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THE CONSTITUTION IN DELAWARE
To 24 October 1787
The Delaware House of Assembly was eager to consider the report
of the Constitutional Convention. On 8 June 1787 it adjourned to
August, when it expected to consider the Convention's recommenda-
tions. Since the Convention was still in session, the House adjourned
on 29 August to meet on 30 September, but it did not meet until 20
October, the day set by the state constitution for the beginning of
annual legislative sessions.
The Constitution apparently received widespread support and al-
most no opposition. In October, 187 inhabitants of New Castle Coun-
ty sent five petitions to the legislature urging it to call a state conven-
tion for the "speedy ratification" of the Constitution. Three other
petitions signed by 140 inhabitants of the same county asked the
legislature to provide for a cession of land for the federal capital.
Not enough issues of the Delaware Gazette are extant to indicate
what, if anything, Delaware citizens wrote about the Constitution, but
the three extant October 1787 issues contain both Federalist and
Antifederalist items reprinted from Philadelphia newspapers. On 10
October the Gazette reprinted "American Citizen" I; on the 17th
"American Citizen" II, the Address of the Seceding Assemblymen of
the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the Reply of Six Assemblymen to the
Seceding Assemblymen; and on the 31st "Centinel" I. (For the texts
of these items, see CC:100-A, 109, 125-A, 133; and RCS:Pa., 112-20.)
The Delaware General Assembly
Wednesday
29 August 1787
House Proceedings, A.M.'
The House met; absent Messrs. Bedford, Broom, Rodney, Polk,
Shankland, Moore, and Mitchell.
Whereas the legislature of this state, impressed with the expec-
tation of having reported to them, at this session, such a system of