under a new constitution. His exertions in this position were untiring and important. On the termination of his executive duties in 1782, he was elected to Congress, where he remained until the next year. "In this period," says Dr. Ramsay, "he was called upon to perform an extraordinary duty. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis, in October, 1781, seemed to paralyze the exertions of the States. Thinking the war and all its dangers past, they no longer acted with suitable vigor. Congress, fearing that this state of affairs would encourage Great Britain to recommence hostilities, sent deputations of their members to arouse the States to a sense of their danger and duty. On the twenty-second of May, 1782, John Rutledge and George Clymer* were sent in this capacity, and instructed 'to make such representations to the several States southward of Philadelphia, as were best adapted to their respective circumstances and the present situation of public affairs, as might induce them to carry the requisitions of Congress into effect with the greatest dispatch.' They were permitted to make a personal address to the Virginia Assembly. In the execution of this duty, Mr. Rutledge drew such a picture of the United States, and of the danger to which they were exposed by the backwardness of the particular States to comply with the requisitions of Congress, as produced a very beneficial effect. The orator acquitted himself with so much ability, that the Virginians, who, not without reason, are proud of their statesmen and orators, began to doubt whether their Patrick Henry or the Carolina Rutledge was the most accomplished speaker." Shortly after this period, Mr. Rutledge was appointed Minister from the United States to Holland, but declined the office. In the year 1784 he was elected Judge of the Court of Chancery in South Carolina, and afterwards was appointed, by President Washington, to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which office he remained until 1791, when he was elected Chief Justice of his native State. In the several public stations to which Judge Rutledge was elevated, he displayed the greatest ability and the highest qualities of statesmanship. He died in July, 1800. "While Massachusetts boasts of her John Adams," says Dr. Ramsay-"Connecticut of her Ellsworth-New York of her Jay-Pennsylvania of her Wilson-Delaware of her Bayard-Virginia of her Henry— South Carolina rests her claims on the talents and eloquence of John Rutledge."

SPEECH TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA ASSEMBLY.

This speech was delivered by President Rutledge, to the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of South Carolina, at Charleston, on the eleventh of April, 1776.

*George Clymer was born at Philadelphia, in 1789. He was among the first to resist the oppressors of his country, and proclaim to his fellow-citizens the principles of liberty In 1778 he opposed the sale of tea sent out by the British government. In 1775 he became one of the first continental treasurers, and was very efficient in raising funds and supplies for the army. As a member of the Continental Congress, in the next year he signed the Declaration of Indeestablishment of the Bank of North America. After the

pendence. With Robert Morris he co-operated in the

adoption of the Federal Constitution, he was again a member

of Congress. In 1796 he was sent to Georgia, to negotiate

with Hawkins and Pickens a treaty with the Cherokee and Creek Indians. He was afterwards the president of the Philadelphia bank, and of the Academy of Fine Arts. In the various stations he filled, he was remarkable for the punctual and conscientious discharge of duty. He died on the twenty-third of January, 1818, at Morrisville, Bucks County, Penn.

HONORABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-MR. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY: It has afforded me much satisfaction to observe, that though the season of the year rendered your sitting very inconvenient, your private concerns, which must have suffered greatly by your long and close application, in the late Congress, to the affairs of the colony, requiring your presence in the county, yet continuing to prefer the public weal to ease and retirement, you have been busily engaged in framing such laws as our peculiar circumstances rendered absolutely necessary to be passed before your adjournment. Having given my assent to them, I presume you are

now desirous of a recess.

taken for the faithful discharge of my duty; On my part, a most solemn oath has been on yours, a solemn assurance has been given to support me therein. Thus, a public compact between us stands recorded. You may rest assured that I shall keep this oath ever in mind-the constitution shall be the invariable rule of my conduct-my ears shall be always

revolt.

open to the complaints of the injured, justice, | purposes, are acts at which humanity must in mercy, shall neither be denied, or delayed. Our laws and religion, and the liberties of America, shall be maintained and defended, to the utmost of my power. I repose the most perfect confidence in your engagement.

Show your constituents, then, the indispensable necessity which there was for establishing some mode of government in this colony; the benefits of that, which a full and free repreAnd now, gentlemen, let me entreat that you sentation has established; and that the consent will, in your several parishes and districts, use of the people is the origin, and their happiness your influence and authority to keep peace and the end of government. Remove the appregood order, and procure strict observance of, hensions with which honest and well-meaning, and ready obedience to the law. If any per- but weak and credulous, minds, may be alarmsons therein are still strangers to the nature ed, and prevent ill impressions by artful and and merits of the dispute between Great Britain designing enemies. Let it be known that this and the colonies, you will explain it to them constitution is but temporary, till an accommofully, and teach them, if they are so unfortunate dation of the unhappy differences between as not to know their inherent rights. Prove to Great Britain and America can be obtained; them, that the privileges of being tried by a and that such an event is still desired by men jury of the vicinage, acquainted with the par- who yet remember former friendships and intities and witnesses; of being taxed only with mate connections, though, for defending their their own consent, given by their representa-persons and properties, they are stigmatized tives, freely chosen by, and sharing the bur- and treated as rebels. then equally with themselves, not for the Truth, being known, will prevail over artiaggrandizing a rapacious minister, and his de- fice and misrepresentation. In such case no pendent favorites, and for corrupting the people, man, who is worthy of life, liberty, or property, and subverting their liberties, but for such wise will, or can, refuse to join with you, in defendand salutary purposes, as they themselves ap-ing them to the last extremity, disdaining every prove; and of having their internal polity regu- sordid view, and the mean paltry considerations lated, only by laws consented to by competent of private interest and present emolument, when judges of what is best adapted to their situa-placed in competition with the liberties of miltion and circumstances, equally bound too by lions; and seeing that there is no alternative those laws, are inestimable, and derived from but absolute, unconditional submission, and the that constitution, which is the birth-right of most abject slavery, or a defence becoming men the poorest man, and the best inheritance of born to freedom, he will not hesitate about the the most wealthy. Relate to them the various, choice. Although superior force may, by the unjust and cruel statutes, which the British permission of Heaven, lay waste our towns, and parliament, claiming a right to make laws for ravage our country, it can never eradicate from binding the colonies in all cases whatsoever, the breasts of freemen, those principles which have enacted; and the many sanguinary mea- are ingrafted in their very nature. Such men sures which have been, and are daily pursued will do their duty, neither knowing, nor reand threatened, to wrest from them those in- garding consequences; but submitting them, valuable benefits, and to enforce such an un- with humble confidence, to the omniscient and limited and destructive claim. To the most omnipotent arbiter and director of the fate of illerate it must appear, that no power on earth empires, and trusting that his Almighty arm, can, of right, deprive them of the hardly earned which has been so signally stretched out for fruits of their honest industry, toil and labor- our defence, will deliver them in a righteous even to them, the impious attempt to prevent cause. many thousands from using the means of subsistence provided for man by the bounty of his Creator, and to compel them, by famine, to surrender their rights, will seem to call for Divine vengeance. The endeavors, by deceit and bribery, to engage barbarous nations to imbrue their hands in the innocent blood of helpless women and children; and the attempts by fair but false promises, to make ignorant domestics subservient to the most wicked

The eyes of Europe, nay of the whole world, are on America. The eyes of every other colony are on this; a colony, whose reputation for generosity and magnanimity, is universally acknowledged. I trust, therefore, it will not be diminished by our future conduct, that there will be no civil discord here; and that the only strife amongst brethren will be, who shall do most to serve and to save an oppressed and injured country.

SPEECH TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Governor Rutledge delivered the following | the town and castle of St. Augustine, their prospeech to the General Assembly of South Caro-perties disposed of at the will and caprice of lina, met at Jacksonburgh, in that State, on Friday, the eighteenth day of January, 1782. It evinces his unwearied zeal and attention to the interests of the colonies, and presents a vivid picture of the perfidy, rapine, and cruelty which distinguished the British arms in the Southern campaign.*

*This speech was published in the Pennsylvania Packet, ton, and to whose boasted prowess and highly of the 14th of March, 1782.

The organization of our militia is likewise a subject of infinite importance: a clear and concise law, by which the burdens of service will be equally sustained, and a competent number of men brought forth and kept in the field, when their assistance may be required, is essential to our security, and therefore justly claims your immediate and serious attention: certain it is, that some of our militia have, upon several occasions, exhibited symptoms of valor which would have reflected honor on veteran troops. The courage and conduct of the generals whom I have mentioned; the cool and determined bravery displayed by Brigadier Pickens, and, indeed, the behavior of many officers and men in every brigade, are unquestionable testimonies of the truth of this assertion. But such behavior cannot be expected from militia in general, without good order and strict discipline; nor can that order and discipline be established, but by a salutary law, steadily executed.

three States had been arrogantly committed, | but a measure so indispensable to the preservawas speedily compelled to accept of the same tion of our freedom is above every pecuniary mortifying terms which had been imposed on consideration. that brave but unfortunate garrison: to surrender an army of many thousand regulars, and to abandon his wretched followers, whom he had artfully seduced from their allegiance by specious promises of protection, which he could never have hoped to fulfil, to the justice or mercy of their country, on the naval superiority established by the illustrious ally of the United States a superiority in itself so decided, and in its consequences so extensive, as must inevitably soon oblige the enemy to yield to us the only post which they occupy in this State: and on the reiterated proofs of the sincerest friendship, and on the great support which America has received from that powerful monarch-a monarch whose magnanimity is universally acknowledged and admired, and on whose royal word we may confidently rely for every necessary assistance: on the perfect harmony which subsists between France and America: on the stability which her independence has acquired, and the certainty that it is too deeply rooted ever to be shaken; for animated as they are by national honor, and united by one common interest, it must and will be main-glorying in their professions of loyalty and tained.

Another important matter for your deliberation, is the conduct of such of our citizens as, voluntarily avowing their allegiance, and even

attachment to his Britannic Majesty, have offered their congratulations on the success of his arms, prayed to be embodied as loyal militia, accepted commissions in his service, or endeavored to subvert our constitution and establish his power in its stead; of those who have returned to this State, in defiance of law, by which such return was declared to be a capital offence, and have bettered the British interest, and of such whose behavior has been so reprehensible, that justice and policy forbid their free re-admission to the rights and privileges of citizens.

public use; but we have forborne even to take the profits of the estates of our most implacable enemies. It is with you to determine whether the forfeiture and appropriation of their pro

What may be the immediate effects on the British nation, of the events which I have mentioned, of their loss of territory in other parts of the world, and of their well-founded apprehensions from the powers of France, Spain, and Holland, it is impossible to foretell. If experience can teach wisdom to a haughty and infatuated people, and if they will now be governed by reason, they will have learnt they can have no solid ground of hope to conquer any State in the Union; for though their armies have obtained temporary advantages over our troops, yet the citizens of these States, firmly The extraordinary lenity of this State has resolved as they are never to return to a domi- been remarkably conspicuous. Other States nation which, near six years ago, they unan- have thought it just and expedient to approimously and justly renounced, cannot be sub-priate the property of British subjects to the dued; and they must now be convinced, that it is the height of folly and madness to persist in so ruinous a war. If, however, we judge, as we ought, of their future by their past conduct, we may presume that they will not only en-perty should now take place: if such should be deavor to keep possession of our capital, but make another attempt, howsoever improbable the success of it may appear, to subjugate this country it is therefore highly incumbent upon us, to use our most strenuous efforts to frustrate so fatal a design; and I earnestly conjure you, by the sacred love which you bear to your country, by the constant remembrance of her bitter sufferings, and by the just detestation of British government which you and your posterity must for ever possess, to exert your utmost faculties for that purpose, by raising and equipping, with all possible expedition, a respectable permanent force, and by making ample provision for their comfortable subsistence. I am sensible the expense will be great;

your determination, though many of our warmest friends have been reduced for their inflexible attachment to the cause of their country, from opulence to inconceivable distress, and, if the enemy's will and power had prevailed, would have been doomed to indigence and beggary, yet it will redound to the reputation of this State, to provide a becoming support for the families of those whom you may deprive of their property.

The value of paper currency became of late so much depreciated, that it was requisite, under the powers vested in the executive during the recess of the General Assembly, to suspend the laws by which it was made a tender. You will now consider whether it may not be proper

to repeal those laws, and fix some equitable all unsettled demands should be liquidated, and mode for the discharge of debts contracted satisfactory assurances of payment given to the whilst paper money was in circulation. public creditors.

In the present scarcity of specie, it would be difficult, if not impracticable, to levy a tax to any considerable amount, towards sinking the public debt, nor will the creditors of the State expect that such a tax should at this time be imposed; but it is just and reasonable, that

The interest and honor, the safety and happiness of our country, depend so much on the result of your deliberations, that I flatter myself you will proceed in the weighty business before you with firmness and temper, with vigor, unanimity and despatch.