Great message! Additionally, we need more citizen historians to stand up against institutionalized “historians” the same way James O’keefe has stood up to “journalists” as a citizen journalist.
I volunteer to be on the 1776 Commission, and have alerted whomever I can in the admin to that end.
This was a spectacular and historic speech, and I hope everyone has a chance to watch it.
I was as stunned by this speech in “real time” as I was by certain other important Presidential speeches I was fortunate enough to hear in my lifetime such as: LBJ’s “I shall not run” ... Nixon’s “Silent majority” ... and Reagan’s “Star wars.”
>> “Even though he [Caesar Rodney] was suffering from very advanced cancer — he was deathly ill — Rodney rode 80 miles through the night, through a severe thunderstorm, from Dover to Philadelphia to cast his vote for independence...But this past June, Caesar Rodney’s statue was ordered removed by the mayor [of Wilmington] and local politicians as part of a radical purge of America’s founding generation.”<<
I hadn’t known about Caesar Rodney, and was pleased to learn about him. Sounds like an admirable fellow.
Wikipedia says he rode a mere 70 rather than 80 miles: “To break the deadlock, Rodney rode 70 miles through a thunderstorm on the night of July 1, 1776, arriving in Philadelphia ‘in his boots and spurs’ on July 2, just as the voting was beginning. He voted with McKean and thereby allowed Delaware to join eleven other states in voting in favor of the resolution of independence.”
I don’t know what justification Wilmington’s politicians used to remove his statue, probably that he owned slaves. He’d inherited them, though. Wikipedia: “...the Rodneys were, by the standards of the day, wealthy members of the local gentry. The plantation grew to 1,000 acres, and was worked by 200 slaves (number disputed; need verifiable source) At Rodney’s death, he owned 15 slaves, which he freed on varying schedules due to age...” So he reduced the number, and then set up the remaining ones to be freed.
When judging people, I believe in taking into account the time and society in which they were raised. In that context he sounds better than average to me. If all Americans had had done as he did, slavery would have ended in the 1700s. Too bad his statue is gone. It would have served as a reminder of what he accomplished.