Roger Sherman Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes

Early Life and Self-Education
Roger Sherman was born in 1721 in Newton, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and grew up in a modest family where thrift, reading, and religious discipline were prized. He received only the basic schooling available in rural New England, and apprenticed as a shoemaker, but he fed a lifelong habit of self-education through voracious reading. Mathematics and astronomy particularly attracted him, and he taught himself surveying. In 1743 he moved to New Milford, Connecticut, where he and a brother opened a general store that doubled as a community hub. His skill as a surveyor soon brought public notice; he produced reliable maps, calculated boundaries, and contributed astronomical data and almanacs in the 1750s that circulated widely in the colonies.

Rise in Connecticut Public Life
Public trust followed competence. Sherman read law while running his store and practicing surveying, and was admitted to the bar in the mid-1750s. He served as a justice of the peace and then as a county judge. He won election to the Connecticut General Assembly in the 1750s and early 1760s, where his careful bookkeeping, stern integrity, and terse manner made him a valued committee man. From the later 1760s he sat on the colony s Council, the upper chamber of the legislature, and he served for many years on Connecticut s highest court. He moved to New Haven in the early 1760s, becoming a civic mainstay in the port and later serving as its mayor. Even without a college degree, his learning and steadiness drew respect in the university town and among clergy and merchants alike, including such Connecticut leaders as Jonathan Trumbull and Oliver Wolcott.

Continental Congress and Independence
When imperial disputes escalated, Sherman brought Connecticut s sober, practical style to the Continental Congress. He was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses and quickly became a central figure on committees that dealt with finance, military supply, and intercolonial coordination. In 1774 he signed the Continental Association, the colonies non-importation compact. Two years later he served on the Committee of Five with Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert R. Livingston that drafted the Declaration of Independence. Though Jefferson carried the pen, Sherman was an exacting editor and a staunch supporter of the case for independence. He signed the Declaration in 1776, cementing his place among the founders.

Builder of the Confederation
Sherman also helped shape the Articles of Confederation, favoring a union that preserved substantial powers to the states while enabling common defense and diplomacy. He signed the Articles in 1778. During the war and its difficult aftermath, he worked closely with colleagues such as Robert Morris on financial measures and with delegates from New England and the mid-Atlantic to keep the fragile union functioning. His instincts were fiscal prudence, accountability, and incremental reform rather than sweeping redesign.

Constitutional Convention and the Connecticut Compromise
By 1787, the weaknesses of the Articles convinced Sherman that a stronger national framework was necessary. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, he was among its senior members. In debates dominated by James Madison s plans and vigorous advocacy from larger states, Sherman, together with Oliver Ellsworth and William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, advanced what became known as the Connecticut Compromise or Great Compromise. Their proposal created a bicameral Congress with proportional representation in the House and equal representation for each state in the Senate. It reconciled the interests of large and small states and allowed the Convention to move forward. Sherman also pressed for a restrained executive and clear spheres of state and federal authority. He signed the Constitution in 1787. Remarkably, he is the only person to have signed all four of the era s core founding documents: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.

Service in the New Federal Government
In the new system, Sherman served first in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 to 1791 and then in the U.S. Senate from 1791 until his death. In the First Congress he worked with James Madison on the process that produced the Bill of Rights, favoring the practical method of adding amendments at the end of the Constitution rather than interweaving them into the original text. He generally supported President George Washington s administration and many of Alexander Hamilton s financial measures, while urging attention to state concerns and fiscal caution. His style was concise, economical with words, and grounded in committee work; he was not a showy orator, but colleagues often turned to him to resolve complex questions.

Personal Life and Character
Sherman married Elizabeth Hartwell in the 1740s, and after her death he married Rebecca Minot Prescott. He was a devoted family man with a large household and many children, and he balanced family obligations with arduous public service. A devout Congregationalist, he served his church as a deacon and was known for plain dress, steady habits, and a moral outlook that linked civic duty to religious principle. His friendships and working relationships stretched from New England colleagues such as Oliver Ellsworth and William Samuel Johnson to national figures like Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, who respected Sherman s judgment even when they differed over policy.

Mayor and Connecticut Leader
Alongside national service, Sherman remained deeply engaged in Connecticut affairs. As mayor of New Haven in the 1780s and early 1790s, he focused on public order, commerce, and the town s port facilities. He helped steer local governance through postwar economic strains, bringing the same ledger-book realism that had marked his early career as a merchant and surveyor. He was frequently consulted by state leaders, including Governor Jonathan Trumbull, on matters where local and national policy intersected.

Death and Legacy
Roger Sherman died in 1793 in New Haven. His was a life of steady ascent from humble beginnings to the councils of a new nation. He left no sweeping treatise, but he built institutions: a legal system in his state, a wartime confederation good enough to win independence, and a constitutional order made workable by compromise. Working with peers such as George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and his close Connecticut colleagues, he helped forge consensus at several decisive moments. The plainspoken shoemaker turned lawyer, judge, mayor, delegate, representative, and senator demonstrated that republican government could be advanced by diligence and restraint as much as by brilliance and rhetoric. His signature on all four foundational documents testifies to the breadth and continuity of his service, and to his enduring place among the architects of the United States.

Our collection contains 3 quotes who is written by Roger, under the main topics: Equality - God - Defeat.

Other people realated to Roger: George Clymer (Politician), Richard Henry Lee (Politician)