Following the Revolutionary War, the new American Government was set up under the Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation did not give the federal government enough authority to be effective. So in 1787 delegates from all the states attended a meeting known as the Constitutional Convention. Among those attending were James Madison, representing Virginia, William Paterson, representing New Jersey, and Roger Sherman, representing Connecticut. These three men contributed a great deal to the Constitution that …showed first 75 words of 1286 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1286 total…honesty, virtues that he assiduously applied to the service of the Republic. John Adams, himself a heir to the same tradition, described Sherman as "an old Puritan, as honest as an angel and as firm in the cause of American Independence as Mount Atlas." Sherman was the only Founding Father to sigh the four major documents of the era: the Articles of Association(1774); The Declaration of Independence; The Articles of Confederation; and the Constitution.(Sherman)