John Rutledge

Rutledge was the eldest child in a large family in Charleston, South Carolina. His father was Irish immigrant John Rutledge (Sr.) (1713–1750), a physician. His mother, South Carolina–born Sarah (née Hext; born September 18, 1724), was of English descent. John had six younger siblings: Andrew (1740–1772), Thomas (1741–1783), Sarah (1742–1819), Hugh (1745–1811), Mary (1747–1832), and Edward (1749–1800). John's early education was provided by his father until the latter's death. The rest of Rutledge's primary education was provided by Anglican priest and classical scholar David Rhind. John took an early interest in law and often "played lawyer" with his brothers and sisters. He began to read law under the supervision of his uncle, attorney Andrew Rutledge. Following his uncle's death in 1755, his mother arranged for him to continue his law studies as an apprentice in the law office of James Parsons, with whom he studied for two years. Rutledge then moved to London to further his studies at the Middle Temple. In the course of his studies, he won several cases in English courts. He was called to the bar of England in 1760. After finishing his studies in England, Rutledge returned to Charleston and was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1761. Rutledge then began a fruitful legal career. At the time, many new lawyers barely scraped together enough business to earn their livings. Most new lawyers could only hope that they would win well-known cases to ensure their success. Rutledge, however, emerged almost immediately as one of the most prominent lawyers in Charleston, and his services were in high demand. With his successful legal career, he was able to build on his mother's fortune. On May 1, 1763, Rutledge married Elizabeth Grimké (born 1742). Rutledge was very devoted to his wife, and Elizabeth's death on July 6, 1792, was a major cause of the illness that affected Rutledge in his later years. John and Elizabeth had 10 children: Martha (1764–1816), Sarah (born and died 1765), John (1766–1819), Edward (1767–1811), Frederick (1769/71–1821/24), William (?–1822), Charles (1773–1821), Thomas (born 1774 and died young), Elizabeth (1776–1842), and States (1783–1829). == Pre-Revolutionary War ==

From 1761 to 1775, Rutledge served in South Carolina's Commons House of Assembly, becoming one of its leaders. Rutledge was an important figure in the 1765 Stamp Act Congress. This Congress produced a resolution that stated that it was "the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives." Rutledge chaired a committee that drew up a petition to the House of Lords attempting to persuade them to reject the Stamp Act. They were ultimately unsuccessful. When the delegates returned to South Carolina after the Congress adjourned, they found the state in turmoil. The people had destroyed all the revenue stamps they could find; they broke into the houses of suspected Loyalists to search for stamps. When the Stamp Act went into effect on November 1, 1765, there were no stamps in the entire colony. Dougal Campbell, the Charleston court clerk, refused to issue any papers without the stamps. Because of this, all legal processes in the entire state came to a standstill until news that the Stamp Act had been repealed reached South Carolina in May 1766. After the Stamp Act conflict ended, Rutledge went back into private life and to his law practice. Besides serving in the colonial legislature, he did not involve himself in politics. His law practice continued to expand and he became fairly wealthy as a result. == President of South Carolina ==

Rutledge served in the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress until 1776. That year, he was elected president of South Carolina under a constitution drawn up on March 26, 1776. Upon taking office, he worked quickly to organize the new government and to prepare defenses against British attack. In early 1776, Rutledge learned that British forces would attempt to take Charleston. In response, he ordered the construction of Fort Sullivan (now Fort Moultrie) on Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor. When the British arrived, the fort was only half completed. General Charles Lee of the Continental Army, who had arrived a few days earlier with reinforcements from North Carolina, told Rutledge the fort should be evacuated, as Lee considered it indefensible. Lee said that the fort would fall in under a half an hour, and all the men would be killed. Rutledge noticed that Lee was arrogant, uncouth and unfit to control the militia. Rutledge, by being elected as South Carolina's Governor, gained control of the militia, exercising significant wartime leadership and governance during the American Revolutionary War. Rutledge let it be known that only he could order the militia to defend Charleston. During this time, Rutledge garnered the nickname "Dictator John" by virtue of getting his way with things. On June 28, 1776, the British attacked the fort, expecting it to fall quickly. However, the fort's walls were made out of palmetto logs packed with sand, so the British cannonballs were absorbed into the soft core of the logs without doing much damage, and the British were repulsed, saving Charleston. The battle anniversary is still celebrated as "Carolina Day", on June 28 each year. South Carolina's current "Palmetto Flag", adopted in 1861, features the crescent symbol on the defending soldiers' caps along with the palmetto tree. Rutledge continued as president of South Carolina until 1778. That year, the South Carolina legislature proposed a new constitution. Rutledge vetoed it, stating that it moved the state dangerously close to a direct democracy, which Rutledge believed was only a step away from total anarchy. When the legislature overrode his veto, Rutledge resigned. == Governor of South Carolina ==

A few months after Rutledge's resignation, the British, having suffered several defeats in the North, decided to try to retake the South. Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell landed in Georgia with 3,000 men and quickly took control of the entire state. The new South Carolina state constitution was revised, and in 1779 Rutledge was elected governor. While the first governor independent from Great Britain, Rutledge is considered by historians and the government of South Carolina to be the 31st governor, counting from the colonial governors. Rutledge sent troops under General Benjamin Lincoln into Georgia to harass the British. The new British commander in the south, General Jacques Prevost, responded by marching on Charleston with 2,500 troops. When Rutledge heard about this threat, he hurried to Charleston and worked furiously to build up defenses. In spite of Rutledge's efforts, when General Prevost arrived outside Charleston, the British force had been greatly increased by the addition of Loyalists, and the Americans were vastly outnumbered. Charleston occupied In early 1780, Sir Henry Clinton attacked South Carolina, and Charleston was thrown into a panic. The legislature adjourned upon learning of the British. Their last action was to give Rutledge power to do anything short of execution without trial. Rutledge did his best to raise militia forces, but Charleston was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic, and few dared to enter the city. In February, Clinton landed near Charleston with 5,000 troops. By May he had 9,000 troops against less than 2,500 Americans in the area. The siege of Charleston ensued. On May 10, Charleston surrendered. Rutledge had left the city. He remained governor of the unconquered part of South Carolina. Though the Americans defeated the British at the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781, they could not drive the British back to Charleston until June 1781, when General Nathanael Greene arrived with more troops. The British held Charleston until December 14, 1782. Rutledge's term of office had already ended, and he did not run again because of term limits. A few weeks after leaving the governorship, Rutledge was again elected to the Continental Congress, where he served until 1783. In 1784, he was appointed to the South Carolina Court of Chancery, where he served until 1791. == Constitutional Convention ==

In 1787, Rutledge was selected to represent South Carolina in the Philadelphia Convention which was called to revise the Articles of Confederation but instead produced the United States Constitution. He attended all the sessions and served on five committees. At the convention, Rutledge maintained a moderate nationalist stance and chaired the Committee of Detail. After the convention had debated the Virginia Plan and settled some major points of controversy, the Committee of Detail assembled during the convention's July 4 recess. Though the committee did not record its minutes, it is known that the committee used the original Virginia Plan, the decisions of the convention on modifications to that plan, and other sources, to produce the first full draft. Much of what was included in this draft consisted of details, such as powers given to Congress, that had not been debated by the convention. Most of them were uncontroversial and unchallenged, and as such, much of what Rutledge's committee included in this first draft made it into the final version of the Constitution without debate. Rutledge argued that if either house of the legislature was to have the sole authority to introduce appropriation bills, it should be the Senate. He noted that the Senate, by nature of its lengthier terms of office, would tend to be more leisurely in its actions. That made Rutledge feel that the Senate could better think clearly about what the consequences of a bill would be. Also, since the bills could not become law without the consent of the House of Representatives, he concluded that there would be no danger of the Senate ruling the country. When the proposal was made that only landowners should have the right to vote, Rutledge opposed it perhaps more strongly than any other motion in the entire convention. He stated that making such a rule would divide the people into "haves" and "have nots," would create an undying resentment against landowners and could do nothing but cause discord. He was supported by Benjamin Franklin, and the rule was not adopted. In the debate on slavery in the new country, Rutledge took the side of the slaveholders since he was a Southerner and a slaveholder. Rutledge said that if the Constitution forbade slavery, the Southern states would never agree to the Constitution. He received six electoral votes from South Carolina during the first U.S. presidential election. == Supreme Court tenure ==

Associate Justice On September 24, 1789, George Washington nominated Rutledge for one of the five associate justice positions on the newly established Supreme Court. His appointment (along with those of: John Blair Jr., William Cushing, Robert H. Harrison, and James Wilson; plus that of John Jay for Chief Justice) was confirmed by the Senate two days later. His service on the Court officially began February 15, 1790, when he took the judicial oath, and continued until March 5, 1791. Chief Justice On June 28, 1795, Chief Justice John Jay resigned, having been elected governor of New York. Washington selected Rutledge to succeed Jay as chief justice, and, as the Senate would not be meeting again until December, gave Rutledge a recess appointment so that he could serve as chief justice during the upcoming August session. He was commissioned as chief justice on June 30, 1795, and took the judicial oath on August 12. Rutledge's speech against the Jay Treaty cost him the support of many in the Washington administration, which supported the treaty, and in the Senate, which would soon be called upon to advise the president on his nomination of Rutledge to the judicial post and to consent to its ratification by a two-thirds vote. Two cases were decided while Rutledge was chief justice. In United States v. Peters, the Court ruled that federal district courts had no jurisdiction over crimes committed against Americans in international waters. In Talbot v. Janson, the Court held that a citizen of the United States did not waive all claims to U.S. citizenship by either renouncing citizenship of an individual state or by becoming a citizen of another country. The Rutledge Court thus established an important precedent for multiple citizenship in the United States. By the time of his formal nomination to the Court on December 10, 1795, Rutledge's reputation was in tatters, and support for his nomination had faded. Rumors of mental illness and alcohol abuse swirled around him, concocted largely by the Federalist press. His words and actions in response to the Jay Treaty were used as evidence of his continued mental decline. The Senate rejected his appointment on December 15, 1795, by a vote of 10–14. This was the first time that the Senate had voted down a Supreme Court nomination. As of ; it remains the only U.S. Supreme Court recess appointment to be subsequently rejected by the Senate. Though the Senate remained in session through June 1, 1796, which would have been the automatic end of Rutledge's commission following the rejection, Rutledge resigned from the Court two weeks later, on December 28, 1795. He served the briefest tenure of any Chief Justice of the United States (). == Later years ==

in Charleston, South Carolina On December 26, 1795, Rutledge attempted suicide by jumping off a wharf into Charleston Harbor. He was rescued by two slaves who saw him drowning. Afterward, he withdrew from public life and returned to Charleston. He would remain private, outside of serving a single term in the South Carolina House of Representatives. He died on June 21, 1800, at age 60. He was interred at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston. One of his houses, said to have been built in 1763 and definitely sold in 1790, was renovated in 1989 and opened to the public as the John Rutledge House Inn. == Views on slavery ==

Like the majority of wealthy men who lived in Southern states at the time, Rutledge held slaves. During the Revolutionary War, Rutledge ordered Continental Army officer Francis Marion to execute all Black people suspected of carrying provisions or gathering intelligence for the British "agreeable to the laws of this State". Rutledge represented South Carolina in the Constitutional Convention in 1787, during which he strongly defended slavery from those at the convention that would try to abolish it. "If the convention thinks that North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia will ever agree to the plan unless their right to import slaves be untouched, the expectation is in vain. The people of those states will never be such fools as to give up so important an interest." The compromise between the Northern and Southern states was that the international slave trade would not be prohibited before 1808. See Article 1 Section 9 of the Constitution. Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Clause was added by the South Carolina delegates during the Constitutional Convention to further protect slavery by requiring enslaved people returned to their states of labor. See Article 4 Section 2 of the Constitution. According to the state library of South Carolina: == Notes ==