They Spoke About Freedom While Owning Slaves
John Rutledge: Second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, chairman of Constitution drafting committee shaped the early understanding on slavery.
The Declaration of Independence changed the world.
But behind the language of freedom stood enslaved Black valets listening to the conversations unfolding inside Independence Hall.
In The Valet’s Witness, author Rohn Hein explores the paradox at the center of America’s founding — liberty for some, exclusion for others.
This isn’t just about the men history remembered.
Rutledge worked to avoid “slavery” being mentioned in the document.
Almost all delegates had a stake in slavery of some kind.
It’s also about the people history pushed to the edge of the room.
QUESTIONS:
If personnel is policy, what does the group of representatives at the Continental Congress and the appointment of John Rutledge Jr as the second Supreme Court Chief Justice suggest about the institution of early American slavery?
The existing pledge of allegiance is long and has grown longer. Would it clarify things if we changed the pledge to:
”I pledge allegiance to ‘Liberty and Justice for All’” (period.)What do you think of Rutledge’s argument that if the Constitution forbade slavery, the southern states never would have agreed to it?
ELSEWHERE
Wikipedia: John Rutledge Jr.
John Rutledge Jr. (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additionally, he served as the first president of South Carolina and later as its first governor after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Rutledge established a legal career after studying at Middle Temple in the City of London. He was the elder brother of Edward Rutledge, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Rutledge served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, which protested taxes imposed on the Thirteen Colonies by the Parliament of Great Britain. He also served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, where he signed the Continental Association, before being elected as governor of South Carolina. He served as governor during much of the American Revolutionary War.
After briefly returning to Congress, Rutledge was appointed to the South Carolina Court of Chancery. He was a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, which wrote the United States Constitution. During the convention, he served as chairman of the Committee of Detail, which produced the first full draft of the Constitution. The following year he also participated in the South Carolina convention to ratify the Constitution.
In 1789, President George Washington appointed Rutledge as one of the inaugural associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Rutledge left the Supreme Court in 1791 to become chief justice of the South Carolina Court of Common Pleas and Sessions. He returned to the Supreme Court, this time as chief justice, following the resignation of John Jay in June 1795. As the vacancy came during a long Senate recess, Washington named Rutledge as the new chief justice by a recess appointment. When the Senate reconvened in December 1795, it rejected Rutledge’s nomination by a 10–14 vote. Rutledge resigned his commission shortly thereafter and withdrew from public life until his death in 1800. He holds the record for the shortest tenure of any chief justice. His was the first Supreme Court nomination to be rejected by the Senate, and he remains the only “recess appointed” justice not to be subsequently confirmed by the Senate.
When the proposal was made that only landowners should have the right to vote, Rutledge opposed it perhaps more strongly than any other motion in the entire convention. He stated that making such a rule would divide the people into “haves” and “have nots,” would create an undying resentment against landowners and could do nothing but cause discord. He was supported by Benjamin Franklin, and the rule was not adopted.[34]
In the debate on slavery in the new country, Rutledge took the side of the slaveholders since he was a Southerner and a slaveholder. Rutledge said that if the Constitution forbade slavery, the Southern states would never agree to the Constitution.[35]