John Sweeney is a writer living near Wilmington and the editor of “Delaware’s John Dickinson: The Constant Watchman of Liberty.”
Richard S. Rodney didn’t know it at the time, but in 1925, he delivered a talk that is more important to Delawareans today than when he first gave it.
Rodney, an associate justice of Delaware’s Supreme Court then and later a U.S. federal court judge, was a sharp-eyed chronicler of his state’s early history. In his talk, he told the story of how Delaware came to be the “First State.”
Delaware’s ratification of the Constitution on Dec. 7, 1787, looks like an open-and-shut case today. But, as Judge Rodney reminded Delawareans in 1925, the ratification vote was a dramatic event that influenced the course of American history.
Judge Rodney called it “Delaware’s greatest glory.”
Now, 100 years after Judge Rodney’s retelling of the story, that ratification vote offers us not only a history lesson but an inspiration that our deeply partisan age needs.
The story is a straightforward one. On Sept. 17, 1787, the framers of the proposed Constitution sent the document to the Continental Congress, then meeting in New York. Congress then sent the document to the 13 states. Each state was to elect members to a special ratifying convention, where the Constitution would get an up-or-down vote. It would become law when nine states ratified it.
It wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
Opposition arose within hours of the document’s signing Sept. 17. Each state saw anti-Constitution forces form. Every state but Delaware, that is.
Which is odd.
Delaware’s politics were notorious for the hate and bitterness that contending factions had for each other. Name-calling and personal libels were common. Violence accompanied most elections. Even the 1787 election for the state assembly was marred by rioting in Lewes. That election had to be canceled and a new voting site found.
The sides were divided between “Whigs” and “Tories,” a division that, by 1787, had little ideological merit and fed more on personal enmity. Even such soberminded historians as Merrill Jensen, a leading authority on the ratification, said Delaware’s political virulence made it an outlier among the states.
So, what happened?
We know what, but we don’t know why.
Unlike in other states, no records of any debate exist. No newspaper accounts. No pamphlets for or against the proposed Constitution. No journal or minutes have been found from the ratification convention itself.
We do know how the convention voted. Thirty elected delegates — 10 from each county — voted unanimously in favor of ratification. On Dec. 7, 1787, the 30 delegates signed the ratification. Delaware was now the First State.
That action would start the process rolling. Pennsylvania and New Jersey soon followed. The fight would get bitter in several states. The votes were much closer in several states. Eventually, it became clear that Delaware picked the winning side.
It’s no real mystery figuring out why.
The Constitution was a clear-cut good thing for a small state like Delaware. First, it achieved equality in the Senate — a concept some find objectionable today, but the Constitution never would have passed without it.
The Constitution also eliminated taxes imposed on one state by another state. For example, Philadelphia’s port was bigger than anything Delaware offered. Pennsylvania, therefore, imposed a tariff on all imported goods shipped to Delaware. New Jersey suffered doubly — taxed by both New York and Pennsylvania. As the saying went: New Jersey was a cask tapped at both top and bottom.
The Constitution eliminated these interstate taxes, replacing them with a more equal tariff on all states.
The Constitution, therefore, was an obvious win for Delaware.
But this is politics. Reason, sense and long-range thinking do not always prevail. Yet they did in Delaware in 1787.
The key: Partisan politicians were able to put aside bitter feelings and violent rivalries long enough to work together.
This is where Judge Rodney’s “greatest glory” comes in.
Dec. 7 — Delaware Day — not only helped paved the way for a U.S. Constitution. It also showed us that politicians can put away petty grievances and act for the common good. A lesson and an inspiration.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
