The life of Roger Sherman

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Preface

In 1823, a brief memoir of Roger Sherman was published in Sanderson's Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Gov. Roger S. Baldwin, a grandson of Roger Sherman, in a letter dated May 2, 1855, says of this memoir: " It was prepared in part by Robert Wain, Jr., of Philadelphia, with whom I was in correspondence, and in part by the late Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., of Boston (father of William M. Evarts, Esq., of New York), who married a daughter of Mr. Sherman, and gives, I think, a just view of his life and character and public services." Robert Wain, Jr., was, when this memoir was prepared, the editor of Sanderson's Lives. This memoir was necessarily brief, to conform to the plan of Sanderson's book. The materials for a complete biography of Mr. Sherman were not then accessible, especially Madison's report of the Debates in the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Mr. Sherman left, at his death, a large mass of papers. They were supposed to be in the possession of his son Oliver, a merchant in Boston, who died unmarried, in Havana, in 1820; but as very

PREFACE. VU

and who was one of the most conspicuous figures in that formative period of our national life.

It seemed desirable also to give some explanation of the influence which Mr. Sherman exerted over the men of his generation. How did it happen that a man, who was no orator, won the highest admiration from the greatest orators of his time, from such men as Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Fisher Ames? How came this reserved, bashful, unemotional man to be the intimate friend of the ardent and impulsive John Adams? How did it happen that this man of no academic training not only occupied for many years the highest legislative and judicial positions in his own State, but, in the Continental Congress, was at once recognized as one of its foremost men, and placed on its most .important committees, notably on the committee of five to prepare the Declaration of Independence ? What were the qualities that fitted him to be the leader in the compromise measures of the Convention that framed our national Constitution, and that enabled him, in his seventieth year, on the floor of the House of Representatives, to be the foremost advocate of the great measures for the support of the public credit? The story of such a life is certainly well worth telling. Such a character is deserving of most careful study.

As the claim has been made on behalf of John Dickinson, William Samuel Johnson, and George Mason, respectively, that each of them was the author of the compromise by which representation according to population was secured in the House viil PREFACE.

of Representatives, and equal representation of tlie States in the Senate, I have done what has never been done before, given a detailed statement of the various steps in that compromise, as related in Madison's Debates. From that statement it will be seen that, while others, and especially Oliver Ellsworth, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Dickinson, supported with great ability this compromise measure, Roger Sherman introduced it, and throughout the debate was its foremost champion. I have also called attention to the fact, which has been generally overlooked, that, eleven years before this debate, Mr. Sherman proposed substantially the same plan in the Continental Congress, in discussing the Articles of Confederation.

I have also endeavored to describe Mr. Sherman's religious character and opinions; and to point out that, while he was a Puritan of the Puritans, he brought to the discussion of theological questions the same clear insight and strong sense that distinguished his legal and his political career, and that saved him from the harsh and extravagant views which disfigured the creed of some eminent divines of his day.

Mr. Hoar has so thoroughly explored the field, that I have been able to add very little to the mass of letters and documents relating to Mr. Sherman which he had collected. I have vainly endeavored to learn who were the persons, and what were the books, that influenced the early years of this selfeducated man. Unfortunately there is very little of a personal character in his correspondence. Apparently he was not accustomed to think or

PREFACE. IX

write much about himself. His hfe was devoted to the public service. He was content to do his duty, and unmindful to preserve a record of what he had done.

In a volume of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, belonging to Mr. Sherman, were found some leaves of Peter Heylin's " Microcosmos," containing a poem by Edward Heylin, addressed " To my brother, the Author," in which occurs a line fittingly descriptive of the controlling principle of Roger Sherman's life, —

" The guerdon of well doing is tlie doing."

From some newspaper articles by Ellis Ames, and from Huntoon's History of Canton, I have gathered a few facts about Mr. Sherman's early home; and from Orcutt's History of New Milford, I have derived assistance in describing Mr. Sherman's life in that town. The Life of Roger Sherman in Sanderson's biographies has furnished important facts and documents. Some of the statements in that Life I have been able to correct, or make more full and exact, by means of the Connecticut Records published since that life was written.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Ancestry 13

II. Life in Stoughton iS

Part i. — Impost Law 191 " II. — Amendments to the Constitution 206

" III. — Public Credit 228

" IV. — The Slave Trade. . . . 250

" V. — National Bank .... 257

" VI. — Senate 263

XII. Religious Opinions 268

XIII. Last Days 281

XIV. Conclusion 288 xii CONTENTS.

Appendix

APPENDIX PAGE

I. Correspondence between John Adams and

Roger Sherman on the Constitution . 311

II. The Same 325

in. George Bancroft's Letter on the Foregoing Correspondence 328

IV. Roger Sherman on Half Pay of Army

Officers 329

V. Roger Sherman to Josiah Bartlett on

the Vermont Controversy 332

VI. Report on Robert Morris's Accounts . 334 VII. Roger Sherman's Claims against Connecticut 336

VIII. Gen. Washington to Gov. Trumbull, recommending Isaac Sherman for Promotion 337

IX. Wyoming 339

X. Gen. Wooster to Roger Sherman . . . 343

XI. Descendants of Roger Sherman .... 348

INDEX 3S3

The frontispiece is from the Hartford Statiie, by C. B. Ives.

THE LIFE

OF

ROGER SHERMAN.

Chapter I. Ancestry

The branch of the Sherman family to which Roger Sherman belonged came from Dedham, Essex county, England, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, about 1634. Dedham is situated on the river Stour, in a beautiful rural district on the highway from London to Ipswich. It was formerly a prosperous town, the seat of large woollen manufactures. The only evidence remaining of its old importance is its fine large church, with a pinnacled tower 131 feet high, and a beautiful Galilee porch.

The Shermans, and the families with which they married, were, as they were then called, clothiers, what we should now call woollen manufacturers, and seem to have been of a good deal of importance. There were several members of Parliament in the line of Mr. Sherman's ancestry. The first of them to which his pedigree can be directly

14 TBE LIFE OF ROGER SHERMAN.

traced is Henry Sherman, of Dedham, who was born about 1520, and died in 1589. His wife, who died in 1580, was Agnes, whose surname is supposed to have been Butler. He is described as a clothier, and at various times as of Dedham and Colchester.

Edmond Sherman, of Dedham, clothier, son of Henry, was the founder of the English School in Dedham, still surviving there, and occupying Edmond Sherman's house, known as " Sherman Hall." Several of his sons were benefactors of this school. Edmond Sherman married, as his second wife, Anne Cleave. She was granddaughter of John Cleave, of Colchester, a clothier, alderman, and member of Parliament. His son Nicholas Cleave, of Colchester, by his first wife Jane, was a clothier, alderman, and member of Parliament. He married Anne, widow of Thomas Haselwood.

Samuel Sherman, a son of Edmond Sherman and Anne Cleave, married Hester Burgess, and had a son named Bezaleel, who became a prosperous merchant in London. Elizabeth, the daughter of Bezaleel, married Sir Henry Vincent, Bt. They had a son, Sir Francis, whose daughter, Mary, married Neil, third Earl of Roseberry, the grandfather of the present (fifth) Earl of Roseberry.

In a memorandum prepared by Hon. William M. Evarts, he says, " I had made the acquaintance of this young Earl during his several visits to this country, before he entered public life, and I verified this relationship by a correspondence through my and Lord Roseberry's friend Samuel Ward, after Lord Roseberry's last return to England."

ANCESTRY. 1 5

Edmond 2d, son of Edmond Sherman and Anne Cleave, was born in Dedham, June 23, 1595, came to New England in 1634, and died in New Haven, Conn., about 1641. By his second wife, Judith, daughter of William Angier of Dedham, he had a son John, who was born in Dedham, came to New England about 1634, and settled in Watertown, Mass. He was a clergyman of great ability and eloquence, and was the ablest mathematician in the colony.

Another son of Edmond 2d and Judith Angier was Samuel, who came to New England with his brother John, and settled in Weathersfield, Conn., and afterwards in Stratford, Conn., where he died in 1 700. He was the ancestor of Gen. William T. Sherman, and of U. S. Senator John Sherman.

John Sherman, of Dedham, clothier, a son of Edmond Sherman and Anne Cleave, is supposed to have married a Sparhawk. He was the father of Captain John Sherman, or Shearman, as he spelt his name, who was born in 161 3, and came to New England about 1634, and settled in Watertown, Mass. He was captain, surveyor, representative in the General Court, and town clerk. He was steward of Harvard College in 1660, and probably for years thereafter. He was with Governor Winthrop when the northern boundary of Massachusetts was surveyed, and when the corner was established at Wier's Landing, Lake Winnepesaukee. His active and useful life ended Jan. 25, 1690. His wife, Martha Palmer, daughter of Roger and Grace Palmer, of Long Sutton, County of South Hampton, died Feb. 7, 1701. His land in Watertown adjoined that owned by the ancestors of President Garfield, afterwards known as the " Governor Gore Place."

The last descendant from the first Edmond of the Sherman name in England, was his greatgrandson, Edmond Sherman of Dedham, who died, sine prole, in 1 741, leaving a large estate to Thomas and John Haywood, sons of his sister Martha. His beautiful tomb is still seen near the tower of the church in Dedham. At his death, the male line of his family became extinct in England.

Joseph Sherman, son of Captain John, was born in Watertown, May 14, 1650. He married Elizabeth Winship, daughter of Lieutenant Edward Winship of Cambridge. He was a representative in the General Court in 1702-3-4-5, and often selectman and assessor. He was a blacksmith by trade. He seems to have been foremost on the side of the old town of Watertown in the Town Church controversy, in which Captain Benjamin Garfield was the foremost representative on the other side, which led to the separation of Waltham from Watertown. He had eleven children, of whom the ninth child and seventh son, William, born June 23, 1692, was the father of Roger Sherman.

William Sherman is described in the deeds of the land which he purchased in Stoughton as a cordwainer. He appears to have been a farmer as well as a shoemaker. His first wife was Rebecca Cutler, of Watertown, by whom he had one son, William, who died in infancy. He married for his second wife, Sept. 3, 171 5, Mehetabel Wellington, of Watertown, daughter of Benjamin, son of Roger

ANCESTRY. 1 7

Wellington, who came from England. In the record of this marriage he is said to be of Watertown. He moved to Newton shortly thereafter. His children by this second marriage were William, Mehetabel, Roger, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Josiah, and Rebecca.

Chapter II. Life In Stoughton

Roger Sherman was born in Newton, Mass., April 19, 1 72 1, O. S. In Smith's History of Newton it is stated that he was born near the Skinner place, on Waverly Avenue ; the precise location is not known. In 1723, his father, William Sherman, moved to that part of Stoughton, Mass., which has since become Canton. Stoughton was incorporated in 1726.^

In 1725, William Sherman and John Wentworth, by permission of the General Court, purchased of the Indian proprietors two hundred and seventy acres of the Punkapoag Plantation, in the northeastern part of Stoughton. Owing to a delay in the Legislature to fix the value of this land, the deed of it was not executed till 1734; but the purchasers seem to have resided on it from 1725. In the division of this property between the purchasers, William Sherman took in part seventythree acres lying west of Pleasant Street, formerly Stoughton Road, which became his homestead.

Here Roger Sherman lived till he was twenty-two years of age. From his father he learned the

' At the time William Sherman moved there, it formed part of the town of Dorchester. Canton was set off from Stoughton in 1797-

LIFE IN STOUGHTON. ig

trade of a shoemaker, and he worked beside him in the shop and on the farm. So far as is known, he had no other assistance in his education than that which the common country schools of that time afforded. But he must have been more or less influenced by the Rev. Samuel Dunbar, the pastor of the church which his family attended.

Mr. Dunbar, born in Boston in 1704, studied at the Boston Latin School, graduated at Harvard in 1723, and immediately afterward accepted the position of usher in the Latin School, at the same time pursuing his theological studies under the direction of Cotton Mather. In 1727, he was ordained pastor of the church in Stoughton, and he remained in that position until his death in 1783. He was a fine scholar, possessing a critical knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He had a vigorous constitution, and a fearless spirit. After the fashion of the day, he sought to persuade men rather by " the terror of the Lord " than by his goodness. He was frequently called on councils by neighboring churches, and by his tact and good sense was skillful in restoring harmony in the case of church troubles.

He was a man of great public spirit, and during the Revolutionary War he relinquished half his salary. While the third meeting-house was building, a period of sixteen years, he relinquished onetenth of his salary. In 1745, he asked for leave of absence from his pulpit to become chaplain in a regiment about to be sent with his Majesty's army to Louisburg. But the request was not granted. Ten years later he served as chaplain to a Connecticut regiment in the expedition to Crown Point. It was said of him, in the sermon preached at his funeral by Rev. Jason Haven of Dedham, " He was honored with long life and usefulness, and was perhaps an unparalleled instance of carrying on ministerial labors without being interrupted by any bodily infirmity, for the space of fifty-three years from the time of his settlement." His last public service was a prayer of thanksgiving on the return of peace, at a celebration in Stoughton in honor of that event on the 2d of June, 1783. One of his sermons, written in the forty-ninth year of his ministry, is numbered 8,059, which shows that he must have composed, on an average, no less than one hundred and sixty-four sermons a year, or a little more than three a week.

In an appendix to a sermon preached at the ordination of Rev. William Richey, at Canton, July I, 1807, by Rev. Elijah Dunbar, Jr., a grandson of Samuel, the pulpit services of Samuel Dunbar are thus described : " His plain and pungent preaching, unadorned with the graces of composition, was enforced by a peculiar zeal and pathos, and a very commanding eloquence. He spoke as one having authority. In prayer he was much admired ; he was pertinent, copious, and fervent."

We do not know that Mr. Dunbar assisted Roger Sherman in his work of self-education, but he could hardly have witnessed the industry, and the thirst for knowledge, of his young parishioner, without feeling a deep interest in him, and a desire to help him. He must at least have offered him the use of his library, and given him the benefit of

LIFE IN STOUGHTON. 21

his counsel, even if he did not act as his teacher. However this may have been, young Sherman acquired at this time those habits of study which enabled him eventually to become proficient in logic, geography, history and mathematics, in the general principles of philosophy and theology, and especially in law and politics, which were his favorite studies, and in which he particularly excelled. It is recorded of him that he was accustomed to sit at his work with an open book before him, devoting to study every moment that his eyes could be spared from the occupation in which he was engaged.

If he acquired any knowledge of Latin or Greek, it was probably very slight. He doubtless learned the meaning of the Latin words and phrases of common occurrence in law books. His love of Bible study must have made him desirous of reading the New Testament in Greek. But the most that we certainly know on this point is that he knew how to write the Greek characters. In a quotation in one of his memorandum books in his handwriting is the word " prototokos," in Greek letters.

On March 20, 1741, William Sherman died, in the 49th year of his age. He was not a member of the church. As the oldest son William had moved to New Milford, Conij., the care of settling the estate devolved upon Roger. The widow was appointed administratrix. It appearing that the real estate could not be divided without damage, the Probate Court, Nov. 26, 1742, assigned the same to the son Roger Sherman, and ordered that he should pay to the other children their share, and that the widow should have her dower therein. Immediately thereafter, Roger Sherman conveyed the land to Stephen Badlam for ;^IS7 \Os. In the deed Roger Sherman is described as a cordwainer.

On the 14th of March, 1742, Roger Sherman united with Mr. Dunbar's church. The circumstances which led to this act are not known. It occurred during that period of religious interest, known as the " Great Awakening," which began with the preaching of Jonathan Edwards at Northampton in 1734, and gradually spread over the country, being intensified by the preaching of George Whitefield from 1739 to 1741. The records of Mr. Dunbar's church do not indicate that Stoughton shared in this interest. Nor does it appear whether Roger Sherman was influenced in this act by the preaching of Mr. Dunbar, or by reading the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, or by other causes. One thing however is certain, that in this matter he never took a backward step. It is probable that in uniting with the church he exercised the same thoughtfulness and calm deliberation that he exhibited in all the other acts of his life. The consociation of churches in Connecticut, in 1741, passed resolves disapproving of certain irregularities connected with the Great Revival. A copy of these resolves made by Mr. Sherman in 1746 is still in existence.

Little as we know of Roger Sherman's life at Stoughton, it must have been full of pleasant memories. He often revisited the home of his childhood and youth, and renewed the friendships of

LIFE IN STOUGHTON. 23

early days. Six years after leaving it, he returned to claim as his bride Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Deacon Joseph Hartwell. An ancient record contains this entry, June 21, 1767, " Esquire Sherman, with his wife and two boys, here to meeting." He was accompanied by his brother, the Rev. Nathaniel Sherman, who was born in Stoughton, and who, on this occasion, " preached in the afternoon."

There is a tradition in Canton that Elizabeth Hartwell had another suitor besides Roger Sherman, a young lawyer; and that, while the father favored Sherman, the mother favored the lawyer, because she thought he might become a judge.

Chapter III

In June, 1743, the family moved to New Milford, where WiUiam, the oldest son, had gone three years before. It is said that Roger performed the journey on foot, carrying the tools of his trade with him. At first they took up their abode with William, who lived on a farm in that part of the town called New Dilloway. It is probable that, until he got established in other business, Roger worked at his trade. It is said that the object of his going to New Milford was to engage in the business of a surveyor.

At the October session of the General Assembly, 1745, Roger Sherman was appointed "Surveyor of Lands for the County of New Haven," the town of New Milford being at that time included in New Haven County. This was his first official position, and he continued in it till Litchfield County was organized in 1752, in which New Milford was included, and then he was appointed to the same office in that county, which position he held until he resigned it in 1758.

The office of surveyor was more than ordinarily remunerative in those days. Mr. Sherman was often employed in that capacity by the colony, to lay out portions of the ungranted lands of the colony to individuals. One commission which he executed for the colony as surveyor, in 1751, brought him ;^83 145. ; and this was only one of a number of orders he fulfilled for the colony within a few years. For ten years his employment by private individuals to resurvey tracts of land which had been laid out by estimation at first, in New Milford, must have taken a large amount of his time, and brought him a remuneration that but few people obtained at that date.

This occupation naturally led him to make investments in land, and he became one of the largest buyers and sellers of land in the town, as his numerous transfers in the land records testify. September 10, 1746, he bought of his brother William land to the amount of .^60 in the north part of the town. In the deed of this land, William is described as a yeoman, and Roger as a cordwainer. In all subsequent deeds to and from Roger Sherman, his name is given without prefix or suffix, except in a deed from Edward Allen to him of March 9, 1749/50, in which he is described as Mr. Roger Sherman. In 1748, he purchased of Gamaliel Baldwin a house and lot in Park Lane for ;^i,500 and made his residence there ; but afterwards he removed to the village, and came into possession of his brother William's home, near the site of the present Town Hall, where he resided until his removal to New Haven. He was the owner of several hundred acres of land, and a dwelling house, before he had been in New Milford seven years, for which he paid in old tenor money ;^2,ooo.

After the purchase of the property in Park Lane, in 1748, he began to take an active part in town affairs, and filled all sorts of town offices. He was in different years grand juryman, list-taker, leather sealer, fence viewer, selectman, ganger, treasurer to receive money raised for a new meeting-house, clerk pro tem, whenever the town clerk was absent, agent to represent the town in various matters before the General Assembly, and before the County Court. The proprietors of the town lands appointed him on a committee, with others, to lay out divisions of land, and highways, examine the boundary line of the town, run a boundary line, apply to the General Assembly relating to boundaries, etc. Donation lands were then given for the support of a minister, and Mr. Sherman was appointed to lay out and sell these by the proprietors of the common and undivided lands. His name occurs very frequently in the land records as acting in that capacity, and these records show that his land work for the town, together with similar work for the colony, kept him extremely busy during those years.

Two months after leaving Stoughton (August 28, 1743), he was dismissed from the church there, and recommended to the church in New Milford. December 21, 1753, he was chosen clerk of the Ecclesiastical Society, and annually re-elected to that office till he removed to New Haven. He was treasurer while the third meeting-house was building, for which he received £^0. He was on the School Committee, and on various other committees to manage the affairs of the Society, one of which was to confer with the " Rev. Mr. Nathaniel

NEW MILFORD PERIOD. 1743-1761. 2 J

Taylor on account of his encumbering himself with other affairs, whereby he is too much diverted from his studies and ministerial work." On the report of this committee, the Society were " well satisfied." It appears from the church records that Mr. Sherman was chosen to the office of deacon, on trial, March 12, 1755 ; and at a church meeting March 17, 1757, he was "established deacon" of the church.

His great business ability led to his being appointed on various committees for churches and adjoining towns, and entrusted with all sorts of commissions which needed care and energy. As a citizen he engaged in every useful and improving enterprise. When the bridge over the Housatonic was carried away by a flood, he rallied a few of the leading men of the town to venture with himself in rebuilding it, and making it a toll bridge. Just before leaving town, he with a few others introduced inoculation for the small-pox.

The first store-building in the village of New Milford was erected by William Sherman, near the site of the present Town Hall, in 1750. Here he carried on the business of a general country merchant, in connection with his brother Roger, until his death in 1756, at the age of forty. Roger Sherman became the owner of the property at that time, and continued the business till 1760, when he sold the property to Abel Hine.

While engaged in this business, Roger Sherman became so impressed with the evils of a currency consisting of depreciated and depreciating bills of credit of the colonies, that he published a pamphlet on the subject in 1752.^ The title-page reads as follows : —

" A Caveat against Injustice, or an enquiry into the evil consequences of a fluctuating medium of exchange. Wherein is considered whether the Bills of Credit on the Neighboring Governments are a legal tender in payments of money in the Colony of Connecticut for debts due by Book and otherwise, where the contract mentions only Old Tenor Money. By Phileunomos. New York, Printed by Henry De Forest in King Street : 1752."

The author begins by stating the injurious effects of allowing the bills of credit of the neighboring colonies to circulate as a medium of exchange in Connecticut, as they were constantly depreciating from the neglect of those colonies to provide for their redemption. This resulted directly in a loss to those receiving the bills, and indirectly in a depreciation of the bills of Connecticut itself Those in favor of the circulation of these foreign bills insisted that the custom of receiving them in the payment of debts had continued so long that it must be considered a part of the common law. The greater part of the pamphlet is taken up with an argument in reply to this claim.

The author insists that, as Connecticut has never authorized the circulation of these foreign bills as currency, the reception of them in payment was a purely voluntary act, and that, in the case of a credit, there could be no implied contract to receive in payment bills which were of less value

1 The only copy of this curious pamphlet known to be in existence is in the possession of Senator George F. Hoar.

when the credit expired than when it was given ; that whatever value the claim might have as to a currency possessing intrinsic value, it could have none as to a currency which had no intrinsic value ; and that, even in the case of coin, the creditor would not be expected to take in payment coin which had been lessened in value by clipping or otherwise.

At the close, to the objection that, if it were not for these foreign bills of credit, Connecticut would have no money to trade with, the author replies as follows: — •" If that were indeed the case, one had better die in a good cause than live in a bad one. But I apprehend that the case in fact is quite the reverse, for we in this colony are seated on a very fruitful soil, the product whereof with our labor and industry, and the divine blessing thereon, would sufficiently furnish us with and procure us all the necessaries of life, and as good a medium of exchange as any people in the world have or can desire. But so J^gf^ as we part with our most valuable commodities for such bills of credit as are no profit, but rather a cheat, vexation, and snare to us, and become a medium whereby we are continually cheating and wronging one another in our dealings in commerce ; and so long as we import so much more foreign goods than are necessary, and keep so many merchants and traders employed to procure and deal them out to us, great part of which we might as well make among ourselves, and another great part of which we had much better be without, especially the spirituous liquors, of which vast quantities are consumed in the colony every year unnecessarily, to the great destruction of the estates, morals, health, and even the lives of many of the inhabitants : — I say so long as these things are so, we shall spend a great part of our labor and substance for that which will not profit us. Whereas if these things were reformed, the provisions and other commodities which we might have to export yearly, and which other governments are dependent on us for, would procure us gold and silver abundantly sufficient for a medium of trade, and we might be as independent, flourishing, and happy a colony as any in the British Dominions.