Changes

In the year 1784 he was elected a judge of the court of Chancery in South Carolina. The events of the late war had greatly increased the necessity for such a court. John Rutledge draughted the bill for organizing it on a new plan, and in it introduced several provisions, which have been very highly commended as improvements on the English court of the same name. Mr. Rutledge's public duties hitherto had been either legislative or executive. They were henceforward judicial. If comparisons were proper, it might be added that he was most at home in the latter. His knowledge of the law was profound; but the talent which preeminently fitted him for dispensing justice was a comprehensive mind, which could at once take into view all the bearings and relations of a complicated case. When the facts were all fairly before him, he promptly knew what justice required. The pleadings of lawyers gratified their clients, but rarely cast any light on the subject which had not already presented itself to his own view. Their declamations and addresses to the passions were lost on him. Truth and justice were the pole-stars by which his decisions were regulated. He speedily resolved the most intricate cases, pursued general principles through their various modifications till they led to the fountain of justice. His decrees were so luminous, and the grounds of them so clearly expressed, that the defeated party was generally satisfied.

In the year 1784 he was elected a judge of the court of Chancery in South Carolina. The events of the late war had greatly increased the necessity for such a court. John Rutledge draughted the bill for organizing it on a new plan, and in it introduced several provisions, which have been very highly commended as improvements on the English court of the same name. Mr. Rutledge's public duties hitherto had been either legislative or executive. They were henceforward judicial. If comparisons were proper, it might be added that he was most at home in the latter. His knowledge of the law was profound; but the talent which preeminently fitted him for dispensing justice was a comprehensive mind, which could at once take into view all the bearings and relations of a complicated case. When the facts were all fairly before him, he promptly knew what justice required. The pleadings of lawyers gratified their clients, but rarely cast any light on the subject which had not already presented itself to his own view. Their declamations and addresses to the passions were lost on him. Truth and justice were the pole-stars by which his decisions were regulated. He speedily resolved the most intricate cases, pursued general principles through their various modifications till they led to the fountain of justice. His decrees were so luminous, and the grounds of them so clearly expressed, that the defeated party was generally satisfied.

==Later Years==

==Later Years==