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He was the only person to sign all four of these America's founding documents: Articles of Association, 1774; Declaration of Independence, 1776; Articles of Confederation, 1777; U.S. Constitution, 1787. Download as PDF ... Who was he? Roger Sherman. At age 19, Roger Sherman's father died and he supported his family as a shoe cobbler, helping his two younger brothers to attend college and become clergymen. Roger Sherman was a surveyor and merchant, but when a neighbor needed legal advice, he studied to help, only to be inspired to become a lawyer. Sherman was elected a state senator, a judge and...

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”...

He was the only person to sign all four of these America's founding documents: 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 his two younger brothers to attend college and become clergymen. Roger Sherman was a surveyor and merchant, but when a neighbor needed legal advice, he studied to help, only to be inspired to become a lawyer. Sherman was elected a state senator, a judge and a delegate to the...

He was the only person to sign all four of America's founding documents: -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 his two younger brothers to attend college and become clergymen. Roger Sherman was a surveyor and merchant, but when a neighbor needed legal advice, he studied to help, only to be inspired to become a lawyer. Sherman was elected a state senator, a judge and a delegate to the Continental Congress. He was on...

“If we are to be considered as a nation, all State distinctions must be abolished; the whole must be thrown into a hotchpot and when an equal division is made, then there may be fairly an equality of representation.” – New Jersey delegate William Paterson. Today’s squib reviews the last few days of the Federal Convention leading up to Alexander Hamilton’s June 18th speech. In Part V we’ll find that, considering the previous exchanges among delegates, Hamilton was far from alone in his disdain of the States. What he shared with them was the search for a governing design adequate...

The Connecticut Compromise. Roger Sherman of Connecticut was another delegate largely forgotten by history. Born to a self-described ‘low condition’, he started off as a shoemaker, subsequently founded prosperous mercantile businesses, and became a judge and town mayor. At sixty-six, he was the second oldest delegate behind Benjamin Franklin. But unlike Franklin, Sherman’s grating personality often diminished the value of his ideas. Since June 6th, Sherman not only recognized the necessity of state participation in the new government, but consistently advocated an equality of state suffrage, of retaining the confederation’s congressional structure.1 In something of a parliamentary game of chicken,...

Candidate for Senate Dan Liljenquist (left) pledged to The New American that should he be elected to the U.S. Senate he will offer legislation explicitly repealing the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In a press conference held on April 24 at 2:00 p.m. (MDT), the former Utah State Senator and current GOP challenger to six-term Senator Orrin Hatch described the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA as “an overreach and a violation of the Bill of Rights.” He said that had he been in office when Congress voted to pass the NDAA he would have...

New Milford historian and researcher Michael-John Cavallaro, vice-chairman of the Conservation Commission, with a one-of-a-kind Revolutionary War era confession of a local man hanged for a mass murder of the Mallory family in Washington, Ct. Cavallaro tracked down the illusive, 14-page document at the University of Virginia. He will be giving lectures about the murders in New Milford and Washington in February. Photo: Nanci Hutson / The News-Times | WASHINGTON -- In this sleepy town during the Revolutionary War, a 19-year-old Continental Army soldier committed a murder so gruesome the local historian who unearthed his treachery still mourns the long-dead...