Ruggles studied law, and after being admitted to the bar in 1815 he began practicing in Skowhegan, Maine.

He resigned from the state house to replace Samuel E. Smith (who had been elected governor) as a justice of the supreme judicial court of Maine, serving until 1834.

[1] The state legislature elected Ruggles as a Democratic-Republican (Jacksonian) to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Peleg Sprague.

His invention was a type of train wheel designed to reduce the adverse effects of the weather on the track.

In 1840, he penned a letter going against his party to endorse William Henry Harrison, whom he described as a man of "enlightened patriotism, great practical wisdom, and sound Republican principles," while denouncing Van Buren's policies as "ruinous to the enterprise and business of the people.