STATE OF DELAWARE 375 



were at the time not completely discharged from 

 service ; and this, at the last election for members of 

 the Assembly, gave rise to violent dissensions. The 

 soldiers claimed that they had a right to cast their 

 votes in the election of these Members. The right is 

 granted by the law, if one has lived a year in the 

 province and can show property in the amount of 40 

 Pd. The first provision must be allowed, because the 

 soldiers, even if not natives, performed service for 

 that period or longer within the limits of the state ; as 

 satisfying the second condition of the electorate the 

 soldiers held that the state, being in their debt for 

 several years pay, the sum amounted to far more than 

 the stipulated 40 Pd. But, said the citizens, so long as 

 you are soldiers we cannot grant you the suffrage, be- 

 cause soldiers are merely servants of the state, not 

 really members of it, contribute nothing to the needs of 

 the community, and fall under special laws and juris- 

 dictions and particularly because what the state owes 

 its soldiers cannot be counted as actual property ; which 

 last objection the soldiers from troublous experience 

 are unable to deny. Meantime, this quarrel excited 

 much anxiety and unrest, but remained undecided 

 until shortly after this the whole American army, by 

 promulgation of the Congress, was finally discharged 

 from service, and thus the soldiers became citizens 

 again ; but in the interim the precaution had been taken, 

 at the last election, of ordering away all soldiers who 

 were at New-Castle. The upper part of this province, 

 lying towards Pensylvania, has good meadow-land 

 along the Delaware and the streams flowing into it, 

 and the higher land shows good wheat soil. The lower 

 part is sandy and infertile ; at the mouth of the Dela- 



