ROGER SHERMAN

Newton, Massachusetts
April 19, 1721–July 23, 1793
A Self-Made Man

Roger Sherman’s lack of a formal education did not inhibit his political prospects. He went from making shoes to surveying land to justice of the peace, the Continental Congress, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and U.S. senator. One of his notable achievements was signing the Declaration of Independence. And he helped build the population of the United States. He and his two wives produced fifteen children, almost enough to fill a congress of their own.

No Books? Write Your Own

There were not many opportunities for Roger Sherman to acquire a formal education in his hometown of Stoughton, Massachusetts. Fortunately, his father, a farmer of modest means, possessed a well-stocked library, and a local Harvard-trained minister, Reverend Samuel Dunbar, tutored him in mathematics, science, literature, and philosophy. Sherman’s educational training was helpful, but he was not a “learned man” according to the standards of the time.

The town of Stoughton opened a public school when Roger was thirteen years old, which he attended for a while. He spent a good part of his youth apprenticed to a shoemaker. He was less than dedicated to the trade. He kept an open book in front of him most of the time. Reading became more of an occupation for him than making footwear.

After Sherman’s father died in 1741, Roger moved to the rural, reading material–deprived town of New Milford, Connecticut, where his brother lived.

That didn’t stop Sherman. The ever-resourceful young man wrote and published an almanac every year from 1750 to 1761 to alleviate the shortage of reading material in New Milford.

It did not take long before the people in the area recognized that he was a math and astronomy whiz and a budding political powerhouse.

For Land’s Sake

New Haven County, Connecticut, needed a surveyor. The local government appointed Sherman to the post. From there it was a simple step to earn entry to the state bar when one of Sherman’s neighbors asked him to assist a local lawyer working with a surveying-related petition at the county court. The lawyer reviewed Sherman’s notes, which he found so precise that he encouraged the young surveyor to start his own law practice.

FEDERAL FACTS

Even though he had an affinity for the military, Roger Sherman firmly opposed the 1775 appointment of George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army, as did many other New Englanders. They argued that the army at that time was from New England, had a satisfactory general of its own, and was doing a good job fighting the British.

Next, Roger and his brother opened a store. That was the perfect place for Roger to act as town clerk. And, the local folks said, if he was town clerk he might as well represent the town at the Connecticut Provincial Assembly.

The members of the Assembly were duly impressed with Sherman. They appointed him as the colony’s commissary for its troops.

As he took on more assignments, it was a safe prediction that his peers would look to him to serve as a representative at the Continental Congress, where he served from 1774–81 and 1783–84. His hard work and willingness to take on new tasks were legendary at the meetings, as was his religious fervor, which caught his peers by surprise on occasion.

FEDERAL FACTS

Roger Sherman was a member of the committee appointed to write a draft of the Declaration of Independence. Besides Sherman, the committee included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Robert Livingston. Their first decision was to assign the job to. Jefferson, which he accepted. Even though Sherman signed the Declaration of Independence, he passed up a chance to help write it.

Sherman objected at times to meeting on the Sabbath, particularly when he thought the occasion did not require it. This is where he deviated slightly from the Founding Fathers. Sherman was willing to let the revolution wait while he prayed. His comrades wanted to declare independence first and thank God later. Fortunately, the delegates to Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on a Friday, so he was front and center to affix his name to the document.

Call for Roger Sherman

Sherman worked tirelessly in Congress during the Revolutionary War. He served on numerous committees, but devoted much of his attention to local matters in New Haven, Connecticut, where he had moved in 1761. He served as the mayor of the city from 1784 to 1793, the year he died, and as a judge on the Connecticut Superior Court. While serving on the court he helped rewrite the entire state legal code.

Naturally, when Connecticut was looking for someone to represent it at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Sherman’s name came up.

A large number of the delegates to the convention were not happy with all the provisions the proposed document contained. They saw the need for a constitution, however.

Roger Sherman went to the convention with an open mind. He was among the delegates who held their noses and voted to ratify the Constitution, despite its shortcomings—many of which were rectified with the passage of the Bill of Rights. In fact, it was his proposal, known as the Connecticut Compromise, that was responsible for the creation of the current two-body federal legislature that is in place today.

Sherman’s hardest job was convincing his fellow delegates from Connecticut that the document should be ratified. He used his persuasive powers to make sure they supported it. The state delegates did, by a majority of eighty-eight votes (128–40). Sherman’s name was in the “yea” column.

There was one more office to come for Roger Sherman. He was named as a U.S. Senator in 1791. He was seventy years old at the time, and the constant wear and tear on his body was beginning to tell. He died of typhoid in 1793. The fever stilled one of the fledgling republic’s most supportive voices.