Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/326

ware preparing the people for a change of govern- ment. His colleagues, Thomas McKean and George Read, were divided on the question, and the former, knowing Rodney to be favorable to the declaration, urged him by special message to hasten his return. He did so. and by great exertion arrived just in season for the final discussion. His affirmative vote secured the consent of the Delaware delegation to the measure, and thus effected that unanimity among the colonies that was so essential to the cause of independence. The opposition of the roy- alists, who abounded in the lower counties, pre- vented his election the succeeding year ; but as a member of the councils of safety and inspection he displayed great activity in collecting supplies for the troops of the state that were then with Wash- ington in Morristown, N. J. He went to Trenton, where Lord Stirling made him post commandant, and then to Morristown, but, by Washington's permission, he returned home in February. 1777. 1 1 'fused the appointment as a judge of the su- preme court, organized in February. 1777. and on 5 June, 1777, was chosen judge of admiralty, but retained his military office, suppressed an insunve- tion against the government in Sussex county, and when, in August, the British advanced into Dela- ware, he collected troops, and. by direction of Gen. Washington, placed himself south of the main army to watch the movements of the British at the head <>f Elk river, Md.. and, if possible, to cut them off from their fleet. During this period he was in correspondence with Glen. Washington, with whom he had long been on terms of friendly intimacy. In September he became major-general of militia, and in December he was again elected to congress ; but he did not take his seat, as in the mean time he had been elected president of Delaware, which office he held for four years, till January, 1782, when he declined re-election. He was then chosen to congress, and again in 1783, but did not take his seat. He had been suffering for many years from a cancer on the face, which ultimately caused his death. As a public man In- displayed great integ- rity and elevation of character, and, though a firm Whig, never failed in the duties of humanity toward those that suffered for adhering to opinions that differed from his own. His brother, Thomas, jurist, b. in Sussex county, Del., 4 June, 1744 ; d. in Rodney, Miss., 2 Jan., 1811, was a justice of the pi i in 1770 and again in 1784. a member of the a-semlily in 1774 to elect delegates to the firM ('.in- stitutional congress, and in 1775 a member of the council of safety. He was colonel of the Delaware militia and rendered important services to the Con- tinental army during the Revolutionary war. In

he was chief justice of Kent county court, in 
register of bills, and was a delegate from 

Delaware to the Continental congress in 1781-'3 and in 1785-'7. In 1787 he was made speaker of the assembly, and in 1802 was appointed superin- tendent of the Kent county almshouse and Dedi- mus potestatimus. He was appointed in 1803 U. S. judge for the territory of Mississippi, and became a l.iinl-ciwner in Jefferson county, where the town of Rodney was named in his honor. Thomas's son, Caesar Augustus, statesman, b. in Dover, Del., 4 Jan., 1772; d. in Buenos Ayres, South America, 10 June, 1824, was graduated at the Univer.-ity of Pennsylvania in 1789, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1793, and practised at Wilmington, Del. He was elected to eonu'i-ess from Delaware as a Democrat, serving from 17 Oct.. 1803, till 3 March. 1805, was a member of the committee of ways and means, and one of the managers in the impeach- ment of Judge Samuel Chase. In 1807 lie was ap- pointed by President Jefferson attorney-general of the United States, which place he resigned in 1811. During the war with Great Britain in 1812 he com- manded a rifle corps in Wilmington which was afterward changed to a light artillery company, which did good service on the frontiers of Canada, In 1813 he was a member of the Delaware commit- tee of safety. He was defeated for congress and in 1815 was state senator from New Castle county. In 1817 he was sent to South America by President Monroe as one of the commissioners to investigate and report upon the propriety of recognizing the independence of the Spanish-American republics, which course he strongly advocated on his return to Washington. In 1820 he was re-elected to con- gress, and in 1822 he became a member of the U. S. senate, being the first Democrat that had a seat in that body from Delaware. He served till 27 Jan., when he was appointed minister to the United provinces of La Plata. With John Graham he pub- lished " Reports on the Present State of the United Provinces of South America " (London, 1819).

RODNEY, Daniel, senator, b. in Delaware in 1764: d. there, 2 Sept., 1846. He was the great- grandson of William Rodney, the first of the fam- ily to come to this country, and a second cousin of ( 'a'sar Augustus Rodney. He was a presiden- tial elector in 1809, and governor of Delaware in 1814-'17. He received the electoral vote of that state for vice-president in 1821, was elected to congress, serving from 2 Dec., 1822, till 3 March, 1824. He was appointed United States senator from Delaware, to fill the uncompleted term of Nicholas Van Dyke, deceased, and served from 4 Dec., 1826, till 23 Jan.. 1827.

RODNEY, George Brydges, Baron, English naval officer, b. in Walton-upon-Thames, Surrey, 19 Feb., 1718; d. in London, 21 May, 1792. At the age of twelve he left Harrow school and en- tered the navy, becoming a lieutenant in 1739, cap- tain in 1742. and in 174* governor and command- er-in-chief of the station of Newfoundland. On his return to England in 1752 he was elected to parliament for Saltash, and he was promoted rear- admiral in 1759. and ap- pointed in 1761 com- mander-in-chief of Bar- badoes and the Wind- ward islands, capturing St. Pierre, Grenada, and St. Lucia. He was pro- moted vice-admiral in the following year, created a baronet in 1764, appoint-

ed master of Greenwich

hospital in 1705, and returned to parliament for Northampton in 1768. He resigned his governorship of Greenwich in 1771, on being appointed commander-in-chii I ai Janmiea, which post he held til! 1774, when he returned to England, but, failing to make arrangements ith his creditors, he sought refuge from them in France. Obtaining money to pay his debts, he returned to England in 177!i. wa> promoted admiral, and when Spain joined France in tin- war against England he sailed to the West Indies us commander-in-chief of the statimi. ilh a lleei of twenty-two ships-of-the-line ami ei^hl frigates. On 1(1 Jan.. 17*11. off C.-ipe St. Vim n,t lie fell in with a Spanish divi.-ion of eleven ships and two frigates