“‘When you are in a minority, talk, when you are in a majority, vote.’
‘I know of no better way to preserve credit than to pay debts, and not to run in debt more than is absolutely necessary.’
‘Popular opinion 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. I believe that whatever is just and right the people will judge of and comply with.’
Comparing import duties with direct taxes, he said in Congress in 1789,
‘The consumer pays them (import duties) eventually, and they pay no more than they choose, because they have it in their power to determine the quantity of taxable articles they will use. A tax left at discretion must be more agreeable than any other.’
Regarding constituents instructing their representatives, he said,
‘I think when the people have chosen a representative it is his duty to meet others from the different parts of the Union and consult and agree with them to such acts as are for the general benefit of the whole community. If they were to be guided by instructions there would be no use in deliberation; all that a man would have to do would be to produce his instructions and lay them on the table and let them speak for him.
…..
It is the duty of a good representative to inquire what measures are most likely to promote the general welfare and after he has discovered them to give them his support. Should his instructions, therefore, coincide with his ideas on any measure, they would be unnecessary; if they were contrary to the convictions of his own mind he must be bound by every principle of justice to disregard them.'”
-Excerpt courtesy of Google Books, The Connecticut Magazine, Number III and IV, December, Series of 1902, “Roger Sherman — A Connecticut Man — A Maker of the Nation, He Took Part in the Drafting of Four Great Documents of our Early National History — Declaration of Rights — Declaration of Independence — Articles of Confederation — Constitution,” by R. Eston Phyfe, A. B., Vice-Principal and Teacher of History at the Hartford High School, 1900. (top) Image courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collections, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection, “Roger Sherman,” Etching by Albert Rosenthal, circa 1783 – 1890
