Articles of Association-1774,
Declaration of Independence-1776,
Articles of Confederation-1777,
U.S. Constitution-1787.
Who was he?
Roger Sherman.
At
age 19, Roger Sherman's father died and he supported his family as a
shoe cobbler, helping two younger brothers attend college and become
clergymen.
Roger
Sherman was a surveyor and merchant, but when a neighbor needed legal
advice, he studied to help and was inspired to be a lawyer.
Roger Sherman was elected a state senator, a judge and a delegate to the Continental Congress.
He
was on the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence, along
with Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and Livingston (pictured second from
the left in John Trumbull's famous painting which hangs in the Capitol
Rotunda).
He helped draft the Articles of Confederation, and the instructions to an embassy to Canada, which stated:
"You
are further to declare that we hold sacred the rights of conscience,
and may promise to the whole people, solemnly in our name, the free and
undisturbed exercise of their religion.
And...that
all civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination."
On
October 17, 1777, when he heard of the British General Burgoyne
surrendering over 5,000 troops to the American General Gates at
Saratoga, Roger Sherman exclaimed:
"This is the Lord's doing, and marvelous in our eyes!"
Roger
Sherman made 138 speeches at the Constitutional Convention, and helped
draft the New Jersey Plan and the Connecticut Compromise, which broke
the deadlock between how the large States and small States would be
represented.
Patrick Henry described him as one of the three greatest men at the Constitutional Convention.
Roger Sherman is the author of Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution:
"No State shall...make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts." 
In his
Caveat of Injustice, 1752, Roger Sherman wrote:
"Suppose
a man comes to a trader's shop in this colony to buy goods, and the
trader sells him a certain quantity of goods and tells him the price is
so many pounds, shillings and pence...to be paid at the expiration of
one year...but there is nothing said either by seller or buyer, what
currency it is to be paid in...
Now I ask: What does the creditor have a right to demand for a debt so contracted?...
The
debtor says that Bills of Credit on the neighboring governments have
for many years passed promiscuously with the Bills of Credit on this
colony as money...
And the creditor...says that such
Bills of Credit are of no intrinsic value,
and their...value is fluctuating and very uncertain, and therefore it
would be unjust that any person should be obliged to receive them in
payment as money...
for
money ought to be something of certain value, it being that whereby other things are to be valued..."
Roger Sherman concluded:
"No government has the right to impose on its subjects any...currency to be received in payments as money
which is not of intrinsic value...
because
in so doing they would oblige men to part with their estates for that
which is worth nothing in itself and which they don't know will ever
procure him any thing."
Roger Sherman helped Connecticut to ratify the U.S. Constitution and was elected to the first session of United States Congress.
When
the First Amendment was introduced, Roger Sherman thought it was
unnecessary as religion was under each individual States' jurisdiction.
Get the book, America's God and Country Encyclopedia of QuotationsIn
1788, as a member of the White Haven Congregational Church, Roger
Sherman was asked to use his expertise in revising the wording of their
creed.
In his own handwriting, he wrote:
"I
believe...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...
That He made man at first perfectly holy, that
the first man sinned, and...all became sinners in consequence...and on
account of sin are liable to all the miseries of this life, to death,
and to the pains of hell forever.
I believe that God...did send
His own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners and thus
to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all
mankind, so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the Gospel
offer..."
Elected a U.S. Senator at age 70, Roger Sherman died JULY 23, 1793.
The State of Connecticut placed his statue in the U.S. Capitol and on their State Capitol in Hartford, CT.
Inscribed on Roger Sherman's tomb is:
"He ever adorned the profession of Christianity which he made in youth and...died in the prospect of a blessed immortality."
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