As we have gone through the elections, we couldn’t help noticing that there are many cruel and unusual names. This week I present to you John C. Death. It’s a little morbid but of course all of the people of the Early Republic are dead. I find myself wondering if John C. Death was like the boy in the 1999 movie Sixth Sense who’s character could have been named I. C. Deadpeople.

I.C. Deadpeople?

John C. Death ran to for the office of State Representative of Ohio from the counties of Clinton and Warren.  He was a vetern of the War of 1812.  And his cruel father was Hugh Death.

Plummer Ijams became part of our funny names roll due to his run for the Maryland House of Delegates.  There are, of course, some variations in the spelling of his surname and others have it as “Iiams”.  Fortunately for him, indoor plumbing was uncommon. He ran for the House in 1819 and 1820. He was a notable Republican from Frederick County and he was elected in 1819 but plunged by the Federalists in 1820. Apparently, he was against raising the Governor’s salary and against the nomination of a replacement for U.S. Senator Hanson, who died in office.

To see the tributes to Phil Lampi and his research on Jeff Pasley’s blog, Publick Occurrences, please click here

In a time of broad political generalizations based on polls that only started to be taken seriously about 50 years, I would like to make one based on fact. The geographic politics of Delaware have never changed. It is the first state, and the most perfect for a case study in voting returns. To start, Delaware has always had three counties; New Castle to the north, Sussex in the south and Kent somewhere in the middle. The political leanings of the these counties have always been set into the same extremes. New Castle and Sussex have always been firmly set into opposing parties and Kent has always swung somewhere in the middle.

The only thing that has changed is the method of electing Federal officials such as the U.S senators and President. Modern U.S. Senator and Presidential electors are chosen state wide at large. Not so in 1800. Back then, the U.S. Senator and Presidential electors were chosen by the General Assembly.

Ok, Let’s get to the numbers to show the true impact of this change.

In 1800, popular vote for President can only be determined through the votes for the legislature. Kent County happen to swing Federalist that year by a margin of 78 votes and accordingly the state designated all of their electoral votes for John Adams. If the modern rules applied and John Adams would also have won the popular vote in Delaware.

New Castle
- 916 Federalist
- 1244 Republican
Kent
-833 Federalist
-727 Republican

Sussex
- 950 Federalist
- 377 Republican

However, if we applied the historic rules to our modern elections, Delaware would be wearing a different color. If you total these numbers up the county numbers below the state will go Democrat but 2 out of 3 counties had Republican majorities. If the legislature were still electing the Presidential electors and U.S. Senators, then Bush would have won the state and Joe Biden would not be a US Senator.

2000 Presidential Popular Vote

New Castle County —
127798 Democratic
78809 Republican

Kent County —
22676 Democratic
24071 Republican

Sussex County —
29827 Democratic
34467 Republican