By pushing violence on the colonies, King George III, in Sherman’s mind, abdicated his authority and violated the Connecticut charter. The tipping point for Sherman was the Coercive Acts of 1774 and Lexington and Concord in 1775. He was a conservative, but he recognized the British as a threat to the colonial order of Connecticut. This placed him at the vanguard of public opinion in 1774.
He wanted to ensure order while still pressing the rights of Englishmen and the supremacy of Connecticut law over Parliamentary acts. When the organization turned to violence, however, Sherman turned against the group and charged that it tended to “weaken the authority of the government.” Sherman supported boycotting British goods and chaired the New Haven Committee of Correspondence, because both were peaceful protests against unconstitutional British activity. Roger Sherman was an early supporter of the Sons of Liberty, founded to resist unjust and unconstitutional Parliamentary acts such as the Stamp Act of 1765. Sherman wrote in his almanac, “Every free-man shou’d promote the public good.” The people of New Haven County deemed him an able steward of the public good for most of his life, and his service to his state was exemplary, but the Revolution would mark his career and make him a well-known public figure in all the states. New Haven sent him to the upper house of the legislature in 1766, where he served until 1785, and he was made a judge of the superior court of Connecticut in 1766, a position he held until 1789. Yale awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree in 1768. He moved to New Haven in 1761 and became involved with Yale College, first as a merchant selling supplies to the students, then as a contributor to the construction of the college chapel, and finally as the treasurer of the school. Sherman was appointed justice of the peace and justice of the county court and was returned to the legislature every year except two between 17. He was admitted to the bar in 1754 and was elected to the General Assembly in 1755.
#Roger sherman series#
He owned the town’s first store and published a series of almanacs between 17 that illustrated his depth of knowledge in mathematics and his propensity for wit and wisdom. Sherman served in a variety of political and civic positions in New Milford, including juryman, town clerk, clerk of the church, deacon, school committeeman, and as town agent to the Connecticut Assembly. He was appointed New Haven County surveyor in 1745, a position that led to considerable wealth and substantial land holdings. After his father died, Sherman moved to New Milford, Connecticut, in 1743-according to legend he walked the entire distance with his tools on his back-and quickly became a leading man in the town.
#Roger sherman free#
Sherman learned his father’s trade and was largely self-educated, spending much of his free time in the study of theology, history, mathematics, law, and politics. His father, William Sherman, was a cobbler and farmer in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Roger Sherman, then, could count his family as one of the oldest in the region.
The first Sherman to settle in the British North American colonies, John Sherman, arrived in 1636, just a decade after the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Roger Sherman was born in 1721 in Newton, Massachusetts. But that is precisely why he should be studied. In an era that champions federal action, big government spending, and aggressive centralized “leadership,” Sherman seems archaic. He was also a “ mild Federalist,” a man who favored a stronger central government but recognized the importance of state power. Sherman was the Patrick Henry of Connecticut, the most dominant political figure of his state and, aside from John Hancock, his region. He was the only member of the Founding generation to affix his signature to the 1774 Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the United States Constitution. His stature has been unjustly eclipsed by other members of the generation, but the United States Constitution, for example, was as much Sherman’s document as James Madison’s, if not more. Thomas Jefferson once described Roger Sherman as “a man who never said a foolish thing in his life.” John Adams said he was “an old Puritan, as honest as an angel and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mount Atlas.” Such lofty praise from two of the most prominent men of the Founding generation would seem to indicate that Roger Sherman would be a recognized name in American history, but he isn’t.
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