July 2

Delaware was the 12th of the 13 American colonies to approve the resolution before the Continental Congress that would authorize the colonies to declare their independence from Great Britain. Providing even more evidence that New Yorkers are never on the cutting edge, that colony abstained. There were five men in the Delaware contingent. Three were split two to one on the issue, two favoring independence. The two were decidedly against it. One of the delegates in favor, Caesar Rodney was not present because he was seeing his doctors. Delaware was deadlocked! Rodney was tall, very thin and he covered his face with a flamboyant silk scarf to hide the ravages of skin cancer (think 18th century Michael Jackson). Apparently seeing which way the wind was blowing and believing that Delaware should speak with one voice in such a grave undertaking, the two opposed to independence simply didn’t show up for the voting. Another tradition that has been handed down to us, though observed with less noble intentions today. The 2nd in 1776 was the close of voting on the issue. At 9 o’clock that evening, as the doors of Congress were being locked at the close of business, who should show up at Congress’s door? None other than Caesar. He had ridden 80 miles on horseback, changing horses several times, to get to Philadelphia to cast his vote. While only 12 of the 13 colonies approved the declaration of independence, with such a resounding approval everything was pretty much downhill from this point. It was a piece of cake. All that remained after the signing of the Declaration for the colonies’ independence to be secured was to sign the document, wage a world war and lose millions of dollars and thousands of lives. No biggy.

At the time of the passing of the resolution for a Declaration of Independence, more than 500,000 people, more than 20%, of all the people in the United States were slaves.