American Minute with Bill Federer

July 23
Roger Sherman was the only person to sign all four of America'sfounding documents: the Articles of Association-1774, the Declarationof Independence-1776, the Articles of Confederation-1777, and the U.S.Constitution-1787. At age 19, Roger Sherman's father died and he supported his family asa shoe cobbler, helping two younger brothers attend college and become clergymen. Roger Sherman was a surveyor and merchant, but when a neighbor needed legal advice, he studied to help, only to be inspired to be a lawyer. Roger Sherman was elected a state senator, a judge and a delegate to the Continental Congress. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and gave instructions to an embassy to Canada: "That all civil rights and the right to hold office were to be extended to persons of any Christian denomination." Roger Sherman made 138 speeches at the Constitutional Convention, and in the first session of Congress, thought a First Amendment unnecessary, as religion was under each individual States' jurisdiction. Elected a U.S. Senator at age 70, Roger Sherman died JULY 23, 1793. Inscribed on his tomb is: "He ever adorned the profession of Christianity which he made in youth and...died in the prospect of a blessed immortality."
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