{"id":18136,"date":"2024-11-20T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T07:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=18136"},"modified":"2024-11-20T19:44:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T19:44:54","slug":"high-stakes-in-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2024\/11\/20\/high-stakes-in-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"High Stakes in the Senate: Two Generations of Saulsburys (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Initiatives and Preservation<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following the Civil War, Willard Saulsbury, Sr. served as Delaware senator in the U.S. Senate from 1858 until 1870 (defeated, interestingly, by his brother, Eli Saulsbury).\u00a0 His son, Willard Saulsbury, Jr., also served as Senator from 1913 to 1919.\u00a0 Papers and ephemera for all three of the mentioned individuals can be found in the <\/span><\/em>Willard Saulsbury, Jr. collection<\/span><\/em><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Willard Saulsbury Sr. served in the U.S. Senate under three different presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and Ulysses Grant.\u00a0 Below are three invitation cards from three different U.S. Presidents via the <\/span>General collection<\/span><\/a> in the <\/span>Willard Saulsbury, Sr.<\/span><\/a> sub-collection.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"White

White House invitation from President Lincoln, 1864<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"White

White House invitation from President Johnson, 1867<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The invite from Grant may have been before he was elected President, since the invite identifies him as <\/span>General<\/span><\/i> Grant.\u00a0 Unfortunately, no year is included in the date on the invite.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Invitation

Invitation from General Grant, no year given, late 1860\u2019s.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

As noted, Saulsbury, Sr. was a Senator from 1858 to 1870, which means he served during the American Civil War (1861-1865).\u00a0 During such a time (and during such divisive politics) elections were scrutinized, as shown by this general missive, sent presumably to Delaware citizens after the election in 1862.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Regarding

Regarding concerns of election interference, 1862<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

After leaving the U.S. Senate in 1870, Willard Saulsbury, Sr. became Chancellor of Delaware, from November of 1873 to April of 1892. While Chancery Courts have changed over time, they remain an appellate court.\u00a0 <\/span>In 1880, it appears Saulsbury, Sr. presided over a case between an Isaac W. Vandegrift and George H. Hollis<\/span><\/a>, wherein both the Plaintiff and Defendant were in error.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Summary

Summary of a court case which may have excluded evidence in error, which may have led to an unjust verdict.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

This document provides an interesting glimpse into the legal system of the time.\u00a0 One cannot tell what the original case was, but this document breaks down objections that were overruled but maybe should not have been overruled, evidence that was not allowed that maybe should have been, and so on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out more of the mail collection and other sub-collections in the <\/span>Willard Saulsbury, Jr<\/span><\/a>. collection, as well as other political papers of <\/span>J. Allen Frear<\/span><\/a> or the diplomatic papers of <\/span>George S. Messersmith<\/span><\/a>. Lastly, be sure to check back for Part 2 of this story.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Initiatives and Preservation   Following the Civil War, Willard Saulsbury, Sr. served as Delaware senator in the U.S. Senate from 1858 until 1870 (defeated, interestingly, by his brother, Eli Saulsbury).\u00a0 His son, Willard Saulsbury, Jr., also …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":18138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-collections","category-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 06:21:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18136"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18150,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136\/revisions\/18150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}