Jacob Stout

Jacob Stout (* 1764 in Kent County, Delaware, † November 1, 1857 in Smyrna, Delaware ) was an American politician and 1820-1821 Governor of the State of Delaware.

Early years and political rise

Jacob Stout began his career in the tanning industry and in agriculture. He was one of the founders of the town in Leipsic Delaware, in its vicinity, he was born in 1764. Politically, he joined the Federalist Party. Between 1812 and 1813 he was a delegate in the House of Representatives from Delaware, and from 1815 to 1819 he was a member of the State Senate, which he became president.

Governor of Delaware

In the gubernatorial election of 1819 his party colleague Henry Molleston had been elected to the highest office of Delaware. This should take up his new post in January 1820. But he already died on 11 November 1819. Thereupon came into Delaware regulation in force should act according to the Senate President Stout for a year as governor. Then, new elections should decide who should finish the remaining two years of Mollestons tenure. According to this agreement Jacob Stout on January 18, 1820, the successor of John Clark. His one-year term was overshadowed in Delaware and throughout the United States of fierce debate over slavery. In Delaware, a borderland between the North and the South, this issue and the admission of new states in the American Union as free or slavery states were the most contentious. The legislature was deeply divided on this issue. The governor himself was against the expansion of slavery into new territories. The dispute was settled at the federal level with the Missouri Compromise of U.S. Senator Henry Clay. After his brief tenure Stout resigned on January 16, 1821 to hold office, the newly elected John Collins took over.

Further CV

In 1822, Judge Stout was in a court of appeal. Between 1844 and 1847 he was president of the Smyrna bank. In the meantime, he went back to his private interests. Jacob Stout died in 1857. He was married twice and had five children.