John
Rutledge, elder brother of Edward Rutledge, signer of the
Declaration of Independence, was born into a large family at or
near Charleston, SC, in 1739. He received his early education
from his father, an Irish immigrant and physician, and from an
Anglican minister 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 amass a 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.
In 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 War for Independence. 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
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.
In 1782-83 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 (1784-90). 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.
The new government under the
Constitution soon lured Rutledge. He was a Presidential elector
in 1789 and Washington then appointed him as Associate Justice
of the U.S. Supreme Court, but for some reason he apparently
served only a short time. In 1791 he became chief justice of the
South Carolina supreme court. Four years later, Washington again
appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court, this time as Chief
Justice to replace John Jay. But Rutledge's outspoken opposition
to Jay's Treaty (1794), and the intermittent mental illness he
had suffered from since the death of his wife in 1792, caused
the Federalist-dominated Senate to reject his appointment and
end his public career. Meantime, however, he had presided over
one term of the Court.
Rutledge died in 1800 at the
age of 60 and was interred at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in
Charleston.
