Roger Sherman

In signing four founding documents,

Sherman was unique.

From cobbler's son to politician,

on the Great Compromise he would speak.
   

    I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. That the Scriptures of the old and new testaments are a revelation from God and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. 

   Roger Sherman

    Let us live no more to ourselves, but to Him who loved us, and gave Himself to die for us.

    Roger Sherman

    All civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination.  

  Roger Sherman 

1787, The Great Compromise:  New Jersey Plan was proposed by William Paterson to have each state send the same number of representatives to Congress. This was unacceptable to the larger states with greater populations of people and money who instead supported the Virginia Plan proposed by Edmund Randolph.  It gave representatives to states based on the state’s population.  A compromise combining the New Jersey and Virginia plans was proposed by Roger Sherman that there be a two-chambered Congress made up of a Senate where each state has equal representation and a House of Representatives where larger states have larger representation.

         He fearlessly signed the Declaration of Independence, was a member of the committee which drafted it, and he was a member of the committee to prepare the Articles of Confederation.  He became the only member of the Continental Congress who signed the -Declaration of 1774, the -Declaration of Independence, the -Articles of Confederation, and the -Federal Constitution. 

         Thomas Jefferson described Roger Sherman as "a man who never said a foolish thing in his life." 

        "To the above excellent traits in the character of Mr. Sherman, it may be added, that he was eminently a pious man. He was long a professor of religion, and one of its brightest ornaments. Nor was his religion that which appeared only on occasions. It was with him a principle and a habit.  It appeared in the closet, in the family, on the bench, and in senate house. Few men had a higher reverence for the Bible; few men studied it with deeper attention; few were more intimately acquainted with the doctrines of the gospel, and the metaphysical controversies of the day. On these subjects, he maintained an extended correspondence with some of the most distinguished divines of that period, among whom were Dr. Edwards, Dr. Hopkins, Dr. Trumbull, President Dickenson, and President Witherspoon, all of whom had a high opinion of him as a theologian, and derived much instruction from their correspondence with him."    Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence, 1829  by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich

          He was seventy-two when he died in New Haven.  Below is the inscription recorded upon the table which covers the tomb of Puritan Roger Sherman:

In memory of
THE HON. ROGER SHERMAN, ESQ,
Mayor of the city of New-Haven,
and Senator of the United States.
He was born at Newton, in Massachusetts,
April 19th, 1721,
And died in -New-Haven, July 23d, A, D. 1793,
aged LXXII.
Possessed of a strong, clear, penetrating mind,
and singular perseverance,
he became the self-taught scholar,
eminent for jurisprudence and policy.
He was nineteen years an assistant,
and twenty-three years a judge of the superior court,
in high reputation.
He was a Delegate in the first Congress,
signed the glorious act of Independence,
and many years displayed superior talents and ability
in the national legislature.
He was a member of the general convention,
approved the federal constitution,
And served his country with fidelity and honour,
in the House of Representatives,
and in the Senate of the United States.
He was a man of approved integrity;
a cool, discerning Judge;
a prudent, sagacious Politician;
a true, faithful, and firm Patriot.
He ever adorned
the profession of Christianity
which he made in youth;
and distinguished through life
for public usefulness,
died in the prospect of a blessed immortality.

See: Rev. Charles A. Goodrich Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. New York: William Reed & Co., 1856. Pages 158-169.

 A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

Proverbs 15:13