Rutledge, John (1739-1800), was a South Carolina signer of the Constitution of the United States. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, he favored efforts to develop a strong national government. Rutledge also helped convince Northern delegates that the Southern States would withdraw from the United States if the Constitution prohibited slavery.
Rutledge was born in September 1739 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was educated in Charleston and London. He represented South Carolina in the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775. From 1776 to 1778, Rutledge was South Carolina’s first executive, with the title of president. He was governor of South Carolina from 1779 to 1782. He served in the Congress of the Confederation from May 1782 to September 1783 and in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1784 to 1790.
President George Washington appointed Rutledge an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1789. But Rutledge served only a short time, and in 1791 became chief justice of South Carolina. In 1795, Washington nominated Rutledge as U.S. chief justice. Rutledge presided during the August term. But the U.S. Senate rejected his nomination, largely because of his opposition to the Jay Treaty of 1794. Rutledge died on July 18, 1800.
