(b. Charleston, S.C., ca. Sep. 1739; d. Charleston, 21 June 1800; interred St. Michael's churchyard, Charleston); associate justice, 1789–1791; chief justice (unconfirmed), 1795. Born into wealth and privilege, John Rutledge was one of seven children born to Dr. John Rutledge and Sarah Hext. Rutledge studied law between 1755 and 1760, first with his uncle, Andrew Rutledge, and James Parson, and then in London at the Middle Temple. Upon his return to South Carolina in 1761 he enjoyed immediate and continuing success as a lawyer and politician, becoming a leader of the bar and an influential member of the general assembly. He also served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, the Continental Congresses, and as governor of the newly constituted state of South Carolina. He helped write the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and supported its ratification.

Washington seriously considered appointing Rutledge, whom he had known and admired since 1775, as the first chief justice of the United States but instead appointed him as an associate justice on 24 September 1789; the Senate confirmed him two days later. Apparently somewhat miffed at not being named chief justice, exhausted by the duties of riding his federal circuit, and bored by the Court's inactivity, Rutledge resigned his justiceship on 5 March 1791 in order to accept appointment as chief justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas. His initial service on the U.S. Supreme Court essentially had amounted to nothing since the Court had heard no cases during his brief tenure.

In June 1795, upon notice of John Jay's election as governor of New York, Rutledge solicited Washington for the office of chief justice of the Supreme Court. On 1 July Washington replied that he would happily appoint Rutledge to his desired post and that a commission to that office awaited his arrival in Philadelphia. Rutledge arrived in the temporary capital in time to preside over the Court at its August term. He participated in two cases, the first being United States v. Peters (1795) in which the Court issued a writ of prohibition forbidding a federal district judge from hearing a prize case involving a ship owned by the French republic on the grounds that the property of a sovereign nation was immune from such judicial proceedings. In Talbot v. Janson (1795), Rutledge, in his only opinion delivered as a member of the Supreme Court, joined in the Court's decision that restored a captured Dutch ship to its owners because the capturing privateer had been illegally commissioned.

Rutledge's nomination as chief justice was in extreme jeopardy even before Washington submitted it to the Senate. On 16 July 1795 Rutledge presided over a meeting in Charleston protesting the Senate's ratification of Jay's Treaty. Not content simply to lead the meeting, Rutledge delivered a lengthy harangue against the treaty and urged the president not to sign it. Outraged by his opposition to Jay's Treaty, a cornerstone of the administration's diplomacy, and concerned by the reports of his insanity, the Federalist majority in the Senate voted against Rutledge's nomination on 15 December 1795 by a vote of 14 to 10 (see Nominations, Controversial). Shortly after his rejection, Rutledge, who had been depressed since the death of his wife in 1792, attempted suicide by jumping off a wharf into Charleston Bay. He spent most of the remainder of his life as a recluse.

See also Nominees, Rejection of.

— Robert M. Ireland

John Rutledge (1739-1800), American jurist and statesman, was Revolutionary War governor of South Carolina. He exemplified the conservative views of the mercantile and planter aristocracy.

John Rutledge was born in Charleston, S.C., into an affluent and politically active family. He was tutored at home and then went to England at 18 to study law. After being admitted to the English bar in 1760, he returned to Charleston, where he developed a successful practice. He served as the province's attorney general (1764-1765), but as a member of the Commons House of Assembly (1761-1776), he was more often in vigorous opposition to the royal administration.

At the Stamp Act Congress, Rutledge vigorously defended American rights. In 1769 he fought for the Commons' appropriation of funds in support of the English radical John Wilkes. In the general quarrel with Britain, however, Rutledge was a moderate. At the First Continental Congress he approved the Galloway Plan for a constitutional accommodation with the mother country, although he joined the movement for independence; in the Second Congress he urged the establishment of new state governments. He helped to frame the South Carolina constitution of 1776 and was immediately chosen president (governor) of the state, but his innate conservatism caused him to resign 2 years later.

When South Carolina was confronted by a British invasion in 1779, the state again chose Rutledge as governor, and for the next 3 years he provided energetic leadership in the war effort, with such broad emergency powers that he was called "Dictator Rutledge." Resigning in 1782, he was elected to the state legislature and in 1784 was named to the state's chancery court. At the Constitutional Convention he resisted restrictions on the slave trade, urged property as a basis for representation, and sought election of the president by Congress, and of the Congress by state legislatures.

President George Washington named Rutledge to the Supreme Court when it was organized in 1789, but he resigned 2 years later, without ever having attended a single session of the Court, to become chief justice of South Carolina. In 1795 Washington appointed him chief justice of the United States, but Rutledge's violent speech against the Jay Treaty resulted in a Senate rejection of the nomination, even though he had presided at one term of the court. The ferocity of his tirade was symptomatic of a mental deterioration which had commenced a few years earlier upon the death of his wife. He died on July 18, 1800.

Further Reading

The only full-length biography of Rutledge is Richard H. Barry, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina (1942); it is based on extensive sources and is highly readable. His political career in South Carolina may be traced in Edward McCrady, History of South Carolina (4 vols., 1897-1902), and David D. Wallace, History of South Carolina (4 vols., 1934-1935; rev. ed., 1 vol., 1951). Rutledge's career on the Supreme Court in discussed in Charles Warren, The Supreme Court in United States History (3 vols., 1923; 2 vols., rev. ed. 1935), and in Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, eds., The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1969 (4 vols., 1969).

Additional Sources

Barry, Richard, b. 1881. Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina, Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1993.

Haw, James. Founding brothers: John and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, Athens: University of Georgia, 1997.

• Born: Sept. 1739, Charleston, S.C.
• Education: privately tutored at home; studied law at the Middle Temple, London
• Other government service: South Carolina Commons House of Assembly, 1761–76; attorney general of South Carolina, 1764–65; Stamp Act Congress, 1765; Continental Congress, 1774–76, 1776–78; governor of South Carolina, 1779–82; judge of the Court of Chancery of South Carolina, 1784–91; chief, South Carolina delegation to the Constitutional Convention, 1787; South Carolina Ratifying Convention, 1788; chief justice, South Carolina Court of Common Pleas, 1791
• Appointed by President George Washington to be an associate justice Sept. 24, 1789, as one of the original members of the U.S. Supreme Court; appointed by Washington as a recess appointment July 1, 1795, to be chief justice; replaced Chief Justice John Jay, who resigned
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate as an associate justice Sept. 26, 1789, by a voice vote; resigned Mar. 5, 1791; sworn in as recess appointment to position of chief justice Aug. 12, 1795; the Senate rejected his appointment as chief justice by a vote of 14 to 10 and his service was terminated on Dec. 15, 1795
• Died: June 21, 1800, Charleston, S.C.

John Rutledge was one of the founders of the United States. He was a member of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was also a member of the committee that wrote the first constitution of South Carolina in 1776.

In 1789 President George Washington appointed Rutledge to be one of the original associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Rutledge resigned in 1791, having written no opinions for the Supreme Court. He left the Supreme Court to become chief justice of South Carolina, which at that time was considered a more important position.

In 1795 President Washington appointed Rutledge to replace John Jay as chief justice of the United States. Jay had resigned to become governor of New York. Rutledge presided over the Court (without Senate confirmation) from August 12 to December 15, 1795, while the Congress was in recess. However, the Senate refused to confirm his nomination because of political disagreements with Rutledge, who had spoken publicly against a treaty negotiated by John Jay with the British government. The Senate had ratified the Jay Treaty in 1794 and many members were angered by Rutledge's promotion of public criticism of the Senate about the matter. So President Washington named Oliver Ellsworth to be the chief justice, and the Senate confirmed this appointment.

Rutledge was so shaken by the Senate's rejection of his nomination that he tried to drown himself. He recovered from this suicide attempt but spent the rest of his life in seclusion. He died at the age of 60 in Charleston, South Carolina.

See also Nominations, confirmation of

1739–1800, American jurist and political leader, 2d Chief Justice of the United States, b. Charleston, S.C.; brother of Edward Rutledge. After studying law in London he began practice in Charleston, S.C., in 1761. He rose to prominence when quite young, was a member (1762) of the provincial assembly, attorney general of South Carolina (1764–65), and a delegate (1765) to the Stamp Act Congress. He twice (1774–76, 1782–83) was a member of the Continental Congress and meanwhile held strong sway as president (1776–78) of his state and later (1779–82) as governor. As delegate (1787) to the Constitutional Convention, Rutledge played an important role in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, and then (1788) was a member of the state ratifying convention. After serving (1789–91) as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court he was chief justice of South Carolina. In July, 1795, he was appointed interim Chief Justice of the United States and presided at the August term of the Supreme Court, but the Senate (Dec., 1795) refused to confirm the appointment because of his bitter attacks on Jay's Treaty.

Bibliography

See biography by R. H. Barry (1942, repr. 1971).

Few justices of the U.S. Supreme Court combined outstanding achievement with mishap and tragedy to the extent of John Rutledge. Rutledge's career spanned three decades of public service during the early years of the nation. From 1761 until the 1780s, he enjoyed success as a lawyer, politician, Revolutionary War leader, and judge in South Carolina. His prominence at the Constitutional Convention—and his role in opposing British rule—brought him national fame and made him a favorite of President George Washington. Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court twice, first in 1789 and again in 1795.

Born in September 1739 to a prominent family in Charleston, South Carolina, Rutledge was groomed for success. His wealthy physician father died when he was eleven, and thereafter his uncle, Andrew Rutledge, guided Rutledge's education. Andrew Rutledge, a lawyer and speaker of the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly, saw to it that his nephew was prepared for a legal and political career: the teenager was sent to England to study law at the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court, and in 1760 he was admitted to the English bar. At the age of twenty-one, Rutledge returned home, instantly won a seat in the state Assembly, and began a successful legal practice. Within a few years, Rutledge and two other lawyers were handling the affairs of South Carolina's wealthiest businessmen.

Rutledge's rise in politics was aided by his involvement in the growing revolutionary movement. In 1765 he attended the emergency conference held in New York City to discuss the colonists' anger at Britain's imposition of the Stamp Tax. Rutledge wrote an official declaration to the British House of Lords opposing the tax. When the Revolutionary War came, he led the defense of South Carolina. Rutledge's performance in the war cemented his growing national reputation, and a string of successes followed.

In 1775 Rutledge helped write the constitution for South Carolina, and a year later, he was elected president of its new state assembly. He was elected governor in 1779. From 1782 to 1784, he served in the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation and then as chief judge of a court of chancery in South Carolina. He was one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

At the national level, President Washington was Rutledge's chief political sponsor. He offered Rutledge a federal judgeship and appointment as minister to the Netherlands, which he declined. He accepted when Washington named him to the Supreme Court in 1789 (though not, as Rutledge had hoped, as its chief justice). The Court heard no cases during its first two years, but Rutledge traveled great distances to fulfill his duties as a judge on the southern circuit. The position did not suit him, however. Bored and upset that he was merely an associate justice, he quit the Court in 1791 and returned to South Carolina, where he became chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas.

By June 1795 Rutledge was ready to return to the Supreme Court. John Jay, the chief justice, was resigning, and Rutledge wrote to Washington suggesting that he should have the position. The president agreed and promptly nominated him. Over the next six months, while awaiting Senate approval of his nomination, Rutledge, as acting chief justice, heard his only two cases and wrote his only opinion: Talbot v. Jansen, 3 U.S. 133, 1 L. Ed. 540 (1795), an unimportant decision concerning goods captured at sea.

In the interim Rutledge undid his career. At a meeting in Charleston in July 1795, he spoke out wildly against Jay's Treaty, a controversial postwar agreement between the United States and Britain. The treaty was highly unpopular across the nation, but Rutledge went too far, denouncing it as "prostitution" and declaring that the president should die rather than sign it. Indeed, since the death of his wife in 1792, Rutledge had been depressed, and reports of insanity had begun to spread. His supporters—Washington among them—disbelieved the rumors, but Rutledge's enemies seized on them and blocked his confirmation in the Senate in December 1795. Upon hearing the news, he jumped off a wharf into Charleston Bay. Although two passing slaves foiled his suicide attempt, Rutledge's public career was over. Seldom seen again, he died five years later, on June 21, 1800.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)