Roger Sherman

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Sherman's marble statute in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the United States Capitol.

Roger Sherman (April 19 (O.S.), April 30 (N.S.), 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American lawyer and politician. He served as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut and served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.

He was the only person to sign all four great state papers: the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution.^[1] Thomas Jefferson once said of him: "That is Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, a man who has never said a foolish thing in his life."

[edit] Early life

Sherman was born in Newton, Massachusetts and when he was three years old his family moved to Stoughton, Massachusetts, a town located seventeen miles south of Boston. Sherman's formal education did not extend beyond grammar school and his early career was spent as a shoedesigner but he was blessed with the combination of an active thirst for learning, and access to a good library owned by his father as well as a Harvard educated parish minister, Rev. Samuel Dunbar, who took him under his wing.

In 1743, after his father's death, he moved (on foot) with his mother and siblings to New Milford, Connecticut, where in partnership with his brother, he opened the town's first store. He very quickly immersed himself in civil and religious affairs, rapidly becoming one of the town's leading citizens and eventually town clerk of New Milford. Due to his mathematical skill he became county surveyor of New Haven County in 1745, and began providing astronomical calculations for almanacs in 1748, publishing a popular Almanac himself from 1750 to 1761.

In opinion of Sherman's descendants he was a Freemason. They gave his Masonic apron to the Yale university, which is now part of the historical collection. His membership is based only on tradition and is not supported by any proof.^[2]

[edit] Legal, political career

Roger Sherman

Despite the fact that he had no formal legal training, Sherman was urged to read for the bar by a local lawyer and was admitted to the Bar of Litchfield, Connecticut in 1754, and chosen to represent New Milford in the Connecticut General Assembly from 1755 to 1758 and from 1760 to 1761. In 1766 he was elected to the Upper House of the Connecticut General Assembly, where he served until 1785.

He was appointed justice of the peace in 1762, judge of the court of common pleas in 1765, and justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1766 to 1789, when he left to become a member of the United States Congress. He was also appointed treasurer of Yale College, and awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree. He was a professor of religion for many years, and engaged in lengthy correspondences with some of the greatest theologians of the time.

In 1783 he and Richard Law were appointed to massively revise the confused and archaic Connecticut statutes, which they accomplished with great success. In 1784 he was elected Mayor of New Haven, which office he held until his death. He is especially notable for being one of just two people to sign all three of these important American documents, the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. The other was Robert Morris (merchant).

In John Trumbull's famous painting, Sherman is literally front and center -- of those standing up near the desk, he is the second person from the left. The painting depicts the Committee of Five presenting its work to the Congress.

[edit] Continental Congress

At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 Sherman was appointed to the Connecticut Governor's Council of Safety and also commissary to the Connecticut Troops. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1774 and served very actively throughout the War, earning high esteem in the eyes of his fellow delegates and serving on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence.

During the Continental Congress of 1787, at the convention summoned into existence to amend the Articles, Sherman offered what came to be called the Great Compromise. In this plan, the people would be represented in the house of the legislature, called the House of Representatives. The states would be represented in another house called the Senate. The larger states would have more representatives because it was based on population. In the upper house, on the other hand, each state was guaranteed two votes, no matter their size.

This statue of Roger Sherman is at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA.

[edit] Family

He married Elizabeth Hartwell of Stoughton, Massachusetts, in 1749 and had seven children; after her death (from a childbirth) he married a second time in 1760, to Rebecca Minot Prescott of Danvers, Massachusetts, and had another eight children. He was grandfather of Roger Sherman Baldwin, William Maxwell Evarts, George Frisbie Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Andrew Taylor Sherman, Sherman Day Thacher and Sherman Day.

[edit] Memorials

The town of Sherman, Connecticut is named in honor of Roger Sherman.

Sherman Avenue in central Madison, Wisconsin is named in honor of Roger Sherman. Most of the main streets in Downtown Madison are named after signers of the United States Constitution. Naturally, there is also a Sherman Avenue in New Haven, which extends into neighboring Hamden.

He is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, and his grave is the center of the city's 4th of July celebrations.

[edit] See also

• Dictionary of American Biography
• Boardman, Roger Sherman, Roger Sherman, Signer and Statesman, 1938. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.
• Boutell, Lewis Henry, The Life of Roger Sherman, Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1896.
• Boyd, Julian P., “Roger Sherman: Portrait of a Cordwainer Statesman.” New England Quarterly 5 (1932): 221-36.
• Collier, Christopher; Roger Sherman’s Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1971.
• Gerbr, Scott D., "Roger Sherman and the Bill of Rights." Polity 28 (Summer 1996): 521-540.
• Hoar, George Frisbie, The Connecticut Compromise. Roger Sherman, the Author of the Plan of Equal Representation of the States in the Senate, and Representation of the People in Proportion to Numbers in the House, Worcester, MA: Press of C. Hamilton, 1903.
• Rommel, John G., Connecticut’s Yankee Patriot: Roger Sherman, Hartford: American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Connecticut, 1980.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Roger Sherman Architect of the Capitol. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
2. ^ William R. Denslow, Harry S. Truman: 10,000 Famous Freemasons from K to Z, Part Two. Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1-4179-7579-2.

[edit] External links

• Appleton's Biography edited by Stanley L. Klos
• From Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, "Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence", 1856
• From Roger Sherman's United States Congress Biography
• History of Sherman's boyhood home of Stoughton, Massachusetts
• Roger Sherman Find A Grave