Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Rutledge, John

RUTLEDGE, JOHN, an American jurist, brother of Edward; born in Charleston, S. C., in 1739. He was a member of the South Carolina convention of 1774 that decided to take part in the Continental Congress, and a delegate to the latter body in 1775; chairman of the committee that framed the South Carolina constitution in 1776, and elected that year president of the new State government and Commander-in-Chief of the militia. In 1778 he was again elected governor of South Carolina. In 1780, when Charleston was captured by the British, he retired to North Carolina, joining Greene's army; but resumed the governorship at the close of the war. In 1782 he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1783. He was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States. In July, 1795, he was appointed by Washington Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and served the August term of that year; but his mental faculties failing, he was not confirmed by the Senate in December. He died in Charleston, July 23, 1800.