Connecticut Senator from 1791 to 1793. He was one of the Founding Fathers and theirly served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He was the only person to sign the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
His formal education stopped at grade school, when he went into the shoemaking trade, but he learned a lot from his father's ample library.
During the Constitutional Convention of 1787 he proposed to Connecticut Compromise that led to the current structure of the US Congress.
Three of his grandsons followed him into the U.S. Senate.
He drew praise from Thomas Jefferson, who wrote of him "That is Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, a man who never said a foolish thing in his life."