The Founders: Caesar Rodney

Caesar Rodney

When angry count to ten. When very angry a hundred. Thomas Jefferson

Caesar Rodney was the son of a wealthy plantation owner. He received very little formal education but became the sheriff of Kent County, Delaware in 1755 at age 26. He joined the Committee of Correspondence at its founding and and was one of three Delaware delegates to the Continental Congress. When he heard that the Delegation was deadlocked on the issue of signing the Declaration of Independence he rode 80 miles through the night to vote for the declaration and break the deadlock. If Jefferson was the father of the declaration, Rodney was the heroic deciding vote.

Rodney was a bachelor. He suffered throughout his adult life with disfiguring skin cancers on his face yet he persevered. He wore a silk scarf around his face to cover his disfigurement. He was a slave holder. At his death he issued a phased manumission order for his 18 remaining slaves.

There is no quote that I could find. He is buried on the old family plantation, near Dover Air Force Base, in an unmarked grave.