ing on this suggestion immediately, but it gave a direction to his future studies, and paved the way for the distinction which he afterward obtained. In 1754 he was qualified and admitted to the bar. His practical and sound judgment, combined with inflexible integrity, soon gave him a pre-eminence in his profession, and pointed him out as a fitting object for public trust. In 1755 he was appointed a justice of the peace for New Milford, and was also elected a member of the Colonial Assembly. Four years later he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Litchfield, and for two years discharged the duties of that office with distinguished ability. He then removed to New Haven, where he acted as treasurer of Yale College. In consideration of his attainments and studious habits, he received from that learned institution the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In the following year (1766) the colony elected him a member of the Upper House in the General Assembly of Connecticut. As the members of the Upper House held their meetings with closed doors, we have no record of his career in that body; but from the subsequent events of his life we may reasonably suppose that it was satisfactory. During the same year Mr. Sherman was also appointed judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. The first office he retained for twenty-three years, the last for nineteen years. He would probably have held them much longer had not a law been passed rendering the two offices incompatible. We have briefly recapitulated the offices of trust bestowed on Mr. Sherman prior to the Revolution, and may now turn to the latter, as the drama in which Mr. Sherman became one of the principal actors, and with which, to the end of time, his name will be associated. In August, 1774, Mr. Sherman was nominated delegate to the General Congress of the colonies. It was a period requiring great calmness, unusual sagacity, and unflinching patriotism; and when Roger Sherman took his seat in the first Continental Congress, every one knew, and acknowledged, that he brought these requisites with him, and would even there be the glory of his country. He soon became one of the most prominent men in the assembly, and was appointed to the most important committees, among which was one to concert a plan of military operations for the campaign of 1776; to prepare and digest a form of confederation, and to repair to head-quarters at New York, and examine into the state of the army. But what was more important than these was that, in connection with Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Livingston, he was one of the committee appointed to prepare the Declaration of Independence. This immortal document, as is well known, was written by Jefferson, and it is probable that Sherman's influence was principally exerted in carrying it through Congress; but that he was engaged at all argues the consideration in which he was held. John Adams says of him that he was 66 one of the soundest and strongest pillars of the Revolution." He was indefatigable in his labors, and considered nothing too minute for his special attention. In 1784 Mr. Sherman was elected mayor of New Haven, an office which he held for the remainder of his life. Toward the close of the war he was appointed one of the committee to revise the laws of the state, and in 1787 received a similar appointment to form the Constitution of the United States. Among his manuscripts a paper has been found, containing a series of propositions prepared by him for the amendment of the old Articles of Confederation, the greater part of which are incorporated, in substance, in the new Constitution. In the debates in that convention Mr. Sherman bore an important part. In a letter to General Floyd, he expresses his opinion of the Constitution. "Perhaps a better Constitution could not be made upon mere speculation. If, upon experience, it should be found to be deficient, it provides an easy and peaceable mode of making amendments; but if the Constitution should be adopted, and the several states choose some of their wisest and best men, from time to time, to administer the government, I believe it will not want any amendment. I hope that kind Providence, which guarded these states through a dangerous and distressing war to peace and liberty, will still watch over them, and guide them in the way of safety." Having exerted all his power to secure a proper form of government, Sherman's abilities were now called in demand to secure its adoption by his native state. There were many local objections and prejudices to overthrow-objections which, in some states, were nearly fatal. Mainly owing to Sherman's argument and influence, Connecticut adopted the Constitution. After its ratification, he was immediately elected a representative of the state in Congress. He served in this capacity for two years, and was then elected to the United States Senate (1791). He con U tinued in the full discharge of his senatorial duties until death dragged him from the helm. Mr. Sherman died on the 23d of July, 1793, in the seventy-third year of his age. Mr. Sherman was a man of strictly religious principles and instincts. He was a devout reader of the Bible, and it was his custom to purchase a copy of the Scriptures at the commencement of every session of Congress, to peruse it daily, and to present it to one of his children on his return. His temperament was of a high moral order, and healthy as his physical man. It was impossible to swerve him from the line of conscientious duty: integrity was the essence of his thoughts, and penetrated his smallest action. He was remarkable for common sense, and for taking a clear view of perplexed subjects which others scarcely dared to handle. "He was capable of deep and long investigation. While others, weary of a short attention to business, were relaxing themselves in thoughtless inattention or dissipation, he was employed in prosecuting the same business, either by revolving it in his mind, and ripening his own thought upon it, or in conferring with others." It was in this way that he accomplished so much, and did it so well. In person Mr. Sherman was considerably above the common height; his form was erect and well proportioned; his complexion fair, and his countenance manly and agreeable. His bearing was naturally modest, but, when matters of importance were discussed, he became unreserved, free, and communicative. The following is the inscription on the tablet which is placed over his tomb: In memory of the Hon. ROGER SHERMAN, Esq., and Senator of the United States. and died in New Haven, July 23d, A.D. 1793, Possessed of a strong, clear, penetrating mind, he became the self-taught scholar, and twenty-three years a judge of the Superior Court, He was a delegate in the first Congress, signed the glorious Act of Independence, and many years displayed superior talents and ability in the national Legislature. He was a member of the General Convention, and served his country with fidelity and honor the profession of Christianity died in the prospect of a blessed immortality. Ir seldom happens that a man of genius receives the full measure of homage to which he is entitled. He is apt to be ridiculed as a visionary, and persecuted as a plagiarist during his life, and forgotten after his death. These hard conditions seem to be the penalty which one man pays for overlapping his neighbor in intellectual greatness; a sort of iniquitous compensation which the rabble insists on establishing. If there is one man more than another who fortunately can not complain of this cruel injustice, it is Robert Fulton. Every American must experience a thrill of satisfaction in knowing that the greatest benefactor of his country lives also in its best recollection. The name of Fulton is truly “familiar in our mouths as household words." In every considerable city of the New World the streets are named after him ; large and populous cities bear his honored name; across every Ocean, through every inlet, away to the remotest corners of the earth, richly-laden vessels, also named after him, plow their rapid way. It is not only their name, but their present perfection, that they owe to this worthy son of the land of freedom. Without |