Delaware Ratifies the Constitution
Delaware, the second smallest U.S. state, holds historical significance as the first state to ratify the Constitution on December 7, 1787. Its journey toward statehood began with European exploration and colonization, first by the Dutch in the early 17th century and later by the Swedes, who established a successful settlement at Fort Christina. Control of the region shifted variously between European powers, culminating in English authority after the Second Anglo-Dutch War. By the late 17th century, Delaware was incorporated into the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, but it sought autonomy due to neglect from its larger neighbor, ultimately declaring independence in 1776. After the American Revolution, Delaware's leaders, including noteworthy figures like John Dickinson, played a crucial role in advocating for a stronger national framework, which led to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. The state's ratification of the Constitution marked a pivotal moment in American history, as it set the precedent for other states to follow. Delaware's decision not only reflected its leaders' commitment to a unified nation but also highlighted the interests of smaller states in the new federal structure.
Delaware Ratifies the Constitution
Delaware Ratifies the Constitution
Delaware, whose 2,057 square miles make it the second smallest state in the Union, was one of the original 13 colonies. Henry Hudson, an Englishman sailing in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, explored the coastline of Delaware in 1609. In the following year a storm blew Samuel Argall's ship into its bay. The Virginian captain called the body of water Delaware Bay in honor of his colony's governor, Thomas West, Lord De La Warr.
Thirty Dutch citizens, who sailed in 1631 from the town of Hoorn under Captain Peter Heyes in De Walvis, became the first Europeans to settle in Delaware. This initial colonization effort ended in disaster. For reasons that are unclear, in 1632 members of the native Lenni-Lenape tribe killed the Dutch band and destroyed their Zwaanendael settlement, near what is now Lewes.
Six years after the Dutch failure, the Swedes attempted to establish a colony in Delaware. Around March 29, 1638, Captain Peter Minuit, former governor of the Dutch colony of New Netherland (later New York), led members of a two-vessel expedition ashore near what is now Wilmington. The settlement, which they named Fort Christina in honor of their queen, flourished. During the next 17 years, 12 more expeditions took Swedes to the area.
At the command of Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, the Dutch wrested control of New Sweden from the Swedes in 1655. The Dutch reorganized Fort Casimir, their own former trading post, as New Amstel (later New Castle). Even more important, they introduced town and village government to the colony and set up judicial districts and counties.
Within a decade, England ended the Netherlands' control of the settlement. In 1664, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the duke of York (who later became King James II of England) dispatched expeditions to capture enemy settlements in the New World, a task that proved to be easy. New Netherland itself surrendered to Colonel Richard Nichols without any bloodshed, and New Amstel capitulated to Sir Robert Carr after only one brief skirmish.
On August 24, 1682, the duke granted title to the three counties west of the Delaware River and Bay-Kent, New Castle and Sussex counties-to William Penn, the proprietor of the newly founded Quaker colony of Pennsylvania. In his Frame of Government of 1683, the Quaker leader incorporated the Three Lower Counties into his commonwealth. This action embroiled Penn in a decades-long dispute with Charles Calvert, Baron of Baltimore and the proprietor of the neighboring colony of Maryland, who also claimed jurisdiction over the area. In 1760 the descendants of the original antagonists finally agreed to arbitrate this quarrel, and the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon worked from 1763 to 1767 to establish the famous Mason-Dixon Line setting the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary.
Pennsylvania was a poor guardian of Delaware. The Quaker legislators' indifferent reaction when French and Spanish pirates attacked the little colony during King William's War of 1689 -1697 prompted Delawareans to petition for their own government. In 1704 they won the right to hold their own assembly at New Castle, and six years later they gained their own executive council. Penn, however, retained the right to name a single governor to administer both Pennsylvania and Delaware, an arrangement that lasted until the American Revolution. When the Three Lower Counties declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, they also threw off this last vestige of Pennsylvanian control and became an entirely separate state.
After the Revolution, Delaware became one of the first states to advocate revision of the Articles of Confederation. John Dickinson of Delaware, formerly a Pennsylvanian, presided at the Annapolis (Maryland) Convention of September 1786 at which Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia called for a meeting of all the states to revise the articles. In response to this request, the Constitutional Convention gathered at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May 1787.
Richard Bassett, Gunning Bedford Jr., Jacob Broom, Dickinson, and George Read represented Delaware at the Philadelphia convention during the summer of 1787. Bedford, Dickinson, and Read worked vigorously to preserve the rights and powers of the less populous states with respect to their stronger neighbors. Their efforts were rewarded when the delegates at last agreed to a bicameral national legislature in which each state would have two votes in the Senate and a number of votes proportional to its population in the House of Representatives. With the problem of representation resolved, the delegates quickly compromised their other difficulties. They signed the Constitution on September 17, 1787, and sent it to the states for ratification 11 days later.
On October 24 the Delaware legislature called for a ratifying convention to meet in Dover on December 4. In accordance with the legislature's plan, each of Delaware's three counties held special elections on November 26 and selected ten representatives to the December gathering. The convention met on December 4 at the old State House, and the delegates chose James Latimer to preside. Delaware's leaders were strong nationalists; many were originally from Federalist Philadelphia and all were aware of the benefits that their small state could gain from participation in a strong country. On December 7, 1787, with 30 delegates unanimously agreed, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution and thus to enter the Union.