Rutledge
Rutledge names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Rutledge JOHN, an American jurist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
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.
Rutledge EDWARD, an American statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EDWARD, an American statesman; born in Charleston, S. C., Nov. 23, 1749; was admitted to the bar in 1773; began practice in his native town; was a member of the Continental Congress in 1774-1777; took a conspicuous part in the discussions preceding the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, of which he was a signer; was on a commission with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin which met Lord , Sept. 11, 1776, on Staten Island, Howe, Howe but refused to enter into any treaty with him except on the basis of American independence. He was lieutenantcolonel of the Charleston Artillery which aided in expelling the British from the island of Port Royal in 1779; and was captured in 1780 and imprisoned for a year in St. Augustine. At the conclusion of hostilities, he resumed the practice of law in Charleston; and was elected governor of South Carolina in 1798. He died in Charleston, S. C., Jan. 23, 1800.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's told readers in 1921 that John Rutledge was not confirmed as Chief Justice in December 1795 because "his mental faculties failing" — a polite formula that leaves out the politics. Modern historians stress that the Senate rejected him chiefly for a furious public speech he had made that summer denouncing the Jay Treaty, which enraged the Federalist majority; he remains the only Supreme Court recess appointee ever voted down by the Senate, and the only Chief Justice to serve a full term without confirmation. Since 1921 scholarship has also foregrounded what these entries pass over in silence: both brothers were wealthy Charleston slaveholders, and at the 1787 Convention John Rutledge chaired the Committee of Detail and pressed hard for the clause barring Congress from ending the Atlantic slave trade for twenty years. Otherwise the biographical outlines — the governorships, Edward's signing of the Declaration and his 1780 imprisonment at St. Augustine — still stand as written.
Written for this edition, 2026.