|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] John Rutledge Biography RUTLEDGE,
John (1739-1800). An American statesman, born at Charleston, S. C. He
studied law in London and began to practice at Charleston in 1761. He sat in the
Stamp Act Congress at New York in 1765, in the South Carolina Convention in
1774, and the Continental Congress of 1774, was chairman of the committee which
framed the new constitution for South Carolina in 1776, and was first President
of the State under it (1776-78), and in 1779 was Governor. In 1780 he joined the
Army of the South. He was a member of the Continental Congress again in 1782 and
again in 1783, was Chancellor of his State in 1784, member of the convention
which framed the Federal Constitution (1787) and of the State convention which
adopted it. He was an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
(1789-91), was Chief Justice of South Carolina from 1791 to 1795, and in July,
1795, was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, but, owing
to the loss of his reason, the appointment was not confirmed. |