[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 53 (Thursday, March 24, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E298-E299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF FRANCIS VINCENT

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                       HON. LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 24, 2022

  Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record this 
article in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Francis 
Vincent.

           [From the Delaware Genealogical Society, May 2021]

                Francis Vincent: Editor, Public Servant

                         (By Mary Anne Vincent)

       March 17, 2022 will be the 200th anniversary of the birth 
     of one or Delaware's most illustrious citizens, Francis 
     Vincent.
       Francis Vincent was only 23 when he co-founded the Blue 
     Hen's Chicken, a newspaper which would greatly influence 
     events in Delaware and Maryland within the next few years. 
     Local papers in his day borrowed heavily from large city 
     paper but they printed little news about either Wilmington or 
     Delaware. Vincent, who knew the state from end to end, 
     devoted most of his paper to state and local news. Within 
     three months his paper had the largest circulation in the 
     state.
       Vincent used the Blue Hen's Chicken to advocate for major 
     changes in his home state. He called for proportional 
     representation in the state legislature, ratification of more 
     important laws by popular ballot, and election of state 
     officers instead of their appointment by the governor.
       Politicians, especially Whigs who controlled the state 
     government, were sharply opposed to such changed. Vincent 
     persistently called for a state convention to change the 
     state constitution. Other newspapers followed his lead by 
     addressing the same issue. In 1846, the Whigs were turned out 
     of office.
       In 1848, Vincent published an article on the ``Moral 
     Effects of Hanging''. Shortly thereafter, the state 
     legislature abolished public hangings. He also called for 
     abolishing public whipping of women. Known to his 
     contemporaries as a courteous, gentle man, this treatment of 
     women was abhorrent to him.
       Vincent showed his concern for other segments of society by 
     calling for a 10-hour

[[Page E299]]

     work day (an act of courage in those days), the exemption of 
     a portion of a citizen's goods from forcd seizure for debt, 
     the establishment of life-saving service and coastal patrol 
     on the Delaware River, and free universal education. All of 
     these proposals were adopted. Indeed, the school system of 
     Wilmington at the time of his death in 1884 was substantially 
     what he proposed in 1850.
       After the Civil War, Vincent gained fame for his ``Essay 
     Recommending the Union of Great Britain and her Colonies and 
     the United States and the Final Union of the World into One 
     Great Nation''. He explored the topic further in a subsequent 
     essay addressed to the International and Permanent League of 
     Peace in December 1869. His plan, which ante-dated Wilson's 
     League of Nations by almost five decades, never came to 
     fruition.

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