Existing comment:
John Rutledge, 1739-1800
Educated in the law at London's Inns of Court, John Rutledge of South Carolina had been on the national stage since the Stamp Act protests of 1765. Rutledge played a major role in the framing of the Constitution, but insisted that the Carolinas and Georgia would never be parties to a union that denied protection for their property in slaves.
Rutledge was appointed to succeed John Jay as chief justice of the United States, but his intemperate speech against the Jay Treaty with England, along with rumors of insanity, caused his rejection by the Senate.
Attributed to John Trumbull, c 1791 |