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king_georg
FIXING NATIONAL PROBLEMS - Subscribe
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Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in this country lately: illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida ... Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It's a win-win situation. + Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border. + Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies. + Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border. Any other problems you would like for me to solve today ? Yes! Think about this one: 1. Cows 2..The Constitution 3. The Ten Commandments C O W S Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow. T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq .... Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore. T H E 1 0 C O M M A N D M E N T S The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this: You cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...It creates a hostile work environment |
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king_georg
Roger Sherman Jul 9th, 2008 8:57:08 pm - Subscribe
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Connecticut's Roger Sherman was the only American, who placed his signature on all four of the great state papers, in the formative years of our country. He was a signer of the Declaration of 1774; the Declaration of Independence 1776; the Articles of Confederation 1781, and the Federal Constitution of 1788. Born on April 19, 1721 in Newtown, Massachusetts, he was the son of William and Mehetabel (Wellington) Sherman. He was descended from Captain John Sherman of Dedham, Essex, who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts about 1636. Sherman's father moved to Stoughton, Massachusetts and the family lived there until 1743. From his lather, he learned the trade of Cordwainer, and he also worked on the farm. He received no formal education except that offered by the common school, under the influence of the classically trained, Reverend Samuel Dunbar. He early acquired a habit of study, that lead him to read widely in history, theology, mathematics, and particularly law and politics. One pictures him at his cobbler's bench, with an open book always before him. Sherman's father died in 1741. In 1743, Roger Sherman moved to New Milford, Connecticut, where his elder brother, William, had already settled. The story goes that he walked the entire distance, with his cobbler's tools upon his back. Two years later, he was appointed surveyor of New Haven County, and he continued in office, when Litchfield County was organized in 1752, serving in this capacity until 1758. The position was a successful one, as Sherman became a considerable owner of land. At this time, he became active in the town affairs of New Milford, serving as juryman, town clerk, church deacon, school committee-man, and agent to the Assembly of Town business. In 1756, he became the sole owner of New Milford's first store, which he and his brother had been operating. He also found time to publish a caveat against injustice, or "Enquiry into the evil consequences of a fluctuating medium of Exchange." Added to this, was his publication of a series of Almanacs between 1750-1761, which were based on his own astronomical calculations, and contained quotations from such literary men as Milton, Dryden and Pope. To these he added some verses of his own composition. February 1754 saw him admitted to the Litchfield Bar. In the following year, he represented New Milford in the General Assembly, which appointed him Justice of the Peace. Sherman's experience in the General Assembly prepared him for the many legislative duties that he engaged in during the Revolutionary War, especially in the matters of military finance and supplies. At the age of 40, when he had become a man of property and some political standing, he gave up his law practice, and embarked upon wider mercantile enterprises by moving to New Haven. Here he gathered merchandise, as well as books and other paraphernalia, for Yale students, He began another store in nearby Wallingford. He was a liberal contributor to the Yale chapel for eleven years, 1765-1776, he was Treasurer of Yale, and received an honorary degree of M.A. for that college. Because of public pressure and duties, he retired from his business ventures in 1772. During the years, 1764-1766, he represented New Haven in the lower house of the legislature;he was elected to the upper house in 1766, and held office in that legislative body for 19 years. At this time he became a judge in the Superior Court of Conn., being annually reappointed for 23 years. In 1774, Sherman was a member of the Continental Congress, and as a member of the Committee on the Declaration of Rights he frequently voiced his opinions "often and long but very heavily and clumsily". He remained a member of the Congress from 1774-1781, and again in 1781-1783. He was on the committee for drafting the Declaration of Independence, along with Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and Livingston. He was a signer of this famous document. He served on various committees, dealing with ways and means, Native American affairs, the treasury, war and ordinance. He worked so earnestly hard, that he spoke of retirement, in a letter to Governor Trumbull. It was at this time that John Adams spoke of him as "an old Puritan, as honest as an angel, and as firm in the cause of Americium Independence as Mt. Atlas." Sherman, toward the end of the Revolution was, perhaps, the most influential and well versed man in Congress. The years 1784-1786 were among Sherman's relatively quiet years. His chief offices were that of Judge of the Superior Court, and Mayor of New Haven. In the year 1787 he entered the Constitutional ( Federal ) Convention in Philadelphia as a delegate from the State of Connecticut. He spoke frequently on many issues-a speaker for the small states, on legislative power. The people should have as little to do as may be out government. The want (lack) information and are constantly misled." He spoke, also on democracy, executive power, on the courts, on ratification, on senators' term, on the admission of new states, on slave trade, and on the Bill of Rights. Perhaps his most noteworthy achievement was the apportionment of votes in Congress. Sherman proposed that "the proportion of suffrage in the first branch (the house) should be according to the respective numbers of free inhabitants, and that in the second branch ( the senate ) each state should have one vote." In time, with changes, this came to be known as the Connecticut, the Great or the Sherman Compromise. In all, Sherman spoke 138 times at the Convention. Sherman was 66 at the time of this Convention. He was a New Englander, and looked like one. He was tall, his hair cut straight across his forehead. He dressed plainly. His manner, and bearing were often stiff, stern, rustic, and yet dignified. Thomas Jefferson pointing him out to a visitor remarked " that is Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, who never said a foolish thing in his life". He was an able politician and successful in accomplishing all he undertook. There is a good portrait of Sherman painted by Ralph Earl around 1774 at the Yale Gallery of Fine Arts. His contemporaries recognized his ability and honesty. His long record of service attests industry, integrity and devotion to public duty. In his last years, he was elected to the first Congress (1789-1791). He became a member of the Senate, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of William S. Johnson. There he served until his death, in New Haven, July 23, 1793. He is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery of that city. There are not many who achieved in a life-time, what Roger Sherman achieved; and few who accomplished as much for our country as he did in these formative years. |
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king_georg
Signer of the Declaration of Independence Jul 9th, 2008 8:59:08 pm - Subscribe
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ROGER SHERMAN was born in Newtown, Massachusetts on April 19, 1721.When Sherman was two years old, his family moved to Stonington, where he grew up in rather humble circumstances, without the benefit of much formal education. He had a strong desire to learn and read widely in his spare time but he spent most of his waking hours helping his father with farming chores and learning the cobbler's trade. Sherman was apprenticed early to a shoemaker and at the age of nineteen, his father died and he became the principal care taker and financial supporter of his large family. It is said that while at work on his cobbler's bench, he usually would have an open book before him, so that the could devote every spare minute to study. In 1743, two years after his father's death, Sherman traveled on foot and joined an older brother who had settled in New Milford, Connecticut. Here, in partnership with his brother, they engaged in the mercantile business. In 1745, he was appointed surveyor of lands for the county, a job he qualified for because of his early attention to mathematics. In 1749 he married Elizabeth Hartwell. Meanwhile, encouraged by a judicious friend, he was devoting his leisure hours to the study of the law and made such progress that he was admitted to the bar in 1754, without benefit of a formal legal education. In 1755, he was elected a representative of New Milford in the general assembly of Connecticut, and the same year he was appointed a justice of the peace. Sherman prospered and assumed leadership in the community, and in 1759 he was made one of the judges of common pleas in Litchfield county. In 1760, his wife Elizabeth died, leaving their seven children in his care. In 1761, Sherman moved to New Haven, where he managed two stores, one that catered to Yale students, and another in nearby Wallingford. He also became a friend and benefactor of Yale College, and served for many years as its treasurer. In 1763, three years after the death of his first wife, he wed Rebecca Prescott, who bore him eight more children. Sherman's political career blossomed. He rose from justice of the peace and county judge to an associate judge of the Connecticut Superior Court and to representative in both houses of the colonial assembly. Although a Puritan and opposed to extremism, he promptly joined the fight against Britain and devoted himself unreservedly to the patriot cause. He was one of the most active members of the Continental Congress. Without showing gifts of popular speech, he commanded respect for his knowledge, judgment, integrity and devotion to duty. He served on many important committees, but the most decisive proof of the high esteem in which he was held was the fact that, along with Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Livingston, he was appointed to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence, to which document he subsequently affixed his signature. During the Revolutionary War, Sherman served in Congress and on the supreme court of Connecticut. He was elected New Haven's first mayor in 1784. At the age of sixty-six, he was selected as a representative of Connecticut to the Constitutional Convention. And in 1789, he helped prepare the Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson described Roger Sherman as "a man who never said a foolish thing in his life" and Nathaniel Macon declared that "he had more common sense than any man I have ever known". Roger Sherman is the only American to sign four important historical documents: The Continental Association of 1774; The Declaration of Independence; The Articles of Confederation; and The Federal Constitution. The career of Roger Sherman most happily illustrates the possibilities of American citizenship. Beginning life under the heaviest disadvantages, he rose to a career of ever increasing usefulness, honor and success. He died at the age of seventy-two in New Haven on July 23, 1793, serving his country to the very end as a United States Senator. |