After the death of his wife and his brother and store partner,
Sherman
moved to New Haven, married above himself, and became the county's
representative
in the Connecticut General Assembly. When the Stamp Act crisis unfolded
in 1765, Sherman took a leadership position in protesting British
policy,
but was not among the radicals who argued for extra-legal resistance to
the British acts. When popular leaders called together the first
Continental
Congress, Connecticut sent Sherman as one of its first three delegates.
He was a consistent and vigorous opponent of British imperial policy,
an
early advocate of independence, and a drafter of the Declaration of
Independence.
During the War, Sherman served in the Connecticut legislature, in the
Continental
Congress, and on the state supreme court, and he helped draft the
Articles
of Confederation. Sherman thus came to the Philadelphia Convention in
1787
with as much experience in state and "national" government as any
delegate,
and more than most.
Sherman, like Oliver Ellsworth, went to Philadelphia to help
strengthen
the federal government
and protest the position of the (smaller)
states. He believed the federal government needed the power to tax, to
regulate trade, and to conduct foreign affairs, but he worked to assure
that the form of the new government would give the individual states
adequate
power to protect their interests. Sherman has been credited with a
number
of the provisions of the Constitution: the "Connecticut Compromise"
(that
gave states equal representation in the Senate in return for
representation
by population in the House), the prohibition on export duties (a
provision
that favored the export economies of New England and the South), and
the
proviso that in cases where the Electoral College did not give any
candidate
a majority of the votes, the presidential election would be decide in
the
House, with each state having one vote (a provision again
favoring
the rights of individual states as states).
After ratification, Sherman served in the House and then the Senate.
He opposed Madison's efforts to draft a Bill of Rights on the grounds
that
such an enumeration of federal rights would diminish the role and power
of the states (the same position taken, more disingenuously, by some of
nationalists, particularly James Wilson, in opposing during the
ratification
debates efforts to commit the government to crafting a federal Bill of
Rights).
Source: Christopher Collier, Roger Sherman's Connecticut: Yankee
Politics
and the American Revolution (1971).
|
Roger Sherman,
Unpublished Opinion on the Constitution Dear
Sir I am informed that you wish to know my
opinion with
respect to the new Constitution lately formed by the federal
convention, and
the Objections made against it.
I suppose it is the general opinion that the
present
Government of the United States is not Sufficient to give them Credit
and
respectability Abroad or Security at home. But little faith or
confidence can
be placed in a gover[n]ment that has only power to enter into
engagements, but
no power to fulfil them. To form a just opinion of the new
constitution it
Should be considered, whether the powers to be thereby vested in
the federal
government are Sufficient, and only Such as are necessary to
Secure the Common
interests of the States; and whether the exercise of those powers
is placed in
Safe hands.‑In every government there is a trust, which may be abused;
but the
greatest Security against abuse is, that the interest of those in whom
the
powers of government are vested is the
Same
as that of the people they govern, and that they are dependent on the
Suffrage
of the people for their appointment to, and continuance in Office. this
is a
much greater Security than a declaration of rights, or restraining
clauses upon
paper.
The rights of the people under the new
constitution
will be Secured by a representation in proportion to their numbers in
one
branch of the legislature, and the rights of the particular State
governments
by their equal representation in the other branch.
The President, Vice President, and Senators,
tho'
chosen for fixed periods, are re eligible as often as the electors
Shall think
proper, which will be a very great Security for their fidelity in
Office, and
will likewise give much greater Stability and energy to government than
an
exclusion by rotation.‑The greatest possible Security that a
people can have
for their civil rights and liberties, is, that no laws can be made to
bind
them, nor any taxes be imposed upon them without their consent by
representatives chosen by themselves. This was the great point
contended for
in our contest with Great Britain; and will not this be fully Secured
to us
under the new constitution?
Declarations of rights in England
were charters granted by Princes, or Acts of Parliament made to limit
the
prerogatives of the crown, but not to abridge the powers of the
Legislature.
--These observations duly considered will obviate most of the
objections that
have been made against
the constitution. -‑The powers vested in the federal government are
only Such
as respect the common interests of the Union, and are particularly
defined, So
that each State retains it's Sovereignty in what respects its own
internal
government, and a right to exercise every power
of a Sovereign State not delegated to the united States. And tho' the
general
government in matters within its jurisdiction is paramount to the
constitutions
& laws of the particular States, yet all acts of the Congress not
warranted
by the constitution would be void. Nor could they be enforced contrary
to the
Sense of a majority of the States. -‑ One excellency of the
constitution is
that when the government of the united States acts within its proper
bounds it
will be the interest of the legislatures of the particular States
to Support
it, but when it over leaps those bounds and interferes with the rights
of the
State governments {it} they will be {their interest} powerful enough to
check
it; but {the powers of each} distinction
between their
jurisdictions will be So obvious, that there will be no great danger of
interference {or contention between the governments of the particular
States
& the United States}.
The unanimity of the convention is a
remarkable
circumstance in favour of the constitution, that all the States present
concurred in it, and all the members but three out of forty two Signed
it, and
Governor Randolph, declared, that tho' he did not think fit to Sign it,
he had
no fixed determination to oppose it, nor have I heard that he has Since
made
any opposition to it.
The
other two Honorable Gentlemen whom I esteem for their patriotism
and good
Sense have published their objections,' which deserve Some notice; and
I think
the foregoing observations on the principles of the Constitution must
evince
that their fears are groundless. The peoples right of election is
doubly
Secured, the legislatures of the particular States have right to
regulate it.
and if they Should fail to do it properly, it may be done by congress.
and what
possible motive can either have to injure the people in the exercise of
that
right.‑the qualifications of the electors are to remain as fixed by the
State
constitutions. It is objected that the number of representatives will
be too
Small‑but it is my opinion that it will be quite large enough if
extended as
far as the constitution will admit, the present number in both
branches will
consist of Ninety one members which is the Same number that the States
have a
right to elect under the confederation, and I have heard no complaint
that the
number is not Sufficient to give information, of the circumstances
of the
States and to transact the general affairs of the union; nor have any
of the
States thought fit to keep up the full representation that they are
intitled to
{it may be Said, that the powers of the
Congress increased, its true} nor
will the additional powers of congress make it necessary to increase
the number
of members they will have the additional powers of regulating
commerce,
establishing a uniform rule of naturalization, and laws on the Subject
of
bankruptcies, and to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting coins
and
Securities of the united States, and to prescribe a uniform mode of
organizing,
arming and training the Militia under the authority of the Several
States, and
to promote the progress of Science by Securing, to persons for a
limited time
the benefit of their writings & inventions. The other powers are
the Same
as Congress have under the articles of confederation with this
difference,
that they will have authority to carry into effect, what they have now
a right
to require to be done by the States.
It was thought necessary in order to carry
into
efect the laws of the union, and to preserve justice and harmony among
the
States, to extend the judicial powers of the confederacy, they cannot
be
extended beyond the enumerated cases, but may be limited by Congress,
and
doubtless will be restricted to Such cases of importance &
magnitude as
cannot Safely be trusted to the final decision of the courts of the
particular
States, the Supreme court may have a circuit through the States to make
the
trials as convenient, and as little expensive to the parties as may be;
and the
trial by jury will doubtless be allowed in Cases proper for that mode
of trial,
nor will the people in general be at all affected by the judiciary
of the
United States, perhaps not one to an hundred of the citizens will ever
have a
cause that can come within its jurisdiction, for all causes between
citizens of
the Same States, except where they claim lands under grants of
different
States, must be finally decided by the courts of the State to which
they
belong.
The power of making war and raising and
Supporting
Armies is now vested in Congress, who are not restrained from keeping
up armies
in time of peace, but by the new constitution no appropriation of money
for
that purpose can be in force longer than two years, but the Security is
that
the power is in the legislature who are the representatives of the
people and
can have no motive to keep up armies unnecessarily.
In order to [have] a well regulated
government, the
legislature, Should be dependant on the people, and be vested with a
plenetude
of power, for all the purposes, for which it is instituted, to be
exercised for
the public good, as occasion may require, powers are dangerous only
when
trusted in officers not under the controul of the laws; but by the new
constitution, Congress are vested with power to make all laws which
Shall be
necessary and proper for carrying into execution, all the powers
vested in the
government of the united States, or in any department or officer thereof
*********** Note:
from Draft, Sherman Collection, CtY. The letter has
no addressee. Portions of this draft letter are found in Sherman's "A
Citizen of New Haven," Connecticut Courant, 7 January (CCA21) and in an
undated manuscript in Sherman's handwriting entitled "Observations
on the
New federal Constitution" (Mfm:Conn. 63). Source
#331 from Source: James Kaminski and Gaspare Saladino, The
Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Vol. XIV,
Commentaries on the Constitution, Public and Private, Vol. 2 (Madison,
Wisconsin, 1983), 386-389.
Crossed out sections of the manuscript are
enclosed in {...}. |