The Disgrace That Has Sparked Civil War in a Delaware Town

However the midterm elections go, they will see the end of a tradition in President Biden’s home state that has embodied the spirit of democracy at its best for more than two centuries.

Since at least 1812, the winners and losers of state- and federal-level elections have ridden carriages together in parades through the Delaware municipality of Georgetown. The event is held on Return Day, the Thursday after the polling, the time decades ago when the tallies became available. The winner of a particular race sits in the carriage facing forward, the loser backward.

The starting point where the victors and vanquished assemble together is the Georgetown Historical Society and the Marvel Carriage Museum, which provides most of the horse-drawn vehicles for the parade. That became politically complicated in 2007, when the museum also became the site of a Confederate memorial that includes the battle flag flying prominently from a flagpole.

The memorial sponsors—United Daughters of the Confederacy Caleb Ross Chapter #2635 and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Delaware Grays Camp #2068—had at one point considered erecting the monument a dozen miles from the museum, on the grounds of what was once a plantation owned by William Ross, who was governor from 1851 to 1855. The quarters once occupied by the 14 people enslaved by Ross is the only such structure still standing in Delaware. Ross, whose name is among the 140 names cut into the monument, aided the Confederacy, and his son, Caleb, died while in Confederate service.

At the monument’s dedication, 300 people sang “Dixie.” Then-Gov. Ruth Ann Minner spoke and declared May 12 to 18 of that year "Confederate History and Heritage Week" in the state. And the Confederate flag was raised at what had long been the parade’s starting point.

The flag continued to fly despite the fervent objections of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, which noted that the white supremacist who murdered nine in a South Carolina church in 2015 had posted photos of himself with a Confederate flag.

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In 2019, the legislature cut off funding to the museum. The museum and the affiliated Georgetown Historical Society said they had a commitment to Confederate veterans organizations to keep flying the flag.

Despite the rancor, Democrats continued riding in the parade.

But last month, the Delaware Democratic Party announced that it was urging its members not to board the carriages. Executive Director Travis Williams called the confederate flag “antithetical” to the spirit of coming together. The party resolution requested “all elected Democrats in our state refuse to ride in the carriages provided by the Marvel Museum for the Returns Day parade until such time as the Confederate flag is removed from outside the Marvel Museum.”

Williams reported that Democrats will still participate in the parade itself, including the concluding ceremony, when a hatchet is literally buried in a box of Delaware dirt and sand. But few, if any, Democrats are expected to take part in the symbolic essence of the parade, which begins with boarding a carriage alongside their Republican opponents.

That spirit was voiced by the newly elected Sen. Joe Biden when he rode in the 1972 Return Day parade with J. Caleb Boggs, the longtime incumbent he had just defeated in an historic upset.

“[You] hop into a carriage… and you ride for an hour through town, sitting knee to knee,” Biden was quoted saying, describing the experience as “brutal” and “beautiful.”

Biden also rode in the November 2008 parade as the newly elected vice president and a re-elected but soon-to-resign U.S. senator.

“This is great! This is great!” he was quoted saying as he waved from a white carriage to the more than 10,000 cheering parade-goers.

Due to security concerns, Biden did not ride with his Senate opponent. The same reason was cited for Biden boarding the carriage partway down the parade route. The late entry also saved him from boarding in the shadow of the Confederate flag that had gone up 19 months before America had also just elected its first Black president.

Biden cited security concerns again after the 2012 election. He appeared only at the closing ceremony.

In 2020, the last election cycle, COVID-19 closed the whole parade and Return Day ceremonies were kept to a minimum. Everything might have resumed as before this year had the five-member Georgetown Town Council not voted 3-2 to resume funding for the museum. The decision was strongly opposed by Mayor Bill West, a former town cop and state trooper as well as a Republican who supports a true republic. He is also a democrat in the sense he passionately supports democracy.

“Bipartisan,” he told The Daily Beast.

In July, the town went ahead and issued a check to the museum for $24,750. And that seemed to be that until opponents of the funding pointed out to West that the museum had filed its application after the April 1 deadline set by statute and the proposal had never been considered by a town committee before being submitted to the council for a vote, as is also required by law.

West promptly canceled the check. The three council members in support of the funding then held an unannounced meeting consisting only of themselves and voted to restore it. They presented the museum with a new check.

“This is a unique situation,” West told The Daily Beast. “This is a big, total mess.”

The Delaware Attorney General’s Office took West’s view and decided that the trio had violated the open meetings law. A judge agreed.

“The court has decided they done wrong and we have to ask for the money back,” West said afterwards. “We’ll just have to see. If not, it’s lawsuit time.”

The town council trio did not respond to a request for comment.

By tradition, the only town officials who ride in the Result Day Parade are those from Georgetown, which hosts the event. West has decided that he will walk with his wife this year rather than ride with the opposing trio from the council.

“I really don’t wanna socialize with them,” West said.

Most if not all of the Republicans other than West are expected to ride.

“It’s a great custom,” said a spokesman for the Delaware Republican Party. “Political civility. You ride the car with your opponent, you go back to being friends, you bury the hatchet. And this year the Democrats just said, No, I’m not doing it.’”

He added, “It’s the destruction of a simple tradition.”

The historical society and the museum did not respond to requests for comment, though the society said in August that it calls on “all citizens of good character and good faith to commit to the environment of unity, pluralism, and tolerance… allowing those who chose to honor their dead to do so with respect for their election.”

West regrets that Return Day will not be the glory that it once was, but he does not blame the Democrats.

“It’s a fabulous day,” he said. “It’s just going to be tainted this year because of the historical society not wanting to take the flag down. They’d rather represent the sons of the Greys [Confederate veterans] than they would the Georgetown community.”