# John Rutledge *American Founding Father, jurist, and second chief justice of the United States* John Rutledge Jr. (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was a South Carolina lawyer and politician. He sat among the first associate justices of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] and later became the nation's second chief justice.[^1] After the Declaration of Independence, he was South Carolina's first president and then its first [[governor]].[^1] Rutledge's 1795 chief justiceship began as a recess appointment by President George Washington. When the Senate returned in December 1795, it voted 10–14 against his nomination, and he resigned his commission soon after.[^2] It was the first time the Senate had rejected a Supreme Court nominee. His tenure is the shortest of any chief justice, and no other recess-appointed justice has failed to win later Senate confirmation.[^2] A Charleston native, Rutledge trained in law at the Middle Temple in London. His younger brother, Edward Rutledge, signed the Declaration of Independence.[^3] Before the Revolution, Rutledge represented South Carolina at the Stamp Act Congress, which protested Parliament's taxes on the Thirteen Colonies. He also sat in the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association. As governor, he led the state through much of the American Revolutionary War.[^3] After a short return to Congress, he took a seat on the South Carolina Court of Chancery. In 1787 he attended the Philadelphia Convention and chaired its Committee of Detail, which wrote the first complete draft of the Constitution. In 1788 he took part in South Carolina's ratifying convention.[^4] ## Early life and family Rutledge was the oldest of seven children and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, John Rutledge Sr. (1713–1750), was a physician who had immigrated from Ireland. His mother, Sarah (née Hext), was born in South Carolina in 1724 and was of English descent.[^5] His father taught him until his death; the Anglican minister John Andrews and the classical scholar David Rhind completed his primary schooling.[^5] He began reading law with his uncle, the attorney Andrew Rutledge. When the uncle died in 1755, his mother placed him for two years as an apprentice to James Parsons.[^6] He went on to the Middle Temple in London, where he won several cases in English courts as a student. He was called to the English bar in 1760 and, after returning home, was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1761.[^6] He quickly became one of Charleston's most sought-after lawyers. On May 1, 1763, he married Elizabeth Grimké (born 1742).[^7] ## Pre-Revolutionary War Rutledge sat in South Carolina's Commons House of Assembly from 1761 to 1775 and rose to a leading role there.[^8] The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 resolved that it was "the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent". At that congress, Rutledge headed the committee that prepared a petition urging the House of Lords to reject the Stamp Act. The petition did not succeed.[^8] The act took effect on November 1, 1765, when no stamps remained in the colony. Legal proceedings in South Carolina stopped until word of the act's repeal arrived in May 1766.[^9] Rutledge then returned to his law practice and, apart from the colonial legislature, stayed out of politics.[^9] He was elected to the First Continental Congress in 1774. His individual role there is uncertain: the congressional records refer only to "Rutledge", and both he and his brother Edward attended.[^9] ## President of South Carolina Rutledge served in the First and Second Continental Congresses until 1776. That year he became president of South Carolina under the constitution of March 26, 1776.[^10] In early 1776 he learned that British forces intended to take Charleston, and he had Fort Sullivan (now Fort Moultrie) built on Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor. The fort was half finished when the British arrived.[^10] General Charles Lee of the Continental Army judged the fort indefensible and advised evacuating it. Rutledge wrote to its commander, Colonel William Moultrie, that he was not to leave "without [an] order from me", adding, "I would sooner cut off my hand than write one."[^11] The British attacked on June 28, 1776, and the fort's sand-packed palmetto-log walls absorbed the cannon fire.[^11] In this period Rutledge acquired the nickname "Dictator John".[^11] ## Governor of South Carolina British forces under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell landed in Georgia with 3,000 men and took control of the state. South Carolina then revised its constitution, and in 1779 Rutledge was elected governor.[^12] Although he was the first governor after independence, historians and the South Carolina government number him the 31st governor, counting from the colonial governors.[^12] He sent troops under General Benjamin Lincoln into Georgia. General Jacques Prevost answered by marching on Charleston with 2,500 troops.[^13] Rutledge worked to strengthen the defenses, but Loyalists had greatly increased the British force, leaving the Americans vastly outnumbered.[^13] Rutledge privately asked Prevost for surrender terms. The council of war instead directed him to ask whether the British would accept South Carolina's neutrality. The council forbade surrender mainly because Moultrie believed the Americans had at least as many troops as the British.[^13] ## Constitutional Convention In 1787 Rutledge was chosen as one of South Carolina's delegates to the Philadelphia Convention. The convention had been called to revise the Articles of Confederation but instead produced the Constitution. He was present at every session and sat on five committees.[^14] Holding a moderate nationalist position, he chaired the Committee of Detail, which met during the July 4 recess. Working from the Virginia Plan, the convention's changes to it and other sources, the committee produced the first full draft.[^14] Much of that draft, including details such as the powers of Congress, passed into the final Constitution without debate.[^14] He argued for a single-person executive, reasoning that one officeholder would feel the responsibility of the office more acutely.[^15] He was largely responsible for denying the Supreme Court the power to issue advisory opinions, holding that judges should rule only in actual cases.[^15] His defense of slavery at the convention is described below.[^19] ## Supreme Court tenure ### Associate Justice On September 24, 1789, Washington nominated Rutledge to one of five associate justice seats on the new Court. Two days later the Senate confirmed him, along with [[John Blair Jr.]], [[William Cushing]], Robert H. Harrison and [[James Wilson (Founding Father)]], and [[John Jay]] as chief justice.[^16] Rutledge took the judicial oath on February 15, 1790, and served until March 5, 1791. He left without having heard a case to become chief justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions.[^16] ### Chief Justice Jay resigned as chief justice on June 28, 1795, after being elected governor of New York. The Senate was not due to sit until December, so Washington gave Rutledge a recess appointment that would let him preside at the August session.[^17] Rutledge was commissioned on June 30, 1795, and took the oath on August 12.[^17] On July 16, 1795, Rutledge spoke against the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. He reportedly said "that he had rather the President should die than sign that puerile instrument" and that he "preferred war to an adoption of it".[^17] The speech cost him the support of many in the Washington administration.[^17] In December 1795 the Senate rejected his nomination 10–14, and he resigned shortly thereafter.[^2] ## Later years After a suicide attempt and his resignation from the Court, Rutledge left public life and returned to Charleston. His only further office was a single term in the South Carolina House of Representatives.[^18] He died on June 21, 1800, at age 60, and was buried at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston.[^18] One of his houses was reportedly built in 1763 and was sold in 1790. It was renovated in 1989 and opened to the public as the John Rutledge House Inn.[^18] ## Views on slavery Rutledge was a slaveholder.[^19] During the Revolutionary War, he 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".[^19] At the 1787 convention he defended slavery against delegates who sought to abolish it. He warned that North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia would not accept the plan unless their right to import slaves remained untouched: "The people of those states will never be such fools as to give up so important an interest."[^19] Under the resulting compromise between Northern and Southern states, the international slave trade could not be prohibited before 1808 (Article 1, Section 9).[^20] South Carolina's delegates also added the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article 4, Section 2), which required enslaved people to be returned to their states of labor.[^20] According to the state library of South Carolina, Rutledge said he disliked slavery, yet as an attorney he twice defended individuals who abused slaves.[^21] The library's account records that he owned sixty slaves before the Revolution, twenty-eight afterward, and one at his death in 1800.[^21] The same account states that his wife, Elizabeth Grimké Rutledge, manumitted her own slaves.[^21] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, lead section (revid 1381823712, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth and death dates; associate justice and second chief justice; first president and first governor of South Carolina. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, lead section (revid 1381823712, retrieved 2026-10-26) — 1795 recess appointment; December 1795 Senate rejection by 10–14; resignation; first rejected Supreme Court nomination; shortest chief-justice tenure; only recess-appointed justice not later confirmed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, lead section (revid 1381823712, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Charleston birth; Middle Temple; brother Edward; Stamp Act Congress and Continental Congress service; Continental Association; wartime governorship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, lead section (revid 1381823712, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Court of Chancery appointment; 1787 Philadelphia Convention; chair of the Committee of Detail; South Carolina ratifying convention the following year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Early life and family" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — parents, siblings and early schooling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Early life and family" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — legal training under Andrew Rutledge and James Parsons; Middle Temple; English bar 1760; South Carolina bar 1761. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Early life and family" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — early legal prominence; May 1, 1763 marriage to Elizabeth Grimké. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Pre-Revolutionary War" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Commons House of Assembly 1761–1775; Stamp Act Congress resolution and the petition to the House of Lords. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Pre-Revolutionary War" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — November 1, 1765 effective date; May 1766 news of repeal; return to practice; 1774 election to the First Continental Congress and the "Rutledge" record ambiguity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^10]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "President of South Carolina" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — March 26, 1776 constitution; election as president; construction of Fort Sullivan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^11]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "President of South Carolina" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Lee's evacuation advice; Rutledge's note to Moultrie; June 28, 1776 attack; the nickname "Dictator John". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^12]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Governor of South Carolina" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Campbell's Georgia landing; revised constitution; 1779 election; numbering as the 31st governor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^13]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Governor of South Carolina" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Lincoln's Georgia operations; Prevost's 2,500-troop march on Charleston; surrender terms and the council of war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^14]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Constitutional Convention" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — selection as delegate; attendance and five committees; the Committee of Detail's first full draft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^15]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Constitutional Convention" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — single-person executive; denial of advisory opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^16]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Supreme Court tenure" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — September 24, 1789 nomination; confirmation two days later with the other original justices; service February 15, 1790 – March 5, 1791. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^17]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Supreme Court tenure" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — Jay's June 28, 1795 resignation; recess appointment; June 30 commission and August 12 oath; July 16, 1795 Jay Treaty speech. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^18]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Later years" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — withdrawal from public life; South Carolina House term; death on June 21, 1800; burial; John Rutledge House Inn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^19]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Views on slavery" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — slaveholding; the order to Francis Marion; 1787 convention remarks on the slave trade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^20]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Views on slavery" (retrieved 2026-10-26) — the 1808 slave-trade compromise (Article 1, Section 9) and the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article 4, Section 2). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge [^21]: Wikipedia contributors, *John Rutledge*, section "Views on slavery", quoting the state library of South Carolina (retrieved 2026-10-26) — his stated dislike of slavery; legal defenses; slaveholding counts; his wife's manumissions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rutledge