In Dover, Delaware, Thomas Rodney writes to President Jefferson asking for a federal position. In the fall, his two appointments in the Mississippi Territory would lead him down the Ohio at the same time as Meriwether Lewis.
Caesar Rodney (1728-1784)
Published in J. Thomas Scharf’s History of Delaware, 1888.
The brothers Rodney, Caesar and Thomas, have no know contemporary portraits or illustrations. Both were revolutionary war heroes and early American politicians. Perhaps because Caesar was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the above image and several statues of him have been made. No image of Thomas Rodney is known to exist.
Dover February 20th. 1803.
Dear Sir
. . . it is with reluctance that I Take the Liberty of Troubling you with this letter, or of advising any thing respecting public appointments in any case, but on the present Occasion have been prevailed on by a number of leading Republicans to write a few lines . . . .
I Submit it to your own wisdom and better information to do what you May think best and beg leave to Conclude with assurances of My verry high respect and Esteem.
Your Most Obedient
Thomas Rodney[1]Thomas Rodney to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-39-02-0466 accessed 20 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, … Continue reading
Notes
| ↑1 | Thomas Rodney to Thomas Jefferson, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-39-02-0466 accessed 20 May 2022. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 39, 13 November 1802–3 March 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 557.] |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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