Roger Sherman-Signer of the Constitution

Roger Sherman was born April 19, 1721 in Newton, Massachusetts and he died on July 23, 1793 in New Haven, Connecticut.  John Adams described Sherman with these words: "an old Puritan, as honest as an angel and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mount Atlas."

Roger Sherman was the only founder to have signed the four major documents of the Revolution: the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.  Sherman started out as an apprentice to his father, who was a cobbler.  Sherman ended up becoming a county surveyor for a while.  He received little formal education Sherman became well read in theology, mathematics, law, and politics.  Sherman self-taught himself enough in law that he was admitted to the bar.  He was a member of the Continental Congress between 1774 and 1781 as well as between 1783 and 1784.

As a delegate from Connecticut,  Roger Sherman had failing health.  He, however, contributed a great deal.  Roger Sherman originally favored strengthening the Articles of Confederation rather than forming a new law and he even drafted amendments to the Articles.  He eventually realized that a new constitution needed to be formed.  In forming the new constitution he helped draft the New Jersey plan, which basically called for an equally represented legislature.  Sherman also favored the idea of having Senators voted in by their state legislatures.  Roger Sherman was on of the greatest of our founders and instrumental in the forming of our Constitution. As William Pierce put it Roger Sherman "deserves infinite praise.  No man [had] a better heart or a clearer head."