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- This article is about the Revolutionary leader from Delaware, for the U.S. Attorney General, see Caesar A. Rodney.
Caesar Rodney (October 7 1728 – June 26 1784), was an American lawyer and politician from Jones Neck, in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, east of Dover. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who served as a Continental Congressman, and President of Delaware during most of the American Revolution.
Early life and family
Rodney was born October 7, 1728 at Byfield, his family's farm at Jones Neck, in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. It is just north of John Dickinson's mansion, Poplar Hall. He was the son of Caesar and Mary Crawford Rodney, and grandson of William Rodney, who came to America in the 1680's and had been Speaker of the Colonial Assembly of the Lower Counties in 1704. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Thomas Crawford, Anglican priest at Dover. Byfield was an 800 acre farm, worked by a small number of slaves, and with the addition of other adjacent properties, the Rodney's were, by the standards of the day, wealthy members of the local gentry. Sufficient income was earned from the sale of wheat and barley to the Philadelphia and West Indies market to provide enough cash and leisure to allow members of the family to participate in the social and political life of Kent County.
Caesar Rodney was first educated at home, but later attended the Latin School in Philadelphia. Rodney's father died in 1745, when he was 17 years old, and the younger Rodney was placed under the guardianship of Nicholas Ridgely, Clerk of the Peace in Kent County. As the eldest son, he ran the family farm for 10 years before entering politics. His mother remarried and had two additional children, but she died in 1763. Subsequently, Caesar was the primary provider for his younger brothers and sisters, and was especially close to his brother Thomas Rodney and half sister, Sally Wilson, who kept house for him. He never married. According to tradition he courted Mary (Polly) Vining, aunt of later U.S. Senator John M. Vining. However, she married the Rev. Charles Inglis, the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Dover, where the family attended church.
Early political career
Thomas Rodney described his brother at this time as having a "great fund of wit and humor of the pleasing kind, so that his conversation was always bright and strong and conducted by wisdom... He always lived a bachelor, was generally esteemed, and indeed very popular." Accordingly, he easily moved into the political world formerly occupied by his father and guardian. In 1755 he was elected High Sheriff of Kent County and served the maximum three years allowed. This was a powerful and financially rewarding position in that it supervised elections and choose the grand jurors who set the county tax rate. After serving his three years he was appointed to a series of positions including Register of Wills, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Orphan's Court, Justice of the Peace, and judge in the lower courts. During the French and Indian War, he was commissioned captain of the Dover Hundred company in Col. John Vining's regiment of Delaware militia. They never saw active service. From 1769 through 1777 he was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Lower Counties.
Eighteenth century Delaware was politically divided into loose factions known as the "Court Party" and the "Country Party." The majority Court Party was generally Anglican, strongest in Kent County and Sussex County, worked well with the colonial Proprietary government, and was in favor of reconciliation with the British government. The minority Country Party was largely Ulster-Scot, centered in New Castle County, and quickly advocated independence from the British. In spite of being members of the Anglican Kent County gentry, Rodney and his brother, Thomas Rodney, increasingly aligned themselves with the Country Party, a distinct minority in Kent County. As such he generally worked in partnership with Thomas McKean from New Castle County, and in opposition to their friends and respective neighbors, John Dickinson and George Read.
American Revolution
Rodney joined Thomas McKean as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 and was a leader of the Delaware Committee of Correspondence. He began service in the Assembly of the Lower Counties in the 1761/62 session and continued in office through the 1775/76 session. Several times he served as Speaker, including the momentous day of June 15, 1775 when "with Rodney in the chair and McKean leading the debate on the floor," the Assembly of the Lower Counties voted to separate all ties with the British Parliament and King.
Because of his military experience Rodney was named Brigadier General of Delaware's militia. As Delaware and the other colonies moved rapidly from protest to self-government and then to independence, the situation in strongly loyalist Kent and Sussex Counties rapidly deteriorated. Numerous local leaders spoke strongly in favor of maintaining the ties with Great Britain and Rodney and his militia were repeatedly required to suppress the resultant insurrections. Some of the Loyalists were arrested and jailed, some escaped to the swamps or British ships, and some just remained quietly resistant to the new government.
Meanwhile Rodney served in the Continental Congress along with Thomas McKean and George Read from 1774 through 1776. Rodney was in Dover attending to Loyalist activity in Sussex County when he received word from Thomas McKean that he and George Read were deadlocked on the vote for independence. To break that deadlock, Rodney rode eighty miles through a thunderstorm on the night of July 1, 1776, dramatically arriving in Philadelphia "in his boots and spurs" just as the voting was beginning. He voted with McKean and thereby caused Delaware to join eleven other states voting in favor of the Declaration of Independence. He also assured his own electoral defeat in Kent County for a seat in the upcoming Delaware Constitutional Convention and the new Delaware General Assembly. Learning of the death of his friend John Haslet at the Battle of Princeton, Rodney went to join General George Washington briefly in late 1776. Washington soon returned to him Delaware, where, as Major-General of the Delaware Militia, his leadership was badly needed to protect the state from British military intrusions and to control continued loyalist activity, particularly in Sussex County.
President of Delaware
Amidst the catastrophic events following the Battle of Brandywine, and the occupation of Wilmington and Philadelphia, a 2nd General Assembly was elected in October 1777, and it promptly put Rodney and Thomas McKean back into the Continental Congress. Then with State President John McKinly in captivity and Acting President George Read completely exhausted, they elected Rodney President of Delaware on March 31, 1778. Delaware now had a dedicated, energetic and competent leader, but it would be a mistake to confuse the office of State President in 1778 with that of a modern Governor in the United States. Rodney's effectiveness came from his popularity with the General Assembly, where the real authority lay, and from the loyalty he had from the Delaware militia, which was the only available means of enforcing that authority.
The career of one notorious Loyalist, Cheney Clow, began at this time. Clow gathered a large group of sympathizers, built a fort, and prepared to march on the new state capital at Dover. Defeated in that attempt, they scattered into the woods and swamps and wrought havoc throughout the rest of the war, earning an animosity that was not easily forgotten afterwards. Rodney took extraordinary steps to try and control the Loyalists by prohibiting trading with the British, requiring oaths of allegiance, and by confiscating property of those that would not take the oaths. Many people left.
Meanwhile Rodney scoured the state for money, supplies and soldiers to support the national war effort. Delaware Continentals had fought famously well in many battles from the Battle of Long Island to the Battle of Monmouth, but in 1780 the whole army suffered its worst defeat at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina. The small Delaware regiment was nearly destroyed and the remnant was so reduced it could only fight with a Maryland regiment for the remainder of the war. And still the Loyalists and privateers along the coast kept Sussex County seething. Rodney had done much to stabilize the situation, but his health was worsening and he resigned his office November 6, 1781, just after the conclusive Battle of Yorktown.
Rodney was then elected by the Delaware General Assembly to the United States Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1782 and 1783, but was unable to serve due to ill health. However, two years after leaving the State Presidency he was elected to the 1783/84 session of the Legislative Council or State Senate and, as a final gesture of respect, the Council selected him to be their Speaker. Regretably, his health was now in rapid decline and even though the Legislative Council or State Senate met at his home for a short time, he died before the session ended.
Death and legacy
Rodney died June 25, 1784 at Poplar Grove, his home in St. Jones Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. He was buried in the family plot at Byerly, but the exact location of his grave on the farm is unknown. There is a monument in the Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Dover, built over what were believed at one time to have been his remains.
John Adams described Rodney, suffering from asthma as well as skin cancer of the face, as "the oddest looking man in the world; he is tall, thin and slender as a reed, and pale; his face is not bigger than a large apple, yet there is sense and fire, spirit, wit and humor in this countenance." The cancer on his face was a source of great discomfort for many years and was so disfiguring that he often wore a green silk scarf to conceal it. Although they both had military experience, Rodney's background was almost the mirror of his predecessor, John McKinly. Where McKinly was an Ulster-Scot Presbyterian from New Castle County who was politically aligned with the compromise seeking "Court Party" of the Lower Counties, Rodney was a member of the Anglican gentry from strongly Loyalist downstate who eventually became politically aligned with the independence seeking "Country Party." Combined with his personal abilities, it was a good mix to successfully lead a very divided Delaware population through the revolutionary era. Goodrich summed up his character as "a man of great integrity, and of pure patriotic feeling. He delighted, when necessary, to sacrifice his private interests for the public good. He was remarkably distinguished for a degree of good humor and vivacity; and in generosity of character was an ornament to human nature."
Delaware has many places named in his honor, including Caesar Rodney High School in Dover, Rodney Square, the central plaza of the city of Wilmington, and various buildings at the University of Delaware. Rodney's statue, along with that of John Middleton Clayton, represents Delaware in the National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. For the back of the Delaware Statehood Quarter, in 1999 Delaware overwhelmingly chose to use the image of his famous ride to Philadelphia to cast the deciding vote for the Declaration of Independence.
Public offices
At this time Delaware elections were held the first of October. Members of the House of Assembly took office on the twentieth day of October for a term of one year. Before 1776, six Assemblymen were elected, at large, from each county. After 1776 the number increased to seven and an upper house was created, the Legislative Council, which had three State Councilmen elected, at large, from each county for a term of three years.
The General Assembly chose the Continental Congressmen for a term of one year and the State President for a term of three years.
1728 births | 1784 deaths | Continental Congressmen | Signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence | Delaware State Senators | Governors of Delaware | American Episcopalians | English Americans
"Caesar Rodney"