Roger Sherman
From the Continental Congress to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Roger Sherman helped draft founding documents and brokered the Connecticut Compromise that structured Congress.
Born April 19, 1721 / Died July 23, 1793
On April 19, 1721, in Newton, Province of Massachusetts Bay, Roger Sherman was born into a farming family and largely educated himself through reading while apprenticed as a cobbler. After moving to New Milford, Connecticut, he built a successful career as a surveyor, merchant, and lawyer. Local office in town and colony government prepared him for continental politics.
Sherman served in the First and Second Continental Congresses and is the only founder to sign the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787 he helped broker the Connecticut Compromise, resolving the deadlock over representation in Congress. He later served in the House and Senate under the new government.
The Connecticut Compromise became the structural heart of Congress, preserving both proportional representation in the House and state equality in the Senate. Sherman's unusual record across all four major founding documents also made him a living link between protest, independence, confederation, and Constitution.
Key Contributions
- Roger Sherman was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States.
- Sherman helped devise the Connecticut Compromise, which gave the United States a House of Representatives by population and a Senate by state equality.
- On July 4, 1776, Roger Sherman signed the Declaration of Independence as part of the political leadership tied to Connecticut.
Related Events
Constitutional Convention convenes
From May to September 1787, delegates in Philadelphia abandoned revision of the Articles of Confederation and drafted a new Constitution under George Washington's presidency.
United States Constitution signed
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution in Philadelphia and sent the proposed frame of government to the states for ratification.
Declaration of Independence adopted
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress approved Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and ordered the document printed as the public case for separation.
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