About Legislative Hall
In her 2003 tercentenary history of the Delaware
General Assembly, Democracy in Delaware: The Story of the First State’s General
Assembly, historian Carol E. Hoffecker noted that:
"William Penn is the father of
representative government in Delaware. In 1681 this idealistic English Quaker
became proprietor of two colonies in America: Pennsylvania and the Three Lower
Counties on Delaware. He tried to unite the two into one. In 1682 Penn called
on the freedmen of both colonies to elect their neighbors most noted for
“Sobriety, Wisdom, and Integrity” to attend a joint General Assembly. That
Assembly’s inaugural meeting took place at Upland, now Chester, Pennsylvania,
in December, 1682. To Penn’s intense regret, the representatives of his
colonies refused to unite into one. Like a bad marriage, time only made their
relationship worse.”
There followed a process whereby each colony was granted the
right to have its own separate elected legislature, while both areas continued
to operate under the same governor. Delaware’s separate legislative body met
for the first time at the town of New Castle on May 22, 1704. Dr. Hoffecker
notes that “it is difficult to imagine how Delaware could have emerged from the
colonial period as an independent state had not that separation already taken
place.”
In the ensuing 310 years, the Delaware General Assembly has
continued to serve the citizens of Delaware through times of war and peace,
through good times and bad. Since announcing its independence from Great
Britain several weeks before enactment of the Declaration of Independence in
1776, the General Assembly has functioned as the legislative body of “The
Delaware State.” 11 years later, on December 7, 1787, the State of Delaware
became the first state to ratify the newly enacted U.S. Constitution, thus
earning the distinction by which it has been known ever since, that of “The
First State.” The state capital was moved from New Castle to Dover during the
American Revolution, amidst fears of British invasion.”
Today’s Delaware General Assembly carries on the proud
tradition of constituent service and easy accessibility to the people which has
sustained us for more than three centuries.