John Rutledge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Categories: 1739 births | 1800 deaths | United States presidential electors | Chief Justices of the United States | American Episcopalians | Continental Congressmen from South Carolina | Governors of South Carolina | Scots-Irish Americans | Americans of English descent | South Carolina state court judges | Signers of the United States Constitution | Defenders of slavery | United States presidential candidates, 1789 | Rutledge family
|
This article is about the Governor and Chief Justice of the United States. For his son, the U.S. Representative from South Carolina, see John Rutledge, Jr..
John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – July 18, 1800) was Governor of South Carolina, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, signer of the United States Constitution, and served on the U.S. Supreme Court (Chief Justice from August to December 1795). He was the elder brother of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Childhood and familyRutledge was born into a large family at or near Charleston. His father was Scots-Irish immigrant John Rutledge (Sr.) and South Carolina-born Sarah (nee Hext), who was of English descent. Rutledge received a limited education from his alcoholic physician father, an Anglican priest, and a tutor. After studying law at London's Middle Temple in 1760, he was admitted to English practice. But, almost at once, he sailed back to Charleston to begin a fruitful legal career and to build on his mother's fortune in plantations and slaves. Three years later, he married Elizabeth Grimke, who eventually bore him 10 children, and moved into a townhouse, where he resided most of the remainder of his life. Pre-Revolutionary War activismIn 1761, Rutledge became politically active. That year, on behalf of Christ Church Parish, he was elected to the provincial assembly and held his seat until the American Revolution. For 10 months in 1764 he temporarily held the post of provincial Attorney General. When the troubles with Great Britain intensified about the time of the Stamp Act in 1765, Rutledge, who hoped to ensure continued self-government for the colonies, sought to avoid severance from the British and maintained a restrained stance. He did, however, chair a committee of the Stamp Act Congress that drew up a petition to the House of Lords. In 1774, Rutledge was sent to the First Continental Congress, where he pursued a moderate course. After spending the next year in the Second Continental Congress, he returned to South Carolina and helped reorganize its government. In 1776, he served on the committee of safety and took part in the writing of the state constitution. That year, he also became president of the lower house of the legislature, a post he held until 1778. During this period, the new government met many stern tests. In 1778, the conservative John Rutledge, disapproving of democratic revisions in the state constitution, resigned his position. The next year, however, he was elected as governor. It was a difficult time. The British were invading South Carolina, and the military situation was desperate. Early in 1780, by which time the legislature had adjourned, Charleston was besieged. In May it fell, the American army was captured, and the British confiscated Rutledge's property. He ultimately escaped to North Carolina and set about attempting to rally forces to recover South Carolina. In 1781, aided by Gen. Nathanael Greene and a new Continental Army force, he reestablished the government. In January 1782 he resigned the governorship and took a seat in the lower house of the legislature. He never recouped the financial losses he suffered during the war. Post-warIn 1782-1783, Rutledge was a delegate to the Continental Congress. He next sat on the state chancery court (1784) and again in the lower house of the legislature (1784-1790). One of the most influential delegates at the Constitutional Convention, where he maintained a moderate nationalist stance and chaired the Committee of Detail, he attended all the sessions, spoke often and effectively, and served on five committees. Like his fellow South Carolina delegates, he vigorously advocated southern interests. He had strong feelings on the right to the slave trade and even threatened to leave if slavery was not allowed. Supreme Court Associate JusticeThe new government under the Constitution soon lured Rutledge. He was a presidential elector in 1789, and George Washington then appointed him as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but he served for only two years. In 1791, he became chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. Second Chief Justice of the United StatesIn 1795, George Washington again appointed Rutledge during a recess of the Senate to the U.S. Supreme Court, this time as Chief Justice of the United States replacing John Jay. Rutledge became Chief Justice on July 1 of 1795.[1] Soon thereafter, on July 16 of 1795, Rutledge gave a highly controversial speech denouncing the Jay Treaty with England. He reportedly said in the speech "that he had rather the President should die than sign that puerile instrument — and that he preferred war to an adoption of it."[2] Image:John Rutledge senate.jpg
John Rutledge
Rutledge's outspoken opposition to the Jay Treaty, and the rumors of mental illness he had suffered since the death of his wife in 1792, caused the Federalist-dominated Senate to reject his appointment on December 15, 1795. As a result, Rutledge's recess appointment automatically expired at the end of that Senate session. Rutledge thus became the only U.S. Supreme Court Justice in history to be forced out of office involuntarily, ending his public career. In the meantime, however, he had presided over one term of the Court. Alexander Hamilton questioned his sanity, and Vice President John Adams wrote to Abigail Adams that the Senate's rejection of Rutledge "gave me pain for an old friend, though I could not but think he deserved it. C. Justices must not ... inflame the popular discontents which are ill founded, nor propagate Disunion, Division, Contention and delusion among the people."[3] Rutledge attempted suicide, shortly before leaving office as Chief Justice on December 28 of 1795.[4] Rutledge died in 1800 at the age of 60 and 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 Inn.
References
External linksNoteThis article is based on public domain text created for the US National Archives
he:ג'ון ראטלדג' nl:John Rutledge pt:John Rutledge sv:John Rutledge | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
