They get lost and die because of their foolishness and lack of self-control.
Proverbs 5:23
There are wise people and there are fools. Count Roger Sherman as one of the former. Thomas Jefferson said that Sherman “never did a foolish thing in his life.” Historians tell us that Sherman was also humble — there was nothing “flashy” about him. His style was plain, straightforward and honest. His contemporaries obviously appreciated these qualities because Denise Kiernan documents that they “listened to everything he had to say.”
This is high praise for someone who beginnings were so humble that he didn’t get a chance to go to school until he was 13 years old because there was no school where he lived. He became a voracious reader, however. A cobbler by trade, it is said that he kept a book propped up on his cobbler’s bench so that he could read while he worked. As he consumed books he became educated. Once educated, he became a well-respected thinker and writer which eventually propelled him into the vocations of law and public service. That public service led him to Philadelphia where he not only signed the Declaration of Independence but also served with Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Livingston on the committee that wrote it. And here we find a second success quality in the life of Roger Sherman. He didn’t let his circumstances hold him back!
(For more information on Sherman and the other signers of the Declaration, read Signing Their Lives Away by Denise Kiernan.)
