Roger Sherman

For other people named Roger Sherman, see Roger Sherman (disambiguation).

Roger Sherman
United States Senator from Connecticut
In office June 13, 1791– July 23, 1793
Preceded by	William S. Johnson
Succeeded by	Stephen M. Mitchell
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's At-large district
In office March 4, 1789 – March 4, 1791
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Amasa Learned
Delegate of Continental Congress
In office 1774–1776
Preceded by	Eliphalet Dyer
Personal details
Born	(1721-04-19)April 19, 1721 Newton, Massachusetts
Died	July 23, 1793(1793-07-23) (aged 72) New Haven,Connecticut
Nationality	American
Political party	Pro-Administration
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Hartwell Rebecca Minot Prescott
Profession	Politician, Lawyer
Religion	Congregationalist
Signature

Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American lawyer and politician, as well as a founding father. He served as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, and served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, and was also a representative and senator in the new republic. He was the only person to sign all four great state papers of the U.S.: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson said of him: "That is Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, a man who never said a foolish thing in his life."

Early life

Sherman was born in Newton, Massachusetts near Boston, but his family moved to Stoughton (a town located seventeen miles, or 27 km, south of Boston) when he was two.The part of Stoughton where Sherman grew up became part of Canton in 1797. Sherman's education did not extend beyond his father's library and grammar school, and his early career was spent as a shoe-maker. However, he was gifted with an aptitude 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, due to 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 introduced 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 1788.

Painter Ralph Earl's depiction of Sherman was described by Bernard Bailyn as "one of the most striking portraits of the age."

Legal, political career

Despite the fact that he had no formal legal training, Sherman was urged to read for the bar exam by a local lawyer and was admitted to the Bar of Litchfield, Connecticut in 1754, during which he wrote A Caveat Against Injustice and was chosen to represent New Milford in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1755 to 1758 and from 1760 to 1761. In 1766 he was elected to the Governor's Council 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 1790 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 the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Association, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. Robert Morris, who did not sign the Articles of Association, is the only other person to sign even three of these documents.

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.

Constitutional Convention

During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, summoned into existence to amend the Articles of Confederation, Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth offered what came to be called the Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise.

In this plan, designed to be acceptable to both large and small states, the people would be represented proportionally in one branch of the legislature, called the House of Representatives (the lower house). The states would be represented in another house called the Senate (the upper house). In the lower house, each state had a representative for every one delegate. On the other hand, in the upper house each state was guaranteed two senators, no matter their size.

Additionally, he, along with James Wilson, created the Three-Fifths Compromise.

Sherman is also memorable for his stance against paper money and his authoring of Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution.

Mr. Wilson & Mr. Sherman moved to insert after the words "coin money" the words "nor emit bills of credit, nor make any thing but gold & silver coin a tender in payment of debts" making these prohibitions absolute, instead of making the measures allowable (as in the XIII art) with the consent of the Legislature of the U.S. ... Mr. Sherman thought this a favorable crisis for crushing paper money. If the consent of the Legislature could authorize emissions of it, the friends of paper money would make every exertion to get into the Legislature in order to license it."

Family

Several of Roger Sherman's children and descendants achieved prominence.

A son, Roger Sherman, Jr. (1768–1856), a 1787 graduate of Yale College served in the Connecticut General Assembly in 1810–1811.

A daughter, Rebecca Sherman, was married to Simeon Baldwin, whose career included service in the United States Congress (1803–1806), as an Associate Judge of the Connecticut Superior Court, 1806–1817, and who became Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut in 1826. Following the death of Rebecca Sherman, Baldwin married another of Roger Sherman's daughters, Elizabeth Sherman Burr. Another daughter, Sarah Sherman, married Samuel Hoar, who was a member of the Massachusetts state legislature and the U.S. Congress. Sherman's daughter Martha was married to Jeremiah Day who was the President of Yale University from 1817 to 1846.

Three grandsons, Roger Sherman Baldwin, George F. Hoar, and William M. Evarts served in the U.S. Senate. Baldwin also was Governor of Connecticut. Evarts also was a U.S. Attorney General, and was succeeded in that office by his first cousin Ebenezer R. Hoar, a brother of George F. Hoar.

Death and burial site

Sherman died in his sleep on July 23, 1793 after a two-month illness diagnosed as typhoid fever. The Gazette of the United States (Philadelphia, PA), Aug. 17, 1793, p. 508, reported an alternate diagnosis, "He was taken ill about the middle of May last, and from that time declined till his death. His physician supposed his disorder to be seated in his liver."

He was buried in New Haven Green; and in 1821, when that cemetery was relocated, his remains were moved to the Grove Street Cemetery.

Places and things named in honor of Roger Sherman

• Towns
  • Town of Sherman, Connecticut
  • Town and Village of Sherman, NY

• Streets
  • Sherman Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut
  • Sherman and Sherman Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut
  • Sherman Street in Canton, Massachusetts
  • Sherman Avenue in central Madison, Wisconsin. Note: Most of the main streets in downtown Madison are named after signers of the United States Constitution.
  • Roger Sherman Street in Orange Park, Florida Heritage Hills neighborhood.

• Statues
  • National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol (one of two allowed the state of Connecticut in the collection)
  • Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford.

• Other
  • Roger Sherman House on Howe Street in New Haven
  • "Roger Sherman Debate Society" - official name of the policy debate team at Western Connecticut State University
  • Roger Sherman Elementary School of Fairfield, Connecticut
  • Roger Sherman Inn of New Canaan, Connecticut
  • Sherman House, residence hall on University of Connecticut Storrs campus in Mansfield, Connecticut

See also

U.S. Constitution, floor leader in Convention.

References

• 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.
• Hall, Mark David, Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Gerber, 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.

External links

• From Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, 1856
• Roger Sherman at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Sherman Genealogy Including Families of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, England By Thomas Townsend Sherman
• Hoar-Baldwin-Foster-Sherman family of Massachusetts at Political Graveyard
• History of Sherman's boyhood home of Stoughton, Massachusetts
• Roger Sherman at Find a Grave
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sherman, Roger". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

Political offices
Preceded by none	Mayors of New Haven, Connecticut 1784–1793	Succeeded by Elizur Goodrich
United States Senate
Preceded by William S. Johnson	United States Senator (Class 3) from Connecticut 1791–1793 Served alongside: Oliver Ellsworth	Succeeded by Stephen M. Mitchell
Honorary titles
Preceded by William S. Johnson	Oldest living U.S. Senator June 13, 1791– July 23, 1793	Succeeded by William S. Johnson

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