DEM Ote aie Hn he ee a tah ory Rian ibais ttn pee ei aaa ee y mA el eis Aa ary e uaa hale ey tis aie See ; Sys yh F, , ; a Ao ie PRE a a i st, Ra went a Y ‘ " Beans! F a OD aan aay N . SOAs SH Dear n eek : ut Me ee nt sae 4 ay RVMNU ou i i meer a a sy Wee) ie Jers ; ee tes hit A cv ¥ ook Na ese Eoatigir ech yr cu fi He Da i) conc f awn eeneee see eae epee eee ae re ul an rent Nay ae: 3 ie noes ae Hts OG ns ree ateaneee Pagar t f Parte aa itt gata fy ae nel dearer ay ceysersrenepert® Ry ore it Pa aah ayy Ne uuleeree peer eee * hAhcsbip§ bubs ab hibe Na Bee en 5 Gorvell University Library Ithaca, New York FROM Umiversity..of...Pa.. hibrary,...n.erchange. OLIN LIBRARY — CIRCULATION DATE DUE GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library R 154.R95G64 Benjamin Rush tit | oe )5¥ RPS CoY BENJAMIN RUSH AND HIS SERVICES TO AMERICAN EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA rae BENJAMIN RUSH AND HIS SERVICES TO AMERICAN EDUCATION BY HARRY G. GOOD A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITNESS PRESS Berne, Indiana + EE || A&R 4 « Bee Mp 7 Men hoy cf ¥ “@ #2, Poe Avottila Copyright, 1918 By HARRY G. GOOD Published April, 1918 PREFACE More than one hundred years have passed since the death of Doctor Benjamin Rush and yet nothing that purports to be a complete biography of him has been published. There are many short sketches, one copied from the other in many cases, and several valu- able eulogies. Better than any of these is the “Memo-. rial, Written by Himself”, which was privately pub- lished “for the benefit of his descendants” several years ago. A man who had so large a share in the work of his city and the councils of his nation and the life of his times deserves better of posterity. The life of a physician should be written by a brother physician and Dr. S. Weir Mitchell was much interested in Dr. Rush and collected and published some material. It will always be regretted that among the many labors of his life he did not find time also to complete this one. But if no physician will take time to write a biography of Rush, then a layman may be pardoned for doing so, if he can approach the subject on what may be called Dr. Rush’s second level of in- terests, his interest in education and social reform. VI PREFACE The present book is written from this standpoint. It is written for all lovers of history. But it is written more especially for those interested in education and educational history. The first three chapters discuss Dr. Rush’s early life, his work as a patriot and statesman, as a physician and teacher of medicine. Chapters IV and V were prepared as a doctoral dissertation in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. The subject was first suggested to me several years ago by Professor A. Duncan Yocum of that University. To him belongs the credit of having discovered an early and import- ant but neglected thinker upon the problems of edu- cation in America. Professor Frank P. Graves, Dean of the School of Education, under whose direction the dissertation was finally prepared, has critically read my manuscript and has made many indispensable sug- gestions as to my treatment of the subject. Throughout I have tried to write in a critical and scientific spirit. Dr. Rush was a many-sided man. His life would therefore readily lend itself to a highly~ colored treatment. This I have distinctly tried to avoid. I hope the more neutral tones will make for impartiality and accuracy. My special thanks are due not only to Professors Yocum and Graves (my great obligations to whom have already been indicated), but also to the librarians PREFACE VII and their assistants at the Ridgway Library and the Libraries of the Pennsylvania Historical Society and of the University of Pennsylvania. More specific ac- knowledgment of my obligations to these several col- lections for the use of manuscript and printed material is made in the bibliography. Philadelphia, Pa., August 10, 1915. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Page EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING.............0.000008 3 CHAPTER II. RUSH IN THE REVOLUTION...............2...40- 35 CHAPTER III. RUSH AS PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER OF MEDICINE: 65 occsnev sagas iivin ed ntae saa econ sn ees 73 CHAPTER IV. BENJAMIN RUSH AND DICKINSON COLLEGE... 99 CHAPTER V. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF RUSH............ 171 INTRODUCTION.—1. A System of Public Schools, 171.—2. The Early Literature on a National Univer- sity, 179.—3. Other Educational Writings, 188.— 4. Summary of Dr. Rush’s Educational Positions, 194. SELECTIONS.—1. Address to the People of the United States, 198.—2. Plan of a Federal University, 206.—3. A Plan for Establishing Public Schools in Pennsylvania, and for Conducting Education Agree- ably to a Republican Form of Government, 214— 4. To the Citizens of Philadelphia, and of the Dis- tricts of Southwark and the Northern Liberties, 220. CONTENTS —5. Fénelon and Rush on the Education of Women; A Comparison, 226.—6. A Lecture, 234.—7. “Reasons Against Founding a College at Carlisle: Ironical by B. Rush,” 244.—8,. Dr. Rush’s Letter to Dr. Nisbet Informing the Latter of His Election as “Principal” of Dickinson College, 248. APPENDIX, cise iccaiee isin 885 eta Riko Came Re eRe Rea BIBLIOGRAPHY: sivsaiedsne aed sy Gay ae dees Bow led Ske de wee 1. Introduction, 259.—2. Autobiography, 260.—3. On Education, 260.—4. Medical Works, 263.—5. On Yel- low Fever, 266.—6. Medical Works, Edited by Rush, 267.—7. On Slavery, 268—8. On Political Subjects, 269.—9. On Temperance, 269.—10. On Penal Re- form, 270-11. Memorial Addresses, 270.—12. Miscel- laneous, 271.—13. Secondary Sources, 272. 255 259 BENJAMIN RUSH and his SERVICES TO AMERICAN EDUCATION CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING Benjamin Rush was born in Byberry Township. Philadelphia County, and State of Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve, 1745 (O. S.), and died in Philadelphia on April 19, 1813. He was of English parentage on both sides. The Rush.family, a race of sturdy yeo- men, were native in Oxfordshire. In religion they were dissenters. In the new world they became Pres- byterians, ‘Quakers and Baptists. Their first American representative was a Captain John Rush who had commanded a troop of horsé~under the Protector ; and there is a family tradition that Cromwell knew him personally and valued highly his military ability." After the Restoration, not finding the England of Charles congenial, Captain Rush with a family of six sons and three daughters followed William Penn in 1683 to the scene of his “holy experiment”. He settled in Byberry, fourteen miles northeast of Philadelphia, *See Staughton’s Eulogium in Memory of the late Dr. Benjamin Rush. Philadelphia, 1813. 4 BENJAMIN RUSH on a farm and here he died in 1699 at an advanced age. Benjamin Rush’s father was John Rush, who was a farmer on the ancestral acrés, as ‘as had been all the intervening ancestors on the paternal side. He died when Benjamin was only five or six years old, and we must, therefore, look to his mother for his early train- ing and education. His mother’s name, before her ee te marriage, was ‘Susannah Hall. She had attended a boarding school in Philadelphia and was well educated for her sex and her times. Her distinguished son says of her: “As a mother she was distinguished by kind- ness, generosity and attention to the morals and relig- ious principles of her children.” To John and Susan- nah Rush there were born six children—four sons and two daughters—of whom Benjamin was the second son and the fourth child. Of his brothers none at- tained a great reputation except Jacob Rush, who chose the law for his profession and rose to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Both Benjamin Rush and his brother Jacob were sent to an academy established about 1744 at Notting- ham, Cecil County, Maryland, by the Reverend Samuel Finley. This school was chosen, no doubt, because Dr. Finley was a relative by marriage, his wife being Sarah Hall, a sister of Benjamin Rush’s mother.? But *Dr. Finley was twice married. His first wife died in 1760, the year before he left Nottingham. His second wife EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 5 the academy was on its own account quite worthy of patronage, as we may judge from the number of emi- nent men turned out, from the known character of its master and his reputation as an educator, and from Dr. Rush’s direct testimony to the value of the train- ing he received there. Dr. Finley was a Presbyterian minister from the north of Ireland. He had been edu- cated by the Tennents at the famous Log College in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He had spent several. years in evangelistic work in New Jersey, and in Con- necticut; had served for six months as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and had now, in 1744, at the age of twenty-nine, been assigned to a rural charge in Maryland. Here he founded and for seventeen years conducted the academy already mentioned. He was successful; so much so that in 1761 he was called to the presidency of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Among the eminent men who received their early training and their college preparation under him were Governors Henry of Maryland, and Martin of North Carolina; Dr. John Morgan, one of the founders of the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania ; was Anna Clarkson. A_ great-grandson, Samuel Finley Breeze Morse, became the inventor of the telegraph. See A. Alexander, Biographical Sketches of the Founder and Princi- pal Alumni of the Log College. Philadelphia, 1851, p. 213. 6 BENJAMIN RUSH Ebenezer Hazard; Reverend James Waddell, the fa- mous “blind preacher of Virginia”; Reverend William Tennent, the younger; Judge Jacob Rush; and, lastly, more famous than any of these, Dr. Benjamin Rush.3 Young Rush was sent to Nottingham at the age of eight or nine and remained there for a period of about five years, We know very little about the course of study except that the staples were Latin and Greek and that it prepared for college entrance. Rush-sééms to have been impressed more with the discipline and gen- eral conduct of the school than with the studies them- selves. The discipline seemed to him to have been very strict. Corporal punishment was a matter of course, as indeed it was in nearly all schools at that time. Speaking of Dr. Finley’s punishments, Rush says: “The instrument with which he corrected was a small switch which he broke from a tree. The part he struck was the palm of the hand and that never more than three times. The solemn forms connected with the punishment were more terrible and distress- ing than the punishment itself. I once saw him spend half an hour in exposing the folly and wickedness of an offense with his rod in his hand. The culprit stood all this while trembling and weeping before him. After he had ended his admonitions he lifted his rod as high *>Thomas Murphy: The Preshytery of the Log College. Philadelphia, 1889, p. 95 ff. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING ? as he could and then permitted it to fall gently upon his hand. The boy was surprised at this conduct. ‘There, go about your business,’ said the Doctor. ‘I mean shame and not pain to be your punishment in By implication Rush rather approves of this proceeding, although his deliberate judgment was strongly against any and every form of de corporal punishment. But, while the punishment in . 99 the present instance. the school room was thus severe, yet the Reverend Doctor, in many ways, treated his pupils, out of school, very much as a father would treat his own children. The boys were permitted to dine with their master’s family. This custom Rush commends very highly; and he declares that many of the “formative ideas” of his life were inspired by conversation in Dr. Finley’s - family and among his visitors. From Nottingham, Rush, at the immature age of fourteen, was sent to the College of New Jersey. And, even more wonderful to relate, he was graduated and given the A. B. degree by that institution in Septem- ber of the very next year, 1760, when he still lacked over three months of being fifteen years of age. Al- though Rush was quick enough with his lessons and perhaps even a bit precocious, this early graduation is not so much an evidence of precocity as of the ex- tremely low state of American collegiate instruction in the middle of the eighteenth century. The College 8 BENJAMIN RUSH of New Jersey had been founded but recently, under the auspices of the Synod of New York that it might aid in supplying an educated ministry for the Presby- terian Church. It was, therefore, a very young institu- tion in a very poor country. Besides, the rapid growth of population, as well as the schism in the Presby- terian Church—which had not altogether healed— caused the demand for ministers to exceed the supply. All these conditions would make for low standards. Moreover, the course of study in even the best Amer- ican institutions of that day was meagre. Latin and Greek formed the beginning, and without much exag- geration one could say, also the middle and end of the course. Those languages were, however, supplement- ed by lectures in philosophy, mental, moral and nat- ural, covering a vast field which now furnishes ma- terial for a great circle of sciences. All this was then taught by one man. There was also some work in English and oratory, and a little—a very little—in mathematics. But the best clue to the state of educa- tion is furnished by Rush’s correspondence. After he had studied Latin for six or seven years and had been graduated and was living in Philadelphia, his friend, Ebenezer Hazard, suggested that they conduct a corre- spondence in Latin. Although Rush replied with a short letter in that language, he begged that they might return to the mother tongue, because he found EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 9 the Latin too difficult and requiring too much time.4 And this not because he was a dull student; he was one of the most brilliant. At the time when Rush was a student at the Col- lege of New Jersey, the Reverend Samuel Davies was its president. He was-impressed with the capacity of his young student for composition and public speak- ing. Rush, in his autobiography, comments on this judgment as follows: “The facility with which I com- mitted his lessons to memory made so agreeable an impression upon him that he gave me credit for much more capacity than I possessed.” He did, however, have considerable ability in public speaking, a talent that he was frequently invited to exercise throughout his life, as we shall see. On being asked by President Davies what profession he intended to follow, Rush declared his choice of the law. To this decision the Doctor replied that he believed his student would make a better figure at the bar than in the walks of a hos- pital, With the consent of his mother, which was readily obtained, the matter seemed settled and Rush made preparations to enter the office of a prominent attorney in Philadelphia. But, before actually com- mencing upon his legal studies, a conversation with his former preceptor changed the whole course of his life. Rush visited the school at Nottingham and Dr. “Rush MSS., Vol. 39, Hazard correspondence, passim. 10 BENJAMIN RUSH Finley strongly urged him to leave the idea of fol- lowing the law and to study medicine instead. The whole matter may be best told in Rush’s own words: “He [Dr. Finley] said the practice of the bar was full of temptations. . . . ‘But before you determine on anything (said he) set apart a day for fasting and prayer and ask of God to direct you in the choice of a profession.’ ... I am sorry to say I neglected the lat- ter part of his advice, but yielded to the former... . There were periods in my life in which I regretted the choice I had made of the profession of medicine and once, after I was thirty years of age, I made prepara- tions for beginning the study of law. But Providence overruled my intentions by an event to be mentioned hereafter. .. . I now rejoice that I followed Dr. Finley’s advice. I have seen the hand of heaven clearly in it.” Many of the friends of Rush and of his family ad- vised strongly against this change of- purpose. His former fellow students recalled to his mind his ability and promise as a speaker and debater and emphasized the advantage this would give him at the bar. But his mind was now fully determined. He entered the “shop” of Dr. John Redman, one of the leading physicians in Philadelphia, who now be- came his patron and teacher. The acquaintance thus formed ripened into a friendship that lasted through- out the long life of Dr. Redman. From Rush's corre- EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 11 spondence during this period with his friend and for- mer schoolmate, Ebenezer Hazard, we learn some- thing of his situation and of the details of his work as an apprentice in medicine.’ His employer was. at this time on the staff of physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and from this circumstance Rush had the opportunity to observe the practice of five other phy- sicians, besides that of his master. The young stu- dent’s habits of concentration and of steady application were clearly shown during this period of his appren- ticeship. He began the study of medicine and entered his master’s “shop” and family in February, 1761, and remained continuously until July, 1766. During this whole period of approximately five years and a half, he was away from business only eleven days, and spent only three evenings outside his patron’s house. This method was then the approved—and in fact almost the only possible—way of securing a medical education in America. Even so, the medical student or apprentice was quite as much a servant as a student. Subjects for dissection were obtained only with the greatest difficulty, due largely to a general prejudice against the practice; such great difficulty, in fact, that twenty years later at the then recently established medical school of Harvard College a single body was made to serve for a full year’s course of lectures to *Rush MSS., Vol. 39. Hazard: correspondence. 12 BENJAMIN RUSH an entire class of students. Grave robbing was a com- mon practice, perpetrated usually on the graves of negroes, paupers or criminals. The undeveloped state of science was another important reason for the slight use made of opportunities for dissection. Without some study it is not possible to realize how much our knowledge of anatomy has grown since the middle of the eighteenth century. Not only were the laboratory facilities meagre and little used, but medical literature was scanty to a degree that can be hardly appreciated at the present day. Instead of working up the minutiae of anatomy and histology, the eighteenth century medical student rode with the genial doctor on his rounds and held the basin when the patient was bled. Instead of worrying over- much with the details of materia medica, he might clean bottles, for bottles were costly then; run errands; or deliver medicines and messages. But if the requirements were not severe, neither were the responsibilities felt to be so great as at pres- ent. After Rush had observed Dr. Redman’s methods for a year or more, he was sometimes given entire charge of the patients for whole days together, while the good doctor was performing hospital duties.® There is in Rush’s correspondence at this period abundant evidence that the young student was noth- *Rush MSS,, Vol. 39. Hazard correspondence. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 13 ing, if not conscientious, and that his mentor apprecia- ted his efforts. Nor did Rush try to depreciate them. He was thus early, ambitious and eager for recogni- tion, watching anxiously to detect the first signs of a rising tide. “There is something, methinks, pleasing in being dependent upon a man of conscience and piety, who will not only make good but more than perform his promises.” Thus writes this sage of twenty. And further he declares: “This, my dear Ebenezer, is our forming time.” He goes on to say that he has postponed going to London until the fol- lowing summer, and that he will meanwhile study, with the hope of “making a figure in Europe”; that he is planning to learn the “Dutch” (meaning the Ger- man) language, “inasmuch as a large part of our city consists of that nation” ;”7 and that he will endeavor to read the aphorisms of Hippocrates. But apparently he did not make much progress with this Greek med- ical classic. He, however, attended two courses of lectures by Drs. Shippen and Morgan—from which he derived great advantage? In this period also Rush became very much con- *Rush MSS., Vol. 39, p. 7. "Ibid. Vol. 39, p. 7. "Ibid. Vol. 39, p. 13. Dr. Morgan lectured on Theory and Practice of Physick in 1765 in the College of Phila- delphia. 14 BENJAMIN RUSH cerned about his religious condition and situation.’° George Whitefield visited Philadelphia again about this time and his ministrations made a deep impression on the young men. There are whole pages of rhetoric about Whitefield’s preaching and about the solemnity of various services that he attended, in Rush’s letters for the two years, 1765 and 1766. It was apparently in the spring of the latter year that Rush first gave his adherence to the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and his letters of that time show in a very marked way the characteristics of the “psychol- ogy of conversion”. In this connection it should be said that Rush tried his “’prentice hand” in writing, as well as in medicine, at this time. He wrote at the * Rush MSS., Vol. 39, pp. 1-20, passim, “Rush MSS,, Vol. 39, Hazard correspondence. Benjamin Rush was baptized by the Reverend Eneas Ross, an Epis- copal clergyman, and in childhood attended divine services in Christ Church, Philadelphia. His mother, however, was a strict adherent of the Presbyterian faith and after the death of his father he went with her to the Reverend Gilbert Ten- nent’s church in Fourth Street in the building erected first for Whitefield, but used afterward by the infant Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. At Dr. Finley’s school at Notting- ham, Presbyterianism was also instilled by precept, example and the Westminster Catechism. Rush remained a Pres- byterian communicant until in the seventeen hundred and eighties when he was led to accept Unitarian doctrines, and the Universalistic belief in the salvation of all men. But in 1788 both he and his wife were confirmed in the St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 15 age of nineteen an Eulogium on the Rev. Gilbert Ten- nent, who had for forty years been “an active, useful, animated preacher of the Gospel,’’!? and for twenty years in the pulpit of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. During his service with Dr. Redman he also be- came interested in politics and in that growing quarrel between the colonies and the mother country, which resulted in independence. In 1765, the year of the Stamp Act, Rush roundly denounced that measure in the regular “patriotic” phrases of the day. In Novem- ber of that year he “feared daily” that stamps might be distributed in Philadelphia. Dr. Franklin came in for a great deal of violent boyish criticism. “Oh, Franklin, Franklin,” he cries, “thou curse to Pennsyl- vania and America.”'3 In August, 1766, about a month after he left the office of Dr. Redman, and by his advice, Rush, in com- pany with Mr. Jonathan Potts,’4 another embryo doc- tor of medicine, sailed for Europe. They were to study ™ Ramsay’s Eulogium, pp. 15, 97, and 136. * Rush MSS., Vol. 39, pp. 12, 13, and 20. * Mr. Potts seems to have returned to America the follow- ing year and was graduated Bachelor of Medicine from the College of Philadelphia at the first medical commencement of that institution — the first medical commencement in America — on June 21, 1768. G. B. Wood: Early History of the University of Pennsylvania, p. 46. 16 BENJAMIN RUSH at Edinburgh under the famous Dr. Cullen and his colleagues. The titles of the lecture courses then offered at this university, which was the greatest Eng- lish-speaking medical center, seem very compendious today. They are: “Anatomy, Chymistry, Institutes of Medicine, Natural Philosophy, Practice of Infirmary, Practice of Physick and Materia Medica.” The pro- fessors were Doctors Cullen, Monroe, Black, Gregory and Hope—five in all. The two students had a stormy and dangerous passage, during the course of which they were almost constantly seasick and they did not reach Edinburgh until November. After securing lodgings they at once entered upon their studies. What their immediate success was we do not know, but it seems as if Rush at least was not any too well pre- pared; for he was compelled to spend the following vacation — the summer of 1767 — in deepening his knowledge of Latin, mathematics and natural philos- ophy, in order to follow the lectures. He employed a tutor in these subjects as well as in French, and we find him using this experience in his educational theo- ry many years later. He became a writer on educa- tion, because he was, in the first place, an intelligent student. About the same time he taught himself the Italian and Spanish languages. And he seems to have kept up his reading of them, for he tells us that he was able to read both with tolerable ease thirty years after. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 17 His method of study will be noticed later. It seems unfortunate that we have so few details of his Edin- burgh career, for in this period he developed from a provincial assistant to a physician into an enthusiastic student of medicine, philosophy and education. By the end of June, 1768, Rush had passed his ex- aminations, had “publicly defended” (according to medieval phrase) a Latin “thesis on the digestion of food in the stomach”, and was therefore granted the ~depree, Doctor of Medicine. The precise title of his thesis was, “De Coctione Ciborum in Ventriculo.” “The eagerness of its author to acquire professional knowledge, induced him to test a medical opinion in a way against which a less ardent student would have revolted. To ascertain whether fermentation had any agency in digestion he made three unpleasant experi- ments on his own stomach,’’® that is, he used an emetic three hours after dinner, and then tested the contents of his stomach when ejected.'® Rush, however, did not leave Edinburgh before September, and meanwhile he attended a private course of lectures on the Practice of Physic. The two years in Edinburgh were by Rush him- self thought to have been the most important of his * Quoted from Ramsay. See following note. *The experiment with the results are summarized in Ramsey, An Eulogium, etc., p. 15 ff. 18 BENJAMIN RUSH life in their influence on his character and conduct. The ideas he gathered were not along medical lines only, but also touched political, social and educational subjects. One of these ideas was communicated by a young gentleman of the name of John Bostock,’” one of whose ancestors, like Captain John Rush, had com- manded a company under Oliver Cromwell. The two young men frequently discussed political matters in which Rush was becoming greatly interested. Rush tells us in his Memoir that Bostock converted him to “republican ideas” and showed him “the absurdity of hereditary power”. Rush says that heretofore he had never questioned the lawful authority of the royal governments in general, or of the King of England in particular. But we have already seen his attitude to- ward the Stamp Act, and in his correspondence with Ebenezer Hazard he had affirmed himself to be an ardent “republican” several years earlier.1* The facts may well be that Rush was led to a more radical posi- tion by his friend, Mr. Bostock; and that when he wrote his Memoirs he had forgotten how far he had gone in that direction before leaving America. It is “ Thirty-five years or more after this, Dr. Rush received a letter from Dr. John Bostock, Jr., speaking of this friend- ship of the elder Mr. Bostock for Rush, and asking for details about his father, who had died during the childhood of the inquirer. See Rush MSS,, Vol., 25, p. 71. * Rush MSS., Vol. 39, p. 13. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 19 probably correct that Rush, in unison with his fellow countrymen, in 1765 and 1766, acknowledged the au- thority and sovereignty of the king. But he took ad- vanced ground when he began to ask definitely for the basis of that authority. And now that he had begun questioning he found difficulty in accepting any polit- ical control that did not rest upon the explicit consent of the governed. But the great truth which had infected his political notions now became an active ferment that leavened every department of his thinking and his scepticism became wide and profound. This experience is, of course, common enough in young men who have just learned the power of thought without having had time to discover its very narrow limitations. He began to suspect error in everything that he had ever been taught or that he had believed and he began “to try the foundations of his opinions upon many other sub- jects,” that is, other than politics. But the next state- ment is proof of his native shrewdness—or moral cowardice, as one may prefer—for he goes on to say that he did not change his conversation or conduct since he regarded the prevailing political order as fixed. However, when the times became more propi- tious, Dr. Rush did give his ideas to the world and it is to the mental activity of this period that he himself ascribed the origins of most of his essays on education, of 20 BENJAMIN RUSH bh penal legislation and prison reform, on slavery, on temperance, gn capital punishment, and on other hu- manitarian and social subjects. While in Europe, Dr. Rush met a number of men, then celebrated or who became so later in their lives. And it was his good fortune to render a signal service to his country and to her educational interests through one such acquaintanceship. Dr. Finley, the president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), died in 1766, and soon after the Board of Trustees, of which Dr. Redman was a member, elected Dr. John Wither- spoon, a Presbyterian minister of Paisley, Scotland, to the vacancy. Mr. Richard Stockton, another of the Trustees of the College, was then in England and handed the minute of his election to Dr. Witherspoon. The position was, however, declined because of objec- tions to residence in America raised by his wife, and it remained vacant for over a year. During the fol- lowing summer, 1767, in the intervals of his study of Latin and French, Rush found time to visit the Wither- spoon family in Paisley, and through his representa- tions Mrs. Witherspoon was persuaded to reconsider her decision and to withdraw her objections against leaving her native land. Of Dr. Witherspoon’s career in the Continental Congress and as a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, it is not necessary to speak. That is a part of the political history of the EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 21 United States. Similarly, the arrival of this scholarly educator to take charge of an educatiogal institution, then apparently tottering to its fall, was an event in ~ the educational history of our country. His improve- | ments in the course of study by introducing physics, mathematics, ethics and literature mark an epoch in the growth of Princeton. Dr. Ramsay thinks that the Trustees of the College appointed Rush, “their com- missioner, to solicit Dr. Witherspoon to accept the presidency ....and the presbytery, of which he was a member to consent to his dismission.”'9 Whatever the evidence for this statement, it fails to emphasize the real objection, which was given by Rush as it is stated above. But whether Rush was directly ap- pointed a commissioner for the Trustees or not, it seems that early in the spring of 1767 he had heard that Dr: Witherspoon might be persuaded to recon- sider his declination.2° Early in August Rush was able to write his old teacher, Dr. Redman, that Dr. *” Ramsay’s Eulogium, p. 17. ™Rush MSS., Vol. 22, p. 10, where under date of April 9, 1767, Dr. Redman writes to Rush: “I find by your last letter we are likely to get Dr. Weatherspoon [sic] for which I greatly rejoice and hope yet again to see Nassau Hall flourish and triumph over all its enemies.” The same letter enjoins upon “Mr. Benjamin Rush, student of Physick in Edinburgh” the virtues of “probity, piety, and serious attention to business” an injunction which that individual hardly re- quired. 22 BENJAMIN RUSH Witherspoon had decided to accept, and a meeting of the Board of Trustees was at once held to re-elect him.?" Thus was a great personality brought from \abroad into the American educational field by this young medical student. Dr. Rush received his degree, as we have seen, in June, and the following September he left Edinburgh - for London, where he registered as a student in the “\St. Thomas Hospital. He attended the lectures of a number of physicians, among whom was Dr. William Hunter. During his stay in London he lived in the family of Benjamin Franklin. Perhaps Franklin’s con- duct in the examination before the House of Commons in 1766 had changed Rush’s earlier estimate of that ambassador.-: At any rate, he accepted gratefully the many courtesies which the great Philadelphian ex- tended to him. Franklin introduced him to many of his literary and political friends. Thus he met Benja- min West, and through him secured an introduction to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sir Joshua, in his turn, invited Rush to a dinner at which Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith were guests. In Edinburgh he had already met David Hume, and now that he was in London and in the house of Hume’s friend, Benjamin Franklin, he saw more of him. Again, on his return from Paris he delivered to Hume a letter from Diderot. He thus "Rush MSS., Vol. 22, p. 11. Also Vol. 39, p. 21. . EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 23 spent some time in the society of the great philosopher | and historian, but the only conversation Rush reports is a remark by Hume on a certain portrait of Rousseau, which, he said, well brought out the subject’s “peevish countenance.” One may readily guess that Hume and, Rush did not find themselves thoroughly congen- ial. He was introduced to William Cromwell, a great- grandson of the Protector. At the table of the Messrs Dilly, booksellers, he met the then well known Alexan- der Cruden, compiler of a concordance of the Bible. Edward Dilly corresponded with Rush for many years, as did Doctors Huck, Lettsom and Pinkard, as well | as the painter, Benjamin West." These indications of - Rush’s social interests while in London show that he was then already exercising himself in the art of beingyy agreeable—an art that all who knew him say he mas- tered and retained throughout his life. / Whether he spent much effort in perfecting himself in his profes- sion while in London, we do not read. Indeed, the time was too short to do much. In the spring, before sailing for home, Rush spent / . several months in Paris, arnied with a letter of credit for several hundred guineas and numerous letters of * This must have been shortly after the quarrel of Rous- seau with Hume. See Morley’s Rousseau, Vol. II, Chap. VI. The description of the picture is most apt. Poor Rousseau had enough to sour him, — persecution, a frail body, and a vulgar woman! 2 24 BENJAMIN RUSH introduction, all being contributed by Franklin. Did- erot received him in his library., Mirabeau welcomed him as the friend of Franklin. (While in Paris Rush visited all the public hospitals and thus secured some knowledge of the state of medical science in France, but lack of time prevented any extended study. | In May, Rush returned to London and soon after sailed for home, reaching Philadelphia the following month. On the return voyage he read Blackstone and Forster’s ‘Crown Law”, an indication that he had not fully conquered his early predilection for the law. He now also began the study of German which he had in mind four years before as we have seen; and he read an Italian novel. {Soon after his arrival in June, 1769, he was ap- pointed Professor of Chemistry in the College of Phila- delphia. He was thus the fifth member of the faculty of the earliest medical school in America, the others being Doctors Shippen, Morgan, Kuhn and Bond. Dr. Rush’s early appointment to this post was not a sur- prise to him and in fact had been prepared for, before and during his European ¥esidence,) He had apparent- ly even asked Dr. Redman to secure the appointment before his return. To this request Dr, Redman replied under date of May 12, 1768:73 “As to the professorship of Chemistry it would not have been proper, nor would * Rush MSS., Vol. 22, p. 11. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 25 the Trustees choose to deprive themselves of the lib- erty of election so long before the qualifications of a person would be certainly determined; as your friends could not expect this, neither would they ask it, know- ing that they could easily prevent either the applica- tion or election of another, until your return. Thus matters stand at present; nor has the person you might suspect (or any other) applied, well knowing from proper points what he might expect if he had. Those trustees who are not medical think little about it, and those who are, with the professors, are care- fully silent about it; so that I believe you need not fear but it will be vacant till you return, nor less so of your election upon proper application, and bringing sufficient testimonials of your diligent attendance to that branch of medical science and art and your quali- fications therein, which I advise, as it will be to your credit as well as to that of our College to be so certi- fied of your abilities.” The same letter also speaks of the College of New Jersey, of which also Dr. Redman was a trustee and has been quoted before.?4 The tone ' of the whole communication is very cordial through- out, and in view of the continued friendship of the two men it is hard to see why Dr. Rush should say, as he does, that for his appointment to this post he was in- debted to the friendship of Dr. John Morgan, Pro- *See page 21, footnote. 26 BENJAMIN RUSH fessor of the Theory and Practice of Physic in the same institution, without mentioning Dr. Redman at all, in connection with the position. Dr. Rush followed the advice of his former preceptor to “bring sufficient testimonials” of his knowledge of chemistry. Accord- ingly we find Dr. Fothergill, probably at Rush’s solici- tation, urging the proprietor of the province of Penn- _ sylvania that he should recommend to the Trustees of the College of Philadelphia the appointment of Dr. Rush as Professor of Chemistry at the same time that he tendered the institution a “suitable chemical appa- ratus.”?5 The letter of the proprietor read as follows: “Gentlemen :—Dr. Rush having been recommend- ed to me by Dr. Fothergill as a very expert Chymist, and the Doctor having further recommended to me a chymical apparatus as a thing that will be of great use, particularly in the tryal of ores, I send you such as Dr. Fothergill thought necessary, under the care of Dr. Rush, which I desire your acceptance of. I recom- mend Dr. Rush to your notice, and humbly wishing success to the College, remain with great regard, Your very affectionate friend,” “Thomas Penn.” “To the Trustees of the College of Philadelphia.”26 * George B. Wood, Early History of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1896, p. 44. * Scharf and Westcott, Vol. II, p. 1589, note. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 27 Dr. Cullen also wrote in Rush’s interest to Dr. Morgan under date of September 18, 1768.27 Dr. Cullen, among other things, says: “It is very con- venient for me to write by Rush, for if I was [sic] to do it by some other hands I should think myself obliged to give you the medical news of Europe, but I know that he can give it you in a better manner. I expect that the College of Philadelphia will soon con- tribute to the improvement of our medical knowledge and I think it is happy that 'the first institution of a new school has fallen into such hands. I expect that Dr. Rush is to be joined to your number and you will make a valuable acquisition. He has indeed applied © to every branch of study with great diligence and suc- cess, but Chemistry has always been a principal object and I am persuaded he may make a Figure in that Profession much to the credit of your College. I wish TI could serve both the College and him, and if you think that my testimony and opinion can contribute to either, you may make what use of my name or this letter you shall think proper.” The Philadelphia pa- .. pers in the fall of 1769 carry the announcement of Dr. Rush’s appointment and advertise the course of lec- tures, to be delivered by him.7® He found the pro- . | \ fessorship useful in establishing his reputation and in , * Rush MSS., Vol. 24, p. 54. * Pennsylvania Chronicle, Aug. 17€9. } ( \ \ 1 Ae 28 BENJAMIN RUSH giving him an immediate income unl he was able to build up a practice. On his return from Europe Dr. Rush took a resi- dence in Second Street, Philadelphia, but later re- moved to a house in Front Street near Walnut, which vhe occupied until 1780. At once began the struggle “for patients. Much of his earliest practice was among the poor who could not pay much, however good their | intentions. While this desire, to aid the poor, was strongly reinforced by his philanthropic spirit, a spirit which pervades much of his conduct throughout his life, it was also prompted by more material considera- tions. He had no wealthy connections; and, if he had had them at first, his espousal of the patriot cause would have severed them before long, for many 0: of the _ men of wealth and property were loyalists. In telling -, the story of these early years, he says: “My shop was crowded with the poor in the morning and at meal- times, and nearly every street and alley in the city was visited by me every day.?9 There are few old huts now standing®° in the ancient parts of the city in which I have not attended sick people. Often have I ascend- ed [to] the upper story of these huts by a ladder and *The population of Philadelphia when Rush began to practice, or in 1770 say, was about 25,000. * About 1805. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 29 many hundred times have I been obliged to rest my weary limbs upon the bedside of the sick, from want of chairs, where I was sure I risqued, not only taking their disease but being infected with vermin. More than once did I suffer from the latter. Nor did I hasten from these abodes of poverty and misery. Where no other help was attainable I have often re- mained in them long enough to administer my own _ prescriptions, particularly bleeding, with my own al hands.” Neither the wealthy nor his brother physicians ’ would aid Dr. Rush in the building up of a worthy © practice. The latter class, indeed, he estranged and offended by publicly and sometimes indiscreetly cham- pioning a system of medicine different from that eu by the older and established physicians of the city.\ The prevailing system of medical principles and prac- tice in America at that time was Dr. Boerhaave’s, so named from its author. Dr. Rush had been taught in Edinburgh according to the system of Dr. Cullen and at first adhered to it in his practice and attempted to spread its tenets among the profession. But his meth- ods were not always of the best. Thus at a dinner, attended by a number of medical students, he offered the toast, “Speedy interment to the system of Dr. | Boerhaave, and may it never rise again,” a speech that — was, of course, promptly reported to the physicians ~ Q 30 BENJAMIN RUSH practicing and teaching that system. The ire of those men was naturally provoked and Dr. Rush’s conduct was condemned. The system of Dr. Cullen, which ; he championed, was misrepresented and ridiculed in ; the newspapers and Dr. Rush’s name connected with iit. As a consequence he says, “I do not recollect in the course of the first seven years’ settlement in Phila- delphia that any one of my brethren ever sent a pa- tient to me, and yet several of them had more appli- tations daily than they were able to attend to.” “Per- haps,” he also says, “my manner of recommending it [i. e. the system of Dr. Cullen] provoked this opposi- tion for I know by experience, as well as observation, that an indiscreet zeal for truth, justice or humanity | has cost more to the persons who have exercised it, ‘than the total want of zeal for anything good or even zeal in false and unjust pursuits.” The opposition, even hatred, aroused by his teaching this new system and by his manner of doing it, as well as the envy of ‘smaller and less successful men, followed him through- out his life, and only about a year before his death he said that of all his offenses that of “teaching a new system of physic” was the worst.3' We will see some effects of this opposition further on; meanwhile we must not over-emphasize it. Dr. Rush’s sympa- thetic heart was very responsive to both praise and = Rush MSS., Vol. 29, p. 138. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 31 blame and it would seem as if he sometimes felt a little too keenly the criticisms, the calumnies even, of his fellow physicians. Some of them, and they very celebrated in the profession, always remained | his friends. To cite only one instance, his first : teacher in medicine, Dr. John Redman, President of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, from its _ foundation in 1786 to his death in 1808 was always his friend and admirer. On January 11, 1776, Doctor Rush was married to Julia, the eldest daughter of that Richard Stockton who joined his new son-in-law in becoming a signer of the great Declaration the following summer. The ceremony was performed at “Morven”, Mr. Stockton’s residence, by the Reverend John Witherspoon, an- other signer and the President of Princeton College. Years afterward the lover and husband wrote, for the benefit of a friend in Scotland, a description of Mrs. Rush. “In January, 1776,” he says, “I married the eldest daughter of your old acquaintance, Mr. Richard Stockton. She was then only sixteen years old. She“! was admired for her beauty, but her temper, prudence, understanding and excellent accomplishments attract- ed and fixed my heart. Figure to yourself a-woman of your own size, brown hair, dark eyes, a complexion 32 BENJAMIN RUSH composed of white and red, a countenance at the same time soft and animated, a voice mild and musical and a pronunciation accompanied with a little lisp and you will then have an idea of the person and manner of my dear Mrs. Rush.” “T am afraid to trust myself upon the subject of her character. The lover will blend itself with the writer. Think only what the friend, companion, wife, _ in the full meaning of each of those words, should be and you will then have a just idea of my happiness.” Doctor Rush used to tell with pride that on the night of his graduation from Princeton he carried his future bride in his arms from the College to her fa- ther’s home. She was then less than two years old. Mrs. Rush outlived her husband by thirty-five years. She died at her little farm “Sydenham”, now Fifteenth Street and Columbia. Avenue, Philadelphia, in her ninetieth year (1848). They sleep together under the trees on the east side of the old Christ Church burying ground. Of the thirteen children born to Doctor and Mrs. Rush only nine arrived at maturity. The eldest, John, became a lieutenant in the United States Navy; Rich- ard was a lawyer, diplomat, Secretary of the Treasury and Attorney-General of the United States, the most distinguished son of a distinguished father; James, EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 33 like the father, was educated in Edinburgh, followed his father’s profession and at his death endowed the Ridgway library, Philadelphia. CHAPTER II. RUSH IN THE REVOLUTION Leaving Dr. Rush’s labors as a pamphleteer and \ writer on political subjects for separate discussion we ' will here recount chiefly his connection with the Revo- lutionary war in official capacities together with some account of his famous dispute with Dr. Shippen and the resulting break with Washington. In his “Memoirs” Rush says that he had become acquainted with the questions then agitating America, | particularly the opposition to the Stamp Act and the \ arguments against that ill-timed measure.’ In his cor- respondence we see that he at once took his stand with the most radical section of Pennsylvania, against taxa-" tion by England.? In the “Memoirs” he tells us that he “turned republican in Edinburgh” ; but in this state- ment his memory plays him false, as we have seen, although it may well be that his opposition to “heredi- tary monarchies” had formed itself by this time. *Rush “Memoirs”, p. 80. 7 Rush MSS., Vol. 39, pp. 1-21, passim. 36 BENJAMIN RUSH On his return from Europe he took an “early but ; i obscure” part in the controversy with Britain. From 1770 to the outbreak of hostilities he wrote several “newspaper essays” and became quickly acquainted ! with the men who were then forming public opinion in Pennsylvania,—John Dickinson, Charles Thomson, afterwards secretary to the Continental Congress and to the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Mifflin, afterwards General, and George Clymer. These and others, less well known, wrote in favor of American liberty “under a variety of signatures by which means an impression of numbers in favor of liberty was made upon the minds of its friends and enemies.”3 The first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia . ct September 5, 1774. Rush, in company with a number of hospitable Philadelphians went to Frankford to meet some of the delegates to the Congress from the New England colonies who were approaching the city on August 29th of that year. In the “Memoirs” Dr. Rush tells us that he “rode back into town in the same carriage with John Adams” and some other gentle- men.+ From Adams’ diary for this period we may gather the import of some of the conversation of that day. “Aug. 29, [1774]. After dinner we stopped at Frankford, 5 miles out of town. A number of gentle- * Rush “Memoirs”, p. 80. “Rush “Memoirs”, p. 80. IN THE REVOLUTION 37 men came out from Philadelphia to meet us. A gentle- man who returned into town with Mr. Paine [Robert Treat] and me in our coach, undertook to caution us against two gentlemen particularly; one was Dr. Smith, the provost of the College, who is looking up to government for an American episcopate and a pair of lawn sleeves. Soft, polite, insinuating, adulating, sensible, learned, industrious, indefatigable; he has had art enough and refinement upon art to make im- pressions even upon Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Reed.”s Dr. Rush reports further that John and Samuel Adams “domesticated themselves’® in his family. Although they cannot have stayed there very long, there is some indication that John Adams, at least, lodged there for a short time, for he says: “Dr. Rush lives on Water Street and has from the window of his back room and chamber a fine view of the Delaware River and of New Jersey beyond it.”” Rush and Adams saw a great deal of each other, and, as they remained firm friends throughout their lives, it is interesting to notice the impression the young doctor made on the statesman. The following extract from Adams’ diary also gives us Rush’s opinion of Dickinson, who was associated with ’ Charles Francis Adams, The Works of John Adams, 1850, Vol. II, pp. 357, 358. *Rush “Memoirs”, p. 80. 7 Adams’ Diary; Works, Vol. II, pp. 357, 358. 38 BENJAMIN RUSH him in the founding of Dickinson College about ten years later. Adams writes: “Oct. 24, Sunday. [1775]. : Dr. Rush came in. He is an elegant, ingenious body, a sprightly pretty fellow. He is arepublican; he has been much in London,® acquainted with Sawbridge, Macaulay, Burgh and others of that stamp. Dilly _sends him books and pamphlets, and Sawbridge and Macaulay correspond with him. He complains of D[ickinson]; says the committee of safety are not the represéntatives of the people, therefore not their legis- lators; yet they have been making laws, a whole code, fora navy. This committee was chosen by the House, but half of them are not members, and therefore not the choice of the people. All this is just. He mentions many particular instances in which Dickinson has blundered; he thinks him warped by Quaker interest and by church interest, too; he thinks his reputation past the meridian and that avarice is growing upon him. Says that Henry and Mifflin both complained to him very much about him. But Rush, I think, is too '’ much of a talker to be a deep thinker; elegant, not ' great.” While the stage was being set for the Revolution- ary drama, Rush remained merely an interested spec- ® Works of John Adams, Vol. II, pp. 427, 428. *Rush was not the man to belittle his own connections and advantages. There is, however, no misstatement of fact. IN THE REVOLUTION 39 tator, although associating intimately with some of the principal actors. But the 19th of April, 1775, braced the whole country for the tragedy that was now seen to be inevitable. “The battle of Lexington gave a new tone to our feelings and I now resolved to bear my share of the duties and burdens of the approaching revolution,” says the patriotic doctor. Accordingly we find Dr. Rush appointed to a professional position in the Pennsylvania navy of which we have just heard. At a meeting, held on July 3, 1775, the Committee of Safety, of which Franklin was president, decided to build a fleet of gunboats to ply on the Delaware for the protection of the city. The fleet took shape as if by magic and by the middle of September there were thirteen small gunboats, constructed at a cost of over £7000, in commission. The Bulldog was constructed in sixteen days; the Experiment almost as quickly. Others bore such patriotic and patriot names as Lib- , erty, Franklin, Dickinson and Hancock. Dr. Benja-;” “min Rush was appointed fleet-surgeon with Dr. Sam- uel Duffield, assistant.*° Dr. Rush accepted his com- mission September 27th and held it until the following July, when, as we shall see, he resigned to accept a more important office.’ In the same year (1775), he * Scharf and Westcott, Vol. I, p. 299. uW.H. Egle in Penna. Mag. of History and Biography, Vol. XI, p. 262. 40 BENJAMIN RUSH was appointed a member of a committee of six to su- perintend a saltpeter factory, established in a building on High (now Market) Street.’ In June, 1776, he was a member of the Provincial _ Conference, which met at Carpenter’s Hall, Philadel- phia, from the eighteenth to the twenty-fifth of that lenanith: On the twenty-third, he moved for a commit- ‘tee to draft an address or declaration on the question _of the independence of the American colonies. James ‘Smith, Thomas McKean and Dr. Rush, Chairman, were, appointed a committee for this purpose. The next day (the twenty-fourth) the committee reported a declaration which was adopted in the Conference and presented to the American Congress the day following. “This Declaration, even in its phraseology, anticipated almost the whole of the Declaration of Independ- ence.”33 x . . E \ . But we are anticipating. Indirectly he had set in motion a force that had momentous consequences and “ Scharf and Westcott, Vol. I, p. 301. “This somewhat too sweeping statement is quoted by J. S. J[ohnson] in “A Criticism of Mr. W. B. Reed’s Asper- sions on the Character of Dr. Benjamin Rush”, Philadelphia, 1867, p. 55. For a complete account of the work of the Con- ference of 1776, see “The Proceedings Relative to the Calling of the Conventions of 1776 and 1790”, etc., Harrisburg, 1825, pp. 35-45. Also noticed in W. H. Egle, Penna. Mag. of His- tory and Biography, Vol. XI, p. 262. IN THE REVOLUTION 41 that prepared the way for the work of the Conference / we have just noticed. He suggested the preparation \ of the most influential political pamphlet of the Revo- Hot one of the most telling political thrusts of al! Paine, the Thetford staymaker. At Paine’s suggestion Rush gave it its name, “Common Sense”. Rush and Paine met through Robert Aitken, a Philadelphia pub- lisher and bookseller and Paine’s employer. They ‘pi This was the pamphlet, written by Thomas found their first point of contact in their mutual oppo- sition to slavery. Rush had written, several years be- “fore, two papers on slavery that had called out their of some of the slaveholders-in-the West Indies, where slavery was then firmly entrenched and very profit- able. Paine, who arrived in America in November, 1774, wrote an anti-slavery article soon afterwards, which was published by Bradford the following year. The article was signed “Justice and Humanity”, and Mr. Paine having been pointed out to Dr. Rush as the author, he stopped to thank him for taking up a cause in which he also was himself so much interested. The two men soon found that they agreed also in their po- ns, | litical views and now for some time saw a good deal of each other, particularly as they were both members of the American Philosophical Society: After Lexington both men came to the conclusion that independence was the only solution to the problems agitating Amer- 42 BENJAMIN RUSH ica, but neither was prepared to face the odium that was likely to go with a public avowal of the belief. oF indeed, had begun the preparation of an address } ‘ 4s to the colonies in which he intended to muster every _argument for immediate independence. But apparent- ly he had not yet quite determined to publish his views when he met Paine and decided that this writer was more eligible for the work. Rush very frankly tells ; us that he informed Paine of his own unwillingness | to incur the risk to which such a publication might ‘ expose him. His profession and connections tied him / to Philadelphia, where a majority of the citizens—and_ some of them, his friends—were hostile to the idea of,. a separation from the mother country. Paine, so Rush’ urged, could live anywhere, and having only recently come to the city, he would, no doubt, feel less sorry to leave it, if it should become necessary. Paine agreed to undertake the work. From time to time he called at the Doctor’s house “and read to me,” says Rush, « “every chapter of the proposed pamphlet as he com- | posed it.” When it was finished, Rush advised him [ to show it to Franklin, David Rittenhouse and Samuel ; Adams, all of whom were in favor of independence. Rush further says: “I mention these facts to refute a’ report that Mr. Paine was assisted in composing his pamphlet by one or more of these gentlemen. They never saw it until it was written and then only by my IN THE REVOLUTION 43 advice. I gave it, at his request, the title of ‘Common Sense’.”?* Dr. Rush also found a printer for the work, since Paine had difficulty in finding a publisher bold enough to undertake it.* After all, Paine, who had now held a congenial position as editor of a magazine for about a year, felt that he had something to lose. Deci- ding to avoid a possible storm, he put it out anony- mously, addressed to the “inhabitants of North Amer- BPD ica”. It was published January 10, 1776, “by Robert Bell in Third Street, price, two shillings.” Of the book itself this is not the place to speak and its reception’ * Rush, “Memoirs”, p. 82 ff. M. C. Tyler has pointed out that Rush’s title had been used on two previous occasions, in 1739 and in 1775 respectively, as the designation of political pamphlets. See Tyler’s Literary History of the American Revolution I, p. 458 n., and Thomas’ History of Printing IT, p. 151, n. *Moncure D. Conway, The Life of Thomas Paine. 2 Vols. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1909. Vol. I, p. 68. Of Conway’s “Thomas Paine”, Moses Coit Tyler says, it is “a book not exactly belonging to disinterested biography, and yet by far the most valuable contribution thus far made to our material for a true understanding of Paine’s career.” In my account of the whole matter, I have followed Dr. Rush’s “Memoirs”, which Mr. Conway apparently had not seen. For, if he had, he could not have said, that Rush “probably” saw “Common Sense” before it was published. Mr. Conway, however, shows that Franklin most probably did not con- tribute anything to the book. It is to be noted also that Rush makes no claim to authorship in connection with the work, , sgt , 44 BENJAMIN RUSH and results are familiar to all readers of American his- tory. In the summer of 1776, Pennsylvania elected a new \ delegation to represent her in the Continental Con- gress, and Dr. Benjamin Rush, who was one of the nine men designated, took his seat on the twentieth day of July about two weeks after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. His career of seven months in the Congress, so far as it has been reported, was not especially noteworthy. And indeed the power and importance of Congress itself declined rapidly after the supreme effort—the adoption of the Declara- , tion—was over. However, from the number of com- | mittees on which he served, it is apparent that he bore : be full share of the “duties and burdens” of the body, while he was a member. On August 6th he was added to the Committee appointed earlier to inquire into and remedy the defects of the powder made at the mills.7® The next day he was similarly added to the “medical” committee. On September twenty-fourth he was ap- pointed chairman of a committee of five “to devise ways and means for effectually providing the northern army with provisions and medicines and supplying * Journals of Congress. There are many editions of the “Journals” of Congress; but the statements cited on this and following pages may easily be found by means of the dates, which are given. In 1904 the Library of Congress began printing a definitive edition under the direction of W. C. Ford. IN THE REVOLUTION 45 ey their other. necessary wants.” On October eighth he. was added to a committee on the state of the prisoners of war. Nine days later he was made chairman of a “committee of intelligence to select and report such authentic accounts of the state of the army and navy as should be published by Congress.” This list, while ; not complete, is sufficient to show the nature of the tasks that fell to his lot as a delegate in the Revolu- tion.1” In the Secret Journals of Congress under date of July 19, 1776, we find that it was that day, “Resolved that the declaration, passed on the 4th, be fairly en- grossed on parchment, with the title and style of “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America’ and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by every member.” On August 2, “the Declara- tion of Independence: being engrossed, and compared at the table, was signed by the members.”"* Benjamin, Rush’s name, standing between those of Franklin and Robert Morris, was thus placed on the roll of honor the list of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence. We have already seen that he had not been a member of the Congress when the Declaration was adopted. He was, therefore, one of the seven so-called All these details are copied from the Journals of Con- gress for 1776. % Secret Journals of Congress. 46 BENJAMIN RUSH “~Yafter-signers—Ross, Taylor, Smith, Clymer, Williams, Thornton and Rush. Although it was thus only by sheer good fortune that Rush became a Signer we should not question his right to the distinction, for he was one of the first patriots to see the wisdom of inde- pendence, and he labored constantly, if not always ~boldly; to prepare the country for the necessary step. While Rush was a member of the Congress, that body had under consideration the Articles of Confed- eration. We catch a glimpse of his true mettle in his best moments in a speech epitomised for us by John Adams. One of the questions on which there was serious difference of opinion concerned the method of voting in Congress that should be incorporated into the Articles. Some delegates, usually those from the smaller states, contended that voting should be by states; others, chiefly those from the larger states, held that the number of votes should be proportional to the number of inhabitants. Franklin particularly pointed out that the states who furnished the larger number of men and the greater amount of money should be given the greater voice in the direction of “> them. On this question Rush supported Franklin’s argument in a speech delivered on August Ist. He said, “We are now a new nation. The more a man aims at serving America, the more he will serve his colony. I would not have it understood that I am IN THE REVOLUTION 47 pleading the cause of Pennsylvania; when I entered - that door I considered myself a citizen of America.” Although the sentiment was not unique, it expresses perfectly the high-minded patriotism that dominated and permeated Dr. Rush’s entire career. He was a member of the Continental Congress for one term only. He, therefore, vacated his seat Feb 17, 1777, when the Pennsylvania Assembly returned a new dele- gation of representatives.2? Several reasons were as- signed for his failure to be returned for a second term. It has been said that it was due to the sudden ascend- ancy of the “Old-side” Presbyterians in the politics of Pennsylvania, and also that it was caused by the ene- mies he had made through his strenuous opposition to the state constitution of 1776, which provided for a unicameral legislative body. The latter is his own ex- planation. He opposed that constitution—as did John Dickinson—on the ground that it failed to supply an effective system of those checks and balances so popu- John Adams, Works, Vol. II, p. 428. Adams quotes a sim- ilar speech by Patrick Henry in the first Continental Con- gress in 1774: “Where are your landmarks, your boundaries of colonies? . . . I am not a Virginian, but an American.” Works, Vol. II, pp. 366, 367. * Diary of James Allen, Pa. Mag. of History and Biog- raphy, Vol. 9, p. 278. The Journals of Congress note the presentation of the credentials of the new delegation as hav- ing occurred March 12. But as Rush’s name does not occur after February 17 that date is probably correct. 48 BENJAMIN RUSH lar with the Revolutionary fathers. He wrote four j, Letters on the Defects of the Pennsylvania Consti- ‘tution,” and his reasoning was amply justified by the ’ events of the next few years. The Pennsylvania con- stitution of 1776 with its Censors, its Executive Coun- cil, whose president held the highest executive posi- _ tion, and its single legislative body, lasted until 1790, ‘when Rush had the satisfaction of helping to frame a better one. (See page 72.) In a few months after leaving Congress he again ~accepted office, but this time his duties were of a pro- fessional nature. He was with the main army and exhibited his usual splendid efficiency in the brilliant campaign that resulted in the victories of Trenton _and Princeton. In April, 1777, he was appointed Surgeon-General of the armies of the Middle Depart- ment, but in July his title was changed to Physician- General of the military hospitals of the same district. He continued in the service afterwards, until the 30th of January, 1778, when he resigned. "The reasons for his resignation will uncover an un- happy passage in Dr. Rush’s life. As Physician-Gen- eral he was under the command of Dr. Shippen, the Director-General. He soon became convinced—wheth- er rightly or wrongly—that his immediate superior not only neglected his duties, but was also dishonest to the point of appropriating to his private use supplies IN THE REVOLUTION 49 that had been furnished for the relief of the wounded. ' soldiers. He notified General Washington of the un- sanitary condition of the hospitals and, in two a arate letters, accused Dr. Shippen of mal-practices. } Washington referred these letters to Congress, then’ at Yorktown. Dr. Rush repaired thither and appeared before the committee appointed to hear his testimony : Dr. Shippen, however, was acquitted, and Dr. Rush v resigned in disgust. The following year Dr. Morgan renewed the charges and had Dr. Shippen brought before a court-martial. But he was acquitted by a single vote.?! : Whatever were the actual merits in the case, it is of interest to know how the whole situation appealed to Dr. Rush. The following quotation from one of his letters gives us this knowledge.” “In April or May, "The story of the court-martial is a long one and the charges and counter charges, the progress of the trial, the verdict and the comment of the public thereon may be read in the press of the period. There was friction between Dr. Morgan and Dr. Shippen dating from the time when the former secured his appointment to the first medical chair established in America (at the College of Philadelphia), May 3, 1765. Dr. Shippen had given private medical lectures since 1762 and had suggested the establishment of a medical school about the same time. Dr. Rush was a personal and profes- sional friend of Dr. Morgan. Rush to John Adams, Feb. 12, 1812. Rush MSS., Vol. 29, p. 136. Although this letter was written only about a 50 BENJAMIN RUSH © 1777, I accepted,” says Dr. Rush, “of the appointment of physician-general of the military hospitals of the United States under the direction of Dr. Shippen. Here I saw scenes of distress touching [?word illeg- ncaa tars ible] to humanity, and disgraceful to a civilized coun- imieacr| try. Ican never forget them. I still see the sons of our | yeomanry brought up in the lap of plenty and do- mestic comforts, shivering with cold upon the bare floors without a blanket to cover them, calling for fire, for water, for suitable food, for medicines, and calling in vain. I hear the complaints they utter against their country,—I hear the sighs for their fathers’ firesides,— I hear their groans,—I see them expire—while hun- dreds of the flower of our youth were dying under such) accumulated sufferings Dr. Shippen was feasting with the general officers at the camp, or bargaining -with tavern-keepers in Jersey or Pennsylvania for the sale of Madeira wine from our hospital stores, bought for the use of the sick. Nor was this all. No officer was ever sent to command or preserve discipline in our hospital (a practice universal in European armies) in consequence of which our soldiers sold their blankets, muskets and even clothing for the necessaries of life year before the death of its author, that is about 35 years after the facts it narrates, it was carefully done, several drafts being made of which this is the final one, and there is some evidence that it was written from earlier documents at least in part. nee, i i IN THE REVOLUTION 51 ») OF for ardent spirits. In this situation of our hospital - I addressed two letters to General Washington—the one complaining of the above abuses and pointing out | _ their remedies—the other complaining of Dr. Shippen for mal-practices..... On my way to Yorktown, _ where Congress then sat, I passed through the army at Valley Forge where I saw similar marks of filth, waste (of property and want of discipline which I had recent- fi ly witnessed in the hospitals. General Sullivan (at whose quarters I breakfasted) said to me, ‘Sir, this is not an army; it is a mob.’ Here a new source of dis- tress was awakened in my mind. I now felt for the safety and independence of my country as well as for . the sufferings of the sick under my care.” In this let- ter we see writ large those feelings and lively sensibili- ties which always did honor to Dr. Rush’s heart, and that fervor of patriotism which made him pledge his life and fortune and sacred honor to his country. And — we see also his wonted impulsiveness, his anxiety for — quick results, his intense craving for a success not at that time immediately attainable. As a civilian. he could not see all the military difficulties that con- fronted the army, nor its financial difficulties which were, after all, the prime cause of all its miseries. In this ‘dark. winter of discontent’, while at York- town, associating with his acquaintances in Congress, many of them discouraged by the gloomy situation of 52 BENJAMIN RUSH / \ our affairs, he wrote a letter to his friend Patrick = impeaching the military skill of the comman- jferin-chief. The letter was written early in 1778 after “the success of Gates and after the defeats of Brandy- ine and Germantown. It contained the following assage: “The Northern Army has shown us what | Americans are capable of doing with a General at their head. The spirit of the Southern Army is no ways in- ferior to the spirit of the Northern. A Gates, a Lee, or a Conway, would in a few weeks render them an irresistible body of men. The last of the above officers has accepted the new office of Inspector-General of our army, in order to reform abuses; but the remedy is only a palliative one. In one of his letters to a friend he says, ‘A great and good God hath decreed | America to be free, or the General and weak counsel- lors would have ruined her long ago.’” This letter,- by Rush, although stating that it was from one of “Your Philadelphia friends” was sent without any sig- nature. Henry sent the letter to the commander-in- chief and on its receipt Washington replied, “The anonymous letter with which you were pleased to fa- vor me, was written by Dr. Rush, so far as I can judge from a similitude of hands. This man has been elabo- rate and studied in his professions of regard for me; and that long since his letter to you.” A great deal has been written about this corre- IN THE REVOLUTION 53 spondence, and it seems as if Dr. Rush had not always been accorded fair treatment with regard to the prob- © able motives underlying the writing of his letter. Many of the historians of the Revolution refer to the matter in a tone of contempt.?3 Some of them neglect to correct the impression made by that reference by any notice of the important services which Dr. Rush performed for his generation. And some of them even accuse -him of direct connection with the Conway Cabal.24 There is no evidence to prove this charge. * Hildreth, A History, etc., III, p. 135; Bancroft V, pp. 214, 215; Hamilton, A History of the Republic, I, pp. 393-395; Trevelyan, The American Revolution, Part III, p. 90 and p. 317. ™“W. W. Henry (Patrick Henry, Life, etc., Vol. I, p. 544) says that Rush was an “accomplice” of Gates. George Mor- gan (The True Patrick Henry, p. 290) says that Rush and some others whom he names “are thought to have been active in the [Conway] Cabal.” But the bitterest attack upon Dr. Rush’s character was that made by W. B. Reed in two pamphlets: President Reed of Pennsylvania. A Reply to Mr. George Bancroft and Others (see especially p. 122) and A Rejoinder to Mr. Ban- croft’s Historical Essay on President Reed. Both were pub- lished in Philadelphia, 1867. Rush was defended by J. G. J{ohnson] in A_ Criti- cism of Mr. W. B. Reed’s Aspersions on the Char- acter of Dr. Benjamin Rush, etc., by a Member of the Phila- delphia Bar. Philadelphia, 1867; and by George Bancroft in Joseph Reed, A Historical Essay. New York, 1867. There were also other publications in this “War of the Grand- fathers”, some of them very scurrilous and very extravagant. 54 BENJAMIN RUSH Dr. Rush, in his own defense, has categorically denied all knowledge of the conspiracy. His admiration for Gates at this period has to be admitted but this was shared by a multitude until that General proved his incompetence in the battle at Camden. Anonymous communications usually and properly arouse suspicion; and the letter to Henry was, no doubt, both unwise and disingenuous. But it is only simple justice to publish the defense that Dr. Rush himself wrote. The reader may draw his own conclu- sions from the following letters. Copy of a Letter to John Adams:?5 Philadelphia, February 12, 1812. My dear Sir: ay ty I forgot in the enumeration of the hatreds with which I have contended, to mention not only the “odium nigrotyrannum”*6 but the “odium Washing- tonium.” It was of a violent and of a chronic nature. IT will give you a history of its cause in as few words as possible. For its not being perpetuated in the his- tory of his life, I am indebted to the goodness of his nephew, Judge Washington. In the year 1774 I published the note from Mr. Davies’ sermon in which he destined Major Washing- * Rush MSS., Vol. 29, p. 136, * Refers to the opposition aroused by his anti-slavery papers. IN THE REVOLUTION 55 ton at a future day to perform some great services to his country. During the sessions of Congress in the year 1774 in Philadelphia I met Colonel Washington at the cof- fee house at the time he was generally spoken of as Commander in Chief of the American Army, and in- formed him that his appointment would give universal satisfaction to the citizens of Pennsylvania and hoped he would not decline it. I had reason to believe that he considered this opinion as an expression of attach-. ment to his military character never to be cancelled, and that a subsequent change of that opinion was an evidence of insincerity. The sequel of this letter will show that I was not singular in this respect. In the summer of 1776, or thereabouts I dined in a select company with General, then Colonel Stevens, on his way from Virginia to the Camp. I sat next to him. He asked me who constituted General Wash- ington’s military family. I said “two of them were: Colonel Jos. Reed and Major Thomas Mifflin.” ‘Are they men of talents?” said he. “Yes,” said I. “I am glad to hear it (said the Colonel) for General Wash- ington will require such men about him. He is a weak man. I know him well. I served with him in the last French war in America.” After the defeats and retreats of our army in 1776 I 3 , 56 BENJAMIN RUSH went out as a Volunteer physician to General Cad- wallider’s [sic] corps of Philadelphia militia. During this excursion I rode with Col. J. Reed from Bristol to the camp on the Delaware nearly opposite Trenton. On our way he mentioned many instances of General Washington’s want of military skill, and ascribed most of the calamities of the campaign to it. He concluded by saying he “was only fit to command a regiment.” General Gates informed me in March, 1777, that Pat- rick Henry had said the same thing of him when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief. A little later than this time General Mifflin told me that “he was totally unfit for his situation, that he was fit only to be the head clerk of a London Compting house,” and as a proof of his assertion mentioned the time he wasted with his pen and particularly noticed his having once transcribed a letter to Congress of three sheets of paper only because there was [sic] two or three erasures on the original. The brilliant affair at Trenton in January, 1777, dissipated all the impressions which these opinions and anecdotes of General Washington had excited in my mind. In April or May, 1777, I accepted of the appoint- “ment of physician-general of the military hospitals of the United States under the direction of Dr. Shippen. IN THE REVOLUTION 57 Here I saw scenes of distress touching to humanity, and disgraceful to a civilized country. I can never forget them. I still see the sons of our yoemanry brought up in the lap of plenty and domestic comforts, shivering with cold upon the bare floors without a blanket to cover them, calling for fire, for water, for suitable food, for medicines and calling in vain. I hear the complaints they utter against their country,— I hear their sighs for their fathers’ firesides,—I hear . their groans,—I see them expire,—while hundreds of the flower of our youth were dying under such accu- mulated sufferings, Dr. Shippen was feasting with the general officers at the camp, or bargaining with tavern keepers in Jersey and Pennsylvania for the sale of Madeira wine from our hospital stores, bought for the use of the sick. Nor was this all. No officer was ever sent to command or preserve discipline in our hospital (a practice universal in European armies) in conse- quence of which our soldiers sold their blankets, mus- kets, and even clothing for the necessaries of life or for ardent spirits. In this situation of our hospital I addressed two letters to General Washington, the one complaining of the above abuses and pointing out their remedies,—the other complaining of Dr. Shippen for mal-practices. I expected that a court would be ordered to inquire into Dr. Shippen’s conduct in con- sequence of my second letter. In this I was disap- 58 BENJAMIN RUSH pointed. Both my letters were sent to Congress, and a committee eas to hear my complaints against the Director-General. /On my way to Yorktown where the Congréss then sat, I passed through the Army at Valley Forge where I saw similar marks of filth, waste of public property and want of discipline which I had recently witnessed in the hospitals. General Sullivan (at whose quarters I breakfasted) said to me, “Sir, this is not an army, it is a mob.” Here a new source - of distress was awakened in my mind. I now felt for- the safety and independence of my country as well as for the sufferings of the sick under my care. In York- town I found alarm and discontent among many mem- bers of Congress. While there I wrote a short account of the state of our hospitals and army to Patrick ' Henry and concluded my letter by quoting a speech of General Conway’s, unfriendly to the talents of the Commander-in-Chief. This letter Patrick Henry transmitted to General Washington and hence the cause and only cause of his hostility to me. Dr. Shippen was acquitted by the Committee of Congress of which Dr. Wetherspoon [sic] was chair- man. The Dr. had witnessed the sufferings of the sick soldiers at Princeton, but he was, notwithstanding, the friend of Dr. Shippen upon this occasion. Disgusted, with the issue of this business, I resigned my com- " mission, and retired to private life. . IN THE REVOLUTION i 59 In the year 1779 Dr. Morgan dragged Dr. Shippen before a court-martial at Morristown where I was summoned as a witness. During the trial several members of the court-martial were changed,—a thing I believe never done in such courts, nor in juries ex- cept in cases of sickness or death. The Doctor was acquitted, but without honor, and by a majority of a single vote. Soon after this cold and bare acquittal he resigned. Gen. Washington gave him a certificate approving of his conduct while Director-General of the hospitals, and saying that the distresses of the sick arose from a state of things inseparable from the new and peculiar situation of our country. The change which took place in the army by the appointment of Baron Steuben, Inspector General, Mr. Morris, Financier, and Colonel Hamilton, a member of General Washington’s family, restored him to the uni- versal confidence of his country. You may easily con- ceive the nature of this change when I add that Baron Steuben said the cloaths [sic], destroyed by our army, would cloathe the largest army in Europe (previously to his appointment) and of course that an immense saving of money and health and lives was the conse- quence of the economy he introduced into the army in that article alone; also, that Mr. Morris informed me that the expenses of the hospital department alone after he took charge of the finances were reduced 60 BENJAMIN RUSH from five million to one million of dollars in one year, estimating the value of paper money in gold and silver coin in both years. ‘ Feeling no unkindness to General Washington dur- ing the years of the war after 1777, and after its close, I joined in all the marks of gratitude and respect showed to him from time to time by the citizens of ‘Philadelphia. I first pointed him out as the future President of the United States in all our newspapers while the Convention was sitting which formed the new Constitution, in the same publication in which I mentioned your name as Vice-President. These acts were the effects of a belief that the councils of Steuben, Green[e] and Hamilton aided by his own experience — © had qualified him for his station. I rejoiced in cherish- ing this belief, for I had no doubt of his always acting honestly and faithfully for the benefit of our country. I entertained him while he presided in the Convention and treated him whenever I met him with uniform respect while he was President of the United States. From the statement I have given you, I hope you are convinced that the epithet he applied to me as far [as] it related to my conduct to him, was not merited. He cherished in his family and honoured with his con- fidence several persons who treated his character with a disrespect very different from that which was con- veyed by my quoting a speech of General Conway’s IN THE REVOLUTION 61 concerning him.** Your son-in-law, Colonel Smith, informed me that he had heard one of his Secretaries call him “a d d fool”. I have heard an officer who often did business at headquarters, say “he was a greater imposter than Mahomet.’ A gentleman of high rank who traveled thro’ the United States soon after the conclusion of the war, informed me that he had heard General Hamilton say “that he had no heart, that he was a stone, that he was no general and that he had never read anything upon the art of war except Sims’ Military Guide.” I have heard Major Edwards say that he has heard General Green[e] (to whom the Major was aid-de-camp) say “that the world was deceived in his character—that’” but eno’, eno’ of this hateful subject. Help me to blot the knowledge and recollection of such speeches from my memory. The Venerable Charles Thomson, now 81 years of age, now and then visits me. I once suggested to him to write “secret memoirs of the Revolution”. “No, no,” said he, “I will not. I could not tell the truth without giving great offense. Let the world admire our patriots and heroes. Their supposed talents and virtues by commanding imitation will serve the cause of patriotism and of our country.” I concur in this sentiment and therefore I earnestly request that you 7Tn the anonymous letter to Henry. See p. 52. 62 BENJAMIN RUSH 1 would destroy this letter as soon as you have read it. I do not even wish to make it known that General Washington was deficient in that mark of true great- ness that characterized Caesar, Henry the Eighth and Frederick the Second, the ability to forgive. I thank God my destiny in the world of spirits to © which I am hastening is not to be determined by slave- holders, old tories, Latin and Greek schoolmasters, Judges who defend capital punishment, Philadelphia physicians, persecuting clergymen nor yet by General Washington. All of whom I have offended only by attempting to lessen the misery and ignorance of my fellow men. When Calvin heard that Luther had called him “a child of the devil”, he coolly replied, “Luther is the servant of the most high God.” In answer to the epi- thet which General Washington has applied to me, I will as coolly reply: “He was the highly favoured instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to the establishment of the independence of the United States. Copies of four Letters to Bushrod Washington, nephew to General Washington. Philadelphia, August 29th, 1804. Dear Sir: y I have this day learned that a letter from me to IN THE REVOLUTION 63 Governor Henry of Virginia which was sent by him to General Washington with the General’s answer to it are to be printed in the history of his life. It is foreign to my wishes to hint at the state of the public mind towards General Washington towards the close of the year 1777, and which events subsequent to that year altered in his favor. I shall mention one passage only in his letter (dated March 27, 1778) to Mr. Henry in which there is an evident mistake. “This man” (al- luding to me) “has been elaborate, and studious in his professions of regard for me, and that long since his letter to you.” The letter written to Mr. Henry by Rush was dated on the 12th of January, 1778. I re- signed my charge of the military hospitals on the 30th of the same month. All official intercourse ceased from that day between General Washington and me. I retired to private life remote from the army imme- diately afterwards nor did I see General Washington until fourteen months after the date of my letter to Mr. Henry, and then first at Morristown in New Jer- sey. In the month of December, 1777, I addressed two letters to the General as Commander in Chief of the , Army, dated from Princeton. The first stating the | errors, abuses and distresses which prevailed in the | military hospitals, the second, containing complaints of the administration of the hospitals by the Director 64 BENJAMIN RUSH General. Both of these letters were written in the customary stile of respect to persons in high stations, but though written before the 12th of January, 1778, contained no expressions that could convey the ideas before mentioned in the General’s letter to Mr. Henry. An attested copy of the first of the letters shall be sent to you if required—the second is mislaid. The origi- nals of both were sent by the General to Congress & I suppose are still on their files. The mistake on the part of General Washington in the reference to the time in which those letters were received & of their contents is a natural one, especially by a person daily occupied in receiving and writing letters. After this statement of facts I submit it to your judgment whether it would not be proper not to pub- lish the letters alluded to or to erase the passage ob- jected to in General Washington’s letter to Gov. Hen- ry as well as the inference he has drawn from it. It will give me great pleasure to hear from you soon on this subject. From, dear sir, with great respect Your most obed’t servant Benj’n Rush IN THE REVOLUTION 65 Bushrod Washington, Esq. Philada. Sept. 13th, 1804. Dear Sir: I am much obliged by your polite and friendly let- ter which I have just now received. I answer it thus promptly, to request the favor of you immediately to write to Mr. Wayne to suppress the letter alluded to, to Govr Henry, or at least the two paragraphs in it in which I am accused of having acted an insincere and inconsistent part towards the General. I mentioned the reasons formerly, why it cannot be correct. To vindicate myself from the reflections thrown upon me by Gen’l Washington would compel me to do great violence to my present feelings to his name and character. It would compel me further to men- tion several private military anecdotes communicated to me by persons of great respectability who were never suspected of being unfriendly to him. One of those persons Govr Henry; two others of them were members of his family in the years 1776 & 1777.8 It has been my constant wish and intention that those anecdotes should descend to the grave with me.7? Part * This military gossip is found in Rush’s letter to Adams, p. 54 and ff. ®Tn order that this might be qui e convincing Rush should have destroyed the memorand:. of these anecdotes. He did destroy some. See introduction to the bibliography in the present work. 66 BENJAMIN RUSH of the gentlemen who mentioned them, died in habits of respect for the General. The survivors venerate his memory. . In suppressing the letter, or passages alluded to, you will prevent a great deal of pain to a large family of children, some of whom are now reading with great pleasure, the history of the General’s life. _ By writing immediately to Mr. Wayne and also to Mr. Sam Bradford to whose friendship I am indebted for the knowledge of the above letter, you will much oblige, Dear Sir, Your sincere friend and most obedient servant B. Rush. Bushrod Washington, Esq. . Philada Sept. 21, 1804. Dear Sir: You have indeed misapprehended me in supposing I intended publicly to defend myself against the charges contained in General Washington’s letter to Governor Henry. Far, far from it. I had determined to submit to them in silence. To my family and friends only I had intended to justify myself. Now this would have been painful for in doing so I should not only have done violence to my present feelings but to the habit- ual respect I have niformly done to his illustrious character. Of this there are some proofs on record in our public papers during the last political acts of my IN THE REVOLUTION 67 life in the years of the formation of the new Constitu- tion and of the General’s election to the chair of the U. States. I neglected to mention formerly that my first inter- view with the General in Morris County after the date of my letter to Mr. Henry took place in consequence of an unexpected card to dine with him before I had waited upon him. This generous act induced me to believe he had dismissed the remembrance of my let- ter from his mind, and led me constantly to pay my respects to him every time he came to Philada. after- wards. I was confirmed still more in that belief by the honor of an afternoon’s visit to my family during the time he presided in the national convention. Of how few events, public men or even friends do we think alike in different periods of our lives! For your kindness in this business, accept my sin- cere thanks. To a man disgusted, as I have long been, with public pursuits and anxious for retirement, and wishing to pass the small remnant of my days unno- ticed by the world, the favor will be remembered with the most grateful emotions. From Dr Sir Your sincere and obliged friend Benjn Rush. 68 BENJAMIN RUSH Bushrod Washington. Dear Sir: I beg your pardon for being so troublesome to you with my letters. My son called at Mr. Wayne’s immediately after my receiving your last letter, but did not see him till the next day. He told me the letter you kindly con- sented to suppress had been struck off in its original state. Upon being told by my son, that I would chear- fully [sic] defray the expenses of reprinting the sheet that contained it, he said he would wait till you came to Philada in order to be supplied with some matter to occupy the blank made by the abstraction of the letter. As this may not be practicable and as the journey to Philada may be delayed, I take the liberty of suggest- ing to you that the erasure of the two sentences for- merly mentioned that reflect upon me will be satis- factory. I wish it to be done so as not to leave a sus- picion of a chasm in the letter in the public mind. As the erasures will not make more than 10 or 12 lines, the new sheet may be so composed, as that those erasures will not be perceived. I have only to request one more favor & that is that your instructions to Mr. Wayne be of a positive nature. Did you know the distress which this business has given to me and to those branches of my family who IN THE REVOLUTION 69 are acquainted with it, you would excuse the solici- tude I have discovered to leave nothing to accident in it. With great respect I am Dr Sir Your sincere and obliged friend Philada Septem 24, 1804 Benj’n Rush. Bushrod Washington P. S. I will thank you to accompany your letter to Mr. Wayne by a letter to my son Richd Rush, Attor- ney-at-law, Philada. informing him of your instruc- tions to Mr. Wayne. When I have the pleasure of seeing you in Philada I will give you my reasons for this request. Dr. Rush was successful in having the objection- able passage expunged but Chief Justice Marshall very properly insisted that “the chasm” must be marked in the regular way by asterisks. * * * * * Dr. Rush, as we have seen, resigned from the army in 1778 and retired to Philadelphia where he took up his practice and his medical instruction. The re- mainder of the story of his political activities may be told in a few words. When the Federal Constitution was submitted for | ratification to the several states, the contest in Penn- 1 70 BENJAMIN RUSH sylvania was bitter, although the outcome was per- haps never much in doubt. The instability of politics in the State seems to have made for acrimony. The state of public feeling may be partly understood from an in- cident in the General Assembly which was to issue the call for the election of delegates to the ratifying Con- vention. Nineteen members of the Assembly deliber- ately absented themselves. After several adjourn- ments and after they refused to honor the requests of the House expressed through its Sergeant-at-arms, some “unknown citizens” forcibly brought back one of the absconding members and so restored a quorum. Then the motions for a Convention were adopted. Dr. Rush, being elected a delegate, strongly fa- ne vored the new Constitution and labored for its rati- fication both in the Convention and out of doors. The leader of the Convention was James Wilson. But there were a number of others who had then, or who later attained a national: reputation. Among these were Anthony Wayne, Thomas McKean and Timothy Pickering. The proceedings in the Convention were not fully reported and we have no complete speech by Dr. Rush. But we know that he spoke at length, at least, four or five times and probably oftener. He argued in “his a elegant and pathetic style” that the new Constitution would put an end to the calamities of the United IN THE REVOLUTION 71 States, particularly those financial and economic dis- tresses caused by the frequent issues of paper money. He did not see any need for a Bill of Rights because he based his faith in the new government on the equal- ity of representation and on the system of checks as embodied in the Constitution. On the last day of the Convention and just before the question was put he made a long metaphysical argument on the “divine right” of the officers under this instrument formed by the people for their self-government. He finished with an impassioned plea for an unanimous adoption. The vote was forty-six in favor and twenty-three against ratification. He also contributed to the newspaper discussions of the day. Here he was charged with using his earlier device of changing his nom-de-plume with each article, “thus giving an appearance of num- bers.”’3° Very few of these articles can be traced. But the writer who signed himself “Centinel” (probably George Bryan, as Dr. Rush believed) frequently ad- * Centinel was a past master of the craft among the epithet-flinging pamphleteers of that day. He wrote that “Doctor Puff, the paragraphist [as he called Dr. Rush], has scarcely slept since his appointment, having received orders to work double tides; beneath his creative pen thousands of correspondents rise into view, who all harmonize in their sentiments and information about the new constitution.” Elsewhere he speaks of “Galen and such minions”. James Wilson he calls “James the Caledonian who can to appear- ance destroy all distinction between liberty and despotism 72 BENJAMIN RUSH dressed himself to “Galen”, thus showing Dr. Rush’s activity. The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 provided for a uni-cameral legislative body and had other defects that Dr. Rush tried to have removed.3! In this he was not successful until the winter of 1789-90 when a new _ Constitution was adopted. With this event his polit- ical activities and direct political interests ceased. He entered in his diary: “Sept. 15, 1789. This day a recommendation passed the Assembly to call a Convention to alter the Consti- tution of Pennsylvania. The motion for this measure originated last spring in my house on an evening which James Wilson, Gerardus Wynkoop, Thomas Fitz- simmons and William Maclay spent with me.” Thus, as he was fond of saying, his parlor was the _“Bingham’s Porch” of the new Constitution? Dr. ‘Rush henceforth turned his attention strictly and al- most exclusively toward his profession. who so suitable or deserving of the office of Chief Justice of the United States. Here he would be both judge and jury”, and so forth. Robert Morris is “Robert the Cofferer” The “Centinel” letters have been collected by McMaster and Stone: “Pennsylvania and the Federal Consti- tution.” The Pa. Hist. Soc.. has files of the Independent Gazeteer in which they originally appeared. ™ See bibliography. % See Note 1, Chap. IV. CHAPTER III. RUSH AS A PROFESSOR AND PRACTI- TIONER OF MEDICINE We have already seen under what circumstances Dr. Rush became Professor of Chemistry in the Med- | ical Department of the College of Philadelphia, in 1769.1 That institution was closed through “war’s alarms” on June 30, 1777, but the medical lectures had been discontinued as early as 1773 or 1774./ This was due to the unsettled state of the times and perhaps also to the employment by the army, in various pro- fessional capacities, of several of the leading profess- ors.. ' Meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Col- lege became infrequent towards the close of 1776 and were omitted altogether from June 25, 1777, to Sep- tember 25, 1778. During most of this period the city was in the hands of the British. But the College build- ings had been used as barracks as early as midsummer, 1776, and a formal protest by the Faculty to the Coun- cil of Safety in January, 1777, went unheeded. *See p. 24 and ff. 74 BENJAMIN RUSH The British army evacuated Philadelphia in June, 1778, and at the close of the year Provost Smith re- turned to the city after an absence of a year and a half. The schools were again organized and were reopened in January, 1779. There were at this time about sixty medical students. } Dr. Rush, who had resigned his position in the army about a year before, resumed his lectures. J The party now in power (1779) in Pennsylvania made an attack on the charter of the College. They argued that the Trustees had failed to reconstruct the institution in accordance with the republican princi- ples underlying the new government, that the institu- tion had become sectarian, that the funds were inade- quate, and that the Trustees had failed to take the Test Oath or had even joined the enemy, as was, indeed, the case with some. Dr. Smith had foreseen the gathering storm and had even secured the insertion in the Con- stitution of the State in 1776 of a clause guaranteeing the inviolability of chartered rights. But as Bishop White pointed out? “the event showed of what little effect are provisions put on paper when they interfere with the views of a dominant party in politics.” The * For the passage here quoted from Bishop White and for an account of the loss of the Charter see G. B. Wood, M. D,, Early History of the University of Pennsylvania, 3rd edi- tion, 1896; Chap. VI. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER — 75 | aged Provost and the Trustees could not stem the tide. The opposition—whose animus was political without a doubt—carried the day and the Assembly dissolved the Board of Trustees and the Faculty on November 27, 1779. On the ruins they erected the new Univer- sity of the State of Pennsylvania.“ uM The Committee of the new Board of Trustees to, which was assigned the task of reorganizing the Fac- ( ulty found itself beset with difficulties. All the med- ical professors, except Dr. Shippen, declined re-elec- tion. Several other men to whom chairs were offered refused to serve. Dr. Rush, it seems, couched his re- fusal in terms that offended somé~members of the Board and when he later applied for re-instatement, the application was almost unanimously rejected.* He was now out of a professorship, de facto, at least, until the repeal of the law of 1779 on March 6, 1789. Those * This is the account of Dr. Rush’s loss of the professor- ship by an enemy, George Bryan, in a letter of Dec. 9, 1782. Copy in Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 93. Bryan says, “He [Rush] was a professor in the College and might have been so in the University. He was elected by the Trustees by as good a majority as Dr. Ewing but he insulted the Trustees in his manner of declining. When his friends afterward proposed him hg had but one vote. The station is now full but the per- son has not yet absolutely accepted.” Ruschenberger says (p. 8 ff), “In the autumn of 1783, however, those who had been professors in the College of Philadelphia accepted ap- pointments from the University of the State of Pennsyl- vania.” 76 BENJAMIN RUSH who say he was connected with the Medical School from 1769 until his death, a period of forty-four years, can only mean that he held such a connection de jure.* He did not actually lecture during the Revolutionary period except for a few months in the spring of 1779. ‘The College of Philadelphia was re-instated into its possessions—charter rights, buildings and funds— on March 6, 1789, as just noted.> On March 9, three days later, the surviving members of the old Board who were in Philadelphia, met at the house of Dr. Franklin and continued to meet there until his failing health rendered him incapable of attending to public business. Of the Medical School, Drs. Shippen, Kuhn and Rush were living and accepted their old positions. Dr. Morgan also was alive but was not in Pennsyl- vania and died later in that year. Dr. Rush was short- ly appointed to the position that had thus become va- cant, the Professorship of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, the earliest medical chair in America.® In 1791 the College of Philadelphia and the Uni- *Ramsay makes the statement that “Dr. Rush has been a public teacher of medicine for forty-four years’. An Eulo- gium, etc., p. 19. * See Pennsylvania Packet for Mar. 7, 1789. ‘In his Memoirs, Dr. Rush has given an interesting pic- ture of the strain and labor involved in preparing at short no- tice, an entirely new course of lectures. See p. 62 ff. The appointments to the four medical positions are announced in the Independent Gazeteer, Nov. 14, 1789. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 7/7 versity of the State of Pennsylvania were united to form the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rush’s po- sition was then changed to that of Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and of Clinical Practice. On the resignation of Dr. Adam Kuhn from the faculty in 1796 he received the additional appointment to the Pro- fessorship of the Practice of Physic. This threefold professorship Dr. Rush held to the end of his life.” _ Pages could be filled—in fact, pages have beey filled—with discussion and panegyric of his success as a lecturer on medicine. He had a brilliant career as a ~ teacher. His students, however, are apt to use too many superlatives for a discriminating portrayal: But he had read widely, was possessed of a good, though not remarkable, memory, and early in life formed and always retained the note-book habit! He was, there- fore, duly acquainted with his subject. He had a vivid imagination and a warm personality. His candor in- vited the confidence of his classes. His lectures were always written out in full and read verbatim from the manuscript. He was nearly always seated during their delivery but occasionally arose and removed his spectacles when he wished to emphasize a point.* 7In 1791 Dr. Rush’s Professorship was divided into 1. In- stitutes and 2. Practice of Medicine. Dr. Kuhn followed Dr. Rush as Professor of Practice. This work was given back on the resignation of Dr. Kuhn in 1796, ® This account of Dr. Rush’s manner as a University 78 BENJAMIN RUSH - “The size of his classes increased from about twen- ty at the beginning of his career to four hundred and twelve in the year of its close. Most of his classes /were small before 1789, but they increased rapidly ‘thereafter, and it has been estimated that he instruct- ed considerably over two thousand students of medi- ‘cine. His long service permitted him in a number of cases to instruct two generations, father and son. The orator, appointed by the South Carolina Medical So- ciety to pronounce an eulogium in his honor, asserted that he was the preceptor of more than one-half of the members of that association. Throughout his career he also had many private pupils. At the outbreak of the yellow fever of 1793 he had five of these. One of them was the grandson of his own preceptor and be- came Dr. John Redman Coxe, Professor of Materia Medica at the University. Another of his private pu- pils was James McHenry who studied with him before the war, joined the army in 1775 as volunteer surgeon, and finally became Secretary of War under Washing- ton and Adams.’ Of Rush’s practice a great deal could be said and it might be wished that a competent physician would teacher is made up of the accounts of “old grads” who evi- dently idealized the pictures in “memory’s halls” See esp. Ramsay and Mitchell (full titles in bibliography). * Bernard Christian Steiner, The Life and Correspond- ence of James McHenry. Cleveland, 1907. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER » 79 4. render a satisfactory treatment of the subject. But even a layman, in treating his life and character, cannot omit all note of his eminent services in the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. That visitation was not the first to desolate the city of Philadelphia. In the Jour- nal of Thomas Story, a preacher in the Society of Friends, we have an account of the same disease in 1699, the year of Penn’s second visit. The infant col- ony was then small, containing between three and four thousand people, and yet six, seven and sometimes eight persons died of this fever in a day during a pe- riod of several weeks, and the pestilence was not checked until the advent of cold weather in late Octo- ber or November.*° The same cause put an end to the epidemic of 1741, which raged from June to Septem- ber. But since 1762, when Rush, then in the employ of Dr. Redman, had aided in combatting the plague, the city had been comparatively free from the disease. Of this epidemic we have two accounts—one by Dr. Rush and the other by his teacher, Dr. Redman. The latter presented his account to the College of Physi- cians on the re-appearance of the disease in 1793. The greatest of these scourges, however, was that of the year just mentioned, 1793. In that year the dis- * Rush, An Account of the Bilious Yellow Fever, p. 125 and p. 134. “Tbid., pp. 134 and 135, 80 BENJAMIN RUSH ease was first noticed about the seventh of August, reached its height about the middle of October, when on each of three successive days it carried off over a .hundred victims, and then gradually decreased in viru- lence until it practically ceased about the middle of November. In that time over four thousand people” —one-tenth of the entire population of the city—were swept away. ‘And it should be recalled that on the outbreak of the disease thousands of people fled from the city to avoid its ravages. Hence the proportion of those who died to the population that was actually in the city during that period, was much greater than that just stated. The dreadful contagion spared no rank or age or sex. Whole families were sometimes sick at once. And with so many actually down with the disease and so many more afraid to come in con- tact with it, it was almost impossible.to secure compe- ‘tent nurses or even aid of any kind. “There was, like- wise, a great deficiency of physicians from the deser- tion of some, and the sickness and death of others.” , It was estimated that at one time there were six thou- ‘ sand persons ill with the fever; and at that same pe- t riod there were for a time in the whole city only three | physicians able to call on patients. Nothing could be more graphic than Dr. Rush’s description of the dis- * Rush, An Account, etc., p. 130. * Rush, An Account, etc., p. 123. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 81. tress of the stricken city." “During the first three or four weeks of the prevalence of the disorder, I seldom went into a house the first time,” he says, “without meeting the parents or children of the sick in tears. Many wept aloud in my entry or parlour, who came to ask for advice for their relations. Grief after a while descended below weeping, and I was much struck in observing that many persons submitted to the loss of relations and friends without shedding a tear, or mani- festing any other of the common signs of grief.” “A cheerful countenance was scarcely to be seen in the city for six weeks.” .... “The streets everywhere discovered marks of the distress that pervaded the city. More than one half the houses were shut up, although not more than one third of the inhabitants had fled into the country. In walking for many hundred yards, few persons were met, except such as were in quest of a physician, a nurse, a bleeder, or the men who buried the dead. The hearse alone kept up the remembrance of the noise of carriages or carts in the streets. Funeral processions were laid aside. A black man, leading, or driving a horse, with a corpse on a pair of chair wheels, with now and then half a dozen relations or friends follow- “Rush, An Account, etc. The long quotation here given is found p. 123 and following. 82 BENJAMIN RUSH ing at a distance from it, met the eye in most of the streets of the city at every hour of the day, while the noise of the same wheels passing slowly over the pave- ments, kept alive anguish and fear in the sick and well, every hour of the night.” When the fever made its appearance in the city in August, Dr. Rush’s family consisted of his mother, a sister who was On a visit, a negro servant man and a mulatto boy. He had at the same time five private pupils, (as we have already seen) who, however, did not live in the same house with him. As the fever in- creased the calls for professional aid became very nu- merous and very insistent. For a time the Doctor and his students tried to answer every call. In the week ___from the eighth to the fifteenth of September the group ‘visited and prescribed for considerably more than one thousand patients. Dr. Rush visited and treated from a hundred to a hundred and twenty a day. Forgetting his own great risk, driving his horse at break-neck speed, and with his faithful black servant to expedite his visits, he tried to minister to a whole city. In the intervals of his visits his house was crowded with sick people and with messengers from his patients. In this way he frequently prescribed in one day for from fifty to a hundred and fifty or more, chiefly the poor. Even his dining room was turned into a consultation room. “For many weeks,” he says, “I seldom ate without PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 83 prescribing for numbers as I sat at my table.”** Soon the calls became so frequent that it was physically impossible to answer all of them, even with the help of his pupils, three of whom now lodged with him to be more accessible. “Having found myself unable to comply with the numerous applications that were made to me, I was obliged to refuse many every day. My sister counted forty-seven in one forenoon before eleven o’clock. Many of them left my door with tears, but they did not feel more distress than I did, from refusing to follow them..... I recollect, and even yet, I recollect, with pain, that I tore myself at one time from five persons in Moravian-alley who attempted to stop me, by suddenly whipping my horse, and driving. my chair as speedily as possible beyond the reach of, their cries.”"° “The solicitude of the friends of the sick for help may be further conceived of, when I add that the most extravagant compensations were sometimes offered for medical services, and in one instance for only a single visit. I had no merit in refusing these offers, and I have introduced an account of them, only to inform such physicians as may hereafter be thrown into a similar situation, that I was favored with an exemp- tion from the fear of death in proportion as I subdued * Rush, An Account of the Yellow Fever, p. 340. *Thid., p. 346 and ff. 84 BENJAMIN RUSH | every selfish feeling, and laboured exclusively for the benefit of others.” ’ In the midst of these extraordinary exertions, per- sonal affliction laid its hand heavily on him and his family. During the month of September three of his pupils died of the fever. The other two took the dis- ease, but recovered. His mother was sick in the latter part of that month. On the first day of October his sister died. The black man-servant also took the dis- ease about the same time. Only the little mulatto boy remained able to give the least aid, when Dr. Rush himself took the disease in a violent form on the ninth of October. He had had several milder attacks, but this time his vitality having been much lowered by the long period of hard labor and strain, his system offered but little resistance to the disease. He recovered, but had an extremely slow convalescence. His wife and children escaped the disease. They had for many years been accustomed to spend their summer in New Jersey in and about Mrs. Rush’s child- hood home at Princeton. They had gone there before the fever broke out. Although Mrs. Rush wanted to come to his side when he took the fever, she was per- suaded to remain away by his urgent request and by his representation that, if he should die, her own pres- ervation would be proportionately more important to their children. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 85 Of the treatment Dr. Rush used to cope with the fever, little need be said to the non-professional reader. And the physician already knows that the less said, the better. He used a combination of bleeding with doses of calomel and jalap, the famous “ten and ten”. The only wonder is at the “power of resistance fre- quently exhibited by the human constitution.” The theory of disease then held seems very incongruous now even to a layman; but he cannot help asking what changes in medical theory the next hundred years will bring forth and whether the gap between the practices of the eighteenth and of the nineteenth centuries will seem as great at the end of the twentieth as they do now. At any rate we can all admire the courage and the devotion to the honest search for truth exhibited by the “Father of Experimental Medi- cine.” We need to introduce no qualification in speak- ing of Benjamin Rush as a great physician, no matter what his errors of practice may have been. Dr. Rush’s courage and his humanity have been highly admired throughout the civilized world. “When an infectious pestilence, raging in Philadelphia, rapid- ly swept nearly four thousand to the grave, Rush de- spised every consideration of personal safety, and was so true day and night to his patients that it was said of him in Europe, ‘Not Philadelphia alone, but man- 86 BENJAMIN RUSH kind, should raise him a statue.’’2” His “Account of the Bilious Yellow Fever of 1793,” has been said to be the best history of an epidemic that has ever been writ- ten,* and was translated into three languages. As a mark of respect for his medical character and writings, especially his record of the yellow fever, both the King of Prussia and the Queen of Etruria presented him with medals, the latter of gold; and the Czar of Russia sent him a costly diamond. Two medals, dated 1808, were also struck in his honor at the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia. Thinking that he had discovered a cure for the dreaded fever, which had so often scourged not Phila- delphia alone, but many other cities and districts all over the world, Dr. Rush, true to his nature and his convictions, presently took up the cudgels for his meth- od of treatment. The physicians of the city were at once divided into two hostile camps on the merits of the remedies. Dr. Rush, basing his theory of the dis- ease and its cure on the work of Dr. Sydenham, aided by a great and well earned reputation as a teacher and a successful practitioner, and by his splendid powers of argumentation, soon collected a group of physicians who supported his contentions. Drs. Kuhn and. Ste- “George Bancroft, Joseph Reed: An Historical Essay. New York—W. J. Middleton—1867, p. 32. * By Dr. Trotter. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 87 vens opposed them. The matter was taken into the public press, without being much clarified thereby. We know, of course, that Rush was wrong, but in that day the matter was not decided, and Rush to the day- of his death, believed in the efficacy of his remedies. Another feature of the general dispute that had broken out among the physicians of the city, referred to the question of the origin of the fever. At first Doctor Rush, in common with most physicians, thought the disease had been imported. He, however, early dis- covered some evidence that made him change his mind, and that convinced him that the fever was of do- mestic origin. Faithful to his duty as a conserver of the public health, he at once announced publicly his change of view with the facts and reasons that had led him to it. Here he antagonized not only his profes- sional brethren, but also the property holders of the city, for real estate values would be depressed, if this view should gain currency. But he refused to recant, holding that even commerce would in the end be bene- fited by the knowledge of the truth. We know, of course, that he was right, but in this instance, as in the other, final answer, accepted by all, was not at once attainable. The College of Physicians solemnly declared that “No instance has ever occurred of the disease called yellow fever, having been generated in this city, or in any other parts of the United States, as 4 ; ao 88 BENJAMIN RUSH far as we know; but there have been frequent instan- ces of its having been imported.” .... This report was made Nov. 26, 1793. Three members of the College dissented, among whom was Dr. Redman, their Presi- dent. Owing to these disputes with his fellows in the { College, Rush had resigned on November 5, but had sent with his resignation as a gift to the College, Wal- lis’ edition of the works of Sydenham. This was one of those little ironies that Rush thoroughly enjoyed, for Sydenham was, in Rush’s opinion, the author that the other members of the College most needed to study. ae i In 1797 there was a recurrence of the fever. hes * The College of Physicians was founded in 1787 with Dr. John Redman as President. Dr. Rush was one of the charter members. For the history of the College of Phy- sicians the reader can consult W. S. W. Ruschenberger, M.D., History of the College of Physicians, a valuable and extreme- ly interesting work. After Dr. Rush resigned from the Col- lege he aided in establishing a rival institution, The American - Academy of Medicine. It was short-lived and its influence negligible. This is as good a place as any to mention the most im- portant of the many societies with which Dr. Rush was affiliated. The best known of these. was the American Phil- “6sophical Society to which he was elected in 1769, He was for a number of years Curator and also Vice-President. In 1774 he in conjunction with James Pemberton, a Quaker, and some others, founded the first anti-slavery society in Amer- ica. In 1787 this society was enlarged with Franklin as Pres- ident and Rush one of the Secretaries. He was also active PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 89 soon as it became known, about the middle of August, that the fever was again in the city, there was a gen- eral exodus to the country. .President Adams went to his home in Braintree, Mass., and the executive offices were removed to various places, Trenton, Gray’s Ferry, Falls of the Schuylkill. Even the leading mer- chants closed their stores. Sixteen Philadelphia firms opened in business at Wilmington, Delaware, for the summer. The epidemic ceased about November first after reaping a harvest of almost thirteen hundred lives.” When the fever again broke out, Dr. Rush, as we should expect, at once began a crusade in favor of bleeding and the use of calomel and jalap./He could not help urging the adoption of his treatment by every means at hand, both public and private. Convinced of its efficacy, he would have considered himself a traitor to the cause of humanity, had he refrained. Some of his brother physicians aided in the crusade. Dr. Grif- fits, in particular, wrote a paper in approval of Rush’s ’ in the Society for Promoting Political Enquiries, the Penn- sylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts, the American Society for Promoting Use- ful Knowledge, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1811 he was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Humane Society of London. After 1791 he was a member of the Library Company of Philadelphia. *” Scharf and Westcott. Vol. I, pp. 490, 491. 90 BENJAMIN RUSH method of treatment which was ascribed to Dr. Rush himself. Rush complains that he was nearly over- whelmed by the “torrents. of abuse” which met this publication.” Since 1793 also, a new political voice had gained the ear of the Philadelphia public, or at least of the Federalist section of it. This was William ‘ Cobbett, an Englishman, who had espoused the “Eng- lish party”, as he called it (that is, Federalism), and who wrote English that was, to say the least, vigorous. He had landed in Philadelphia in October, 1792. He had made his livelihood for a while‘as a tutor; but had now adopted the name of Peter Porcupine; and in Peter Porcupine’s Gazette, a newspaper, established in March, 1797, he proceeded to teach everybody, every- thing. This, William Cobbett, being a self-made man, was well qualified to do. Among other things he pro- ceeded to teach Dr. Rush his place in the world, which, according to Cobbett, was a small one; but his lan- guage, unfortunately for him, grew too vigorous at times. He called Rush a “poisonous trans-Atlantic quack”, and ridiculed in Porcupine’s bitterest and wit- tiest style the “intemperate bleeding” and the “injudi- cious” doses of mercury. He called him the “Samson” in medicine who had slain his thousands and tens of thousands. John Fenno, who published the Gazette of the United States, made similar charges. Dr. Rush = Rush’s Memoirs, p. 72. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 91 instituted suit for libel against both of these men, The suit against Fenno was dropped, for what reason we do not know, but Cobbett said it was because Fenno, being an American, could not have been convicted with a jury of his countrymen. Cobbett asked that the case be tried in the United States courts, but Chief- Justice McKean overruled the plea. Before the case came to trial McKean had become the Governor of Pennsylvania, and the court was presided over by Judge Shippen. Cobbett’s defense was that his articles were not libellous, (although one of them was headed. “Can the Rush Grow Up Without Mire?”’) and that his remarks were fair comments on a public subject. But this American jury—‘“the villains”, Cobbett called them—thought otherwise, and brought in a verdict in _ favor of Rush in the sum of $5000.27 Dr. Rush gave - the award to charity. The expenses of the action and i damages together amounted to $8000, and Cobbett was financially ruined. He soon returned to England. In the winter of 1798, Dr. Rush and some of his friends, in opposition to the College of Physicians, 3 organized a society, called the Academy of Medicine.” The organization was short-lived, and its publications ™ Scharf and Westcott. Vol. I, pp. 498, 499. Lewis Melville, The Life and Letters of William Cobbett in England and America. 2 Vols. London. John Lane. 1913. Vol. I, pp. 92-117 and passim. 92 BENJAMIN RUSH to prove that the yellow fever had a domestic origin, “fell dead from the press.”?? Owing to opposition, originating in his yellow fever ' disputes, Dr. Rush’s practice fell off materially in the last years of the eighteenth century. The decline was so marked that at one time (1797) he made prepara- tions to remove to New York City. Application was made for him for a medical professorship in Columbia College. Dr. John Rodgers of that institution reports a vote of its medical faculty expressing that it is the sense of that body that the appointment of Dr. Rush would be an honor to the faculty and that the Board of Trustees should be memorialized to elect him tc the chair of Practice. He failed of election through the opposition of Alexander Hamilton, then a member of the Board. Dr. Rodgers was mortified by the fail- ure to secure Rush for Columbia; but the latter was soon able to look back upon the incident with the ut- most composure.” This came about through his appointment to the Treasurership of the United States Mint, by President Adams. Adams, in consulting with his Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, about the appointment wrote from Quincy, Massachusetts, Sept. 18, 1797. “Dr. Rush, I have known, esteemed, and loved, these *“Memoirs”, p. 74. * Rush MSS., Vol. 25, p. 22 et seq. PROFESSOR AND PRACTITIONER 93 three and twenty years. His learning and ingenuity are respectable, and his public and private virtues amiable. His services, from the beginning of our great Revolution, were conspicuous and meritorious. He had no small share in recommending our present Constitu- tion, and might be eminently useful to the present ad- ministration.” And as it happened, Pickering was also a personal friend and, while a resident of Philadelphia, a neighbor of Dr. Rush. During the course of the fall of the year 1797 numerous letters passed between the President and his Secretary of State relative to the appointment. Adams at one time said that whoever received the appointment ought to consider himself highly honored because of the great number and high character of the applicants from among whom he would be selected.?*> Dr. Rush was appointed and held the office for the remaining fifteen years of his life.?* Dr. Rush’s connection with another Philadelphia institution was also of long continuance. At the very beginning of his medical career, while studying with Dr. Redman he had been given clinical facilities at the Pennsylvania Hospital and thus had opportunity to observe the practice of all the physicians of the staff. Afterward he himself was for all but thirty years *C. W. Upham and O. Pickering, Life of Timothy Pick- ering; III, p. 457 ff. ” Rush MSS., Vol. 25, p. 34. 94 BENJAMIN RUSH - (1783-1813) a member of that staff and for most of that period quite the most famous member.”’ It was here, while in charge of the insane that he made the observations and reflections detailed in his “Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind,” a work which has earned him the title of “The Father \of American Psychiatry.” A third Philadelphia institution, the first dispen- sary in the city, not only received Dr. Rush’s enthu- siastic services and support, but even owes its origin to his initiative. He persuaded Dr. Moyes, a scientist, to donate the proceeds of some lectures on scientific subjects, as a beginning. This fund augmented by contributions from philanthropic individuals made pos- sible the opening of the Philadelphia Dispensary in 1786. It was the first free medical dispensary, not only in the city, but in America. ™W. P. and J. P. Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspond- ence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. 1888. 2 Vols. There is an interesting account of Dr. Cutler’s visit to Philadelphia “in 1787 while on business for the Ohio Company. He visited Rush and also accompanied him on a regular visit to the Hospital. His remarks upon the extreme punctuality and the formality with which his visits to the Hospital were made give us a glimpse of the Doctor’s professional manners. Cutler speaks of Rush as “the perfect gentleman” and one of “the first literary characters of America”. (See p. 257, p. 279, etc., of Vol. I, Cutler’s Life of Cutler.) AN APPRECIATION 95 What a wonderful man was Doctor Rush! Here is material enough for four lives of ordinary men. He was an Author, Philanthropist, Patriot and Statesman, ! and Physician. As an author he was influential in his day; his — style clear, yet full; burdened with a message, yet making straight for the point. He made few attempts at anything approaching belles-lettres. And the day has long passed since anyone would say as Manasseh Cutler said in 1787: “He is one of the first literary char- acters in America.” for the most part intended and regarded as the means of advancing the various “causes” in which he was His numerous publications were interested. The titles in the bibliography will show what these causes were. They will show that he was throughout life a lover of his kind; a friend of the poor, the dis- tressed, the unfortunate and the criminal. He was one of the first champions of the slave; one of the founders and for many years an officer in the first abo- - lition society in America. He was one of the earliest advocates of temperance. He had the vision, the wis- . dom and the courage to urge the reformation of the -bibulous habits of his time. He rests from his labors in the shadow of a tree which is thus described in a tablet over his grave: “On the 3rd of November, 1885, 96 BENJAMIN RUSH the officers and delegates of the National Women’s Christian Temperance Union from forty states and numbering 300 by their representatives planted this oak tree in token of their reverence for the memory of Dr. Benjamin Rush, instaurator of the American tem- peratice reform, one hundred years ago.” He labored early for penal reform”, for the abolition of the death penalty, for humane treatment and enlightened care of the insane, for humanity in the handling of animals. And it is to be mentioned as bearing on the last sub- ject that he urged the establishment of a school of veterinary medicine. His labors for education of all grades and for all people are elsewhere discussed. Not only did he advocate the reforms, but he la- bored with his hands and gave largely of his time and means to bring them about. There are few men who in the hurry of a successful career have had time to prepare as many papers, deliver as many addresses, and attend as many meetings in the interest of all kinds of human betterment as did Benjamin Rush and his inspirer and exemplar, Benjamin Franklin. * ok * * * “From his early life to his old age, his patriotism * One of the many minor generosities of his life was the ' gift of a cart-load of water melons to the prisoners in the Philadelphia jail, Sept. 16, 1800. In thanking him they men- tion also other acts of “remembrance and benevolence” to- ward them. Rush, MSS., Vol. 21, p. 7. AN APPRECIATION 97 could not be doubted, and whenever a question re: garding freedom arose he was sure to take the side of freedom. As he was one of the first to speak for inde- pendence, he was one of the first, publicly as well as privately, to speak for the abolition of slavery, and to treat the colored people as fellow-men and fellow-citi- zens; and to his last breath he was devoted to those principles of Jefferson which were humane and liber- al.” So writes George Bancroft. Dr. Rush was a pa- triot through and through. Not only did he openly advocate the independence of the nation long before the Declaration,” but he ever stood for national as against sectional interests, for right and justice and honest finance as against mere temporary policy and opportunism. He was not perfect. His egoism and his restless ambition knew no ceasing on this side of the grave. And in consequence he was frequently intolerant of the opinions of others. He was a man of ‘many con- troversies, some of them righteous; but some of them the result of an impetuous temper. There was prob- ably no. man of his time about whose character more diverse opinions were held by his contemporaries. But it is to be remembered that he had for life-long friends men so different in taste and temperament as Dr. John Redman, Charles Thomson, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He said, and I believe truly, that 98 BENJAMIN RUSH he had ever, in all the enterprises of his life, aimed less ~ to serve himself thanthe public. “I feel a satisfaction _ in reposing my reputation in the justice of those who “shall come after me. * * * They will be the best judges “whether I have added to the knowledge and happiness or to the errors and miseries of my fellow-citizens.” Human frailties and errors Rush himself freely ac- knowledged. And posterity has as freely and magnan- imously forgotten them, while it agrees, in the main, with the noble tribute penned by George Bancroft.” “The profession of medicine,” he wrote, “no less than that of war, hath its bead-roll of heroes, who have de- fied death in the discharge of duty. When an infec- tious pestilence, raging in Philadelphia, rapidly swept nearly four thousand to the grave, Rush despised ev- ery consideration of personal safety, and was so true day and night to his patients, that it was said of him in Europe: ‘Not Philadelphia alone but mankind should raise him a statue.’” * For reference see note 17 of this chapter. CHAPTER IV BENJAMIN RUSH AND DICKINSON COLLEGE Education is partly a matter of theory, partly a matter of practice. Histories of education too fre- quently discuss the development of the theory or phi- losophy of education and neglect to give a detailed account of educational institutions, and educational practice. Such accounts of institutions as we have are often colored by the veneration that is sometimes felt by old graduates for their alma mater. We should aim at descriptions that are composed of verified facts, based on authentic documents definitely cited. Only thus can we hope to arrive at an approximation of historic truth. The present chapter is an attempt to write, on these lines, an account of the early history of one of the smaller, but useful colleges of Pennsylvania. In a letter of 1783, written by Benjamin Rush to his friend, John Montgomery, there is a postscript, consisting of the two words, “Bingham’s Porch” doub- 100 BENJAMIN RUSH ly underscored. A note, added at a later date, tells us that “These words allude to the first conversation upon the subject of a college at Carlisle between John Montgomery and B. Rush having taken place at Mr. [William] Bingham’s porch.” The words became a catchword with these men, the original projectors of Dickinson College; and, many years afterward, at a time when the outlook for the College was gloomy, Rush wrote:? “But let us not despair of the object of our former hopes and present affections. Providence will sooner or later appear for us. Let us finish our building and keep up the forms of our College. All will end well. Bingham’s porch may wear away, but the ideas conceived on it by two of the trustees will have their full accomplishment and Dickinson College will one day be the source of light and knowledge to the western parts of the United States.” The date of the conversation when the plan to establish a Presby- terian College west of the Susquehanna was first dis- cussed, cannot be determined, but it is either 1781 or 1782.8 *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 63. April 15, 1783. *Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 91. July 3, 1802. *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 107. “The necessity and ad- vantages of a college at Carlisle appear the same to me as they did in the year 1781 (in the Ms. the last figure is a 2 with a 1 to cover it) when we first projected it.” Rush to Mont- gomery, January 14, 1785. DICKINSON COLLEGE 101 It was in the latter year that Dr. Rush carried on an active correspondence with many persons—chiefly Presbyterian ministers—in trying to arouse interest in the proposition.* In November of that year, the matter was publicly discussed at a meeting of the members of the presbytery and others at Carlisle, which formulated some objections that would have to be met.” The meeting seems to have been called in response to a circular letter, sent out by Dr. Rush in the fall of 1782. The letter asked for aid in putting a petition for a charter before the Legislature. It em- phasized the distance of the College of New Jersey from its Pennsylvania supporters, and the expense of travel. Rush estimated this at one-fifth the total cost of an education for those people. It stated as an ob- jection to the College of Philadelphia its location in a large city, which increased the expense and endan- gered the morals of the boys.® In that year (1782) also, Rush wrote his “Hints for Establishing a College at Carlisle in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania”.” This paper is of such im- portance in showing what was in Dr. Rush’s mind— ‘This correspondence is contained in Vol. 41 of the Rush MSS. *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 6; dated Carlisle, Nov. 13, 1782. *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 2. "Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 1. The paper is dated Sept. 3, 1782. 102 BENJAMIN RUSH his motives and his objects—that extended quotation is desirable. It begins by saying that “Every religious society should endeavor to preserve a representation of itself in government. The Presbyterians suffered greatly under the old government from the want of this representation.® At present they hold an undue share in the power of Pennsylvania. They, have al- ready excited the jealousy of other societies and powerful combinations are forming against them. To secure a moderate and just share in the power of the state it becomes them to retire a little from offices and to invite other societies to partake of them with them. To prevent the effect of these combinations against them reducing them to their ancient state of oppres- sion and insignificance it becomes them above ll things to entrench themselves in schools of learning. These are the true Nurseries of power and influence. They improve talents and virtue and these by beget- ting wealth form the ingredients that constitute power in all countries. In the present plentitude of power of the Presbyterians let them obtain a Charter for a College at Carlisle in Cumberland County. “The advantages of a College at this place are, (1) It will draw the Presbyterians to one common center of union. * The pre-Revolutionary government of Pennsylvania, of course, is meant. DICKINSON COLLEGE 103 (2) It will be nearly central to the state, and will command the youth of the new and growing western counties and perhaps states. (3) Education will be cheaper at Carlisle than at any wther equally improved village in the state. (4) The village of Carlisle is one of the most healthy spots in the state.” The paper then goes on to suggest the formation of a board of 24 trustees, 11 to be a quorum for ordinary business; that all officers and instructors should be Presbyterians so as to connect religion and learning; that application be made for “handsome endowments” at the time the charter is secured; that subscription books be opened to secure money for buildings for the college, these buildings to consist of: 1. a church, 2. a hall for public prayers, 3. a library, 4. an apparatus room (laboratory), 5. a recitation building. The “principal” and the “mas- ters” should live separately in “houses to be purchased for them in the town.” The students should be board- ed in private families for “the custom of crowding boys together under one roof is the remains of monkish ig- norance. It exposes them to many vices and unfits them for future commerce and connections in the world. Men are made to live in families. They cannot therefore be too early and too constantly preserved in a close connection with them. The Presbyterians should join as soon as possible in restoring to the law- 104 BENJAMIN RUSH ful owners the College of Philadelphia. The reasons for this advice are that: 1. The act abolishing the old charter is unconstitutional; 2. The College of Phila- delphia was founded principally by the Episcopalians, six-sevenths of the funds being subscribed by them, and 3. It will be an act of justice and will moderate public prejudice against the Presbyterians and so lessen the difficulties in the way of securing a charter and support for a college at Carlisle.” This paper was sent by Dr. Rush to Carlisle for the consideration of those in that section who were interested in the scheme; and was discussed by them at a meeting, held, as we have seen, November 13, 1782. As the above summary shows, Rush’s argu- ments were of two kinds, in part religious—or secta- rian—and in part political, And the strands are so interwoven that it is difficult to separate them, for the party that had come into power several years before, under the lead of Joseph Reed, George Bryan and Dr. Ewing of the new University, was very largely a Pres- byterian party. Between these men and Dr. Rush there was very little love lost. Rush in his corre- spondence calls them the “secret junto”; the “pale- faced faction”; even, “the skunks”; and other polite names so frequent in many writings of that day.® They, *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, pp. 30, 42-45, 47, 49, 87 and else- where. DICKINSON COLLEGE 105 of course, retorted in kind and called the college propo- sition “the pretty device”; “the hopeful scheme”; “the moonshine project”.’° Against Dr. Ewing especially, Rush was bitter, charging him with mendacity, slan- der and other still more serious faults. He even sev- ered his connection with the First Presbyterian Church of which Dr. Ewing was the pastor. The latter, in turn, tried hard to prevent the success of Dr. Rush’s plans. He wrote to the ministers of Cumberland County, urging that the foundation of another college would tend to divide the Presbyterians; that the funds already secured and in prospect were insufficient; and that it was a party scheme, inspired by Dr. Rush in retaliation for his loss of the professorship in the Col- lege of Philadelphia. The second of these counts, as we shall see, was borne out by the result. The sum- mary of the “Hints” given above, and Rush’s corre- spondence lend a good deal of color to the last charge.’? _Dr. Francis Alison,® vice-provost in the University, also tried to dissuade Dr. Rush from proceeding with the plan. He said the place chosen is too difficult of access, being distant from a navigable river; the col- lege will tend to create a Presbyterian schism; the * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 28. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 6. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 14. 106 BENJAMIN RUSH tendency of the times is toward liberality and the es- tablishment of a sectarian college would run counter to this trend; and finally he asks, “Why relinquish the present hold on the University?” for if the Episco- palians make an attack on that institution, that will be time enough to secure a new charter. As if looking back to 1779 and forward to 1789 he declares, “If no charter can be obtained, neither could one now secured be retained.” George Bryan, too, wrote to a friend of the College at Carlisle that he and his friends were amused by a project of Dr. Rush, who proposes a Col- lege at Carlisle.* “Believe me, sir,” he says, “it is a scheme of dividing the presbterian Interest, and pre- paratory to transferring back the University to the narrow Foundation which it formerly stood on, to dis- miss the able and worthy Provost, Dr. Ewing, and to turn us over to a difficult if not an impracticable at- tempt to build up a new Fund... . It is manifest to all here why the idea should have been set up by Rush.” He goes on to suggest that it was because he was piqued by his loss of his professorship. After duly weighing and considering these charges and objections and such others as presented them- selves,—the question of the healthfulness of Carlisle, for example,—the correspondents reported that “the scheme of Dr. Rush for establishing a College” is very “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 93. DICKINSON COLLEGE 107 agreeable to the subscribers, but that the following ob- jections had appeared during the discussion :1* 1. Other Denominations may be alarmed by such an attempt of the Presbyterians. 2. To restore the College of Philadelphia to the Epis- copalians may divide the Presbyterians. 3. To endow a College for one denomination only would be too partial an application of public property. 4. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is too much occupied with more urgent business. These objections, however, they decided, should not prevent an attempt to carry out the scheme and they asked the help of Dr. Rush in framing a petition to the Assembly for a Charter. Dr. Rush replied that the petition should not mention endowments, as these could be secured afterwards. He had changed his opinion on this matter since writing the “Hints”. But he insisted that the Charter asked for, be for a College and not for an Academy as some proposed.”® Not all the opposition to the proposed College em- anated from Philadelphia, however, although Rush be- lieved and charged that most of it was inspired by the men already named. But one of the Carlisle oppo- nents should, because of his prominence, receive special * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 6. The report is dated Carlisle, Nov. 13, 1782. *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, pp. 22, 24, 25. 108 BENJAMIN RUSH mention. This is General John Armstrong,” a charter member of the Board of Trustees and for several years very influential in that body. Armstrong was.a sup- porter of the College of New Jersey*® and was for that reason opposed at first to the establishment of an in- stitution that might be considered a rival of it. He was affiliated politically with the ruling party in Phila- delphia,’® and therefore not especially friendly to Dr. Rush, or to the Quakers and Episcopalians, who op- posed that party. In his opinion, the establishment of a college should be delayed several years, and then Pittsburgh should be selected for its site.° As a stroke of policy Colonel Montgomery sug- gested that the General be placed on the Board of Trustees.24_ Dr. Rush approved the suggestion,” Gen. Armstrong took the bait and this bit of flattery, to- gether with larger portions of the same commodity,. * General John Armstrong was the father of that Major John Armstrong who became notorious, under the tutelage of Gates, as the author of the “Newburgh Addresses” to the Continental Army. “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 13. * Thid., p. 28. *Tbid., p. 26. Armstrong to Rush, April 15, 1783. *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 27. Montgomery to Rush, April 15, 1783. ” Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 29. Rush to Montgomery, May 3, 1783. “General Armstrong has answered my letter to hinr in the most respectful terms. You acted wisely in insisting on his becoming a trustee.” DICKINSON COLLEGE 109 disarmed his opposition and he remained a loyal friend of the institution. When one sees how Rush appealed to his religious principles and prejudices, his vanity, and his cupidity, one is tempted to say that the good doctor should have followed his first inclination and have become a lawyer. Rush wrote in part:* “I am no stranger to the opposition that has been excited against the scheme in your county, by some gentlemen in this city, nor am I inacquainted [sic] with the very illiberal reflections that have been thrown upon me for favoring the design by two of those gentlemen. I have nothing to say by way of retaliation. The only design of this letter is to explain to you more fully, the advantages to be derived [sic] to the state at large and to the Presbyterian society in particular from a nursery of religion and learning on the west side of the river Susquehanna. “The manner in which the Presbyterians seized their present share of power in the University of Philadelphia has given such general offense, that there is little doubt of an attempt being made in the course of a few years to restore it to its original owners. The old trustees say that the present charter is contrary to the Constitution of the state and to every principle of justice and I find a great many of the most respectable * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 20. Rush to Armstrong, March 19, 1783. 110 BENJAMIN RUSH members of the assembly are of the same opinion... . “But supposing the present trustees held the uni- versity by the most equitable and constitutional ten- ure, it cannot be viewed as a nursery of the Presby- terian Church. ... From its extreme catholicism, Tam sorry to say that as no religion prevails, so no relig- ious principles are inculcated in it... . Religion is best supported under the patronage of particular societies. Instead of encouraging bigotry, I believe it prevents it by removing young men from those opportunities of controversy which a variety of sects mixed together are apt to cause and which are the certain fuel of bigotry. Religion is necessary to correct the effects of learning. Without religion, I believe, learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind. A mode of worship is necessary to support religion and education is the surest way of producing a prefer- ence and constant attachment to a mode of wor- ship. is) “Some people talk loudly of the increase of liberality and sentiment upon religious subjects since the war, but I suspect that this boasted catholicism arises chief- ly from an indifference acquired since the war to re- * There is evidence in his correspondence that Dr. Rush contemplated the establishment of a theological seminary, to be called “The School of the Prophets”, in connection with the College. Letter from Will Smith, Eden Academy, Md., 1785, etc. See Vols. 9 and 16, Rush MSS. DICKINSON COLLEGE 111 ligion itself. We only change the names of our vices and follies in different periods of time. Religious bigotry has yielded to political intolerance. The man who used to hate his neighbor for being a churchman or a quaker, now hates him with equal cordiality for being a tory.” “Colleges are the best schools for divinity,” and, therefore, the Presbyterian Church needs colleges to teach its system of divinity. Other points that he emphasizes pertain to the ex- pense of an education in Philadelphia, and the large city’s evil effects on the morals of the youth. The College of New Jersey is too far from the western counties. The trip would be too expensive in time and money. The Presbyterians are leaving Pennsylvania and a College would help to retain them in the State. Furthermore, a College at Carlisle, by spreading knowledge and cultivating the talent for politics and — public speaking in the young men of the West, would create the only possible balance to the growing and already overshadowing power and wealth of the me- tropolis. He avers a second and again a third time, that the movement is not the offspring of any personal resent- ment. Perhaps he protests a little too much. “The ~ story suggested by Mr. Bryan, that I am actuated by resentment against the university for turning me out 112 BENJAMIN RUSH of my professorship in my endeavours to serve the interests of religion and of the Presbyterian church ‘1 your county is too absurd to be contradicted. Mr. isryan is a man of too much understanding to believe it himself.” The scheme, he confidently asserts, will succeed. It is being patronized by all classes and especially by Mr. Dickinson, a Quaker, and Mr. Bingham, an Epis- copalian. And he makes the audacious statement that he is writing to inform General Armstrong of the trend of affairs so that he, on learning where the heavi- est battalions are, may espouse the winning side. Lastly he appeals to his correspondent’s avarice by recalling to him how the location of the College of New Jersey at Princeton increased the values of land in its vicinity. The letter, it will be admitted, discloses the powers of the special pleader in a marked degree, except that it might be objected that he presses his arguments too hard. But, no doubt, he knew the man to whom he appealed; at any rate, as we have already seen, the letter had the desired effect. _- At its meeting in April, 1783, the Carlisle pres- bytery gave its approval to the design.?> The Board * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 27, Montgomery to Rush, April 15, 1783. DICKINSON COLLEGE 113 of Trustees was quietly selected** by the supporters of the plan and preparations were made to introduce a petition for a charter when the Assembly should meet in the fall. Meanwhile, however, the Synod met in Philadelphia; and some of the proposed trustees, when they came to hear the representations of the opposition in the city, were “much staggered”, and returned to Carlisle, “some but half converts to the right, some nearly, if not quite, apostates.”?7 Because of this situation it became necessary to select others in their places. Furthermore, Rush suggested that some Germans should be admitted to the Board, both to widen the constituency and to provide a larger field for soliciting funds.?® He, therefore, proposed to in- crease the number of Trustees from twenty-four to thirty. Reverend Mr. Black of Marsh Creek, Cumber- land County, who had engineered the approval of the presbytery, also insisted that some “Covenanters and Creeders”, that is, adherents of the German Lutheran and Reformed Churches, should be chosen for the Board. This was done, and finally the list of Trustees * Vol. 41, p. 27. There were 24 Trustees in this first list. * John Black, Marsh Creek, June 21, 1783 in a letter to Rush makes these statements saying that the friends of the College had been “tampered with in Philadelphia”. Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 31. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 29. Rush to Montgomery, May. 3, 1783, *, 114 BENJAMIN RUSH included forty names, thirteen being those of minis- ters of various denominations. Some of these men were in a few years to become leaders in the establish- ment of a German College in Lancaster, Pa. (Franklin, now Franklin and Marshall).?® The petition to the Assembly for a charter re- counted the importance and blessing of education, the provisions of the State Constitution® on the subject, the advantages of Carlisle as the site for a College. It prays for an endowment by the State, but the peti- tioners declare themselves willing “to submit to your [the Assembly’s] wisdom in this.” On July 29 Rush reports to Montgomery, then a member of the Congress, sitting at Princeton since its ignominious flight from Philadelphia, that “his letter with the Charter came safe to hand.’”*? Having secured the services of James Wilson and John Dickin- son in revising it, all was ready for the grand attempt. “For the list of original Trustees see the Appendix. Hendel and Muhlenberg were active in the foundation of Franklin College as indeed was Rush himself at least to the extent of allowing himself to be chosen a member of the Board. * This was the first State Constitution of Pennsylvania. It was adopted in 1776. ™ This petition has 64 signatures. It is not dated. Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 4. There is also an earlier draft of a peti- tion among the Rush papers, Vol. 41. * Rush MSS,, Vol. 41, p. 36. DICKINSON COLLEGE 115 On September 1 he writes again :** “The ice is at last -broken and leave has been obtained to bring in a bill to found a college at Carlisle. Joseph Mont[gomer]y opposed the plan [or place, word illegible] violently and plead [sic] hard for the sickly banks of Susque- hannah where the youth would enjoy fogs, and the society of boatmen, waggoners and such like compan- ions for half a century to come. He lost his motion by only four votes. ... Sharp detests Joseph’s act in his opposition so much that he declares until his name is struck out from among the trustees he will not sup- port the scheme any longer. It shall be done.** He now says he shall urge with all his might for a college but it shall be anywhere in the County of Cumberland but not in Carlisle until the people in the other towns have been consulted. All this is to gain time and finally to divide and destroy the scheme. Ewing and Reed could not oppose us with more specious and in- sidious maneuvers. Do come to town immediately— we suffer daily from the want of your advice and pas- sionate honesty as Sharp calls it. Everything hangs * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 38. *TIt was done. Joseph Montgomery’s name does not ap- pear among the original Trustees but he was elected four years later and served until 1794. Rush seems to have re- gretted this omission later. See MSS., Vol. 41, p. 62. The list of the original Trustees is, of course, given in the Charter and is copied here in an Appendix. 116 BENJAMIN RUSH upon the next two weeks. If we fail this session— you will see petitions (composed in Philadelphia) next year from Harrisburg — Chambersburg — Shippen’s Town and even Pittsburgh—against the town of Car- lisle. Colonel McPherson and Jackson are much en- gaged for us—but they want you with them. Do set off the next day after you get this letter. We have not a moment to lose. I am so wholly taken up with my business that I can do nothing. . . . Haste—haste, my friend, or we are undone.” The Charter was granted September 9, 1783.35 The Board of Trustees went to work with a will, and held three meetings in less than that number of weeks.*® The first meeting was held at the home of Governor Dickinson in Philadelphia. The Board was organized by the election of John Dickinson, president, and Reverend William Linn, secretary.*” Rush had at *Himes, C. F., A Sketch of Dickinson College, implies that the Charter was granted Sept. 8. The same inference seems to follow from Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 39, where John Black says the granting of the Charter was announced in a letter by Rush of Sept. 8. But this is a mistake. Rush prob- ably knew what the vote would be and anticipated the event. See also Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 123, where the correct date, Sept. 9, is given. See Statutes-at-Large of Pa., Mitchell & Flanders, Vol. XI, pp. 114-120, for text of the Charter. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 42. See Rush MSS., passim; and als» Himes, C. F., A Sketch of Dickinson College. DICKINSON COLLEGE 117 one time proposed to call the institution “John and Mary College”, in honor of Mr. Dickinson and wife, and probably in imitation of William and Mary, the second oldest College in America. But the name “Dickinson College” was now formally adopted by the granting of the Charter. The financial problem was the most urgent one then to be solved; and after it came the selection of a president. Dr. Rush was most assiduous in working out a satisfactory solution of each of them. Nearly a year before the Charter was granted, he announced that Mr. Dickinson would become “a liberal contribu- tor to us.” This he undoubtedly did, but the exact nature and extent of his donations are not known. In March, 1783, Rush states, in the letter to Armstrong already noticed, that “The President of the State [Mr. Dickinson], who you know is a quaker, has given us a tract of land worth £600.” Two hundred acres in a “plantation” on Marsh Creek, in what is now Adams County, formed a part of this contribution, if not the whole of it.** Subsequently he added five hundred acres in Cumberland County. He also gave a collec- tion of books—fifteen hundred volumes, it has been stated, but this is certainly erroneous—from his libra- “I follow Himes in this and the following sentence. The Stillé version is somewhat different. (See following foot- note.) 118 BENJAMIN RUSH ry.*° About the same time that Mr. Dickinson made his first grant Mr. Bingham contributed loan office certificates to the amount of £400. In May, 1783, Mr. Bingham and his family went to England on a visit, and he agreed to leave his donation with Dr. Rush.*° Even so, he did not escape that persistent collector’s importunity. Upon his sailing for England the Doctor addressed a letter to him thanking him in the name of “the frontier counties” for his generous contribution, and suggesting that, “in mingling with the great”, he should solicit “books, philosophical instruments and apparatus;’ and “in mingling with the wealthy”, money.*? But probably nothing came of this, for, as Richard Price, writing from England, said, “the war is too recent to hope for anything from the royalists and the dissenters have enough to do to maintain them- selves.”’*? Recourse was, therefore, had to subscriptions from the people of the State, as well as Baltimore. Some of these were not in small amounts. James Jacks of * Charles J. Stillé (The Life and Times of John Dickin- son [1732-1808]. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1891) says (pp. 326- 328), Dickinson presented to the College Library the books which were saved from the burning of the Norris library at Fairhill by the British Army in 1777, amounting to 1500 volumes. No source is given. “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 29. “Ibid, p. 11. “Tbid., p. 10. DICKINSON COLLEGE 119 Lancaster, a trustee, agreed to donate loan office cer- tificates amounting to $5,000.“ Subscription books were opened September 19, 1783. They were sent to the solicitors with the following note from President Dickinson :** “Gentlemen: “This letter will be delivered to you with books for subscriptions; and it is the desire of the Trustees, that your proceedings in the business may be reported to the Board at the Meeting to be held the 6th day of April next at Carlisle.” It was suggested by some that ministers should be sent two by two into every congregation of Presby- terians throughout the State.* Rush urges Montgom- ery to come to Philadelphia and bring General Arm- strong to help solicit subscriptions.*® But Montgom- ery, who had lost his seat in Congress, and was now at his Carlisle home, did not come. Rush wrote again three months later, “Indeed my good friend, I have been very angry at you. You impose too much upon me.” But he reports at the same time that the sub- * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 56. Letter to James Jacks, dated Feb. 3, 1784, apparently to Rush. Jacks says the people of his town were jealous that Lancaster was not the site se- lected. “Tbid., p. 40. ; “Thid., p. 54. “Tbid., p. 49; Nov. 15, 1783. 5 120 BENJAMIN RUSH scriptions will amount to £10,000 in a few months.‘ But a great deal of this sum seems to have been in land, often not immediately productive, or in loan office certificates, whose value was problematic. Rob- ert Morris, however, is said to have headed the Phila- delphia list with a subscription for £375.*%. Others, however, were less generous and from the solicitors in the country districts came complaints of the hard times, the weight of the taxes and the scarcity of cash.*° The aid from the state, too, was tardy. The finan- ces of the commonwealth were not in good condition at this time. But in 1786 (April 7) the first grant was made. In persuading the Legislature to make this ap- propriation, Dr. Rush was, again, a leading force. The grant included £500 in specie and ten thousand acres of land.** Two years later (October 3, 1788) the “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 57; Feb. 17, 1784. “See Himes, C. F., A Sketch etc., where the names of other prominent contributors are given: John Cadwallader, Thomas Willing, Charles Thompson, Benjamin Paschal, Ed- ward Shippen, John Ross. “Rush MSS,, Vol. 41, pp. 51, 53, 61. ° See Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 84. Letter from Rush to Montgomery, dated July 31, 1784. Rush at this time was jubilant over the prospects, saying: “All will end well; Bing- ham’s Porch.” " Apparently they got more than they expected. See Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 172, where King speaks of 6000 acres DICKINSON COLLEGE 121 Legislature vested the title of a lot in Carlisle for a campus, in the Board of Trustees of the College.** In 1789 (Mar. 27) the Legislature authorized the “City Hall and Dickinson College Lottery” which was to net ten thousand dollars. Of this sum eight thousand dol- lars was to be applied to the construction of a city hall in Philadelphia and the remaining two thousand were to be turned over to Dickinson College.** Then in 1791 the State granted the sum of $1,500 for the immediate necessities of the College.** And, again, four years later, the fathers of the common- as the probable amount. See also Statutes-at-Large of Pa., Mitchell & Flanders, Vol. XII, p. 221 ff (1786). * The lot was 240x60 feet and was located on the north side of Pomfret street between Hanover and Bedford streets. It had been granted in 1773 by the proprietors, Thomas and Richard Penn, to a Board of Trustees for a grammar school, which was erected thereon. The College trustees repaired and made improvements on the building. The title to the lot and building was now vested in the College Board, the more readily in that they maintained “a flourishing grammar school” in connection with the College and so fulfilled the wishes of the original donors. See Statutes-at-Large of Pennsylvania; Mitchell and Flanders, Vol. XIII, p. 132 ff (1788). * Statutes-at-Large of Pennsylvania, Vol. XIII, p. 276 ff. This lottery was widely advertised. See American Daily Advertiser (Phila.) for Feb. 7, 1791; etc., etc. “ Statutes-at-Large of Pennsylvania; Mitchell and Flan- ders; Vol. XIV, p. 123 ff (1791). 122 BENJAMIN RUSH wealth bestowed $5,000 on the struggling little College. Of this amount $2,000 were to be used to wipe out some debts that had accumulated. The other $3,000 were to be added to the permanent endowment of the institution. The grant was made on condition that ten poor boys (if so many apply) be taught reading, wri- ting and arithmetic gratis. But no pupil was to be allowed to remain on this foundation more than two years. In 1806 the State again granted $4,000 most of which was spent for “philosophical” apparatus.” After this there seems to have been no state aid until the period 1821-29, when the Theological Sem- inary of the German Reformed Church was conducted in connection with the College. At that time the state granted $10,000 per annum for a ‘period of ten years, and required an annual report to the state of the con- dition of the institution. All this detail goes to show how heavily the infant College leaned on the state; how close was the relationship between this Presby- terian school in its early years and the state. Testi- mony to this bond can also be adduced from the lan- guage of the Charter, from the oath taken, under the Charter by every trustee to be loyal to the Common- wealth, and from the constant reference of the found- * Statutes-at-Large of Pennsylvania; Mitchell and Flan- ders; Vol. XV, p. 282 (1795). * C. F. Himes, A Sketch of Dickinson College, p. 50. DICKINSON COLLEGE 123 ers of the College to its influence’ on the future of Pennsylvania.*” Whatever the amount of the productive funds of the “infant seminary” in 1783 was, it must have seemed sufficient to make a beginning. President Dickinson called the first regular annual meeting of the Board for April 6, 1784. Meanwhile Dr. Rush was preparing “Some Thoughts to lay before the Board of Trustees upon the subject of an Education proper for a College in a new republican state.”* About a month before the time set for the meeting he wrote: “The time ap- proaches big with the fate of Dickinson College. . . . T have at last finished my essay on ‘A mode of educa- tion proper in a republic’ which I shall request the lib- erty of laying before the Board of Trustees. It has cost me a great deal of severe study. Several of my friends to whom I have read it, approve of my ideas, and conceive more highly of the utility of our College than ever.” This is the essay that stands second in the volume of “Essays, Literary, Moral and Philo- sophical.” : . What the effect of this Essay, (which is the most important of Dr. Rush’s educational writings) was or Compare Crookes’ Dickinson College: The History of a Hundred Years. An Alumni Oration. “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 49. Rush to Montgomery, Nov. 15, 1783. , 124 BENJAMIN RUSH even whether it was read, we do not know. We learn, indeed, that Dr. Rush was very much pleased with the outcome of the meeting, but this may very probably have been occasioned by other causes than the recep- tion accorded to his paper. ; The importarit task of electing a president®® for the College was accomplished to Dr. Rush’s satisfaction. The choice fell upon the Reverend Dr. Charles Nisbet of Montrose, Scotland. It seems that Dr. Rush and Dr. Nisbet had become acquainted in Scotland,® and also that the latter had been considered for the presi- dency of the College of New Jersey at the time that Dr. Witherspoon was selected to fill that vacancy. We find that Dr. Rush made some proposal to Dr. Nisbet with respect to the presidency of Dickinson College as early as November or December, 1783, this being at least four months before his election.** Even before this he had written to a number of the Trustees in favor of this Scotch clergyman. His cotrespond- ents were favorably impressed with the reasons given " The title was not “president”, however, but “The Prin- cipal of Dickinson College” See Charter, Vol. XI, Statutes. at-Large of Pennsylvania. © Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 37. Letter of Nisbet to Rush, August 5, 1783. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 64. Margaret Watson of Mont- rose, Scotland, to Rush, Dec. 8, 1783. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 53; p. 59, DICKINSON COLLEGE 125 in his favor, but one of them wisely said:** “His being a Foreigner would admit of no objection but is a Cir- cumstance for some reasons more desirable—but we should be satisfied that we are capable of holding up such encouragement as would invite a man from thence where if he is really such [as you have said] he will, have the greater inducement to stay.” After thus manufacturing opinion in Dr. Nisbet’s favor, Rush wrote to Montgomery: “I find Dr. Nisbet {Rush usually misspells it Nesbit] has many friends in our board. When we meet I will give you some secret reasons why he should be our first principal. The President, Mr. Wilson, Col. McPherson, and Mr. . McClay are all in favor of him.”® Just what the secret reasons were is matter for conjecture. But there were ‘a number of reasons not secret. He was a man of repu- tation in Scotland and of great erudition. He had been openly in sympathy with the colonies in their struggle for independence. He was a Presbyterian minister, a forceful speaker, and it was even hoped that he might be able to unite the two wings of the Presbyterian church. The schism of the Presbyterians in the forties, caused, or at least occasioned, by the Tennents and ® Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 54. This was said by John King, D. D., who became president of the Board of Trustees on the death of Dickinson in 1808. “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 57. Feb. 17, 1784. “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 57. 126 BENJAMIN RUSH Whitefield, had indeed been bridged but yet the “hate- ful prejudice” was still alive.** The minute of the Board which records the election of Dr. Nisbet, reads as follows:** “At a meeting of the Trustees of Dickinson College at Carlisle on the 6th day of April, 1784, and continued by adjournments —Agreeably to the order of the day the Board pro- ceeded to the choice of a Principal: When the Rever- end Dr. Charles Nesbit of Montrose in Scotland was unanimously elected Principal of Dickinson College. Resolved: That two hundred and fifty pounds sterling be the annual salary allowed to Dr. Nesbit if he ac- cepts the place of Principal of the College; Resolved: That his salary commence on the day of his Embarkation ; Resolved: That he have a house for the accommoda- tion of himself and Family and that a Bill of fifty pounds sterling as a gratuity be immediately transmit- ted to him to assist in defraying the expense of his passage to this country. Resolved: That the President of this Board be re- ‘quested to transmit a copy of the above minute with the Bill of Exchange and a letter of invitation to Dr. Nesbit by the first convenient opportunity.” The min- ute is signed by “Will Linn, Sec’y.” “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 13; p. 59. “Rush MSS,, Vol. 41, p. 65. DICKINSON COLLEGE 127 When Dr. Nisbet was apprised of his election, he wavered long before coming to a final decision.** Meanwhile he kept up his correspondence with Rush, although it was largely about matters other than the subject in which they were both interested. About this time, too, Dr. Ewing of the University and Dr. Witherspoon of Princeton advised him not to accept. Dr. Ewing in particular declared that the College at Carlisle was “a party institution”, set on foot by the Episcopalians in revenge for the loss of the College of Philadelphia; that the available funds of the College were very small, estimating them at £300; that the drudgery of teaching at Carlisle would be unbearable to one of Dr. Nisbet’s training and instincts. We shall see that in the last assertion Dr. Ewing proved himself a true prophet. But in the end Dr. Nisbet resolved to make the venture in spite of these attempts to dissuade | him from accepting. It was in August, 1784, that Dr. Rush received Nisbet’s acceptance and his promise to cross the Atlantic the following spring.” “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 73; p. 77. * RUSH MSS., Vol. 41, p. 88. This report of the cor- respondence of Drs. Ewing and Witherspoon with Dr. Nisbet is based entirely on Dr. Rush’s report of a letter he received from Dr. Nisbet. The report is, however, so circumstantial and in keeping with other facts that we know that there seems to be no reason for doubting its accuracy. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 87. 128 BENJAMIN RUSH But before he embarked a curious incident oc- curred. The political situation in Pennsylvania was rather unstable at the time, and the opposition was in high hopes of being able to secure a majority of the seats in the Assembly and overturning the party in power under the leadership of Dickinson, then Presi- dent of the State. Mr. Dickinson, always careful and conservative to the point of vacillation, became alarmed for the future of the new institution and afraid that the Charter might be revoked. The expe- rience of the College of Philadelphia in 1779 indeed gave some ground for this fear. Concerned for the future of Dr. Nisbet, who was about to resign a good living and to cross the Atlantic to.engage in a new undertaking, he wrote™ to the prospective President that, owing to a change in political affairs, there is danger of a repeal of the “law establishing a college at Carlisle,” or at least that the design may be impeded; and that he feels in honor bound to advise him to give up all thoughts of coming to America as Principal, for the present, at least. This advice seems to have been given on Dickinson’s own and sole responsibility and certainly without the knowledge of the other Trustees. It is, therefore, safe to call his conduct ™Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 94. This is a copy only of the letter Dickinson wrote to Nisbet, but it purports to be exact. The letter is of date October 25, 1784. DICKINSON COLLEGE 129 presumptuous, but there are not sufficient reasons for the very “illiberal reflections” which Rush made upon the action. Rush wrote:” “Whether he [Governor Dickinson] purchased the vote that lately made him President of | the state by this secret act of treachery to the last hopes of the Republicans, or whether he wished to annihilate our college and thereby to prevent any fu- ture draughts being made upon him for its support, or whether he is under Quaker influence as to the future power of the Presbyterians, I know not, but certain it is he is become the most formidable enemy to our college that ever we have yet known.” The only excuse for such language, if it be an excuse, is that it was spoken in the sudden heat of passion. He proceeds: “I have spoken very plainly to Mr. Dickin- son, and set before him thé consequences of his con- duct in strong terms. I have told him that he has injured not only the Republican party, but their op- ponents, who, bad as they are in some things, are in- capable of the base action he has suspected them of committing. I have set forth the disgrace we must incur in Scotland and the operation of his letter upon the reputation of the trustees. But all this has had no effect upon him. He positively refuses to contra- dict his letter. We parted with his saying that ‘it be- ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 95. November 13, 1784. 130 BENJAMIN RUSH came us to act with prudence’. I replied in a warm tone that ‘Prudence, where honor was concerned, was a rascally virtue.’”” Two days later Rush added’ that Dickinson had at last agreed to write to Dr. Nisbet, and that the Trustees residing in Philadelphia would meet to disapprove Dickinson’s advice and to prepare a letter to Dr. Nisbet assuring him that “our Charter and his support are equally safe.” This intelligence. if the language were strictly construed, might not have offered much comfort. Rush also urged the Trustees living at Carlisle, to write a similar letter, but advised that, to shield Dickinson, the meeting should not be public. There is a copy of Dickinson’s retraction among the Rush papers. It reads as follows:* “Since my let- ter to you of the 25th of last month the general as- sembly of this state has met and has evidenced such a temper of conciliation and liberality, as to present a more favorable prospect of harmony and general good in public measures, than was exhibited before their session. Many of the friends of the College at Carlisle are fully convinced that no attempts will be made against that establishment; or that, if they should be, that they will be unsuccessful—TI must confess that ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 95. November 15, 1784. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 98. Copy Dickinson to Nisbet,’ November 15, 1784. DICKINSON COLLEGE 131 my hopes are much stronger than they were in favor of the institution.” “As several of the trustees who are gentlemen of the strictest integrity and distinguished abilities pro- pose writing to you by this opportunity I am perfectly convinced that you may intirely [sic] confide in the intelligence they may transmit.” Dr. Rush said :’° “In conducting this business to the present (I hope) happy issue I have experienced degrees of anxiety I never felt before.” Dr. Nisbet arrived in Philadelphia in June, 1785. Rush welcomed him and introduced him to his friends who were, many of them, among the most influential in the state. Franklin was then President of the Executive Council of the state; John Dickinson had just relinquished that office. William Bingham was noted for his wealth and his delightful family and social life; James Wilson, for his legal talent, al- though his greatest work was still to be accomplished. Naturally Dr. Rush felt himself in a measure respon- sible for the future of both Dr. Nisbet himself and of Dickinson College. That he recognized the need of advertising the new institution is well shown in the suggestions he gave to John Montgomery for Dr. Nisbet’s reception at ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 95. 132 BENJAMIN RUSH Carlisle."* He urged that an address of welcome should be delivered, that the Doctor should be met on the way and conducted into the town by as many of the Trustees and citizens as could be collected, and that while the procession marched through the town the courthouse bell should be rung. The news of these things, he said, will make a “clever paragraph” for the Philadelphia papers and perhaps allure some students. Dr. Nisbet reached Carlisle on the Fourth of July, 1785. A few sentences from one of his letters will show how he was received.”". “We left York,” he says, “on Monday the 4th, breakfasted at the Half-Way House, and were met by the light horse belonging to Carlisle at Yellow-Breeches Creek, by whom we were conducted to the Boiling Springs, near the Iron Works. Here we found the inhabitants of Carlisle assembled to celebrate the anniversary of the Decla- ration of Independence. We dined in the open air.” ... There was an address of welcome and a response, but he tells us that he could make but a meagre reply owing to the strength of his feelings, “which are easily overpowered by anything of public ceremony.” Dr. Rush had now been instrumental in bringing a *Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 126. Rush to Montgomery, June 8, 1785. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 136. Nisbet to Rush, July 18, 1785. L, DICKINSON COLLEGE 133 second Scottish educator to America, but he soon learned that the second was to be very much more troublesome to him than Dr. Witherspoon had been. Within two weeks after his arrival on the scene, where he was “to end his days,” Dr. Nisbet found a great deal to criticize in his new situation. The College had been opened in the fall of 1784. Near the end of August of that year there were ten boys—prospective students—at Carlisle and others had made application to come. The Trustees resident at Carlisle therefore wrote to Dr. Rush for a teacher of mathematics; and at the meeting of the Board in September the appoint- of a teacher of geography, mathematics and natural philosophy at a salary not to exceed’ one hundred and thirty pounds a year was authorized.”* Dr. Rush and Colonel Montgomery were commissioned to make the appointment and they engaged the services of a Mr. Ross.”® The boys do not seem to have been graded properly or perhaps at all. Dr. Nisbet at once pointed out that nothing could be done with them until the higher classes were separated from the lower; and that Mr. Ross had three men’s work to do. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 90. Armstrong to Rush, Aug. 30, 1784, and p. 91. Duncan to Rush, October 1, 1784. ® Professor Ross resigned 1792 to go to another infant institution, Franklin College, Lancaster, Pa. Himes, A Sketch of Dickinson College. He became known later as the author of a Latin Grammar. 134 BENJAMIN RUSH Nisbet learned, too, that the available funds of the College were extremely low, much lower apparently than he had been led to believe from Rush’s enthusi- asm. He speaks also® of “the strange proposal you [Dr. Rush] made me soon after my landing, to give up my bargain with the Trustees.” From the context it is clear that the proposal was about his salary. He felt that he was being neglected by Rush. When the latter visited at Carlisle and stayed for some time with. Colonel Montgomery without calling on Dr. Nisbet, he received the following note: “Tomb of Dickinson’s College, August 10, 1785.” “Dear Sir: And is this thy Kindness to thy Friend? To have been two whole [word omitted, days?] in the Place, without favouring [me?] with a single mo- ment’s Tete-a-tete? These [things?] ought not so to be. If I were in health, I should have waited on you by Night or by Day to have snatched every moment you could spare. Please let me know by the Bearer, if or when I am to be favoured with a few minutes conference before you leave the place.” “T am, Dear Sir” “Your much injured” “Chas. Nisbet.” "Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 8. Nisbet to Rush, March 15, 1786. DICKINSON COLLEGE 135 The relations between the two men grew worse before they grew better. For a time all correspond- ence between them ceased. Rush once declared that he would receive no communication from the Princi- pal that had not first been shown to one of the Trus- tees at Carlisle.®? Meanwhile there was a good deal in their sur- roundings that did not please Dr. Nisbet and his fam- ily. They had landed in the midst of an American summer and the excessive heat greatly oppressed them. The family very soon planned to return to Scot- land, it seems, and before the summer was over, Dr. Nisbet himself was anxious to accompany them. To make matters worse, he suffered with malaria and fever, as a result of the unhealthy location of his resi- dence. Members of his family, too, were ill, and he himself at times despaired of his life. His letters to Rush were filled with complaints about everybody and everything; and apparently Rush was not very sym- pathetic. But to judge safely, one should have his replies to Nisbet, which are not preserved. A good deal of information can be gleaned from Nisbet’s let- | ters to Rush and from various letters by Rush to other members of the Board of Trustées.*? Dr. Rush did, * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 22. Rush to Montgomery, Aug. 19, 1786. ® This correspondence is found in the later pages of Vol. 41 of the Rush Manuscripts. 136 BENJAMIN RUSH however, urge that the Board should provide other quarters for the principal’s family. But nothing was done, as suitable houses in Carlisle were scarce.** In the fall, Dr. Nisbet resigned. The formal resig- nation is dated October 18, 1785, but the arrangements for his leaving had been begun about a month before.* As early as September 4th, he wrote to Rush, that he is determined to return to Scotland because his health is wrecked and he will not “be able to be of any service or even to exist in America.” About this time he tried to get back his former situation as pastor at Montrose. He indignantly declares that he had not expected to be insulted by the Trustees by being told that they would not pay his passage home. “Sir,” he wrote, “T have the magnanimity, weak as I am, not to ask it if I could do without it. But Necessity obliges me and you owe it to your own character and to the char- acter of America, even not to harry us away as felons, or even as unserviceable dogs, when we have lost all our means of subsistence in your service.” And he declares that it is highly improper for the “most learn- ed man in America” to display his learning to the affront of a poor old clergyman.® * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 9. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 157 and preceding pages. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 145. Nisbet to Rush, Sept. 4, 1785. DICKINSON COLLEGE 137 The Board accepted Dr. Nisbet’s resignation, and agreed to pay his traveling expenses to Scotland. A committee was appointed to pay his way to Phila- delphia, and another, composed of Trustees living in Philadelphia, to pay his passage across the Atlantic. From the same letter we learn that Dr. Davidson was appointed Principal pro tempore.** For some unex- plained reason the ship on which Dr. Nisbet had in- tended to sail did not arrive when due, and, with the advent of cooler weather, his health improved. By the “Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 159. Armstrong to Rush, Oct. 22, 1785. Dr. Robert Davidson was a professor in the Uni- versity of the State of Pennsylvania when Dickinson College was incorporated. Col. Montgomery suggested his appoint- ment to a professorship at Carlisle, and Dr. Rush readily acceded, saying he would make “an excellent professor”. He was appointed in April, 1784. During the sickness and inter- regnum of Dr. Nisbet he was president pro tempore of the College and acquitted himself well. Col. Montgomery was anxious to have him elected as principal, instead of Dr. Nis- bet, after the latter’s resignation in the fall of 1785. Rush, too, seems to have been a friend of Dr, Davidson’s and re- peatedly commends his loyalty to the College. But there was opposition in the Board, probably from General Arm- strong and his adherents, to his elevation to the “Principal- ship”. After Dr. Nisbet’s death, twenty years later, he again became principal pro tempore until a permament successor was chosen. General Armstrong, too, had passed away in the mean time and he could now have had the presidency. But he declined, as he preferred to retain the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Carlisle, to which he had been chosen, 138 BENJAMIN RUSH end of November he had so far recovered that he wished to stay, and with childish evasions he tried to explain away the plain meaning of his former state- ments.*’ It was freely declared by various members of the Board—with what justice is hard to say—that his change of front was due not so much to the im- provement of his health as to the information that some of the Trustees had been successful in collecting money and that the vacancy in the parish at Montrose had been filled. When he learned that Dr. Nisbet had agreed to stay, Rush wrote :** “If he concludes to stay I take it for granted he will be re-elected. We cannot do other- wise without incurring the folly of instability and thereby of resembling himself. I think as we have a new bargain to make, we ought to offer him only £300 a year currency, until the college and his repu- tation recover from the blow they have both re- ceived by his late conduct. When I urge the measure of re-electing him, you cannot suppose I can feel much regard for him or his family. He has treated me cruelly and his son still worse—but I freely forgive them both—and if they mend their manners and if the Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 8. Nisbet to Rush, March 15, 1786. * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 165. Rush to Montgomery, Nov. 28, 1785. DICKINSON COLLEGE 139 Doctor will do his duty and give over whining and complaining I shall love and serve him as well as if nothing had happened.” John King, another Trustee, wrote in a similar vein.*® After mentioning Dr. Nis- bet’s resignation he reported that General Armstrong is greatly in favor of offering the office to him again; said he was sorry that the ship did not come when the Doctor was in the mood for going; and declared that he feared Nisbet wanted to stay only because, the Assembly seemed in a mood to vote lands® and be- cause Colonel Montgomery had succeeded with his collections at Baltimore. Dickinson wrote against considering Dr. Nisbet’s reinstatement under any cir- cumstances. With his characteristic caution, he avoid- ed mentioning any names, but wrote:** “I am not at all surprised, that the person you mention ‘wavers about returning’, but am beyond all expression sur- prised that any of the concerned should think of re- taining him, let the terms be ever so much lowered, after being acquainted with the circumstances you communicated to me.”” * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 167. King to Rush, Dec. 6. 1785. *Tt was about this time that the Assembly made its first appropriation to Dickinson College. See p. 120. "Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 168. Dickinson to Rush, Dec. 7, 1785. "Tt would be interesting to know what these “circum- stances” were. Rush accused Nisbet — and Nisbet denied 140 BENJAMIN RUSH However, the majority of the Trustees were in favor of reinstatement. The matter of the salary was very unwisely left indefinite. Meanwhile there was a great deal of unamiable correspondence between Nis- bet and Rush. The truth is that they both had marked infirmities of temper. Rush at one time threatened to resign from the Board unless the Trustees should prevail on Dr. Nisbet to change his conduct both with regard to himself personally and to the College.** The threat was effective with General Armstrong in par- ticular, who early became Dr. Nisbet’s mainstay on the Board, and Rush did not resign.™ And so, with varying degrees of hostility between Rush and Nisbet, broken by several partially success- ful attempts on the part of the two men and of their friends to heal the breach, they retained their respec- tive positions. Dr, Nisbet died in 1804 as President of Dickinson College after a service of about twenty the accusation — of making, to the enemies of the college in Philadelphia, statements derogatory to the institution. This was probably well-founded. Nisbet was very bitter against the Trustees during a large part of his term as president; and the school at first certainly was a “poor affair”, to quote Nisbet, as compared with his standards. * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 26. Rush to Montgomery, Sept. 13, 1786. *Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 29. Rush to Montgomery, Oct. 12, 1786. ‘DICKINSON COLLEGE 141 years, and Dr. Rush at his death, nine years later, was still a member of its Board of Trustees. It is easy at this distance for the “plain man, in a cool moment” to see why they differed. In the first place, their views of life were different. Although Dr. Nisbet had approved the Revolution, that approval was given from a distance to a theoretical revolution worked out on paper. He was at heart a conservative, and when he came into touch with events in the new democracy, and saw the rancor and party strife, the wire-pulling and the playing for position, he would have none of it. Rush, too, may have deplored this atmosphere, but he had been raised in it and had be- come accustomed to it. Rush, in his enthusiasm, had failed to see the privations in store for a man with an established position, in going to a raw country. No doubt he had in his mind’s eye the career of Wither- spoon, signer, patriot, statesman. When he succeeded in undeceiving himself, he went too far and said, “Poor College ;” “we are unfortunate in our principal.” Rush was lacking in sympathy for other men’s points of view. And Nisbet was not fitted to deal with frontiers- men. In education and professional instincts he was at least a century in advance of the times in America. The result was that he was not appreciated for what he was but was decried for not being what he was not. Dickinson College at that day needed a President with 142 BENJAMIN RUSH a modicum of education, but a persuasive speaker and a money gatherer. Nisbet desired a quiet retreat with books, a secure position and salary, and students who came without urging, to be instructed. Of course he was disappointed, and by the time he became adjusted, his life was nearly spent.*® When Dr. Nisbet took up his duties as Principal of Dickinson College (and for ten years thereafter) there was no rigid classification of the students on the basis of the amount of collegiate work done by each. ' There were no freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors. No definite requirements for graduation had been laid down. There was no course of study; and no pre- requisites had to be met before a more advanced subject could be begun. The boys entered irregularly through the year, and the progress of the more ad- vanced students was retarded by the presence among them of newcomers who required the most elementary treatment of the subjects under discussion. Other difficulties impeded progress. The College classes, for want of room, frequently had to meet in a corner of * There is a great deal of material on the relations be- tween Drs. Rush and Nisbet in the Rush Collection at the Ridgway Library. The reader will no doubt be thankful that it has been omitted; so much, it was, however, thought neces- sary to reproduce because it shows some of the internal difficulties in the management of the College and because of biographical requirements. DICKINSON COLLEGE 143 the grammar school.** There was no librarian and the books were being carried away. The location of the College in a frontier village, without a single book- store, was an inconvenience, made more serious by the delay and expense of ordering and carrying books from Philadelphia. The Faculty at that time consisted of three men. Mr. James Ross, who had been teaching at Carlisle now for over a year, had charge of the preparatory students in the grammar school. These in November, 1786, numbered forty-one. Dr. Robert Davidson, a Presbyterian minister, and professor of the classical languages at the University, was engaged to teach the same subjects in the College. He entered on his du- ties in 1785. But he also taught other very much more elementary matters. For example, he was the author of one of those rhyming geographies, once so popular, but which a deserved neglect has long since overtaken. He is said to have been extremely vain of this produc- tion written in question and answer form, and in which the geographical rhymes were introduced by a rhymed acrostic on his own name. “Round the globe now to rove and its surface survey, Oh, youth of America, hasten away ; Bid adieu for awhile to the toys you desire, * Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 174; Vol. 42, p. 9. Letters by Nisbet. 144 BENJAMIN RUSH Earth’s beauties to view, and its wonders admire; Refuse not instruction, improve well your time; They are happy in age who are wise in their prime.’ The reader will be spared the rest of this doggerel, which runs for eight lines more®™” (in order to complete the Doctor’s surname). The contents of this book— acrostic and all—were committed to memory by the -author’s charges. The third and last member of the Faculty at the beginning was Dr. Nisbet himself, who read lectures on logic, metaphysics, and moral philos- ophy, to which he premised a short account of the classics, of the history of philosophy and of criticism. He wrote: “I sometimes explain a classic critically in the beginning [of the hour] before the class is fully assembled.”** All this to students of the most various "Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, LL.D., Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1872, pp. 659 ff. Chief Justice Taney wrote an autobiography covering his early career and including his college life. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1795 after a residence of three years. His ac- count of the College, while interesting, has to be used with care, for it was written from memory, and about sixty years after graduation. He is wide of the mark, for example, when he says that his class at graduation numbered “twenty or thirty” (p. 47). And there are other evidences of an en- feesied memory. "This and the following quotation are from a letter by Dr. Nisbet to Judge Allison, Pittsburgh, 1792. Quoted by Crookes, “Dickinson College: The History of a Hundred Years.” DICKINSON COLLEGE 145 stages of training, indiscriminately. As late as 1792, he said: “We have a sort of four classes, though as most of our students are at their own disposal, they attend several at the same time. You may be sure our lec- tures are very imperfect, for we are yet in the day of small things. I have only mentioned this summary for your own private satisfaction as I would not wish it to be known in Scotland what poor things we are doing in America.” In 1796, however, the Faculty organized the student body into three classes calling them freshmen, junior and senior.*® But the number of students—never large—declined, and two years la- ter the plan was again abandoned. Not only so, but it was decided to grant the degree of Bachelor of Arts at the end of a single year’s college work. This plan was now followed for three years in succession, in 1799, 1800 and 1801. The authority for this statement is in a letter by Dr. Nisbet to Dr. Rush, which must be reproduced in part for the light it throws upon condi- tions in the College at this time. “The teacher of the grammar school,” says Dr. Nisbet,*° “as well as Dr. *C. F. Himes, A Sketch of Dickinson College, p. 43. 2% This letter (Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 95) was written Nov, 12, 1803. While Nisbet had a personal pecuniary in- terest in the representation he makes, yet the truth of the matter, as far as the shortened course is concerned, must have been known to Dr. Rush and must, therefore, have been substantially as stated above. 146 BENJAMIN RUSH Davidson and Mr. McCormick had been obliged to vote for this Restriction, [of the course of study] on a Combination of the Students—encouraged by the Trustees—which took place on the 7th of Nov., 1798. On that Day, having examined a Class of Students newly entered, I went to College to begin my Lessons but no students attended, and Mr. Thomson who was in the secret, told me that I might have a conference with the students at two o’clock, but that they had unanimously agreed that they would leave college unless the time of study was restricted to one year. On this I wrote to Mr. Montgomery, President (pro tem.) of the Trustees, to call a meeting, to support their authority against the Combination of students as the Trustees had a little before declared that every student should enter as a freshman and should rank the following year as a junior and the following year as a senior having borne these appellations respective- ly for a year each. But now it was determined that they should be freshmen, seniors and juniors at once and complete all their studies in one year. Mr. Mont- gomery told me that the matter was referred to the faculty and on meeting with them I found that the Trustees had taken their measures so effectively that all my colleagues voted for the yearling system. It was truly a Wonder that any Seminary could exist, after such a Degradation for in the years 1799, 1800, DICKINSON COLLEGE 147 and 1801 there were yearling graduates and yearly Commencements. The Trustees indeed repealed their favorite Act for yearly Commencements but they did it privately and I only learned of the repeal from a Confidante of the Trustees. We took the liberty of de- taining those students who had entered in Nov. 1801 till Sept. 1803 when we had our last! Commence- ment.” It was not until 1814 and under Dr. Nisbet’s successor that a full four-year course was established?” and maintained. That the relations between the Board of Trustees and the President of the College were strained at the time when the above letter was written, is evident. The trouble originated, as we have seen, soon after Dr. Nisbet’s arrival and was never healed, to the day of his death. In 1792 he wrote,’ “I: know nothing of their [the Trustees’] doings, except what I learn from the newspapers, as they are too great men to let me know anything of what they have done, or intend to do,” and so forth. A portion of this difference of opinion related to the internal management of the College, and particularly to the matter of discipline, and seems to have originated from a defect of the ™ The date of this letter, Nov. 12, 1803, is given in the preceding note. *2C, F. Himes, A Sketch of Dickinson College, p. 43. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 68. Nisbet to Rush, Dec. 26, 1792, 148 BENJAMIN RUSH Charter, which gave to the Board and the Principal jointly the power to regulate the conduct of the stu- dents. The result was that the interference of the Trustees with the discipline of the school soon became chronic and eventually ruined its usefulness. The Board had, in August, 1785, adopted a “Plan of Edu- cation” which made provision for a sort of Faculty Court to try student offenses. Even the penalties to be inflicted—mostly in the form of fines to be paid in money—were specified. The blame for this legisla- tion, or at least for its origin, seems to lie on the shoulders of Dr. Rush.*° He had the foolish notion that a school of boys ranging in age from fifteen to eighteen years could be maintained as a pure democ- racy. Dr. Nisbet constantly insisted that the main- tenance of discipline was a function of the teacher. Schools, he said, cannot be noiseless and the teacher alone should have the right (as he alone is in a position to judge) to decide whether the noise is excessive or unnecessary. Furthermore, the Faculty has not the time to try petty causes and to deliberate gravely upon them. But all his representations went unheeded.” *C, F. Himes, A Sketch of Dickinson College, p. 51. ** Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 33. Letter from Rush to the Trustees, October 21, 1786; Vol. 41, p. 140, dated August 20, 1785. ** Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 36. President’s Report to the DICKINSON COLLEGE 149 A second occasion for dispute between Dr. Nisbet and the Board was furnished by the method of impart- ing instruction employed in the College. What this method was is well told by Chief-Justice Taney. Speak- ing of Dr. Nisbet he says,’*? “His mode of instruction was by lectures written out and read to the class slow- ly, so that we might write it down; yet it required a pretty good penman and fixed attention to keep up with him; and with all my efforts, I was sensible that his idea was not always expressed with perfect accuracy in my copy. But it was always sufficiently full to enable me to recall the substance of what he had said, when, in order to impress it upon my mind, I read it over.” The Trustees repeatedly recommended by appropriate resolutions that this lecture-method be modified by the introduction of frequent exercises and recitations, but without effect. Remembering the youthfulness of the “college man” of that day—Taney was only eighteen at graduation—we may be sure that the contention of the Trustees embodied the better pedagogy. Both the Trustees and the students objected not Board of Trustees, Nov. 15, 1786; also p. 87, Sept. 15, 1801, Mentgomery to Rush. 1% Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, pp. 39, 40. An account of this matter based, however, on the pre- ceding is also given in C. F. Himes, A Sketch of Dickinson College, p. 43. 150 BENJAMIN RUSH only to the method, but also to some of the matter taught in the College. Although the President was reported to be a Whig*®* and to have suffered in Scot- land for his sympathy with the Americans in the Revo- lution,’ yet when he came to see Democracy at close range, it did not seem so attractive. As we have al- ready seen, he was a man of the study, not a man for the frontier. He was, moreover, strongly impressed with his own importance and not always tactful in expressing his ideas. In the very first Commencement address he delivered, his comparisons between Scot- land and America as to the learning, honor, justice and public faith of the two countries were very unfavor- able to the United States. And his remarks about some of the Trustees, and Rush in particular, can be regarded as nothing less than grossly insulting, if they were correctly reported."° His political ideals were embodied most nearly in America by the Federalists and he strongly championed the administration of Adams. Taney says: “He had no faith in our institutions, and did not believe in their stability, or in their capacity to protect the rights of person or property against the impulses of popular passion, *® Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 127. *° On conditions at the College, see a long letter by Nis- bet to Rush, Rush MSS., Vol. 42, pp. 174-176. *° Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 44. 111 Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney p. 41. DICKINSON COLLEGE 151 which combinations of designing men might con- tinue to excite. These opinions were monstrous heresies in our eyes. But we heard them with good humor, and without offending him by any mark of disapprobation in his presence. We supposed they were the necessary consequence of his birth and edu- cation in Scotland. Yet many, I believe a majority of the class, would not write down those portions of his lectures; and, if the opinions had been expressed by any other professor, the class would probably have openly rebelled.” Rush also said, Dr. Nisbet’s politics hurt the College in which all reference to partisan mat- ters should have been avoided;"? and again, “I la- ment, deeply lament the declining state of our col- lege... . Nothing can be done to retrieve its character while high-toned federal politics are taught in it.” In an account of the beginnings of Dickinson Col- lege some mention should be made of the early homes of the institution. But the data are very scanty and sometimes contradictory. The school was opened first in what was known as the “public buildings”. Just what these were, it is difficult to determine, but the barracks constructed in 1777 by some of the Hessian prisoners taken at Trenton, are probably meant. Per- mission to use these for college purposes was obtained 2? Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 77. Rush to Montgomery, June 21, 1799, 6 _ 152 BENJAMIN RUSH from the federal government through the agency of « Dr. Rush.* But as the buildings were near a marsh which made the location an unhealthy one and were in other ways unsuitable, the College was soon re- moved'* at the instance of Rush, to a small building of four rooms at the corner of Bedford Street and Liberty Alley, and this continued to be its home for twenty years. “The building used,” says Taney,"* “was a small and shabby one, fronting a dirty alley, but with a large open lot in the rear, where we often amused ourselves with playing bandy.” As early as 1785 Rush had recommended’® the erection of a building for the College “100 by 60 feet, with a hall and six rooms in it at the west end of the town.” He suggested that contributions in materials and labor might be secured from the citizens, thus 8 Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 108; p. 110; p. 112. Richard Henry Lee to Rush; p. 111, James McHenry to Rush; p. 117, John Jay to Rush. All these men were personally acquaint- ed with Dr. Rush and McHenry, War Secretary under Wash- ington, had been his pupil in the Medical school. ™ This matter of the earliest location of the college is hard to make out. Perhaps it was only that Dr. Nisbet’s family were quartered in the public buildings and that the college from the first was located on Bedford street. See also in this connection Statutes-at-Large of Pennsylvania, Vol. XTIT, p. 132 ff. Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, p. 38. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 140. DICKINSON COLLEGE 153 lessening the necessary outlay of money.’?? But funds were scarce; there was dissension in the Board; none of the other Trustees had the enthusiasm and energy of Rush, and nothing was done. Some of the Trustees —Montgomery in particular—were eager to rent “the works”. Rush objected to their unhealthy situation and even threatened to resign from the Board if this “mad scheme” were pursued.""* But coming to believe that the marsh could be drained, he changed his mind and urged their purchase.4® This plan was in turn given up probably because the College did not have the twenty thousand dollars asked by the government. In the early days of the College Dr. Rush believed that the Penn family stood ready to donate a tract of fifteen or twenty acres in Carlisle to the College for a campus.?”° The donation was never made, however. In 1791 a committee of the Board was appointed to secure a site and erect a building upon it. But they did not act for want of sufficient funds, no doubt—till 1798, when they bought eight acres of the present cam- -pus from the Penn family for one hundred and fifty dollars.1#*_The corner-stone for the first building was “7 Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 141. "8 Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 146. *% Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 46, p. 47. *° Rush MSS., Vol. 41, p. 42. 2 Geo. R. Crookes, Dickinson College: The History of a Hundred Years. 154 BENJAMIN RUSH laid in June, 1799, but the building was not completed for several years. The Trustees had great difficulty in obtaining sufficient money to meet even the current expenses, and in some years fell into arrears for the professors’ salaries to the amount of almost £200. The number of students, too, was decreasing—partly, of course, because of the one-year course, which re- quired an entirely new body of students every year— until for several years it seemed as if no building would be necessary, because there would soon be no students.’?? In a letter to Montgomery Rush says he hopes “it will not become necessary for Dr. Nisbet to publish that the College has not been discontinued.” But other sorrows were in store for the College. The structure that had been nearly four years in build- ing was nearing completion at the beginning of 1803. It contained twelve rooms, three of them entirely fin- ished and even occupied in January of that year. The College equipment had not yet been moved in, how- ever, and very fortunately, for on February 3, 1803, the building caught fire from some hot ashes and burned to the ground.’* A fire had shortly before dev- astated Nassau Hall at Princeton. It was a hard ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 42, pp. 84, 87, 88. *™ Thid., p. 88. ™ There are difficulties in every possible interpretation of the data about the fire or fires which destroyed the College building or buildings. I have written this account on the DICKINSON COLLEGE 155 blow, and only Nisbet seems to have felt little grief at the loss. The day after the fire he writes to Judge Allison,!> “You must have heard that our New Col- lege was burned down on the 3rd current. We had been bothered by our Trustees to make our College - conform to Princeton College. We have now attained a pretty near conformity to it by having our new build- ing burnt to the ground. But it could not stand as it was founded in fraud and knavery. I have been medi- tating on Jeremiah 22:13, ‘Woe unto him that build- eth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor’s service with- out wages, and giveth him not for his work.’” It must be admitted that Dr. Nisbet was in part justified in this reference to the large amounts of unpaid salary theory that there was only one fire—Feb. 3, 1803—but this requires me to do violence to two letters, one by Rush and one by Montgomery, both dated in 1802. By assuming that these dates are wrong the above interpretation of the known facts becomes possible. The letters in question are apparent- ly originals, not copies. The theory that there were two fires — one Feb. 1802 and another Feb. 3, 1803 — labors under still greater difficulties. There is no evidence of two building campaigns. It seems impossible that a building should have been brought near to completion in a year when we remem- ber how slowly the work on the buildings begun in 1799 and in 1803 progressed. And a letter by Dr. Nisbet of Feb. 4, 1803, mentions only the one fire. %5 Geo. R. Crookes, Dickinson College: The History of a Hundred Years. 156 BENJAMIN RUSH due him. Before another building was completed, he had passed away and his heirs were compelled to at- tach the College property to recover arrears of salary amounting, with interest, to six thousand dollars.’ Montgomery, who saw the fire, expresses his dismay at the destruction of the “fine large building”, “orna- mental and elegant”, in a letter to Rush. And Rush himself seems to have lost hope for a moment. “It has added,” he says,’ “a fresh instance to the number of the unsuccessful issues to the labors of. my life.” But hope soon revived. A subscription was start- ed at Carlisle and very generous donations were ob- tained. The members of Congress contributed. Jeffer- son gave one hundred dollars. Dr. Rush suggested another appeal to the bounty of the state but nothing seems to have been obtained from this source. In August, 1803 a new building—the present West Col- lege, was started.17® It was not finished until 1806. The last donation to it was made by Dr. Rush, who contributed the money to construct some of the parti- tions between the various rooms. In 1804, as we have seen, Dr. Nisbet died. His place was taken for a time by Dr. Davidson who was * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 126. This attachment was issued about January, 1810. * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 88. This building was designed by Latrobe, public archi- tect at Washington. DICKINSON COLLEGE 157 appointed President pro tempore. There were several reasons against appointing -him permanently. He was precise and pedantic, and therefore not very popular with the students, if Taney’s memory served him.1”° He was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Carlisle and preferred to give all this time to ministerial duties. And there was opposition to him in the Board. But he continued to direct the school for several years until a successor to Dr. Nisbet should be chosen. And before he finally decided to resign all connection with the school, it seems that the presidency was offered to him and that he refused it.12° In 1808, Dr. Samuel Miller, later a Trustee of Princeton and a Professor in its Theological Seminary, was elected President of Dickinson at a salary “for the present” of $1000 a year ; but he declined the honor."*! It is probable that this tender of the office was made through Dr. Rush, for he and Dr. Miller were personal friends, and the letter carrying the declination was directed to Rush and is preserved among his manuscripts.7%? Dr. Rush was now asked to correspond with the colleges of the country to find a Principal.1** A good deal of difficulty was experienced in finding a suitable candidate, for Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, p. 41 ff. *° Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 104. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 27, p. 130. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 27, p. 130. ** Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 114. 158 BENJAMIN RUSH the College was not sufficiently prosperous and well known to attract a first-class man. However, in June, 1809, the Reverend Jeremiah Atwater, President of Middlebury College, Vermont, was chosen, and soon after he sent Dr. Rush a letter signifying his accept- ance.184 President Atwater came to Carlisle in September, stopping in Philadelphia on the way, where he was entertained by Dr. Rush.***° The College now began to prosper. Atwater, trained in America, used to hard- ships, and accustomed to “small things” in education, was well pleased with his situation, because he did not expect too much. The building struck him as be- ing “elegant and spacious”. His reception by Trus- tees, citizens and students was cordial. The number of students soon began to increase. But the internal affairs of the College were very much like those of a “city broken down and without walls. I find that al- most everything is to be begun anew. I find many discouragements but nothing great or arduous is ac- ™ Mr. Atwater was called to the notice of Dr. Rush through Dr. Dwight, then President of Yale College. Dr. Dwight had dined with Dr. Rush when on a visit to Philadel- phia several years before. Atwater was a graduate of Yale. See Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 119; p. 97. It is also a matter of a little interest that Atwater, while at Yale, won a prize offered by Noah Webster, the lexicographer. ** Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 120. DICKINSON COLLEGE 159 complished without patient industry and laborious -efforts.’’*** As already indicated, many of these diffi- culties were overcome, and for several years the Col- lege was fortunate in not having a history. There are, however, in the Rush papers a number of disconnected notices of events occurring in Presi- dent Atwater’s administration that may be assembled here. Mr. Dickinson had died in 1808 without making any bequest to the College. Mr. Atwater tried a num- ber of times, through Dr. Rush, to secure some money from the estate for the College. But we do not read that he was successful.*’ He also tried to get further aid from the Legislature.1** One plan was to sell back to the State the College lands at $4 an acre, but noth- ing came of it. In 1810, Mr. Atwater made out the first catalog of the College that was ever printed. He discovered that there were three vacancies at the Board of Trustees.” In 1810, also, Dr. Rush purchased for the College_¥ some important chemical and physical apparatus, the bills for which have been preserved.**° The same year, * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 120. Atwater to Rush, Oct. 2 1809. A | 7 Rush MSS., Vol. 42, pp. 122, 126, 127, 138. 28 Rush MSS., Vol. 42, pp. 120, 126, 127. * Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 137. “Tpid., pp. 142, 143, 144. 160 BENJAMIN RUSH the Board resolved “that Dr. Rush be empowered and directed to expend $200 in the purchase of such books for the Library as he may deem most useful,”"** and President Atwater had a list of those they already had in the Library made out, so as to avoid duplication.’ In the following year (1811) a chair of Chemistry was established and Dr. Thomas Cooper—the son-in-law of Joseph Priestley and one of the most versatile of men—was added to the Faculty. The University of Pennsylvania conferred the de- gree of Doctor of Divinity upon President Atwater in 1811. In a letter of that year to Dr. Rush, he thanks him for his “friendly share” in the matter and con- tinues :4* “The principal circumstance that might rec- oncile me to it, is that in my office here, I have been from the first saluted with the title of ‘Doctor’ which, while I had no claims to it, was rather embarrassing to me.” There are no sufficient data to fix the number of students attending the College in this early period, or even of the number of graduates of each year. Such data as exist will here be detailed. In the catalog, published in 1810, it is stated that there were then 223 graduates of the institution, all of whom had received ™ Rush MSS.. Vol. 42, p. 145. ™ Toid., p. 146. ™ Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 157. DICKINSON COLLEGE 161 the A. B. degree. The number of graduates for several of the years is shown in the following table: Commencement Number of Graduates September 27, 1787 '9 May 7, 1788 11 June 3, 1789 11 September 28, 1790 12 1791—No Commencement May 2, 1792 Number unknown 1802 8 May, 1805—Two classes, number not known. October, 1805—Number not known. When Dr. Nisbet issued his first presidential re- port (Nov. 15, 1786), there were forty-one boys in the grammar school and twenty in the College.’** In 1788 the number of students is reported as declining.*** In May, 1801, there were forty students,** but whether this included the grammar school, cannot be made out. In the fall of 1801 there was a further decrease.**’ In June, 1803, the school was again increasing. In 1809 “Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 36. “ Tbid., p. 48. “© Rush MISS., Vol. 42, p. 83. “ Tbid., pp. 87, 88. 162 BENJAMIN RUSH they numbered 61;* in 1810, 77; in November, 1810, nearly 90;° in May, 1811, there were 110.7% Thus the school gradually raised its head again and in Rush’s latter years he was fully convinced that the institution was now firmly established and would con- tinue to promulgate sound learning in “the western parts” of Pennsylvania. In a letter to John Adams, less than a year and a half before his death (Dec. 26, 1811) in writing out a list of the hostilities he had in- curred during his lifetime he adds: “I forgot to mention a 6th source of hostility to me from a part of my fellow citizens. It was brought on by my concur- ring in establishing a College at Carlisle in this state. .... [It is] now in the hands chiefly of the Presbyte- rians [and] is a flourishing institution—the President, a Dr. Atwater, has given it great celebrity.” But this era of prosperity lasted only a few years longer, when the defect of the Charter, already noticed, caused the complete downfall of the institution. Presi- dent Atwater had, soon after the beginning of his ad- ministration, hinted at some disciplinary troubles, and insisted, in opposition to Rush’s theory, that the stu- dents lodge in the College under tutors, as was the “6 Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 131. “ Thid., p. 148. “ Thid., p. 156. * Rush MSS., Vol. 29, p. 138, DICKINSON COLLEGE 163 practice at Princeton at this time.*? A little later he again put his finger on the same sore, declaring that the difficulties of the college had their origin in the “want of a strong government” ;*°* and that “the Trus- tees were very much divided”.** Things went on in this way for a number of years, however, before the crisis was reached. In June, 1815, the Board of Trus- tees passed a resolution requiring the Principal and the professors to report each week to the Secretary of the Board all student delinquencies and offenses with the judgment of the Faculty as to the disposition to be made of each case.*** Within a few months Presi- dent Atwater.and Professors Cooper and Shaw re- signed. The Reverend John McKnight was appointed President pro tempore but the work of the year was not a success and in 1816 the College was closed. It was not re-opened until 1821, when, with a strong Faculty and considerable aid from the State, it entered on a new lease of life, which lasted for a decade. But the same trouble that had plagued the institution from the beginning returned anew. And, although we have now exceeded the period properly to be included in an account of the foundation of 7. Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 137. Atwater to Rush, Sept. 18, 1810. ‘ *8 Thid., p. 152. March 11, 1811. “C.F. Himes, A Sketch etc., p. 51. 164 BENJAMIN RUSH Dickinson College, and of Dr. Rush’s connection there- with, we cannot better detail the defects of its orig- inal government than by summarizing a portion of an “address to the public”, published by an able professor in the institution, after his resignation, near the end of the decade just mentioned. Henry Vethake, Professor of Mathematics from 1821 to 1829, points out the following defects :*** 1. The Faculty has not the right to dismiss any student no matter what the offense. They can only present a delinquent to the Board for dismission who alone has the power under the Charter. The Faculty has not the authority to employ even a messenger or do anything incurring the least expense without a meeting and the assent of the Board. 2. This requires the residence in Carlisle of a quo- rum of the Board. The gossip of the students and of the town influences these resident Trustees. Meetings are held for every case of discipline. In a single year (1826) there were forty meetings of the Board. Con- we“ A Reply to ‘A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College from 1821 to 1830.’ ” By Henry Vethake, Princeton, Dec. 15, 1830. The “Reply”, although in part personal, is on the whole a sane and judicial paper. The author had abundant opportunity of learning the facts. The “Narrative of the Proceedings” seems to have dis- appeared. The “Reply” is preserved by the Philadelphia Library Co. DICKINSON COLLEGE 165 tinual legislation begets the need for more legislation to remedy the defects of that already passed until the College is choked by a multitude of ill-digested laws. 3. There is no representation of the Faculty in the Board, nor is the Faculty asked to aid the Board with information and suggestions. Besides the passage of unsuitable measures, this causes a tendency to keep secret from the Faculty the action of the Board on matters of the utmost consequence to the school. Dr. Rush has justly been called the “Father of Dickinson College”. It was no doubt with “solid pleasure” that he read the following well deserved message from General Armstrong, sent in 1790:45* “It is, sir, with the solid pleasure of an old friend, I now transmit to you the highest sense of your merit enter- tained by the Acting Trustees of Dickinson College, recorded amongst our minutes and expressed in the following words: ‘The Committee having reported a ** Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 64. Armstrong to Rush, Sept. 30, 1790. John Armstrong was at this time Acting President in place of Dickinson at the Board. After Armstrong’s death Colonel John Montgomery succeeded him. Dickinson and Montgomery died in the same year, ‘1808. First John King and later James Armstrong were chosen Presidents of the Board, There is apparently no evidence that Mr. Dickinson took any active interest in the College after the first few years. He did, however, take an interest in Dr. Nisbet and conferred an annuity on him. 166 BENJAMIN RUSH on the Papers sent by Dr. Rush, Resolved, that the Board are deeply sensible of the very great services of the Doctor, and not only most cordially approve of his conduct, but hereby declare their warmest acknowl- edgements, for his extraordinary zeal and diligence in promoting the good of this Institution—and that this expression of our gratitude be transmitted to him by the President.’” But along with this praise, he must also take the blame for his mistakes in the molding of the institution. He was probably the author of the plan for that joint government of the school which was its undoing. But this can not now be determined. At any rate he was its champion, fearing that “the Re- publican constitution of the College” would “be re- duced to the despotism of a private school ;”"*7 and in- sisting on retaining that defect in the constitution of a College which he never wearied in pointing out in the Constitution of the nation—the Articles of Confed- eration— namely, the lack of centralized executive power. This account of the early history of Dickinson may be concluded with the following copy of an advertise- ment of Dickinson College.1** *7 Rush MSS., Vol. 42, pp. 33, 34. “This notice appeared in the Philadelphia papers for February 7, 1787. See Independent Gazeteer (No. 361) and Pennsylvania Packet for that date. There is a paper in Rush’s hand among the MISS. (Vol. 41, p. 173), evidently DICKINSON COLLEGE 167 Dickinson College at Carlisle, 19 Dec., 1786. For the satisfaction of the friends and benefactors of this institution, and to encourage young men to come to a seminary, where they may receive a liberal education on the most reasonable terms, the trustees of this college, at their last meeting, ordered a brief account of the state of the College to be drawn up for publication, which is as follows: The house in which the classes are taught at pres- ent is situated in a pleasant part of the town, and is sixty feet long and twenty-three broad. Three large rooms are finished for the purpose of teaching; there is also a library room and an appartment [sic] for the philosophical apparatus. prepared to be laid before the Board in which it is suggested that a member of the Board be appointed to draw up before the next meeting a “short history of the rise and progress of the College”, a copy of the Charter and “of our plan of education”, a list of the contributors to the College, notices of the professors, etc. This was to be printed in pamphlet form and widely circulated. Rush suggested Mr. King, after- wards President of the Board, as probably the best man to write this short history. Mr. King answered this suggestion (Vol. 42, p. 15. King to Rush, May 25, 1786) after the meet- ing of the Board by saying that the “writing of the history of the rise, progress and state of the college’ had been de- ferred until the following year. “I hope you will be enabled to write this’, he adds. Probably this “advertisement” is the result of that discussion. 168 BENJAMIN RUSH The library already consists of two thousand, seven hundred and six volumes, in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, French, German, Low Dutch and Italian lan- guages, the donations of gentlemen in England, Scot- land and Philadelphia. The philosophical apparatus contains a complete electrical machine, a camera obscura of a new con- struction, a prism, a telescope, a solar microscope, a barometer and thermometer, upon one scale, and a large and elegant set of globes. The Rev. Dr. Nisbet gives lectures daily on logic, metaphysic, and moral philosophy. The Rev. Dr. Da- vidson teaches geography, history, chronology, rheto- ric, and belles lettres; and as there is no professor of natural philosophy yet chosen, the above gentlemen have undertaken for the present season, to give lec- tures and instruction in that science. The senior class, consisting of twenty students, are studying natural and moral philosophy, having already studied the classics and mathematics, and other branches usually taught in other colleges. Mr. Robert Johnson teaches the several branches of the mathematics. Mr. James Ross with proper assistants teaches the Greek and Latin languages.— The tuition money is only five pounds per annum to be paid half-yearly, and twenty- five shillings entrance; boarding can be had at twenty- six pounds per annum, in genteel houses, including DICKINSON COLLEGE 169 washing, mending, fire and candles; twelve boarding houses are now open, equal to any at other seminaries, and the greatest attention will be paid to the morals of the students by Dr. Nisbet and Dr. Davidson, who officiate in the Presbyterian church on Sundays. By order of the board, John Armstrong, Presi. pro tem. CHAPTER V. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF RUSH INTRODUCTION 1. A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS Soon after the adoption of the Constitution by the Federal Convention in 1787, Dr. Rush wrote, saying that, as “the dimensions of the human mind” are apt to be regulated by the grandeur, or the lack of it, of its interests, so would the American consciousness be ex- panded and dignified by having its attention directed to the great policies of a national government rather than to the contracted objects of a state. He declared that “a citizen and legislator of the free and United States of America will be one of the first characters in the world.” As far as his own educational opinions were concerned, this utterance was autobiographical ; for it was at this time that he extended his plan for a . state school system and made it national in its scope. We have already seen that Rush regarded educa- tion as the universal solvent, which would unify to a degree the racial, political and religious diversities of 172 "BENJAMIN RUSH ~ the people of the United States; which would arm them against foreign aggression, moral and military ; and which would rouse them from domestic apathy and calm their internal dissensions. He proposed to make this education effective by means of a nation-wide system of state-supported schools with a “federal” or national university at the apex. He sketched the plan for a system of higher education of his own state and in the foundation of Dickinson College aided in its actual realization. He indicated that this superstructure should rest ulti- mately upon a system of elementary schools, in which the humblest and poorest child should be able to se- cure his early training. We will review the system in the order here indicated. He proposed the establishment of a national uni- versity in two papers which are reprinted at the end of this chapter. In the earlier of these articles, the famous and often misquoted “Aiddress to the People of the United States” he says: “To conform the prin- ciples, morals and manners of our citizens to our re- publican forms of government, it is absolutely neces- sary that knowledge of every kind should be dissem- inated through every part of the United States. For this purpose let Congress, instead of laying out half a million of dollars, in building a Federal town, appro- priate only a fourth of that sum in founding a federal EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 173 university.” With regard to the small sum of money with which he was willing to have the work begun, it must be remembered that that amount had very much greater purchasing power in 1787 than it would have in our day. The laboratory requirements and the “plants” generally of even the richest universities were very much smaller than they are now. And the government was poor. Hence the sum suggested was no doubt also accommodated to the means at hand. In the second article, “A Plan of a Federal Univer- sity,’ he begins by quoting and rebutting several of the arguments that had been urged against the adop- tion of the Federal Constitution. And he again insists on his favorite idea that the success of the government depends on the preparation of the citizens for their new civic duties by an education suited “to the new and peculiar situation of our country.” Let it not be said, that this is not the time to es- tablish such an institution, that we should wait until we have restored our credit by funding or paying our debts, that we must first regulate our militia, build a navy, extend our commerce. Let it not be urged that after all this we will have leisure and money for a national university. Those who reason thus invert the natural order of procedure. First and most important should be con- sidered the duty to remove the ignorance and preju- 174 BENJAMIN RUSH dices, to change the habits of thought of our dis- affected and apathetic citizens and to “inspire them with federal principles ;” to educate as highly as pos- sible the most promising young men and then to send them throughout our land disseminating their knowl- edge and principles in every county, township and vil- lage of the land. The restoration of public credit, the regulation of the militia, the construction of a navy, the revival of commerce will then follow by means of the impetus given by education to the very heart and life of the Republic. Until this is done we are trying to make bricks without straw. Only graduate work was to be done in this federal institution. No students were to be admitted who did not already hold a degree from one of the colleges of the country. All the teaching and investigating facili- ties were to be of the most advanced type and all were to be used for the purpose of preparing men to serve their country in the most responsible stations. The content of the course of study was determined by this object, namely the preparation of students for civil and public life. The subjects that were distinct- ly utilitarian from this point of view, were therefore stressed. The places of honor in the curriculum are given to law, both national and international, politics, and history. Special study should be made of every- thing that relates to war, since “there is too much rea- EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 175 son to fear that war will continue for some time to come, to be the unchristian mode of deciding disputes ‘between Christian nations ;” to treaties; to ambassa- dors and foreign relations, and particularly to the con- ' stitution, its interpretation and the principles and forms of government established by it. History, both ancient and modern, is to form an important part of the course. Rush, in common with the other Ameri- can Fathers, delighted in the story of the free colonies of Greece, which were, of course, not colonies at all, in the English sense. This is the ancient history he so ardently champions. Agriculture in all its numerous and extensive branches, with its large circle of related and subsidiary sciences, comes next in the course. The list of sciences that he quotes as contributing to agriculture is re- markable for that day. He even projected the study of forestry. A careful study of that one subject alone —if it had led in that early day to proper methods of conservation—would have repaid for all the expense of a national university. The principles and practice of manufacturing, the principles, objects, channels and history of commerce were to be taught. In connection with the work in agriculture, manufacturing and commerce, Rush would have established as parts of the university, a botanical garden and a museum. 176 BENJAMIN RUSH Mathematics was to be taught only for its appli- cations, especially those having to do with finance and with war. The repeated references to war reminds one that the establishment of a military academy had not yet been projected. So far the program has been distinctly political and scientific. But Rush does not stop here. He adds the study of languages, for, in order to sustain properly the reputation of being “one of the first characters in the world,” a man must not only have wisdom and knowledge, but must be able to communicate them simply and effectively and to increase his store quickly and independently. Hence the students of the National University must study English above all other languages. This is more necessary, since he supposes that our inter- course with Great Britain must soon cease. And any- way, American writers must cultivate a simpler style than is common in England. “The cultivation and perfection of our language becomes a matter of conse- quence when viewed in another light. It will probably be spoken by more people in the course of two or three centuries; than ever spoke any one language, at one time, since the creation of the world.” Not only Eng- lish, however, but also German and French must be taught because of the many important books in those languages. A knowledge of the state of affairs in Eu- EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 177 rope and of the many improvements always going for- ward there render a knowledge of those languages essential to any one who would legislate for the Uni- ted States. Nor does he fofget the sound bodies which are necessary to the educated minds of these students. Therefore he recommends that “athletic and manly exercises” should be taught so as “to impart health, strength and elegance” to the human body. Provision is to be made for a number of traveling fellows to collect information at home and abroad. A liberal salary is to be given to the head of this institu- tion who is to be a man of the first rank. The profess- ors are to be remunerated partly by salaries, partly by fees. The degrees—created for the purpose — granted by the National University, should indicate the completion of a course of education for civil and public life. This last suggestion—that the proposed National University should grant unique degrees which should indicate the completion of studies, preparing one for official life and that eventually only holders of the de- grees should be eligible to federal office, contained in both the papers we have been outlining, is most thor- oughly undemocratic, and is an example of those re- markable and erratic ideas that sometimes possessed the mind of Rush. How this ardent democrat, whe 178 BENJAMIN RUSH never tired of inveighing against the dangers of “great men”, could have suggested putting such a political engine into the hands of the government, is a mystery. That only graduates of a particular institution, and that institution absolutely in the hands of the govern- ment, should be eligible to public office, is a suggestion too wild to deserve consideration. Such an arrange- ment, supposing it could have been made, would have been one sure way of wrecking either the institution or the government, or both. Before he closes he makes a plea for a practical and useful education and it must be admitted that, barring his habitual unfairness to the claims of the ancient languages, his definition of useful and practical is rela- tively broad. Except for a few historical references, the obsolete names of several sciences, as for example, natural philosophy, the “Address” is thoroughly mod- ern. Indeed, it would make a better address for the early twentieth century than it did for the last quarter of the eighteenth. By the progress of a century and a quarter it is now rendered a little less radical than it then was. His breadth and scope are entirely refresh- ing. It is to be noticed also that the reasons he gives for spending the nation’s funds for the education of her citizens are sound. They are the reasons of a statesman, not those of a reformer merely, or those of EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 179 a professed philanthropist. He writes like one in act- ual touch with the needs of a concrete situation. He says the nation’s resources should be applied to edu- cation because only in this way can a more intelligent citizenship be developed and the stability and progress of the nation be secured. This is our argument pre- cisely. Dr. Rush never fully outlined his plan for instruc- tion to apply to colleges, academies and free schools. Such hints as he gave are found in the papers reprinted on pages 198, 206 and 220. 2. THE EARLY LITERATURE ON A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Several writers on the history of education have given the credit for first suggesting a national univer- sity to Samuel Blodget, Jr. His claim rests on the following passage in his “Economica”, published in 1806.1 1 Blodget was first rescued from obscurity by Dr. George Brown Goode, “The Origin of the National Scientific and Educational Institutions of the United States’; American Historical Association Report for 1889. Dr. Goode is fol- lowed by Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, Documents Illustrative of American Educational History; Report of the U. S. Commis- sioner of Education for 1892-93, Vol. II, p. 1295, and by Dr. John W. Hoyt, Memorial to the Senate of the U. S. on a National University, Senate Misc. Documents, 52nd Con- gress, lst session. Vol. 5, p. 27 ff. ((1891-92). My atten- tion was first called to Blodget’s later and checkered career 180 BENJAMIN RUSH “We have now to commence on a sublime subject indeed! but yet of such latent importance, we cannot hope to do it justice. Time will unfold its beauties in all their splendor; while we can only speak of the bud of this flower of the universe. As the most minute circumstances are sometimes, interesting for their re- lation to great events, we relate the first we ever heard of a national university: it was in the camp at Cam- bridge, in October 1775, when Major William Blodget went to the quarters of general Washington, to com- plain of the ruinous state of the colleges, from the con- duct of the militia quartered therein. The writer of this being in company with his friend and relation, and hearing general Greene join in lamenting the then ruinous state of the oldest seminary in Massachusetts, observed, merely to console the company of friends, that to make amends for these injuries, after our war, he hoped, we should erect a noble national university, at which the youth of all the world might be proud to receive instruction. What was thus pleasantly said, Washington immediately replied to, with that inimit- ably expressive and truly interesting look, for which he was sometimes so remarkable: ‘Young man, you are a prophet! inspired to speak, what I feel confident by Bryan’s History of the National Capital. See bibliog- raphy. An article by the writer on this subject was printed in School and Society, Mar. 11, 1916. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 181 will one day be realized!’ He then detailed to the com- pany his impressions, that all North America would one day become united; he said that a colonel Byrd, of Virginia, he believed, was the first man who had pointed out the best central seat, near to the present spot, or about the falls of Potomack. General Wash- ington further said, that a Mr. Evans had expressed the same opinion, with many other gentlemen, who from a cursory view of a chart of North America, re- ceived this natural and truly correct impression. The look of general Washington, the energy of his mind, his noble and irresistible eloquence, all conspired, so far to impress the writer with these subjects, that if ever he should unfortunately become insane, it will be from his anxiety for the federal city and National University.”? Now, on this passage, it is to be re- marked, first of all, that this record of a chance meet- ing and a casual conversation was written fully thirty years after the event it narrates and seven years after the death of the principal speaker. Perhaps also, the words, put into the mouth of Washington under the circumstances given, are not quite in character. But pass that by. Washington, so far as is known, did not refer to a national university after the date of this supposed conversation until he was President of the 2S. Blodget, Jr., Economica: A Statistical Manual; Wash- ington, 1806; pp. 22, 23. 182 BENJAMIN RUSH United States. Then, on January 8, 1790— fifteen years after the date mentioned by Blodget—in his “Speech delivered to both Houses of Congress”, after speaking of the importance of education, especially in a democracy, and pointing out the advantages to the country, to be derived from the promotion of science and literature he goes on to say: “Whether this de- sirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the de- liberations of the legislature.”* Furthermore Wash- ington had heard the idea of a national university broached in the Federal Convention of 1787 when Madison and Pinckney moved to insert in the list of powers vested in Congress a power “to establish a uni- versity.’”* But Washington makes some remarks in his correspondence with his Secretary of State that are very much to the point here. In a letter to Hamilton of September 1, 1796, after speaking of a national uni- versity, he adds, “To show that this is no new idea of mine, I may appeal to my early communications to Congress.”® And in a second letter five days later, after asking Hamilton to make a draft of what should be * Sparks’ Writings of George Washington, Vol. XII, p. 9. *Elliot’s Debates, Vol. I, p. 147, Vol. V, pp. 440, 544. * Works of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. VI, p. 147. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 183 said on the subject of a national university in the next speech to Congress, he urges him to look into what had been said on this head in 1790, but “this is not” he continues, “so much to the point as what is now to be said, though it may if proper, be glanced at to show that the subject had caught my attention early.”* If Washington had heard of a national university in 1775 it is clear that he had forgotten that early meeting with the youthful “prophet”. This, to be sure, is quite a possible explanation. But it is clear that the “early” in the above quotation refers to about 1790 and that in 1796 Washington himself did not date his interest in a national university back to 1775. The next question that concerns us has to do with the character of the reporter of the supposed conver- sation of 1775. Who, then, was Samuel Blodget, Jr.? He was born at Goffstown, New Hampshire, August 28, 1757. At the age of nineteen he entered the army as a captain of militia and resigned his commission a year later. He went into business at Exeter and failed ; removed to Boston to engage in the East India Trade and succeeded. He came to Philadelphia in 1789, or- ganized a tontine association, and, when that was succeeded by the Insurance Company of North Amer- ica, with a capital stock of $600,000, he became a mem- ber of its first Board of Directors. About this time ®*Works of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. VI. pp. 149, 150. 7 184 BENJAMIN RUSH he began to speculate in real estate in the new city of Washington. Early in 1793 he was appointed super- intendent of the Capital under the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. Although he was retained in the office only one year, the letter, informing him of his dismissal, expresses appreciation of his services by the Commission. But it also intimates that his private interests and particularly his absorption in a lottery at Washington do not permit him to give sufficient attention to his duties as superintendent. The several lotteries promoted by him (which we must remember, implied nothing censurable in those days) turned out unfortunately, and in the course of several years he became bankrupt. But this was only the beginning of the maze through which he was to wander. Impris- oned for debt in 1802, he was allowed to walk in the “prison bounds” for the preservation of his health un- der a bond of $10,000, furnished by Dr. William Thorn- ton, an associate in some of his financial ventures. Either his constitution required more exercise than the prison bounds permitted, or he forgot his obli- gation. At any rate he disappeared and Dr. Thornton made good his surety. It is said that even in prison he plied his vocation of soliciting five-dollar contributions for a national university and for an equestrian statue of Washington. By and by he reappeared and continued to solicit. His EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 185 aim was to raise a fund to which the whole people of America might contribute, “thus,’ to use his own words, “virtually following an ancient custom of the original Americans, when men, women and children, all carried a stone to the monumental pile of a beloved chief.’"” By 1806 he claimed to have had collected thirty thousand dollars. What disposition was made of this money no one knows. At various times re- quests for information about the fund and the state of his accounts were inserted in the newspapers, prob- ably by contributors. So far as known he never made any reply. His latter years were passed in complete obscurity and his death occurred in 1814 in a hospital in Baltimore. But this was not yet the end of Blodget. For Mrs. Blodget’s attorney promptly informed the purchasers of his Washington property (which had been sold to make good his losses) that all of it was liable for dower. The United States had bought some of this property for the use of the Post-Office Depart- ment and so it came about that the Government settled an annuity of $333.33 on the widow in satisfaction of her claim. Before his appointment as superintendent of the Capital, President Washington made inquiry of one of the Commissioners as to Blodget’s character, asking whether he were “a man of industry, arrangement and Economica, Appendix, p. xii. 186 BENJAMIN RUSH integrity” and adding that “he had only a slight ac- quaintance with him”. By the time his year of service had expired the acquaintance had become more ex- tensive and he said that Blodget’s service was unsatis- factory, that speculation was his object, and the cause of conduct “so different from that expected of a super- intendent.” To Jefferson, Washington wrote, “I wish you may have yet seen the worst features of Mr Blodget’s conduct. .... Little confidence I fear is placed in Mr. Blodget and least where he is best known.”* The Commissioners also said soon after his dismissal, “Unhappily we have to do with a man who has lost our confidence. Instead of certainty we have to guess at the state of things.” The facts seem to be that he was a man of enthu- siasms and idealisms, but lacking judgment. His wri- tings are discursive,” ill-arranged, and abound in * Ford, Writings of Washington. * Commissioners’ Letter Book, April 23, 1794. This quo- tation is taken from Bryan, History of the National Capital. ” Blodget wrote: “Thoughts on the Increasing Wealth and National Economy of the United States of America.” Washington, Way and Goff, printers. 1801; and also Econom- ica, A Statistical Manual for the United States of America; Washington (printed for the author), 1806. These two pub- lications were bound in one volume after the publication of the Economica, There is a copy in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania. Blodget has been given the credit for being the first American writer on economics. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 187 broad and unwarranted generalizations. In a word he was a promoter. Whatever may be the truth about his early life, his later career seems to justify the en- try in the Journal of Latrobe, that he was “one of the adventurers: and swindlers whom the establishment of the city brought hither.” It is strange that none of the writers on the liter- ature, bearing on a national university, who have re- peated the passage from Blodget’s Economica, has ex- pressed any doubt as to its probability. Dr. Hoyt, however, took the trouble to read the Economica and calls attention to the following passage: “It would be an endless task, and require volumes to hold all that has been written in favor of a federal heart and uni- versity, in our periodical papers, since 1775. We shall select only a few.” Dr. Hoyt quotes these selections, but he does not notice the significant fact that the earliest of them is dated September, 1787 and not 1775. If there were so many of these very early documents to select from, why did Mr. Blodget not select at least one? So far as the writer knows Benjamin Rush made 1 the earliest proposal for the establishment of a nation-~ ° * Journal of Latrobe. Quoted by Bryan, History of the National Capital. * Hoyt, Memorial on a National University, p. 29. The quotations referred to stand at p. iv et seq., Appendix to Blodget’s Economica. 188 BENJAMIN RUSH al university..3 This was published in the American Museum (Philadelphia) in January, 1787. The ar- ticle in which the proposal was made is reprinted on page 198. 3. OTHER EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS [The most elaborate of Dr. Rush’s educational es- says is the one entitled, “Observations on the Study of the Latin and Greek Languages.”"* In opening the sub- ject he refers to the “universal prejudice” in favor of classical studies. | “It requires,” he says, “the recollec- tion of escapes from a lion and a bear, to encounter the strong and universal prejudice, in favor of the Latin and Greek languages as a necessary branch of liberal “The most complete bibliography on the proposals for a National University is that prepared by Dr. Hoyt. The full title and reference are given in a note on page 179. The only additional title I have been able to find after consider- able search is an article called “An Essay on the Means of Promoting Federal Sentiments in the United States, by a Foreign Spectator.” This essay is printed in instalments in the Independent Gazeteer (Philadelphia) for 1787. The issue of Sept. 23, No. 548, and the following issue, No. 550. have an extended notice of the National University idea. Reference is made to Rush’s article on the subject. Exten- sive research would no doubt reveal other early references to the subject. “In this outline many of Dr. Rush’s arguments are transposed, some are omitted and all of them are greatly abridged. I have, however, tried to give a fair, although succinct account of his position. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 189 education. If, in combating this formidable enemy of human reason, I should be less successful than the Hebrew stripling was in contending with the giant of the Philistines, I hope it will be ascribed wholly to the want of skill to direct arguments, which, in other hands, would lay this tyrant in the dust.” He begins the argument by reaffirming the Comen- ian dictum that things should be studied before words. He goes further. The acquisition of words, he says, lessens the ability to acquire ideas. Of course, he does not prove the assertion. Nor does he attempt to do so. But he reaches surer ground, when he points to the difficulty that many boys find in learning languages. This causes a lack of pleasure—of interest—in learn- ing in general, and is a chief hindrance to study. Many boys leave school because they do not care for the things taught there. [The ability to acquire readily a good knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages is made the test of genius. Those who do not care for these languages are considered stupid. But this gen- eralization, Rush declares, is frequently unsound. In fact, it is sometimes the very reverse of the truth, | Men of strong minds refuse to be satisfied with words,’ “the mere husks of literature”. He next attacks the classics on the basis of their content. They contain accounts of “indelicate amours and shocking vices both of gods and men.” There is 190 BENJAMIN RUSH no need for understanding the allusions in the Eng- lish classics to Greek and Roman mythology. It were better not to understand them. But the continued use of the Latin and Greek is a mistake even_when the content is the most useful in the world. | For the fact that the information they carry is locked up in the vocabulary and syntax of several dead languages renders it inaccessible to many people who would wish to benefit by it. The contin- ued teaching of Latin and Greek is therefore an un- democratic process; it militates against the spread of science and true culture. Further it is undemocratic in that it excludes many boys from school; that is, it en- courages an aristocracy of learning. The dropping of Latin and Greek from the curricu- la of schools and colleges would remove the prejudices of many common people against those institutions, he thinks. Amd he forgets, for the moment that the school has for one of its main objects the raising of the educational standards of the common people. That a knowledge of the Latin grammar should be regarded as necessary for the understanding of the structure of the English language, he considers ridicu- lous. And so, also, is to his mind the notion that the Latin and Greek furnish the only models of taste and eloquence. Nor is a knowledge of the vocabularies of these languages necessary to give us a knowledge of EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 191 their many derivatives in the English. Indeed, he sug- gests that on the same basis it would be necessary to know Celtic, Saxon, German and what-not, in order to ~ understand English. He admits nothing about the vast, differences in the proportions of our borrowings. Is there, then, no place at all for the study of Latin and Greek? Yes, but it is a study for specialists. The average liberally educated man—the lawyer, the doc- tor, the divine—can find in translations, made by spe- cialists, all that is of value in the classical writers._| The essay, however, is not wholly destructive. It suggests what should form the content of a liberal education as well as what should not do so. Dr. Rush would have students begin with English, taught with- out the grammar at first. At the same time and later should come geography, natural history, arithmetic, French and German. In connection with the last sug- gestion he makes an amusing recommendation. He thinks children should not learn to speak any foreign languages before the age of twelve lest they acquire a foreign accent. The secondary and advanced courses to be purstied between the ages of fourteen and eighteen are largely scientific and practical. They are less extensive in scope but similar in type to the curricula that have already been noticed in the account of his proposal for a national university. 192 BENJAMIN RUSH Another essay that should be briefly noticed is called “Thoughts on Amusements and Punishments Proper for Schools.” For amusements he suggests opportunity for exercise, in agricultural work, and in the mechanic arts. These, he thinks, would take the place of games to a considerable degree. He urges not only the recreation but the opportunity for self-sup- port that is afforded the student by such manual exer- cises. And he instances “the Methodist College at Abington, in Maryland”, where, he says, enthusiastic work was being done at this time along this line, par- ticularly in agriculture. One may, therefore, claim for Dr. Rush that he was one of the prophets of the Manual Labor Movement that at one time spread over America. He also emphasizes the need for movement in chil- dren. It is cruel to make children sit quietly, as was being done, sometimes for seven hours in one day. Fresh air also should be supplied in abundance. These suggestions which he makes in passing are in line with the great development in school hygiene and medical inspection which the last century has witnessed. Turning now to punishments “proper for schools” he makes the point that punishments of all kinds are becoming less severe. “But this spirit of humanity and civilization has not reached our schools. The rod is yet the principal instrument of governing them, and EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 193 a schoolmaster remains the only despot now known in free countries ” Corporal punishment he condemns as useless, unnecessary and brutal. Besides that the same punishments are meted out indiscriminately for ignorance and for immorality, as is often done, con- fuses the moral sense of boys. Those who will not respond to rational appeals should be dismissed. But he offers no advice as to the education of incorrigibles. It should also be said, that one, at least, of the punishments that Dr. Rush recommends, is fully as. bad as those he condemns. He says that the “holding | of a small sign of disgrace” is a “proper punishment”. g& g proper p In the essay on the “Bible as a School Book” he , emphasizes the need for early and definite religious and moral training. The Bible is the best book for this purpose and should therefore be read. He com- mends the practice of the Sunday Schools in England where the Bible only, is read and says the same prac- tice is being followed in America where Sunday Schools have only recently been established.*° But he * Robert Raikes seems to have established his first Sun- day school in 1780 in Sooty Alley in Gloucester, England. But there were other Sunday Schools earlier, established by the Methodists and others. The above essay was written in 1791. It was in that year that the “First Day or Sunday School Society” was organized in Philadelphia, an organization that was later (1823) with other organizations merged in the “American Sunday School Union”. The statement in the 194 BENJAMIN RUSH offers no suggestions of value in the solution of the present-day problems concerning moral and religious education in the American public schools. 4. SUMMARY OF DR. RUSH’S EDUCATIONAL POSITIONS Dr. Rush was for nearly forty years a teacher of Chemistry and of Medicine in Philadelphia. He was one of the leading founders and has been called the “father” of Dickinson College. These matters have already been discussed at length. In the following paragraphs the attempt is made to recapitulate rather his educational theory than to restate his educational practice. In summing up Dr. Rush’s educational positions one naturally thinks first of his plea for preparation for citizenship in a democracy. Educate our citizens so as to ensure the progress and even the safety of the state. This was his most persistent injunction. It is when he speaks upon education for democracy that he becomes most eloquent. In fact, as often happens with him, he carried his doctrine to the extreme. “The benefits of free schools should not be overlooked. In- deed, suffrage, in my opinion, should never be per- text follows Dr, Rush and takes no account of the Sunday Schools in Ephrata, Pa., and elsewhere in America. These were much earlier. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 195 mitted to a man that could not write or read,” he wrote to John Adams.*® He was, therefore, an advocate of ‘universal education. But his idea was not altogether that of our public school. He wished to see the ele- ments of educatign made accessible to every child. The best instrument for this purpose was conceived by him to be a kind of public parochial schools as we. might today regard them. The schools were to be parochial in organization and to be controlled there- fore by the various religious bodies. But they were to be supported by taxation laid by the state. The funds were to be distributed according to the numerical strength of the various denominations. It did not occur to Rush, apparently, that a small congregation would under this plan have but poor schools. He is not always consistent as to making the schools abso- lutely free but on the whole his voice seems to be against the proposition. At any rate, the “school- masters” were to be paid much or little, according as they taught many or few pupils. He favored the education of women, but, as we shall see, he said nothing original on the subject.’ He even aided woman’s education somewhat in a. practical way. He wrote a syllabus of a course of * Wiorks of John Adams. By C. F. Adams, Boston, 1854. See Vol. IX, p. 639, for Adams’ reply. *See page 226. Y 196 BENJAMIN RUSH lectures in domestic chemistry and probably also de- livered the lectures in Mr. Andrew Brown’s Young Ladies’ Academy, Philadelphia.*® Not only did Dr. Rush urge education for democ- racy; he also contended for democrary in education. The business of education should be conducted, in the language of the common people, he held. The fact that a boy did not care for Latin and Greek, or that he had not studied them for lack of opportunity ought not to bar him from such education as he could obtain and for which he did care. This position, like the former one, has important consequences. It implied the introduction of the sciences into the curriculum. Dr. Rush was, in this matter, distinctly modern and practical in his educational ideals. Nearly his entire working life was devoted to the furtherance of science, chiefly medical science. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Rush are the three great exponents of the scientific and broadly utilita- rian tendencies in American education in the eight- eenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dr. Rush strongly and constantly urged moral and religious training in the schools. His solution was *T have not been able to find any confirmation of the statement that he founded a girls’ school at Philadelphia in 1780. See Brown’s Making of our Middle Schools, p. 253, 2nd edition. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 197 the semi-parochial school. It has not worked out that way in our history. In fact, the problem is still with us, and its solution is much more pressing now than it was in Dr. Rush’s generation. He stood for a discipline, not only milder than the old, but one that would be regarded as sane and fairly correct in our day. And here the course of evolution has followed the trail he helped to blaze. He would not now call the schoolmaster “the only remaining despot in free countries”. Most important of Dr. Rush’s educational services was his championship of a worthy standard in higher education. To be sure, neither of the two colleges of which he was a Trustee, attained very high standards during his life time. But that was due to causes be- yond his control. His face was always toward the light. He helped vastly to improve the medical edu- cation of his generation. He urged the establishment of technical schools, particularly a veterinary school. A national university worked out on the lines he laid down would have been ahead of Edinburgh and Ge- neva, “the two eyes of Europe”, as Jefferson calls them. Dr. Rush’s best claim to distinction as an edu cator is to be based on his labors for a better American College and a real American University. 198 BENJAMIN RUSH SELECTIONS 1. ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES® There is nothing more common, than to confound the terms of American revolution with those of the late American war. The American war is over; but this is far from being the case with the American revo- lution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government, and to pre- pare the principles, morals, and manners of our citi- zens, for these forms of governiment, after they are established and brought to perfection. The Confederation, together with most of our State constitutions, were formed under very unfavorable cir- cumstances. We had just emerged from a corrupted monarchy. Although we understood perfectly the principles of liberty, yet most of us were ignorant of the forms and combinations of power in republics. Add to this, the British army was in the heart of our country, spreading desolation wherever it went: our resentments, of course, were awakened. We detested *H. Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution in America, etc., Baltimore, 1822, pp. 402-404. Although most of the address does not treat of education directly, it is in Rush’s best vein and so interesting historically that it seemed best not to abridge. This article and the following were both reprinted by Dr. Goode, see p. 179 note. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 199 the British name, and unfortunately refused‘ to copy some things in the administration of justice and power, in the British government, which have made it the admiration and envy of the world. In our opposition to monarchy, we forgot that the temple of tyranny has two doors. We bolted one of them by proper re- straints; but we left the other open, by neglecting to guard against the effects of our own ignorance and licentiousness. Most of the present difficulties of this country arise from the weakness and other defects of our govern- ments. My business at present shall be only to suggest the defects of the confederation. These consist—lst. In the deficiency of coercive power. 2nd. In a defect of exclusive power to issue paper money, and regulate commerce. 3rd. In vesting the sovereign power of the United States in a single legislature; and 4th. In the too frequent rotation of its members. A convention is to sit soon for the purpose of de- vising means of obviating part of the two first defects that have been mentioned. But I wish they may add to their recommendations to each state, to surrender up to congress their power of emitting money. In this way, a uniform currency will be produced, that will facilitate trade, and help to bind the states together. Nor will the states be deprived of large sums of money 200 BENJAMIN RUSH by this mean, when sudden emergencies require it; for they may always borrow them, as they did during the war, out of the treasury of congress. Even a loan office may be better instituted in this way, in each state, than in any other. The two last defects that have been mentioned, are not of less magnitude than the first. Indeed, the sin- gle legislature of congress will become more danger- ous, from an increase of power, than ever. To remedy this, let the supreme federal power be divided, like the legislature of most of our states, into two distinct, in- dependent branches. Let one of them be styled the council of states and the other the assembly of states. Let the first consist of a single delegate—and the sec- ond, of two, three, or four delegates, chosen annually —by each state. Let the president be chosen annually by the joint ballot of both houses; and let him pos- sess certain powers, in conjunction with a privy coun- cil, especially the power of appointing most of the officers of the United States. The officers will not only be better, when appoixted in this way, but one of the principal causes of faction will be thereby removed from congress. I apprehend this division of the power of congress will become more necessary, as soon as they are invested with more ample powers of levying and expending money. The custom of turning men out of power or office, EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 201 as soon as they are qualified for it, has been found to be as absurd in practice, as it is vicious [to] dis- miss a general—a physician—or even a domestic, as soon as they have acquired knowledge sufficient to be useful to us, for the sake of increasing the number of able generals — skilful physicians — and faithful servants. We do not.?? Government is a science, and can never be perfect in America, until we encourage men to devote not only three years, but their whole lives to it. I believe the principal reason why so many men of abilities object to serving in con- gress, is owing to their not thinking it worth while to spend three years in acquiring a profession, which their country immediately forbids them to follow. There are two errors or prejudices on the subject of government in America, which lead to the mast dangerous consequences. It is often said, “that the sovereign and all other power is seated in the people.” This idea is unhappily expressed. It should be—‘“all power is derived from the people,” they possess it only on the days of their elections. After this, it is the property of their rulers; nor can they exercise or resume it, unless it be abused. It is of importance to circulate this idea, as it leads to order and good government. 7 Printed thus in Niley (p. 403) either through printer's error or through lack of revision by the author. 202 BENJAMIN RUSH The people of America have mistaken the meaning of the word sovereignty: hence each state pretends to be sovereign. In Europe it is applied only to those states which possess the power of making war and peace—of forming treaties, and the like. As this power belongs only to congress, they are the only sovereign power in the United States. We commit a similar mistake in our ideas of the word independent. No individual state, as such, has any claim to independence. She is independent only in a union with her sister states in congress. To conform the principles, morals and manners of our citizens, to our republican forms of government, it is absolutely necessary, that knowledge of every kind should be disseminated through every part of the United States. For this purpose, let congress, instead of laying out half a million dollars, in building a federal town, ap- propriate only a fourth of that sum, in founding a fed- eral university. In this university, let everything con- nected with government, such as history—the law of nature and nations—the civil law—the municipal laws of our country—and the principles of commerce—be taught by competent professors. Let masters be em- ployed, likewise, to teach gunnery—fortification—and everything connected with defensive and offensive war. Above all, let a professor of, what is called in EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 203 European universities, economy, be established in this federal seminary. His business should be to unfold the principles and practice of agriculture and manu- factures of all kinds, and to enable him to make his lectures more extensively useful, congress should sup- port a traveling correspondent for him, who should visit all the nations of Europe, and transmit to him, from time to time, all the discoveries and improve- ments that are made in agriculture and manufactures. To this seminary, young men should be encouraged to repair, after completing their academical studies in the_ colleges of their respective states. The honours and offices of the United States should, after a while, be confined to persons who had imbibed federal and re- publican ideas in this university. For the purpose of diffusing knowledge, as well as extending the living principle of government to every part of the United States—every state—city— county—village—and township in the union, should be tied together by means of the post office. This is the true non-electric wire of government. It is the only means of conveying heat and light to every individual in the federal commonwealth. “Sweden lost her liber- * ties,” says the abbe Raynal, “because her citizens were so scattered, that they had no means of acting in con- cert with each other.” It should be a constant injunc- tion to the post-masters, to convey newspapers free of 204 BENJAMIN RUSH all charge for postage. They are not only the ve- hicles of knowledge and intelligence, but the centinels of the liberties of our country. The conduct of some of those strangers, who have visited our country, since the peace, and who fill the British papers, with accounts of our distresses, shows as great a want of good sense, as it does of good na- ture. They see nothing but the foundations and walls of the temple of liberty; and yet they undertake to judge of the whole fabric. Our own citizens act a still more absurd part, when they cry out, after the experience of three or four years, that we are not proper materials for republican government. Remem- ber, we assumed these forms of government in a hurry, before we were prepared for them. Let every man exert himself in promoting virtue and knowledge in our country, and we shall soon become good republicans. Look at the steps by which governments have been changed, or rendered stable in Europe. Read the his- tory of Great Britain. Her boasted government has risen out of wars, and rebellions, that lasted above six hundred years. The United States are traveling peace- ably into order and good government. They know no strife—but what arises from the collision of opinions: and, in three years, they have advanced farther in the road to stability and happiness, than most of the na- tions in Europe have done, in as many centuries. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 205 There is but one path that can lead the United States to destruction; and that is, their extent of territory. It was probably to effect this, that Great Britain ceded to us so much waste land. But even this path may be avoided. Let but one new state be ex- posed to sale at a time; and let the land office be shut up, till every part of this new state be settled. I am extremely sorry to find a passion for retire- ment so universal among patriots and heroes of the war. They resemble skilful mariners who, after exert- ing themselves to preserve a ship from sinking in a storm, in the middle of the ocean, drop asleep, as svon as the waves subside, and leave the care of their lives and property, during the remainder of the voyage, to sailors, without knowledge or experience. Every man in a republic is public property. His time and talents —his youth—his manhood—his old age—nay more, his life, his all, belong to his country. Patriots of 1774, 1775, 1776—heroes of 1778, 1779, 1780, come forward! Your country demands your services !—Philosophers and friends to mankind, come forward! Your country demands your studies and speculations! Lovers of peace and order, who declined taking part in the late war, come forward! your coun- try forgives your timidity and demands your influence and advice! Hear her proclaiming, in sighs and groans, in her governments, in her finances, in her trade, in 206 BENJAMIN RUSH her manufactures, in her morals, and in her manners, “The Revolution is not Over!” 2. PLAN OF A FEDERAL UNIVERSITY “Your government cannot be executed. It is too extensive for a republic. It is contrary to the habits of the people,” say the enemies of the Constitution of the United States. However opposite to the opinions and wishes of a majority of the citizens of the United States these declarations and predictions may be, the latter will certainly be verified, unless the people are prepared for our new forms of government by an edu- cation adapted to the new and peculiar situation of our country. To effect this great and necessary work, let one of the first acts of the new Congress be, to establish within the district to be allotted for them,,. a federal university, into which the youth of the Uni- ted States shall be received, after they have finished their studies, and taken their degrees in the colleges of their respective states. In this university, let those branches of literature only be taught which are calcu- lated to prepare our youth for civil and public life. These branches should be taught by means of lectures, and the following arts and sciences should be the sub- jects of them: 1. The principles and forms of government, applied ‘In a particular manner to the explanation of every EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 207 part of the constitution and laws of the United States, together with the laws of nature and nations, which last should include everything that relates to peace. war, treaties, ambassadors, and the like. 2. History, both ancient and modern and chron- ology. 3. Agriculture, in all its numerous and extensive branches. 4. The principles and practice of manufactures. 5. The history, principles objects and channels of commerce. 6. Those parts of mathematics which are neces- sary to the division of property, to finance, and to the principles and practice of war: for there is too much reason to fear that war will continue, for some time to come, to be the unchristian mode of deciding disputes between Christian nations. 7. Those parts of natural philosophy and chemis- try; which admit of an application to agriculture, manufactures, commerce and war. 8. Natural history, which includes the history of animals, vegetables and fossils. To render instruction in these branches of science easy, it will be necessary to establish a museum, as also a garden, in which not only all the shrubs, etc., but all the forest trees of the United States, should be cultivated. The great Lin- naeus of Upsal enlarged the commerce of Sweden, by 208 BENJAMIN RUSH his discoveries in natural history. He once saved the Swedish navy by finding out the time in which a worm laid its eggs, and recommending the immersion of the timber, of which the ships were built, at that season wholly under water. So great were the services this naturalist rendered his country, by the application of his knowledge to agriculture, manufactures, and com- merce, that the present king of Sweden pronounced an eulogium upon him from the throne soon after his death. 9. Philology, which should include rhetoric, and criticism, lectures upon the construction and pronun- ciation of the English language. Instruction in this branch of literature will become the more necessary in America, as our intercourse must soon cease with the bar, the stage and the pulpits of Great Britain from whence we received our knowledge of the pronuncia- tion of the English language. Even modern English books should cease to be the models of style in the United States. The present is the age of simplicity of writing in America. The turgid stile of Johnson— the purple glare of Gibbon—and even the studied and thick-set metaphors of Junius, are all equally unnatur- al, and should not be admitted into our country. The cultivation and perfection of our language becomes a matter of consequence, when viewed in another light. It will probably be spoken by more people, in the EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 209 course of two or three centuries, than ever spoke any one language, at one time, since the creation of the world. When we consider the influence, which the prevalence of only two, viz. the English and the Span- ish, in the extensive regions of North and South Amer- ica, will have upon the manners, commerce, knowl- edge, and civilization, scenes of human happiness, and glory open before us, which elude, from their magni- tude, the utmost grasp of the human understanding. 10. The German and French languages should be taught in this university. The many excellent books which are written in both these languages, upon all subjects, more especially upon those which relate to. the advancement of national improvements of all kinds will render a knowledge of them an essential part of the education of a legislator of the United States. 11. All those athletic and manly exercises should likewise be taught in the university, which are calcula- ted to impart health, strength, and elegance to the human body. To render the instruction of our youth © as easy and as extensive as possible, in several of the above mentioned branches of literature, let four young men of good education and active minds be sent abroad. at the public expense, to collect and transmit to the professors of the said branches, all the improvements that are daily made in Europe, in agriculture, manu- factures and commerce, and in the art of war and 210 BENJAMIN RUSH practical government. This measure is rendered the more necessary from the distance of the United States from Europe, by which means the rays of knowledge strike the United States so partially, that they can be brought to a useful focus, only by employing suitable persons to collect and transmit them to our country. It is in this manner that the northern nations of Eu- rope have imported so much knowledge from their southern neighbors, that the history of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, revenues, and military arts of one of these nations will soon be alike applicable to all of them. Besides sending four young men abroad to collect and transmit knowledge for the benefit of our country, two young men of suitable capacities should be em- ployed at the public expense, in exploring the vege- table, mineral, and animal productions of our country, in procuring histories and samples of each of them, and in transmitting them to the professor of natural history. It is in consequence of the discoveries made by young gentlemen employed for these purposes that Sweden, Denmark and Russia have extended their manufactures and commerce, so as to rival, in both, the oldest nations in Europe. Let Congress allow a liberal salary to the principal -of this university. Let it be his business to govern the students, and to inspire them by his conversation, ¢r EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 211 and by occasional public discourses, with federal and patriotic sentiments. Let this principal be a man of extensive education, liberal manners, and dignified deportment. Let the professors of each of the branches that have been mentioned have a moderate salary of £150 or £200 a year, and let them depend upon the number of their pupils to supply the deficiency of their main- tenance from their salaries. Let each pupil pay for each course of lectures two or three guineas. Let the degrees conferred in this university, re- ceive a new name, that shall designate the design of an education for civil and public life. . In thirty years after this university is established, let an act of Congress be passed, to prevent any per- son being chosen or appointed into power or office, who has not taken a degree in the federal university. We require certain qualifications in lawyers, physi- cians, and clergymen, before we commit our property, our lives or our souls to their care. We even refuse to commit the charge of a ship to a pilot, who cannot produce a certificate of his education and knowledge in his business. Why then should we commit our country, which includes liberty, property, life, wives and children’ to men who cannot produce vouchers of their qualifications for the important trust? We are restrained from injuring ourselves, by employing 212 BENJAMIN RUSH quacks in law; why should we not be restrained in like manner, by law, from employing quacks in gov- ernment? — Should this plan of a federal university or one like it, be adopted, then will begin the golden age of the United States. While the business of education in Europe consists in lectures upon the ruins of Palmyra, and the antiquities of Herculaneum, or in disputes about Hebrew points, Greek particles, or the accent and quantity of the Roman language, the youth of America will be employed in acquiring those branches of knowledge, which will increase the conveniences of life, lessen human misery, improve our country, pro- mote population, exalt the human understanding, and establish domestic, social and political happiness. "Let it not be said, “that this is not the time for such a literary and political establishment. Let us first re- store public credit, by funding or paying our debts, let us regulate our militia, let us build a navy, and let us protect and extend our commerce. After this we shall have leisure and money to establish a university for the purposes that have been mentioned.” We shall never restore public credit, regulate our militia, build a navy, or revive our commerce, until we remove the ignorance and prejudices, and change the habits of our citizens; and this can never be done, till we in- spire them with federal principles, which can only be EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 213 effected by our young men meeting and spending two or three years together in a national university, and afterwards disseminating their knowledge and princi- ples through every county, township and village of the United States. ’Till this is done, senators and rep- resentatives of the United States, you will undertake to make bricks without straw. Your supposed union in Congress, will be a rope of sand. The inhabitants of Massachusetts began the business of government by establishing the university of Cambridge, and the wisest kings in Europe have always found their liter- ary institutions the surest means of establishing their power as well as promoting the prosperity of their people. These hints for establishing the constitution and happiness of the United States upon a permanent foun- dation, are submitted to the friends of the federal gov- ernment in each of the states by a Citizen of Pennsyl- vania. 1 214 BENJAMIN RUSH 3. A PLAN FOR ESTABLISHING PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN PENNSYLVANIA, AND FOR CONDUCTING EDU- CATION AGREEABLY TO A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT Addressed to the Legislature and Citizens of Penn- sylvania, in the year 1786," Before I proceed to the subject of this essay, I shall ‘point out in a few words, the influence and advantages of learning upon mankind. I. It is friendly to religion, inasmuch as it assists in removing prejudice, superstition and enthusiasm, in promoting just notions of the Deity, and in enlarg- ing our knowledge of his works. II. It is favorable to liberty. Freedom can exist ™This paper stands first in the collected “Essays” John King in writing to Rush, May 25, 1786, says: “I received also your oration and the pamphlet on education with your last letter, April 21. Some of us conversed together at Carlisle, upon the plan of colleges as proposed in the pamphlet, but on the whole, found ourselves so much involved in the care of one, and saw the state so much involved in burdens of another kind, that we thought this was not the time to make such a-‘motion, The state has laid a fund in the appropriation of lands, for the benefit of education, which may gradually, in time, bring about such a plan as you proposed; and it will contribute to your honor so early to have furnished the ground-work thereof. Tio attempt such a plan at this time, or before those lands become (word illegible), would, I am persuaded, be fruitless.” Rush MSS., Vol. 42, p. 15. , The oration spoken of was the one on the Moral Faculties. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 215 only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal. III. It promotes just ideas of laws and government. “When the clouds of ignorance are dispelled (says the Marquis of Beccaria) by the radiance of knowledge, power trembles, but the authority of laws remains im- moveable.” IV. It is friendly to manners. Learning in all countries, promotes civilization, and the pleasures of society and conversation. V. It promotes agriculture, the great basis of na- tional wealth and happiness. Agriculture is as much a science as hydraulics, or optics, and has been equally indebted to the experiments and researches of learned men. The highly cultivated state, and the immense profits of the farms in England, are derived wholly from the patronage which agriculture has received in that country, from learned men and learned societies. VI. Manufactures of all kinds owe their perfection chiefly to learning—hence the nations of Europe ad- vance in manufactures, knowledge, and commerce, only in proportion as they cultivate the arts and scien- ces. For the purpose of diffusing knowledge through 8 216 BENJAMIN RUSH every part of the state, I beg to propose the following simple plan. I. Let there be one university in the state, and let this be established in the capital. Let law, physic, divinity, the law of nature and nations, economy, etc. be taught in it by public lectures in the winter season, after the manner of the European universities, and let the professors receive such salaries from the state as will enable them to deliver their lectures at a moderate price. II. Let there be four colleges. One in Philadel- phia; one at Carlisle; a third, for the benefit of our German fellow citizens, at Lancaster; and a fourth, some years hence at Pittsburgh. In these colleges, let young men be instructed in mathematics and in the higher branches of science, in the same manner that they are now taught in our American colleges. After they have received a testimonial from one of these colleges, let them if they can afford it, complete their studies by spending a season or two in attending the lectures in the university. I prefer four colleges in the state to one or two, for there is a certain size of colleges as there is of towns and armies, that is most favorable to morals and good government. Oxford and Cambridge in England are the seats of dissipation, while the more numerous, and less crowded univer- sities and colleges of Scotland are remarkable for the EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 217 order, diligence, and decent behaviour of their stu- dents. III. Let there be free schools established in every township, or in districts consisting of one hundred families. In these schools let children be taught to read and write the English and German languages, and the use of figures. Such of them as have parents that can afford to send them from home, and are dis- posed to extend their educations, may remove their children from the free school to one of the colleges. By this plan the whole state will be tied together by one system of education. The university will in time furnish masters for the colleges, and the colleges will furnish masters for the free schools, while the free schools, in their turns, will supply the colleges and the university with scholars, students and pupils. The same systems of grammar, oratory and philoso- phy, will be taught in every part of the state, and the literary features of Pennsylvania will thus designate one great, and equally enlightened family. But, how shall we bear the expense of these liter- ary institutions?—I answer—These institutions will lessen our taxes. They will enlighten us in the great business of finance—they will teach us to encrease the ability of the state to support government, by en- creasing the profits of agriculture, and by promoting manufactures. They will teach us all the modern im- 218 BENJAMIN RUSH provements and advantages of inland navigation. They will defend us from hasty and expensive experi- ment in government, by unfolding to us the experience and folly of past ages, and thus, instead of adding to our taxes and debts, they will furnish us with the true secret of lessening and discharging both of them. But shall the estates of orphans, batchelors and persons who have no children, be taxed to pay for the support of schools from which they can derive no bene- fit? I answer in the affirmative, to the first of the ob- jection, and I deny the truth of the latter part of it. Every member of the community is interested in the propagation of virtue and knowledge in the state. But I will go further, and add, it will be true oeconomy in individuals to support public schools. The batchelor will in time save his tax for this purpose, by being able to sleep with fewer bolts and locks to his doors.— the estates of orphans will in time be benefited, by being protected from the ravages of unprincipled and idle boys, and the children of wealthy parents will be less tempted, by bad company, to extravagance. Fewer pillories and whipping posts, and smaller gaols, with their usual expenses and taxes, will be necessary when our youth are properly educated, than at present; I believe it could be proved, that the expenses of con- fining, trying and executing criminals, amount every year, in most counties, to more money than would be EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 219 sufficient to maintain all the schools that would be necessary in each county. The confessions of these criminals generally show us, that their vices and pun- ishments are the fatal consequences, of the want of a proper education in early life. I submit these detached hints to the consideration of the legislature and of the citizens of Pennsylvania. The plan of the free schools is taken chiefly from the plans which have long been used with success in Scotland and in the Eastern States of America where’ the influence of learning, in promoting religion, morals, manners and good government, has never been ex- ceeded in any country. The manner in which these schools should be sup- ported and governed—the modes of determining the characters and qualifications of schoolmasters, and the arrangement of families in each district, so that chil- dren of the same religious sect and nation, may be educated as much as possible together, will form a proper part of a law for the establishment of schools, and therefore does not come within the limits of this plan.” 7 As stated in the bibliography this essay was first pub- lished in 1786 as a pamphlet. As then printed, Manheim was suggested as the site of the German College. But in the following year Franklin (now Franklin and Marshall) Col- lege was located at Lancaster and when the Essays were collected in 1798, this was changed to conform with the 220 BENJAMIN RUSH 4. TO THE CITIZENS OF PHILADELPHIA, AND OF THE DISTRICTS OF SOUTHWARK AND THE NORTHERN LIBERTIES.” Every friend to the prosperity of Pennsylvania must view, with pleasure, the establishment and suc- cess of those seminaries of learning which are intend- ed to diffuse knowledge through the state; but useful as these colleges and academies are, they are not suf- existing fact. There were other changes. Dr. Rush had proposed the establishment of an academy in each county and had outlined a method of support by means of land grants. He urged the necessity for a school law to ordain a method for the support of schools and for their government; to fix the qualifications of schoolmasters; to arrange a plan whereby the families in each township or district might be grouped so that the children of each could be educated together. He suggested that in granting charters the legis- lature should not confer on colleges the right to grant de- grees indiscriminately but only in those subjects and courses in which they gave imstruction, lest degrees should become “so cheap that they will cease to be the honorable badges of industry and learning”. He would have public (though not entirely free) libraries in every college, academy and school in the country. And, lastly, he suggested that in a republic it might be wise to make the ability to read and write a necessary qualification for voting. This last suggestion he once made to Ex-President John Adams, who, however, did not agree with him. See p. 194. On the whole the essay was decidedly stronger as originally written. *This plea is printed in the Independent Gazeteer for Wednesday, March 28, 1787 (No. 403). It is unsigned, but the language and ideas are unmistakably those of Dr. Rush. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 221 ficiently extensive in their objects to spread literature through the humble and indigent classes of people. They are calculated, chiefly, for the benefit of the af- fluent and independent part of the citizens of the state. The blessings of knowledge can be extended to the poor and labouring part of the community, only by means of Free Schools. The remote and unconnected state of the settle- ‘ments in the new counties, will forbid the establish- ment of those schools for some years to come, by a general law; but there is nothing to prevent this being set on foot immediately in the city of Philadelphia, and in the old and thick settled counties of the state. To a people enlightened in the principles of liberty and Christianity, arguments, it is to be hoped, will be unnecessary to persuade them to adopt these necessary and useful institutions. The children of poor people . form a great proportion of all communities—their ig- norance and vices, when neglected are not confined to themselves—they associate with, and contaminate the children of persons in the higher ranks of society— thus they assist, after they arrive at manhood, in chus- ing the rulers who govern the whole community—they give a complexion to the morals and manners of the people—in short, where the common people are ignor- ant and vicious, a nation, and, above all, a republican nation, can never long be free and happy. It becomes 222 BENJAMIN RUSH us, therefore, as we love our offspring, and value the freedom and prosperity of our country, immediately to provide for the education of the poor children, who are so numerous in the thick settled parts of the state. The following plan, for beginning this important business in the capital of the state, is submitted to the consideration of the citizens of Philadelphia, and of the districts of Southwark and the Northern Liberties. First, Let an application be made to the Legisla- ture for a law to assess 10O00£ upon all estates in the city and liberties of Philadelphia, to be appropriated for the maintenance of school-masters, for the rent of school-houses and other expenses connected with this undertaking. This mode of establishing free-schools has many advantages over that of trusting them to the precarious support of charitable contributions. In Scotland and New-England the free schools are main- tained by law—hence education and knowledge are universal in those countries—In England the free- schools are supported, chiefly by charity sermons— hence education and knowledge are so partially dif- fused through that country, and hence too, the origin. of the numerous executions and inventions to punish and extirpate criminals, of which we daily read such melancholy accounts in the English newspapers. Char- itable contributions fall unequally upon the different members of society—a tax will be more equally borne, EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 223 and will be so light as scarcely to be felt by anybody. The price of a bottle of wine, or of a single fashionable feather will pay the tax of an ordinary free-holder for a whole year to those schools :—Besides there will be real oeconomy, in the payment of this tax, [for] by sowing the seeds of good morals in the schools, and inspiring the youth with habits of industry, the num- ber of the poor, and of course the sum of the tax paid for their maintenance will be diminished. By lessen- ing the quantity of vice, we shall moreover lessen the expenses of jails, and of the usual forms of law which conduct people to them. Above all, we shall render an acceptable service to the Divine Being, in taking care of that part of our fellow creatures who appear to be the more immediate objects of his compassion and benevolence. Secondly, Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write the English, and (when required by their parents) the German lan- guage. Let the girls be instructed in needle-work, knitting and spinning, as well as in the branches of literature that have been mentioned.—Above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles, and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education—this will make them dutiful children—teachable scholars—and, afterwards, good apprentices—good husbands—good wives—hon- 224 BENJAMIN RUSH est mechanics—industrious farmers—peaceable sailors —and, in everything that relates to this country, good citizens. To effect this important purpose it will be necessary, Thirdly, That the children of parents of the same religious denominations should be educated together, in order that they may. be instructed with the more ease in the principles and forms of their respective churches. By these means the schools will come more immediately under the inspection of the Ministers of the city, and thereby religion and learning be more intimately connected. After the experience we have nee of the advantages derived by the friends [Friends] from connecting their schools and their church together, nothing further need be added in favor of this part of the plan. Fourthly, Let the money to be raised for the sup- port of the schools be lodged in the hands of the city Treasurer, to be appropriated in the following man- ner: Let a certain number of persons, of each religious society, be appointed Trustees of the free schools of their respective churches—and let a draught, signed by the president of a quorum of these Trustees be a voucher to the Treasurer to issue three or four pounds a year for every scholar who is educated by them. As soon as the number of scholars, belonging to any re- ligious society exceeds fifteen, let 30£ a year be al- EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 225 lowed to them for the rent of the school-room and for paper, ink, pens, books, and firewood; and 60£ a year, when the number of scholars becomes so great as to require two school-rooms. If any religious society should decline accepting of the bounty of the city, from having provided for the education of their poor by private contribution, let their proportion of it be thrown into the poor tax of the city, if it should not be required for the poor children of the less wealthy societies. And, Pa Lastly, Let the accounts and expenditures of the schools be open at all times to inspectors to be ap- pointed by the law, and published every year. Citizens of Philadelphia, awaken, at last, to check the vice which taints the atmosphere of our city. The profane and indecent language which assaults our ears in every street, can only be restrained by extending education to the children of poor people. The present is an aera of public spirit—the Dispensary and the Humane Society, will be lasting monuments of the humanity of the present citizens of Philadelphia. But let not the health and lives of the poor exhaust our whole stock of benevolence—their morals are of more consequence to society than their health or lives; and their minds must exist forever. “Blessed is he that ‘considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him 226 BENJAMIN RUSH alive upon the earth—he will not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.” 5. FENELON AND RUSH ON THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN; A COMPARISON Fénelon’s essay De 1’Education des Filles was writ- ten in 1688. Rush’s Thoughts on Female Education, etc., is a commencement address, delivered July 28, 1787. The references are to Fénelon’s “A Treatise on the Education of Daughters”, translated by Rev. T. F. Dibdin and published by Charles Ewer, Boston, 1821; and to Rush’s Essays, (the edition of 1806). Fénelon. p. 171 Women as well as men should adapt their pur- suits in literature and science to their situations and functions in life; and according to their occupa- tions should be their stud- ies. Rush. p. 75. .... Female education should be accommodated ‘to the state of society, manners and government of the country in which it is conducted. .. . There are several circumstances in the situation, employ- ments, and duties of wom- en in America which re- quire a peculiar mode of education. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS pp. 171-73. She [the mother] is charged with the educa- tion of her children... .. What discernment is nec- essary to know the dis- position and genius of Can it be supposed that women ought not to be explicitly and formally instructed in these duties, because they naturally fall into them during the lives of their husbands who are generally engag- ed in business from home. pp. 173-5. To the government of families add The greater part of wom- economy. en neglect it as a mean .. If you speak to them of the sale of corn, of the cultivation of lands, etc. they imag- consideration. . 227 p. 76. From the numerous avocations from _ their families, to which profes- sional life exposes gentle- men in America, a princi- pal share of the instruc- tion of children naturally devolves upon the wom- en. It becomes us there- fore to prepare them by a suitable education for the discharge of this most im- portant duty of mothers. p. 76. The state of property in America renders it nec- essary for the greatest part of our citizens to em- ploy themselves in differ- ent occupations, for the advancement of their for- tunes. This cannot be 228 ine that you wish to re- duce them to occupations unworthy of their rank and character... . It re- quires a more elevated and comprehensive genius to be instructed and well- informed in all the partic- ulars relating to economy and to be thereby able to regulate an entire family (which is a little repub- lic) than to play, talk of the fashions, and be ex- pert in all the polite arts of conversation. pp. 185, 188. To the duties previous- ly enumerated may be added the art of choosing and retaining servants. . . Nothing is so well calcu- lated to effect this domes- tic government as the be- ing early initiated in it. BENJAMIN RUSH done without the assist- ance of the female mem- bers of the community. They must be the stew- ards and guardians of their husband’s property. That education, therefore, will be most proper for our women, which teach- es them to discharge the duties of those offices with the most success and rep- utation. p. 77. In Great Britain the business of setvants is a but in America this humble regular occupation; station is the usual re- treat of unexpected indi- gence, hence the servants of this country possess less knowledge and sub- EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS pp. 189-90. Teach a girl to read and write correctly. It is a shameful thing, but too common, to see women of understanding and good breeding who cannot ac- curately pronounce what they read....... They are moreover sometimes grossly deficient in or- thography; either as to the manner of forming or connecting their letters when writing; at any rate they should be taught to write straight and in a character neat and legi- ble. A girl should know 229 ordination than are re- quired of them... . This circumstance should have great influence upon the nature and extent of fe- male education in Amer- ica. pp. 77-8. The branches of litera- ture most essential for a young lady in this coun- try appear to be, 1. a knowledge of the English language. She should not only read but speak and spell it correctly. And to enable her to do this, she should be taught the Eng- .. 2. Pleas- ure and interest conspire lish grammar. to make the writing of a fair and legible hand a necessary branch of a la- For this purpose she should be taught not only to shape dy’s education. 230 the grammar of her own Language. pp. 190-91. Females should also be instructed in the first four rules of arithmetic ..... which will be of essential use to them in keeping ac- counts. ... It will be pru- dent also to give them a knowledge of the princi- pal rules of justice; for example, of the difference between a gift and a thing bequeathed ; contract and an_ entail, between a and a co-partnership of . When inheritance, etc. . BENJAMIN RUSH every letter properly but to pay the strictest regard to the points and capitals. .... There is one thing in which all mankind agree on this subject and that is, in considering writing that is blotted, crooked and illegible as a mark of vulgar education. p. 79. Some knowledge of fig- ures and book-keeping is absolutely necessary to qualify a young lady for the duties which await her in this country. There are certain occupations in which she may assist her husband with this knowl- edge; and should she sur- vive him, and agreeably to the custom of our country be the executrix of his will, she cannot fail of deriving immense ad- EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS wotnen marry they will find a knowledge of these things of great import- ance to them. pp. 193-195, These instructions hav- ing been attended to, I think it may not be.im- proper to allow young women, according to their leisure and capacity the perusal of profane and classical writers, provi- ded there be nothing .in them to inflame the pas- sions: these will be a means also of giving them a distaste for plays and romances. Put into their hands, the Greek and Roman histo- .. Let them be ac- quainted with the history of their own country. ... I would al- low also, but with great therefore, ries. . likewise 231 vantage from it. p. 81. The attention of our young ladies should be directed, as soon as they are prepared for it to the reading of history—trav- els—poetry and moral es- says. These studies are accommodated in a pecu- liar manner, to the pres- ent state of society in America, and when a rel- ish is excited for them in life, they subdue that passion for reading novels which so generally prevails among the fair early Sex. 232 care the perusal of works of eloquence and poetry. p. 197. Poetry and music di- rected to their true end, may be of excellent use to excite in the soul, live- ly and sublime sentiments .. The church has employed it for the consolation of her chil- dren. of virtue. . pp. 194-95. It is generally thought a necessary part of a good education for a young lady of rank to be taught the Italian and Spanish languages; for my part I see no use in these ac- quirements unless the la- dy is to be connected with some Spanish or Italian BENJAMIN RUSH p. 80. Vocal music should nev- er be neglected in the edu- cation of a young lady in this country. Besides pre- paring her to join in that part of public worship which consists in psalm- ody, it will enable her to soothe the cares of do- mestic life. p. 89. Then [i. e. in the period of America’s decline] will our language and pronun- ciation be corrupted by a flood of French and Ital- then will the history of romantic amours, be preferred to the pure and immortal Addison, ian words; writings of EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 233 princess; besides these Hawkesworth and John- two languages often lead son. them to books that are dangerous. ... The Italian and Spanish are full of quaint conceits, and a wantonness of imagina- tion bordering on extrav- agance. Both Rush and Fénelon insist on rational methods of discipline; both lay stress on regular and systemat- ic instruction in religion, and, as one would expect of a writer of the eighteenth century, Rush urges the study of the evidences of Christianity while Fénelon in the seventeenth merely emphasizes dogmatic in- struction in accepted tenets; and both use the famous description of a virtuous woman in Proverbs, Fénelon by quoting the passage and Rush by comparing it with what for him is the modern conception of a fine woman. As one would further expect from an eighteenth century writer, Rush makes favorable reference to the sciences; geography, chemistry, astronomy. Rush recommends dancing and Fénelon is silent on the sub- ject; Rush urges that women be instructed in political topics and Fénelon thinks this unsuitable. Fénelon 234 BENJAMIN RUSH recommends the study of the classics and Rush is si- lent, but we know what his answer was. Rush also makes some references to conditions in America which are of course not found in Fénelon, and to the value of singing as a physical exercise. This outline seems to include nearly all, if not all, the important points in the “Thoughts upon Female Education”. Although this piece was delivered as an “occasional address”, yet, to be candid, Rush should have acknowledged his indebtedness to the man who furnished most of the matter. The only excuse that could be offered for him, for not doing so, when the address took its place as one of the Essays, is that in the ten years that elapsed between its delivery and its publication, the debt to Fénelon was forgotten. But even this excuse cannot be made, for the address was separately printed soon after its deilvery. (See bibli- ography.) 6. A LECTURE* In resuming this subject, I must declare that I am actuated by no unkind feelings to any of the gentle- 4 “The following lecture was delivered about 1795 to a class of medical students in the University of Pennsylvania. The original in Dr. Rush’s own hand but without a title and undated is in the Ridgway Library. I have not seen the “lecture” preceding this one, which is mentioned in the open- ing sentence. It is probably lost. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 235 men who preside over those institutions, or who are concerned in conducting education in them. On the contrary, I consider myself as related [to] them, by the office of a teacher of medicine which I hold in this University. The remarks therefore [which] I shall make upon the plan of instruction pursued by them shall not be the strictures of an enemy, but the com- plaints of a friend and brother. I shall begin by taking notice that the same branch- es of learning are taught in our American seminaries, and in the same way, in which they were taught in the universities of Great Britain, 200 years ago, with- out a due allowance being made for the different obli- gations and interests which have been created by time, and the peculiar state of society in a new country, in which the business of the principal part of the inhabit- ants is to obtain the first and most necessary means of subsistence. It is equally a matter of regret, that no accommo- dation has been made in the system of education in our seminaries to the new form of our government and the many national duties, and objects of knowledge, that have been imposed upon us by the American Revolution. Instead of instructing our sons in the Arts most essential to their existence, and in the means of ac- 236 BENJAMIN RUSH quiring that kind of knowledge which is connected with the time, the country, and the government in which they live, they are compelled to spend the first five years after they enter school in learning two lan- guages which no longer exist, and are rarely spoken, which have ceased to be the vehicles of Science and literature, and which contain no knowledge but what is to be met with in a more improved and perfect state in modern languages. This practice, so contrary to reason, is marked in the manner in which it is conducted, by several cir- cumstances which are, if possible, still more character- istic of its folly. The Latin and Greek languages are imposed upon a boy before his mind is sufficiently opened to compre- hend their principles, or objects. It is impossible, by any art, to make him anything but a playful vocabu- lary [sic] of Latin, and Greek words before he is twelve years old. I know it has been said in favor of the practice of connecting the Latin and Greek gram- mars with a kite, or a cup and ball, in the hands of a boy, that they seem like a wedge to open his mind, and thereby to prepare him for other studies. This is so far from being true, that I believe they serve rather to weaken and distort his faculties, and to render them unfit for the higher branches of education. Too much time is consumed in teaching grammar EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 237 rules, before a boy is called upon to apply them in the construction, and translation of the languages. This is an inversion of [the] natural order. Grammar rules by being resorted to only when they were [sic] re- quired to assist in the translation of a sentence, would be perfectly understood, and so impressed upon the memory as never to be forgotten. The ears are never employed to assist the eyes, and the memory in acquiring those languages by means of Latin and Greek conversations. The poets and orators are preferred to the histo- rians and philosophers of ancient times. The former are calculated to impart pleasure only; the latter con- tain much useful knowledge, capable of being applied to many useful purposes in life. So much time is employed in teaching the dead languages, that but two years are left, out of seven, in the ordinary course of a young man’s education to teach the arts and sciences. From this defective mode of teaching the dead lan- guages, it follows that few boys ever learn them per- fectly, and none who apply to professional business, are able to read them seven years after they leave college. Such is the imperious rank of the Latin and Greek languages. that a correct knowledge is seldom ob- 238 BENJAMIN RUSH tained in the seminaries in which they are taught of reading, writing and arithmetic. Public speaking is substituted to [sic] reading. The handwriting is im- paired by composing Latin versions and no pains are taken to teach the proper use of points and capitals. Arithmetic is wholly neglected or taught in a most superficial manner. Of its total neglect I have lately heard a melancholy instance. A gentleman who gradu- ated some years ago at one of our Seminaries informed me that he had never been exercised in a rule of Arith- metic after he entered college, and that he believed there was not a member of the class that graduated with him, that could repeat from memory the multipli- cation table. What a strange compound of contradictions is man, in all his pursuits! We require a knowledge of read- ing, writing and arithmetic in the business of every day of our lives. We seldom recur to our knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, and yet we spend five years in acquiring them at the expense of the com- mon and practical branches of English literature. In this conduct we resemble a man who throws away his coin, and burdens himself with fragments of ancient statues in traveling through a foreign country, or to use a more familiar simile, we lay out our patrimony in tracts of distant territory, which serve only to create a name for wealth, and suffer at the same time by EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 239 neglecting to obtain a certain and profitable income by the cultivation of a farm. There is not, I believe, a Seminary of learning in the United States in which a student is obliged to learn the French language previous to his being ad- mitted to a literary honor. The entertainment and even splendor of a Commencement I am sure would be much increased by orations or dialogues in that popular and general vehicle of Science and literature. The German and Italian languages are not taught in any of the colleges of the United States. A course of lectures upon the Evidences, Doctrines and precepts of Christianity forms no part of the edu- cation of young men in our country. The small por- tion of instruction which is given upon these import- ant subjects by means of catechisms is too abstruse to be intelligible, or too simple to be useful. It is remarkable that the ancient Greeks whose wisdom we are so much disposed to admire, made the principal part of education to consist in learning the religion and language of their country. The Americans exclude religion as a system altogether, and give to their vernacular language but a humble place, in their plans of education. But every truth has its counter- feit error in which it receives the homage due to its original. The Americans indirectly acknowledge the 240 BENJAMIN RUSH advantages of instruction in the religion and language of their country, by teaching our young men the relig- ion and languages of the ancient Greeks. Thus the Indian acknowledges the Being and Goodness of a god, in his idolatrous worship of the sun. No instruction is given in natural history in our American Seminaries. Even the names of the beauti- ful and various furniture of our globe are never men- tioned in our schools, except in a dead language. Geography is taught superficially and crowded with so many studies that few young men know more than its elements, when they leave college. There is not so much merit in knowing this science, said Lord Mansfield, as there is disgrace in being ignorant of it. ‘We learn to neglect this study from the practice of European schools. The celebrated Mr. James Harvey left the University of Oxford with the character of an accurate scholar. Soon afterwards he was referred to in a large company to decide a controversy upon the latitude of the ancient city of Jerusalem. He was si- lent but was so much ashamed of his ignorance that he applied himself immediately to the study of Geog- raphy, and became as eminent for his knowledge of it as he was for his critical knowledge of the dead languages. Moral philosophy as taught in our colleges was declared by the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, to be a EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 241 regular system of instruction in practical Deism. The works of Dr. Reid and Dr. Beattie have pro- duced a revolution in the science of metaphysics in our American seminaries. It is now very properly limited to the history of the faculties and operations of the human mind. Very different were its objects in one of our Schools about five and thirty years ago. I cannot recollect, even at this distant period of time, without disgust, my having been compelled to listen for several hours to one of my masters while he talked of possible existences, the infinity of space, the ubiqui- ty of spirit, and many other such subtleties of the learning of the 13th and 14th centuries. » “And still we gazed and still the wonder grew That one small head, should [sic] carry all he knew.” I feel myself happy in being able to do justice to the good sense of our countrymen in the rank they have given to mathematicks in all our seminaries. We have reason to complain only of more time being con- sumed in teaching some of its speculative branches, than is accommodated to the present exigencies of our country. : A laudable zeal has likewise been discovered in the United States for the study of natural philosophy. It is to be lamented that the want of an extensive ap- paratus very much limits instruction in this important branch of science in all our American seminaries. 242 BENJAMIN RUSH In teaching the different sciences that have been mentioned it is common to give but one course of each of them to a class, in which little more is under- stood than the meaning of the technical terms of the science. To teach them perfectly, they should be re- peated two or three times. It is common likewise to oblige students to read upon the subjects of lectures before they hear them, and afterwards for the teacher to ask questions upon them. This is an inversion of ” the natural order of instruction. A lecture should first be given, and the students afterwards be interrogated upon all its parts. If any obscurity should remain in their minds, they should be encouraged to apply pub- licly, or privately to their teacher to have it removed. In this way Dr. Priestly taught the Academy at War- rington in England, and to it, he owed most of his success and fame as a teacher. From a review of what has been said, it is obvious that learning and knowledge are distinct things. Knowledge consists only of truth of which words are nothing but the vehicles. It is further obvious from the facts that have been mentioned, that the person we call a scholar has commanded an undue degree of respect from the world. He is too often nothing but a living vocabulary of dead words. I should be glad to see the term banished [from] our country as far as it relates to the Latin and Greek languages and the EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 243 epithet Philosopher,—a well-informed man, and good citizen—substituted in its stead. We have rejected hereditary power in the govern- ments of our country. But we continue the willing subjects of a system of education imposed upon us by our ancestors in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- ries. Had agriculture, mechanics, astronomy, navi- gation and medicine been equally stationary, how dif- ferent from the present, would have been the condi- tion of mankind! Considering the immense influence which the art of printing, commerce and the discovery and settlement of South and North America have had upon human affairs it is not too bold to assert that there is scarcely anything just or proper in art or science that was believed to be so, two hundred years ago. The presses of Europe and America have lately teemed with publications in favor of the rights of man. The rights of women have likewise been asserted with great ingenuity and eloquence. To these perform- ances I should be glad to see added a defence of the rights of school boys. Much might be said in favor of their right to be benefited by the early and proper use of their senses in becoming acquainted with the works of nature and art,—to acquire ideas before words,—to be instructed in the means of maintaining a familiar and correct intercourse with the world by 244 BENJAMIN RUSH means of reading, writing and arithmetic,—to be gov- erned at school by the principles of reason and human- ity,—to the inheritance of their minds unimpaired by useless and debilitating studies,—and finally of their right to the direction of their faculties to those pur- poses for which they were intended, by their wise and benevolent Creator. I am aware gentlemen of the prejudices which are entertained against many of the opinions which I have delivered in the course of this lecture. It was re- marked that not a single physician who was above for- ty years of age, adopted Dr. Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of the blood. I despair of making proso- lytes [sic] among men who have passed that un- changeable period of life. To their obloquy I shall submit with patience, under a full conviction that the rising generation of which you compose a respectable part, will do my opinions justice. You will not permit them to perish with the name of their author, nor to pass away with the hour in which they have been de- livered. 7. “REASONS AGAINST FOUNDING A COLLEGE AT CARLISLE: IRONICAL BY B. RUSH.” 1. As it has been found by long experience that men are easily governed in proportion as they are ignorant, a college at Carlisle by diffusing light and knowledge EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 245 over the western parts of the state will enable a sett of wild outlandish people to think for themselves and thereby prevent their being governed for the future by the publications and private letters of a certain secret Junto in Philadelphia. 2. A College at Carlisle will encrease the number of learned men in the state and thereby diminish the respect that is due to a few learned demagogues in Philadelphia. 3. A College at Carlisle by raising up a number of learned and eloquent men in the western counties of the state may create such a balance to the wealth and commerce of Philadelphia as may prevent those coun- ties from being entirely governed as in former times by a few nabobs in Philadelphia. 4. A College at Carlisle from its situation will nec- essarily fall into the hands of the Presbyterians who are a most turbulent Sett of people, and who should not be permitted to herd together, least they should awaken the jealousies of other religious societies who at present are universally in love with Presbyterian manners—character—and government in so much that in a few years it is probable [if Dr. Rush, and two or three other hot-headed fanatics do not prevent it] the whole state and more especially the tories and quakers will adopt the Presbyterian religion. 5. A College at Carlisle will exhibit a new phenom- 246 BENJAMIN RUSH ainon in the history of literature—if it should become the property of one religious Society. It is well known the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge in England— and the Universities in Scotland are all held equally by Christians of every religious denomination. It is likewise notorious that the Episcopalians possess equal powers and privileges in the Colleges of New England with the independents,—that the Colleges of Williams- burgh and New York are the nurseries of Presbyteri- anism—and that the College of New Jersey is sup- ported by trustees and teachers chosen alike from” Episcopalians—quakers—Baptists — Catholics — and Presbyterians. 6. A College at Carlisle by gratifying a part of the Presbyterians may lead them to consent to deliver up the College of Philadelphia to its original owners who founded it, but who from being tories and republicans have justly forfeited the same—it being a fixed maxim in government that no man, or bodies of men should hold property or charters of incorporation who do not think exactly upon all points with a certain Junto in Philadelphia. 7. A College at Carlisle will discover an inconsist- ency in the conduct and character of Dr. Ewing who first projected it about eleven years ago and who crossed the Ocean on purpose to obtain a fund for a Presbyterian Academy at Newark, but who is now a EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 247 convert to those systems of education and charter, which unite all Sects of Christians together in a uni- versity by which means the tenets and mode of wor- ship of no one Sect can be taught, or established, and thus religion which was formerly crammed down the throats of boys at school will be kept out of sight, and young men will be left until they are of age to chuse principles and a mode of worship for themselves, which from the nature of the human heart—from the usual effects of learning—from the advantages of liv- ing a number of years in a large trading city, cannot fail of being wisest and best. 8. A College at Carlisle by diffusing a similarity of manners, principles and opinions among the Presby- . terians may prove the means of uniting them and thereby of rendering them respectable and of course formidable in the eyes of other religious societies. It may likewise prove a nursery of wise and good men both in the church and state who from being edu- cate[d] Presbyterians may give reputation to that So- ciety, and enable them not only to acquire, but hold a due proportion of [the] power of the state. 9. A College at Carlisle in the hands of one relig- ious Society will deprive the state of the principal ad- vantages of the revolution which was intended to de- stroy bigotry and all distinctions of Sects among Christians, insomuch that the quakers—Roman Catho- 9 248 BENJAMIN RUSH lics—and Presbyterians will in a short time worship in the same churches and perform alternately the same religious ceremonies, thereby manifesting that our an- cestors who contended for what they called truth and simplicity in doctrine and worship were fools, and that we are the only liberal and enlightened people that ever lived in the world, Philadelphia, May 20, 1783. 8. DR. RUSH’S LETTER TO DR. NISBET INFORMING THE LATTER OF HIS ELECTION AS “PRINCIPAL” OF DICKINSON COLLEGE?5 Herewith you will receive a letter from his Excel- lency Governor Dickinson, enclosing an account of your being elected Principal of Dickinson College to- gether with a small bill of exchange to assist in de- fraying the expences [sic] of your voyage to this country. I beg leave to congratulate you upon this event. The honor intended you by this appointment will be more highly esteemed when I add that your election was unanimous. No name was set in competition with yours. Indeed, Sir, so highly do the trustees conceive of your Character and Qualifications that all their hopes of success in establishing their College now * This is taken from a copy in Rush’s hand preserved for us in a little yellow backed notebook among the Rush papers at the Ridgway Library. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 249 seem to depend upon your accepting of their appoint- ment and if to live with people of principles congenial to your own in religion and government; if to fill a station the highest & most respectable that a Minister of the Presbyterian Church can arrive to in any part of the World; if to form the Opinions, morals, and manners of the rising generation of half a state; and above all, if to diffuse the blessings of science and religion over a tract of Country many hundred [miles] in extent; if any or all of these Considerations are allowed to have their proper weight with you I am sure you will not, you cannot hesitate in complying with our invitation. To reconcile your mind to changing your Country, I beg leave to submit the following facts to your knowledge. The board of Trustees consists of 40 gen- tlemen who (when I except myself) are all men of the first character for probity, public spirit & property in the state. Mr. Dickinson our present worthy governor and the illustrious author of the farmers [sic] Letters is President of our board. Thirteen of our number are Clergymen, nine of whom are of the Presbyterian Church. You cannot fail of being happy in the society of these latter gentlemen. They are in general men of learning (educated chiefly by Dr. Wetherspoon [sic] and are all Calvanists [sic] in their religious princi- 250 BENJAMIN RUSH ples. Two or three of them intend to write to you at the meeting of our synod which will be sometime next month. The board of trustees is composed of men of all sects altho a majority of them are Presbyterians, but the Charter of the College allows no exclusive priviledges [sic] to any one religious society. As our state is inhabited by people of different denominations, it is thought the interest of the institution will be pro- moted by electing under you some professors of the most respectable sects in the state. This cannot fail of adding to your importance and usefulness. It will give our Society an opportunity (too often neglected in America) of showing that we are not strangers to tolleration [sic] and it will teach our youth to exercise liberality and charity towards those who differ from them in their religious tenets. The town of Carlisle lies 120 miles to the westward of Philadelphia and about 18 miles from the river Susquehannah. It consists of about 300 houses most of which are built of lime stone. It lies in a healthy and fertile plain bounded on the north and south by two high mountains; within one mile of the town there winds a small river called by the Indian name of Canedoguinet which after distributing fertility and wealth by watering meadows and turning a number of mills empties itself into the Susquehannah. The inhabitants of the town of Carlisle are in gen- EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 251 eral an orderly people. Two or three general officers who served with reputation in our army; four or five lawyers; a regular bred physician and a few gentle- men in trade of general knowledge and fair characters compose the society of the town. There are three churches in this village; the largest belongs to the Presbyterians; the other two (which are very small) belong to the Episcopalians and the German Luther- ans. Neither of them are [sic] provided with minis- ters. A Mr. Davidson is talked of for the first. He is a man of letters and will with a small addition to his salary, make an useful [sic] addition to our faculty of Professors. If your preaching should prove accept- able to the Presbyterian Congregation, I think it high- ly probable that they will add £50 a year to your salary as Principal of the College. But the trustees I believe will not consent to your performing any other parochial duty. A sermon, once a week will be ex- pected from you for the benefit of the pupils. I sup- pose it will be needless to inform you that as Principal of the College it is expected that [you] will not only govern the College, but concur in teaching some of the Arts and Sciences. You will have your choice of such a branch or branches as are most agreeable to you. Only two or three hours a day will be employed in this duty. A system of education in Divinity is much wanted in America. Perhaps this may be your only 252 BENJAMIN RUSH Professorship. A course of lectures on government including not only the principles of Constitutions but practical legislation will be very acceptable in this country and very necessary in our repitblic. From your character and principles I conceive you would be very useful in communicating instruction upon these ‘subjects. Our College is as yet a new born infant. It has all the parts and faculties but they require growth and extension. To you sir, it lifts up its head. To you, to you, alone, under God, it looks for support and nourishment. Your name is now in everybody’s mouth. The Germans attempt to pronounce it in bro- ken English. The natives of Ireland and the descend- ants of Irishmen have carried it to the western coun- ties. The Juniata and Ohio have borne it on their streams thro’ every township in the state that lies be- yond Carlisle. Our Saints pray to you as the future Apostle of the church in this part of the world. Our: patriots long to thank you for defending the cause of America at a time when and in a place where she had few friends. And our statesmen wish to see our youth formed by you for the various duties they owe to the public. I beg leave to inform you that the trustees of the college do not expect that £50 sterling will defray the expenses of the passage of your family to America. EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 253 It is upon this account that they voted that your sal- ary should commence on the day of your embarkation. If you should incur any unexpected expences beyond the amount of £50 and the sum that will be due you upon your arrival I have no doubt but the trustees will defray them with the greatest cheerfulness. I think the less furniture you bring over with you the better. Your library cannot be replaced in Amer- ica. A few hundred pounds may be laid out to great advantage in a farm in the neighborhood of Carlisle, which will nearly maintain your family. Lands now sell there with good improvements for £2 and £3 sterling an acre. The expense of provi- sions at Carlisle is I believe nearly the same as at Montrose. I have neglected to give you a history of the diffi- culties we have surmounted in bringing our College to its present agreeable situation and prospects. Ignor- ance, prejudice, party-spirit, self-interest and jealousy have all in their turns opposed it. From some of these sources you may perhaps receive information and ad- vice unfriendly to our wishes. Only think and act for yourself and we shall be satisfied. Our [word illegible, perhaps Views] and Characters will bear the severest examination. I honour Dr. Witherspoon for his abili- ties. He has diffused a great deal of true wisdom through our country, but I am sorry to add that he 254 BENJAMIN RUSH did not carry the same Character back with him to Scotland that he brought from it to America. “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” This, my dear friend, must not be read to anybodv ex- cept to the Doctor himself. I love the principles he has espoused too much to hurt them by a hint to his disadvantage, especially in Scotland.. I thought it necessary to write thus freely to you upon the subject of the Doctor’s character, as I am well informed that he said just before he embarked that “you should not come to America if he could prevent it.” The Doctor’s son-in-law, the Reverend Doctor Smith, a man of sound learning and excellent character who now presides over the Jersey College is warmly attached to our institution and rejoices in the prospect of your becoming a fellow labourer with him in the education of youth in this country. He considers, very properly, Dickinson College as the sister College of Nassau Hall. We shall look for you with great impatience next fall. A letter from you as soon as possible after this comes to your hands will be very acceptable. I have only to offer you my house as your home upon your arrival in our city. My dear Mrs. Rush joins in compliments to Mrs. Nesbit. She will do her utmost to make her forget her native country and to make her happy in Pennsylvania. .... APPENDIX THE TRUSTEES OF DICKINSON COLLEGE The. following is the complete roll of the Trustees of Dickinson College down to the death of Doctor Rush, in 1813. He served the College for a period of just thirty years, (1783-1813). And at the close of that period there were remaining in office but four of the original board of forty, which had launched the institution through his endeavors. John Dickinson, LL. D........000... (1783-1808) Col. Henry Hill... eee (1783-1798) James Wilson, LL. D. .............-- (1783-1798). William Bingham... (1783-1804) Benjamin Rush, M.D., LL.D......... (1783-1813) James Boyd crveessececeecesecssseeresnensesssees (1783-1787) John McDowell ......2...-:1sssceesceresee (1783-1825) *Henry Muhlenberg, D.D. .............. (1783-1815) *William Hendel .............0--ee ee (1783-1802) Jamies: Jake sy 1. seceacveoie ices cesegeadeestierse (1783-1802) *John. ‘Black: ciciciinneaeneen nds (1783-1802) *Alexander Dobbin Detaled ahaa ky (1783-1809) *John McKnight, D.D. «0... (1783-1794) James Ewing ......-.sccccccccccceeeeesesceees (1783-1810) Robert McPherson ........::::eceee (1783-1789) Henry Slagle ..............- ..- (1783-1810) Thomas Hartley ae ..--(1783-1801) Michael Hahn .........-..--2-------e (1783-1792) *John King, D.D. esses (1783-1813) *Robert Cooper, D.D.....--------e (1783-1805) 256 BENJAMIN RUSH WJammes Loa tig a. ceccesecceeccecdeccnseceedceneneeee (1783-1798) *Samuel Waugh ..........2:22::cecceeeeeee (1783-1807) *William Linn, D.D.w (1783-1787) "John: Taint ik nincaen ities (1783-1821) John G. Armstrong.. w+. (1783-1794) John Montgomery .........2002--+- (1783-1808) Stephen Duncan .......-ceceeeeeeeeeees (1783-1794) Thomas Smith o.0........2.:::eeeceeee (1783-1809) Robert Magaw .........-.-- (1783-1790) Samuel A. McCloskey (1783-1815) *Christopher E. Schulze... (1783-1788) Peter Spyker -..........:.-:::ececeeseseceseees (1783-1794) John Arndt (1783-1788) William Montgomery .............2.-+ (1783-1794) William Maclay .....2..-.:cceseeeeeeee (1783-1796) Barnard Dougherty. Col. David Espy........ (1783-1792) (1783-1795) *James SuttOn wccsetccccadevcin (1783-1784) Alexander McClean........0.2...cc00- (1783-1788) William McCleery -.........-.::ccec (1783-1788) *Nicholas Kurtz....eecece nee (1784-1796) *Joseph Montgomery... (1787-1794) *James Latta, D.D....020 ee (1787-1801) William Irvine ......... .. (1788-1803) Robert Johnston... (1788-1808) *Patrick Alison, D.D -.00.02-.. (1788-1788) *James Snodgrass ........- .-- (1788-1833) John Creigh............... Joseph Thornburg........ Thomas Duncan, LL.D. George Stevenson .......... (1790-1816) (1792-1827) Ephraim Blaine ~...0.0022 2. (1792-1804) *Robert Cathcart, D.D. 0. (1794-1833) *Nathaniel R. Snowdon...... ..- (1794-1827) Samuel Laird .................. ..-(1794-1807) Charles McClure ..... --- (1794-1811) James Hamilton... (1794-1820) APPENDIX Michael Ege ooececeececcececccccseccssseseseee (1794-1815) Samuel Weakley ....... (1795-1821) *John Campbell, D.D (1796-1820) James Armstrong 22. (1796-1826) *Thomas McPherrinvuw.e eee (1798-1802) James Riddle 0.0... eeeeseccecce teens (1798-1833) Francis Gurney. «.....2:::scceseceeeeseeeeee (1798-1815) Charles Smith, LL.D. ou... (1799-1824) *David Denny. o.20..2.2..ececeeecceeeceseeceeee (1801-1833) David Watts .0.0....cecssecccececeseeeesereeee (1801-1820) *Joshua Williams, D.D...........02..-- (1802-1821) ‘John, Young. sasackncias cece (1802-1803) Robert Coleman ..0....2..2-:escceeeees (1802-1826) *David McConaughy, D.D............... (1802-1834) Hugo H. Brackenridge...............0+ (1803-1816) *Francis Herron, D.D...... .-(1803-1816) Jonathan Walker 0.0... (1804-1824) *Nathan Grier......---s-s-ccecececececesesceseee (1805-1814) *Jonathan Helfenstein .............-- (1807-1826) James Duncan................ ..(1807-1808) James Gustine -0.0.....eecececeeeceeeseeeees (1808-1820) William Alexander (1808-1814) Jacob Hendel ...............- (1808-1833) *Robert Davidson, D.D.......0.0..22.--- (1807-1812) William M. Brown..........:.:.::ccece (1809-1827) Robert Blaine -........::cecccccceceeeseseees (1811-1826) *Minister. 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1, INTRODUCTION The Ridgway Library of Philadelphia has by far the largest collection of materials for a study of the life and work of Doctor Rush. Here is his correspondence in forty- two large volumes, referred to throughout this book as “Rush MSS.” The letters cover nearly his whole life, from boyhood to his death in 1813. There is a very great variety in the subject matter of the correspondence. But the largest portion, by a good deal, has to do with medical matters. Four volumes are required to hold the letters on yellow fever. Volumes forty-one and forty-two contain most of the material for my chapter on Dickinson College. The entire collection is completely indexed. Besides the correspondence, there are also several of Doctor Rush’s Note and Commonplace Books. One of these he called “Letters and Thoughts” and another “Letters, Facts and Observations upon a Variety of Subjects.” Both of them contain a wealth of very interesting historical ma- terial, But the latter is no longer as interesting as it once was. About half its pages were removed by Doctor Rush himself as he reported in a letter to John Adams, (Rush MSS. Vol. 29, p. 135). These lost pages—about one hundred in all—contained practically the whole of Doctor Rush’s col- lection of anecdotes about all the chief characters of the American Revolution. The table of contents has escaped destruction and makes promises of interesting gossip about Sullivan, Greene, Lee and the rest; promises unfulfilled. The Ridgway Library also contains copies of many of Doctor Rush’s numerous publications. The Library of the 260 BENJAMIN RUSH College of Physicians (Philadelphia) also has a large col- lection, more particularly those on medical subjects. The Library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society and that of the University of Pennsylvania each contain material not found elsewhere. The works written by Doctor Rush are arranged in chronological order within each of a number of groups as “On Education,” “Medical Works,” and so forth. The ar- rangement of the various groups themselves is arbitrary but what that arrangement is may be seen in the general table of contents. In order to save space much of the descriptive matter in the very lengthy eighteenth century titles is dmit- ted. The titles given are therefore in most cases abbreviated. Enough has been retained in each case, I trust, to identify the works with certainty. The secondary sources are ar- ranged alphabetically by authors. In general, no account is taken of the various and nu- merous articles and items published by Doctor Rush in the periodical and newspaper press, unless these were also pub- lished in book or pamphlet form. And all except the very ephemeral were so published. Exception is made to this rule with regard to the educational writings. Of these I have listed all I could find, in whatever form they may have been published. 2. AUTOBIOGRAPHY A Memorial Containing Travels Through Life or Sundry Incidents in the Life of Dr. Benjamin Rush. Born Dec. 24, 1745 (Old Style). Died April 19, 1813. Written by Himself; also Extracts from his Commonplace Book, as well as a Short History of the Rush Family in Pennsylvania. Pub- lished privately for the benefit of his descendants by Louis Alexander Biddle, Lanoraie. 1905. [The history of the Rush family is by H. J. Williams.] 3. ON EDUCATION Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical. Phila. T. and S. F. Bradford. 1798. pp viii+378. BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 2 ed. with additions. Phila. T. and W. Bradford. 1806. pp. 8+ 364. [The “additions” consisted of an essay on “Premature Deaths”. ] A Plan for the establishment of public schools and the diffu- . sion of knowledge in Pennsylvania; to which are added, Thoughts upon the mode of education proper in a re- public. Phila. T. Dobson. 1786. pp. 36. [These two papers are the first and second respectively of the collected Essays, but the title of the first was changed slightly and the body of the second was con- siderably modified and abridged. (See p. 214 and note, p. 219). The latter was written to be laid before the Board of Trustees of Dickinson College in 1784. It was finished early in March of that year. (See Rush MSS. Vol. 41, p. 60.)] Thoughts upon female education .. . addressed to the Visit- ors of the Young Ladies’ Academy in Philadelphia... . Phila. Prichard and Hall. 1787 pp. 32. Columbian Mag., Apr. and May, 1790. Essays. p. 75 ff. Syllabus of lectures, containing the application of the prin- ciples of natural philosophy and chemistry to domestic and culinary purposes. Composed for the use of the Young Ladies’ Academy in Philadelphia. Phila. 1787. pp. 6. Address to the people of the United States. Amer. Museum. Jan., 1787. Papers Amer. Hist. Ass’n., IV. p. 82 ff. ‘ Niles’ Principles and Acts of the Revolution. p. 402 ff. Frank Moore’s American Eloquence. New York. 1895. [This “address” contains the earliest extended outline of a “Federal” (or National) University, that I have been able to find. It antedates by several months, Madison’s proposal in the Federal Convention.] To the Citizens of Philadelphia and of the districts of South- 262 BENJAMIN RUSH wark and the Northern Liberties. [A plea for free schools.] Independent Gaz., Mar. 28, 1787. Plan of a Federal University. Fed. Gaz. Oct. 29, 1788; Penna. Gaz., 1788; Amer. Museum, Nov., 1788; Mass. Centinel, Nov. 29, 1788; Amer. Hist. Ass’n. Papers, IV. p. 79 ff. Directions for conducting a newspaper in such a manner as to make it innocent, useful and entertaining. Fed. Gaz., Oct. 1, 1788; Amer. Museum, May, 1789. Thoughts upon amusements and punishments which are proper for schools. Phila. 1790. pp. 8. Columbian Mag., Aug., 1790. Essays, p. 56 ff. An Address delivered at the Commencement [medical] held in the College of Philadelphia, Dec. 15, 1790. Amer. Museum, Dec., 1790; Columbian Mag., Dec., 1790. An Enquiry into the utility of a knowledge of the Latin and Greek Languages as a branch of liberal education with hints of a plan of liberal instruction without them. Amer. Museum, June, 1789. [Title in the Essays changed slightly.] Extract of a letter from Rev. James Muir to Dr. Rush and Dr. Rush’s reply. Amer. Museum, Aug., 1791. Essays. p. 5Off. A Defence of the use of the Bible as a school-book in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Jeremy Belknap of Boston. Amer. Museum, Mar., 1791. Essays, p. 93ff. On the means of promoting medical knowledge. Read before the College of Physicians 1787 and printed in their trans- actions Vol. I. part I. (1793). An Account of the life and character of Christopher Ludwig . baker-general of the army of the United States, etc. Phila. Phila. Soc. for Support of Charity Schools. 1831. pp. 61. Constitution and By-Laws of the Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity Schools. Phila, 1860. BIBLIOGRAPHY 263 [This contains the “Account” of Christopher Ludwig which is the only portion of it written by Rush. Colonel Alexander Graydon’s estimate of Ludwig differs essen- tially from that of Rush. See Graydon’s, Memoirs of a life spent in Pennsylvania.] 4. MEDICAL WORKS Medical inquiries and observations. Phila. Prichard and Hall. 1789. pp. 106. 2 ed. with additions. London. Dilly, 1789. pp. 261. 2 American ed. Phila. 1794, [This. is Volume I of Dr. Rush’s Medical Works. It was dedicated to Dr. John Redman, M. D. “Two reasons have determined me to inscribe to you the. following Inquiries and Observations. They are the fruits of studies which began under your direction; and they require the protection of a respectable medical name,” etc.] eye Medical inquiries and observations. Vol. II. Phila. Dobson. 1793. pp. iv+321. Phila. Dobson. 1794—98. 5 vols. Vol. 1. 2 Amer. ed. 1794. Vol. II. 2 edition. 1797. [This is generally regarded Vol. IIT. 1794. as the first complete edition Vol. IV. 1796. of the “Medical Works.”] Vol. V. 1798. 2 ed. rev. and enlarged. Phila. Conrad. 1805. 4 vols. 3 ed. rev. and enlarged. Phila. Hopkins et al. 1809. 4 vols. ——_——4 ed. Phila. Bennet. 1815. 4 vols. 5 ed. Phila. Carey. 1848. 4 vols. Medical inquiries and observations upon diseases of the mind. Phila. Kimber and Richardson. 1812. pp. viiit+367. [This work has given its author the title “The Father of American Psychiatry.”] 264 BENJAMIN RUSH 2ed. Phila. Richardson. 1818. 3 ed. Phila. Grigg. 1827. 4 ed. Phila. Grigg. 1827. 5 ed. Phila. Grigg and Elliot. 1835. Medizinische Untersuchungen und Beobachtungen iiber die Seelen-Krankheiten. Translated by Georg K6nig. Leip- _ zig. Knobloch. 1825. pp. xiv+298. Dissertatio Physica Inauguralis, de concoctione ciborum in ventriculo. Edinburgh. Balfour. 1768. pp. 30. [This is dedicated to B. Franklin]. A Syllabus of a course of lectures on chemistry for the use of the students of medicine in the College of Philadel- phia. Phila. Cist. 1773. pp. 39. Experiments and observations on the mineral waters of Philadelphia, Abington and Bristol. Phila. Humphreys. 1773. pp. 30. [See Hildeburn’s A Century of Printing for a very amu- sing story about this book.] An Enquiry into the natural history of medicine among the Indians. Phila. Crukshank. [1774]. pp. 118. [This performance was severely criticised by Dr. Huck of London to whom it was dedicated. See Rush MSS. vol. 8. p. 165.] Directions for preserving the health of soldiers. Adopted by the Board of War, Sept. 1777; and reprinted by Cut- brush, 1808, under the title, Observations on the means of preserving the health of soldiers and sailors. The New Method of inoculating for the small-pox. Phila. Cist. 1781. pp. 28. 2ed. [?] 3 ed. Phila. Hall. 1792. pp. 26. Directions for the use of the mineral water and cold bath at Harrogate. Phila. Steiner. 1786. pp. 12. BIBLIOGRAPHY 265 Observations on the duties of a physician. Phila. Prichard and Hall. 1789. pp. 11: An Account of the Climate of Pennsylvania. Phila. Prichard and Hall. 1789. A defence of bloodletting as a remedy for certain diseases. Phila. 1796, A Syllabus of a course of lectures on the institutes and prac- tice of medicine. Phila, Bradford. 1798. pp. 19. Three lectures upon animal life. Phila. Dobson. 1799. pp. viii+84. [Apparently reprinted about 1809.] : Six Introductory Lectures to Courses upon the institutes and practice of medicine. Phila. Conrad et al. 1801. pp. 163. An Inquiry into the various sources of the usual forms of summer and autumnal diseases in the United States. Phila. Conrad. 1805. pp. 113. An Inquiry into the functions of the spleen, fiver, pancreas and thyroid gland. Phila. 1806. pp. 29. [The copy at the Ridgway Library has a manuscript note in Dr. Rush’s handwriting saying this was trans- lated into French.] A Charge delivered in the University of Pennsylvania to the graduates in medicine. Phila. 1810. pp. 7. Sixteen Introductory Lectures to courses upon the institutes and practice of medicine, with a syllabus of the latter. Phila. Bradford and Inskeep. 1811. pp. xiii+455. [This contains the Six Introductory Lectures above mentioned and ten new ones.] [Many papers on medical subjects were also printed in various ‘periodicals, particularly the American Museum, the Columbian Magazine, the Eclectic Repertory. He contrib- uted six papers to the Transactions of the American Philo- sophical Society.] [The various Philadelphia libraries contain a number of sets of notes (in manuscript) taken by Dr. Rush’s medical pupils. The Library of the University of Pennsylvania has notes taken by 266 BENJAMIN RUSH John Spangler. 2 vols. 1790. William Simonton. 4 vols. 1791. Moses Bartram. 2 vols. n. d. (on chemistry). Anon. n. d. (on chemistry). Anon. 2 vols. n. d. (medical). At the Library of the Pa. Hist. Soc. there is one volume of MS. notes taken by William Martin, 1793 or later. The College of Physicians Library has the following, the largest collection of all: Lectures on the mind. [pp. 954] n. d. Robert Alison, 1771 or later. : T. C. James, 1786. Elijah Griffiths, 1797-98. William Darlington, 1802-04. Benjamin Archer, 1804. T. D. Mitchell, 1809-11. J. G. Shippen, 1809-10. M. Clark, Jr., 1809-11. There are also two anon, sets, one of two and the other of three volumes:] 5. ON YELLOW FEVER An Inquiry into the origin of the late epidemic fever in Philadelphia. . In a letter to Dr. John Redman, President of the College of Physicians. Phila. M. Carey. 1793. pp. 15. An Account of the bilious remitting yellow fever as it ap- peared in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1793. Phila. T. Dobson. 1794, pp. x+363. Edinburgh. Symington. 1796. pp. xii+248. Beschreibung des gelben Fiebers, welches im Jahre 1793 in Philadelphia herrschte u.s.w. Tiibingen. Cotta. 1796. pp. xlviii+ 472. Address to the inhabitants of the city and liberties of Phila- delphia, by a friend to mankind. Phila. Sept. 6, 1797. BIBLIOGRAPHY 267 [This is a poster urging precautionary measures against the fever.] Proofs of the origin of the yellow fever in Philadelphia and Kensington in the year 1797, from domestic exhalation, ete. 1 RR Phila. [Printed by the Bradfords for the Academy, of Medicine of Philadelphia.] 1798. pp. 49. [This was only in part written by Rush.] Observations upon the origin of the malignant bilious or yellow fever in Philadelphia, and upon the means of pre- venting it. Phila. Dobson. 1799. pp. 28. A Second Address to the citizens of Philadelphia containing additional proofs of the domestic origin of the malignant bilious or yellow fever. Phila. 1799. Relacion de la calentura biliosa remitente amarilla, que se manifesto en Filadelfia en el afio de 1793. Madrid. 1804. An Inquiry into the various sources of the usual forms of the summer and autumnal diseases in the United States and the means of preventing them. To which are added facts, intended to prove the yellow fever not to be contagious. Phila. J. Conrad et al. 1805. pp. 113. Old family letters relating to the yellow fever. Edited by Alexander Biddle. Phila. Lippincott. 1892. pp. 108. 6. MEDICAL WORKS EDITED BY RUSH First Lines of the practice of physic for the use of students. By William Cullen. ‘ Volume I. Phila. Steiner and Cist. 1781. pp. xvit 388. Volume II. Phila. Cist. 1783. pp. vit184. A Treatise on intermitting and remitting fevers. By Jean Sennac. Phila. 1805. Observations on the epidemical diseases of Minorca. By George Cleghorn. Phila. Nichols. 1809. pp. xviiit+ 184. 268 BENJAMIN RUSH The Works of Thomas Sydenham. Phila. Kite. 1809; re- printed 1815, ete. Observations on the diseases of the army. By Sir John Pringle. Phila. Finley. 1810. pp. xlvii+ 411. Observations on the epidemical diseases of Barbadoes. By Wm. Hillary. Phila. Kite. 1811. pp. xiv+260. A Treatise of such diseases as are most frequent in, or are peculiar to the West India Islands, or the Torrid Zone. By William Hillary. Phila. Kite. 1811. 7. ON SLAVERY An Address to the inhabitants of the British Settlements in America upon slave-keeping. Phila. J. Dunlap. 1773. pp. 30. 2 ed. To which are added observations on a pamphlet entitled “Slavery not forbidden by Scripture; or A Defence of the West India Planters,” By a Penn- sylvanian. Phila. J. Dunlap. 1773. pp. 54. New York. 1773. Boston. 1773. [The title page of the so-called second edition at Phila- delphia varies. One reads “An Address .... on the slavery of the negroes in America. The second edition. To which is added, A Vindication of the Address,” etc. The Pa. Hist. Soc. Library has a copy with John Dick- inson’s autograph on the title-page.] Extract of a letter from Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia, to Granville Sharp. London. Phillips. 1792. pp. 8. [This is a request for aid from the English Friends in the building of a school house and a “plain brick church” for the Free Negroes of Philadelphia.] The Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition of slavery, and the relief of the free negroes unlawfully held in bondage. Begun in the year 1774 and BIBLIOGRAPHY 269 enlarged ... 1787. To which are added the Acts of the General Assembly of Penna for the gradual abolition of slavery. Phila. Bailey. 1788. pp. 29. 8 ON POLITICAL SUBJECTS Observations upon the present government of Pennsylvania. In four letters to the People of Pennsylvania. Phila. Styner and Cist. 1777. pp. 24. Three Letters addressed to the public on the following sub- jects: I. The Nature of the foederal union. Il. The Civil and military powers. III. The public debt. Phila. T. Bradford. 1783. [These “Letters” are signed “Tullius” but have been ascribed to Rush.] A Candid Examination of the addresses of the minority of the council of censors to the people of Pennsylvania .. . and the defects of the Constitution of Pennsylvania. By one of the majority. Phila. 1784. [Ascribed to Rush but the authorship is doubtful.] Considerations upon the present test-law of Pennsylvania. Phila. Hall and Sellars. 1784. pp. 23. 2 ed. Phila. Hall and Sellers. 1785. [There are a great many other political pieces in various periodicals and newspapers. The principal repositories are the American Museum, the Federal Gazette and the Independent Gazeteer. Most of these articles are un- signed or over a nom-de-plume, and positive identifica- tion is frequently difficult.] 9. ON TEMPERANCE Sermons to gentlemen upon temperance and exercise. Phila. J. Dunlap. 1772. pp. 44. An Inquiry into the effects of ardent spirits upon the human 270 BENJAMIN RUSH body and mind with an account of the means of pre- venting and of the remedies for curing them. [This little pamphlet went through more editions than any other work by Rush. I have seen no copies of any editions earlier than the fourth and it has no date. But in a copy of that edition at the Ridgway Library there is a note in Dr. James Rush’s handwriting as follows: “By a letter from a person by the name of Pierce at St. Croix, this piece was published before July, 1784.” The various editions which I have seen follow.] 4 ed. enlarged. Phila. Dobson. pp. iv+50. | “The Drunkard’s Emblem or An Inquiry,” ete. Phila. Amos Henkel & Co. [1804?] pp. 44. enlarged by the addition of “A Moral and Physical Thermometer.” Boston. Thomas and Andrews. 1790. pp. 12. Boston. Loring. 1823. pp. 12. Edinburgh. Turnbull. 1810. pp. 12. (Extracts) Phila. Kite. 1818. pp. 16. Amer. Tract Soc. n. d. pp. 8. Columbian Mag. (Phila.) June, 1791. 10. ON PENAL REFORM Enquiry into the effects of public punishments upon criminals and upon society. Read in the Society for Promoting Political Enquiries convened at the house of His Excellency Benjamin Franklin. Phila. J. James. 1787. pp. 18. London. Dilly. 1787. pp. vi+37. Considerations on the injustice and impolicy of punishing murder by death. Phila. M. Carey. 1792. pp. 19. (with slight changes) London. J. Johnson. 1793. 11. MEMORIAL ADDRESSES An Eulogium upon the Reverend Gilbert Tennent, Phila. 1764. ae BIBLIOGRAPHY 271 An Eulogium upon Dr. William C. Cullen. Phila. Dobson. 1790. pp. 30. An Account of the late Dr. John Morgan delivered before the trustees and students of medicine in the College of Philadelphia. Columbian Magazine. November, 1789. An Eulogium intended to perpetuate the memory of David Rittenhouse. Phila. J. Ormond. [1796] pp. 46. Memoir of the life and character of John Redman, M. D. In the Medical and Philosophical Register. 12. MISCELLANEOUS An Oration ... containing an enquiry into the influence of physical causes upon the moral faculty. Phila. Cist. 1786. pp. viii+40. London. Dilly. 1786. pp. viii+71. Phila. 1839. [This oration was translated into French but I have not seen a copy.] An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania. Columbian Mag. January, 1789. (with notes by I. Daniel Rupp) Phila. S. Town. 1875. pp. 72. Pa. Ger. Soc. Proc. and Addresses. 1910. An Account of the Sugar Maple Tree of the United States, and of the methods of obtaining sugar from it, together with observations upon the advantages both public and private of this sugar. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson; etc. Amer. Philos. Soc. Trans. Vol. III. 1792. Phila. Aitken and Son. 1792. pp. 16. London. Phillips. 1792. pp. 24. Columbian Mag. March, 1792. Two Lectures upon the pleasures of the senses and of the mind. Phila. 1811. 272 BENJAMIN RUSH 13. SECONDARY SOURCES R[obert] W. Abbe. Memorial of Dr. Benjamin Rush. [This is a collection of portraits and several original letters of Dr. Rush beautifully bound and placed in the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.] I. A. Albers. Americanische Annalen der Arzneykunde. Bre- men. 1803. Archibald Alexander. Biographical sketches of the founder and principal alumni of the Log College. Phila. 1851. Jeremiah Atwater. An Inaugural Address delivered at... . Dickinson College. Carlisle, 1809. James C. Ballagh. The Letters of Richard H. Lee. New York, 1914, George Bancroft. Joseph Reed, A Historical Essay. New York, 1867. Wilhelmus B. Bryan. A History of the National Capital. New York. 1914. 2 vols. Burton Chance. Benjamin Rush, A summary of an address, n. p. 1903. Thomas Clarkson. The History of the rise, progress and accomplishment of the abolition of the African slave- trade by the British Parliament. New York. 1836. 3 vols. T. Carpenter. A report of an action for a libel brought by Dr. Benjamin Rush, against William Cobbett, etc. Phila. 1800. William Cobbett. The Rush-light. New York. 1800. [This was a serial publication.] Moncure D. Conway. The Life of Thomas Paine. New York. 1909. [2 vols. 3 ed.] George R. Crookes. Dickinson College, The History of a Hundred Years. {An Alumni oration at Dickinson College. 1883.] E. H. Cummins. Biographical Memorial of Dr. Benjamin Rush. The Evangelical Repository. Phila. Vol. I. No. 2. Joseph H. Dubbs. The Reformed Church in Pennsylvania. Lancaster (Pa.) 1902. BIBLIOGRAPHY 273 Richard Eddy. Benjamin Rush’s religious principles. The Christian Leader. Oct. 1, 1885. Henry D. Gilpin. Published Miscellanies. [Phila.] [Copy in library of the Pa. Hist. Soc.] Charles F. Himes. A Sketch of Dickinson College, Carlisle. Harrisburg. 1879. Charles Hodge. The constitutional history of the Presby- _ terian Church in the United States. Phila. 1840. 2 vols. “David Hosack. An Introductory Discourse ... and a tribute to Dr. Benjamin Rush. New York. 1813. [See also Analectic Magazine for 1814 for the eulogy.] M. A. De Wolfe Howe. The Life and Letters of George Bancroft. New York. 1908. 2 vols. J. G. J.f[ohnson]. A Criticism of Mr. William B. Reed’s Aspersions on the Character of Dr. Benjamin Rush. Phila. 1867. [John Coakley] Lettsom. Retollections of Dr. Rush. Lon- don, 1815. {It is in this pamphlet that Dr. Rush is first called “The Sydenham of America.” Many of Dr. Lettsom’s bio- graphical statements are inaccurate.] John Mace. The proximate cause of disease, etc. Phila. 1802. Samuel Miller. A brief retrospect of the eighteenth century. New York. 1802. 2 vols. Charles K. Mills. Benjamin Rush and American Psychiatry. New York. 1886. [This is the best short critical estimate of Dr. Rush’s place in medicine and in psychiatry.] _ 7. D. Mitchell. The character of Rush. Phila. 1848. _dilas Weir Mitchell. Historical Notes of Dr. Benjamin Rush, me 1777. ‘Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Apr., 1903. See also Vol. XXIX p. 15 ff. of the same magazine. [These “Notes” were also reprinted in pamphlet form. Phila. 1903.] J. T. Mitchell and H. F. Flanders. The Statutes-at-Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801. Harrisburgh. 1906. VS, 274 BENJAMIN RUSH Thomas Murphy. The Presbytery of the Log College, ete. Phila. 1889. J. H. Musser. Memoranda of the life and works of Benja- min Rush. Phila. 1888. Charles Nisbet. The usefulness and importance of human learning, A Sermon... Carlisle. [1796.] An Address to the Students of Dickinson College. Carlisle. [1786] William Pepper. Benjamin Rush. Chicago. 1890. [Reprint Jour. Am. Med. Ass’n. 1890.] T. G. Pettigrew. Memoirs of the life and writings of the late J. C. Lettsom, M. D. London. 1817. 2 vols. [This contains the famous passage, “La conduite du Dr. Rush a mérité, que non seulement la ville de Phila- delphie, mais 1’ Humanité entiére lui éléve une Statue.” Vol. I, p. 157.] David Ramsay. An Eulogium upon Benjamin Rush, M. D. Phila. 1813. A Review of the improvements, progress and state of medicine in the eighteenth century. Charleston. n. d. [This is dedicated to Rush “The American Sydenham.” ] William] B. Reed. President Reed of Pennsylvania, A Re- ply to Mr. George Bancroft and others. Phila. 1867. A Rejoinder to Mr. Bancroft’s Historical Essay on President Reed. Phila. 1805. W. S. W. Ruschenberger. An Account of the institution and progress of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia during a hundred years, from January, 1787. Philadel- phia, 1887. [This volume is a mine of useful information on the orig- ins of many of the learned societies of Philadelphia in general and the College of Physicians in particular. The foot-notes frequently contain valuable bibliographic material.] Benjamin Rush [Jr.] William B. Reed of Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. Expert in the art of exhumation of the dead. London. 1867. BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 [This very scurrilous pamphlet, written by a grandson of Dr. Benjamin Rush, contains. little that is creditable to any one. It was not, however, written without provo- cation. ] : Bernard C. Steiner. The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry. Cleveland, 1907. Charles J. Stillé. The Life and Times of John Dickinson. Phila. 1891, J. M. Toner. The medical men of the Revolution with a brief «i history of the Medical Department of the Continental Army. Phila. 1876. Samuel Tyler. Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney. Baltimore. 1872. [This Memoir contains a short autobiography, written in 1854, in which are included Justice Taney’s reminis- cences of his college life at Dickinson College, 1792-1795.] J. C. Wilson. An Address... at the unveiling of a monu- ment to the memory of Benjamin Rush in Washington, D. C., 1904. Phila. 1904. George B. Wood. Early History of the University of Penn- sylvania. 3 ed. with supplementary chapter by F. D. Stone. Phila. 1896. INDEX Adams, John, 36, 37, 38, 54, 89, 92, 97, 162. Adams, Samuel, 37, 42. Aitken, Robert, 41. America, 20. American Philosophical So- ‘ciety, 41, 88n. Amusements for Schools, 192 ff, Armstrong, General 108, 109, 112. Bancroft, George, 97, 98. Baptists, 3. Bible as a School Book, 193f. Bingham, William, 112, 118, 131. “Bingham’s Porch”, 72, 99, 100, ; Black, Dr., 16. Blackstone, 24. Blodget, Samuel, Jr., 194 and note; 183ff. Boerhaave, Dr., 29. Bond, Dr., 24. Bostock, John, 18. Bryan, George, 71, 75n., 104, 106, 111. Caesar, 62. John, Carpenter’s Hall, 40. “Centinel”, 71 and note. Christ Church in Philadel- phia, 14n., 32. Clarkson, Anna, 5n. Clymer, George, 36. Cobbett, William, 90. College of New Jersey, 5, 7, 9, 20, 21, 25, 31, 124. See Princeton. College of Philadelphia, 15n., 24, 26, 73; Loss of Char- ter, 74, 76. College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 31, 79, 87, 88. “Common Sense”, 41, 43. Constitution, Federal, 69-71. Continental Congress, 20, 36, 44ff., 55. Convention, 36. Conway Cabal, 53, 60. Council of Safety of Penn- sylvania, 39, 73. Coxe, John Redman, 78. Cromwell, Oliver, 3, 18. Cromwell, William, 23. Cruden, Alexander, 23. Constitutional, 278 Cullen, Dr. William, 16, 27, 29, 30. Davies, Rev. Samuel, Presi- dent of the College of New Jersey, 9, 54. Declaration of Independence, 20, 31, 44-46, Dickinson College, 38; first planned, 100; Carlisle presbytery considers cir- cular letter relative to, 101; Rush’s “Hints on es- tablishment of”, 101-4; Opposition to, 104-6; Car- lisle presbytery’s reply to Rush’s “Hints”, 106-7; letter by Rush to Arm- strong relative to, 109-12; Carlisle presbytery ap- proves establishment of, 112; choice of Trustees for, 113-4; securing char- ter of, 113-6; organiza- tion of Board, 116; choice of name for, 117; finances of, 117-23; first meeting of Board of, 123; choice of President of, 124-5; sal- ary of President, 126; ar- rival of President, 132; faculty and students at the beginning, 133; resig- nation of President, 136; his reelection, 140; stu- dents not properly classi- fied in, 142; character -of INDEX the instruction in, 140-5; 149-51; changes in the course of study, 145-7; discipline in, 147-8; build- ings and grounds of, 151-6; death of first President of, 156; selection of succes- sor, 156-8; the library of, 160; chair of chemistry in, 160; number of students in, 160-2; closing of, 162; reorganization, 163; de- fects of charter of, 164-6; copy of advertisement of, 167-9; Rush as the father of, 194. Dickinson, John, 36-39, 47, 112, 128-131. Diderot, 22, 24. Dilly, Edward, 23, 38. Duffield, Dr. Samuel, 59. Ewing, Dr., 75n., 104-106, 127. Edinburgh, 16, 17, 22, 29, 33, 35. Education for 171ff., 194 ff. England, 20, 35. Episcopal Church, 14n. Finley, Rev. Samuel, 4-6, 10, 14n., 20. Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 72. Fothergill, Dr., 26. Franklin, Benjamin, 24, 39, 42, 46, 131. Frederick the Second, 62. Galen, 72. Gates, General, 56. democracy, 15, 22, INDEX Goldsmith, Oliver, 22. Greek and Latin, education- al value of, 188-91, Greene, General Nathaniel, 60. Gregory, Dr., 16. Hall, Susannah, mother of Rush, 4. Hamilton, Alexander, 59, 60, 61, 182. Harvard College, 11. Hazard, Ebenezer, 6, 8, 11, 13, 18. Henry, Patrick, 38, 52, 47n., 54, 56, 58, 63ff. Henry the Eighth, 62. Herculaneum, 212. Hippocrates, 13. Hope, Dr., 16. Hoyt, John W., 179n., 187, 188n. Huck, Dr., 23. Hume, David, 22, 23. Hunter, Dr. William, 22. Jefferson, Thomas, 97. Johnson, Samuel, 22. Kuhn, Dr. Adam, 24, 76, 77. Latin and Greek languages, educational value of, 188- 91, Lettsom, Dr., 23. Lexington, 39, 41. Log College, 5. London, 13, 22, 23, 24. Luther, 62. Maclay, William, 72. 279 Marshall, John, Chief Jus- tice, 69. McHenry, James, 78. McKean, Thomas, 40, 70, 91. Monroe, Dr., 16. Morris, Robert, 45, 59, 71n. Morse, S. F. B., 5n. Medical education, 10-12. Mifflin, Thomas, 36, 38, 55, 56. Mirabeau, 24. Montgomery, John, 99, 100, 108, 119, 153, 154. Morgan, John, 5, 13, 24, 25, 27, 48, 59. “Morven”, 31. National University, propos- ed by Rush, 172; quota- tion concerning, 172-3; purpose of, 173-4; grade of work, 174; course of study suggested for, 174- 7; degrees to be granted by, 177-8; early literature on, 179-88; quotation from Blodget concerning, 180- 1; quotations from Wash- ington concerning, 182-3; selections from Rush’s writings concerning, 198 ff.; 206ff. New Jersey, 5. Nisbet, Dr. Charles, chosen President of Dickinson College, 124; considered for presidency, College of 280 New Jersey, 124; ear- ly correspondence with Rush, 124; his qualification for presidency of Dickin- son, 125; minute of elec- tion, 126; salary and terms, 126; wavers about accepting, 127; John Dick- inson’s letter to, 128; ac- tion of Trustees, 130; Dickinson’s retraction, 130; arrival in Philadel- phia, 131; reception at Carlisle, 132; break with Rush, 134; illness of, 134 ff.; resignation, 136; prep- aration to return to Scot- land, 137; correspondence among Trustees concern- ing, 139ff.; reinstatement, 140; relations with Rush, 140-1; his teaching, 144, 149, 150, 151; relations with Trustees, 147ff.; let- ter to Judge Allison, 155; death of, 156; salary un- paid at death, 156. Nottingham, 4, 6, 7, 9, 14n. Paine, Thomas, 41ff. Paine, Robert Treat, 7. Palmyra, 212. Paris, 22, 23, 24. Penn, William, 3. Penn, Thomas, 26. Pennsylvania, 35, 39, 44, 47, 70, 74, 75, 214, 219. INDEX Pennsylvania Assembly, 47, 70. Pennsylvania 48, 72. Pennsylvania hospital, 11. Pennsylvania, Navy, 39. ‘Peter Porcupine”, 90. Philadelphia, 3, 4, 8, 9, 14, 15, 24, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 37, 40, 42, 74, 194, 220. Pickering, Timothy, 70. Pinkhard, Dr., 23. Potts, Jonathan, 15. Presbyterians, 3, 8, 14n., 47; Second Presby. Church of Philadelphia, 14, 15. Princeton University, 5, 20, 21, 32. Provincial Conference of Pennsylvania, 40. Punishments for 192ff. Quakers, 3, 38, 79. Ramsay, Dr. David, 21. Reed, Joseph, 37, 55, 56, 104. Redman, Dr. John, 10, 12, 15, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 31, 79, 88, 93, 97. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 22. Ridgway Library, 33, 259. Rittenhouse, David, 42. Ross, Rev. Eneas, 14n. Rousseau, 23. Rush, Benjamin, dates of his birth and death, 3; an- cestry, 4; his father, 4; his mother, 4; his brothers constitution, schools, INDEX and sisters, 4; sent to Dr. Finley’s academy, 4; his account of the academy, 6ff.; sent to College of New Jersey, 7; his correspond- ence with E. Hazard, 8-9, 11; choice of profession, 9-10; enters upon medical studies, 10; his devotion to his work, 11; religious conversion, 14; his first published writing, 14-15; interest in politics, 14-15; goes to Edinburgh for study, 15ff.; receives M.D. degree, 17; his opinion of the value of the Edin- burgh experience, 17-18; his “republican ideas”, 18; aids in securing Dr. With- erspoon for College of N. J., 20-22; visits London and Paris, 22-4; appointed professor of chemistry, 24; testimonials of ability, 26-7; early practice, 28- 31; marriage and family, 31-3; opposition to Eng- land, 35; part in pre-Re- volutionary discussion, 36; entertains delegates to Continental Congress, 36- 7; John Adams’ early opin- jon of, 38; fleet-surgeon, Pa, navy, 39; helps con- trol saltpetre factory, 40; 281 member Provincial con- ference of Pennsylvania, 40; chairman of commit- tee on independence, 40; connection with Paine’s “Common Sense”, 40-4; career in Continental Congress, 44-7; patriotism of, 46-7, 96-7; helps frame Pa. Constitution, 48, 72; Surgeon-General and later Physician-General to ar- my, 48; correspondence about anonymous letter to Henry, 58, 62-9; mem- ber convention to ratify Federal Constitution in Pennsylvania, 69-72; in- terest in Pa. Constitution of 1790, 72; resumes lec- tures, 74; refuses appoint- ment in University of the State of Pennsylvania, 75; length of service as med- ical teacher, 75-6; various professional titles, 76-7; manner as a lecturer, 77; the number of his stu- dents, 78; his practice, 78 ff.; yellow fever labors, 79 -90; his method of treat- ment in yellow fever, 85; his “Account of the Yellow Fever”, 86; reputation from yellow fever activi- ty, 85-6; yellow fe- 282 ver disputes, 86-90; libel suit against Cobbett, 90-1; organizes Academy of Medicine, 91; fails of elec- tion to Columbia faculty, 92; appointed Treasurer of U. S. Mint, 92-3; con- nection with Penna. Hos- pital, 93-4; founds Phila. Dispensary, 94; as an au- thor,95; his philanthropies, 95; his temperance and other reform activities, 96; character, 97-8; tribute by Bancroft, 98; considers foundation of a college at Carlisle, 99-100; early cor- respondence about col- lege, 101; outline of “Hints for establishing a_col- lege”, 101-4; opposition to his scheme, 104-6; letter to General Armstrong outlined, 109-12; activity in securing college char- ter, 113-6; interest in col- lege finances, 117-20; his “Thoughts on education in a republic’, 123; his choice for college presi- dency, 124-5; controversy with John Dickinson, 129- 31; controversy with Nis- bet, 133-6; 140-1; respon- sibility for faulty college legislation, 148; criticism INDEX of, by Nisbet, 150; oppos- es Nisbet’s political views, 151; interest in college buildings, 152, 153, 156; secures President Atwa- ter, 157-8; interest in high- er degree for Atwater, 160; quoted, 162; appre- ciation of his services by the Board of Trustees, 165-6; discussion of his educational views and se- lections from his educa- tional writings, 171-254. Rush, Mrs. Benjamin, 31, 32. Rush, Jacob, 4, 6. Rush, James, 32, Rush, John, Father of Ben- jamin, 4; Son of Benja- min, 31. Rush, Richard, 32, 69. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church of Phila. 14n. St. Thomas Hospital, 22. Scotland, 31. Shippen, Dr. John, 13, 24, 35, 48ff., 56ff., 75, 76. Smith, James, 40. Smith, William, provost Col- lege of Phila., 37, 74, 75. Stamp Act, 15, 18, 35. Steuben, Baron, 60. Stockton, Richard, 20, 31. Story, Thomas, 79. “Sydenham”, 32. INDEX Sydenham, Dr., 86. Synod of New York, 8. Tennents, 5. Tennent, Rev. Gilbert, 15. Tennent, Rev. William, 6. Thomson, Charles, 36, 61, 97. Thornton, Dr. William, 184. Trustees, list of original, 255-7, United States, 21. University of State of Penn- sylvania, 75, 77. University of Pennsylvania, 5. Valley Forge, 51, 58. 283 Waddell, Rev. James, 6. Washington, Bushrod, 62, 65, 66, 68. ; Washington, George, 35, 51ff. 55, 60, 62ff., 180ff., 186. Wayne, Anthony, 70. West, Benjamin, 23. White, Bishop, 74. Whitefield, George, 14. Wilson, James, 72, 131. Witherspoon, John, 20, 21, 22, 31, 58. Women, education of, 195f.; 226ff. Wynkoop, Gerardus, 72. Yellow Fever epidemic, 79ff. eh At Sante ecath pA ao Pitan ce Mani cae Lal pet oo ark NPY) A) or vr Uh ee Ft A 7 4 it i Da ny RR ki ay Ta veel e BR aay QOL Ota x AANA Bait eae MRE Sai U Ges eds Atri Aree Pee Cy hia any Bis pPacgeiee Wire we iG Be ai . LANES vat ay ne Ve (ea ONT ot) oe ‘ yee besh Cans Gt ia oo i: i ay rarer Pron ee Re alee ae Devtocas peeees ee eee eal ere Te Par ore ee Os Me ere oe irs ieee a Soe ner ery Ke peice ren an oe Pop rericrre Wee eaes vevernay a Preia aN rs deem ascer gece oi ieee Fipees peratar tt pir Sonia aes ere ara Rate ane Mayra tin Deda diry ers att Meith Rae A & Una Dn emegen rin TT area