Roger Sherman: “Letters of a Countryman” (November 22, 1787)

Roger Sherman was not widely known as a writer. He was, however, a workmanlike businessman early in his career and later a tireless contributor to the founding of a new nation. The documents from his hand reflect his abiding concerns with putting the American colonies on a sound monetary footing. This concern is reflected in his early document, “A Caveat against Injustice,” where he takes on the issue of the colonies’ currencies and the problems associated with each colony’s creating its own money and the further problems that business owners and citizens had with determining the true value of another colony’s money. Later, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Sherman played a key role in the production of the Constitution. His “Letters of a Countryman” were an important part of the debate over ratification of the Constitution.