page_title: Roger Sherman
section_title: Constitutional Convention
hierarchical_section_title: Roger Sherman / Constitutional Convention
caption_attribution_description: English: Foundation of the American Government by John Henry Hintermeister.&#91;1&#93; Published by the Osborne company, Newark, N.J. From the painting's copyright description: "Signing of the Constitution. At desk sits Washington watching Gouverneur Morris sign; behind Morris are Roger Sherman, Franklin, Robert Morris, Madison and others, and at right Hamilton and Randolf." Another copyright registration caption for the Osborne print: "Foundation of American government. Committee signing the Constitution, with Washington presiding and Gov. Morris signing papers."
context_page_description: Roger Sherman was an early American statesman and lawyer, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to have signed all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution.
  Born in Newton, Massachusetts, known today to be located in Canton, Massachusetts, Sherman established a legal career in Litchfield County, Connecticut despite a lack of formal education. After a period in the Connecticut House of Representatives, he served as a Justice of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1766 to 1789. He represented Connecticut at the Continental Congress and signed the Continental Association, which provided for a boycott against Britain following the imposition of the Intolerable Acts. He was also a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He later signed both the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. In 1784, he was elected as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut.
  Sherman served as a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, which produced the United States Constitution.
context_section_description: Roger Sherman was one of the most influential members of the Constitutional Convention. He is not well known for his actions at the Convention because he was a "terse, ineloquent speaker" who never kept a personal record of his experience, unlike other prominent figures at the convention such as James Madison, and at 66 years of age, Sherman was the second eldest member at the convention following Benjamin Franklin (who was 81 years old at the time).  Yet as one of the most active members of the Convention, Sherman made motions or seconds in reference to the Virginia Plan 160 times. His opponent Madison made motions or seconds 177 times.
  Roger Sherman came into the Convention without the intention of creating a new constitution. Sherman, an original signer of the Articles of Confederation, saw the convention as a means to modify the already existing government. Part of his stance was concerned with the public appeal. He defended amending the articles declaring that it was in the best interest of the people and the most probable way the people would accept changes to a constitution. Sherman saw no reason for a bicameral legislature, as proposed by the Virginia Plan. "The problem with the old government was not that it had acted foolishly or threatened anybody's liberties, but that it had simply been unable to enforce its decrees". Sherman further advanced the idea that the national government simply needed a way to raise revenue and regulate commerce. Sherman was a big defender of a unicameral legislature. He defended the unicameral legislature of the Articles of Confederation by stating that the large states had not "suffered at the hands of small states on account of the rule of equal voting". Ultimately, when Sherman saw his initial goals of the convention as unattainable he organized compromises and deals in order to enact some of his desirable legislation.
  Sherman was from a particularly isolationist state – Connecticut operated almost without much need from other states, using its own ports to trade with the West Indies instead of utilizing ports in Boston – and feared that "...the mass of people lacked sufficient wisdom to govern themselves and thus wished no branch of the federal government to be elected directly by the people".
  Sherman, Elbridge Gerry (himself later recognized as the namesake of American political gerrymandering) and others were of the shared opinion that the elected composition of the national government should be reserved for the vote of state officials and not for election by the will of the people. Sherman was wary of allowing ordinary citizen participation in national government and stated that the people "should have as little to do as may be about the Government. They want information and are constantly liable to be misled".
  The two proposed options for the formation of the legislative branch emerged in the deliberations. One was to form a bicameral legislature in which both chambers had representation proportional to the population of the states, which was supported by the Virginia plan. The second was to modify the unicameral legislature that had equal representation from all of the states, which was supported by the New Jersey plan. Roger Sherman was a devout supporter of a unicameral legislature, but when he saw that goal as unattainable he motioned to compromise. In terms of modes of election "Sherman moved to allow each state legislature to elect its own senators".  Additionally, in the house Sherman originally proposed that the suffrage of the House of Representatives should be figured according to the "numbers of free inhabitants" in each state.
  During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, summoned into existence to amend the Articles of Confederation, Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth offered what came to be called the Great Compromise or Connecticut Compromise.
  In this plan, designed to be acceptable to both large and small states, the people would be represented proportionally in one branch of the legislature, called the House of Representatives (the lower legislative house). The st
caption: Foundation of the American Government. Roger Sherman is closest behind Morris, who is signing the Constitution. 1925 painting by John Henry Hintermeister.[16]
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