Posted on 04/19/2021 10:28:29 AM PDT by Borges
In famous paintings and familiar stories of the nation’s founding, Roger Sherman of Connecticut is “the other guy.”
The legislator who helped craft both the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights and the only signer of all four of the nation’s foundational documents has remained in the shadows of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and other Revolutionary superstars.
To explain why Sherman deserves more and to mark the 300th anniversary of his birth (April 19, 1721), Mark David Hall, professor of politics at George Fox University in Oregon and author of “Roger Sherman and the Creation of the American Republic” (Oxford University Press, 2013), is to deliver a virtual lecture with the same title on his subject’s birthday.
Recently, Hall answered The Courant’s questions about Sherman’s life and accomplishments and why he has been consigned to a bit part in the history of the nascent United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
I have to forward this to my wife. She is a direct descendant of Roger Sherman.
Even inherited the short stature.
Gosh, I liked Roger Sherman in Here Come The Brides!
Well played!
Probably not the guy that the Sherman tank is named for.
I’m not sure who the actor was, but there is a good portrayal of Roger Sherman in the movie “A More Perfect Union: America becomes a Nation.” And it can be viewed on youtube.
IOW, Sherman was among the men who saved the Union.
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Recessional of the Sons of the American Revolution:
“Until we meet again, let us remember our obligations to ourDr. Benjamin Franklin, when asked if we had a republic or a monarchy, replied "A Republic, if you can keep it."
forefathers who gave us our Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
an independent Supreme Court and a nation of free men.”
THANK YOU FOR THIS POST!
ROGER SHERMAN(1721‑1793)should be a name familiar to every American. As familiar as Washington, Madison, Jefferson and Adams. He is the only man to have signed all 4 documents surrounding the formation of the United States of America: The Continental Association of 1772, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation and The United States Constitution. He was a Judge of the Superior Court in New Haven, Connecticut, serving that office with distinction from 1766 until 1788. He served as Treasurer of Yale University from 1765 to 1776. He was renouned for his high intelligence and unswerving honesty and was described by John Adams “as honest as an angel and as
firm in the cause of American independence as Mount Atlas.” He served in the U.S.Senate from 1791 until his death in 1793.
Why is Roger Sherman*s name unfamiliar? HE WAS AN ENEMY OF PAPER MONEY!! In 1751, Roger Sherman and his brother William sued James Battle for paying a debt to their shop in New Milford, Connecticut, in depreciating paper currency. Over a period of 15 months, Battle had charged “divers wares and merchandizes” amounting to 129 pounds of what
Sherman assumed were pounds of Connecticut “Old Tenor”, a stable currency whose value were well‑preserved by taxation taking it out of circulation. But Battle assumed the debt was denominated in pounds of ever‑depreciating Rhode Island currency, tendered in same, and the Shermans took a beating in the payment and sued for recovery of loss by depreciation. The Shermans lost when Battle argued that he was merely following the accepted custom of the day. In 1752, Sherman wrote his book “A Caveat Against Injustice or An Inquiry into the Evils of a Fluctuating Medium of Exchange” indicting UNBACKED PAPER MONEY.
It was this experience that Sherman brought to the Constitutional Convention and prompted him to rise on August 28,1787 and propose new, more restrictive wording to Article 1,Section 10. The standing version under consideration was worded this way: “No state shall coin money; nor grant letters of marque and reprisal; nor enter into any Treaty, alliance, or confederation; nor grant any title of Nobility.” (From Madison’s Notes of the Convention) “Judge Sherman and Mr. Wilson moved to insert the words *coin money* the words *nor emit bills of credit, nor make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts* making these prohibitions absolute, instead of making the measures allowable with the consent of the Legislature of the U.S. Mr. Sherman thought this a FAVORABLE CRISIS FOR CRUSHING PAPER MONEY. If the consent of the Legislature could authorize emissions of it, the friends of paper money would make every exertion to get into the Legislature in order to license it.” Mr. Sherman*s and Mr. Wilson*s motion was quickly agreed to and became the supreme law of the land.
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