With the Fourth of July right around the corner, let's take one second to look back on July, 1776, to the days when the Continental Congress was debating the issue of proclaiming independence from Britain.
When all the shouting and tumult was over, the delegates of the Second Continental Congress would declare that the Thirteen Colonies were breaking away from the rule of Britain's King George III. The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, but it took one man to break a tie and make it happen.
Every signer of the Declaration put his life on the line; splitting from Mother England was an act of treason. But delegate .jpeg)
Caesar Rodney of Delaware was twice endangered. He missed the trial (preliminary) vote on July 1 because he was suffering from late-stage cancer. When the votes were tallied, with only two of the Delaware delegates present, they split their votes on July 1, one for and one against proclaiming independence. With a final vote set for July 2, Thomas McKean, the pro-independence Delaware delegate, sent a message by rider to the ailing Rodney urging him to get to Philadelphia from his home in Dover ASAP!
In those days, there was no AMTRAK, no buses, no I-95. There was a horse to ride and a violent thunderstorm to ride through. All afternoon, all night, and into the morning Rodney rode to Phila and delivered the decisive vote.
It's said that Rodney was mud from head to toe when he got to the vote. In his modesty, all he said was, “I arrived in Congress, though detained by thunder and rain, in time enough to give my voice in the matter of independence.”
And all these years later, we can be thankful.
No comments:
Post a Comment