07/03/2022
It was almost midnight on July 1, 1776, when CAESAR RODNEY was informed that he was needed in Congress to break Delaware’s tied vote for independence. 47-year-old Caesar, who suffered ill-health, rode 80 miles on horseback to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Caesar, who served in the Continental Congress along with Thomas McKean and George Read from 1774 through 1776, was in Dover tending to Loyalist activity when he received word from Thomas McKean that he and Read were deadlocked on the vote for independence. To break the deadlock, Caesar Rodney would have to ride to Philadelphia without delay.
Caesar was asthmatic since childhood, was afflicted with facial cancer, and had been busy tamping down Loyalists that very day….yet he didn’t hesitate. He braved thunderstorms and fatigue and made the difficult journey to cast a vote that was an act of treason in the eyes of King George and Great Britain. Traitors would not be given a pass, and those who sought independence understood that.
Soon after the Declaration of Independence was written, it was signed by 56 men who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. Caesar Rodney was among them. He continued the fight for independence as a Brigadier General in the Delaware militia and a member of the colonial government.
He was chosen by the state legislature to be the President of the State of Delaware from 1778 until 1781. The office had been created soon after Delaware and the other Thirteen Colonies declared independence from Great Britain, and the state adopted its first state constitution.
After the war ended and the nation achieved the independence Caesar sacrificed for, he was elected to the State senate and accepted the speakership, but sadly Caesar Rodney’s poor health had progressed and he passed away the next year at the age of 55.
Caesar Rodney, the subject of one of the two statues from Delaware in the National Statuary Hall Collection, cast a crucial vote on July 2, 1776 that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence!
Pictured is a statue of Caesar Rodney on the important ride. It’s located in Wilmington, Delaware. (Sadly, the statue was removed from its pedestal in 2020 for safekeeping...its still in storage 😔)
