Rodney, Caesar Augustus (1772–1824)

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Rodney, Caesar Augustus (1772–1824)

Caesar Augustus Rodney (b. 4 January 1772; d. 10 June 1824), U.S. senator, congressman, statesman, diplomat, and first minister plenipotentiary to Argentina. Rodney was born in Dover, Delaware, to a distinguished family. His father was a farmer, merchant, Revolutionary War soldier, jurist, and statesman. At the age of seventeen he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and proceeded to study law with Philadelphia lawyer Joseph McKean, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. After several years of legal practice, Rodney entered politics and earned respect in the Delaware House of Representatives, the U.S. House of Representatives, and as U.S. attorney general from 1807 to 1811. In 1817 the U.S. government appointed Rodney to a three-man commission with directions to assemble information about the South American independence movements on which to base an official diplomatic policy. Rodney and a comember of the commission, John Graham, traveled to Argentina in 1817, remaining until April 1818. The report he submitted to Congress overviews the colonial history of Spanish America and describes in detail the political situation, natural resources, commerce, industry, society, and religion of Argentina. Rodney presented Argentina in a very favorable light and encouraged recognition of its independence. The report remains a valuable source on Argentina's early revolutionary period and provides an idea of the development of U.S. diplomatic policy toward Latin America before the elaboration of the Monroe Doctrine.

Rodney returned to political life, serving briefly in the U.S. Senate. In 1823 President Monroe offered him the post of first U.S. minister plenipotentiary to the Argentine Republic. This act of official U.S. recognition pleased the Argentine government, and Rodney arrived in Buenos Aires to assume his post in November 1823. Shortly thereafter he became ill and died. He was eulogized by Bernardino Rivadavia, and the Argentine government built a marble monument over his burial site in Buenos Aires.

See alsoUnited States-Latin American Relations .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Caesar Augustus Rodney and John Graham, The Reports on the Present State of the United Provinces of South America (1819). The Praeger edition (1969) of this report has an informative biographical introduction on both Rodney and Graham written by Charles Wilgus.