He was dying of facial cancer hidden behind a green scarf — yet rode 70 miles through a midnight thunderstorm to cast the single vote that locked in American independence.
On the night of July 1–2, 1776, Caesar Rodney rode 70 miles through a violent thunderstorm from Dover to Philadelphia in roughly 13 hours. He arrived at the Continental Congress still in his riding boots, sweating and mud-splattered, just in time to break Delaware's deadlocked delegation and cast the decisive vote for independence.
Rodney had suffered from severe facial cancer and chronic asthma for most of his adult life. He concealed the disfiguring growth on his face beneath a green silk scarf — yet never let his condition slow his political or military service.
Born in 1728 into a prosperous Delaware plantation family, Rodney rose through colonial offices as sheriff, justice of the peace, and register of wills before becoming a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. He was one of Delaware's earliest and most vocal voices for resisting British taxation.
During the Revolutionary War, Rodney served as President (governor) of Delaware from 1778 to 1781 — the period of the state's greatest military and financial strain. He personally organized Delaware's militia, procured supplies, and held the fragile state together while facing Loyalist threats from within.
Rodney signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776, alongside the other delegates. His signature placed him permanently among the Founding Fathers, yet he remains far less famous than many of his peers — a gap his admirers have long considered a historical injustice.
When Rodney died on June 26, 1784, he was buried in an unmarked grave on his farm. His remains were later moved, but the location of his original burial was lost for decades — an ironic end for the man whose midnight ride had helped birth a nation.
Rodney never married and left no direct heirs. His legacy was preserved largely through historical memory rather than family lineage, and for much of the 19th century his role in the independence vote was underappreciated.
In 1999, Delaware honored Rodney by putting his equestrian statue — depicting him mid-gallop on his famous ride — on the Delaware state quarter. The image became one of the most recognizable in the 50 State Quarters program, finally giving his dramatic story a mass audience.