04/11/2026
An American Moment, 250 years ago, April 11, 1776. A great man and leader, this is part of a speech in general assembly, by President John Rutledge of South Carolina:
Truth, being known, will prevail over artifice and misrepresentation.—In such case no man, who is worthy of life, liberty, or property, will, or can, refuse to join with you, in defending them to the last extremity, disdaining every sordid view, and the mean paltry considerations of private interest and present emolument, when placed in competition with the liberties of millions; and seeing that there is no alternative but absolute, unconditional submission, and the most abject slavery, or a defence becoming men born to freedom, he will not hesitate about the choice. Although superior force may, by the permission of Heaven, lay waste our towns, and ravage our country, it can never eradicate from the breasts of freemen, those principles which are ingrafted in their very nature.—Such men will do their duty, neither knowing, nor regarding consequences; but submitting them, with humble confidence, to the omniscient and omnipotent arbiter and director of the fate of empires, and trusting that his Almighty arm, which has been so signally stretched out for our defence, will deliver them in a righteous cause.
John Rutledge served in the Stamp Act Congress, and during the First and Second Continental Congress, until being elected President of South Carolina. He would go on to be the First Governor, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He would be appointed Associate Justice and then the 2nd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America, H. Niles, 1822.
© 2026 Clifford Olsen/1776 American Moments
