Delaware's ratification of the Declaration of Independence
Delaware's role in the founding of the United States stands as a defining chapter in American history. While the state is perhaps best remembered as the first to ratify the United States Constitution on December 7, 1787, its engagement with the revolutionary movement that produced the Declaration of Independence in 1776 is equally significant. The delegates who represented Delaware in the Second Continental Congress navigated intense political pressures, internal divisions, and a rapidly shifting colonial landscape to arrive at a moment of decisive action. Understanding how Delaware came to support the Declaration requires examining the colony's political culture, the instructions given to its delegates, and the broader context of a continent moving toward separation from Great Britain.
Background: Delaware's Colonial Status
Delaware in the mid-eighteenth century occupied an unusual position among the American colonies. Formally known as the Three Lower Counties on Delaware, the territory had been governed in close association with Pennsylvania since the late seventeenth century, though it maintained its own assembly. This arrangement created a distinct political identity — one that was neither wholly aligned with the larger, more assertive colonies nor entirely passive in the face of British imperial policy.
The colony's economy rested on agriculture, trade through the Delaware River, and a network of small towns and rural communities. Its population was relatively small compared to Virginia or Massachusetts, but its political class included men of considerable legal and oratorical ability. These were individuals who read English legal theory, followed parliamentary debates, and had strong opinions about the rights of British subjects in America.
By the early 1770s, the tensions that had been building across all the colonies — over taxation, parliamentary authority, and the quartering of troops — were felt in Delaware as well. Local leaders debated how far resistance should go and what form it should take. The question of independence, when it finally came, would prove divisive before it proved unifying.
The Road to the Second Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia in 1774, had urged the colonies to redress their grievances through coordinated economic resistance and political petitions. Delaware sent delegates who participated in these early deliberations. The Congress had framed its demands carefully, insisting on American loyalty to the Crown while asserting that certain rights could not be violated.
When the First Continental Congress adjourned, it called for a second meeting if Britain had not addressed colonial concerns — a contingency that, as events unfolded, became a certainty.[1] By the spring of 1775, with fighting having broken out at Lexington and Concord, the political situation had transformed dramatically. The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May 1775 with a far more urgent mandate than its predecessor.
Delaware's representatives arrived in Philadelphia as part of a colonial delegation that still contained significant numbers of men reluctant to push toward outright independence. The question of what instructions delegates had received from their home assemblies would prove crucial in the months that followed.
Delaware's Assembly and the Authorization of Action
among the most consequential procedural steps in Delaware's path toward supporting independence came through a formal action by the Delaware Assembly. On March 16, the Delaware Assembly authorized its delegates "to concert and agree upon such further measures, as shall appear to them best calculated for the establishment of American rights and liberties, and for restoring harmony between Great Britain and the colonies on constitutional principles."[2]
This language is worth examining carefully. The authorization was broad enough to permit delegates to engage with radical proposals while still being framed in terms of restoring harmony with Britain. It gave the delegates flexibility without explicitly endorsing independence. This kind of carefully worded instruction was typical of the period — colonial assemblies were navigating enormous uncertainty and did not wish to foreclose any options prematurely.
The authorization reflected a genuine tension within Delaware politics. There were loyalist sympathizers, cautious moderates, and committed patriots all operating within the same small political world. Getting any authorization passed at all required compromise and strategic language. That the assembly acted at all was itself a signal that Delaware's political leadership recognized the gravity of the moment.
Delaware's Delegates to the Continental Congress
Delaware sent three delegates to the Second Continental Congress who would be central to the state's eventual support for independence: Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and George Read.
Caesar Rodney was among the most energetic advocates for independence within the Delaware delegation. A planter and longtime political figure, Rodney had been active in colonial resistance efforts for years. His commitment to the patriot cause was not in doubt, though his ability to be present at critical votes depended on both his health — he suffered from a serious illness throughout this period — and his obligations managing military affairs within Delaware itself.
Thomas McKean was similarly committed to independence and worked closely with like-minded delegates from other colonies. His legal background shaped his approach to the constitutional arguments being made both for and against a formal break with Britain.
George Read occupied a more cautious position. He was deeply concerned about the consequences of independence and the practical challenges of establishing new governments. His hesitation was not unique — across the colonies, men of similar temperament worried about what independence would actually mean in terms of governance, foreign alliances, and the risk of military defeat.
The dynamic among these three men would define Delaware's participation in the vote on independence.
The Context of the Declaration Itself
The Declaration of Independence was not produced in a single dramatic moment but through months of political maneuvering, drafting, and revision. The document that Thomas Jefferson primarily drafted went through substantial revision by the Congress as a whole.[3] Delegates debated language, removed passages, and adjusted arguments to accommodate the diverse political realities represented in the room.
The Declaration served multiple purposes simultaneously. It was a statement of political philosophy, drawing on Enlightenment ideas about natural rights and the social contract. It was also a practical political document, designed to articulate grievances against King George III in a way that could build domestic and international support. And it was a legal instrument of sorts, formally dissolving the bond between the colonies and the British Crown and establishing the basis for the colonies to act as independent states.
For Delaware's delegates, the document represented an extraordinary step. Signing it meant committing to a course of action from which there would be no comfortable retreat. The risks were not abstract — men who signed the Declaration were, from the perspective of the British government, committing treason.
The Vote and Caesar Rodney's Ride
The formal vote on independence came on July 2, 1776, when the Congress considered Richard Henry Lee's resolution calling for independence. Each colony cast a single vote, meaning that within delegations where there was disagreement, the internal arithmetic mattered enormously.
In Delaware's case, the split between McKean and Read meant that the delegation's vote depended on a third voice. Rodney, who had been away from Philadelphia attending to militia affairs in Delaware, received word from McKean that his presence was urgently needed. What followed became one of the celebrated episodes of the revolutionary period: Rodney rode through the night, reportedly covering approximately eighty miles in difficult conditions, to arrive in time to cast his vote in favor of independence. His arrival broke the deadlock and allowed Delaware to vote yes.
The episode illustrates how contingent the vote actually was. Had Rodney not made that ride, Delaware might have abstained or voted against independence on July 2. The fact that he did arrive, and that Delaware did vote in favor, reflects both the commitment of individual patriots and the fragility of the coalition that produced the Declaration.
Signing the Document
The formal signing of the engrossed parchment copy of the Declaration took place primarily on August 2, 1776, though some delegates signed later. Delaware's signers were Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean, and — despite his earlier reservations about independence — George Read.
Read's decision to sign is significant. His reservations had been genuine, and he had voted against independence on July 2. Yet he ultimately placed his name on the document, accepting the political reality that independence had been declared and that his role now was to help make it succeed. This kind of pragmatic acceptance, setting aside personal reservations to support a collective decision, was not unique to Read but was representative of how many cautious delegates ultimately engaged with the revolutionary project.
The signatures of all three Delaware delegates on the Declaration meant that the state had fully committed itself, at least at the level of its Congressional representation, to the cause of independence.
Delaware's Broader Revolutionary Commitment
Delaware's support for the Declaration did not occur in isolation from other forms of political and military engagement. The colony was in the process of organizing its own government, raising troops, and managing the very real threat of loyalist activity within its borders. Caesar Rodney's frequent absences from Philadelphia during this period reflected the demands placed on patriot leaders who had to simultaneously prosecute a war and attend to Continental affairs.
The state's geography also shaped its experience of the Revolution. Situated between Pennsylvania and Maryland, with access to the Delaware River and the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware was a potential corridor for British military movements. This proximity to conflict made the stakes of the independence decision intensely practical, not merely theoretical.
Ratification of the Constitution and Historical Memory
Delaware's subsequent history as the first state to ratify the United States Constitution on December 7, 1787, has sometimes overshadowed its role in the Declaration of Independence.[4] The nickname "The First State" derives from that constitutional ratification, which came quickly and by a unanimous vote of the state's convention delegates. The Constitution itself had been signed by its framers on September 17, 1787, before being sent to the states for ratification.[5]
Yet the Declaration came first, both chronologically and in terms of establishing the foundational assertion that the American states were free and independent. Delaware's participation in that declaration — made possible by Rodney's famous ride, enabled by the assembly's authorization of its delegates, and formalized by the signatures of all three of its Congressional representatives — represents a moment of genuine historical consequence.
The study of how individual colonies moved toward independence reveals the complexity of the revolutionary movement. It was not a simple or uniform process. Men disagreed, assemblies chose careful language, votes were close, and individuals had to make difficult personal decisions. Delaware's story captures all of these dimensions and illustrates that the Declaration of Independence was, in the end, a product of human decisions made under conditions of great uncertainty.
Legacy
Delaware's ratification of the Declaration of Independence left a lasting mark on the state's political identity. The memory of Caesar Rodney's ride became a symbol of decisive action in service of a larger cause, and Rodney himself became the most celebrated figure in Delaware's revolutionary history. His image appears on the Delaware state quarter, issued as part of the United States Mint's 50 State Quarters program.
The broader legacy of Delaware's role in the founding period is one of a small state that participated fully — and at times decisively — in the creation of an independent nation. From the assembly's authorization of its delegates to act on behalf of American rights, to the dramatic circumstances of the July 2 vote, to the signatures affixed to the final document, Delaware's engagement with the Declaration of Independence reflects the full complexity of the revolutionary experience.