The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life

11. Roger Sherman: An Old Puritan in a New Nation

chapter 11 Roger Sherman An Old Puritan in a New Nation Mark David Hall By any measure, Roger Sherman is a forgotten founder. He is virtually unknown to the American public, and history and government professors know little about him other than that he helped craft the Connecticut Compromise. Yet as Daniel L. Dreisbach suggests, Sherman deserves to be better known.1 He served with distinction in a variety of state and national offices, and was the only founder to help draft and sign the Declaration and Resolves (1774), the Articles of Association (1774), the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (1777, 1778), and the Constitution (1787). Like Thomas Jefferson, he authored a significant state law concerning religious liberty, and, unlike Jefferson, he participated in debates over the First Amendment. Accordingly, it is striking that when U.S. Supreme Court justices have used history to interpret the First Amendment’s religion clauses, they have made 112 distinct references to Jefferson but have mentioned Sherman only 3 times.2 This invites the questions whether Jefferson merits the attention the justices have lavisheduponhimandwhetherSherman ’srole(andtherolesplayed by many others) in crafting the constitutional provisions governing church-state relations has been properly acknowledged. 248 I begin this essay by providing a brief overview of Sherman’s life and discussing how he has been treated in the scholarly literature. I then explore his faith and how his theological convictions informed his political ideas and actions. I conclude by focusing on his views of religious liberty and church-state relations. My central argument is that Sherman was a sincere, orthodox Christian in the Reformed theological tradition who embraced religious toleration and thought it appropriate for the state and national governments to promote Christianity.3 Although his approach to church-state relations may seem parochial or even illiberal today, if the founders’ views are relevant for contemporary jurisprudence, then justices should not ignore Sherman.4 More broadly, scholars who wish to understand the founding era need to consider his contributions to the creation of the American republic. A Life in Brief Roger Sherman was born in Massachusetts in 1721 to Mehetabel and William Sherman. William was a farmer and cordwainer, and like many of his fellow citizens he was Congregationalist. William died in 1741, and shortly thereafter Roger moved to New Milford, Connecticut, where he worked as a cordwainer, surveyor, and store owner. He taught himself advanced mathematics, and in 1750 he used his new skills to calculate tables for Astronomical diary, or, An almanack for the year of our Lord Christ, 1750. Until 1761, Sherman published annual almanacs containing his tables, moral aphorisms, and other useful information. He also taught himself law, and he was admitted to the Litchfield bar in 1754. Under the guidance of Roger and his older brother, two younger Sherman brothers, Nathaniel and Josiah, attended the College of New Jersey (Princeton), graduating in 1753 and 1754 respectively. They both became Congregational ministers. As Sherman prospered professionally, he was selected for a variety of local offices and was elected to several six-month terms in the lower house of Connecticut’s General Assembly. In 1760, after the death of his first wife (with whom he had seven children), Sherman moved to New Haven. There he opened a store next to Yale College and sold general Roger Sherman | 249 merchandise, provisions, and books. Sherman married Rebecca Prescott three years later, and the two had eight children. He was again elected to local offices and the lower house of the General Assembly, and in 1766 Connecticut voters chose him to be one of the twelve members of the upper house, or Council of Assistants. Traditionally, four Assistants were selected by the General Assembly to serve with the deputy governor as the judges on Connecticut’s Superior Court. Sherman was appointed to this court in 1766, and he held both offices until the legislature separated them in 1785—at which point he chose to remain a Superior Court judge. He retained this position until he became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1789. Beginning in 1774, Sherman accepted multiple appointments to the Continental Congress. Collectively, he served 1,543 days in that body, more than all but four other men.5 He was an early advocate of independence because of what he perceived to be Great Britain’s move toward tyranny. John...