From John Rutledge's gravestone:
John Rutledge
Jurist Patriot Statesman
Member of the Provisional Assembly
Attorney General of South Carolina
Delegate to the Stamp Act Congress
President of South Carolina
Governor of South Carolina
Signatory to the United States Constitution
Chief Justice of South Carolina
Chief Justice of the United States
Born 1739, Christ Church Parish
Died July 18th 1800, Charleston
This memorial placed by his Descendants
The society of Colonial Wars in the State of South Carolina
The National Society of Dames of America
In the State of South Carolina Lowcountry Town Committee
The Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors
M.G. William Moultrie Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution
The Rebecca Motte Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution
President Rutledge Chapter, Loyal Orange Lodge No. 1776.
2010
From Wikipedia:
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"John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 - July 23, 1800) was an American statesman and judge. He was the first Governor of South Carolina following the signing of the United States Constitution, the 31st overall. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he chaired a committee that wrote much of what was included in the final version of the United States Constitution, which he also signed. He served as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, and was the second Chief Justice of the Court from July to December 1795. He was the elder brother of Edward Rutledge, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.
Rutledge was born into a large family in Charleston. His father was Scots-Irish immigrant John Rutledge (Sr.) (1713–1750), a physician. His mother, South Carolina–born Sarah (nee 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 an Anglican priest.[2]
John took an early interest in law and often "played lawyer" with his brothers and sisters. When he was 17 years old, Rutledge began to read law under a man named James Parsons. Two years later, Rutledge sailed to England to further his studies at London's Middle Temple. In the course of his studies, he won several cases in English courts.[3]
After finishing his studies, Rutledge returned to Charleston to begin a fruitful legal career. At the time, many lawyers came out of law school and 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 Grimke (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 Henrietta (1764–1816), Sarah (born and died 1765), John (1766–1819), Edward James (1767–1811), Frederick Wilkes (1769–1821), William Spencer (1771–1821), Charles Wilson (1773–1821), Thomas (born 1774 and died young), Elizabeth (1776–1842), and States Whitcomb (1783–1829).
In mid-1765 Rutledge was an important figure in the 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 of the revenue stamps they could get their hands on and they broke into suspected Loyalists' houses 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 early May of the next year.
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.
In 1774, Rutledge was sent to the First Continental Congress. It is not known for certain exactly what John Rutledge contributed during this assembly. In the notes we have of the actions of this Congress, the name is given simply as "Rutledge", despite the fact that John's brother Edward Rutledge was also present. In any case, the most important contribution made by "Rutledge" to the Congress was during the debate of how to appropriate votes in the Congress. Some wanted it to be determined by the population of the colonies. Others wanted to give each colony one vote. "Rutledge" observed that as the Congress had no legal authority to force the colonies to accept its decisions, it would make the most sense to give each colony one vote. The other delegates ultimately agreed to this proposal.
British Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell landed in Georgia with 3,000 men and quickly took control of the entire state.
In 1779, Rutledge was elected to head the government of South Carolina under a revision of the new constitution. Governor Rutledge sent a detachment of troops under General Benjamin Lincoln into Georgia to harass the British. The new British commander, General Jacques Prevost, learned what Rutledge was doing and set out toward Charleston with 2500 troops. When Rutledge heard about the British, he hurried back 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.
Rutledge privately asked Prevost for surrender terms. Prevost made an offer, but when Rutledge submitted it to the council of war, the council instructed Rutledge to ask if the British would accept a declaration of South Carolina’s neutrality in the Revolution. They forbade Rutledge from surrendering mainly because William Moultrie, who was now a general, believed that the Americans had enough troops to at least equal the British force, which consisted largely of untrained civilians. When given the offer, Prevost replied by saying that as he was faced with such a large military force, he would have to take some of them prisoner before he could accept. Moultrie advised the council that he would never stand by and allow the British to simply take them prisoner, so the council decided to fight it out. The city braced itself for an attack, but the next morning, the British had disappeared. Prevost had intercepted a letter from General Lincoln to Moultrie saying that he was marching to the aid of Charleston, and Prevost decided that he could not hold out if the Americans got reinforcements.
Rutledge continued to serve on the Court of Chancery until 1791. During this time, he was selected to represent South Carolina in the Constitutional Convention. Rutledge maintained a moderate nationalist stance and chaired the Committee of Detail, where over the July 4 convention recess he and his committee wrote the first draft of the constitution, most of which would remain in the final version. He attended all the sessions and served on five committees.
After the convention had debated the Virginia Plan and settled some of the majors points of controversy, the Committee of Detail, which Rutledge chaired, 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 hadn't been debated nor been included in any other plan before the convention. Most of these 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 recommended the executive power to consist of a single person, rather than several, because he felt that one person would feel the responsibility of the office more acutely. Because the president would not be able to defer a decision to another "co-president", Rutledge concluded that a single person would be more likely to make a good choice.[22] Rutledge was largely responsible for denying the Supreme Court the right to give advisory opinions. Being a judge himself, he strongly believed that a judge’s sole purpose was to resolve legal conflicts; he held that a judge should hand down an opinion only when ruling on an actual case.
On June 28, 1795, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay, having been elected Governor of New York, resigned from the Court. President Washington selected Rutledge to succeed Jay as the Court's chief justice. As the Senate was not in session at the time, Rutledge's recess appointment took effect immediately. He was commissioned as the second Chief Justice of the United States on June 30, 1795.
On July 16, 1795, Rutledge gave a highly controversial speech denouncing the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. 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." 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 subsequently ratified it by a two-thirds majority and which would soon be debating and voting on his nomination to the Supreme Court.
Two cases were decided while Rutledge held his recess appointment (before his formal nomination). 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 14–10. This was the first time that the Senate had rejected a presidential recess appointment. Of the 15 recess appointments to the Supreme Court, it remains the only time it has rejected a recess appointment of an individual to the Supreme Court.
Though the Senate remained in session through June 1, 1796, Rutledge resigned from the Court on December 28, 1795. Regarding Rutledge and the Senate's rejection of his Supreme Court nomination, then Vice President John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, wrote that it "gave me pain for an old friend, though I could not but think he deserved it. Chief Justices must not go to illegal Meetings and become popular orators in favor of Sedition, nor inflame the popular discontents which are ill founded, nor propagate Disunion, Division, Contention and delusion among the people."[32] The comments of Adams, a Federalist, foreshadowed his administration's Sedition Act, which attempted to suppress public criticism of Federalist policies.
The Senate's rejection of his nomination left Rutledge mentally ruined. He attempted suicide shortly afterward. His method was jumping off a wharf into Charleston Bay. Rutledge returned to Charleston, South Carolina, following his resignation and withdrew from public life.
John Rutledge died on June 21, 1800, at the age of sixty. He was interred at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston."