Sheridan’s ride of twenty miles to save the day at Cedar Creek has its place in history, and rightly so, but what of the ride Caesar Rodney took through eighty miles of storm in the early morning of July 2, 1776, to reach Philadelphia in time to save his state from the humiliation of not approving the glorious document of freedom!  Rodney took it, rising from what his physicians considered his death bed.  He arrived in the halls of Congress just as the name “Delaware” was being called.  “I vote Yes,” said Rodney, as he sank into his seat exhausted.  He was a soldier in every sense, but had been obliged temporarily to quit Congress, owing to a cancerous growth that had destroyed one side of his face.  The malady eventually killed him, and though he yearned to return and keep his Delaware colleagues in line, permission was refused him.  Then came July 1, 1776.  His conferee, McKean, had learned that the Delaware delegation was split, and he sent a secret messenger to Rodney’s home with instructions to carry the message personally to the sick man.  It was delivered, and Rodney, suffering from the fever of his complaint, dashed off into the mud and rain.  Delaware had been saved and the Colonies declared as a unit.