Forgotten Founder Edward Rutledge

Edward Rutledge was born in November 1749.

He was from a very affluent family in Charleston South Carolina. After studying law in England he returned to Charleston and set up a law practice in 1773

He gained a reputation as a patriot when he defended a newspaper publisher Thomas Powell, who had been imprisoned for publishing and article that criticized loyalist government officials.

In 1776 at the age of 26 he inadvertently became the leader of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation.

On June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed national independence, Rutledge led the moderates in securing a delay in the voting.

He knew that independence was inevitable. But Rutledge firmly believed that the colonies should first confederate and nurture foreign alliances to strengthen themselves for war before Declaring Independence.

When the vote on independence came up on July 1, Rutledge  and South Carolina voted against it.

But Rutledge saw that nine of the thirteen colonies voted for Independence. He realized that the resolution was going to pass, so, proposed that the vote be recast the following day.

He then persuaded the other South Carolina delegates to submit to the will of the majority for the sake of unanimity, and South Carolina reversed its position.

Rutledge was the youngest delegate to signe the Declaration of Independence.

He returned to South Carolina and in 1780 when Charleston fell to the British was captured as a POW and was imprisoned in St. Augustine, Florida until July 1781.

In 1798 he was elected governor of South Carolina and died in office two years later at the age of 50.