DELAWARE. 



247 



continued at the head of this establishment 

 till the autumn of 1856, when he was ordered 

 to naval service in the Pacific, as commander 

 of the sloop-of-war St. Mary's. After the 

 breaking out of the Civil War he was assigned 

 to the Mississippi squadron, of which he was 

 appointed flag-officer, May 9, 1862, and on the 

 llth repulsed an attack by the Confederate 

 flotilla. He in turn attacked the latter, June 

 6th, opposite Memphis, capturing or destroy- 

 ing all but one vessel ; this action was imme- 

 diately followed by the surrender of Memphis. 

 He then joined Farragut, and was engaged in 

 various operations near Vicksburg and in the 

 Yazoo River. He was made lieutenant in 1834, 

 commander in 1854, captain in 1861, commo- 

 dore in 1862, and rear-admiral in 1863. In 

 1862 he was appointed chief of the Bureau of 

 Navigation ; in 1865-'67 he was superintendent 

 of the Naval Observatory at Washington, and 

 in 1867-'69 commander of the South Atlantic 

 squadron, after which he resumed his scientific 

 duties at Washington. Besides articles on 

 " Astronomy " and " Geodesy," he published a 

 translation of Gauss's "Theoria Motus Cor- 

 porum Coelestium " (Boston, 1858). 



DELAWARE. There is very little worthy 

 of record pertaining to the State of Delaware 

 for the year. There was no State election, 

 and consequently no political action calling for 

 mention. The regular biennial session of the 

 Legislature began at Dover on January 3d, and 

 continued until March 

 21st, but its action was 

 of little general im- 

 portance. That body 

 was unanimously Dem- 

 ocratic in both branch- 

 es, the Senate consist- 

 ing of 8 members, and 

 the House of 21. A 

 considerable reduction 

 in taxation was ef- 

 fected ; the principal 

 changes in the law be- 

 ing a reduction of the 

 rate on county assess- 

 ments from 10 to 5 

 cents on the hundred 

 dollars, and of license 

 fees to one-half their 

 former amount. At- 

 tempts were made to 

 secure radical changes 

 in the laws relating to 

 the sale of intoxicating 

 liquors, and the sub- 

 ject occupied a good 

 deal of time; but the final result was in- 

 significant. The word "citizen" was substi- 

 tuted for "freeholder" in the provision re- 

 garding applicants for licenses. The payment 

 of a tax to the United States for licenses was 

 made prima facie evidence of liquor-selling, 

 and the transfer of a license to an incoming 

 tenant was authorized. These were the princi- 



pal changes. An insurance law was enacted, 

 which requires all companies incorporated out 

 of the State to file a copy of their charters with 

 the State Auditor, file a statement of their con- 

 dition each year, and obtain a certificate au- 

 thorizing them to do business in the State. On 

 application of 10 or more policy-holders the 

 Auditor is requested to make an investigation 

 of the condition of any company, and, if found 

 insolvent, to cause it to cease doing business in 

 the State. There were several bills affecting 

 the local government of cities, but such of them 

 as passed made no important changes. An act 

 was passed for the encouragement of beet- 

 sugar culture, but only $300 was appropriated 

 for the purpose of distributing seeds and af- 

 fording premiums. A commission was ap- 

 pointed to carry the act into effect; but it de- 

 cided that, as the preparation of the ground 

 ought to be made in the autumn, no effort 

 should be made to secure results until 1878. 

 Meantime, information was to be furnished by 

 printed circulars to such as were interested in 

 the subject. 



Fruit-raising constitutes one of the most 

 prominent industrial interests of Delaware, but 

 it is difficult to obtain accurate statistics of the 

 product. We find a statement of the ship- 

 ment of 512 car-loads of strawberries over a 

 single railroad the Philadelphia, Wilmington 

 & Baltimore up to June llth. There is an 

 average of about 8,000 quarts in a car-load. 



TUB OLD SWEDES CHURCH, WILMINGTON. 



The peach-growers held secret meetings during 

 the summer, and, as usual, made efforts to se- 

 cure satisfactory arrangements with the rail- 

 roads for the transportation of their products 

 to market. This was a difficult matter, and 

 all causes of complaint were not removed. 

 The railroad strikers in July interfered some- 

 what with shipment, and the large supply and 



