia), quoted in Gazette, May 10, 1861.

[78] Delawarean, May 25, 1861.

[79] Republican, May 16, 1861.

A search of the archives and historical societies of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia does not reveal any "treasonable" correspondence with the Southern leaders.

[80] Cassville (Georgia) Standard, quoted in ibid., Apr. 10, 1862.

[81] J. R. Latimer to J. P. Gillis, Dec. 5, 1861, Gillis Papers.

[82] Edward Ridgely to Mrs. Charles I. duPont, Apr. 26, 1861, Ridgely Papers (Delaware State Archives). Quoted with special permission of Mr. Leon deValinger, Jr., Delaware State Archivist.

[83] Henry Ridgely[to Mrs. Charles I. duPont, April, 1861], Ridgely Papers. Quoted with special permission of Mr. Leon deValinger, Jr., Delaware State Archivist. Internal evidence establishes the identification of the person to whom the letter was addressed and the approximate date.

[84] Smyrna Times, Apr. 18, 1861.

[85] Delawarean, Apr. 20, 27, 1861.

[86] Republican, Apr. 25, 1861.

[87] Ibid., Apr. 29, 1861; N. B. Smithers to A. H. Grimshaw, May 6, 1861, Franklin E. Smith Papers.

[88] Delaware Journal, quoted in Delawarean, June 8, 1861.

[89] Republican, May 30, 1861.

[90] Gazette, July 30, 1861.

[91] Ibid., May 28, 1861; Republican, May 30, 1861; C. I. duPont to G. P. Fisher, May 20, 1861, Ridgely Papers. The letter in the State Archives is a rough draft; a more polished form appeared in the Republican. His letter was read at the meeting.

[92] Republican, May 21, 30, 1861; Delawarean, May 25, 1861; Gazette, May 31, 1861.

[93] Republican, May 30, 1861; Delawarean, May 25, 1861; Gazette, May 31, 1861.

[94] Charles duPont Bird to Governor Wise, Apr. 24, 1861, in War of the Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. LI, Pt. 2, p. 46.

[95] Georgetown Messenger, Apr. 24, 1861, and quoted in Republican, May 26, 1861.

[96] Republican, Apr. 22, 1861; Henry F. Rodney to Secretary of Treasury S. P. Chase, Apr. 27, 1861, Treasury Department, Letters Received, 1861 (National Archives, Washington, D. C.).

[97] Republican, Apr. 22, 1861.

[98] Peninsular News and Advertiser, Aug. 2, 1861; Gazette, May 17, June 1, 1861.

[99] Hall Diary, Sept. 20, 1861. David Hall, a Union sympathizer, was a storekeeper at Ocean View, eastern Sussex County

[100] C. S. Layton to Dr. A. H. Grimshaw, May I, 1861, Franklin E. Smith Papers.

[101] J. S. Prettyman to Dr. A. H. Grimshaw, May 4, 1861, Franklin E. Smith Papers.

[102] Gazette, May 10, 14, 1861; Delawarean, May 11, 1861; Republican, May 16, 1861.

[103] Republican, May 2, 1861; Gazette, May 28, 1861; Delaware Journal, quoted in Delawarean, June 8, 1861.

[104] Republican, June 17, 1861; Delawarean, June 22, 1861; Gazette, June 21, 1861. Harrington presided at the Dover meeting.

[105] Republican, July 1, 1861; Gazette, July 4, 9, 1861; Delawarean, June 21, 1861.

[106] Delawarean, June 29, 1861.

[107] Congressional Globe (37th Cong., 1st secs., 1860-61), I, 373; Delawarean, Aug. 3, 1861; Gazette, July 26, 1861.

[108] Henry duPont to S. F. duPont, June 30, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers.

[109] American Annual Cyclopedia, 1861, I (New York, 1870), 256-57.

[110] Alexander Cooper, "Memoirs of Myself and My Times," pp. 51-52 (Typed copy, Historical Society of Delaware). Quoted with special permission of the Society

Footnotes

CHAPTER III: A DIVIDED HOUSE

[1] Thomas Reynolds to Louisa J. Seward, July 1, 1861, Reynolds Papers (University of Delaware) ; A. B. Cooper, "Memoirs of Myself and My Times," pp. 24, 48 (Historical Society of Delaware).

[2] [Edward Noble Vallandigham], "A House Divided," Putnam's Monthly, II (July, 1907), 425-26. Through identification by a friend of Edward Vallandigham and through internal evidence, Mr. W. D. Lewis, Librarian, of the Memorial Library, University of Delaware, has established the identity of the author.

[3] Smyrna Times, Dec. 12, 1861; Alfred Wootten to Edward Wootten, May 25, 1861, Burton-Wootten Papers (Delaware State Archives, Dover, Delaware).

[4] Mrs. S. F. duPont to S. F. duPont, Apr. 20, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers (Eleutherian Mills Historical Library) ; William T. Read, Diary, June 28, 1861 (MS in the library of Judge Richard S. Rodney).

[5] Republican, May 30, July 25, Aug. 5, 1861; Gazette, Aug. 27, 1861.

[6] Peninsular News and Advertiser, Sept. 13, 20, 1861; Republican, Oct. 14, 1861.

[7] Gov. William Burton to Simon C. Cameron, Sec. of War, Aug. 2, 1861, War Department, Letters Received, 1861 (National Archives, Washington, D. C.) ; G. P. Fisher to A. H. Grimshaw, Sept. 7, 1861, Franklin E. Smith Papers (Duke University) ; Republican, Aug. 12, 1861; Delawarean, May 25, 1861. There are in the National Archives three collections of Civil War papers pertaining to the War Department, which are referred to in this instalment. They are entitled: 1) letters to and from the Secretary of War; 2) Middle Department; and 3) an all-inclusive collection, letters sent and received, 1860-65.

[8] Journal, Sept. 9, 1861.

[9] Smyrna Times, Sept. 11, 1862; Journal, Aug. 19, 1862.

[10] Smyrna Times, Sept. 11, 1862.

[11] Georgetown Messenger, quoted in Journal, Aug. 2, 1861.

[12] W. Jones to T. M. Rodney, July 15, 1861, T. M. Rodney Papers (Historical Society of Delaware) ; Republican, Apr. 22, 1861.

[13] Republican, June 6, 1861; Delawarean, June 8, 1861.

[14] Delawarean, June 29, 1861; J. Bringhurst to S. M. Felton, May 16, 18, 1861, S. M. Felton Papers (Historical Society of Pennsylvania).

[15] A. H. Grimshaw to Gideon Welles, Sec. of Navy, June 21, 1861, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. V (Washington, 1897), 746. Hereafter this item will be cited as War of the Rebellion... Navies; J. Homer and G. Barrett to Capt. Nones, Sept. 7, 1861, T. M. Rodney Papers.

[16] W. Jones to T. M. Rodney, July 15, 1861; T. M. Rodney to S. P. Chase, Sec. of Treas., July 17, Aug. 19, 1861; and T. M. Rodney to E. G. Bradford, U. S. Dist. Atty., Aug. 19, 1861, T. M. Rodney Papers.

[17] William Ross to E. Wootten, May 23, 1861, Burton-Wootten Papers

[18] Journal, July 30, 1861; "Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, 1861-65," Senate Document No. 234 (58th Cong., 2d Sess., 1903-4), I, 327, 451; J. R. Dickerson to T. M. Rodney, Sept. 18, 1861, T. M. Rodney Papers.

[19] Frederic B. Hollyday (ed.), "Running the Blockade: Henry Hollyday Joins the Confederacy," Maryland Historical Magazine, XLI (March, 1946), 1-10.

[20] Republican, Mar. 21, 1861; "Diary of Rev. S. C. Brincklé," May 28, 1861, quoted in Allan J. Henry (ed.), The Life of Alexis Irenée duPont (Philadelphia, 1945), II, 158.

[21] Henry, A. I. duPont, II, 162; William T. Read, Diary, June 5, 1861.

[22] Minutes of the Wilmington Presbytery," Sept. 25, 1861, Sept. 22, 1862, Delaware Presbyterian Records (Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.).

[23] Minutes of Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church," Sept. 26, 1861, Church Records (Historical Society of Delaware).

[24] Journal, Dec. 16, 1862; Smyrna Times, Sept. 18, 1862; Republican, Nov. 3, 1862.

[25] Letter of William Aikman, quoted in the New York Evangelist and reprinted in the Delawarean, Jan. 3, 1863; William Aikman, "The Future of the Colored Race in America," Presbyterian Quarterly Review, I (July, 1862), 103-10.

[26] Tatnall & Lea[J. Tatnall] to J. P. Gillis, Nov. 17, 1861, Gillis Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[27] Historical Discourse and Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Second Baptist Church, Wilmington, Delaware (Wilmington, 1885), p. 10; Emma R. Dickerson, James Stokes Dickerson: Memories of His Life (New York, 1879), p. 108.

[28] Journal, Dec. 9, 1862.

[29] Republican, May 9, 1861; Gazette, May 24, 1861.

[30] Smyrna Times, July 4, 11, 1861; Isaac Jump to Henry duPont, July 29, 1861, and T. M. Reynolds, J. H. Lowber, W. S. Prouse, and J. F. Clements to Henry duPont, July 29, 1861, Henry duPont Papers (Eleutherian Mills Historical Library).

[31] Republican, May 6, 1861.

[32] C. S. Layton to H. duPont, May 20, 1861, Henry duPont Papers.

[33] Henry F. Hall to H. duPont, June 3, 1861, ibid.

[34] William H. Stayton to H. duPont, July 29, 1861, ibid.

[35] William Marshall to H. duPont, Aug.[n. d.], 1861, and William 0. Redden, Sept. 5, 1861, ibid.

[36] H. duPont to S. F. duPont, Apr. 16, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers; H. duPont to S. Cameron, Apr. 19, 1861, War Department, Letters Received, 1861 (National Archives).

[37] S. F. duPont to H. duPont, Apr. 21, 1861; H. W. Davis to S. F. duPont, Apr. 28, 1861; and Sophie duPont to H. W. Davis, Apr. 29, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers.

[38] Gov. W. Burton to Sec. S. Cameron, Apr.[n. d.], 1861, Burton-Cannon Papers (Delaware State Archives).

[39] William Ross to Gov. William Burton, May 22, 1861, and the "Circular," May 18, 1861, Burton-Wootten Papers.

[40] Gov. W. Burton to Maj.-Gen. H. duPont, June 6, 1861, Henry duPont Papers.

[41] J. A. McFerran to T. F. Bayard, Apr. 13, 1861; J. P. Cochran to T. F. Bayard, Apr. 22, 1861; C. W. Watkins to T. F. Bayard, July 13, 1861; and N. B. Knight to T. F. Bayard, July 18, 1861, Bayard Papers (Library of Congress).

[42] Edward W. Porter to G. P. Fisher, Apr. 23, 1861, enclosed in letter of G. P. Fisher to S. C. Cameron, Apr. 30, 1861, War Department, Letters Received, 1861.

[43] G. P. Fisher to S. C. Cameron, Apr. 30, 1861, ibid.

[44] Henry duPont to S. F. duPont, June 3, 1861, S. F. duPont Papers; War of the Rebellion... Armies, Series III, Vol. I (Washington, 1899), 328.

[45] J. Thomas Scharf, History of Delaware (Philadelphia, 1888), I, 365-67; Gazette, Aug. 12, 1861.

[46] T. M. Rodney to Gen. G. B. McClellan, Sept. 28, 1861. T. M. Rodney Papers; Gen. John A. Dix to Brig.-Gen. H. H. Lockwood, Oct. 3, 1861, War Department, Middle Department, Letters Sent, 1861.

[47] Journal, Oct. 22, 25, 29, Nov. 16, 1861; Gazette, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, 1861.

[48] Maj.-Gen. H. duPont to Gen. H. H. Lockwood, Dec. 28, 1861, H. duPont Papers.

[49] Journal, Mar. 18, 1862; Smyrna Times, Mar. 13, 1862; Republican, Mar. 13, 1862; Delawarean, Mar. 15, 22, 1862; Morning News, May

[50] The other two arrested were John H. Moore, a sergeant of the Delaware Guard, and John Graves. Republican, Mar. 13, 1862; Journal, Mar. 21, 1862; John Lambson to T. F. Bayard, Mar. 28, 1862, Bayard Papers.

[51] J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Mar. 20, 1862, and Maj.-Gen. John A. Dix to Brig.-Gen. H. H. Lockwood, Mar. 15, 1862, War of the Rebellion... Armies, Series II, Vol. II, 268-69.

[52] Maj.-Gen. H. duPont to T. F. Bayard, Mar. 27, 1862, Bayard Papers; Mrs. Sophie duPont to S. F. duPont, Mar. 15, 1862, S. F. duPont Papers.

[53] Gazette, Mar. 18, 1862; Delawarean, Mar. 15, 1862.

[54] Congressional Globe (37th Cong., 2d Sess., 1861-62), H, 1356; III, 1934-35.

[55] Delawarean, May 17, 31, 1862; Gazette, May 13, 1862; A. B. Cooper, "The Bench and Bar of Delaware," p. 228 (Historical Society of Delaware).

[56] Gen. Robert Patterson to S. C. Cameron, Apr. 25, 1861, War of the Rebellion Records... Armies, Series III, Vol. I, 110; Gov. W. Burton to S. C. Cameron, Apr. 25, 1861; ibid., Series III, Vol. I, 114; William P. Seville, History of the First Regiment, Delaware Volunteers (Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, No. V[Wilmington, 1884]), pp. 11-14.

[57] Gazette, May 31, 1861; Journal, Aug. 9, 1861; Seville, First Regiment, pp. 24-27.

[58] Seville, First Regiment, p. 10; Scharf, Delaware, I, 367.

[59] Journal, Dec. 6, 1861; Delawarean, Dec. 7, 14, 1861.

[60] Scharf, Delaware, I, 367-72.

[61] War of the Rebellion... Armies, Series III, Vol. II, 205, 359, 403.

[62] Journal, July 29, 1862; Smyrna Times, Aug. 7, 1862; Gazette, Aug. 8, 1862.

[63] Journal, Sept. 19, 23, Oct. 14, 1862; Peninsular News and Advertiser, Sept. 19, 1862. The statement of the Smyrna Times is quoted from the Journal, Sept. 23, 1862.

[64] Scharf, Delaware, I, 345 n-46 n; Paul Angle, New Letters and Papers of Lincoln (Boston, 1930), p. 285; J. G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln: Complete Works (New York, 1894), II, 91.

[65] H. C. Reed, "Lincoln's Compensated Emancipation Plan and Its Relation to Delaware," Delaware Notes, 7th Series (Newark, 1931), pp. 38-39; Delmarva Star, Feb. 9, 1919

[66] Scharf, Delaware, I, 345-46; Gazette, June 6, 13, 1862; Republican, Feb. 13, 1862; Delawarean, Feb. 8, 1862. In the Fisher papers in the Library of Congress is a memoir by George Fisher, entitled, "The Trial of John H. Surratt for the Murder of President Lincoln." One paragraph relates to Lincoln's interview with Fisher and presents substantially the same information given in Scharf, which may have been provided by him. The Georgetown Messenger, quoted in the Delawarean, mentioned this sum. Fisher was also accused of dividing $35,000.00 among his associates to further the scheme. (See letter of Samuel Townsend to G. Forney, Mar. 5, 1863, University of Delaware.)

[67] Republican, Feb. 6, 1862; Smyrna Times, Feb. 6, 13, 1862; Delawarean, Feb. 1, 1862; Gazette, Feb. 21, 1862.

[68] C. I. duPont to S. F. duPont, Apr. 8, 1862, S. F. duPont Papers.

[69] Congressional Globe (37th Cong., 2d Sess., 1861-62), II, 1100-01.

[70] Ibid., II, 1923-24.

[71] bid., II, 1523-26; J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Feb. 15, 1862, Bayard Papers (Library of Congress).

[72] Journal of the House of Representatives...1862 (Dover, 1862), pp. 230-40.

[73] Journal, Apr. 18, July 22, 1862; Republican, July 21, Aug. 4, 1862; Gazette, Aug. 5, 1862.

[7] . Mrs. S. F. duPont to S. F. duPont, Sept. 17, 1862, S. F. duPont Papers; Republican, Sept. 11, 1862; William Canby, Diary, Sept. 3, 1862, Canby Papers (Historical Society of Delaware); Anna Faris Diary, Oct. 1, 1862, Ferris Papers (Friends' Historical Society, Swarthmore, Pa.).

[7] . Journal, Sept. 16, 1862; Anna Ferris, Diary, Sept. 25, 1862; Edmund Townsend to S. Townsend, Nov. 22, 1862, Townsend Papers (Delaware State Archives).

[76] Gazette, May 2, June 25, 1861; Republican, June 6, July 11, Aug. 22, 1861; Mrs. S. F. duPont to S. F. duPont, Jan. 15, 1862, S. F. duPont Papers.

[77] Gazette, June 21, July 12, 19, Sept. 6, Nov. 8, 1861; Republican, Aug. 1, 1861; Richard Edwards (ed.), Industries of Wilmington (Wilmington, 1880), p. 171; Journal, Oct. 1, 1861; Delawarean, Oct. 5, 1861.

[78] Paper money collection (Historical Society of Delaware).

[79] J. R. Latimer to J. P. Gillis, Oct. 5, 1861, Gillis Papers.

[80] J. R. Latimer to J. P. Gillis, Apr. 5, 1862, ibid.

[81] W. Ross to S. Townsend, Oct. 23, 1862, Townsend Papers; G. P. Fisher, "Political Parties," in J. M. McCarter and B. F. Jackson (eds.), Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware (Wilmington, 1882), pp. 211-12; John S. Spruance, "Delaware in the Civil War" (Honors Paper, Princeton University, 1936), passim.

[82] A. H. Grimshaw, "Memorandum," Apr. 2, 1862, Franklin E. Smith Papers; G. P. Fisher to A. H. Grimshaw, Apr. 3, 1862, T. M. Rodney Papers; Journal, May 2. 1862.

[83] Journal, Aug. 22, 1862.

[84] G. V. Massey, "The Cannons of Nanticoke," passim (typewritten manuscript, provided by the courtesy of the author) ; John A. Moore to J. B. Moore, July 3, 1902, Civil War Papers (Historical Society of Delaware) ; "William Cannon," in McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, p. 500.

[85] Delawarean, Sept. 6, 1862.

[86] Philadelphia Bulletin, quoted in Smyrna Times, Sept. 11, 1862.

[87] T. M. Rodney to E. M. Stanton, Sec. of War, Aug. 9, 1862, T. M. Rodney Papers; G. P. Fisher to A. Lincoln, Aug. 14, 1862, in Roy P. Basler (ed.), The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, 1953), V, 376.

[88] A. Lincoln to G. P. Fisher, Aug. 16, 1862, in Basler, Works of Lincoln, V, 314.

[89] G. P. Fisher to Sec. of State W. H. Seward, Sept. 24, 1862, Seward Papers (University of Rochester) ; G. P. Fisher to T. Weed, Sept. 25, 1862, Weed Papers (University of Rochester) ; Report of the Committee of the General Assembly of the State of Delaware... in Regard to the Interference by United States Troops with the General Election (Dover, 1863), xiv.

[90] Journal, Oct. 24, 1862; Republican, Oct. 27, 1862; Gazette, Oct. 31, 1862.

[91] Delawarean, Sept. 27, Oct. 20, Nov. 1, 1862.

[92] Republican, Oct. 30, 1862; Delawarean, Oct. 18, 1862.

[93] Republican, Nov. 13, 1862; Gazette, Nov. 7, 25, 1862; Delawarean, Nov. 8, 1862; Journal, Nov. 11, 1862.

[94] Delawarean, Nov. 8, 1862; Journal, Nov. 14, 1862. The returns were as follows:

Governor

Representative

Republicans

Democrats

Republicans

Democrats

Cannon

Jefferson

Fisher

Temple

New Castle

3,860

3,300

3,826

3,291

Kent

1,880

2,323

1,868

2,323

Sussex

2,415

2,421

2,320

2,437

Total

8,155

8,044

8,014

8,051

[95] Gazette, Nov. 11, 1862.

[96] G. P. Fisher, untitled speech, 1866, G. P. Fisher Papers; Fisher, "Political Parties," in McCarter and Jackson, Encyclopedia, p. 212; Journal, Nov. 7, 1862.

Footnotes

CHAPTER IV: TWO YEAR OF TENSION

[1] Smyrna Times, Jan. 21, 1863; Republican, Jan. 15, 1863; Journal, Jan. 20, 1863; Gazette, Jan. 20. 1863.

[2] Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware...1863 (Dover, 63), pp. 89-98.

[3] Laws of the State of Delaware...1863 (Dover, 1864), p. 387.

[4] Ibid., pp. 348-49, 361-62.

[5] Ibid., p. 387; House Journal, 1863, pp. 246-48.

[6] Report of the Committee of the General Assembly of the State of Delaware...in Regard to the Interference by United States Troops with the General Election...(Dover, 1863), pp. 58-69, 155-58, 271-73, 307-10.

[7] Ibid., pp. 60, 65.

[8] Ibid., pp. 86-90. Testimony of Daniel J. Layton.

[9] Ibid., pp. 90-93. Testimony of William Ross.

[10] Ibid., pp. 122-28, 145-62, 175, 184, 227-40.

[11] Ibid., p. 158.

[12] Ibid., pp. vi-x, xvii-xix, xxiii-xxx.

[13] Anna Ferris, Diary, Jan. 1, 1863, Ferris Papers (Friends' Historical Society, Swarthmore, Pa.) ; Corp. Hendrix to S. Townsend, Feb. 12, 1863, Townsend Papers (University of Delaware).

[14] Congressional Globe (37th Cong., 3rd Sess., 1862-63), I, 545-50, 558, 584.

[15] Ibid., I, 550-54; J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Feb. 9, 1863, Bayard Papers (Library of Congress); J. A. Bayard to T. A. Cheney, Apr. 17, 1863 (Delaware State Archives).

[16] The Saville Building was on the corner of Sixth and Market streets, next above the Old Town Hall, Wilmington. Republican, Mar. 23, 1863; Journal, Mar. 17, Apr. 14, June 19, Aug. 1, Oct. 16, 1863; Georgetown Union, Sept. 25, Oct. 16, 23, 1863.

[17] J. Thomas Scharf, History of Delaware (Philadelphia, 1888), I, 370-72.

[18] Gazette, Aug. 9, 25, 1863; Journal, Aug. 14, 1863.

On May 16, 1864, Mr. Reybold again drew the draft tickets, but this time from a glass lottery wheel now in the museum of the Historical Society. The Society also has some of the original draft tickets used in a lottery to choose the recruits. Delaware Gazette, May 17, 1864.

[19] Delawarean, Aug. 22, 1863; Republican, Sept. 21, 1863; Messenger, quoted in Journal, Aug. 28, 1863; D. H. Houston to John Houston, Aug. 29, 1863, Houston Papers (library of Miss Elizabeth Houston, Georgetown, Delaware). Capt. Winie (Wenie) was the official quoted.

[20] Journal, July 17, 1863; Capt. John Downham to E. Wilmer, July 12, 1863, and John Green to E. Wilmer, June 12, 1863, Provost-Marshal Papers, War Department (National Archives).

[21] "Arrest Book," 1863, Provost-Marshal Papers.

[22] Joseph L. Bacon to E. Wilmer, Aug. 21, 1863; E. Adkins to E. Wilmer, Oct. 7, 1863; John Radish to Francis Burton, Aug. 21, 1863; and deposition of John Carey, July 30, 1863, ibid.; Journal, Oct. 13, 1863; Georgetown Union, Sept. 8, 1863.

[23] Dr. L. H. Houston to T. M. Rodney, Jan. 5, 1863; Acting Sec. of Treas. Harrington to T. M. Rodney, Jan. 15, 1863; S. P. Chase to T. M. Rodney, Jan. 17, 1863, quoted by Rodney, unsigned copy, to unknown recipient, Jan. 22, 1863; W. Jones, Seaford, to T. M. Rodney, Mar. 4, 1863; T. M. Rodney to W. Jones, Apr. 9, 1863; E. G. Bradford to T. M. Rodney, Apr. 10, 1863; T. M. Rodney to S. P. Chase, Apr. 13, 1863; and T. M. Rodney to E. G. Bradford, Apr. 16, 1863, Thomas M. Rodney Papers (Historical Society of Delaware); Republican, Mar. 12, 26, 1863; Journal, Mar. 10, Apr. 14, 1863.

[24] Republican, May 14, 18, Sept. 17, 24, 1863; Journal, Mar. 31, May 19, 1863; Gazette, Mar. 31, 1863. The six men arrested were Dr. Hugh Martin, William B. Horsey, Dr. Joseph Shipley, C. F. Rust, Theodore Price, and John Martin. The first two were shortly released.

[25] Gazette, Feb. 13, Mar. 20, May 8, 1863; Journal, July 21, Aug. 4, 11, Oct. 9, Nov. 6, 1863; Republican, Mar. 5, 12, 1863. The sermons of these men were praised: the Episcopalian Bishop, Alfred Lee; the Presbyterians, Charles D. Kellogg, William Aikman, and George F. Wiswell; the Baptist, J. S. Dickerson; and the Methodist, Daniel George.

[26] Journal, Sept. 15, 18, 1863; Republican, Dec. 17, 1863; "Minutes of the Wilmington Presbytery," Sept. 25, 1863, Delaware Presbyterian Records (Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.) ; John Collins to E. Wilmer, Oct. 17, 1863, Provost-Marshal Papers.

[27] Journal, July 28, 1863; Gazette, July 28, Aug. 4, 1863; Republican, July 2, 1863; I. K. Handy, United States Bonds, or Duress by Federal Authority (Baltimore, 1874), p. 6.

[28] Journal, June 23, 30, July 7, 1868; Gazette, July 3, 7, 1863.

[29] Anna Brincklé to Sam Brincklé, July 8, 16, 1863, Brincklé Letters, loc. cit.; Admiral S. F. duPont to W. Whedden, July 3, 1863, S. F. duPont Papers (Eleutherian Mills Historical Library).

[30] Journal, July 7, 1863; Republican, July 9, 1863. The services were held in what is now the museum of the Historical Society.

[31] Republican, July 9, 1863; Journal, July 7, 1863; Anna Ferris, Diary, July 10, 1863; and Clement B. Smyth to Bishop Alfred Lee, July 7, 1863, Civil War Papers (HSD).

[32] The Journal and Statesman issued an extra, July 7, 1863, to announce the news, later proved to be false, that Lee's retreat from Gettysburg had been cut off. Anna Ferris, Diary, July 7, 1863; Journal, July 10, 1863; Republican, July 9, 1863.

[33] Journal, July 10, 28, 1863; Gazette, July 10, 31, 1863. The prisoners included Gilley Smith, son of Nicholas 0. Smith, of Marshy Hope Bridge, Ezekiel Saulsbury, "a relative of our unworthy Senator,"James Cooper, son of Ezekiel Cooper, of Laurel, and Daniel Satterfield, of Milford. John R. Lambson lost a foot on the battlefield, and the sons of Salisbury Dean, of Dover, and a Mr. Horsey, of Horsey's Crossroads, in Sussex County, were recognized.

[34] Gazette, Aug. 28, 1863; Republican, Feb. 28, 1863; T. M. Todd, "Sounds from Fort Delaware" (Philadelphia, 1863) ; "The Arrival of Two Thousand Vicksburg Prisoners at Fort Delaware," Harper's Magazine, IV (July 7, 1863), 128.

[35] Journal, Oct. 9, Nov. 17, 1863; Delawarean, Oct. 10, 1863; Georgetown Union, Nov. 13, 1863; Gazette, Nov. 13, 1863.

[36] Admiral S. F. duPont to a Mr. Gerhard, Nov. 1, 1863, S. F. duPont Papers; Brig.-Gen. Tyler to Col. Piatt, Oct. 27, 1863, War Department, Middle Department, Letters Received, 1863 (National Archives) ; Delawarean, Nov. 21, 1863.

[37] Gazette, Nov. 20, 24, 1863; Georgetown Union, Nov. 20, 1863; Delawarean, Nov. 21, 24, 1863.

[38] House Journal, 1864 (Dover, 1864), pp. 20-23; Journal, Feb. 9, 1864.

[39] Laws of the State of Delaware...1864(Dover, 1864), pp. 450-51; Republican, Feb. 25, Mar. 3, 1864.

[40] House Journal, 1864, pp. 184.86; T. F. Bayard to James M. Williams, July 26, 1864, Bayard Papers (LC).

[41] House Journal, 1864, pp. 186-90.

[42] Ibid., 1864, pp. 212-18; Laws of the State of Delaware...1864, pp. 481-82.

[43] Republican, Aug. 22, 1864; Journal, July 8, Sept. 2, 23, 1864; Gazette, Sept 6, 20, 1864; William Canby, Diary, July 26, 1864.

[44] Laws of the State of Delaware...1864, pp. 510-19; House Journal, 1864, pp. 257-58.

[45] Congressional Globe (38th Cong., 1st Sess., 1863-64), I, 341-42, 418; House Journal, 1864, pp. 95-96.

[46] Gazette, July 12, 15, 1864; Journal, July 12, 1864; Republican, July 11, 1864.

[47] Anna Ferris, Diary, July 10, 1864.

[48] Ibid., July 13, 14, 1864; Journal, July 15, 18, 1864; Republican, July 4, 18, 1864; Gazette, July 15, Aug. 15, 1864.

The Governor's broadside appeal for cavalry reads as follows: "State of Delaware, Executive Department, July 12, 1864. Citizens: In addition to the Infantry called into service for the present emergency, the commanding General now desires Cavalry! You will Report at Wilmington, Without delay, Bringing your Horses with you Equipments and subsistence will be furnished to you upon reporting. You are required immediately to Guard the Fords and Bridges of the Susquehanna. The Emergency demands Promptness. William Cannon, By the Governor, Saml. M. Harrington, Jr., Secretary of State." (Broadside in HSD).

[49] "Book of Arrests," 1864, Provost-Marshal Papers; Georgetown Union, May 6, 13, 1864; Journal, Apr. 29, May 10, 1864; Republican, July 18, 1864.

[50] Gazette, June 17, 1864; Republican, May 2, June 23, 1864; U.S. vs. Martin and DuLaney, U. S. District Court Records, 1864 (U.S. District Court, Wilmington, Del.). Besides Messick, the passengers on the boat were the Messrs. Collison, Marvel, Pierce, Reed, Charles O'Day, Charles Smith, and Frank Lloyd. Three passengers were from Bridgeville: a captain, first lieutenant, and a private in Price's Confederate army in Missouri. Dr. Morrell and Wingate Cannon stood on the banks of the Nanticoke and watched the vessel depart.

[51] Gazette, Feb. 22, 1864; Journal, May 31, 1864; a Major-General Johnson to T. F. Bayard, June 2, 1864; T. S. Rollens and J. A. Varner to T. F. Bayard, July 26, 1864, and R. Dilworth to T. F. Bayard, Bayard Papers (LC).

[52] Gazette, Aug. 2, 1864; Journal, Aug. 2, 1864; E. Wilmer to a Major Judd. July 29, 1864, Provost-Marshal Papers; J. Frank Hazel to T. F. Bayard, July 29, 1864. Bayard Papers (LC) ; Alexander B. Cooper, "History of New Castle, Delaware" (typescript, HSD), p. 222.

[53] T. R. Jefferson to Miss L. Ogle and Ladies, Aug. 5, 1864, Civil War Papers. Jefferson was the son of the Democratic candidate for governor, 1862. Some prominent Democrats visited the prisoners during their week's imprisonment.

[54] Journal, Aug. 9, 16, 1864; Gazette, Aug. 9, 16, 1864.

[55] Anna Ferris, Diary, Apr. 15, 1864.

[56] A History of the Delaware Department of the Great Central Fair held in Philadelphia, 1864 (Wilmington, 1864), passim; Charles J. Stille (ed.), Memorial of the Great Central Fair for the United States Sanitary Commission...(Philadelphia, 1864), pp. 69-72; Our Daily Fare, June 14, 1864.

[57] Republican, June 16, 1864; Journal, May 24, 31, 1864; Gazette, June 24, Aug. 26, Sept. 2, 1864; Alf P. Robinson to T. F. Bayard, July 1, 1864, Bayard Papers (LC).

[58] Gazette, Sept. 2, 1864; Delawarean, Sept. 2, 1864; Anna Ferris, Diary, Aug. 31, 1864.

[59] Nath Williams to John Merritt, Sept. 29, 1864, and J. A. Bayard to T. F. Bayard, Oct. 12, 1864, Bayard Papers (LC).

[60] William Cannon to H. Greeley, P. Godwin, and T. Tilton, Sept. 12, 1864, Civil War Papers (New-York Historical Society). A rough draft of this letter in the handwriting of S. M. Harrington, Sec. of State, is in the Burton-Cannon Papers (Delaware State Archives).

[61] Journal, Sept. 20, 1864; Republican, Sept. 22, 1864; Gazette, Oct. 7, 1864.

[62] Journal, Sept. 9, 1864; S. F. duPont to H. W. Davis, Oct. 8, 23, 1864, S. F. duPont Papers.

[63] Journal, Oct. 28, 1864; Delawarean, Oct. 29, 1864; Gazette, Nov. 4, 1864.

[64] William Cannon to E. Stanton, Sec. of War, Oct. 27, 1864 (2 letters), Stanton Papers (LC) ; William Cannon to Maj.-Gen. Lew Wallace, Oct. 28, 1864, War of the Rebellion... Armies, Series I, XLIII, Part II (Washington, 1899), p. 485.

[65] Journal, Nov. 8, 1864.

[66] Anna Ferris, Diary, Nov. 7, 1864.

[67] Ibid., Nov. 8, 1864; Samuel Canby, Diary, Nov. 8, 1864; Samuel Hitch, Diary, Nov. 8, 1864 (Delaware State Archives); Journal, Nov. 17, 1864.

[68] Gazette, Nov. 11, 15, 1864.

Delaware Election, 1864

Presidential Electors

Congressmen

Republicans

Democrats

Republicans

Democrats

New Castle

4,272

3,811

4,280

3,815

Kent

2,228

2,402

1,684

2,398

Sussex

1,652

2,398

2,289

2,549

Total

8,152

8,611

8,253

8,762

[69] William Canby to Sister, Nov. 14, 1864, Ferris Papers (Friends' Historical Society) ; Anna Ferris, Diary, Nov. 14, 1864.

[70] Republican, Nov. 17, 1864; Journal, Nov. 11, 1864; Delawarean, Nov. 19, 1864; William T. Smithers, Memoir of Nathaniel B. Smithers, (Papers of the Historical Society of Delaware, No. XXIII[Wilmington, 1899]), p. 29.

[71] William H. Ross to Isaac Giles, Dec. 29, 1864, William H. Ross Papers (HSD).

Footnotes

CHAPTER V: THE END OF THE WAR

[1] Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware, 1865 (Dover, 1865), pp. 8-17.

[2] Journal (Wilmington), Feb. 17, Mar. 17, 1865.

[3] Laws of the State of Delaware, 1865 (Dover, 1865), pp 550-55; Journal, Mar. 10, 1865.

[4] Congressional Globe (38th Cong., 2d Sess., 1864-1865), I, 216-17.

[5] Laws, 1865, pp. 683-84.

[6] Journal, Feb. 17, 24, 1865; Republican, Mar. 2, 1865.

[7] Journal, Mar. 2, 1865. According to the Delaware constitution of the time, the presiding officer of the Senate assumed the duties, since the state had no lieutenant governor.

[8] Delawarean, Feb. 18, 1865.

[9] T. F. Bayard to J. Carroll, Jan. 27 and Mar. 19, 1865, Bayard Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[10] Anna Ferris, Diary, Apr. 3, 1865, Ferris Papers (Friends' Historical Society, Swarthmore, Pa.); William Canby, Diary, Apr. 3, 1865, and Samuel Canby, Diary, Apr. 3, 1865 (Historical Society of Delaware). William Canby wrote: "We received the glorious news today that the Union army entered Richmond this morning at eight o'clock?first having captured Petersburg & all its garrisons. Our citizens have been nearly crasy since they got the news. All places of business were closed, bells have been ringing, & thousands of flags thrown to the breeze. An impromptu illumination this evening Sc a tremendous procession of citizens, soldiers & all the fire companies with their apparatus, the whole headed by the Mayor & City Council in carriages." Samuel Canby wrote: "Accounts received today of the capture at last of Richmond and Petersburg by the Union army. Our City is wild with excitement, flags flying in every direction. Bells ringing and guns firing, the stores and shops generally closed this afternoon and the streets crowded with people. A public meeting was held in front of the City Hall this evening, followed by a parade and partial illumination."

[11] Smyrna Times, Apr. 6, 1865; Georgetown Union, Apr. 7, 1865. The headlines in the Georgetown Union were: "Capture of Richmond-God Has Given Grant Victory!-Babylon has Fallen-Glory, Glory, Hallelujah-Retribution-Our Colored Troops the First to Enter the Doomed City."

[12] Ferris Diary, Apr. 10, 1865; Samuel Canby Diary, Apr. 9, 1865. Canby wrote: "Glorious news received this evening of the surrenders today of Lee's Army to Gen. Grant and the brave Army of the Potomac, with all their guns, ammunition, et cetera, although it is Sunday there has been rejoicing, illuminating, firing of cannon, parading, et cetera. I trust this is the beginning of the end of this awful rebellion."

[13] Journal, Apr. 11, 1865; Gazette, Apr. 11, 1865.

[14] T. F. Bayard to J. Carroll, Apr. 20, 1865, Bayard Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[15] Gazette, Apr. 11, 1865.

[16] Smyrna Tunes, Apr. 20, 1865; Georgetown Union, Apr. 14, 1865.

[17] Tom Higgins to Mary C. Higgins, Apr. 10, 1865, Higgins-Corbitt Papers (Historical Society of Delaware). In part his letter read: "Aren't the news perfectly splendid! One after another Grant strikes his blows like the ocean's waves against a stranded ship. We were electrified by the news of the fall of Richmond and had hardly fully realized that the great Babylon had at last yielded when the Powhatan fires another national salute for the surrender of Lee's army.

It's a glorious honor to live in such times and I feel it our especial privilege to be a witness of and in some measure a participator in the final struggle. I went to Richmond last week starting on Wednesday, spending Thursday there and returning Friday. Of course I had a delightful time and enjoyed thoroughly the passage up the James River and under the muzzles of the enemies' now silent batteries, since for so long a time we had expected to face them in battle. I wish you could have been with me in Richmond?we would have stayed at the Spottswood House and gone through Jefferson Davis's Mansion and spent a couple of hours in the Capitol reading the Congressmen's letters and visited the Libby Prison and Castle Thunder and all in all passed a day long to be remembered. It's a sad thing, though, to visit a city where all the women are dressed in mourning. Scarcely one in the whole big city that has not a father, brother, or husband to grieve for and now too when they begin to fully realize that this blood has been shed in worse than folly."

[18] Ferris Diary, Apr. 15, 1865.

[19] Samuel Canby Diary, Apr. 15, 16, 1865.

[20] Anna Brincklé to Mrs. S. F. duPont, Apr. 16, 1865, typed Brincklé Letters, Loc. cit.

[21] Charles Heydrick, Diary, Apr. 18, 1865 (Delaware State Archives).

[22] T. F. Bayard to J. Carroll, Apr. 20, 1865, Bayard Papers (Historical Society of Delaware).

[23] Georgetown Union, Apr. 21, 1865; Smyrna Times, Apr. 20, 1865; Journal, Apr. 18, 1865; Delawarean, Apr. 22, 1865.

[24] Journal, Apr. 21, 28, 1865.

[25] Smyrna Times, Apr. 20, 27, 1865.

[26] Ibid., May 4, 1865; Delawarean, Apr. 22, 1865; Alexander B. Cooper, Memoir of Myself and My Times, 91, typed MS (Historical Society of Delaware).

[27] C. S. Layton to Commander of Middle Department, May 9, 1865, War Department, Middle Department, Letters Received, 1865 (National Archives).

[28] Gazette, Apr. 28, 1865; William Canby Diary, May 29, 1865.

[29] Journal, May 26, 1865; Samuel Canby Diary, May 28, 1865.

[30] Ferris Diary, July 14, 1865.

[31] Journal, June 1, 9, 23, July 7, 1865; Republican, June 15, 22, 1865.

[32] Gazette, Aug. 16, Oct. 17, 1865; Journal, Aug. 15, 1865.

[33] Georgetown Union, July 7, 1865.

[34] Ibid., July 7, 1865.

[35] Ibid., May 5, 1865; G. W. Joseph to Middle Department, Aug. 7, 1865, War Department, Middle Department, Letters Received, 1865. The name of the returned soldier was J. P. Barker, who had departed in the spring of 1861 for the Confederacy.

[36] Russell Hobbs, Application for Pardon, June 16, 1865, Amnesty Papers, War Department (National Archives).

[37] John K. Lambson, Application for Pardon, Sept. 25, 1865, ibid.

[38] Journal, May 2, 1865; Gazette, May 9, June 13, 1865; Edward R. Rich, "Reminiscences," Fort Delaware Notes, III (March 15, 1952), 5.

[39] House Journal, 1865, p. 450.

[40] Gazette, May 30, 1865; Delawarean, July 15, 29, 1865.

[41] Smyrna Times, May 17, 1865; Georgetown Union, Mar. 15, May 12, 1865.

[42] Smyrna Times, May 24, 1865; Journal, May 19, 1865; J. E. Hall and others to Middle Department, May 20, 1865, and Colonel J. M. Wilson to Lt.-Col. Catlin, July 18, 1865, War Department, Middle Department, Letters Received, 1865.

[43] Gazette, Sept. 22, 1865; Journal, Aug. 15, Oct. 31, 1865; Georgetown Union, Aug. 11, 1865; J. W. Winfield to Second Lt. Robert Dame, Dec. 16, 1865, and J. W. Winfield to R. 0. Taylor, Dec. 23, 1865, War Department, Middle Department, Letters Received, 1865. Information concerning the incidents at Millsboro and Dagsboro was provided by Ben Burton, once the largest slaveowner in the state. The former Confederate soldiers were Theodore Price, Thomas Horsey, and Joshua Morrill. Winfield claimed that Price had been banished to the Confederacy early in the war and that Morrill had once been confined at Fort Delaware and still occasionally wore a Confederate uniform.

[44] Journal, Dec. 22, 1865; Delawarean, Dec. 23, 1865; William Canby Diary, Dec. 19, 1865.

[45] Delawarean, June 23, 1865.

[46] Charles Heydrick, Diary, May 15, 1865; Journal, May 16, 1865; Robert McElroy, Jefferson Davis (New York, 1937), II, 508-17. The facts were that in the excitement and darkness at the time of his capture Davis had put on his wife's coat instead of his own and his wife had thrown a shawl over his head and shoulders.

[47] Smyrna Times, June 5, 1865; Republican, June 8, Aug. 17, 1865.

[48] Journal, Sept. 12, 1865; Georgetown Union, May 5, July 28, Sept. 29, 1865: Delawarean, May 26, 1865; Gazette, Aug. 17, 1865.

[49] Gazette, Mar. 16, 1865; Georgetown Union, Mar. 30, 1865.

[50] Gazette, May 2, 26, 1865; Delawarean, July 29, Dec. 9, 1865. 51

[51] Georgetown Union, Sept. 7, 1865; Republican, June 15, 1865.

[52] Journal, Apr. 15, June 20, 1865; Delawarean, Apr. 29, 1865; Gazette, June 2, 9, 1865. The newspaper coverage of the dismissal and trial is unsatisfactory and scanty. The Democratic press was purposely kept as much in the dark as possible, and the loyal Republican press would not report it. The best account is Edwin Wilmer, Court-Martial, 1865, in General Court-Martials, MM 2064, Box No. 665, War Depart. ment (National Archives). Among the signers of the petition of April 27 were S. M. Harrington, Jr., Reverend George Wiswell, Reverend William Aikman, and Dr. A. H. Grimshaw

[53] "Proceedings," "Charges and Specifications," and "Sentence," Wilmer Court-Martial; Samuel M. Harrington, Jr., and Colonel S. M. Bowman, Argument of Samuel M. Harrington, Jr., of Wilmington, Delaware, and Colonel S. M. Bowman, U.S.A., in Defence of Edwin Wilmer, Provost-Marshal of Delaware before a Court-Martial in Washington City, D. C., June 2d, 1865 (Philadelphia, 1865), at passim.

[54] H. H. Winthrop to the Secretary of War, June 12, 1E65, and James B. Fry, Provost-Marshal General, to the Secretary of War, June 15, 1865 in Wilmer Court Martial. Fry's note read: "This paper was laid before the President by me at 3:30 P. M., June 15, 1865 and the subject explained verbally. The Pres. directed me to say to the Sec. of War that he saw no sufficient reason at this time to exercise clemency. James B. Fry, Provost-Marshal General."

[55] Petition of June 24, 1865, and A. A. Housmer to President A. Johnson, August 17, 1865, Wilmer Court-Martial.

[56] Petition of E. Wilmer, Sept. 21, 1865, Wilmer Court Martial.

[57] Gazette, May 19, Sept. 15, 29, Nov. 19, 1865; Journal, Oct. 17, 20, Dec. 5, 1865.

[58] John A. Munroe, Federalist Delaware, 1775-1815 (New Brunswick, 1954), p. 261.

[59] Katherine Pyle, "History of Delaware" (clippings from Delmarva Star in Wilmington Public Library), passim; John S. Spruance, Delaware Stays in the Union (Newark, 1955), p. 34; "Investigations of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives into the Question as to Whether Delaware had a Republican Form of Government, 1867," MS (Legislative Division, National Archives), passim.

[60] William T. Smithers, "Dover Green," Sons of Delaware Yearbook, 1902, pp. 98-99.

Table of Contents

Front Cover

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Illustrations

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Bibliography

Footnotes

Footnotes for Chapter I

Footnotes for Chapter II

Footnotes for Chapter III

Footnotes for Chapter IV

Footnotes for Chapter V