49 Facts About John Rutledge

John Rutledge was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States.

John Rutledge was the elder brother of Edward Rutledge, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

John Rutledge served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, which protested taxes imposed on the Thirteen Colonies by the Parliament of Great Britain.

John Rutledge served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, before being elected as governor of South Carolina.

John Rutledge served as governor during much of the American Revolutionary War.

John Rutledge was a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, which wrote the United States Constitution.

John Rutledge left the Supreme Court in 1791 to become chief justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and Sessions.

John Rutledge resigned his commission shortly thereafter and withdrew from public life until his death in 1800.

John Rutledge holds the record for the shortest tenure of any chief justice.

John Rutledge's was the first Supreme Court nomination to be rejected by the Senate, and he remains the only "recess appointed" justice not to be subsequently confirmed by the Senate.

John Rutledge was the eldest child in a large family in Charleston, South Carolina.

John Rutledge had six younger siblings: Andrew, Thomas, Sarah, Hugh, Mary, and Edward.

John Rutledge took an early interest in law and often "played lawyer" with his brothers and sisters.

When he was 17 years old, John Rutledge began to read law under a man named James Parsons.

Two years later, John Rutledge sailed to England to further his studies at London's Middle Temple.

John Rutledge emerged almost immediately as one of the most prominent lawyers in Charleston, and his services were in high demand.

From 1761 to 1775, John Rutledge served in South Carolina's Commons House of Assembly, becoming one of its leaders.

John Rutledge was an important figure in the 1765 Stamp Act Congress.

In 1774, John Rutledge was elected to the First Continental Congress.

John Rutledge served in the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress until 1776.

In early 1776, John Rutledge learned that British forces would attempt to take Charleston.

John Rutledge let it be known that only he could order the militia to defend Charleston.

John Rutledge vetoed it, stating that it moved the state dangerously close to a direct democracy, which John Rutledge believed was only a step away from total anarchy.

The new state constitution was revised, and in 1779 John Rutledge was elected governor.

John Rutledge sent troops under General Benjamin Lincoln into Georgia to harass the British.

When John Rutledge heard about this threat, he hurried to Charleston and worked furiously to build up defenses.

Prevost made an offer, but when John Rutledge submitted it to the council of war, the council instructed John Rutledge to ask if the British would accept a declaration of South Carolina's neutrality in the Revolution.

John Rutledge did his best to raise militia forces, but Charleston was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic, and few dared to enter the city.

John Rutledge remained governor of the unconquered part of South Carolina.

In 1787, John Rutledge was selected to represent South Carolina in the Philadelphia Convention which was called to revise the Articles of Confederation but instead produced the United States Constitution.

John Rutledge attended all the sessions and served on five committees.

At the Convention, John Rutledge maintained a moderate nationalist stance and chaired the Committee of Detail.

John Rutledge recommended that the executive power should consist of a single person, rather than several, because he felt that one person would feel the responsibility of the office more acutely.

John Rutledge was largely responsible for denying the Supreme Court the right to give advisory opinions.

John Rutledge thought that the legal community was the higher tier of society.

John Rutledge argued that if either house of the legislature was to have the sole authority to introduce appropriation bills, it should be the Senate.

John Rutledge noted that the Senate, by nature of its lengthier terms of office, would tend to be more leisurely in its actions.

That made John Rutledge feel that the Senate could better think clearly about what the consequences of a bill would be.

John Rutledge stated that making such a rule would divide the people into "haves" and "have nots," would create an undying resentment against landowners and could do nothing but cause discord.

John Rutledge was supported by Benjamin Franklin, and the rule was not adopted.

John Rutledge said that if the Constitution forbade slavery, the Southern states would never agree to the Constitution.

John Rutledge received six electoral votes during the first US presidential election.

John Rutledge resigned from the Supreme Court, without having ever heard a case, in order to become chief justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and Sessions.

John Rutledge served the briefest tenure of any Chief Justice of the United States.

John Rutledge was rescued by two slaves who saw him drowning.

John Rutledge would remain private, outside of serving a single term in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

John Rutledge was interred at St Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston.

John Rutledge represented South Carolina in the Constitutional Convention in 1787, during which he strongly defended slavery from those at the convention that would try to abolish it.

When John Rutledge died in 1800, he only owned one slave.