“ ‘He was formed for Thinkg & Acting, but Law & Politics were peculiarly adapted to his Genius. He was an admirer of Vattells Laws of Nature & Nations.... He was exemplary for Piety & serious Religion, was a good Divine; once printed a well & judiciously written Sermon of his own Composition, tho’ never preached. He was far from all Enthusiasm. He was calm sedate & ever discerning & judicious. He went thro’ all the Grades of public Life, & grew in them all & filled every Office with Propriety, Ability, & tho’ not with showy Brilliancy, yet with that Dignity which arises from doing every Thing perfectly right. In no part of his Employments has he displayed his intrinsic Merit and acquired that Glory, so much as in Congress. He there became almost oracular for the deep Sagacity, Wisdom & Weight of his Counsels. Tho’ of no Elocution, he was respected & listened to with great Attention; and was successful in carrying the Points he laboured. He was an extraordy Man—a venerable uncorrupted Patriot!’[39]
“Many years later Sherman’s character was thus sketched by the discriminating hand of Professor James L. Kingsley:
“ ‘No man in Connecticut ever enjoyed the confidence of the people of the State more entirely, or for a longer period, than Roger Sherman. Where he doubted, who ventured to be positive? Where he saw his way clear, who hesitated to follow? In the whole course of his public life Roger Sherman never failed to leave in those with whom he had intercourse an impression of deep sagacity, and stern integrity; and he bequeathed, as a public man, to those who should come after him, the character of a great, and what is much more rare, of an honest, politician.’[40]
“Sherman’s English ancestors were of the yeoman class. He was born in the ranks of what, for want of a better name, is called the ‘common people.’ He knew their virtues, but he knew their failings, too. It may fairly be said that, when he came to be entrusted with high public station, the people had more confidence in Sherman than Sherman had in them.
“This, no doubt, was an esoteric doctrine to be wisely kept for those who had ears to hear. He stated it without reserve in the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. Governor Randolph of Virginia had proposed—what is now urged by many as a needed constitutional change—that the senators from each State should be elected by popular vote. Sherman opposed it, ‘insisting,’ as Mr. Madison reports him, ‘that it ought to be by the State legislatures. The people, he said, immediately, should have as little to do as may be about the government. They want information, and are constantly liable to be misled.’[41]
“His views prevailed, and, if we may judge from the experience thus far of his own State, he was probably right in believing that it was safer to confide in the wisdom of the General Assembly than in a popular vote. He was speaking as the representative of one of the smaller States, of territorial limits such as to make it reasonably certain that every leading man among her citizens would be known to most of the leading members of her Legislature. The inhabitants of our towns, again, are quite generally personally acquainted with those whom they send to represent them at Hartford; and if these men betray their trust, they are called to a prompt account at home, before the bar of public opinion.
“It is to be remembered, of course, that Sherman’s unwillingness to trust the people with the election of a Senator by a direct vote was not inconsistent with his confidence in their judgment on general questions of public policy or moral right. That confidence he always maintained.
“Sherman was an effective speaker, but it was not because he had in him anything of an orator.[42] His power in debate lay in his habit of never taking the floor unless he had something new and important to suggest,[43] and in stopping as soon as he had said it. It lay also in what Cicero said was the first qualification of the successful orator—being a good man. People believed him, because they believed in him.
“Justice was his polar star. He believed that it was the true mainspring of all political action on the part of the mass of the people. ‘Popular opinion,’ he said on the floor of the First Congress, ‘is founded in justice, and the only way to know if the popular opinion is in favor of a measure is to examine whether it is just and right in itself.’
“ ‘The popularity that follows, not that which is run after,’ was what he thought should be the wish of the legislator.