The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-18

i leClInan, snreWd store keeper, Q hard headed lawyer, an industrious judge, he l had qualities not of a kind that shine
 in polite society but of kind never theless that count in life in every po- 1 sition which man may be called to fill. He would have made a better fig
 ure with better manners. But a rustici-
 ty that would have ruined the advance
 Of most men was everywhere tolerated
 in sherman because there was felt ev-
 anywhere an admiration for his mind
 and heart-his solid sense. wise fore
 cast, and practical wisdom
 | Sherman's greatest services to his
 country were those rendered in framing the federal constitution. etc.
 He was among the leading members of the convention from whose hands it came. Connecticut was wise enough to send to it her strongest men. Our del-
 egates were William Samuel Johnson,
 Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman, | Johnson was the representative in his
 generation of the family in the state most distinguished for public services Hand personal attalnments He had ably i represented our interests abroad, in im- portant matters, and twenty years be- i fore had received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law from Oxford university.
 The convention made him head of the committee to put the measure which it adopted In proper form and style. Oli- Ner Ellsworth, who had been the fore most lawyer at our bar, was then an
 associate of Sherman on the bench of the Supreme court and was soon to
 be Chief Justice of the United States.
 But Sherman had truer sense than
 either of his colleagues of what must
 be the nature and soul of the new gov-
 ernment. He felt that 1t must stand up-
 on g double foundation. that of the
 States, acting each for itself, and that
 of the people of all the state, acting
 for al! together
 He felt too that it must stand for human liberty
 Our state was then slave-holdng state, but he was one of those who
 were determined that the word slave should not stain the pages of the con stitution of the United States Later, when he was member of the first Congress, one of the representatives from Virginia, tfor Virginia statesmen were then looking to the gradual abols- tion of a slavery), proposed to put into the tariff act duty of $i0 on each slave imported, sherman opposed 1t. He could not, he said, reconcile himself to l,a t,,cortff,n nf on, article of duty, among goods, wares, and merchandise; and when it was re- piled that the doctrine of the Declara- ton of Independence required the en- deavor to wipe off the stigma of slav- cry from the American government, hls reply was that the principles of the motion and the principles of the bill were inconsistent; the principle of the bill was to raise revenue, and the prin- ciple of the motion was to correct a moral evil These few and well put words illustrate that strong sense of proportion and relation which gave sherman such weight in every deliber- ative assembly.
 In the convention which framed the constitution, he was the author of the compromise by which, in Congress, the senate represents the states and the houso tho people.
 Afterwards, when Congress was en- gagged In formulating the first ten amendments of the constitution, which serve as bill of rights for the people and for the States, 1t was he who gave the final shape to the last and most im- portant,
 This Originally the twelfth, for Con- grsss proposed twelve of which ten only were ratified by the States) as reported by the committee, read thus; ''The powers not deligated to the Unit ed States by the constitution, nor pro- hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively" Sherman moved, and the house voted to add the words Tor to the people"
 He knew, as lawyer, that when anything is reserved in grant it is re- served by and for the maker of the grant. Who made this grant? From what authority did the constitution proceed? Was 1t from the States, and were the powers reserved to be reserv- ed to them and each of them? This was said. or implied, in the original draft of the amendment. sherman's ad- ditlon recognized the principle, after wards affirmed by Chief Justice Mar shall that the people also had a share in ordalning this constitution for them selves and thelr posterity.
 Another service of importance rem dered by Sherman in the First Con- gress was to bring the cent Into actual use in the financial system of the Unit ed States.
 The revenue measure for the collec- tion by the United States of customs duties on imported goods, which Con- gress had urged upon the States in 1TS3 as an amendment to the Articles oG Confederation, had stated the pro- posed duties in dollars and ninetieths of dollar. Thus oh rum of Jamaica proof the rate fixed was our-ninetleths of dollar, and upon all other spirit uous liquors three-nlnetieths. This made of reckoning fractions of dollar continued to be that pursued In govern ment accounts down to the close of the In 17Ss, Congress had, in deed, provided for the coinage of both cents and half-cents. The next year a contract was made with James Jarvis of New Haven to strike off three htih- dred tons of these coins. This contract l was fulfilled at least in part and many of the cents struck under 1t are to be found In the cabinets of collectors. They