He was the only person who signed all four of the great State
Papers, to which the signatures of the delegates of the different
Colonies were attached:
The Association of 1774;
The Articles of Confederation;
The Declaration of Independence, and
The Constitution of the United States.
Robert Morris signed three of them.
His tenacity, the independence of his judgment, and his influence
over the great men with whom he was associated, is shown by
four striking instances among many others where he succeeded
in impressing his opinion on his associates.
_First:_ It is well known that the dispute between the large
States, who desired to have their votes in the National Legislature
counted in proportion to numbers, and the small States, who
desired to vote by States as equals, a dispute which nearly
wrecked the attempt to frame a Constitution of the United
States, arose in the Continental Congress, and gave rise to
great controversy there when the Articles of Confederation
were framed. Mr. Sherman was one of the Committee that framed
those Articles, as he was afterward one of the Committee who
reported the Declaration of Independence.
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