378 



DECATUR. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



D 



DECATUR, a village in Morgan co., Ala- 

 bama, is on the left bank of the Tennessee river, 

 and thirty miles west of southwest of Hunts- 

 ville. It is one hundred and twenty-two miles 

 from Nashville in Tennessee, and is the termina- 

 tion of a railroad from Nashville to Decatur, 

 which crossed the Tennessee river by a long 

 bridge. This bridge was burnt by a Federal 

 force of the division of Gen. Mitchell to pre- 

 vent the pursuit of a Confederate force. The 

 Memphis and Charleston railroad passes through 

 Decatur, which is 188 miles from the former 

 point. Steamboats of light draft descend the 

 Tennessee from this point into the Ohio and 

 Mississippi rivers. 



DELAWARE, one of the Middle Atlantic 

 States, first settled in 1627. Its area is less 

 than that of any other State of the Union ex- 

 cept Rhode Island, being 2,120 square miles. Its 

 population in 1860 was 112,216. The governor 

 elected in Nov. 1862, for four years from Jan. 

 1863, was William Cannon of Bridgeville; 

 the Secretary of State appointed by the gov- 

 ernor elect and holding office for the same time, 

 was Nathaniel B. Smithers, of Dover. At 

 the election on the 2d Tuesday of November, 

 1862, the Republican Union candidate for Gov- 

 ernor, Cannon, received 8,155, while Samuel J. 

 Jefferson, the democratic candidate, received 

 but 8,044. For Congress, William Temple, 

 the democratic candidate, had 8,051 votes, and 

 was elected ; the Republican Union candidate, 

 George P. Fisher, having only 8,014. The Sen- 

 ate, composed of 9 members, has 5 democrats 

 and 4 Republican Union members, and the 

 House, which has 21 members, has 14 democrats 

 to 7 Republican Union. The receipts into the 

 State Treasury, for the year ending January 1, 

 1862 (the last published), were $97,810.50, and 

 the expenditures for the same period were 

 $76,414.04, of which $38,989.05 were for gen- 

 eral purposes, and $37,428.99 for education. 

 The State has no debt, but possesses a general 

 fund of $771,750, and a school fund of $431,392. 

 The census valuation of the State in 1860 was 

 $46,242,181. The assessors' valuation in 1862, 

 which omits all property exempt from taxation, 

 was $41,521,498. The total taxes of the State 

 were $121,121.36. There are 14 banks in the 

 State, which in May, 1862, had an aggregate 

 capital of $1,915,010, a circulation of about 

 $1,000,000, and $250,000 in specie. Small as is 

 the territory of the State, it has 137 miles of 

 railroad, which cost for road and equipment 

 $4,312,129; and one canal, the Chesapeake and 

 Delaware, 12.63 miles in length, and having a 

 width and depth sufficient for the passage of 

 vessels drawing 9 ft. of water. The cost of 

 construction of this canal was $3,547,561. 



The State has two colleges, St. Mary's (Cath- 

 olic) at Wilmington, and Delaware College (Prot- 

 estant) at Newark. The preparatory depart- 



ment only of the latter is now in operation. 

 There are 296 public schools in the State. In 



1861, 15,036 children attended the schools, 

 which were maintained an average period of 

 6.97 months. The whole amount expended for 

 school purposes was $85,333.03. Of this sum 

 $33,359.49 was derived from the school fund and 

 $53,485.08 was raised by contribution, and of 

 this $37,731.80 (more than two thirds) was 

 raised in New Castle county. The income of the 

 general school fund is distributed to the 

 counties, according to their population in 1830, 

 and the income of the U. S. surplus fund equal- 

 ly to each county. By this arrangement New 

 Castle county, which has 54,796 inhabitants, re- 

 ceives $12,807.36, and Sussex county, which ha3 

 only 29,615 inhabitants, receives $12,011.22. 



The constitution of the State provides that 

 each county shall have an equal number of 

 Senators and Representatives in its Legislature ; 

 a provision fair enough when the constitution 

 was adopted, since at that time the counties 

 varied little in population ; but now manifestly 

 unjust, since the population of New Castle 

 county is very nearly double that of either of 

 the other two counties. 



According to the census report of 1860, there 

 are in the State 90,589 white inhabitants, 19,827 

 free colored, and 1,798 slaves. Of the slaves 

 1,341 (three fourths) are in Sussex county, 

 254 in New Castle and 203 in Kent ; of the free 

 colored, 8,188 are in New Castle, 7,271 in Kent, 

 and 4,370 in Sussex; of the whites, New 

 Castle has 46,355, Sussex 23,904, and Kent 

 20,330. The aggregate manufactures of the 

 State were $9,920,000, and consisted principal- 

 ly of shipping, flour and meal, steam engines 

 and machinery, railroad cars, carriages, lumber, 

 cotton and woollen goods, and boots and shoes. 

 The war has greatly increased the productive 

 industry of Wilmington, the principal city of 

 Delaware, several of the iron clad and other 

 gunboats having been built there, and the de- 

 mand for locomotives and cars having been 

 much greater than at any previous period. 

 The cash value of the farms of the State was 

 $31,426,357, which, taking into account the 

 small amount of territory in the State, was as 

 high as most of the other States. Great atten- 

 tion has been paid to fruit growing in the State, 

 and its peach and apple orchards, supply a large 

 part of the demand in the neighboring cities of 

 Philadelphia and Baltimore. The wheat of 

 Delaware has a high reputation, and the flour 

 from its mills is in demand and brings high 

 prices. The State raised its quotas for the vol- 

 unteer army under the calls of July and August, 



1862, without a resort to drafting. In all about 

 5,000 men have been furnished by the State. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE OF 

 THE UNITED STATES IN 1862. The cor- 

 respondence of the Federal Governments with 



