Happy Birthday Delaware!
Jun 12th, 2010 by Timothy Pancoast
Today is Separation Day in Delaware, which marks the day in 1776 that Delaware declared its independence from the British Empire, almost a month before the rest of the nation did. At the same time Delaware declared its separation from Pennsylvania. After all, it could hardly consider itself independent of Great Britan if it were still subject to one of Great Britan’s other Colonies.
When we say that Delaware is the First State, we all remember that Delaware was the first to ratify the Consitution. This is another, and perhaps a more bold case where Delaware was out in front of the crowd leading the way.
So today, feel free to fly your flags, and if you can make it up to Battery Park in New Castle take part the festivities. There will be a parade at 11 AM and fireworks at 9:30 PM with plenty of fun in between.
http://historicnewcastle.org/?p=458
Update: I want to add a Happy Birthday to Fay Voshell as well. Facebook says its your birthday. I hope you have a good one, and even though we love you here I hope you take plenty of time away from the computer to celebrate.
Hopefully we will stick it to England again, today in South Africa. We have a lot of European based players on the team, that on a good day can compete with the England squad.
USA USA
A major howler by England goal keeper sees Clint Dempsey score his nineteenth international goal to see England to a 1-1 draw in a dodgy performance by the Albions.
England’s Wayne Rooney played a miner role for most of the match. He did show signs of his ability towards the end, but it was too late. All in all it felt like a victory for the Yanks in the end.
Not a bad birthday present from the US team.
I was hoping to have a relatively calm and cheerfull day on the political front. Unfortunatly it appears that celebrating Delaware’s Independence in not sufficent cause for unite around for a one day pause from the campaign vitriol. Perhaps next year.
What is this stuff fightingbluehen keeps talking about? Everyone knows that football starts in late August and not June. After all why did we fight the Revolutionary War if it was not to have REAL AMERICAN FOOTBALL and not some wussified version of it
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I am very happy we had Separation Day. Now that we have separated from Pennsylvania can we keep Pennsylvania folks, who move down here for lower taxes and then vote in Liberal Democrats who increase our taxes, out of this state?? While we are at it can we extend this to New Jersey, Maryland, and New York????
Delaware wasn’t ‘leading the way’…Delaware was in desperate economic straights under the Articles of Confederation, due in part to Pennsylvania’s ability to tax goods destined for Delaware at the port of Philadelphia.
The ratification was self-interest (and there’s nothing wrong with that).
Tim, thank you. I had the best birthday weekend of my life! One of the highlights was hearing my six year old grandson sing Happy Birthday, Memum–with “cha-cha-cha” added at the end of each line. Priceless.
When it comes to my grandchildren, I’m a hopeless mush.
I’m taking a mini-break from the computer, but will return soon.
Thanks for your best wishes.
Fay
Rick, Tim is talking about a different event that occurred in 1776 not 1787.
True, but he also said this…
When we say that Delaware is the First State, we all remember that Delaware was the first to ratify the Consitution. This is another, and perhaps a more bold case where Delaware was out in front of the crowd leading the way.
…which is what I responded to.
Reguardless of motivation, Delaware was first and did lead the rest of the states in ratifying the Constitution. I also do note that its choice to separate from Great Britan and Pennsylvania in June, before the rest of the Colonies did in July was a more bold move.
Delaware’s ratification desision was based on economics. Massachusetts, for example, despite Delaware’s whole-cloth approval, attached caveats to their ratification letter to Congress- I’ve included the first one;
“And as it is the opinion of this Convention, that certain amendments and alterations in the said Constitution would remove the fears, and quiet the apprehensions, of many of the good people of this commonwealth, and more effectually guard against an undue administration of the federal government, — the Convention do therefore recommend that the following alterations and provisions be introduced into the said Constitution: —
I. That it be explicitly declared that all powers not expressly delegated by the aforesaid Constitution are reserved to the several states, to be by them exercised…”..J. Hancock.
Delaware was actually GRANTED the right by King George to separate from Pennsylvania. The King thought that if he were to break apart the whole of Pennsylvania and ingratiate the Delaware “colony” to the crown he might be able to avoid a unanimous decision of Independence in America. As much as we might like to believe that the king did not have knowledge of what happened in Philadelphia he indeed had spies who reported to him regularly about the deliberations of the Continental Congress.
With that said, Delaware did mark it’s separation from PA by also declaring Independence from the British crown which surprised and infuriated King George. That’s what made Rodney’s ride on July 2nd all the more important because without Rodney, the King still had a chance to break the unanimous decision by the colonies in favor of Independence.
As for Delaware’s realities around the Constitution…Delaware was hurting financially but even more so it could never sustain itself as an independent “state” as the Articles of Confederation created our states. We NEEDED to be part of a larger whole to prosper economically because of the size and geography of Delaware. With that said, throughout history Delaware has always been on the verge of an equal split on issues of major importance. Our vote for Independence came from the swing vote of Rodney, Delaware was unable to secede from the union with the southern states despite heavy support for “states rights” and slavery in Southern Delaware thanks to the abolitionists who ran the Underground Railroad” (and of course due to our small size, small population numbers and our proximity to Washington, D.C) our legislators wisely recognized that secession was an ill advised idea.
You may also be interested in perusing the following website before you assume the Massachussetts conditions as something unique from Delaware. Many of the provisions in the Bill of Rights already applied to Delaware citizens and therefore, as an “Independent State” even under the Constitution, Delaware did not feel the need for a national Bill of Rights to be serious enough to force other states to adopt what Delaware already had.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/bill_of_rightss4.html
Evan: I disagree with you politically on almost everything, but the post above is a masterful summarization of our early history as a state. I sincerely thank you.
wow anon…thank you very much.
One thing I must say is that too often our history is politicized and I think it’s worth taking a step back to really look objectively at who our founders were and what they believed.