Remembering the signers of the
Declaration of Independence

July 2023

This month, we had our writers write about the signers of the
Declaration of Independence!

Caesar Rodney, a leader from Delaware

Devin Owen
MSMU Class of 2026

One thing about me is that I am incredibly partial to my roots: from the beach where the bay waves crash to the back roads filled with cornfields and the music of the singing of crickets and June bugs. I am someone incredibly passionate about my home, and my peers at the Mount learned that rather quickly given how often I spoke of the sweet and serene small towns of Delaware.

This favoring is what led to me to my desire to write on Caesar Rodney, an original resident of the small state of Delaware. Born near Dover, DE in 1728, Rodney—according to history.com—spent his life serving as an "assemblyman, delegate, and state president" whilst also playing a rather crucial role in the American Revolution. He may not have been an active leader in the revolution, but as the General of the Delaware forces, he did supply soldiers with necessities such as food.

Dover is a town about 40 or so minutes away from my hometown of Lewes. It’s funny; until this prompt, I was never aware of who Caesar Rodney was, even though there is a high school named after him in his hometown. The school is known as the "Caesar Rodney Riders," which is in reference to Rodney’s midnight ride to Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Many associate the Midnight Ride with Mister Paul Revere and his supposed shouts of "the British are coming!" Yet, Rodney’s ride was far more important in the entirety of the matter as he cast the deciding vote for Delaware’s independence from Great Britain. His ride had the greater impact on the future of the colonies that would later become the free and independent states we now know. The other two Delaware founders, Thomas McKean and George Read, were at odds with decision; while McKean was for the split from Britain, Read most certainly was not, which led to the need for Rodney’s immediate presence in Philadelphia to cast the deciding vote. It’s interesting to think that for such a small state, Delaware needed three founders/assemblymen to decide what should be the conclusion for the future of their independence.

Throughout his ride, Rodney was in a great deal of pain due to his cancerous affliction in the face. The affliction was so awful that it had completely disfigured his features to the point that he was left forced to wear a green, silk veil to prevent upsetting those who may have seen him—though, this silk veil only drew more attention to him. That being said, he was advised against activities such as intense riding, given that they could be detrimental towards his health.

According to US History online, another well-known figure of this time, John Adams, described Rodney as "...the oddest looking man in the world; he is tall, thin and slender as a reed, pale; his face is not bigger than a large apple, yet there is sense and fire, spirit, wit and humor in this countenance." This spirit that Adams spoke of is what made Caesar Rodney so memorable, especially because, who in their right mind would ride from Delaware to Philadelphia on horseback just to cast a vote? Who would risk their life to break a tied vote? Who would love to see the future of America come to be so badly that he pushed himself to the brink of collapse? Caesar Rodney not only would have; he did so.

For those who might think that Rodney’s significance ends with his ride to Independence Hall, I, with the utmost joy, must inform you that you’d be mistaken. Following his ride, Rodney was tasked with juggling the responsibilities of being a General in the Continental Army as well as a delegate to the Continental Congress. Following these tasks, Rodney was elected to be the first president of Delaware in 1778, making him a crucial piece of Delaware’s history. All that being said, and Rodney’s importance still has not yet ended; after his presidential term of two years, he was elected as a state legislator, which he went on to serve as for another two years.

Rodney’s spirit and fire eventually gave out in 1784, where he died in his hometown of Dover at the hand of the cancer he had been battling for so long. Having never married, Rodney only left behind those who knew him and, most importantly, his legacy.

I find it rather refreshing that I was given the opportunity to not only immerse myself in the knowledge and history of my home state, but knowledge and history of my country as well. How cool is it to say that one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence is from the state in which you grew up in and call home? As I said earlier, Caesar Rodney is a well-known name in the state of Delaware; yet in the grand scheme of things, his is not a name commonly known in regard to the part he played in our separation from Great Britain. I find that idea quite saddening, given the efforts he went through in order to make the tiebreaking decision on whether or not Delaware would go to war—the incredibly crucial decision as to whether or not we would have our freedom.

That all being said, I ask you to close your eyes and picture the Fourth of July festivities which you may partake in each year—whether it be outdoor games, barbeques, watching fireworks, going to the beach, or any other traditions you might have—and I urge you to ask yourselves: why do you partake in such traditions? What makes this day one which should call for celebration? To answer these questions, think of the efforts those who signed the Declaration of Independence went through in order to do so; think of the efforts that simple men, who lived their daily lives in an "ordinary" way similar to us, went through in order to fight for our freedom.

Isn’t it neat that someone like Caesar Rodney, from a small town such as Dover, could have (and did) have such an impact on the future of our history?

Read other articles by Devin Owen

The Competent are forgotten

Joey Carlson
MSMU Class of 2025

John Jay was an exact contemporary (1745 – 1829) of the Founding Fathers we know well (Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, etc.), and at the time, no American would have held Jay in any lower regard than those three I just mentioned. He was a prominent Federalist, the party in favor of a strong central government and opposed to American involvement in the French Revolution, alongside John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. Though strong men of quiet virtue certainly held stature at our nation’s founding, they are typically forgotten by history; history which often loves the outrageous and the controversial.

Posterity does not remember John Jay for two reasons. The first is that, unlike his contemporaries, he was not a prolific author. He was certainly intelligent, but he had what we might today call a judicial temperament, and he was not bombast and voluminous like Hamilton, or an idealist like Jefferson. Rather he was simple, honest, and competent, as well as intelligent, and a private man. He burned many of his private letters to his wife, and for these reasons, there is simply less to read by Jay. If people have read Jay, they have read one of his five (out of ninety-five) Federalist Papers. The second reason Jay has been forgotten is because he never became President of the United States, the reason for which was in fact because of Jay’s honesty and competence. George Washington sent Jay to negotiate with the British in 1794, and Jay managed to secure an impossible treaty. The United States as a young nation had zero bargaining power, and had it not been for Jay, we would have had, essentially, a more devastating War of 1812 only 17 years earlier. Jay ought to have been hailed as a hero for securing an impossible peace, but upon his return he found that the nation abhorred him. Jay’s public opinion had been decided from the moment the American people discovered that they were making deals with that tyrant, King George. So, the Federalists opted for a candidate with greater swing-state appeal, John Adams.

When history remembers great American foreign diplomats, what is forgotten is that John Jay was our first Secretary of Foreign Affairs (he was responsible for securing funds from the Spanish government in 1780). Additionally, the first acting Secretary of State was actually John Jay. He was also President of the Second Continental Congress in 1779, but is forgotten beside John Hancock for the latter’s larger personality. John Jay was not present for the signing because his home state of New York was preparing for siege by the British, and so he joined a list of Founding Fathers who were not able to sign the Declaration including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and George Mason. Jay was selected to be our nation’s first head Supreme Court Justice, setting a strong precedent for the Court against political interventionism. It was incredibly difficult work and not at all prestigious, but Jay did the job well, just as he did everything well. He retired after six years and became the second Governor of New York from 1775 till 1801.

John Jay has received much attention in recent years as our nation has grappled with the fact that the same men who endorsed this statement, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," also owned people. Jay was born into a family with a deep history of owning slaves (his father owned a number of slave ships), but Jay, as a man of principle, was an abolitionist, successfully passing the gradual emancipation laws in New York that Jefferson was not able to accomplish in Virginia. Of course, Virginia was probably the most difficult State to attempt emancipation in, but many forget that New York had more slaves than any other Northern State. Sadly, however, Jay’s record here is not clean; he is not like George Wythe who died freeing his slaves. He owned five people even into his waning years as Governor, and on multiple occasions, he hunted down slaves who attempted to escape, not understanding why they would want to leave.

Jay had an incredibly close relationship with his wife and kids, with his wife even going with him to Europe on diplomatic missions. Jay was President of the American Bible Society, and especially after his wife died, was a deeply religious man. It was his Christian Faith that fueled his abolitionist views, and it was his Christian Faith that drew him to be a Revolutionary in the first place. Almost all the people he grew up with in New York were royalists, and most of them moved to and died in England. However, by 1776, Jay had already spent a lifetime trying to build a robust idea of American rights, and he was not willing to go back on his principles, even in the face of being ostracized or killed.

There is a final anecdote for our partisan times. In the election of 1800, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans were faced off in a role defining Presidential election. The main candidates were the incumbent John Adams for the Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson for the Democratic Republicans. John Jay was governor of New York, whose electoral votes had surprisingly swung for Jefferson. Adams sent a frantic letter to his fellow party member Jay, asking him to switch from electoral vote to popular vote so that he would have a better chance of winning (this was all apparently an issue from the beginning). Adams thought it was "no time to be scrupulous" in the face of such important issues, asking him to cheat for the sake of the nation. Jay did not even reply.

John Jay, a man of competency and quiet virtue, deserves a position beside Thomas Jefferson and the like; in the grand scheme of things, he is probably better off than Jefferson anyways. History may not remember such men, but God certainly does, and we should all prefer virtue to fame in every case.

Read other articles by Joseph Carlson

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Claire Doll
MSMU Class of 2024

I live in Carroll County, Maryland, not far from Emmitsburg. I love where I live because of the rolling farm fields, the seemingly endless space, and the long, country backroads. Only recently, while researching the forgotten signers of the Declaration of Independence, did I realize that my home county was named after Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Not only was he a Marylander; this signer was the last surviving contributor to the Declaration of Independence, and is from Annapolis, where my sister lives. I had no idea that this person was so relevant to the places I loved the most.

All these facts compelled me to know more about Charles Carroll. In fact, my county just recently created a Charles Carroll Community Center last year, at the site of the former Charles Carroll Elementary School in Westminster, Maryland. The center will include a full-size gymnasium, multipurpose rooms, and a technology room, all with Wi-Fi access.

So, who was Charles Carroll? Would he even care about any of this?

Born in Annapolis on September 19th, 1737, Carroll attended the Academy of Jesuits at Bohemia Manor and attended a Jesuit College at St. Omer, continuing his education until the age of 28. Carroll’s father hoped that his Catholic education would prepare him for the world and develop him into a thoughtful, insightful citizen. Carroll took on multiple occupations throughout his life: a planter, managing his estate; a subscriber to the Potamac Company; a partner to the Baltimore Ironworks Company; a proprietor of the Susquehanna Canal; a member of the Board of Directors for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company; and a landlord. Carroll was also elected to the Senate of Maryland and U.S. Senator from Maryland.

Carroll participated in framing and designing a constitution for Maryland. Being the last surviving member who signed the Declaration, Carroll was also the only Roman Catholic to do so.

Through research and information offered from catholiceducation.org, I learned that Catholics weren’t even allowed to vote at the time of the Declaration signing. "Catholics could no longer hold office, exercise the franchise, educate their children in their faith, or worship in public." However, through Carroll’s perspectives on defending freedom, he supported the war with his private funds. He fought against the bigotry of anti-Catholic laws and argued for the separation of church and state. According to thehistorylist.com, "Faced with both persecution and restrictions for his faith, Charles Carroll of Carrollton secured his family’s vision of personal, political, and religious freedom for all citizens when he became the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776."

After spending his life in France to pursue higher education, Carroll moved to London, continuing his legal studies and observing the British parliamentary system. This inspired a motivation to resist the British constitutional monarchy and use his philosophical and theological studies to enforce the culture of independence so relevant in Maryland. Carroll recognized the tensions between the colonies and the motherland and "returned from Europe filled with the great spirit into the controversy between the colonies and Great Britain" (Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence).

The "Of Carrollton" at the end of Carroll’s name on the Declaration of Independence serves as a distinction, since John Hancock does say that "Charles Carroll" itself is a quite common name, and he could be mistaken for a false identity. Carroll’s father supported Carroll in building his own Maryland Manor, named Carrollton, which he never used as a full-time residence. Established within Maryland’s society, Carroll prepared his son to develop and manage Carrollton, which had orchards, livestock, a cedar mill, and a small factory for making clothes.

The manor was also used to employ over three hundred slaves, which caused Carroll to feel immense discomfort, as his values did not align with slavery. Carroll would avoid breaking up families, and he provided religious and spiritual instruction to his slaves. He finally proposed a bill to abolish slavery altogether. Upon reading this, I found is disappointing yet unsurprising that Carroll owned slaves. While normalized for white men in the 1700s, one’s character is truly judged based on their perspective and participation in slavery. For Carroll, while he did vouch for abolition, he also owned slaves in the first place and used his manor with these intentions. I did not want to neglect this idea nor only list the positive facts about Carroll. This research also shows a different side of him, one painted by the conditions of our country at the time.

Our country has grown a lot, however. The same Declaration that Carroll signed in 1776 serves to remind us today that all men and women are created equal, that we are given rights that cannot be taken away from us. No matter his beliefs or dispositions, Carroll maintained that this document would secure the rights to all people in the present and future of the U.S. Our nation, shaped and challenged by significant historical events, stands today as a reminder of what we can accomplish.

Today, Charles Carroll’s manor remains as a historical landmark in Frederick County. The manor was a 17,000-acre tract of land, extending to the Potamac River, Catoctin Mountains, Monocacy River, and Ballenger Creek. When Charles Carroll died in 1832, the estate was given to his descendants, and the manor was eventually sold. Today, the manor serves as a guest house and meeting center.

As for my own county, Carroll County, it is fulfilling to research its history and namesake. Charles Carroll of Carrollton is known for being the only Catholic to sign the Declaration, for having his property as part of his name, and for being the longest surviving signer of the document. So, would Carroll care about having a new community center named after him? Or an elementary school? Or even an entire county? I believe he would. Carroll’s legacy invites us to define the meaning of independence and question the standards that might prevent us from following what is right. His name represents so much from where I live, and perhaps this is why his manor is so relevant to who he is. Just like his large and expansive estate, Charles Carroll still leaves a legacy today as a patriotic and ambitious American citizen.

Read other articles by Claire Doll

The generosity of Joseph Hewes, Declaration signer

McKenna Snow
MSMU Class of 2023

Born in 1730, Joseph Hewes was a man with a heart for the United States and a passion for people’s rights. Hailing from New Jersey, one might expect his involvement in signing the Declaration to have some ties to his home state. However, Joseph actually eventually became a representative for North Carolina, where he had significant popularity due to his likeable demeanor.

Joseph spent his early years in New Jersey, where he received a classical education. Interested in business and entrepreneurship, Joseph became an apprentice to Joseph Ogden, who was a merchant from Philadelphia. After some years in Philadelphia as a merchant himself, around 1760 Hewes moved to Edenton, North Carolina, to pursue business on his own.

Joseph was raised by his parents, who were Quakers, and this religious background likely impacted Joseph through his cultivation of a strong work ethic, and eventually his perspective on a peaceful split from Great Britain, while conversations about independence were first taking place. In the workplace, Joseph grew in popularity with his business because of his friendliness, his determination to work hard, and what Constituting America described as his "natural head for business." From researching, it seems that Joseph originally was not terribly interested in politics; how did he, a modest businessman, become involved in the signing of the Declaration? It began in Edenton, when, while he was working there, he became close friends with Samuel Johnston, who was, according to Constituting America, "one of the colony’s most influential lawyers and political leaders." Joseph eventually became a representative for Edenton "to the colonial assembly and served on committees on appropriations and finance, appropriate assignments considering his commercial background" (Constituting America). Johnston likely made an impact on him to become involved in local politics, but this did not take Joseph away from where he really flourished in the business world; rather, Joseph found a way to use his extensive talents and knowledge in business to combine these two interests through his choice of committees.

As tension grew between the colonies and Great Britain, Hewes tried to retain a moderate, peaceful, and more diplomatic perspective on the situation. He wasn’t in favor of remaining under the rule of the British monarch, but thought that violent action was unnecessary. He was a part of the North Carolina Committee of Correspondence, which, in 1774, "endorsed a Massachusetts’s proposal for a continental congress, and in August of that year, assembly members meeting in New Bern approved the committee report and elected Hewes, along with William Hooper and Richard Caswell, to represent North Carolina in a meeting in Philadelphia of all the colonies." This election was crucial in sending Hewes towards the meeting that would change everything.

But his views on how the colonies should split were not yet in favor of open war. It wasn’t until fighting began in Lexington and Concord, as well as "King George III’s subsequent refusal to negotiate with the colonies [which] undermined the position of moderates like Hewes and led him to act more aggressively" (Constituting America). Following these events, Hewes began to work in his state of North Carolina to bring more and more people to the cause of the Whigs, and he eventually helped promulgate Thomas Paine’s Common Sense around the state as well.

Throughout these efforts to grow support in North Carolina, Hewes suffered from malaria, which he contracted in 1774. He never fully healed from the effects of this sickness, and fought through this ailment throughout the rest of his involvement in the war. From the amount that he accomplished for the Whigs, he was determined to not let this sickness slow him down. He continued to attend meetings for the committee, and helped grow the military and naval strength of the Whigs. Wealthy from his business success before the war, Hewes saw to it that his wealth generously supported the colonies’ efforts for independence. Hewes had a shipping business before the war, and during the war he offered his ships to be a part of the Continental Armed Forces (US History.org). He also began, a few years earlier as unjust taxation was rising, cutting his trade with Great Britain and supporting non-importation policies in response to the injustices taking place. Hewes used his success in the business world to the dismay of Great Britain, and to the aid of the revolutionaries.

Because much of his policies and approach during the discussions about war had largely, thus far before the signing, been conservative and pacifist in nature, rather than radical, Hewes’ decision to support the Declaration of Independence and war had a tremendous impact on the outcome on the number of people who actually signed. John Adams believed that Hewes was "critical in persuading moderate members of Congress to support the break with Great Britain," since even Hewes, who had such a reputation for friendliness and conservativism, decided that it was time to fight back against the tyranny (Constituting America). Who knows how many might not have signed because they thought that negotiations were still possible and that the unjust monarch might have eventually changed his ways? Hewes’ efforts before, during, and after the signing of the Declaration of Independence impacted both his local state of North Carolina, and the Congress that changed it all.

Sadly, Hewes did not live to see the end of the war efforts, though he would have been proud to see the victory. Hewes died from illness at the age of 49 in 1779, in Philadelphia.

Hewes was a generous man who desired peace and justice. He sacrificed much of his potential success doing business with Great Britain for the cause of independence. Hewes might have been merely a successful businessman who washed his hands of working for or against the American cause for independence, but he saw something more important than a country in which he might succeed monetarily. He saw a country that needed just laws, fair taxation, and a government which listened to the people. Hewes made his mark on the cause for freedom through his signature in 1776, and through his efforts before and after, gave generously and bravely to help the cause for freedom.

Read other articles by McKenna Snow

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