John Rutledge

John Rutledge 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).

Rutledge, John (1739–1800) US politician. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress (1765) and two Continental Congresses (1774–76, 1782–83). He played a key role at the federal Constitutional Convention (1787) and was an associate justice on the US Supreme Court (1778–91) until he resigned to become chief justice of the South Carolina supreme court (1791–95).

Rutledge, John (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