202 



DELAWARE. 



D 



DELAWARE. As set forth in the biennial 

 report of the State Treasurer, -Robert J. Rey- 

 nolds, the amount of State bonds outstanding 

 at the end of 1880 is $869,000, $106,000 of 

 bonds having been canceled within the two 

 years. The interest-bearing investments held 

 by the State, on account of the general fund, 

 amount to $673,050, consisting of a loan of 

 $400,000 to the Junction and Breakwater Rail- 

 road, and one of $200,000 to the Breakwater 

 and Frankford Railroad, both secured by mort- 

 gages, and the balance in bank-stock. The 

 State has also investments amounting to $448,- 

 999 for the benefit of free schools, consisting 

 for the main part of bank-stock. The State 

 thus has a balance of assets over and above its 

 indebtedness amounting to $253,049, to which 

 is to be added interest on investments payable 

 January 1, 1881, to the amount of $77,702. 

 The estimated receipts of the Treasury for the 

 year 1880 were $168,655, and the estimated 

 expenditures $97,530. Of the receipts for the 

 year up to the date of the report, amounting 

 to $122,019, $50,549 were derived from li- 

 censes, $20,250 from the tax on the earnings of 

 railroads, and $13,647 from the passenger-tax 

 on railroads. Of the disbursements, amounting 

 to $82,769, the principal items were : redeemed 

 bonds, $30,000 ; interest on the State debt, 

 $27,540; judiciary, $10,275; salaries, $5,687. 

 The receipts for the maintenance of free schools 

 amounted to $31,736. 



The receipts for the year, reported at the 

 opening of the Legislature, amounted to $187,- 

 747, including interest due on investments still 

 to be paid in, and the whole of the interest 

 due of the mortgage of the Breakwater and 

 Frankford Railroad, of which $35,886 was in 

 arrears and not collectable, the Legislature 

 having passed a joint resolution excusing the 

 railroad from the payment at present of the 

 moiety of the interest on the loan. The actual 

 expenditures for the year were reported as 

 $150,409. The Governor recommends the con- 

 version of the State bonds, which mature in 

 1885, $441,000 in amount, into four per cent, 

 interest-bearing bonds running twenty years, 

 but redeemable at the option of the State 

 after ten years, and a similar conversion of 

 the remaining bonds, due in 1890 and in 

 1898. 



On January 19th and succeeding days, Judge 

 Bradford, of the United States Circuit Court, 

 listened to an argument for the appointment 

 of United States supervisors of elections to 

 attend in the Levy Court and control the list- 

 ing of voters, which, under the State laws, is 

 a function of this body. Anthony Higgins, 

 representing the Republicans, made the argu- 

 ment in favor of the application, and Attorney- 

 General George Gray and George H. Bates 



spoke against their appointment. Judge Brad- 

 ford decided that supervisors of election could 

 be appointed, upon due application, under the 

 act of Congress to guard and scrutinize the 

 assessment-lists and the lists of electors made 

 out from these and furnished to the inspectors 

 of elections. The United States statute makes 

 it the duty of the Judge of the Circuit Court 

 to appoint two supervisors in each voting pre- 

 cinct, who shall be of different political parties, 

 at the request of two citizens in any town, or 

 of ten citizens in any county, the office of 

 these supervisors being to guard and scrutinize 

 the registration, " if one there be," of voters for 

 members of Congress ; or, in case there is no 

 system of registration, shall open the court ten 

 days at least prior to the election and hear any 

 case brought before it relative to the election. 

 The Constitution gives the right of suffrage to 

 every free white citizen twenty-two years of 

 age, or older, who has resided one year within 

 the State and one month in the county, and 

 has paid within two years a county tax assessed 

 six months at least before the election, citizens 

 between twenty-one and twenty-two years of 

 age being entitled to vote without having paid 

 a tax. The enrollment of the name of a citizen 

 on the assessment-lists of the assessors of the 

 different hundreds and those of the Levy Court 

 in each county is a legal condition of the ex- 

 ercise of the right of voting; and, unless so 

 enrolled, no citizen, however well entitled on 

 other grounds, can cast a ballot under the Con- 

 stitution. Although in a literal and technical 

 sense the making out of these lists by the as- 

 sessors and the Levy Court is not a registra- 

 tion of voters, according to the sense and intent 

 of the act of Congress, it is an act of registra- 

 tion more absolutely determining the rights 

 of citizens with respect to the franchise than 

 registration is in States which have specific 

 registry laws. An enabling act, like that author- 

 izing the appointment of supervisors, should 

 not be subjected to a narrow and literal con- 

 struction. The registration of voters must 

 vary widely in the different States. Any meth- 

 od of making up the list of voters which al- 

 lows of the occurrence of the evils and abuses 

 which the Congressional act was intended to 

 guard against, affords fit and sufficient subject- 

 matter for the aot to work upon, and constitutes 

 a registration of voters within the meaning of 

 the law. From the assessment-list of tax-payers 

 made out by the assessors the Levy Court com- 

 piles the assessment- roll of the county; and 

 from the latter the Clerk of the Peace makes out 

 the lists of voters for each hundred or election 

 district, upon which he writes the word "nat- 

 uralized " opposite the name of each natural- 

 ized citizen, and the word "voted" opposite 

 the name of every citizen who has already 





