Letters of Benjamin Rush: Volume I: 1761-1792 9780691200750

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~tters of ~enjamin

'R..!!;sh

MEMOIRS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY HELD AT PHILADELPHIA FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE VoLUME

30,

PART 1

Letters of

BENJAMIN

RUSH EDITED BY J.:._.H.'J3UTTERFIELD

Volume I: 1761-1792

PUBLISHED FOR THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

Princeton Legacy Library edition 2019 Paperback ISBN: 978-0-691-62735-9 Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-691-65590-1

THESE VOLUMES ARE DEDICATED TO

Julian and qrace p. 2.47-9). 6 William Allen (I751-1838), son of Chief Justice William Allen, held the rank of lieutenant colonel and served under Montgomery in Canada, but he resigned soon after the Declaration of Independence and in I 7 78 formed a corps of Pennsylvania loyalists (PMHB, I [I877], zo7, zo9, and IX [I885], I77; BR to Wayne, 24 Sep. 1776; Sabine, Loyalists, I, I 57-8). 1 Washington had been commissioned commander in chief by Congress on I5 June and had assumed command at

1775

Cambridge on 3 July (DAB). BR, as appears from other evidence besides the present remarkable tribute, was one of Washington's strongest early supporters; see below, Appendix I, and BR to John Adams, u Feb. to 9 Mch. I 8 u. 8 Charles Lee (I73I-I782.), a British soldier of fortune and a doughty penman, had acquired an estate in Berkeley co., Va. (now W.Va.) and early became a strong advocate of republicanism and independence. Appointed major general by Congress on 17 June 177 5, he renounced his half-pay and served with reputation at Boston, in the South, and around New York prior to his capture by surprise at Basking Ridge, N.J., in Dec. I776. Exchanged in I778, he was given the post of honor in the action at Monmouth, but discredited himself and was cashiered for misbehavior in the face of the enemy. He returned to his estate and spent his few remaining years in blustering apologetics. His ablest biographers (Jared Sparks, in the Library of American Biography, 2.d ser., vm, Boston, I 846; and R. G. Adams in DAB) have pointed out that creditable interpretations are possible for even his worst actions. It is certain that he won many fast friends among the American patriots, including BR, with whom he conducted a brisk correspondence from I774 to I78I. Nearly all of the letters on BR's side have disappeared, but a reading of Lee's earlier letters, with their denunciations of the King, the ministers, and those Americans who were too timid to strike for freedom, together with their praise of the American common soldier, makes it easy to see why BR and others were captivated by Lee. BR most decidedly thought Lee's dismissal unwarranted and always cherished his memory. A sketch of Lee's character furnished by "a gentleman of Philadelphia" and printed in William Gordon's History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the United States of America, London, I 788, IV, 305-8 1 is certainly by BR and is thoroughly judicious and enlightening; a shorter form of it is in BR's Autobiography, p. ISS-6. (Besides the sources mentioned above, see the Charles Lee Papers, where a

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION number of Lee's letters to BR are printed.) 9 As a chemist, BR was considered by himself and others an authority on this essential military article. His "Process of Making Salt-Petre" appeared first in the Penna. Journal in Jan. 1775, and

was revised and enlarged in the Penna. Magazine, I, z66-8 (June 1775). For the efforts of Congress at this time to collect adequate supplies of saltpeter, see Jour. Cont. Gong., II, :ti8-I9i III, 296, 345-8, 5ll·

1

To Owen Biddle

Dear Sir, Tuesday morning [26 December rns?] 2 The sailors in the barracks complain of the want of suitable accommodations for an hospital. A few of them in the Province Island hospita!S (who are on the recovery) beg for liberty to be removed to the barracks. I hope the Committee of Safety will attend immediately to these matters. I am sorry to find that our recruits suffer so much from the want of blankets. Suppose the Comll}ittee of Safety should request by an advertisement every family in the city to furnish one or more from their beds according as they could spare them. I have mentioned the subject to above a dozen families in the city, who have all expressed a desire to concur in it if they are properly called upon. From, dear sir, yours sincerely, B: RusH vfddressed: Mr: Owen Biddle of the Committee of Safety. [MS: New York Public Library, Emmet Collection. 1 Owen Biddle (I737-1799), Quaker scientist and patriot; member Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 177 51 7 77 ; deputy commissioner for forage from June I 77 7; suffered heavy personal losses in the war; became a "Free Quaker" (non-pacifist), 1781, but later returned to the fold (Henry D. Biddle, "Owen Biddle," PMHB, XVI [1892), 299-329). 2 This date is conjecturally assigned in the hand of a previous owner on the face of the MS and fits the known circumstances of BR's life well enough. BR served as physician and surgeon to

the Pennsylvania armed boats, Sep. 1775-July 1776. (Penna. Colonial Records, x, 347, 632; Penna. Archives, 1st ser., v, 3.) 3 The large island at the mouth of the Schuylkill below the city, which had borne various Indian, Swedish, and Dutch names, was known to the English as Fisher's Island until its purchase in I 742 by the Province as a site for a "pest-house" or quarantine hospital, and it was used for this purpose for many years (Scharf & Westcott, II, I66s; Jackson, Encyclo. of Phila., m, 934).

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To Charles Lee My dear General, Philadelphia, February 19, 1776 Fortune seems in a good humor with you. It is not enough that you have triumphed over external and internal enemies at New York, but you are about to enjoy new triumphs in another part of the continent. I tremble only at the price of victory on the Plains of Abraham. 1 I presage your surviving your conquests from one part of your character, and that is you have a wonderful talent of infusing your spirit into the minds of your troops. Should your blood mingle with the blood of Wolfe, Montcalm, and Montgomery/ posterity will execrate the Plains of Abraham to the end of time. Your appointment to the Canada expedition gave all your friends here great pleasure. I think it is more than probable the principal force of our enemies will be sent to that quarter. Canada is dearer to the King than all the other colonies put together, as it is the only part of the British Empire in which arbitrary power is established by law. Should that province become the seat of the war, we shall have no reason to complain, for our seacoasts and seaport towns are in a poor situation to receive our enemies. The Gulf and River St. Laurence it is hoped will concur with the other elements in embarrassing them. Mr. Pitt conquered America in Germany. Who knows but General Lee may conquer Britain in Canada? I need not tell you how much pleasure it will give me to receive a few lines from you by all the expresses you send to the Congress. I shall write to you most faithfully by the return of each of them. Colonel Thompson 3 speaks in high terms of you in all companies. The bearer of this letter is Mr. Payne, the celebrated author of Common Sense.§, Adieu. Yours, &c.,

BRusH .Jddressed: Major General Lee, at New York. 'Printed: Charles Lee Papers, I, 313-14. 1 Lee had been ordered to the command of the American troops before Quebec, but on I Mch. the order was countermanded, and he was sent instead to oppose the British in the South

(DAB). 2 Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery (1738-I775) died in an assault on Quebec on the last day of I7 75 and thus became one of the first American heroes of the war (DAB).

3 William Thompson (d. I 78I)' col., 1st Continental Infantry, I Jan. I776; brig. gen., I Mch. I776; captured at Three Rivers the following June (Heitman, Register; Charles Lee Papers, I, 2.I7, 343, and II, 124). 4 Thomas Paine (I737-I8o9). Common Sense, which on IO Jan. "hurst from the press," in BR's words, "with an effect which has rarely been produced by types and paper in any age or coun-

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION try," gave great impetus to the movement for independence. BR was so intimately associated with the composition of the pamphlet that some of his friends (e.g., Charles Lee and John Adams) thought he was the author. BR did not claim this title to immortality, but he justly considered himself the midwife of Common Sense. His relations with Paine form an interesting chapter in the history of his friendships. Sympathetic with Paine's humanitarian and political ideals, he also deeply admired his rhetoric. But Paine's deistic writings were anathema to him, and

in commenting on a hostile biography of Paine by James Cheetham, to which BR contributed reminiscences of its subject, BR said that Cheetham's account of Paine's last illness and death was "the best refutation of his Age of Reason that has been published," and that "Christians in all countries" would be grateful for it. (DAB; BR, A utobiography, p. 113-14, 323; Charles Lee to BR, 25 Feb. 1776, Charles Lee Papers, 1, 325-6; John Adams, "Autobiography," Works, n, 507-8; BR to Cheetham, 17 July 1809, and 6 Jan. 181o.)

To Mrs. Rush

1

My Dearest, Philadelphia, May 27 [i.e., 26] 1776"' "How blessings brighten as they take their flight.m I did not know till since we parted how much you were a part of myself, and I feel some abatement of my affection for my country when I reflect that even she has deprived me of an hour of my dear Julia's company. I have more than once forgotten that you were out of town, and have come in from visiting my patients prepared to entertain you with an account of everything I had seen and heard in my walks!-when alas! the first steps I took in passing through the entry convinced me of my mistake. A melancholy silence reigns through every apartment of our house. Every room and piece of furniture proclaims that you are gone, and sympathizes with me in lamenting the absence of their mistress. And now according to promise comes the journal of incidents since you left me. Friday. Mrs. Hancock called to pay her compliments to our Aunt Boudinott! I waited upon General Washington. 5 Dined at 2 o'clock most luxuriously upon cold ham and salad. Spent all the afternoon at home. Had a visit at 5 o'clock from Colonel Lee, who drank tea with me. We talked of nothing but the base defection of the Maryland Convention from the late resolve of Congress.6 The Colonel said he should hate hereafter to breathe the contaminated air of that province in his way to Virginia. SATURDAY. Was called up at 6 o'clock to visit a patient near Frankford-came home before 9 and was favored with a visit from Dr. Treat 7 of Burlington and Mr. Rittenhouse. 8 The latter breakfasted

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The Earl of Leven and Melville Dr. William Cullen

The Rev. Dr. John Erskine

Dr. Joseph Black

TEACHERS AND FRIENDS IN EDINBURGH, I

766-1768

26

MAY

1776

with me. Had the pleasure of my mother 9 and Adam Gordon's10 company to dine with me. Adam was left to spend a few days in town upon the account of THE FAIR. 11 Had the pleasure of hearing that the cause of liberty prospers in this province even in the suspected county of Bucks. SUNDAY. Awoke!-but no Julia near me. I wafted a sigh after her to Morven. Inoculated a New England officer recommended to me by General Mifflin. Dined with James12 and Adam at home. Was just preparing to go to church when I was sent for to pay another visit to my patient near Frankford. Met Mrs. Bache13 this evening in the street, who told me she called upon you yesterday but did not leave her name. Came in at 9 o'clock and sat down at the southeast corner of our common parlor to write the above letter to you. And now having finished the history of the past, I go on to give you a history of a future event in our city. Tomorrow General Washington is to review all our city battalions. The design of this is to give the Indian ambassadors now among us an august idea of the military strength of our province. H Adieu, my sweet girl. Take care of your health and keep up your spirits. Use as little vinegar as possible in your diet, and leave off thinking of the cargoes of Hessians and Hanoverians that are on their way to fight against us. 15 All is for the best. God bless you, my dear Angel. My best affections await the whole family. Yours most affectionately, BRusH &S: Joseph E. Fields, M.D., Joliet, Illinois. 1

This, the first recorded letter to Julia Stockton Rush (1759-1848), who was not yet seventeen when she had been married to BR by John Witherspoon at Princeton in the preceding January, sets the pattern for most of those that were to follow in its mingling of affection, advice, and personal and public news. Mrs. Rush commonly spent part of the summer at Morven, the manorial homestead of the Stocktons on the outskirts of Princeton, partly for reasons of health; and there BR addressed most of the long series of charming and devoted letters he wrote her. Only a handful of her letters to him survive in the Rush MSS, but her traits as wife and mother are amply reflected in her husband's letters. He considered her conduct in both roles as unvary-

ingly ideal, and no one will deny that he was in a good position to judge of it. His conception of the ideal wife and mother should be studied as set forth in a letter he wrote to Rebecca Smith in May? 179z, below. That he never found fault with Julia is at the very least a tribute to her ability to conform to an exacting standard. Yet one cannot read many of BR's letters to her, or such a delightful testimonial as his "List of Mrs. Rush's excellent qualities," without being satisfied that their life together was extremely happy. (Biddle, Memorial, p. z4o; BR, Autobiography, p. us-x6, 166. The "List of Mrs. Rush's excellent qualities," unpublished, is privately owned and not available for quotation; see, however, Biddle Papers, pt. iii, No. z:zi.)

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION 2

BR inadvertently dated his letter one day in advance; the Sunday on which he was writing was the 26th; and the military review mentioned below to take place "tomorrow" occurred on Monday the 27th; see note 14, below. 3 Young, The Complaint (1742), Night II. 4 Dorothy (Quincy) Hancock, wife of the president of the Continental Congress (DAB, under John Hancock); and Hannah (Stockton) Boudinot, sister of Richard Stockton and wife of Elias Boudinot (Boudinot, Boudinot, n, 392). 5 Washington was in Philadelphia to confer with Congress on the next campaign (Baker, Itinerary of Washington, p. 39). 6 On 10 May, John Adams and R. H. Lee moved, and on 15 May Congress adopted and published, a resolution recommending the establishment of independent governments in the colonies where they had not yet been established. This was a decisive step toward American independence--"an epocha," John Adams called it-and was intended to hasten action in the several lagging colonies. The Maryland Convention was not ready and balked at the step, resolving on 21 May that it still favored "reunion with Great Britain on constitutional principles.'' The Maryland delegates had meanwhile withdrawn from Congress. (Jour. Cont. Gong., IV, 342, 357-8; John Adams, Works, III, 43-5; Force, Archives, VI, 462-3; Burnett, Letters of Members, I, 445.) BR's visitor, "Colonel Lee," was probably Francis Lightfoot Lee (I 734-I 797), a colonel of militia and a Virginia delegate to Congress (DAB; see also BR to Walter Jones, 30 July I 776). 7 Samuel Treat, M.D. 8 David Rittenhouse (I732-I796), mathematician and astronomer, who was also active in the Revolutionary government of Pennsylvania. For the genius and character of this "amiable philosopher," BR had unqualified admiration, though he was to differ with him on the state Constitution of I 776, which Rittenhouse supported and BR condemned. (DAB; BR, An Eulogium,

Intended to Perpetuate the Memory of David Rittenhouse, Phila.: Ormrod [I796].) 9 Susanna (Hall) Harvey Rush Morris (I7I5?-1795), whom BR venerated throughout his life. She outlived the last of her three husbands by some forty years, spending part of this time in her son Benjamin's household, which she -helped to care for during the great epidemic of I 79 3· (Pleasants, "Hall Family," p. I35; BR, Autobiography, p. 166-9.) 10 Adam Gordon (d. I 8 I 5) was the son of Harry Gordon, a Scottish officer in the Royal Engineers who had come to America with Braddock in I755> had married a Philadelphia girl, Hannah Meredith, the same year, later served in Canada and the West Indies, and returned to the army in England when the Revolution broke out, leaving his family in Philadelphia. Mrs. Gordon later went to Grenada, W. I., where Gordon had an estate, but Adam (whose age I have not been able to determine) was left with the Rushes until the summer of 17 So, when BR arranged for him to join his mother. In a letter dated from London in June I 7 8o, Col. Gordon authorized BR to attach his house and possessions in Walnut Street as compensation for Adam's board and educational expenses. Adam joined the British army as ensign in the 83d Foot, I783, saw long service in both the West and East Indies, and rose to the rank of major general. (BR's correspondence with and about the Gordons is in the Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4 [BR's letters to Hannah Gordon]; also in the series of Rush Correspondence, VI [letters from Col. and Mrs. Gordon]; XIV [letters of Capt. Archibald Robertson, writing from New York in Gordon's behalf]; and XLIII [Gordon's letter respecting his house] . See also C. 0. Skelton and J. M. Bulloch, Cordons Under Arms, Aberdeen, I912, p. I4, 136-8; Stanley Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, 1748-z]65, N.Y. and London, I 936, p. I 04-9; Gentleman's Magazine LXXXV [I8I5], pt. i, p. 28I.) 11 This allusion remains a puzzle.

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29 MAY 1776 12 Probably James Finley; see BR to Mrs. Rush, I June I776. 18 Sarah (I744-18o8), daughter of Benjamin Franklin and wife of Richard Bache, a Philadelphia merchant (Elizabeth F. Ellet, The Women of the American Revolution, N.Y., 185o, I, 3p-48). 14 "On Monday afternoon [27 May], Gen. Washington, the Members of' Congress, Gen. Gates and Mifflin, reviewed the four battalions, the rifle battalion, the light horse, and 3 artillery companies of the city militia, amounting to near 2500 men, when they went through their manoeuvres to general satisfaction. . . . The Indians, who are come to town on business with the Congress, attended the General in reviewing

the militia, &c." (Penna. Gazette, 29 May I 776, quoted in Baker, Itinerary of Washington, p. 39; see also Burnett, Letters of Members, I, 465-7.) 15 On 21 May Congress had received dispatches from Gen. Washington at New York enclosing copies of treaties entered into by his Britannic Majesty with the Duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the Count of Hanau for a total of about I 7,ooo mercenary troops. This news greatly aided the advocates of a final break with the mother country. (Jour. Cont. Gong., IV, 369; Burnett, Letters of Members, I, 458, note; John C. Miller, Origins of the American Revolution, Boston, I 943, P· 4 76-7 .)

To Mrs. Rush My Dearest Life, Philadelphia, May 29, 1776 1 I have wept over both your letters. I thank you for your tender regard for my welfare in the first, and I rejoice to discover such a flow of spirits in the second of them. Our cause prospers in every county of the province. 2 The hand of heaven is with us. Did I not think so, I would not have embarked in it. You have everything to hope and nothing to fear from the part which duty to God, to my country, and to my conscience have led me to take in our affairs. The measures which I have proposed have hitherto been so successful that I am constrained to believe I act under the direction of providence. God knows I seek his honor and the best interests of my fellow creatures supremely in all I am doing for my country. General Miffiin and all the delegates from the independent colonies rely chiefly upon (me) Colonel McKean8 and a few more of us for the salvation of this province. It would be treason in any one of us to desert the cause at the present juncture. I often anticipate the joy with which we shall welcome the establishment of liberty and the return of peace to our country-when freedom shall prevail without licentiousness, government without tyranny, and religion without superstition, bigotry, or enthusiasm. Oh happy days! To have contributed even a mite to hasten or complete them is to rise above all the Caesars and Alexanders of the world. Tuesday morning. Had a levee of clergymen to breakfast with me. Had a visit from Mrs. Stamper, who took Adam home with [ 99 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

her after leaving much love for you. Had the pleasure of an old schoolmate's company to drink tea with me. We spent two years in Edinburgh together. His name is Brown. 4 WEDNESDAY. Entertained Mr. Rittenhouse, Colonel Trumbull, 5 and Major Miffiin6 (cousin to the General) with a plain family dinner. Expected General Gates7 and General Miffiin, who disappointed me. Spent the evening in company with five of the back county assemblymen-all firm independents. Heard from my brother that 7,000 men has risen in arms in Maryland to compel their convention to declare independence. All's for the best. Adieu, my sweet Julia. My heart glows with an affection for you at this instant so tender, so delicate, and so refined that I want words to express it. Once more adieu. I have only to commend you in my prayers to the protection and mercies of heaven before I close the day. I anticipate with you the pleasure we shall enjoy when we have no third person to break in upon our sweet house of social and con jugal happiness. I have a thousand things to say to you. I think, write, talk, work, love-aU, all-only for you. Adieu. Love to all the family. Yours, BR .lfddressed: Mrs: Rush at Morven Princetown.

thiS: Mrs. John S. Ames, Jr., North Easton, Massachusetts. 1

Not found. I.e., the cause of independence, over which a violent struggle, evoked by Congress' resolution of 15 May, was going on at this time in Pennsylvania; see the preceding letter, note 6, and the following letter, notes 3 and 8. 3 Thomas McKean, the "Signer" from Delaware; he was equally influential in Pennsylvania politics; see BR to 'Montgomery, I5 Oct. 1782 1 note 4· 4 Probably Gustavus Richard Brown, M.D., Edinburgh, I768 (see BR to Walter Stone, 5 Jan. I79I, note 3); but perhaps William Brown, M.D., Edinburgh, I 770, nephew of the former (see BR to John Adams, z I Oct. I777> note 7). 5 Probably Joseph Trumbull (I737I 77 8), of Connecticut, colonel and commissary general of the Continental army, 2

I 775- I 77 7; Or possibly his brother Jonathan, Jr. (I740-18o9), who held the rank of lieutenant colonel from July I 77 5 and who was shortly to be appointed deputy adjutant general of the northern department; Jonathan was afterwards U.S. representative and senator and governor of Connecticut. See DAB and Heitman, Register, on both Trumbulls. 6 Probably Jonathan Mifflin (d. 1840) ; he was brigade major to Gen. Thomas Mifflin from June I776 and deputy quartermaster general of the Continental army, 1777-178I (Heitman, Register; see also BR, Autobiography, p. 17 5 and note 10). 7 Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, who was to be a close friend of BR's for many years; see BR to Charles Lee, 2.3 July 1776, note 4·

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To Mrs. Rush My dearest Julia, Friday, June rst, 1776 While I am giving vent to a heart that dotes upon you, I please myself with the hope that you are reading the two letters I sent you by Mr. Armstrong/ and that you have given me absolution for neglecting you the day before. I was so much distressed with that accident that if I had had a horse at hand I believe I should have immediately dispatched James Finley2 to Princetown with an apology for it. It gives me great pleasure to inform you that our cause continues to prosper in nine out of ten of the counties in our province. Two emissaries from the proprietary party were detected at Lancaster and York with the Remonstrance. 3 One of them fled; the other was arrested by a county committee and obliged to go off without gaining a single convert to toryism. The Remonstrance was burnt as a treasonable libel upon the liberties of America in Reading in Berks county. Many hundreds who signed it in Philadelphia county have repented of their folly and scratched out their names. A German we are told in Oxford township (a spot watered with the tory dew of the Reverend Dr. Smith's4 ministry) came up to the man who by a direct falsehood had prevailed upon him to sign the Remonstrance, and begged him to erase his name. The man refused it. The German in a passion took the paper out of his hands and tore it into a thousand pieces, saying at the same time, "Now, sir, you tell me d-d lies again." The Remonstrance had 86 names subscribed to it. Poor Dr. Smith is half distracted. You would hardly know him. The party that once protected him in his insolence and villainy are now in the situation that we are told the rocks and mountains will be in at the last day. They can no longer hide him from the impending wrath of an insulted people. Dr. Franklin's arrival gives great spirits to the independents. 5 His enmity to the proprietary party has always kept pace with his love of freedom. The noise they are now making is nothing but the last convulsion of expiring ambition and resentment. Thus the devil we are told assaults good Christians most violently in their last moments, because he knows that it will be the last time he will ever have it in his power to in jure them. I hope, my dear, we shall see many happy days in Philadelphia together, notwithstanding we have precluded ourselves from the society of a few tory families. "I should have blushed," says Cato, 6 "if Cato's house had stood secure and flourished in a civil war." ( IOI ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

I should have blushed much more to have heard it said at such times as these that I shook hands or drank madeira with men who would have sacrificed their country to ambition or avarice. No, my dear, the spirit of my great ancestor, 7 who more than once dyed the sword which hangs up in our bedchamber with the blood of the minions of arbitrary power, now moves me to declare-the spirit of my ancestor did I sayr-nay, I trust the spirit of God himself moves me to declare that I will never desert the cause I am [ embar] ked in, till I see the monster tyranny gnash [his] impotent teeth in the dust in the Province of Pennsylvania. This I think will be the case on the 18th of next June, the day appointed for the provincial Convention. 8 I am in some hopes of seeing you on Sunday evening, as General Miffiin has offered me one of his horses to accompany him as far as Princetown. He invites me to proceed to New York, but this will be impossible. Saturday. You have overcome me with your goodness. Many thanks for your letter by Mr. Sergeant. 9 Adieu, my love. A sick man has just now called for me who requires haste. Love to all the family.-Yours, &c., BRusH .!!ddressed: Mrs. Rush at Morven Princetown . .:MS: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. 1 Probably Rev. James F. Armstrong of Trenton; see BR to Mrs. Rush, 2.6-2.7 Aug. 1793· 2 James Edwards Burr Finley ( 17 58t 8 I 9) , who bore the names of three presidents of the College of New Jersey, was the youngest son of Dr. Samuel Finley; after his father's death he became a ward and pupil of BR, who was his cousin, and later practised medicine in various South Carolina communities (BR, Atttobiography, p. 34-; Ramsay, Ettlogittm, p. 12.-14; A Finley Genealogy, n.p., 1905, p. 6-7; ]. E. B. Finley's letters to BR, Rush MSS, XXXIII). 3 An "Address and Remonstrance" was drawn up by a meeting of conservatives on 2. r May against the proceedings of a meeting, held the day before, calling for the establishment of a new government in Pennsylvania. Copies of this paper were circulated for signatures and were presented to the Assembly on 2.9 May. (Selsam, Constitution of

[

1776, p. 12.2-3; Marshall, Diary, p.

n)

4 William Smith, provost of the College of Philadelphia. 5 Franklin could have only just returned, for he had written his fellow commissioners in Canada from New York on 27 May (Writings, VI, 448-9). 6 Cato Uticensis (95-46 B.c.), Roman Stoic and patriot, and a favorite model of conduct among republican writers (Encyclo. Brit., ()th edn.). A tragedy by Joseph Addison, Cato (I 7 I 3) , contributed greatly to Cato's fame in the eighteenth century. 1 John Rush (x6z3?-r699), BR's first American forebear, who had commanded a troop of horse under Cromwell, later embraced Quaker principles and came in x683 to Pennsylvania. He settled at Byberry. BR was inordinately proud of his progenitor, fondly calling him "the Old Trooper" and retailing his exploits with much zest. "To the respect

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23

JULY

and admiration which I was early taught to cherish for his virtues and exploits I owe a large portion of my republican temper and principles" (BR to Jefferson, 6 Oct. 18oo). John Rush's sword is now in the possession of Mr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. (Biddle, Memorial, p. :zz3; BR to John Adams, 13 July and 8 Aug. 1812.) 8 The whig mass meeting on 20 May had determined to hold elections for deputies to a convention, to meet on I 8 June, to prepare for the establishment of a state government. BR was elected to this Provincial Conference (as it was

1776

to be called) and drafted the declaration annulling the proprietary government. (Selsam, Constitution of rn6, ch. IV; Penna. Archives, zd ser., III, 6 57-8.) 9 Doubtless Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant (1746-1793), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1762, and former law student of Richard Stockton's; prominent in the New Jersey Revolutionary movement, he was to become attorney general of Pennsylvania under the radical Constitution of I 7 76 (DAB; see also BR to John Montgomery, 5 Nov. 1782, and to Mrs. Rush, 8-9 Oct. 1 793).

To Charles Lee Dear General, Philadelphia, July 23d, r776 It would take a volume to tell you how many clever things were said of you and the brave troops under your command after hearing of your late victory. 1 It has given a wonderful turn to our affairs. The loss of Canada had sunk the spirits of many people who now begin to think our cause is not desperate and that we shall yet triumph over our enemies. The declaration of independence has produced a new era in this part of America. The militia of Pennsylvania seem to be actuated with a spirit more than Roman. Near zooo citizens of Philadelphia have lately marched towards New-York in order to prevent an incursion being made by our enemies upon the state of New-Jersey. 2 The cry of them all is for BATTLE. I think Mr. Howe3 will not be able to get a footing in New-York, and that he will end the present or begin the next campaign in Canada or in some one of the southern colonies-the only places in which America is vulnerable. We depend upon Gates4 in the North, and you oblige us to hope for great things from the South. The tories are quiet-but very surly. Lord Howe's proclamation5 leaves them not a single filament of their cobweb doctrine of reconciliation. The spirit of liberty reigns triumphant in Pennsylvania. The proprietary gentry have retired to their country seats. and honest men have taken the seats they abused so much in the government of our state. The papers will inform you that I have been thrust into Congress. 6 I find there is a great deal of difference between sporting [ I03 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

a sentiment in a letter or over a glass of wine upon politics, and discharging properly the duty of a senator. I feel myself unequal to every part of my new situation except where plain integrity is required. My former letters to you may pass hereafter for a leaf of the Sybills [Sibyls]. They are full of predictions, and what is still more uncommon-some of them have proved true. I shall go on-and add that I think the declaration of independence will produce union and new exertions in England in the same ratio that they have done in this country. The present campaign I believe is only designed to train us for the duties of next summer. What do you think of the States of America being divided between two or three foreign states, and of seeing the armies of two or three of the most powerful nations in Europe upon our coasts? Adieu. Yours sincerely, B. RusH P.S. I sent a copy of that part of your letter in which you commend Mr. Morris so highly, to his father. 7 My compliments to the gallant youth . .,1ddressed: Major General Lee, Charlestown, South Carolina.

'Printed: Charles Lee Papers, u, 161-3. 1

Lee wrote BR from Charleston, 29 June: "We had yesterday a very severe party of Cannonade with the Tyrant's Mercenaries-They attack'd with eight ships of War a very imperfect and ill plan'd Fort on Sullivan's Island. . • . Our People, tho' quite raw Recruits behav'd like the decima Legio" (Charles Lee Papers, II, 95). 2 These were the "associators," volunteering for service in the ".flying camp," a stop-gap defensive organization under the command of General Hugh Mercer stationed at Perth Amboy opposite the British forces on Staten Island (Lundin, Cockpit of the Revolution, ch. rv-v). 8 Lt. Gen. Sir William Howe ( 1 7 z 9successor to Gage as comI 8 14) , mander of British forces in America, 1775 (DNB). ~Horatio Gates (ca. I7Z8-I8o6), who had been born in England and who had a long record of American service in the British army, was the first adjutant general of the Continental army and, since 16 May 1776, major

general. Gates gained great repute by his victories over Burgoyne in 177 7 but lost all that he had gained, and more, by his defeat at Camden, S.C., three years later. A common insinuation has been that Gates deserved to meet disaster because he had set himself up, or at least allowed his friends to set him up, as a rival to Washington. The real facts are more complex than this threadbare dramatization of them suggests, but they are not easy to come at, and Gates' military reputation is still a matter of controversy. BR's estimate is that of an ardent friend and partisan, but it must be taken into account. To BR, Gates was "a genuine republican" and a whig "from the love of liberty" (Gates came of humble stock, while Washington inherited an aristocratic name and great wealth), who, by his success at Saratoga had "rescued this country in a degree from its idolatry to one man," but had thereby excited jealousy among Washington's friends. As to Gates' supposed ambition to replace Washington, the denial of BR (who was

[ 104 ]

23

JULY

in a position to know) as set down in measured words in the Autobiography, ought to be given due weight. BR's conviction that Gates had been less than fairly treated in the closing years of the Revolution gained strength from the course of later events, for Gates never again held a post of duty except for a brief term in the New York legislature. That "the father of the discipline of the American army in I 7 75 and the conqueror of Burgoyne in I 777" should "be overlooked in the arrangements of that government which owes its existence in part to his exertions," seemed to BR, as he told Gates in I795> anomalous and disheartening. The two old friends continued to exchange occasional letters until Gates died. (DAB; BR, Autobiography, p. I 56; BR's letters to John Adams, 8 Aug. I777, 2.2. Jan. I778, and 2.3 Oct. I78o; BR to Gates, 26 Dec. 1795, &c.; Appendix r, below.) 5 Upon his arrival in June as British commander in American waters, Lord Howe (Richard, Earl Howe, I726I 799) issued a declaration ( 2.0 June I 776) stating his powers as joint-commissioner with his brother Sir William to restore peace, and also a circular letter to the royal governors requesting them to distribute the declaration as widely as possible. As summarized by William Ellery, a Connecticut delegate

1776

in Congress, the declaration merely stated that the Howes were ready "to receive the Submission of the Colonies or private Persons and grant Pardons agreeable to the late act of the Brit. Parliament." Congress, believing they would be more damaging to the British than to the American cause, promptly ordered the documents published. (Force, Archives, 4th ser., VI, IOOI-z; Ellery to Ezra Stiles [zo July 1776], Burnett, Letters of Members, n, I 7; Jour. Cont. Gong., v, 592-3.) 6 BR was elected to Congress by the Pennsylvania Convention, which he had helped bring about but of which he was not a member, on zo July. Christopher Marshall's Diary (p. 85) records the votes for each member of the new Pennsylvania delegation. In a letter to Mrs. Rush of 2.2. July 1776, not available for publication, BR stated that he took his seat in Congress "this day" (Ms in the possession of Walter R. Benjamin, Autographs, N.Y., 1947). 1 Lewis Morris, Jr., major and aidede-camp to Lee, Mch.-Aug. I 776, served throughout the war; Lewis Morris, Sr., of Morrisania (I72.6-1798), was member of Congress from New York and a signer of the Declaration of Independence (DAB, under Lewis Morris, Sr.; Charles Lee Papers, I, 343-4, 364; Heitman, Register) •

To Mrs. Rush Tuesday night [23 July zn6] 1 I am happy in finding that my appointment in Congress gives you so much pleasure. I believe it has operated in the manner you expected upon some of my old friends. I spoke for the first time this day about ten minutes upon a question that proved successful. 2 I felt that I was not thundering like Cato in the Uttica of our committee of inspection. 3 The audience is truly respectable. Dr. Franklin alone is enough to confound with his presence a thousand such men as myself. I hope however in a little time to experience the same freedom and confidence in speaking that I observe in other members. I find even our illustrious body is marked with features

My dearest Jewel,

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

of human nature. We can talk nonsense now and then as well as our neighbors. This reconciles me to myself. I wish you would return with your Papa the latter end of this, or the beginning of next week. I cannot support the burden of public and private business which now lays upon my shoulders without you. You shall go to Morven again with your Papa when he goes to take charge of the government of New Jersey, an event which all parties say is inevitable. 4 Think, my love, how long our house must be left without a head in my necessary attendance upon Congress. W m. 5 fell asleep as usual this evening. Betsey6 walked out, and I was obliged to wait near an hour before I could go out to visit a patient-and at last got one of the neighbors to watch the door. My business suffers from the want of you. My prentices are young, and Betsey too much out of the way to give answers. Do come home as soon as possible, or I tremble at the consequences. I languish for want of company. All our neighbors and friends you know are in the country or the camp. I shall execute all your commissions. God bless you! How I long to tell you how much I love you! I shall have a regiment of prentices, having had an application this day from a lad in the Jerseys; but the Jew's house in the alley 7 will make an excellent barrack for them. I am pleased with taking Johney Pintard8 into the house. I suppose you told him the fee was 100 guineas. This sum, with what we have by us and what I expect soon to receive, will enable us to realize our money in a house or a plantation. It is impossible now to put money out to interest. Heaven requires only the heart. I was willing to be poor, that my country might be free. The latter I hope will be granted, and contrary even to my wishes I find I am growing rich. My attendance in Congress does not hurt my business, having as much to do as ever. My wages in Congress are 20/ per day. Good night, my charming girl. I shall dose my letter in the morning. Wednesday morning. Have just read in the paper a list of the Committee of Safety. 9 A majority of them are good men. Cannon10 and Matlack11 are among them! ! ! Much love to everybody. Mama12 must part with you. The condition of this obligation, remember, is that you are to pay another visit for a week or two next month.-Yours, my dearest, BRuSH P.S. No letter from James since he went away. .Jddressed: Mrs: Rush at Morven Princetown. Free B: Rush. &S: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. ( 106 ]

23

JULY

1 The date is established from BR's mention near the end of the letter of his reading in a paper on "Wednesday" the names of the newly elected Council of Safety. The names were reported in Bradford's Penna. Journal on Wednesday, 24 July 1776. 2 On 23 July Congress, in committee of the whole, debated the proposed Articles of Confederation, but the points debated on that day specifically were not recorded. BR's first recorded speech, on 1 Aug., was on a phase of the same general question, namely, the mode of state representation in Congress. It was strongly nationalist in sentiment and ended on this ringing note: "When I entered thr.t door, I considered myself a citizen of America." (Jour. Cont. Gong., v, 603-4; John Adams, Works, n, 499500; Jefferson, Writings, ed. Lipscomb and Bergh, r, 50-1.) 3 The local Revolutionary committees in Pennsylvania were called "committees of inspection and observation." BR served on the Philadelphia committee from early in 1776 (Autobiography,

p. n6). 4 Richard Stockton, who had taken his seat in Congress in June, was put forward by friends at home at this time as a candidate for the governorship of New Jersey; but in August William Livingston was chosen governor and Stockton chief justice; the latter refused office, preferring to stay in Congress

(DAB). 5 William Grubber (d. 1799), "a native African whom I bought, and liberated after he had served me 1o years" (BR, Autobiography, p. 246, which gives other details). 6 Possibly the same as Betsey Correy, a servant in the Rush home during the epidemic of 1793 (BR to Mrs. Rush, 28-29 Oct. 1793). 7 Not identified. 8 John Pintard (1759-1844), of New York, ward of his uncle, Lewis Pintard (on whom see BR to Elias Boudinot, 30 Jan. 1781); a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1776; he did not take up (or at any rate complete) medical studies but became a well-known

1776

merchant and philanthropist in New York (DAB). 9 This was actually the Council of Safety, elected by the Pennsylvania Convention on 23 July and announced next day; the Council replaced the old Committee of Safety and discharged the executive functions of the state until the Supreme Executive Council assumed its duties in Mch. 1777 (Force, Archives, 5th ser., n, 8-9; Penna. Colonial Records, x, 653, and xr, 173). 10 James Cannon (1740-1782), a Scot who had come to Philadelphia in 176 5 and at this time held a post as tutor in the College; he became professor of mathematics in 1779. He was extremely active in the patriotic cause and was credited by Graydon with being one of the two principal draughtsmen of the Constitution of 1776. This would sufficiently account for BR's later aversion to Cannon. (William H. Egle, in PMHB, III [1879], 198-9; Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, Phila., I 846, p. 2 85-6; Selsam, Constitution of z776, passim; BR to Wayne, 19 May 1777, and to John Adams, 24 Feb. 1790.) 11Timothy Matlack (1730?-1829), a Quaker but a zealous patriot who served in the field as well as in civil offices; member of the state convention of 1776 and secretary of the supreme executive council, 1777-1782; he later held numerous minor posts, was active in the Amer. Philos. Soc. and in the Society of Free Quakers (DAB; also BR's letters cited in preceding note on Cannon). :1 2 Annis Boudinot (1736-1801) married Richard Stockton about 1 7 55. As the mistress of Morven she attained the unique distinction of being the wife of one signer of the Declaration of Independence and the mother-in-law of another. She possessed, besides the usual feminine virtues and accomplishments, marked literary taste, which she indulged by writing poems on themes and in forms then fashionable, though she generally shrank from publication. She was an ardent patriot from the outset of the Revolutionary contest and a devoted admirer of General Washington, who reciprocated her feelings with a

[ 107 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION decorous gallantry. A number of her poems deal with his exploits. Despite her son-in-law's distaste for sentimental verse, BR praised her compositions (letter to Mrs. Rush, z6 Aug. 1787 ), and he thought highly enough of her mind to address to her his epistolary essay on the founding of Franklin College at Lancaster (letter of 19 June

17 8 7). The most extended account of Annis Stockton is in Elizabeth Ellet's Women of the American Revolution, N.Y., I85o, m, I3-34; the present editor has printed a number of her unpublished poems and letters in two articles in the Princeton Univ. Libr. Chronicle, VI (I 944-I 945), I•I 5; VII (I 945· 1946), 19-39·

To Walter Jones

1

Philadelphia, July 30, 1776 Dear Walter, Colonel Lee has just now whispered to me that he had given you reason to expect a long letter from me. I have stole a few minutes from the Congress into a committee room to drop you a few lines, not to inform you of any news, but to convince you that in my political as well as medical line I am still your friend. What shall I say of the august Assembly of our States? It is a wide field for speculation. Here we behold the strength and weakness of the human understanding and the extent of human virtue and folly. Time will meliorate us. A few more misfortunes will teach us wisdom and humility, and inspire us with true benevolence. The republican soil is broke up, but we have still many monarchical and aristocratical weeds to pluck up from it. The history of the Congress that will sit in the year q8o will be the history of the dignity of human nature. We have knocked up the substance of royalty, but now and then we worship the shadow. 0! liberty, liberty, I have worshipped thee as a substance and have found thee so. 2 The influence of the declaration of independence upon the senate and the field is inconceivable. The militia of our state pant for nothing more than to avenge the blood of our brave countrymen upon our enemies on Staten Island. Adieu, my dear sir. Continue to enlighten your fellow citizens in the doctrines of a free government. Make them wise and virtuous, and they will be happy.--Yours sincerely, BRusH .,1ddressed: Dr Walter Jones Physician Richmond Virginia. free B Rush. tJifS: Library of Congress, Morgan Collection of Signers. 1 Dr. Walter Jones (I745-I8I5), a graduate of the College of William and Mary, I 76o, and M.D., Edinburgh, I769, practised in Lancaster co., Va.;

appointed physician general of the middle department, April I 77 7, but declined, and the place was subsequently filled by BR; member of the House of

[ 108 ]

14 SEPTEMBER 1776 Delegates, 1785-1787, of the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 17 8 8, and of Congress, 1797-1799, 1802.-181I. BR knew Jones at Edinburgh and retained a friendly connection with him throughout life; Jones' letters to BR

are in Rush MSS, VIII. (Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Eighteenth Century, p. 2.33-6; Biog. Dir. Gong.) 2 I have not found the source of this favorite saying of BR's. He quotes it in quite varied forms.

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia,

Philadelphia, September 14, 1776 Our commissioners returned yesterday after having spent 3 hours with Lord Howe. 1 They reported to Congress that the whole of his Lordship's powers extended no further than to confer with people of influence in America upon the subject of our grievances, and if it should appear that any material errors had crept into the instructions given to governors, or into the American acts of Parliament, the King and his ministers promise to use their influence with Parliament to have them altered. But he added further that he had no power to make even such a proposition to the colonies until they first returned to their allegiance. In the course of the interview many clever things were said on both sides. When his Lordship asked in what capacity he was to receive them, Mr. Adams2 said, "In any capacity your Lordship pleases except in that of British subjects." His Lordship said that nothing would mortify him more than to witness the fall of America and that he would weep for her as for a brother. "I hope," said Dr. Franklin, "your Lordship will be saved that mortification. America is able to take care of herself." Adieu, my dear girl. My extreme hurry continues. I was called up and obliged to go out last night. I am just now sent for to visit a family four miles in the country. What shall I do for horse, carriage, and William? Betsey is hunting a barber. My prentices are as irregular in their attendance upon the shop as ever. What a pretty figure will a life of 40 or 50 years with a fine agreeable wife spent in this manner make in the history of a man! Oh dear! The Romans educated slaves only to the profession of physic for 6oo years. A wise nation! and a most suitable employment for slaves! Much love to everybody.--Yours-yours, BRusH P.S. I borrowed Mr. Walton's 3 carriage to go into the country, [ 109 ]

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but was obliged to wait three hours for it beyond the time I expected it. Judge how I felt!-Nothing new since morning. &S: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. 1

At the invitation of the Howes, three members of Congress-Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledgeconferred with Lord Howe on Staten Island on II Sep. The two parties had different conceptions of the purpose of the conference; the results were therefore negative, but the circumstances were dramatic. See Van Doren, Franklin, p. 558-63; John Adams, Works, m,

7s-8o; and BR's letter to Dubourg of I6 Sep., following. 2 For BR's relations with John Adams, see note on BR's first letter to Adams, 8 Aug. I777· 3 George Walton (I74I-18o4), of Georgia, signer of the Declaration of Independence, later governor of Georgia and U.S. senator (DAB).

To Barbeu Dubourg My dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 16th, 1776 I write this letter at a venture. I wish it may reach you, but I shall not complain if it falls into the hands of our enemies. It shall contain nothing but facts. 1 The campaign was opened in this country on the 27th of last month on Longisland in the neighborhood of New York. 3000 American troops opposed Io,ooo British and Hessian troops for six hours. At last our people were obliged to give way with the loss of about 1000 men killed and taken prisoners. The enemy had 500 men killed and wounded in the action. Our troops behaved like veterans. One brigade sustained three heavy fires in an open field without moving. When the word of command to "fire" was given, the enemy gave way, and a total rout was expected, but alas, their numbers supplied their want of order, and our men were surrounded and cut to pieces or taken. The enemy soon after this victory gained possession of Longisland by means of their ships, and as the heights on this island command New York, our troops are preparing to evacuate it. General Howe's army will probably winter there. The disaffected people begin to flock to his standard. We hope in a few months to oblige them to decamp with [their] 2 new masters, for General Washington has it in his power to prevent their penetrating more than 10 or 11 miles into the country around New York. Our army consists at present of 30,000 men: 20,000 at New York, and 10,000 at Ticonderoga under the command of General Gates. As we expect 20,000 Russians to reinforce General Howe next spring, we are about to increase our army to 6o,ooo. [ 110 ]

16 SEPTEMBER 1776 They will suffer much from the want of woolens unless soon supplied by our good friends the subjects of the King of France. 3 New governments are instituted in all the states, founded on the authority of the people. They all differ in some particulars, but they all agree in having their legislative officers chosen annually and in establishing a rotation of power. My countrymen have done me the honor of making me a member of the Congress. I can therefore from authority assure you that a fixed determination still prevails in that body to establish the liberties of America or to perish in their ruins. No difficulties discourage us, no losses depress us. We look only to heaven and France for succor, being resolved if we are subdued that our last breath shall be "Independence upon the Court of Britain." Lord Howe sent a message to us a few days ago requesting a conference with some members of the Congress. Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jno. Adams, and Mr. Rutledge4 were ordered to wait upon his Lordship. He talked much of his powers to accommodate the dispute between Britain and America, but said he could offer nothing and promise nothing till we returned to our allegiance. Here the negotiation ended. All America disdains such propositions. I must here mention an anecdote in honor of Mr. Adams. When his Lordship asked in what capacity he was to receive the gentlemen of the Congress, Mr. Adams told him "in any capacity his Lordship pleased except in that of BRITISH SuBJECTs." This illustrious patriot has not his superior, scarcely his equal, for abilities and virtue on the whole continent of America. A confederation is now forming between the united States. 5 Each state is to have an equal vote, but no question relative to peace and war or other important matters is to be determined by less than 9 states. The States are to confer no titles, and no American is to hold any [post] under the States who accepts of a title from any foreign power. No delegate is to set in Congress more than three years in seven. A council of state consisting of one delegate from each state is to do business during the recess of the Congress. This business is always to be only of an executive nature. We have nearly finished a treaty which we expect soon to offer to your court through the hands of Mr. Dean6-and perhaps of Dr. Franklin. The common toasts in Philadelphia now are: "His most Christian Majesty," and "a speedy alliance between the King of France and the united States." My wife joins in compliments to you, dear M. Dubourg, with, my dear friend, yours most sincerely. [

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

P .S. The Baron W otke dishonored your recommendation. He died a few weeks ago at Ticonderoga with the effects of hard drinking. 7 The Chevalier Kormorvan 8 behaves well. Five French officers arrived here yesterday from Martinique with strong recommendations from the governor of that island. &S (unsigned): Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, Correspondance politique, Etats-Unis, I; reproduced (without identification of the writer) in B. F. Stevens, Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773-1783, London, 1889-1898, No. 584. 1 A lengthy memorandum in French (given in full in Stevens' Facsimiles), on a separate sheet wafered to the first page of the MS, summarizes its contents. It was prepared, presumably, for the French foreign minister, Vergennes, to whom the letter was transmitted by Dubourg. The letter of transmittal, dated I 6 Dec. I 77 6, is in Stevens, No. 602 (from Correspondance politique, Etats-Unis, I, 94, f. 302). Dubourg reports that he had received the letter the day before, and that it had been used to wrap shoes in the crossing from Philadelphia to England; he believes Vergennes will not be sorry to read it. The propagandist character of the letter is, indeed, only too evident. BR was perfectly sincere in saying he was willing to have it fall into British hands, as his letter to Ruston of 29 Oct. I 7 75 had. For Dubourg as self-appointed American agent in France, see note on BR's letter to Dubourg, 29 Apr. I773· 2 Obscured in margin. 3 The standard treatise on the campaign around New York in I776 is Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of r776 around New York and Brooklyn, Brooklyn, I878. On the unsuccessful British attempt in I 77 5 to secure Russian mercenary troops, see George Bancroft, History of the United States, Boston, 1852-1874, VIII, I48-56. 4 Edward Rutledge (I 749- I 8oo), delegate from South Carolina, later governor of that state (DAB). 5 The Articles of Confederation, to which BR here refers, were adopted by Congress on I 5 Nov. I 77 7, but, on ac-

[

count of Maryland's stand against the states with western land claims, were not ratified until I Mch. I 7 8 I (H. S. Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 2d edn., N.Y., I942, I, Ill). 6 Silas Deane (I737-I789), a former Connecticut delegate to Congress, was appointed in Mch. I 776 to go to France to secure supplies for the American army; in the following September he was given large powers as joint-commissioner with Franklin and Arthur Lee (DAB). 1 Frederic William, Baron de Woedtke, Prussian soldier of fortune, had come to America with a recommendation from Dubourg to Franklin, and was appointed brigadier general by Congress, I6 Mch. I776; died at Lake George in July{?) of the same year. There are testimonials to his misconduct from others besides BR. (lour. Cont. Gong., IV, 209-Io; Burnett, Letters of Members, I, 396; I. M. Hays, Calendar of Franklin Papers in the American Philosophical Society, Phila., I 908, I, I79> I8I, I82; Alexander Graydon, Memoirs of His Own Time, Phila., I 846, p. I 39-40.) 8 Gilles-Jean Barazer de Kermorvan (I740-I8I7), a French volunteer who was similarly recommended by Dubourg to Franklin and who served from I 776 to I 77 8 as an officer of engineers (Andre Lasseray, Les fran(:ais sous les treize etoiles, rns-r783, Macon, I935> I, I 20-2; L. H. Butterfield, "Franklin, Rush, and the Chevalier Kermorvan," Amer. Philos. Soc., Library Bulletin, r946, Phila., I947> p. 33-44).

II2 ]

John Rush's Commission as Midshipman in the Federal Procession Syllabus of Lectures Delivered at the Young Ladies' Academy

.5

To Mrs. Rush My dearest Julia, Wednesday Evening [z8? September zn6] 1 I begin to sicken for your company. What will become of me a fortnight hence?-But I will not as formerly tear you from Morven. I flatter myself that you will soon be infected with homesickness and that you will tease me in less than a fortnight to send Wm. for you. Our affairs in New York wear a melancholy aspect in the eyes of most people. You can witness for me that I have for a long time not only expected but wished that General Howe might gain possession of New York. I have seen molasses wasted on a board on purpose to collect together and destroy all the flies of a house. In like manner I believe General Howe will attract all the tories of New York and the adjacent states to his army, where they will ripen as the tories of Boston did for banishment and destruction. The continent in the meanwhile will be purged of those rascals whose idleness or perfidy have brought most of our present calamities upon us. But further, I think we stood in need of a frown from heaven. I should have suspected that our cause had not been owned as a divine one if we had prospered without it. It is, you know, through difficulties and trials that states as well as individuals are trained up to glory and happiness. My faith is now stronger than ever. I begin to hear with pleasure an outcry among some people that there is no dependence to be had upon the arm of flesh. But the worst is not over-we must be brought lower. I predict a defeat or another disgraceful retreat. We stand in need of it. We must all be taught that "Salvation is not to be hoped from the hills, nor from the multitude of the mountainsm before we ·can expect to prevail over our enemies. Adieu, my dearest angel. Mrs. Stamper joins in love to you and your Mama with yours, BRusH P.S. I shall write again if possible by the post. olfddressed: Mrs: Rush At Morven Princeton favd: by Mrs: Berrien. 3 &S: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. 1 The MS is docketed on its face: "About the Middle or End of Sept. 1776." New York was evacuated on 15 Sep., and the 18th was a Wednesday. 2 Jeremiah 3 :~3. 8 Presumably the widow of Judge

John Berrien (d. 1772), whose residence at Rocky Hill, northeast of Princeton, served as Washington's headquarters at the close of the Revolution (Hageman, Hist. of Princeton, r, 69-70).

( IIJ ]

To Anthony Wayne

1

My dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 24th, 1776 I have not been unmindful of you since we parted. No man rejoiced more than I did in hearing of your gallant behavior at the Three Rivers, and General Sullivan2 can witness for me that when he repeated any anecdote that related to our army in Canada in which your name was mentioned with respect, I felt and showed the same satisfaction that I should have done had he been lavishing encomiums upon a brother. You will hear before this reaches you that the command of General Sinclair's regiment was given to Colonel Wood. 3 I lament with you Colonel Allen's resignation and loss to our army, but I believe you have been misinformed as to his motives in that transaction. 4 His family suffered no indignities in this state but such as they in some degree merited by their opposition to the institution of a new government and the declaration of independence. I have constantly made great allowances for gentlemen of moderate sentiments, and still class several of them among the worthiest of my friends, but I think it no breach of charity to suppose that a family so much affected in power and property as the one above-mentioned were actuated only by low and interested motives. My seat in Congress has subjected me to many cares to which I was a stranger when my whole business consisted in reading, writing, and feeling pulses. I am obliged daily to hear the most melancholy accounts of the distresses of our troops from wants of every kind. I have felt a large share of the pain and shame brought upon our arms by the desertion of Longisland and evacuation of New York. The military spirit of our countrymen seems to have subsided in that part of the continent, and a torpor seems likewise to have seized upon the citizens of America in general. I apprehend we have overrated the public virtue of our country. If this is the case, let us not repine at misfortunes. They are necessary to the growth and existence of patriotism. History shows us that states like individuals have arisen to importance only when their foundations were laid in difficulties and adversity. We received so many pledges during the last campaign of the favor and protection of heaven that it would seem a species of infidelity to doubt our success in the issue of the present controversy. A convention have at last formed a government for our state. 8 Herewith I send you a copy of it. It is thought by many people [

I

14 ]

24 SEPTEMBER 1776 to be rather too much upon the democratical order, for liberty is as apt to degenerate into licentiousness as power is to become arbitrary. Restraints therefore are as necessary in the former as the latter case. Had the governor and council in the new Constitution of Pennsylvania possessed a negative upon the proceedings of the assembly, the government would have derived safety, wisdom, and dignity from it. But we hope the council of censors will remedy this defect at the expiration of seven years. My present situation requires that I should possess a thorough knowledge of the state of the armies of the continent. Let me beg of you therefore to furnish me every week (if possible) with the history of every material occurrence in the northern department. Tell me all your wants, whether they relate to provisions, clothing, tents, ammunition, or medicines. I could wish you would go further and inform me what officers and what brigades or regiments stand highest with you for courage, conduct, and military discipline. Duty and inclination will prompt me to do everything in my power to remedy abuses, correct delays, and reward merit of every kind in the army. My compliments await General Gates and General St. Clair. Tell the latter that I have done nothing since I took my seat in Congress with greater pleasure than giving my vote for making him a brigadier, and I wish for nothing more than to do the same justice to the merit of my friend Colonel Wayne. Inter nos, an attention in you to General Gates may facilitate this matter if it should soon come before Congress. Adieu, my dear Anthony. God bless you! and bring you back in safety to our native province, in which I hope to spend many days with you in the enjoyment of that freedom for which we are both making sacrifices in the cabinet and field.-Yours sincerely, BRusH .AJJresseJ: Col: Anthony Wayne of the 4-th: Pennsylvania Regim [ ent] at Ticonderoga. On the Service of the united States. &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers. 1 Anthony Wayne (1745-1796), colonel, since Jan. 1776, of the 4th Penna. battalion, later rising to the rank of major general, had in June fought gallantly in the American defeat at Three Rivers, just prior to the American withdrawal from Canada. BR had a boundless admiration for Wayne's military genius, and the two men were shortly to share an aversion to the new

Pennsylvania Constitution. During the war years they corresponded with some frequency, Wayne being perhaps unique among BR's correspondents in venturing to banter him. There are a number of letters on both sides in the Wayne Papers, Hist. Soc. Penna., but others are widely scattered. (DAB; Stille, Wayne, passim.) 2 John Sullivan (1740-1795), major

[ 115 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION general and later governor of New Hampshire, had been in command in Canada in June-July I 776 (nAB). 8 Brig. Gen. Arthur St. Clair (1736?1818), of Pennsylvania, later governor of the Northwest Territory, whose long military career is still clouded by controversy, was succeeded in command of the zd Penna. battalion on 7 Sep. by Col. Joseph Wood (d. 1788), later colonel of the 3d Penna. Line (nAB, under St. Clair; Heitman, Register; Penna. Archives, zd ser., x, 8o, 445). "' See note on William Allen in letter to Ruston, z 9 Oct. 177 5. 5 The Pennsylvania Constitution was

formally adopted by the Convention on z8 Sep., but the text had been printed in the papers weeks earlier. This is the earliest intimation that BR did not approve the Constitution that he had, if only indirectly, helped to promulgate. His criticisms here are reserved, but he was soon to undertake an intensive crusade against this instrument of "domestic tyranny," and his efforts continued until 17901 when a new constitution was framed. (Selsam, Constitution of z 77 6, p. 16 z-4; frequent references in BR's letters to Wayne, Montgomery, and others from 1777 to 1790.)

To Anthony Wayne Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 29, 1776 I did myself the pleasure of acknowledging the receipt of your favor by Captain Todd1 in a long letter which I dispatched a few days ago by one of the expresses bound to Ticonderoga. Since that time Colonel Shea2 has resigned the command of the 3rd Pennsylvania regiment, by which means you are now the first colonel in the service of this state. The late resolution of Congress for increasing our army to 6o,ooo men will necessarily call for a number of new brigadiers, and the proportion which Pennsylvania will send into the field will give her a right to demand one or two more for her share. Merit like yours will weigh heavily with the Congress, but it must be held up in a pointed light to their view. Colonel Magaw, 8 though a younger officer than you, being near the Congress and having one or two eloquent friends in the house, may perhaps be held up in colors that may in jure your more just pretensions to promotion. Upon this account I beg leave to suggest to you that your friends in Congress (among whom I desire to be classed) will derive great support from a few words in your favor from General Gates. You must not omit improving this hint to your advantage. And in everything relative to this matter I beg you will command my services. I should not have suggested these ideas to you had I not more than once seen the most eminent military merit neglected in our promotions, from ignorance in the Congress or from the want of proper recommendations. The bearer, Mr. Stockton, is my father-in-law, a most zealous and faithful servant of the States. He commands the vote of New

[ II6 ]

29 SEPTEMBER 1776 Jersey. I therefore beg (for your sake as well as my own) your particular attention to him. With best compliments to General Gates, General St. Clair, Colonel Erwin,' Colonel Johnson, 5 Captain Frazer,6 and such other of the officers at Ticonderoga as I have the pleasure of being acquainted with, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BRusH P.S. I have this day seen a prisoner belonging to the 23rd regiment taken by our people near New York. I was much pleased with the fashion of his hair. It was cut short all round by General Howe's orders. Count Saxe recommended this fashion in his Memoirs. 1 It saves time and trouble and prevents lice. It moreover prevents a soldier from suffering from rain, which often keeps the hair wet for hours afterwards. Suppose you introduce it in your regiment? If you begin with yourself, every private as well as officer must follow your example. &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers. 1

Not identifiable. John Shee (d. I 8o8), of Philadelphia; col., 3d Penna. battalion, Jan. I 776; held various municipal offices after the war (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 434). 8 Robert Magaw (I738-I790), a lawyer of Carlisle; col., 5th Penna. battalion, from Jan. I 77 6; captured at Fort Washington; charter trustee of Dickinson College, I 783 (Charles F. Himes, Col. Robert Magaw ••• [Carlisle], I9I5). 4 In all likelihood this is James Irvine (I735-I8I9), of Philadelphia; lt. col., ut Penna. battalion (DeHaas'), from Nov. I 775; lt. col. commanding, 9th Penna. Line, Oct. I 776; resigned but became brig. gen., Penna. militia, I777> and was wounded and captured in December of that year; sat on supreme executive council, I 78z-I 785. He was a descendant of John Rush and therefore a distant cousin of BR's. (DAB; Irvine's chart of John Rush's descendants, PMHB, XVII (I893), 3Z5•JS.) 5 Probably F~;ancis Johnston (ca. 2

I748-I8I5), It. col., 4th Penna. battalion (Wayne's), from Jan. I776; col., 5th Penna. Line, Sep. I 776; sheriff of Philadelphia co., I 8 I o-I 8 I 4 (Penna. Archives, zd ser., x, I I9, 530, 533; History of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, Phila., I948, p. I 50). 6 Persifor Frazer (1736-I79z), of Chester co.; capt., 4th Penna. battalion (Wayne's), from Jan. I776; lt. col., 5th Penna. Line, Oct. I 776 j captured at Brandywine, I 777, but escaped and served as brig. gen. of militia. BR had known Frazer as a member of the Provincial Conference, June I 776. (Heitman, Register; Penna. Archives, 2d ser., x, II9, 53Z-J.) 1 The Memoirs (Les reveries, ou memoires sur l'art de la guerre, La Haye, I756) of Moritz, Comte de Saxe (I696-I75o), marshal of France, were long a standard treatise on military science. There were several English translations published at London and Edinburgh by I776. (L.C. Cat.; Brit. Mus. Cat.)

[ II7 )

To Thomas Morris?! Philadelphia, 22 October 1776 I wrote you a few days ago and gave you a particular account of the state of our affairs. This letter will be conveyed to you by our illustrious fellow countryman Doctor Franklin, who goes to your court as ambassador of the United States. I refer you to him for information on the situation of our military and civil affairs. I will tell you that General and Lord Howe are confined to New York island, and that our army, commanded by General Washington and General Lee, is well posted and in good spirits about seven miles from New York. I will add only an anecdote that does honor to the bearer of this letter. I had the honor of sitting near him in Congress at the time when he was appointed to set out at once for your court; and in reply to the compliment I paid him, he observed to me: "I have only a few years to live, and I am resolved to devote them to the work that my fellow citizens deem proper for me; or speaking as old-clothes dealers do of a remnant of goods, 'You shall have me for what you please.' m Since writing you this, we learn that our fleet has been defeated and that Burgoyne is marching on Ticonderoga. General Arnold commanded on the Lakes and has conducted himself like a hero. 3 Like Francis I, he has lost all save honor and the honor of the States. 4 We expect news every moment of a general action between General Washington and General Howe. 5 God grant us success equal to the justice of our cause! MS (copy in French, without signature and in an unknown hand): Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, Correspondance politique, Etats-Unis, I. (Retranslated by the present editor.} 1

The letter is endorsed : "Bush [sic] Traduite de I'anglais. Interceptee." An extract appears in Burnett, Letters of Members, n, u8, where the writer and recipient are assigned, no doubt correctly. There is no other evidence, however, that BR knew Morris. Thomas Morris (d. 1778), younger half-brother of Robert Morris, was agent of the firm of Willing & Morris, and also of the Secret Committee of Congress, at Nantes. The irregular state of his accounts led to a quarrel between

a Morris.

Robert Morris and the American commissioners in France. (William Graham Sumner, The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution, N.Y., 189:z, I, :ZIZ-15.) 2 BR also relates this anecdote in his sketch of Franklin among the signers of the Declaration of Independence (Autobiography, p. 149). Franklin used the analogy in a different context in a reply to David Hartley in 1778 (Writings, vn, 143). 8 In two fierce engagements on Lake

[ 118 ]

1 DECEMBER 1776 Champlain, I I and I 3 Oct. I 77 6, the fleet built by Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold (I 741-1 8o 1) was destroyed, but it had given such a good account of itself that the British force did not attempt an assault on Ticonderoga. Maj. Gen. John Burgoyne (172.2-1792) was second in command to Sir Guy Carleton in this campaign. (DAB, under Arnold ; DNB, under Burgoyne.)

4 "De toutes choses ne m'est demeure que l'honneur et la vie"-Francis I from Pavia (John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 8th edn., Boston, 1887 1 p. 622). 5 The battle of White Piains occurred on 28 Oct. and forced Washington to withdraw farther to the north (Carrington, Battles of the Amer. Rev., p. 239-4I).

1

To John Dickinson My dear Sir,

Philadelphia, December Ist, I 776 While I disapprove most heartily of the coalition of parties in the Assembly, I cannot help lamenting that you have left the house upon the account of it. The members from Westmoreland and Bedford will turn the scale in our favor as soon as they come to town, and we shall have a convention and a consistent legislature in spite of all their cunning and malice. For the present it becomes us to unite heart and hand in repelling the common enemy. The eyes of the whole city are fixed upon you. We expect-we are sure you will head your battalion. All our hopes of your future usefulness in our state depend upon it. Mr. Howe cannot mean to winter in Philadelphia, unless he is invited here by the slender opposition General Washington now makes against him. A body of IO,ooo militia will certainly terrify him into winter quarters. The safety of the continent depends upon the part Pensylvania will take upon this occasion. The whole state of Pensylvania will be influenced by the city of Philadelphia, and the city waits only to see what part you will take upon the occasion. Excuse the liberty I have taken of suggesting these hints, and believe me to be with the most sincere regard your most affectionate, humble servant, BENJA RusH Jddressed: John Dickinson Esqr: at FairhilP [MS; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Logan Papers. 1 Dickinson, who had opposed the adoption of the Resolution of Independence, had in consequence been turned out of Congress by the Pennsylvania Convention in July; he had likewise been supplanted by the same revolutionary body as senior officer of the

[

Pennsylvania troops. It is not surprising that he regarded the Convention with a jaundiced eye. After a futile call, in the first Assembly that met under the new government, for a revision of the Constitution, Dickinson retired to his estate at Fairhill and, in Dec. 1776, to his

119 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION farm near Dover, Del. He took no further part in public life for two years. (Stille, Dickinson, ch. VI.) 2 Fairhill was Dickinson's seat on the

Germantown Road, inherited from his father-in-law, Speaker Isaac Norris (Watson, Annals, m, 399; Stille, Dickinson, p. 311ff.).

1

To Richard Henry Lee

Dear Sir, Near Bristol, 2 December 21, 1776 Wherever I go, I bear in my mind the small share of the weight of our dear country's happiness which the State of Pennsylvania hath committed to my care. I wish sometimes to throw my mite into the councils of the Congress, but as this is impossible for the present, I beg leave to suggest such things as have occurred to me in my passage through Philadelphia to this place, and submit it to your good sense to make any use of them you may think proper. I need not inform you of the general disposition of the people in and near Philadelphia to refuse Continental money upon the late prospect of General Howe's getting possession of the city. General Putnam threatening to confine such people as refused it, and declaring the debt for which the money was offered to be void, produced only a temporary remedy against the evil. 8 People who had goods refused to sell them, and men who had money out at interest either refused to give up bonds or kept out of the way when Continental money was offered for them. The legislatures of America look up to Congress for a remedy equal to the danger of the disease. Suppose you recommend to every state to make a law, not only to forfeit the debt for which our money is offered, but to fine the person who refuses it, severely; this will be more effectual than imprisonment, which from becoming so common for tory practices has now lost its infamy. The punishment, in this case, strikes directly at that principle in human nature which is the source of the contempt into which our money has fallen, I mean avarice and a want of public spirit. Pray don't let this matter be neglected-our salvation hangs upon it. I tremble every time I think of the danger of the further progress of the refusal of our money. Connected with the above subject is the state of the loan office! If possible, let the resolutions for the last emission of five millions of dollars be concealed. I hope that it will be the last resolution of that kind that will appear on our journals. If it is not, the whole continent must complain of our injustice in allowing only four percent for the money now deposited in the loan office, unless we can give positive assurance that we shall pay it in hard money. [ 120 ]

21

DECEMBER

1776

I have learnt from many people, and among others from two New England officers, that the four eastern states will find great difficulty in raising their quota of men, owing to that excessive rage for privateering which now prevails among them.~ Many of the Continental troops now in our service pant for the extirpation of their enlistments in order that they may partake of the spoils of the West Indies. At a moderate computation, there are now not less than ten thousand men belonging to New England on board privateers. New England and the continent cannot spare them. They have a right at this juncture to their services and to their blood. We must have an army; the fate of America must be decided by an army. It must consist of seventy or eighty thousand men, and they must all be fit for the field before the first day of May next. Since the captivity of General Lee, 6 a distrust has crept in among the troops of the abilities of some of our general officers high in command. They expect nothing now from heaven-taught and booktaught generals. I hope in our next promotions we shall disregard seniority. Stevens7 must be made a major general; he has genius as well as knowledge. Mercer8 must not be neglected; he has the confidence of the troops. Adieu. Yours, BENJAMIN RusH P.S. Congress must take up the affairs of our money wholly. It is a national concern; legislatures are too distant, too languid, and in many states too incompletely formed for that purpose. 'Printed: R. H. Lee, Richard Henry Lee, n, 1

Richard Henry Lee (t73Z-1794), of Chantilly, Va., was one of the most aggressive leaders of the Revolutionary movement (DAB). At this time he was a member of Congress and the recipient of the particular confidences of BR while the latter was in the field; BR's attachment cooled after his quarrel with William Shippen, Jr., Lee's brother-inlaw. This and the several following letters to Lee, all from the same printed source, were very carelessly transcribed by their first editor. BR's probable paragraphing has here been restored. 2 BR's last day of attendance in Congress in 1776 was 12. Dec.; he had volunteered to serve with Gen. John Cadwalader's brigade of Philadelphia Associators, mobilized to defend the city from Howe's forces, which had driven

160-1.

Washington's army to the Delaware. On the z3d or 24th BR visited Washington's headquarters; he failed to participate in the battle of Trenton because Cadwalader could not get his forces across at Dunk's Ferry (near Bristol). In the marches and countermarches of the next week he was with Cadwalader on both sides of the Delaware, sometimes acting as courier between the two generals. (BR, Autobiography, p. 12.4-7; Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. zpff.) 8 The Quakers in particular had been reluctant to accept the paper money. Gen. Israel Putnam (t7I8-1790), appointed military governor of Philadelphia by Washington, took command on 1 2 Dec. and tried drastic measures without great effect. (DAB, under Putnam;

[ 121 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION Scharf & Westcott, I, 3341 Burnett, Letters of Members, II, 1 13.) 4 For the establishment of the loan office and the emission of $5,ooo,ooo covered only by loan-office certificates, see Jour. Cont. Gong., v, 845-6 (3 Oct. 1776). 5 For estimates of the ships and men involved and a general discussion of privateering in the Revolution, see Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution, Boston and N.Y., 1913, r, 42-52; n, 715-17. 6 Lee was captured in a house at Basking Ridge, N.J., 13 Dec. 1776, under peculiarly humiliating circumstances (James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times, Phila., 1816, I, 105·7). 7 I.e., Adam Stephen (d. 1791), a Scot who had studied medicine at Edinburgh, served as a naval surgeon and then settled in Virginia; he practised for a time but, preferring military life, served as one of young George Washington's captains in the Va. regt. during the French and Indian War, participating in both the Braddock and Forbes expeditions against Fort Duquesne. Commissioned colonel of the 4th Va. regt. early in 177 6, he was promoted brigadier general in September and major general in Feb. 1777· He fought well

at Trenton, but he was found guilty of drunkenness in the action at Germantown and, in spite of his rank and record, was promptly cashiered. Stephen was another of the dubious military gentry BR took a liking to, probably because Stephen talked much and indiscreetly; at any rate BR said long afterwards that Stephen had told him that Washington was "a weak man." (Stephen's MS sketch, endorsed by BR, "Col. Stevens' Life written by himself for B. Rush in 177 5,'' PMHB, XVIII [1894], 43-50; BR to John Adams, u Feb. to 9 Mch. 1812; Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Eighteenth Century, p. 238-9; Heitman, Register; Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 122, 142, 349; Douglas S. Freeman, Washington, I-II, N.Y., 1948, frequent mentions; Gen. Muhlenberg's Orderly Book, as published in PMHB, XXXV [1911], 18z, under date of 20 Nov. 177 7, for Stephen's dismissal.) 8 Hugh Mercer (1725-1777), born in Scotland and trained as a physician, col., 3d Va. Line, Jan. 1776; brig. gen. in Continental service, June; commanded the flying camp in New Jersey, fought at Trenton, and was mortally wounded in the battle of Princeton (DAB).

To Richard Henry Lee Crossides/ December 30, 1776 My dear Sir, There is no soil so dear to a soldier as that which is marked with the footsteps of a flying enemy-everything looks well. Our army increases daily, and our troops are impatient to avenge the in juries done to the State of New Jersey; the tories fly with the precipitation of guilty fear to General Howe. A detachment from our body yesterday took four of them, and killed one; two of the former were officers of Howe's new militia establishment. We suffer much for the want of intelligence, which can only be procured by money that will pass in both camps. Howe owes the superiority and regularity of his intelligence above ours not so much to the voluntary information of the tories as to the influence of his gold. Pray send two or three thousand pounds in hard money im[ 122 ]

30 DECEMBER 1776 mediately to General Washington; it will do you more service than twenty new regiments. Let not this matter be debated and postponed in the usual way for two or three weeks; the salvation of America, under God, depends upon its being done in an instant. I beg leave for a moment to call off your attention from the affairs of the public to inform you that I have heard from good authority that my much honored father-in-law, who is now a prisoner with General Howe, suffers many indignities and hardships from the enemy, from which not only his rank, but his being a man, ought to exempt him. 2 I wish you would propose to Congress to pass a resolution in his favor similar to that they have passed in favor of General Lee; they owe it to their own honor as well as to a member of their body. I did not want this intelligence to rouse my resentment against the enemy, but it has increased it. Every particle of my blood is electrified with revenge, and if justice cannot be done to him in any other way, I declare I will, in defiance of the authority of the Congress and the power of the army, drive the first rascally tory I meet with a hundred miles, barefooted, through the first deep snow that falls in our country. Two small brigades of New England troops have consented to serve a month after the time of their enlistments expire. There is reason to believe all the New England troops in their predicament will follow their example. We have just learned that the enemy are preparing to retreat from Princeton. Adieu. General Washington must be invested with dictatorial power for a few months, or we are undone. The vis inertiae of the Congress has almost ruined this country. Yours, BENJAMIN RusH Printed: R. H. Lee, Richard Henry Lee, n, 1

An error in transcription for Crosswicks, N.J., a village southeast of Trenton where Cadwalader's troops were quartered from 29 Dec. through 1 Jan. (Stryker Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 251, 253-4). 2 Stockton was captured-through the treachery of a tory relative, some sayat the house of a friend in Monmouth co., N.J., in which he had taken refuge while his own home was in use as a British headquarters. There seems to be no question that he was severely treated, being dragged to Amboy in bitter weather and then thrown into jail. Con-

161-2.

gress on 3 Jan. 1777 formally protested his treatment, and he was shortly exchanged, to return home shattered in health and fortune. Under duress-there can be no other explanation for it-he had signed Lord Howe's declaration of amnesty for Americans pledging themselves to take no further action against royal authority. (Hageman, Hist. of Princeton, r, 86; John Witherspoon to David Witherspoon, 17 Mch. 1777, Burnett, Letters of Members, rr, 243, note; Lundin, Cockpit of the Revolution, p. x6o-1; Jour. Cont. Gong., vn,

u-q.)

[ 123 ]

To Richard Henry Lee

r

Dear Sir, Bordentown, January 6th, 1776 [i.e., I777 Before this reaches you, you will I dare say have heard of the affairs of Trenton and Princeton. At the former place, victory was undecided; at the latter, it was complete. Too much praise cannot be given to our brave troops for the patience with which they have undergone cold, hunger, and all the usual distresses of a winter's campaign; the Philadelphia militia behaved like heroes. At Princeton, like young troops, they broke at first, but, like veterans, were rallied without much difficulty. Much credit is due to a brigade of New England men commanded by Colonel Hitchcock in both actions. 2 They sustained a heavy fire from musketry and artillery for a long time without moving; they are entitled to a great share of the honor acquired by our arms at Princeton. General Mercer's death 3 cannot be too much lamented. I had the pleasure of dining with him two days before he fell and was never more highly feasted with patriotic sentiments. His character was marked with all the traits of one of the heroes of antiquity; the manner of his death was equally honorable to himself and to our cause. I cannot help thinking but that the Congress owe some funeral honors to his memory; perhaps an oration would have a better effect in this case than in that of General [Montgomery].' What do you think of the Congress writing a letter of condolence to the widow? I congratulate you upon the addition of Colonel Knox to the list of general officers.5 He is a brave, sensible, enterprising man. I saw his behavior in the battle of Trenton; he was cool, cheerful, and was present everywhere. I have picked up an original letter from General Howe to Count de Donop 6 at Trenton, a copy of which I shall send you to be laid before Congress. It contains among other things a warrant for plundering the inhabitants of New Jersey; it must be published. Yours, &c., BENJAMIN RusH 'Printed: R. H. Lee, Richard Henry Lee, u, 163. 1 The date is puzzling. As printed by R. H. Lee, the year is an obvious error, though it may appear in the MS, now missing. The day of the month is also probably wrong, for BR must have been in Princeton by this date, if not earlier. The Autobiography (p. 12.8-9) states that he had been attending the ternporary hospital at Trenton during the

"second battle of Trenton" (z Jan.) and that early on the morning of the 3d, after discovering that the American army had left Trenton, he himself had left there for Bordentown, whither he supposed the army had retreated. (Barden town is seven miles southeast of Trenton.) At Bordentown he heard distant noise of battle but was "ignorant from

[ 124 ]

7

JANUARY

whence it came, until next morning [i.e., presumably the 4th], when we heard that General Washington had met a part of the British army at Princeton on his way to the high lands of Morris county." He then "set off immediately for Princeton, and near the town passed over the field of battle, still red in many places with human blood." From the content of the present letter, written before BR had been to Princeton, it is evident that BR did not reach the field so soon as the Autobiography implies. It is more likely that he arrived late on the sth, which is the most feasible date for this letter, perhaps written and sent off before his departure from Bordentown on the morning of the sth. In his letter to R. H. Lee of the 7th, BR says he has been attending Mercer "since yesterday"; and a letter to BR of the same date, from a British officer named W. Stapleton (Rush Mss, XLIII), thanks him for medical attention to the writer and his brother officers lying wounded at Princeton. These imply BR's presence at Princeton at least during the 6th. Only by some such reconstruction of events and correcting of dates can the accounts in BR's Autobiography and the present letter be harmonized. The oftenrepeated statement that BR was present at the battle of Princeton is merely traditional and manifestly wrong. 2 Daniel Hitchcock (I 740- I 777) , of Providence, col., I I th Continental infantry, I 776; col., 2d R.I. Line, I Jan. I777l died of consumption at Morristown ten days after the battle of Prince-

1777

ton (Heitman, Register; Dexter, Yal# Graduates, u, 695-6). 8 Mercer did not die until the uth; see the following letters. • Name is left blank in the printed text. On I9 Feb. I776, at the request of Congress, Dr. William Smith delivered a tribute later published as An Oration in Memory of General Montgomery, and of the Officers and Soldiers, Who Fell with Him, December JI, rns, before Quebec• ••. John Adams wrote his wife on 28 Apr. I 776: "The oration was an insolent performance. A motion was made to thank the orator, and ask a copy, but opposed with great spirit and vivacity from every part of the room, and at last withdrawn" (Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution, N.Y., I876,p. I67). 5 Henry Knox (I7SO-I8o6) was thanked in public orders by Washington and commissioned brigadier general by Congress (as of I 7 Dec. I 776) for his directing the American forces' crossing of the Delaware in the assault on Trenton, 2.5 Dec. (DAB). BR here, however, refers to the second and lesser action at Trenton, 2. Jan. I 77 7. 8 Karl Emil Kurt von Donop, colonel of a regiment of Hessian Jagers, was killed in Oct. I 77 7 in the assault on Fort Mercer at Red Bank, N.J. (Edward J. Lowell, The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolutionary War, N.Y., I 8 84, p. 2.04•7) •

To Richard Henry Lee Dear Sir, Princeton, January 7th, I777 I write to you, at the request of General Mercer, to beg that you would immediately despatch an express to Mrs. Mercer to inform her that the General is considerably better and there are reasonable hopes of his recovery. I have attended him since yesterday and shall not leave him till he is out of danger. He is wounded in seven places with a bayonet. One of these wounds is in his forehead, but the most alarming of them are in his belly. He is in good spirits, ( I2J )

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

drinks plentifully, sleeps tolerably well, and talks cheerfully on all subjects, as usual. From the unfortunate circumstance of his wanting a surgeon at the time he fell, he was obliged to give his parole in order to procure a surgeon from the enemy, and he is now their prisoner. The loss of the enemy in the battle at Princeton, from the best accounts, amounts to fifty killed and one hundred and fifty wounded. Among the former is a Captain Leslie, a nephew to General Leslie and the second son of the Earl of Leven/ I knew him intimately in Scotland. He was an accomplished officer and gentleman. I wept, for the first time, for a victory gained over British troops. Our attachment to each other was reciprocal, for when I was introduced to a Captain M'Pherson, 2 who now lies in this town in order to dress his wounds, he asked if I was the Doctor Rush who used to correspond with Captain Leslie. I told him I was. He told me he had heard his friend Leslie say a thousand times that he forgot in me the political enemy in the personal friend. General Washington buried him with all the honors of war. Our loss at Princeton amounted to about twenty-five killed and about forty wounded. Among the former were Colonel Haslet (a gallant officer), Major Fleming, Captains Neal and Shippen, and Lieutenant Morgan, of Philadelphia. 3 Princeton is indeed a deserted village. You would think it had been desolated with the plague and an earthquake as well as with the calamities of war. The College and church are heaps of ruin. All the inhabitants have been plundered. The whole of Mr. Stockton's furniture, apparel, and even valuable writings have been burnt.' All his cattle, horses, and hogs, sheep, grain, and forage have been carried away by them. His losses cannot amount to less than five thousand pounds. The enemy, in their pursuit of General Washington through the Jerseys, called his troops the rebel army; in their retreat before him, they called his troops the provincials and sometimes the Continental army. Major General Grant5 commanded at Trenton and Princeton last week under Lord Cornwallis. 6 When Colonel Roll, 7 who was killed at the surprise of Trenton on the 26th of last month, wrote to him for more troops to enable him to hold his posts on the Delaware, he laughed at his application and sent him word that he "could keep the whole Jersies with a corporal and four men." Enclosed is the copy of the form of a protection in English and German. Hundreds have been plundered who have accepted of them. Yours sincerely, BENJAMIN RusH Printed: R. H. Lee, Rickard Henry Lee, n, 163-5.

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14 JANUARY 1777 1

On Capt. William Leslie, of the I 7th British regt., see notes on the Leslie family, under BR to Jonathan B. Smith, 30 Apr. 1767; Brig. Gen. Alexander Leslie (173I-I794) was a younger brother of the 6th Earl of Leven (Sir William Fraser, The Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Leslies, Earls of Leven, Edinburgh, I89o, I, 535). 2 John McPherson, capt., I 7th British regt.; he had been wounded in the lungs and stayed on at Princeton until at least 30 Aug. I 777, when BR wrote Washington requesting a parole for him so that he might take a sea voyage to speed his recovery (L.C., Washington Papers; see also BR's Autobiography, p. 12.9). 3 John Haslet, a preacher and physician of Kent co., Del., colonel and first commander of the Delaware Continentals (William T. Read, Life and Correspondence of George Read, Phila., 1870, p. Jz8-Jo). John Fleming, who held the rank of captain but was commanding officer of the ISt Va. Line in this action (Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., XXIV [I9I6], 440-1). Daniel Neil, capt., New Jersey artillery (Heitman, Register). William Shippin (not Shippen), of Philadelphia, privateersman and captain in the Pennsylvania marines; he had brought a ship's company to the support of Washington (Inscriptions in St. Peter's Church Yard, p. 560-4). Lieutenant Morgan must be an error for Anthony Morris, Jr. (I738-

17 77), variously spoken of as ensign, captain, and major in the Philadelphia Associators (Moon, Morris Family, I, 374-8I). 4 A vivid and obviously authentic account of the ravaging of the town and countryside during the campaign is given in the so-called "Olden Diary," kept by an anonymous resident and edited by V. L. Collins as A Brief Narrative of the Ravages of the British and Hessians at Princeton, r776-77, Princeton, I 906; Congress on I 6 Jan. I 7 77 ordered an official investigation of enemy atrocities, and a report was submitted on I 8 Apr., but the order to print it as a pamphlet in English and German was not carried out (Jour. Cont. Gong., vn, 4z-3, z76-9; IX, Io85). On Stockton's losses in particular, see Washington, Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, vn, 9z; Boudinot, Boudinot, I, 397-8. 5 James Grant (I720-I8o6), brigadier general and veteran of many campaigns ( DNB) . 6 Charles, zd Earl (later 1st Marquis) Cornwallis (I738-I8o5), whose American career is known even to schoolchildren, recovered his reputation as governor general and commander in chief in India (DNB). 1 Johann Gottlieb Rall (rTJ.5-I776), colonel commanding the Hessian regiments at Trenton, had been killed in the surprise of that post (Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 40-I, I96zoi).

To Richard Henry Lee Philadelphia, January 14th, 1777 Dear Sir, I left our good friend General Mercer, on Saturday last, out of danger but so exceedingly weak from the loss of blood that he cannot be moved with safety these ten days. 1 The commanding officer at Brunswick has given him liberty to go or ride where he pleases. Lieutenant Yeates, of Colonel Reed's Virginia regiment, died on Friday last at Princeton. 2 The circumstances of his death merit the attention of the Congress. In the beginning of the action on the 3d of this instant, he received a wound in his side which brought him to the ground. Upon seeing the enemy advance towards him, [ 127 ]

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he begged for quarters. A British soldier stopped, and, after deliberately loading his musket by his side, shot him through the breast. Finding that he was still alive, he stabbed him in thirteen places with his bayonet, the poor youth all the while crying for mercy. Upon the enemy being forced to retreat, either the same or another soldier, finding that he was not dead, struck him with the club of a musket on the side of the head. He languished a week in the greatest anguish and then died (I declare it upon my honor as a man and a physician) of the wounds he received after he fell and begged for quarters. The savages murdered a clergyman, a chaplain to a battalion of militia, in cool blood at Trenton after he had surrendered himself and begged for mercy. His name was Rosborough.3 When we complain to the British officers of the hard fare of our prisoners in New York, they ask, Why do not the Congress appoint a commissary and send provisions to them? 4 The enemy have done something like the first of these things for the Hessian prisoners now in this state. I wish the attention of Congress could be roused in behalf of our poor fellows. They are confined in churches without firewood. Twenty have been thrown out in a day to putrefy in the streets. It is a prostitution of language and truth to attribute a fiber of humanity to General Howe's heart. His natural disposition, as well as the nature of the service he is engaged in, have rendered him a mere J effries5 for every species of political iniquity. I write from good information, having picked up a number of anecdotes which justify the picture I have given of him. I saw an intelligent gentleman, who left New York about ten days ago, who whispered in my ears that an account had just reached New York that the court of Britain had engaged 12,000 Russians and 8,ooo Germans for the next campaign. He said the affair of Trenton operated like a clap of thunder at New York. Some cursed the Hessian commander at Trenton, while the most intelligent blamed General Howe for making his line so long, as they called it. It produced a revolution in their countenances, manners, conversation, and even their toasts: "A speedy accommodation of the present unnatural dispute" being given at the table of the principal officers. Lord Cornwallis was to have sailed for England the day the news reached New York, but was detained in order to take the command in New Jersey. I hope to join you in Congress in a few days. I forgot to mention before that I left our army not only in high spirits but [ 128 ]

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in good health. The medical department must undergo a revolution. Compliments to your worthy brother. 6 Yours sincerely, BENJAMIN

Printed: R. H. Lee, Richard Henry Lee, n, 1

Mercer died on Sunday, 12. Jan., the day after BR left Princeton; for the circumstances of his death and burial, see Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 282, 296-7, 459-60. 2 The death of Lt. Bartholomew Yeates (or Yates), of Col. James Read's 1st Va. Line, was the subject of a deposition signed by BR and Anthony W. White and dated at Princeton, 9 Jan. 1777 (attested copy in L.C., Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 53); the deposition gives the facts recited here. For Yeates and Read, see Heitman's Register, 3 Rev. John Rosbrugh, chaplain of Penna. militia; killed while trying to

I

RusH

6 s-6.

reach the American lines on the night of 2 Jan. 1777 (Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 266-7). 4 This suggestion was carried out, Elias Boudinot being appointed commissary general for prisoners on 6 June 1777, and his brother-in-law, Lewis Pintard, attending the American prisoners in New York (DAB, under both names). 5 George, 1st Baron Jeffreys (16481689), judge, and adherent of the Stuarts; infamous in judicial annals for the bloody severity of his verdicts

(DNB). 6 Francis Lightfoot Lee; see BR to Mrs. Rush, [26] May 1776.

To Richard Henry Lee Dear Sir, Philadelphia, January 14th, 1777 Since my letter of this morning, I have heard of the removal of Dr. Morgan and Dr. Stringer from the medical department/ I beg you would suspend the filling up their places till I have the pleasure of seeing you. I have taken some pains to acquire from a surgeon in General Howe's army a perfect knowledge of the methods of taking care of the sick in the British military hospitals. I can moreover point out to you several worthy characters who should immediately be placed on the medical staff in our army. Dr. Cochrane of Brunswick is one of them. 2 He possesses humanity as well as skill, and is dear to all who know him. I have found, from conversing with the surgeons of the British army as well as from my own observations, that the,care of the sick is a matter that engages the attention of even their general officers. Lord Cornwallis in retreating through Princeton left five privates and one surgeon to attend the wounded men he was forced to leave behind him. I am sorry to say nothing of this kind was done by our generals, although a General Mercer was numbered in the list of our wounded. 8 Every captain in the British army is obliged to visit the sick of his company at least once a day to see that they want for nothing. [ 129 ]

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Considering that sickness sweeps off more men than the sword in all armies, I cannot help thinking that it is as much the duty of a good officer to save his men by tenderness in the one case as it is by ....4 in the other. From yours sincerely, BENJAMIN RusH Printed: R. H. Lee, Richard Henry Lee, u, 166-7. 1

On 9 Jan. 1777 Dr. John Morgan and Dr. Samuel Stringer had been dismissed by Congress 33 directors general of hospitals east of the Hudson and of the northern department, respectively (lour. Cont. Cong., VII, 2.4). No reasons were assigned for this action, but behind it lay contentions between Morgan and Stringer, and both behind and ahead of it lay the unending feud between Drs. Morgan and Shippen; see Packard, Hist. of Medicine in U.S., r, 547-58. Stringer (d. 1817) was a Marylander, trained privately in Philadel-

phi a; he later practised in Albany (Thacher, Amer. Med. Biog.). 2 John Cochran (1730-1807), of New Jersey, trained at Lancaster, Penna., served throughout the war in the hospital department, succeeding Shippen as director general in 1 7 8 I (DAB) • a BR's observation of the British military hospital system, following the battles of Princeton and Brandywine Creek, planted the seed of his quarrel with Washington. See Appendix r, below. 4 Thus in the printed text.

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia,

Baltimore, January 24, 177t I had rode but a few miles before the badness of the roads, the difficulty of the ferry, and the laziness of Diamond convinced me that you had acted very wisely in determining not to accompany me to Baltimore. But upon my arrival here I was thankful that you did not share with me in the trouble I met with in procuring tolerable lodgings. At present I am accommodated in a room lately occupied by Mr. Sergeant which I must abandon as soon as he returns, which will be in a few days. The rain which fell yesterday has rendered the streets so very muddy that they are impassable to women. No ladies are seen abroad but in carriages. It will be enough of the expense of living here to tell you that Mr. Middleton, 2 after keeping his family at a tavern for a while at the rate of £100-o-o a week, was obliged for want of agreeable accommodations to send them to Annapolis, thirty miles from this place. I have been told since my arrival here that our Assembly intend to leave me out in the next appointment of delegates as a punishment for opposing their new government. 3 Welcome this storm of popular rage! I shall kiss the rod that smites. I never was so weary of public [ 130 ]

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life and never languished more for the sweets of domestic life than since I parted last from you. You wished me a great deal of pleasure and frolicking at Baltimore when you bid me farewell. Alas! my heart sickens at the sound of what is commonly called pleasure. In this state of banishment from home and you, the music of Coralli [Carelli] would serve only to increase my melancholy. To exchange a whole house for a single room-to request instead of commanding when the most trifling favor is wanted-and above all to give up a most affectionate wife for the society of strangersto lay aside freedom, ease, and unbounded confidence in conversation for constant restraint and formality, are circumstances that illy agree with a man of my age and disposition. My brother lodges in a tavern and perfectly harmonizes with me in complaining of Baltimore. My next letter I hope will be written in a better humor, and contain an agreeable account of the people to make up for the badness of the place. They are said to be very kind to strangers. Adieu, my dear girl. Much love to Mrs. Montgomery and the family. Leave your letters to me at Dowdle's tavern at Christiana bridge, and they will come safely by the post. Yours-yours, my dear Julia. Addressed: Mrs: Rush at the Revd: Mr Montgomery's 4 near New Castle. fMS

(unsigned): Mr. and Mrs. J. William Middendorf, Jr., Ruxton, Mary-

land. 1 BR was in Baltimore to attend Congress, which held its sessions there from 20 Dec. I 776 to 27 Feb. I 777 in consequence of the British threat to Philadelphia. For views similar to those of BR on the rapidly growing young town, which was "too dirty and too dear" for most of the delegates, see Burnett, Letters of Members, n, I87, I89, I96, 237; Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife, ed. C. F. Adams, N.Y., I876, p. 237-8. ' 2 Arthur Middleton (1742-I787), South Carolina planter, politician, soldier, and delegate to the Continental Congress, I776-I78o (DAB). See BR's sketch of Middleton among the signers of the Declaration of Independence (Autobiography, p. I53). 8 In two elections during February the Penna. Assembly replaced several of

its delegates of that state, including BR, whose last day of attendance was apparently 27 Feb., the last day that Congress sat in Baltimore (Burnett, Letters of Members, n, lxiff., especially p. lxv). 4 Rev. Joseph Montgomery (I733I 794) was BR's brother-in-law, having married as his second wife Rachel (Rush) Boyce. He was a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 755; pastor at New Castle and Christiana Bridge, I769-1776 (or longer); chaplain in the Revolution; member Penna. Assembly, 1780-1782, and of Congress, 17831784; justice of the court of common pleas, Dauphin co., Penna., 1786-1794 (John M. Forster, Sketch of the Life of the Rev. Joseph Montgomery, Harrisburg, 18 79 ; Alumni Records, Secretary's Office, Princeton Univ.).

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To Mrs. Rush My dearest Julia, Baltimore, January 31, 1777 This is the 4th letter I have written to you since my arrival in this place. I have received one from you which gave me great pleasure. In my former letters I gave you a general account of my situation. I shall now add to it, that after spending a week in the house of a Mrs. Orrick1 in a room formerly occupied by Mr. Seargeant, I was obliged to look out for other lodgings upon Mr. Seargeant's return. I am now very comfortably situated with a Mrs. Payne. 2 Mr. Seargeant was so much pleased with my landlady and the accommodations which her house afforded that he has left his old quarters and now lodges with me. There are a number of boarders in the family. One of them is a young French officer. His history in one particular is very remarkable. He is one of one and twenty children, I 8 boys and three girls. They are all born of the same father and mother, and are all now living. Happy family! I shall be better satisfied if the same can be said of me as was said of the prophet of old, "That I walked in the fear of the Lord, and begat sons and daughters, 113 than if it were inscribed upon my tombstone that I governed the councils or commanded the arms of the whole continent of America. Every article of provision, clothing, and the common conveniences of life are 100 percent higher in this place than in Philadelphia: I pay 50/ a week for my board, and 2/6 a day for my horse. I cannot reconcile these prices with the plenty of provisions for man and beast with which this part of the country abounds. The market contains besides the ordinary provisions found in the Philadelphia market a great variety of fish and wild fowl. The town of Baltimore contains about 1000 houses, most of them large and built with brick. It is divided into two parts distant from each other about ~ of a mile. Both divisions are situated upon Petapsco [Patapsco] river about 15 miles above Chesapeak bay. The ~ater of the river is a good deal brackish, and even the water of the pumps and wells in the town is not wholly free from a saltish taste. The town used to contain near 5000 inhabitants before the present war. You will be surprised when I add to this account of Baltimore that the first house in it was built not more than 30 years ago. It has for some years past vied with Philadelphia in commerce, and bids fair for being the most wealthy spot in the continent. I expect to set off tomorrow to pay a visit to Dr. Howard/ an old fellow student of mine in the College of Edinburgh. He lives 1 5 [ IJ2 ]

8 FEBRUARY 1777 miles from this place. I have as yet contracted no acquaintances with the inhabitants of the town. I associate only with delegates and attend only to the business of the Congress. I forgot to inform you before that when the account came to the Congress of your Papa's harsh treatment by General Howe, they immediately ordered General Washington to remonstrate against it and to threaten to inflict similar indignities upon some tory prisoners. My pen and paper are intolerable. I hope to write to you more fully by the next post. Love to all Mr. Montgomery's family. Adieu, my dearest. Yours-yours-yours, BRusH tMS: Mr. and Mrs. J. William Middendorf, Jr., Ruxton, Maryland. 1

Rebecca Orrick, widow, is listed in the earliest Baltimore Town ... Directory, Baltimore [1796], in Forrest St., Federal Hill. 2 Not further identifiable. 8 Apparently a paraphrase, not located. 4 Doubtless Dr. Ephraim Howard (d. 1789), of Elkridge, Anne Arundel (now

Howard) co.; he had served on the Anne Arundel committee of observation and in the Maryland Convention of 177 5, and became a military surgeon later this year (Cordell, Med. Ann. Md., p. 657, 662; Md. Hist. Mag., v [1910], 243; XXJV [1929], 8). I have found no other record of Howard's attending the University of Edinburgh.

To Robert Morris

1

Baltimore, February 8th, 1777 Dear Sir, I have the pleasure of informing you that your letter to Congress of the 4th instant produced a motion this day for adjourning to Philadelphia. 2 After some debate it was resolved by a majority of one state only not to put the question. One state was accidentally unrepresented for a few minutes, or it would have been carried in the affirmative. The principal design of this letter is to request that you would urge the necessity of our returning to Philadelphia in your next letter. By our absence from Philadelphia we not only depreciate the money there, but we likewise depreciate it by our residence here. The scarcity of artificers, the want of a sufficient number of boardinghouses, the constant accession of strangers who have business with the Congress and who create a fluctuation in the quantity of provisions brought into the town, have rendered the price of living and transacting business of all kinds three times as high in this place as it is in many parts of the continent, and nearly twice as high as in Philadelphia. But there are other considerations which ought to influence us. Our return will have the same effect [ 133 ]

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upon our politics that General Washington's late successes have had upon our arms. Its operation perhaps may not be confined to the continent. It may serve our cause even in the Court of France. Your letter produced another motion in Congress of greater consequence than the one just now mentioned, namely to raise the interest of money received into our loan offices to 6 percent. 8 It produced a very long and serious debate. The question was postponed till Monday next at the request of Connecticut. There is good reason to believe from the part the several states took in the debate that it will be carried in the affirmative by a majority of two or three states. Colonel R. H. Lee has changed his mind upon this subject and was one of the warmest advocates for raising the interest upon the floor. We live here in a convent. We converse only with one another. We are precluded from all opportunities of feeling the pulse of the public upon our measures. We rely upon the Committee of Philadelphia to feel it for us, and we expect once more to hear through you how it beats upon the subject of returning to Philadelphia. From, dear sir, your most humble servant, B: RusH JddreJSed: Robt: Morris Esqr: in Philadelphia. tMS: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. 1 Robert Morris (1734-I8o6), "the financier of the American Revolution," had written in behalf of the committee of Congress that was left in Philadelphia; see Jour. Cont. Gong., vu, 101. As BR's political stand shifted-and it was shifting just at this time--toward the right, he became a great admirer of Morris, and he remained one until the formation of national parties in the early 179o's, after which his contact with Morris virtually ceased. He could have approved of neither Morris' Federalist politics nor his vast speculative

projects. It is curious that there is no comment on Morris' death in BR's Autobiography. (DAB; BR to Richard Price, z7 Oct. 1786.) 2 The motion was not recorded in the Journals but is mentioned in Burke's notes on debates, printed in Jour. Cont. Gong., vn, 103, note. 3 See Jour. Cont. Gang., vn, xoz-3. In a note of I 1 Feb. I 777, BR regretfully informed Morris the motion had been lost (L.C., Robert Morris Papers). See also BR to Morris, zz Feb. I 7 77.

To Robert Morris Dear Sir, Baltimore, February 22, 1777 The question for raising the interest of our loan office tickets to 6 percent was attempted again the day before yesterday in Congress, but was lost as formerly by a division of the states.1 Every [ 134 ]

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post and express that arrives brings us complaints of the want of money, and assurances of the impossibility of getting it at the low interest of 4 percent. These complaints are echoed daily from every corner of the room, but to no purpose. The states that oppose the raising of the interest are Rhode Island, Connecticut, North and South Carolinas, and Georgia. Maryland is divided. It is worthy of notice here that only seven members of the Congress, who represent five of the above states, decided the above question, contrary to the inclinations of not less than 1 7 members who represented the states that voted for raising the interest and who represent at least 2/3ds of the people of America. This unjust mode of representation I hope will be altered in the Confederation. If it is not, it will end sooner or later in the ruin of the continent. We shall attempt the important question once more before we adjourn to Philadelphia. If we fail, we are undone. Another emission of money will in my opinion be a public fraud which no state-necessity can justify. The loss of two or three provinces would not hurt our cause half so much as the news of our bankruptcy. The Congress have concluded unanimously not to send a deputation of their body to General Lee. 2 The present distracted situation of the Court of Britain, the characters and conduct of Lord and General Howe, and the disposition which General Lee always showed for negotiations and conferences with the general officers belonging to the British army, induced the Congress readily to adopt a suspicion that the royal commissioners had suggested the maneuver in order to suspend our military operations and to divide and deceive the states. This suspicion was rendered the more probable from the circumstances of this being about the time in which our commissioners at the Court of France will urge the necessity of a speedy declaration in our favor, and which can only be prevented by the news that we are negotiating with Great Britain. It is well known the conference with Lord Howe last summer had well-nigh ruined our interest at the Court of France. The Congress have passed a resolution that will we hope satisfy the General, that while we are jealous of our honor, we are determined to neglect nothing that concerns his safety or private affairs. We have yesterday appointed Colonels Poor, Glover, Patterson, Varnum, Wayne, Dehaes, Muhlenberg, Weedon, ]no. Cadwallider and Woodford brigadiers general. Lord Sterling, with Messrs. MifHin, Sinclair, Steven and Lincoln are majors general. 3 'Printed (in part): Burnett, Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, II,

270-1.

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See Jour. Cont. Gong., vn, 136-81 and references given by Burnett, n, :1701 note. 2 "Congress received a letter February 2oth, 1777, from General Lee, a prisoner in New York (written by permission of Lord and General Howe) requesting a conference with two or three members of Congress upon matters of the last importance to himself, and in his opinion to America"-BR, "Notes on Continental Congress, &c.," vol. 1. BR subjoined his own speech against the request (containing a very interesting characterization of Lee) 1 together with those of John Adams, Chase, Middleton, and Harrison; see PMHB, XXVII (1903), 140-2. Lee's letter to Congress, dated 1o Feb. 1 7 77 1 is in Charles Lee Papers, II, 358-9; see also Jour. Cont. Gong., VII, 1401 note, and further references to this episode in Burnett, Letters of Members, II, 26 51 note.

a Those in this list not previously identified are: Enoch Poor (1736-1780), of New Hampshire; John Glover (17321 797), of Massachusetts; John Paterson (1744-18o8), of Connecticut; James Mitchell Varnum (1748-1789), of Rhode Island; John Philip DeHaas (ca. 1735-1786), of Pennsylvania; John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg ( 1 7461807), of Virginia; George Weedon (ca. 1734-1793), of Virginia; John Cadwalader (1742-1786), of Pennsylvania, who declined the appointment; William Woodford (I7J4-I78o), of Virginia; William Alexander, self-styled Lord Stirling (I726-I783), of New Jersey; and Benjamin Lincoln (I 73 3I 8 I o), of Massachusetts (Information from DAB, except for Weedon, on whom see article by G. H. S. King in Wm. fS Mary Quart., zd ser., XX [I94o], 23752). Sinclair is of course St. Clair, and Steven is Adam Stephen.

To Anthony Wayne Philadelphia, April 2nd, 1777 My dear Friend, Since I had the pleasure of hearing from you last, I have had the wished-for opportunity of contributing a vote towards your promotion in the army. Accept of my congratulations upon the occasion, and be assured that you have not a friend in Pensylvania who rejoices more sincerely in the frequent accounts that we receive how much you merit the honor the Congress have conferred upon you. Give me leave further to congratulate you upon the agreeable prospects which now open before us with respect to our public affairs. The Court of France has declared herself to be our friend and is now giving us such aid as must inevitably involve her in a war with Great Britain in the course of the ensuing year. Spain will probably act in con junction with her. All the ports in the Mediteranian are open to our vessels. In a word, all the powers of Europe are in our favor, Russia and Portugal excepted, and it is to be hoped that France and Spain will effectually prevent Great Britain receiving any succors from those two allies. General Howe's army (after being cooped up in Brunswick all winter) is at last in motion. It is thought by some that he is about [ 136 ]

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to make a push up the Chesapeak; by others, up the Delaware, and by some, up the North river. 1 The time is now past when the sight of a few frigates or red coats threw our whole country into a panic. We are preparing to receive them in Philadelphia. But should they possess themselves of our city, we expect to check their progress through the country. If the tories only who have invited Howe to Philadelphia could suffer, it would be wrong to attempt to oppose him. They deserve more than the most complicated calamities of war from his hands. But we tremble for the poor women and children who must suffer with them. Few of them I believe will fly for safety into the back parts of our state, owing to the difficulty of procuring tolerable accommodations, so much have the country families been crowded with refugees from this and the neighboring cities. I wish I could add here that the declaration of independence had produced the same happy effects in Pensylvania that it has in the rest of the united States. Our people (intoxicated with the must or first flowings of liberty) have formed a government that is absurd in its principles and incapable of execution without the most alarming influence upon liberty. The wisest and I believe the rna jor part of the people are dissatisfied with it, but they have suspended all opposition to it for the present, as the enemy are now at our gates. A happy constitution is a most powerful inducement to press on a soldier to the toils and dangers of a campaign. He anticipates the pleasure with which he will forget them both in the perfect security he will enjoy hereafter for his property, liberty, and life. I wish I could animate you with such prospects in our native province. No, my friend, you will find when you lay down your arms and seek to refresh yourself under the shade of your own vine and fig tree, that the one will want fruits and the other leaves to support and shelter you against the rude influence of slavery. The public testimony I bore against our domestic tyranny cost me my seat in Congress. Our Assembly (who are the only unaccountable body of men that ever existed in a free country) displaced me about two months ago. I thanked them for it, having previously determined to join the army in the line of my profession. 2 Adieu, my dear friend. I have no higher wish than to be once more free and happy with you and the few choice spirits who began the opposition in Pensylvania. From yours sincerely, BRusH iMS: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina.

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Howe sailed for the Chesapeake in July and took Philadelphia in September. 2 On his last day in Congress BR reported for a committee on Dr. Shippen's plan for reorganizing the medical de-

partment (report printed in Jour. Cont. Gong., vu, 161-4), and there appears to have been an understanding that BR would join the service under Shippen. See BR to Mrs. Rush, 14 Apr. 1777, note 9·

To Mrs. Rush My very dear Julia, Philadelphia, April 14, 1777 I am sorry to inform you that I could not get a single fish nor an ounce of fresh meat in market this morning owing to their both being all bought up before Azariah 1 came to town. I am glad to hear that our new Levee behaves so well. I think the less Molly 2 and he dispute about politics the better. Such disputes, especially among ignorant people, generally confirm prejudices and increase obstinacy. Perhaps by a different course of behavior to him he may be induced to refuse being exchanged and may continue with us as long as we want him. Our town is alive with news. The minute guns were fired this morning. It threw the city into confusion. An express is just arrived who says there are 9 men of war in the river. 3 This account makes it certain that Philadelphia is the object of the enemy. We expect every moment to hear of our bay being crowded with transports filled with British and Hessian soldiers. Major General Lincoln (a Massachussets bay man) was surprised and taken prisoner a few nights ago near Bound Brook in New Jersey, together with 200 men, by a party of the enemy.4 Our brother came to town last night. He positively sets off early tomorrow morning to Mr. Bartram's over Skuilkill, agreeable to his duty and our mother's orders. 5 As everything is now turned topsy-turvy in town, I fear you will not spend your time very agreeably here. I think you had better set off tomorrow morning for Graeme Park. 6 It will not however do to spend a week there, as I know not how soon General Howe's progress up the Delaware may make it necessary to fly with you to Maryland. Suppose you leave Mrs. Stamper at Captain Allison's 7 and call for her in a day or two. I fear I shall not be able to come for you. I enter upon the care of a military hospital tomorrow and shall have a hundred things to do that are of importance to ourselves as well as the public. Enclosed is an Evening Post. General Washington's letter8 is a [ 138 ]

14 APRIL 1777 masterpiece. It has raised his character higher than ever m the opinion of the Congress and his friends. The Congress have settled my appointment in the army so as to be perfectly agreeable to me. They have made me joint physician and surgeon general, with Dr. Jones of Virginia, of the middle department. 9 You may depend upon my care and tenderness in conducting you to Mr. HallV 0 as soon as the danger is more imminent. Much love to our brother and sister. From, my very dear girl, your affectionate husband, BRusH P.S. Keep up the spirits of our mother and sister. All is for the best, and all will end well. Our city must undergo a purgation. 11 The counsels of heaven must be fulfilled. "Clouds and darkness are before him, but righteousness and judgment are the habitations of his throne.m 2 .;[ddressed: Mrs: Rush at RushhillY &S: Frederick M. Dearborn, M.D., New York City. 1 Evidently a captive paroled as a servant. The force of the term "Levee," as used of Azariah below, I cannot explain satisfactorily. On 7 Dec. 1777 BR wrote in his pocket memorandum book that Azariah had begun driving his wagon for the military hospitals ("Notes on Continental Congress, &c.," vol. 2). 2 Another servant. BR records in the same memorandum book that Molly was sent to "Rushhill" on 24 Mch. 1777. 3 A groundless rumor but characteristic of the times. ' Also untrue, but much nearer the truth; Lincoln and most of his men escaped from the surprise attack of the 13th (Lundin, Cockpit of the Revolution, p. 255). 5 BR's brother Jacob was at this time employed in the office of the Secretary of Congress. What his mission was at the home of John Bartram (16991 77 7), the famous Quaker botanist, is not known. On Bartram, see DAB; his house and gardens on the west bank of the Schuylkill at South Fifty-Fourth St. are now a botanical shrine. 6 An estate near Horsham, Montgomery co., Penna., the home of the Rushes' and Stocktons' warm friend

Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson (C. H. Smith, "Graeme Park," Historical Society of Montgomery County, Bulletin, IV [1943-1945], 257-75). See also BR to Mrs. Ferguson, 24 Dec. 1777. 7 Not further identified. 8 To Sir William Howe, 9 Apr. 1777, a long and severe communication on the treatment and exchange of prisoners (Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, VIII, 375So). Congress on 11 Apr. ordered its publication (Jour. Cont. Gong., vn, 253). 9 BR's appointment was actually to the post of surgeon general of the middle department (commission, dated 1 1 Apr. 1777, in L.C., Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XIX, 209). The "middle department" included the territory between the Hudson and Potomac Rivers. Dr. Walter Jones having declined the post of physician general, BR was appointed in his stead, 1 July, and Dr. William Brown was named surgeon general next day (Jour. Cont. Gong., VIII, p8, 525). 10 Presumably Elihu Hall (ca. 17471808), of Cecil co., Md., first cousin to BR; the Rushes' first child, John, was

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION born in Cecil co. three months later (BR, Autobiography, p. 123). 11 Partly obscured by seal; the reading is conjectural. 12 Ps:~.lms 97 :a.

1s Probably Jacob Rush's home. It waa near Philadelphia, hut I have been unable to locate it. See letter to Mrs. Rush, 30 July 1779, and BR's itinerary in 1777-1778, PMHB, XXVII (1903),

To the Officers in the Army of the United American States: Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers.

150.

1

April 22d, 1777 Fatal experience has taught the people of America the truth of a proposition long since established in Europe, that a greater proportion of men perish with sickness in all armies than fall by the sword. 2 The last campaign3 produced melancholy proofs of this assertion in every part of the continent. 4 But we ought to consider upon this occasion not only the mere loss of those worthy citizens who perished in this manner. The complicated distress which accompanied their sickness and death should never be forgotten. The galiant youth who had torn himself from the arms of his parents or the partner of his joys; who had plighted his life to his country in the field; and who, perhaps (in the enthusiasm of his military ardor), had courted death from a musket or a cannon ball, was often forced from the scene of action and glory by the attack of a fever and obliged to languish for days or weeks in an hospital; and, at last, to close his eyes deprived of the sweet consolation of a dying soldier, the thoughts of ending his life in the arms of victory or in an act of just resentment against the enemies of the liberties of his country. The wisdom and munificence of the Congress, it is to be hoped, have 5 made the most ample provision for lessening the calamities of war from sickness in their armies hereafter, and, if possible, to prevent it altogether; for I maintain that the mortality from sickness in camps is not necessarily connected with a soldier's life. It was unknown to the armies of ancient Greece and Rome. Their armies had no diseases peculiar to themselves; nor were the diseases to which their soldiers were subject attended with any peculiar symptoms. But the munificence of the Congress and the skill of [ 140 ]

22 APRIL 1 777

physicians and surgeons will avail but little in preventing mortality from sickness among our soldiers without the concurrence of the officers of the army. Your authority, GENTLEMEN, is absolutely necessary to enforce the most salutary plans and precepts for preserving the health of the soldiers. Your own personal safety is concerned in your concurring in the plan adopted by the Congress. But if this were not the case, I am persuaded humanity and patriotism would not plead in vain in favor of those brave fellows whose lives are committed to your care by the suffrages of your country. The art of preserving the health of a soldier consists in attending to the following particulars: I. DREss. II. DIET. III. CLEANLINESS. And IV. ENCAMPMENTS. 6 I. The DREss of a soldier has a great influence upon his health. It is to be lamented that the peculiar situation of our country, from the infancy of our foreign trade and domestic manufactures, has obliged us to clothe our soldiers chiefly in linen. It is a well-known fact that the perspiration of the body, by attaching itself to linen and afterwards by mixing with rain, is disposed to form miasmata which produce fevers. Upon this account I could wish the rifle shirt was banished from our army. 7 Besides accumulating putrid miasmata, it conceals filth and prevents a due regard being paid to cleanliness. The Roman soldiers wore flannel shirts next to their skins. This was one among other causes of the healthiness of the Roman armies. During the last war in America, Gen. (then Col.) Gage obliged the soldiers of his regiment to wear flannel shirts from an accidental want of linen, and it was remarkable during a sickly campaign on the Lakes, not a single soldier belonging to the said regiment was ever seen in any of the military hospitals. I have known several instances where the yearly visits of the intermitting fever have been stayed in the State of Pennsylvania, in places most subject to that disorder, by nothing else but the use of flannel shirts. The hair by being long uncombed is apt to accumulate the perspiration of the head, which by becoming putrid sometimes produces diseases. There are two methods of guarding against this evil: the first is by combing and dressing the hair every day; the second is by wearing it thin and short in the neck. The former is attended with delays often incompatible with the duty of a soldier, and therefore the latter is to be preferred to it. This easy mode of [ I4I ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

wearing the hair is strongly recommended by Count Saxe and by all modern writers on the military art. II. The DIET of soldiers should consist chiefly of vegetables. The nature of their duty, as well as their former habits of life, require it. If every tree on the continent of America produced Jesuits bark,8 it would not be sufficient to preserve or to restore the health of soldiers who eat two or three9 pounds of flesh in a day. Their vegetables should be well cooked. It is of the last consequence that damaged flour should not be used in the camp. It is the seed of many disorders. It is of equal consequence that good flour should not be rendered unwholesome by an error in making it into bread. Perhaps it was the danger to which flour was always exposed of being damaged in a camp, or being rendered unwholesome from the manner of baking it, that led the Roman generals to use wheat instead of flour for the daily food of their soldiers. Caesar fed his troops with wheat only, in his expedition into Gaul. It was prepared by being well boiled, 10 and was eaten with spoons in the room of bread. If a little sugar or molasses is added to wheat prepared in this manner, it forms not only a most wholesome food but a most agreeable repast. What shall I say to the custom of drinking spirituous liquors which prevails so generally in our army? 11 I am aware of the prejudices in favor of it. It requires an arm more powerful than minethe arm of a Hercules-to encounter them. The common apology for the use of rum in our army is that it is necessary to guard against the effects of heat and cold. But I maintain that in no case whatever does rum abate the effects of either of them upon the constitution. On the contrary, I believe it always increases them. The temporary elevation of spirits in summer and the temporary generation of warmth in winter produced by rum always leave the body languid and more liable to be affected with heat and cold afterwards. Happy would it be for our soldiers if the evil ended here! The use of rum, by gradually wearing away the powers of the system, lays the foundation of fevers, fluxes, jaundices, and all the train o£1 2 diseases which occur in military hospitals. It is a vulgar error to suppose that the fatigue arising from violent exercise or hard labor is relieved by the use of spirituous liquors. The principles of animal life are the same in a horse as in a man, and horses, we find, undergo the severest labor with no other liquor than cool water. There are [ 142 ]

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1777

many instances where even reapers have been forced to acknowledge that plentiful draughts of milk and water have enabled them to go through the fatigues of harvest with more pleasure and fewer inconveniences to their health than ever they experienced from the use of a mixture of rum and water. Spirituous liquors were unknown to the armies of ancient Rome. The canteen of every soldier was filled with nothing but vinegar, and it was by frequently drinking a small quantity of this wholesome liquor mixed with water that the Roman soldiers were enabled to sustain tedious marches through scorching sands without being subject to sickness of any kind. The vinegar effectually resists that tendency to putrefaction to which heat and labor dispose the fluids. It moreover calms the inordinate action of the solids which is created by hard duty. It would be foreign to my purpose, or I might show that the abstraction of rum from our soldiers would contribute greatly to promote discipline and a faithful discharge of duty among them. Gen. Wolfe, who was a philosopher as well as a general, never suffered a drop of spirits to be drank by his soldiers except when they served as sentries or upon fatigue duty in rainy weather. Perhaps these are the only cases in which a small quantity of rum may be useful. It will be of the most essential service if it be mixed with three or four times its quantity of water. Ill. Too much cannot be said in favor of CLEANLINEss. If it were possible to convert every blade of grass on the continent into an American soldier, 13 the want of cleanliness would reduce them in two or three campaigns to a handful of men. It should extend I. To the body of a soldier. He should be obliged to wash his hands and face at least once every day, and his whole body twice or three times a week, especially in summer. The cold bath was part of the military discipline of the Roman soldiers and contributed much to preserve their health. 2. It should extend to the clothes of a soldier. Frequent changes of linen are indispensably necessary, and unless a strict regard is paid to this article, all our pains to preserve the health of our soldiers will be to no purpose. 3· It should extend to the food of a soldier. Great care should be taken that the vessels in which he cooks his victuals should be carefully washed after each time of their being used. Too many soldiers should not be allowed on any pretense whatever to crowd into the same tent or quarter. The jail fever is the [

1

43 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

offspring of the perspiration and respiration of human bodies brought into a compass too narrow to be diluted and rendered inert by a mixture with the atmosphere. u The straw or hay which composes the bed of a soldier should be often changed, and his blanket should be exposed every day to the sun. This will prevent the perspiration from becoming morbid and dangerous by accumulating upon it. The commanding officer should take the utmost care never to suffer a soldier to sleep or even to sit down in his tent with wet clothes, nor to lie down in a wet blanket or upon damp straw. The utmost vigilance will be necessary to guard against this fruitful source of disorders among soldiers. The environs of each tent and of the camp in general should be kept perfectly clean of the offals of animals and of filth of all kinds. They should be buried or carefully removed every day beyond the neighborhood of the camp. IV. The formation of an ENCAMPMENT is of the utmost importance to the health of an army. It is to no purpose to seek for security from an enemy in the wisest disposition of troops in a country where marshes and millponds let loose intermitting fevers upon them. Sometimes it may be necessary to encamp an army upon the side of a river. Previous to this step, it is the duty of the quartermaster to inquire from what quarter the winds come at the season of his encampment. It they pass across the river before they reach his army, they will probably bring with them the seeds of bilious and intermitting fevers, and this will more especially be the case in the fall of the year. The British troops at Pensacola, by shifting their quarters every year so as to avoid the winds that come over a river in the neighborhood of the town at a certain season, have preserved their health in a manner scarcely to be paralleled in so warm a climate. 15 It is the duty of the commanding officer of a division or detachment of the army to avoid as much as possible exposing his troops to unnecessary fatigue or watchfulness. The daily exercises of the manual and maneuvers (which contribute to the health of soldiers), as also all marches, should be performed in the cool of the morning and evening in summer. Sentries should always be provided with watch coats, and they should be often relieved in very hot, cold, and rainy weather. 18 [ 144 ]

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1777

The fire and smoke of wood, as also the burning of sulphur and the explosion of gunpowder, have a singular efficacy in preserving and restoring the purity of the air. There was an instance in the last war between Britain and France of a ship in Sir Edward Hawke's fleet that had above one hundred men on board ill with a putrid fever. This ship was obliged to bear her part in the well-known battle between Sir Edward and Monsieur Conflans. 17 A few days after the engagement, every man on board this ship recovered, and an entire stop was put to the progress of the disorder. This extraordinary event was thought to be occasioned by the explosion and effiuvia of the gunpowder. I shall conclude these directions by suggesting two 18 hints which appear to be worthy of the attention of the gentlemen of the army. Consider in the first place that the principal study of an officer in the time of war should be to save the blood of his men. An heroic exploit is admired most when it has been performed with the loss of a few lives. But if it be meritorious to save the lives of soldiers by skill and attention in the field, why should it be thought less so to preserve them by skill and attention of another kind, in a march or an encampment? And on the contrary, if it be criminal in an officer to sacrifice the lives of thousands by his temerity in a battle, why should it be thought less so to sacrifice twice their number in a hospital by his negligence?-Consider in the second place that an attention to the health of your soldiers is absolutely necessary to form a great military character. Had it not been for this eminent quality, Xenophon would never have led ten thousand Greeks for sixteen months through a cold and most inhospitable country, nor would Fabius have kept that army together without it which conquered Hannibal and delivered Rome. 19

R. Printed: Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia}, 1

In warmly acknowledging a copy of this article as first printed, Gen. Nathanael Greene wrote BR urging that the "Directions" be printed in pamphlet form, adding that he would do all he could to ensure their use in the army (Greene to BR, 3 May 1777, MS owned by Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, N.C.). On the verso of the title page of

22

April 1777·

the tract as separately published in the following year appears this statement: "AT A BOARD OF WAR, September 5th, 1777. ORDERED, That Doctor B. RusH be requested to re-publish, in a small Pamphlet, certain Directions for preserving the Health of Soldiers; published in the Pennsylvania Packet, No. 284, with such Additions and Altera-

[ 145 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION tions as he shall think proper. Extract from the Minutes, RICHARD PETERS, Secretary." The pamphlet, under the title of Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers: Recommended to the Consideration of the Officers of the drmy of the United States (Lancaster: John Dunlap), was not published until after BR's resignation early in 177 8, when he denominated it "my last legacy to my dear countrymen in the line of my profession" (to Nathanael Greene? 1 1 Feb. 177 8). Based on the now wellrecognized but then novel premise "that the mortality from sickness in camps is not necessarily connected with a soldier's life," the Directions form a brief but Eioneering contribution to American military hygiene and have deservedly proved one of BR's most influential writings. The tract was reissued as an appendix to Edward Cutbush's Observations on the Means of Preserving the Health of Soldiers and Sailors, Phila., 18o8; was at least twice reissued during the Civil War (see Sabin, Bibl. dmer., No. 74213, for a New York edn. of 1865, and the N.Y. Publ. Libr. public catalogue for a Boston edn. of probably the same year) ; and was again reprinted in The Military Surgeon, XXII (1908), 182-95. The present text has been taken from the first (i.e., the newspaper) printing, but the additions and alterations in the pamphlet text of 1 77 8 have been inserted in the notes at their proper places. This arrangement provides a means of seeing what BR learned from nearly a year's service in the field as surgeon and physician general. The additional paragraphs at the close (see note 19) are particularly significant in connection with BR's severe criticism of the Continental command in the winter of 1777-1778. 2 177 8: "Fatal experience has taught the people of America that a greater proportion of men have perished with sickness in our armies than have fallen by the sword." 3 1778: "The two last campaigns." • Preceding six words omitted in 1778. G 17 7 8 : "The munificence of the Congress has."

6 1778: "IV. ENCAMPMENTS. And V. EXERCISE." 7 The rifle shirt, or hunting shirt, is defined under the latter designation in the DAE as "a long, loose, coatlike frock often made of deerskin ornamented with fringe." BR had in mind, however, the homespun linen shirt of the type illustrated by Charles K. Bolton in The Private Soldier under Washington (N.Y., 1902, facing p. 16o; see alsop. 91-2). Historical artists of the Revolution have made it familiar to every American school child. A somewhat sentimental chapter is devoted to the hunting shirt in George Washington Parke Custis' Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (Washington, 1859, p. 264-72), where it is called "the emblem of the Revolution" and the "national costume, properly so called." It was the dress of Daniel Morgan's and other western riflemen, and came to denote to the enemy, as Washington himself observed, "a complete marksman." See also BR to Henry Knox, 28 Mch. 1792. 8 Cinchona bark, from which quinine is extracted, introduced into Europe from Peru in the seventeenth century; see Coxe's dmer. Dispensatory, 1825, p. 18Iff. 9 1778: "one or two." 10 17 78: "husked and well boiled." 11 On BR as a temperance advocate, see his letter to the Editor of the Pennsylvania Journal, 22 June 1782, and notes there. 12 17 78: "and the most of." 13 1 77 8 : "If men grew as speedily and spontaneously as blades of grass on the Continent of America." 14 177 8 has this added paragraph: "It has been remarked that the men are most healthy when the exigencies of a campaign have made it necessary for an army to send off their tents. This must be occasioned by the tents being rendered unhealthy from being too much crowded, or from not being kept clean." u 17 7 8 has this added paragraph: "Frequently changing the spot of an encampment has been found to contribute greatly to the health of an army. It effectually guards the men against the effects of those offal matters which are

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22 APRIL so small, or so concealed, as to elude the vigilance of an officer." 16 1778 has these two added paragraphs and footnote: "It is a good custom for a sentry always to eat a hearty meal before he enters upon duty in cold weather. The gentle fever excited by digestion contributes to guard him in a degree against the effects of the cold. "V. Idleness is the bane of a soldier. It exposes him to temptations not only to every kind of military vice, but to every species of military disorders.But his exercise should be regular, and performed at stated periods; nor should it be suspended during his recess from the toils of war in his winter quarters. 'We remark (says Montesquieu in his excellent treatise on the rise and fall of the Roman Greatness) in modern times, that our soldiers perish from immoderate fatigue, notwithstanding it was by immense labor the Romans preserved their armies. The reason I believe was, their labor was constant, whereas among us our soldiers pass from the extremes of labor to the extremes of idleness, than which nothing can be more destructive to the lives of men.'* "*[Note by BR:] We sometimes observe officers and soldiers who have passed through the hardships of a campaign without an hour's sickness suddenly seized with a variety of disorders upon leaving camp and visiting their families. The reason is plain-They suddenly exchange constant exercise, the cold ground, and a blanket, for indolence, a warm room, and a feather bed." 17 Sir Edward, later 1st Baron Hawke (t70S·I78I), British admiral and navai hero, annihilated a French fleet under Marshal de Conflans in Quiberon Bay, Nov. I759 (DNB). 18 I 778: "a few.'' 19 I 778 has these two added paragraphs: "Consider thirdly, that the discipline necessary to make an army victorious requires that the principle of self-preservation should in some measure

1777

be suspended in a soldier. If he be taught that it is a crime to have a single thought about his life in the field, he will soon transfer the same indifference about his life to the camp or to his quarters. It argues therefore a want of understanding in an officer to charge his men with carelessness of their health and lives. Julius Caesar wanted nothing but strength in a man to make him a soldier. He supplied every other want from his own great fund of military qualities. Nature has given the Americans strength, and the sacred cause of Liberty has given them principle above the common soldiers of any other army upon the face of the earth. The blame, therefore, will only be yours, if they are not made superior to them in all the arts which improve and adorn a soldier's person and character. "Lastly. Consider that your country and posterity look up to you for the preservation of the only means of establishing the liberties of America. The wisdom and eloquence of writers and orators have long since yielded to the more powerful oratory of the sword. All our hopes, therefore, are in our army. But if anything can be added to these motives, consider further that there is scarcely a soldier under your command who has not a mother, a wife, a sister, or a child. These helpless members of society made great sacrifices to their country when they urged the beloved objects of their affection to follow the recruiting drum to the camp. Whenever, therefore, your duty requires that you should attend to the health of your men, imagine you see one or perhaps ALL of their female and helpless connections standing at the door of your tents or quarters, and beseeching you, by the remembrance of the pleasures you have enjoyed and by the prospect of the pleasures you expect in those connections, to repair immediately to the tents or huts of your men and to attend to everything which reason and conscience tell you are necessary for the preservation of their health and lives.''

[ 147 ]

To Anthony Wayne My dear General, Philadelphia, May 19th, 17[77] 1 General Sinclair, who will deliver you this letter, will inform you of the sickly state of the politics of Pensylvania. Cannon, Matlack, and Dr. Young 2 still hold back the strength of the state by urging the execution of their rascally government in preference to supporting measures for repelling the common enemy. A majority of the Presbyterians are in favor of the Constitution, and in no part of the state do they discover more zeal for it than in Chester county. General Sinclair and General Thompson have [given] public testimony against it. [\Ve hope soon] to add your weight to the scale of opposition, especially in your native county. The most respectable whig characters in the state are with us. I need not point out to you the danger and folly of the Constitution. It has substituted a mob government to one of the happiest governments in the world. Nothing more was necessary to have made us a free and happy people than to abolish the royal and proprietary power of the state. A single legislature is big with tyranny. I had rather live under the government of one man than of 72. They will soon become like the 3 [o Tyrants of] Athens. 3 Absolute, unc [ onditional power] should belong only to God. It requires infinite wisdom and goodness to direct it. Come, my dear sir, and let us weep together over the dear nurse of our childhood, the protectress of our youth, and the generous rewarder of our riper years. "De respublica nunquam desperandum est." 4 Let us unite our efforts once more, and perhaps we may recover Pensylvania from her delirium. At present she has lifted a knife to her own throat. Your timely prescriptions may yet save her life. Adieu, my dear friend. From yours sincerely, BRusH .l!ddressed: The Honble: Brigadier Genl: Wayne at Ticonderoga. [Favored by] Genl Sinclair. &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers. 1

Here and elsewhere the MS is torn. Thomas Young, M.D. (x73z-x 777 ), a peripatetic physician, poet, deist, and political agitator, who was a typical and influential figure of the period but who is little known to historv. Selftaught, he lived in five different colonies and is identified with the extreme radi2

cal leadership before and during the Revolution in three of them-Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. This alone gives him probably unique distinction. He was the close friend and collaborator of Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, and Ethan Allen, and was tirelessly denounced by conservatives as an "in-

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5 JUNE 1777 cendiary" and a "bawling" democrat. Apart from politics, Young, who died of fever while serving in a military hospital in June I 777, deserves fame of a sort for a medical contribution he made. It was from him that BR learned the effectiveness of calomel combined with jalap (in the proportion of ten grains of each) as a "cure" for bilious fevers. This was the later notorious "ten and ten" purging dose that BR prescribed for yellow fever in I 793· (Information on Young is sparse and, in secondary references, often inaccurate. There is a sketch in DAB, with bibliographical suggestions. See also Marshall's Diary, and

William V. Wells, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, Boston, I86j, passim; John Adams to BR, 8 Feb. I7B9, containing a diverting portrait of Young, Old Family Letters, A, p. 30-I; BR, An Account of the Yell ow Fever in I793J P· zoo, 257·) 8 An aristocratic body which usurped the government of Athens in 404-403 B.C. (Century Cyclopaedia of Names). 4 The phrase should read "De republica," &c.: "One must never give up hope for one's country." Probably not a quotation but an echo of one or more common Latin phrases.

To Anthony Wayne My dear General,

Philadelphia, June sth, I777 I formerly thought as you do upon the subject of our government, but I have seen so many men sacrifice their prejudices against it to an honorable or lucrative office that I am sure nothing but the determined opposition. of the old whigs to the government prevented its execution. They now begin to feel as well as see its weakness, and nothing but obstinacy in a few men keeps its s [keleton?] 1 from falling to pieces. Had it been once established, I am sure nothing but a civil war could have overthrown it. So strong are its ties upon the passions and interests of a part of the state that innocence and justice must have sighed and submitted. Alas! that our minds should be turned from opposing a foreign to opposing a domestic tyranny. But all will end well. And I trust you will find both fruit and shade beneath the vine and the fig tree of your farm when you return to rest your limbs after the toils of the war are over. The public have done you justice for your gallant behavior in checking the prowess of Mr. Grant. 2 When shall we have the pleasure of seeing you? Suppose you write to some of your old friends in Chester county to concur with us in altering the Constitution. Nothing but a new convention will restore union to us and draw forth the whig strength of the state to oppose the common enemy. I expect to spend part of this summer with you at camp. Is your habit of body such as it used to be? If it is, I think a wound can prove mortal to you in very few places. At any rate you shall have ( 149 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

a chance for your life if I am near you and am allowed to combat death with my old weapons of lance,3 scalpel, clyster-pipe, &c. God keep you from falling into my hands in that way! and grant you many laurels and long life. Compliments to Colonel Johnson. Yours, BRusH fli1S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers. 1 MS 2

torn.

BR refers to Wayne's successful

maneuvers against Gen. James Grant in

central New Jersey; see Wayne to BR, :~ (June 1777], in Stille, Wayne, p. 71· 3 Thus in MS!

To Anthony Wayne My dear General, Philadelphia, June 18, 1777 The people of Pensylvania possess so much of the national character of Old Englishmen that, upon the appearance of Mr. Howe's movement this way, they agreed to suspend the dispute about the government and to join heart and hand in opposing him. The militia law will be executed, but from the unfortunate choice the populace have made of officers I am afraid the ranks will be filled with nothing but substitutes. This will effectually put a stop to the recruiting service for the regular army in our state, for where will you find a man that will enlist during the war for 20 dollars bounty and 45/ per month when he can get the same wages and IOO dollars besides for serving as a substitute two months in the militia? Had the appointment of the militia officers been left to the Council or to a governor, such men would probably have been put into office as would have drawn with them the flower of the yeomanry of the state into the field. This is only one of above IOO defects we have already discovered in our rascally Constitution in the attempts that have been made to reduce it to practice. 1 The pamphlet which accompanies this letter has been ascribed to me. 2 If it has not carried conviction along with it, it will serve at least to show that I have been actuated by the principles of an honest citizen and a friend to liberty in the opposition I have given to the execution of the government. In my opinion the government of Turkey is not more to be dreaded than the government of Pensylvania. If it should finally be established, I shall bear my testimony against it by quitting the state. But my fears upon this subject are nearly at an end. General Miffiin has proclaimed war against it. W HITEHILL,S the leader of the house, moved to have him com[ 150 ]

18 JUNE 1777 mitted for speaking disrespectfully of their "dignities." The General curses the government and adds that its administration is in the hands of rascals. Colonel Reed4 has spoken his mind with a manly decision upon the subject of our dispute. He will accept of nothing under the government till it is altered. A few letters from you to your friends in Chester county will put an end to its existence forever. Honest John Morton, 6 your old correspondent, it is said died of grief at the prospect of the misery which he foresaw would be brought upon Pensylvania by her present form of government. The accounts we receive daily of the strength, discipline, and spirit of our army give us great pleasure. I need not add that we expect to hear that the Pensylvanians will show us the "metal of their pasture'' 6 in the day of trial. Let not Virginia bear away from us the palm of military glory. I am sure our men are made of as good stuff for soldiers and officers as any men on the continent. As for yourself, my dear friend, may you be glutted with well-earned fame, "for if it be a sin to covet honor," I am sure "you are the most offending man alive.m God bless you. Yours-yours-yours, BENJN RusH lMS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers. 1

By an act of the Assembly, 17 Mch. 7 7 7, the voluntary "associator" system was changed to a compulsory militia establishment, which, since it was sponsored by the radical majority in the government, was warmly opposed by the rising anti-Constitutional or "Republican" party (Brunhouse, CounterRevolution, p. 39-40). 2 Observations · upon the Present Government of Pennsylvania. In Four Letters to the People of Pennsylvania Phila.: Styner and Cist, 177 7. Issued anonymously, this tract is an able critique of the Constitution of 1776, dwelling particularly on the evils of a unicameral legislature dominant over both the executive and judicial branches of government. 8 Robert Whitehill (1735-ISIJ), of Cumberland co., a Constitutionalist wheelhorse who for many years held public office; member of Congress from 1 8o 5 to his death (McMaster and Stone, Penna. and the Federal Constitution, p. 756-7). • Joseph Reed (1741-1785), a graduI

(

ate of the College of New Jersey, 1757, lawyer, and at this time adjutant general of the Continental army. BR had been in close touch with Reed during the campaign around Trenton in the previous winter, and from this contact a bitter quarrel later developed. It was brought on by Reed's compromise with the Constitutionalists in accepting the presidency of the state in Dec. 1 77 8, a step unforgivable in BR's view but made infinitely worse by Reed's countenancing the "seizure" of the College of Philadelphia by the legislature in I 779· (DAB; BR, Autobiography, p. 124; BR to Montgomery, 5 Nov. I 78z, and to John Adams, 21 Feb. 1789.) 5 John Morton (ca. 1724-1777), of Chester {later Delaware) co., a surveyor by profession but for many years active in provincial politics and a signer of the Declaration of Independence (DAB). 8 Shakespeare, Henry V, III, i, 27 ("the mettle of your pasture") . 7 The same, IV, iii, 28-29, adapted.

151 ]

To John Adams

1

Dear Sir, Morristown, August 8th, 1777 In observing the different operation of whig principles upon different people, I have been led to divide the whigs of America into the five following classes: 1st, the whig from a love of power; 2nd, the whig from resentment; Jrd, the whig from interest; 4th, the whig from a love of the military life; and lastly, the whig from the love of liberty. I have my eye upon men who belong to each of these classes, and I cannot help attributing most of the misfortunes of the united States to our entrusting our councils or arms to any but to the last class of whigs. The love of liberty is the only principle of action that will make a man uniform in his conduct and support him under the heaviest calamities that can befall his country. It is characteristic of this class of whigs to possess no lust for dominion but to wish only to be governed well. They are not roused into action by hearing of the ravages of the enemy. They were prepared for them in the beginning of the controversy and always viewed them as the lawful offspring of arbitrary power. They feel no pleasure in the effusions of human blood and relish the sweets of liberty much more than the joy of victory, and so far from consulting their interest, they esteem it their highest honor to sacrifice it to the safety of their country. I wish this class of whigs prevailed more among us. The time is now at an end when danger is to be apprehended from the tories. If we are undone at all, it must be by the aristocratic, the mercenary, the persecuting, and the arbitrary spirit of our own people-! mean the people who are called whigs. I expect to see more gloomy days than we have yet seen because I am persuaded we are not ripe for being delivered. Liberty without virtue would be no blessing to us. The conduct of the Court of France does not surprise me. 2 I am pleased with it. I have long thought that we were in a great danger of being ruined by a too speedy rupture between France and England. It will require one or two more campaigns to purge away the monarchical impurity we contracted by laying so long upon the lap of Great Britain. A peace at this time would be the greatest curse that could befall us. I hope the war will last until it introduces among us the same temperance in pleasure, the same modesty in dress, the same justice in business, and the same veneration for the name of the Deity which distinguished our ancestors. I see a gloomy cloud hanging over our States, but I am sure it will descend only in fertilizing rains upon [ 152 ]

8 AUGUST 1777 them, for they have not forfeited their birthright by their vices. I rejoice to find General Gates appointed to take the command in the northern department 3-he belongs to the sth class of whigs. I have the pleasure of informing you that great order, cleanliness, and the most perfect contentment prevail in our hospitals. Dr. Bond/ the assistant director, cannot be too much commended for his humanity and zeal in doing his duty. Adieu, my dear friend. May you long live to enjoy the fruits of your disinterested love to mankind! Yours, B: RusH .Ifddressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: Member of Congress Philadelphia. &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 The friendship between BR and their families were on the happiest social John Adams, the most durable that BR footing with one another, and Mrs. enjoyed in his lifetime, began on the Adams remarked with fervor soon after August day in 1774 when Adams and moving to Philadelphia that she had three other Massachusetts delegates to found BR "a kind Friend as well as the first Continental Congress were met J>hysician." BR favored Jefferson over by a deputation of Philadelphia patriots Adams for the presidency in 1796, but at Frankford, a few miles north of the in the following year the President city. The Philadelphians' mission was, performed one of his most magnanimous as we would say, to "brief" the Eastern- political acts in appointing BR treasurer ers on local opinion, which was unfavor- of the Mint. After a long lapse the able to anything that smacked of rebel- two friends resumed their correspondlion. BR entertained Adams at his house ence in 1 8o 5, and it increased in freand no doubt boasted of his important quency and intimacy until BR's death. radical connections in England, for in BR confided to Adams thoughts on the following year, when the second present and past events and on life and Congress met, Adams set down in his death that it is safe to say he would "Diary" an unflattering account of BR never have communicated to anyone as "an elegant, ingenious body" and a if the old patriot of Quincy had not correspondent of Sawbridge and Mrs. been there to urge him on and to reply Macaulay, but "too much of a talker in kind. For years BR nursed the desire to be a deep thinker; elegant, not great." -partly out of gratitude but more out Seeing more of BR in 1776-1777, of a sense of the fitness of things-to recAdams altered his opinion. By the time oncile the two former friends and later Adams left for Europe (Feb. 1778) the political enemies, Adams and Jefferson. two men were on the most intimate In the significant year x 812 his efforts terms of friendship, with BR outdoing were successful. This service to his even Adams in the candor of his criti- country must be reckoned among the cism of men and measures. Upon Adams' accomplishments that John Adams had return to America and his assumption of in mind when, upon hearing of BR's the vice-presidential chair, the corre- death, he exclaimed, "'Who can estimate spondence took on new vigor, for BR thy worth 1" (BR, Autobiograplty, p. was persuaded that Adams had relaxed in 140-4, and frequently; Adams, "Diary," some of his republican principles. The Works, n, 357, 38o, 427-8, 512; Abitwo, in fact, drew further and further gail Adams, New Letters, p. 66, and apart politically during the party battles frequently; Abigail Adams to Julia of the 179o's, though at the same time Rush, 24 Apr. 1813, Biddle Papers, pt.

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION ii, No. I; Old Family Letters, A, consisting mainly of Adams' letters to BR, I778-I8I3; also Introduction, above; Appendix II, below. The history of the reconciliation of Adams and Jefferson through the efforts of BR has been recounted by the present editor in the Yale Review, XL [I950-I95I], 297-3I9.) 2 BR probably refers to the reluctance on the part of France to recognize American independence; see Henry Laurens to John Lewis Gervais, 5 Sep. I 777, Burnett, Letters of Members, n, 4 79-8 I • 8 Gates was ordered by Congress to

relieve Schuyler on 4 Aug. I777 (DAB, under Gates). 'Thomas Bond, Jr. (I 743-I 794), son of the eminent Philadelphia physician; graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I76o; it is not known where he took his medical degree. He served throughout the war in responsible medical posts and became a strong partisan of Shippen's in the controversy over the administration of the hospital department. (Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates; Heitman, Register; Duncan, Medical Men in the Amer. Re'O., p. 200, and frequently.)

To John Adams Dear Sir, Trenton, October rst, 1777 It would have given me great pleasure to have spent an hour with you in this place after my return from General Howe's camp. 1 I could have told you but little of the loss of the enemy on the heights of Brandywine, 2 for I confined my questions to subjects more interesting to my country and which were solved without difficulty or restraint. Let us leave to common soldiers the joy that arises from hearing of fields being covered with dead bodies. The statesman and the general should esteem even victory a loss unless glory or decisive good consequences have arisen from it. I was struck upon approaching General Howe's line with the vigilance of his sentries and picket. They spoke, they stood, they looked like the safeguards of the whole army. After being examined by 9 or 10 inferior officers, I was not permitted to enter their camp till an officer of distinction was sent for, who after asking a few questions ordered a guard to conduct me to headquarters. I was next struck with their attention to secrecy in all their operations. I was confined upon parole to the district where our wounded lay, and when the whole army marched by my lodgings I was confined by an officer to a back room. They lock up the houses of every family that is suspected of being in the least unfriendly to them in their marches through the country, and if they are discovered by a countryman whom they suspect, they force him to accompany their army till their route or disposition are so far changed that no mischief can arise from the intelligence he is able to convey. [ 154 ]

1 OCTOBER 1777 They pay a supreme regard to the cleanliness and health of their men. After the battle on the I Ith of last month, the soldiers were strictly forbidden to touch any of the blankets belonging to the dead or wounded of our army lest they should contract the "rebel distempers." One of their officers, a subaltern, observed to me that his soldiers were infants that required constant attendance, and said as a proof of it that although they had blankets tied to their backs, yet such was their laziness that they would sleep in the dew and cold without them rather than have the trouble of untying and opening them. He said his business every night before he slept was to see that no soldier in his company laid down without a blanket. Great pains were taken to procure vegetables for the army, and I observed everywhere a great quantity of them about the soldiers' tents. The deputy quartermasters and deputy commissaries in Howe's army are composed chiefly of old and reputable officers, and not of the vagrants and bankrupts of the country. There is the utmost order and contentment in their hospitals. The wounded whom we brought off from the field were not half so well treated as those whom we left in General Howe's hands. Our officers and soldiers spoke with gratitude and affectioJt of their surgeons. An orderly man was allotted to every ten of our wounded, and British officers called every morning upon our officers to know whether their surgeons did their duty. You must not attribute this to their humanity. They hate us in every shape we appear to them. Their care of our wounded was entirely the effect of the perfection of their medical establishment, which mechanically forced happiness and satisfaction upon our countrymen perhaps without a single wish in the officers of the hospital to make their situation comfortable. It would take a volume to tell you of the many things I saw and heard which tend to show the extreme regard that our enemies pay to discipline, order, economy, and cleanliness among their soldiers. In my way to this place I passed through General Washington's army. 3 To my great mortification I arrived at the headquarters of a general on an outpost without being challenged by a single sentry. I saw soldiers straggling from our lines in every quarter without an officer, exposed every moment to be picked up by the enemy's light horse. I heard of z,ooo who sneaked off with the baggage of the army to Bethlehem. I was told by a captain in our army that they would not be missed in the returns, for as these were made out only by sergeants they would be returned on parade, and that from

[ ISS ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

the proper officers' neglecting to make out or examine returns General Washington never knew within 3,000 men what his real numbers were. I saw nothing but confidence about headquarters and languor in all the branches and extremities of the army. Our hospital opened a continuation of the confused scenes I had beheld in the army. The waste, the peculation, the unnecessary officers, &c. (all the effects of our medical establishment), are enough to sink our country without the weights which oppress it from other quarters. It is now universally said that the system was formed for the Director General and not for the benefit of the sick and wounded. Such unlimited powers and no checks would have suited an angel. The sick suffer, but no redress can be had for them. Upwards of roo of them were drunk last night. We have no guards to prevent this evil. In Howe's army a captain's guard mounts over every 2.00 sick. Besides keeping their men from contracting and prolonging distempers by rambling, drinking, and whoring, guards keep up at all times in the minds of the sick a sense of military subordination. A soldier should never forget for a single hour that he has a master. One month in our hospitals would undo all the discipline of a year, provided our soldiers brought it with them from the army. I know it is common to blame our subalterns for all these vices. But we must investigate their source in the higher departments of the army. A general should see everything with his own eyes and hear everything with his own ears. He should understand and even practise at times all the duties of the soldier, the officer, the quartermaster, the commissary, and the adjutant general. He should be modest, sober, and temperate, free from prejudice. He should despise ease and, like Charles XII, should always sleep in his boots; that is, he should always be ready for a flight or a pursuit. The present management of our army would depopulate America if men grew among us as speedily and spontaneously as blades of grass. The "wealth of worlds" could not support the expense of the medical department alone above two or three years. We are waiting impatiently to hear that our army has defeated General Howe's. 4 Would not such an event be a misfortune to us in the end? Would it not stamp a value upon ignorance and negligence which would greatly retard military knowledge and exertions among us? God I hope will save us only through the instrumentality of human wisdom and human virtue. If these are wanting, the sooner we are enslaved the better. My dear friend, we are on the brink of ruin. I am distressed to see the minions of a tyrant more devoted to his will than we are

[ rs6 ]

1 OCTOBER 1777 to a cause in which the whole world is interested. New measures and new men alone can save us. The American mind cannot long support the present complexion of affairs. Let our army be reformed. Let our general officers be chosen annually. The breaking of 40 regiments and the dismission of one field officer from every regiment and of one subaltern from every company will save many millions to the continent. Your army by these means may be made respectable and useful. But you must not expect to fill it with soldiers for 3 years or during the war. The genius of America rebels against the scheme. Good general officers would make an army of six-months men an army of heroes. Wolfe's army that conquered Canada was only 3 months old. Stark's militia, who have cast a shade on everything that has been done by regulars since the beginning of the war, show us what wonderful qualities are to be called forth from our countrymen by an active and enterprising commander. 5 The militia began, and I sincerely hope the militia will end, the present war. I should despair of our cause if our country contained 6o,ooo men abandoned enough to enlist for 3 years or during the war. 6 Adieu, my dear friend. May you never sleep sound till you project and execute something to extricate and save your country. My love to Mr. Saml. Adams/ Mr. Geary,S Mr. Lovell, 9 Dr. Brownson,10 and my brother if at Lancaster. Yours, &c., B: RusH &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

After the battle of the Brandywine

(II Sep. 1777), where BR nearly fell into the hands of the enemy while bringing the wounded off the field, Washington sent BR and several surgeons with a flag into the British camp to attend wounded American captives (BR, Autobiography, p. 132-3, with an important note by Dr. Corner) . For the effect of this experience, see also the following letters and Appendix I. 2 MS: "Bradywine." 3 Probably at the base and camp near Pottsgrove (now Pottstown) on the Philadelphia-Reading road, where the army rested from 19 to 26 Sep. (Baker, Itinerary of Washington, p. 91). 4 Washington's well-conceived stroke at Germantown on 4 Oct. 17 7 7 was turned into a rout by fog (Carrington, Battles of the A mer. Rev., ch. LI). 5 John Stark (1728-18n), brig. gen.

of New Hampshire militia, defeated a German detachment from Burgoyne's army near Bennington, Vt., 16 Aug. 1777 (DAB). 6 BR's predilection for militia was shared by a number of members of Congress, but not by Washington; see Appendix I. 7 For the patriotic virtues of Samuel Adams, BR had a high regard, but no intimacy grew up between them, and there is virtually no correspondence (BR, Autobiography, p. 139-40). 8 Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), Massachusetts delegate to Congress, later eminent as diplomat, governor, and vice-president. In his sketches of the Signers, BR said Gerry was "a sensible, upright man, and a genuine friend to republican forms of government"; he also wrote affectionately of him in later years, and Gerry reciprocated. (DAB;

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION BR, Autobiography, p. I44-S; BR to John Adams, IJ June I8I I; Gerry to Richard Rush, 8 Apr. 1814, facsimile prefixed to Biddle, Memorial.) 9 James Lovell (I737-I8I4), another Massachusetts delegate, who matched BR in both his patriotic zeal and his preference of Gates to Washington

(DAB).

10 Nathan Brownson (I 74z-I 796), delegate from Georgia; born in Connecticut and a Yale graduate, 1761; practised medicine in Liberty co., Georgia; in Continental medical service, I 7 81-1 7 8z ; later prominent in Georgia politics and a founder of the University of Georgia (Dexter, Yale Graduates, 11, 69o-q Biog. Dir. Gong.).

To John Adams Hospital at Limerick, 26 miles from Philadelphia on the Reading road, Dear Sir, October 13, 1777 I have little to add to the long letter I wrote to you a few days ago but that the event of the battle at Germantown on the 4th instant was full of proofs of the truths I formerly communicated to you. We lost a city, a victory, a campaign by that want of discipline and system which pervades every part of the army. General Conway1 wept for joy when he saw the ardor with which our troops pushed the enemy from hill to hill, and pronounced our country free from that auspicious sight. But when he saw an officer low in command give counterorders to the Commander in Chief, and the Commander in Chief passive under that circumstance, his distress and resentment exceeded all bounds. For God's sake, do not suffer him to resign. He seems to possess Lee's knowledge and experience without any of his oddities or vices. He is moreover the idol of the whole army. Make him a major general if nothing else will detain him in your service. He is entitled to most of the glory our arms acquired in the late battle. But his bravery and skill in war are not his only military qualifications. He is exact in his discipline and understands every part of the detail of an army. Besides this, he is an enthusiast in our cause. Some people blame him calling some of our generals fools, cowards, and drunkards in public company. But these things are proofs of his integrity and should raise him in the opinion of every friend to America. Be not deceived, my dear friend. Our army is no better than it was two years ago. The spirit of our men is good. Our officers are equal, nay superior, to Howe's. A few able major generals would make them a terror to the whole power of Britain. Adieu. Yours sincerely, B: RuSH [ ISS ]

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1777

P.S. I am afraid we shall soon lose a gallant officer in Colonel Stone. 2 Congress must take notice of him, living or dead. AN ANECDOTE

An officer in Howe's army told me they had executed only two men in the last year. Their discipline prevents crimes. Our want of it creates them. We have had 20 executions in the last year, and our army is not a bit the better for them. If Howe should lie still, desertions, sickness, accidental deaths, and executions would waste our whole army in one year. MS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

Thomas Conway ( 17 35 to ca. 18oo), the Irish-born soldier of fortune who accidentally became the central figure in the most controversial episode in the history of the Revolution. Modern authorities are at least agreed that Conway was a competent officer, particularly in the matter of troop training and discipline, and not the swaggering rascal that earlier historians of the Revolution and biographers of Washington have painted. At this time Conway, who had been a colonel in the French army, held the rank of brigadier general but was offering his resignation because of Congress' failure to promote him to major general-a rank to which he had not implausible claims that were honored in December. The most reliable accounts of Conway's American career

are those by Bernhard Knollenberg in Washington and the Revolution, chs. v-vi, and Kenneth R. Rossman, "Conway and the Conway Cabal," South Atlantic Quart., XLI (1942), 32-8; see also R. G. Adams' excellent article in DAB. After his resignation in April 1 7 7 8, Conway had a distinguished record in French military service (Andre Lasseray, Les fran~ais sous les treize etoiles, Macon, 1935, I, 16o-6). There is no conclusive evidence, unless this letter be regarded as such, that BR ever met Conway, but for his involvement in the Conway case, see the following letters and Appendix I. 2 Probably John Hawkins Stone (d. 1804), col., 1st Md. Line, from Feb. 1 77 7 ; wounded at Germantown; resigned 1779 (Heitman, Register).

To John Adams Reading, October 21, 1777 I fear you will class me with the weeping philosophers of antiquity, but I cannot help it. He who can be happy while his country is wasting her blood and treasure to no purpose must be more or less than a man. General Gates' unparalleled success1 gave me great pleasure, but it has not obliterated the remembrance of the disorders I have seen in the army in this department. On the contrary, I am more convinced than ever of the necessity of discipline and system in the management of our affairs. I have heard several officers who have served under General Gates compare his army to a well-regulated family. The same gentlemen have com-

My dear Friend,

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pared General Washington's imitation of an army to an unformed mob. Look at the characters of both! The one on the pinnacle of military glory, exulting in the success of schemes planned with wisdom and executed with vigor and bravery, and above all see a country saved by their exertions. See the other outgeneraled and twice heated, 2 obliged to witness the march of a body of men only half their number through 140 miles of a thick-settled country, forced to give up a city the capital of a state, and after all outwitted by the same army in a retreat. If our Congress can witness these things with composure and suffer them to pass without an inquiry, I shall think we have not shook off monarchical prejudices and that like the Israelites of old we worship the work of our hands. In the British army pickets are relieved once or twice every day, and guards every two hours. In General Washington's army it is no uncommon thing for pickets to remain five days and guards 2 4 hours without a relief, and destitute at the same time of provisions except such as they plunder or buy with their own money. This negligence is a fruitful source of diseases in our army. In the British army, hospitals are never without guards. In G W's army guards which might save the lives of hundreds are used to parade before the doors of our rna jor generals. One of them had no less than a sergeant and 1 8 men to guard himself and his baggage through this town. There are nearly as many officers as men in our army. Every regiment has a surgeon with one or two mates. Each of these (officers, surgeons, and mates) has a servant drawn from the ranks to attend them who is always exempted on this account from camp and field duty. I have been told the General has forbidden it a hundred times in general orders, but the evil continues-and no wonder, for officers ride up to his quarters with soldiers behind them in the capacity of servants. Some of the martinets in my department have trod in their footsteps. But I believe I have at the expense of the friendship of many of them put a stop to the evil. Who ever heard of an army being disciplined by orderly books? You might as well think of conquering an enemy by writing letters at him. Don't tell me that our army has driven Howe out of Philadelphia. Gates has saved Pensylvania in the State of New York just as much as Pitt conquered America in Germany. I have no objection to our country's being delivered by a miracle, provided we could secure a perpetuity of them. I have never heard of but one city whose walls fell down at the blowing of a ram's horn. 3 Military skill, [ 160 ]

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industry, and bravery are the ordinary weapons made use of for that purpose. God alone I know must save us at last, but I wish for the future honor and safety of our country he may do it through the instrumentality of human wisdom and human virtue. A peace just now would leave us without generals, officers, or soldiers in the middle and southern states, and if our deliverance is now accomplished, it has been effected through the instrumentality of ignorance, idleness, and blunders. "A great and good God," says General Conway in a letter to a friend, "has decreed that America shall be free, or - - - and weak counselors would have ruined her long ago.m Our hospital affairs grow worse and worse. There are several hundred wounded soldiers in this place who would have perished had they not been supported by the voluntary and benevolent contributions of some pious whigs. The fault is both in the establishment and in the Director General. He is both ignorant and negligent of his duty. There is but one right system for a military hospital, and that is the one made use of by the British army. It was once introduced by Dr. Church 5 at Cambridge, and Dr. McKnight6 informs me that he never has seen order, economy, or happiness in a hospital since it was banished by Dr. Morgan and his successor. My heart is almost broken at seeing the distresses of my countrymen without a power to remedy them. Dr. S. never sets his foot in a hospital. Tell me, are there any hopes of our plan being mended? Dr. Brown7 and every medical officer in the hospital execrate it. If it cannot be altered, and that soon, I shall trouble you with my resignation, and my reasons shall afterwards be given to the public for it. The British system would save half a million a year to the continent, and what is more, would produce perfect satisfaction and happiness. A surgeon general is wanted in the northern department. Give me leave to recommend Dr. McKnight, a senior surgeon in the flying hospital, for that office. He has skill, industry, and humanity, and has served with unequaled reputation since the beginning of the war. My love to Messr. 8 Lovell, Dr. Brownson, and my brother. Add Colonel Walton to the number if he is still in Congress. I should have written often to him but had reason to think he was gone to Georgia. You may show him such parts of this letter as you think proper. Adieu! The good Christians and true whigs expect a recommendation from Congress for a day of public thanksgiving for our [ 161 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

victories in the North. Let it be the same day for the whole continent. What do you think of sending home Johnny Burgoyne upon his parole? Poor boy! he has no consolation left him but that he turns a period better than Major General Gates. Should not General Washington immediately demand the enlargement of General Lee's person upon parole within Howe's lines? What honors or marks of gratitude will you confer on Gates, Lincoln, 9 &c.? Suppose you introduce a constellation to be worn on the breast containing 13 stars as a reward for military exploits. But nothing but heaven can ever repay them for the services they have rendered their country. God bless you! Yours sincerely, BRusH P.S. Direct for me at Princetown, New Jersey, when you have leisure to drop me a line. General Miffiin must not be suffered to resign his command in the army. If he is, you will soon receive a hundred others. 10 WS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

The battle of Bemis Heights occurred on 7 Oct. 17 77, and the Convention of Saratoga on the 17th. 2 Thus in MS. 3 See Joshua 6 :2o. 4 This is a sentence, from a letter written earlier this month by Conway to Gates, that touched off the momentous quarrel between Washington and Conway. It is always said that the egregious James Wilkinson was the one who divulged this interesting bit of gossip, and of course there is no question that he did spread it, while dawdling on his way from Gates' army to Congress with official news of the surrender of Burgoyne. But Wilkinson, who was twelve days on the road between Saratoga and York, Penna., did not reach Easton until 24 Oct., where he fell in with Dr. Shippen and "a most respectable lady" from Philadelphia in whom Wilkinson seems to have been interested, and there he was asked whether he "had seen Gen. Conway's letter to Gen. Gates, in which he assigned thirteen reasons for the loss of the battle of Brandywine." Evidently

the letter was notorious already. It was on the 27th, when Wilkinson had crept as far as Reading, that he repeated Conway's critical sentence on Washington to an aide-de-camp of Lord Stirling, who sent it on to Washington. Thus Washington heard of it through Wilkinson, but it was common gossip before that officer dispensed it. Wilkinson made this point himself, in a letter to Washington of 2 8 Mch. 1 77 8; BR's quotation of it in a letter of 2 I Oct. I 777 to a member of Congress at York proves Wilkinson right. Both Conway and Gates denied that the sentence as quoted was in Conway's letter, and the letter itself, which Gates returned to Conway, has never been found. BR, like some others, found it striking, and his use of it again in writing Patrick Henry (n Jan. 1778) proved disastrous. Washington, (DAB, under Conway; Writings, ed. Sparks, v, Appendix VI, containing the correspondence of Washington, Conway, Gates, and others on this incident; James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times, Phila., I 816,

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323-32.) See also Appendix I, below. 5 Benjamin Church, M.D. (17341 7 76), first director of the Continental medical department, July I 77 5; in October he was court-martialed and found guilty of holding criminal correspondence with the enemy (DAB) . He was immediately succeeded by John Morgan. 6 Charles McKnight, M.D. (I 750I 792), of New Jersey, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I77I; studied privately with Dr. William Shippen, Jr.; served throughout the war in responsible medical posts; professor of anatomy, Columbia College, I785-I792 (Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., I 908; Thacher, Amer. Med. Biog.). 1 William Brown (I748-t79z), of Virginia; M.D., Edinburgh, I77o, where BR had known him; succeeded BR as surgeon general of the middle department, July 1777, and in turn as I,

1777

physician general after BR's resignation, Feb. I778; wrote, while in service, the first American pharmacopoeia, with a title so pleasing that it is a pity to abridge it: Pharmacopoeia simpliciorum et efficaciorum, in usum nosocomii militaris, ad exercitum foederatarum Americae civitatum pertinentis • . . , Phila., I778 (Blanton, Medicine in Va. in the Eighteenth Century, p. 129-34). 8 Thus in MS. 9 Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln had been wounded in the Saratoga campaign

(DAB). 1 0 Mifflin had virtually quit the service in the summer of I777> ostensibly on the ground of ill health but no doubt partly because of complaints about his management of the quartermaster's department; however, ill health did not prevent his accepting an appointment by Congress in Nov. I 777 as a member of the Board of War (DAB).

To John Adams Dear Sir, Bethlehem, October JI, I777· The disorders of our army do not proceed from any natural faults in our men. On the contrary, I believe the people of America (especially the natives) are the most tractable creatures in the world. I can say with great certainty that I have never yet been disobeyed in a single instance by a Virginian or a New England man in my connection with them in the hospital. I speak therefore from observation as well as reason when I say that our country affords the finest materials for making good soldiers of any upon the face of the globe. The same may be said of our officers. They are greatly superior in education and principle to the officers in the British army, most of whom are whipped from school or rusticated from colleges. The fashion of blaming our soldiers and officers for all the disorders of our army was introduced in order to shelter the ignorance, the cowardice, the idleness, and the drunkenness of our major generals. The spirit of our men is good. They possess a firmness of mind peculiar to themselves, or they must have sunk long ago under the numberless retreats, defeats, and camp distresses to which they have been exposed. Half the number of either of them would have broken up Howe's army long ago and reduced him to a

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single lifeguard. The courage of our men is great, insomuch that there is scarcely a single instance of their giving way where they have not first been deserted by their general officer. There is but one way of producing such a change in your army as will rectify all the disorders which prevail in it. It is by electing your general officers annually. In no other way will you ever purge the army. There are a hundred things true which cannot be proved. A general may play the coward both in the cabinet and the field, or he may raise the price of whiskey by getting drunk every day of his life, and yet it may be impossible to prove either of these things against him in a court of inquiry. The Romans never trusted to any man but to the "Felicissimus Dux." An unsuccessful practitioner of physic is always ignorant or negligent of his business. In like manner I believe the always unfortunate general is always a culpable one. You have brigadiers in your army who would do honor to the rank of major general in any service in Europe. Conway and Woodford are at the head of them. You have likewise colonels and other field officers who would shine at the head of brigades. Stone, Hendricks/ and Brown2 have not their superiors for activity, industry, and military capacity in the army. I have the pleasure of informing you that the first of them, Colonel Stone, is in a fair way of recovering from the wound he received at the battle of Germantown. But if a change in your general officers cannot be made-if the blood and treasure of America must be spent to no purpose-if the war must be protracted through their means for two or three generations-and if the morals and principles of our young men must be ruined through their examples, pray acquit yourself in the eyes of your country and of posterity by recording the two following resolutions upon your Journals: 1. Resolved that if any major or brigadier general shall drink more than one quart of whiskey, or get drunk more than once in 24 hours, he shall be publicly reprimanded at the head of his division or brigade. 3 2. Resolved that in all battles and skirmishes the major and brigadier generals shall not be more than 500 yards in the rear of their respective divisions or brigades upon pain of being tried and punished at the discretion of a court-martial. From military subjects I proceed to medical, and here, was I disposed to complain, I could fill a volume. We shall never do well till you adopt the system made use of in the British hospitals. The industry and humanity of the physicians and surgeons are lost [ 164 ]

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1777

from the want of it. While I am writing these few lines, there are several brave fellows expiring within fifty yards of me from being confined in a hospital whose air has been rendered putrid by the sick and wounded being crowded together. The business of the physicians and of the directors or purveyors ought to be wholly independent of each other, and in no case should the latter dictate to the former. We see, we feel, the distresses of the sick, and therefore are better capable of directing everything necessary for their convenience than men who never go into a hospital but who govern them by proxy as General Schuyler commanded Ticonderoga at Albany. 4 The following resolutions would remedy many abuses and p:ove. the means of saving the lives of hundreds before the campa1gn 1s over. I. Resolved, that the director and assistant director furnish the physician and surgeons general and senior surgeons with such medicines, stores, and accommodations as they shall require. The requisition to be made in writing and to be used afterwards as a voucher for the expenditures of the director general. 2. That all the accounts of the director general for medicines, wines, stores, &c., be certified by the physician or surgeons general before they are passed. This resolution is of the utmost importance, and I have good reason to say will save thousands to the continent. 3· That all returns of sick, wounded, and of officers of the hospital be delivered to the Medical Committee by the physician or surgeons general. The reason of this is plain. They can have no interest in making out false returns, and the returns from them will always be a check upon the expenditures of the director general. Adieu, my dear friend. Best compliments to Br. 5 Geary, Mr. Saml. Adams, Mr. Lovell, and all such of our old friends as prefer poverty with republican liberty to wealth with monarchical infamy and slavery. Should you think it worth while to read any parts of this letter to any of them, it will perhaps give some weight to them if you conceal the name of your friend and humble servant,

B: Rusa tJifS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

James Hendricks, col., 1st Va. Line, Sep. 1777 (Heitman, Register). 2 Not clearly identifiable. 8 For strictures on certain generals by name, see BR's notes set down in a

pocket diary after a visit to the American headquarters during this month (PMHB, XXVII [1903], 147). 4 This was a common but distinctly unfair charge made against Maj. Gen.

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION Philip Schuyler (I733-I8o4) by New Englanders and adherents of Gates (DAB).

~Thus in MS. BR may have meant: "my brother, Mr. Geary," &c.

To Mrs. Rush

1

My dear Julia, Burlington, November 10, 1777 My inclinations and orders are always at war with each other, and even when a truce is proclaimed between them, accidents step in and force me to break my promises. I must set off tomorrow for Red Bank2 in order to fix a hospital in the neighborhood of our forts on the Delaware, so that I shall not see you probably till the latter end of the week. Adieu. A kiss for Jack, 3 and love as usual. BRusH P.S. I found a letter here last night from Mrs. Stamper. They have not been visited by the enemy and are brimful of whiggism. 4 She sent much love to you. I sent Azariah off this morning with a letter to her. There is a guard of our light horse at Frankford. &S: Boston Public Library. 1

Mrs. Rush was probably at her parents' home in Princeton, where BR arrived on I 7 Nov. and stayed to attend the military hospitals there until z Jan. I778 (BR's Diary, PMHB, XXVII [I903], I48). 2 For the actions on the Delaware below Philadelphia in October and November, see the following letter. 3 John Rush (1777-I837 ), BR's eldest son, had been born on I 7 July in Maryland, where Mrs. Rush had taken refuge when the British threatened Philadelphia at the close of I 7 76 (BR's Diary, PMHB, XXVII [I903], I50 1 note; Autobiography, p. n3). The main outlines

of his unfortunate history as physician, naval officer, and for almost thirty years a patient in the Pennsylvania Hospital are given in Dr. Corner's valuable account of the Rush children (Autobiography, Appendix III). The many intimate glimpses of the growing boy and young man in BR's letters that follow provide evidence for the judgment that John was by turns spoiled and overdisciplined. It is probably not unfair to say that an original instability of character in John was aggravated by his father's fond and ambitious domination over his life. 4 MS: "wiggism."

1

To James Searle

Dear Sir, Princetown, November 19, 1777 Before this reaches you, you will have heard of the loss of Fort Miffiin on the Delaware after a gallant defense of five weeks. 2 It is impossible to do justice to the officers and soldiers who defended it. I was a witness for one day (last week) of their patience and fortitude under the most complicated dangers and sufferings.

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1777

Showers of balls, bombs, and carcasses were the smallest part of them. Their breastwork was demolished. All their cannon (except one) were silenced. Their barracks and blockhouses were burnt and shattered to pieces, so that the whole garrison ( 500 in number) were reduced to the necessity of lying under the cover of the stone wall (built by Mr. Galloway) 3 on the wet ground without fire or any other covering than a blanket. Yet under these circumstances did these brave fellows appear cheerful and declare to the last that they never would yield the island but to a storm, which was the case, for they were driven at last from it only by the grapeshot and musketry of the enemy from one of their ships. Britain in the height of her glory when she fought for liberty never saw her sons perform more gallant exploits than the ragged sons of liberty performed who fell in the defense of that island. News of every kind from Philadelphia is reflected through so many dense mediums that it is difficult to know what to communicate for truth to you. All parties agree that the inhabitants suffer greatly from want, that Howe's army is dispirited, that the timid and doubtful are becoming firm whigs, Mr. Duche only excepted, whose letter shows that his conversion is complete, but to the other side of the question.' Mr. Hopkinson has written a spirited letter to him, in which he charges him with a hundred falsehoods, especially in that part of the letter which relates to himself and his conduct about the time of the declaration of independence. 5 My dear Julia and the whole family join in affectionate regards to you and Mrs. Searle6 with, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant, BRusH Jddressed: James Searle Esqr at Reading. &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Conarroe Collection. 1 James Searle (1733-1797), a leading Philadelphia merchant and zealous patriot, was later a member of the Continental Congress and commercial agent for Pennsylvania in Europe (DAB). 2 Two forts located nearly opposite one another on the Delaware below Philadelphia-Fort Mercer on the Jersey side at Red Bank, and Fort Mifflin on Mud Island-barred the passage of British shipping for nearly two months after Howe's troops occupied Philadelphia (z6 Sep. 1777). Supplies being vital, a determined attempt was made by 1,zoo Hessians under Col. von Donop

to take Fort Mercer on 22. Oct.; von Donop fell mortally wounded, and the attack failed. From 9 to 15 Nov. the British bombarded Fort Mifflin continuously from ships and shore, and on the night of 15-16 Nov. the gallant, halfstarved, and decimated American force fired the remains of the fort and evacuated it in small boats. (William S. Stryker, The Forts on the Delaware in the Revolutionary War, Trenton, 1901, with maps and diagrams.) 8 Joseph Galloway (ca. 1731-1803), one of the leading figures in Pennsylvania politics prior to 1776, remained

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION loyal to the crown; remembered for his untiring efforts to effect a reconciliation during and even after the war; civil administrator of Philadelphia during the British occupation (DAB). 4 BR alludes to the "famous, foolish" letter of 8 Oct. I 7 77 written by Rev. Jacob Duche (I 7 3 8-I 798), litterateur and rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, to Gen. Washington, urging him to have the Declaration of Independence recalled or, failing that, to negotiate for peace at the head of his army. Washington turned the letter over to Congress, and its circulation shocked the whigs and even others throughout America, for Duche had been chaplain of Congress and a seemingly sincere patriot. Duche sailed for England in Dec.

I 7 77 but returned to Philadelphia a few years before his death. (DAB; Duche's letter, in Jared Sparks, ed., Correspondence of tlte American Revolution, Boston, I853, 1, 448-58; Van Doren, Secret History, p. 39-43.) 5 Francis Hopkinson (I737-I79I), musician, poet, essayist, New Jersey delegate to Congress, and later an admiralty judge, was Duche's brother-in-law; he ringingly denounced Duche's conduct in a letter to him of 14 Nov. I777 (DAB; George E. Hastings, The Life and Works of Francis Hopkinson, Chicago, I926, p. 271-3). 6 Ann (or Nancy) Smith, of Waterford, England, Searle's first wife (DAB, under Searle) .

To Nathanael Greene

1

Dear Sir, Princetown, December 2, 1777 We have in the hospital of this place near 500 sick and wounded soldiers, many of whom have complaints so trifling that they do not prevent their committing daily a hundred irregularities of all kinds. The physicians and surgeons of the hospital possess no power to prevent or punish them. The design of this letter is to beg that you would send immediately two or three officers, or even one if more cannot be spared, to take the command in this place. The sick cannot be governed without military authority. But if the sick as patients derived no advantages from being subject to military rules, I am persuaded your army will benefit by it hereafter. A soldier should never be suffered to exist a single hour without a sense of his having a master being impressed upon his mind, nor the fear of military punishments. It is to 2 no purpose to train your men to subordination in the field or camp. In one month they will lose in our hospitals the discipline of a whole year without officers to command and govern them. In the British army the hospitals constantly feel the influence of military authority. An officer of note is always stationed near a hospital who is called a MILITARY INSPECTOR. His business is to appoint guards, have a roll called, visit the wards, and finally to report all deficiencies to the commander in chief. It is in consequence of this and some other useful regulations made use of in the British army, that Mr. Howe has at this ( 168 )

2

DECEMBER

1777

time only 1000 sick and wounded in his hospitals at Philadelphia, while we in the same time, and with no more battles and hardships, have filled our hospitals with near 4000. Let me con jure you, my dear sir, by your love of human nature, to direct the attention of the army more towards the health of the soldiery. The character of our officers, nay even our cause, suffers by the many monuments of sickness and distress which are left by our army in every village in New Jersey and Pensylvania. I am, sir, yours sincerely,

BRusH /kfS {letter-book copy): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4· 1 Gen. Nathanael Greene (I742I786), of Rhode Island, had served in

the army since I 775, held the rank of major general from Aug. I 776, and was one of Washington's most trusted and able officers. After a visit to headquarters in Oct. I 7 7 7, BR set down a most unfavorable impression of Greene as "a sycophant to the general, timid, speculative, without enterprise"-an opinion doubtless partly shaped by BR's friend Mifflin, whose administration of the quartermaster's department had been criticized by Greene. But at the time of BR's resignation early in I 77 8, he was on excellent terms with Greene and regarded him as one of his principal supporters in the work of reforming the military hospitals. During the remainder of the war the two men exchanged letters (now widely scattered) on a

quite intimate footing, a circumstance disproving any notion that BR was considered a disloyal intriguer by Washington's official family as well as by Washington. It was Greene who suggested that BR's Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers (I778) be printed and distributed as a pamphlet; and from his headquarters on the "High Hills of Santee" in I 78I, Greene wrote generously defending the conduct of BR's friend, the much vilified Gates, at Camden. (DAB; BR, "Notes on Continental Congress, &c.," vol. 2; BR to Greene, I Feb. I 778, and later letters, below; Greene to BR, 3 May I777, MS owned by Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, N.C.; same to same, 8 Aug. I78I, Clements Library.) 2 Omitted in MS.

To William Shippen Sir, Princetown, December 2nd, 1777 We suffer so much every hour from the want of an officer to command in this place that I have dispatched an express to you to request that you would procure one for us. A hospital cannot be governed without one. Besides, the discipline of a whole year is lost in one month by the total neglect of it which prevails in our hospitals. An officer of rank and reputation is always stationed near the hospitals in the British army. He is called a MILITARY INSPECTOR. We shall become perfect in the management of our sick

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and wounded only in proportion as we resemble them. If two or three subaltern officers can be spared with a captain or major, they will be most acceptable, as they will enable us to hold courtmartials, without which we shall not be able to punish the delinquents. We go on rapidly in preparing good accommodations for the sick and wounded in this place. The College and church are palaces when compared with the buildings at Trenton and Burlington. We intend to seize the Quaker meeting and to repair Captain Howard's tory house, so that we shall be able to accommodate 1000 in alJ.l Dr. Bloomfield2 is expected hourly. We want hospital furniture, especially implements of cookery. Frequent changes of straw must supply the place of bed cases. In comfortable quarters the sick are happy without them. Mr. Stockton3 (our commissary) cannot be too much commended. We shall derive credit from his management. I have lent him 400 dollars on account of the hospital. Is not this the time to lay in stores for next year? Every day increases their scarcity and high price. Suppose you send Dr. Bond to New England for that purpose. 100 pipes of wine, 50 hogsheads of sugar, and 100 do. of molasses will not be too much for us. Perhaps Dr. Forster4 may spare him some of his linen, sheets, &c., with which he abounds. What do you think of a magazine of Indian corn-a most wholesome and agreeable diet for the sick? It is rising and perhaps will not be to be had in the spring? I was in readiness to do Dr. Cochran's duty with General Green's army in the Jerseys before your letter came to hand, but heard that Cornwallis had retreated just before I had prepared to set off. We wait with impatience to see you. In the meanwhile I am yours, &c., BRusH tMS (letter-book copy): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4· 1 BR mentions four buildings in Princeton in actual or prospective use as hospitals: the College, that is to say, Nassau Hall; the First Presbyterian Church, which was built in I 762-I 766 and from which the pews and gallery had been ripped out for firewood during the British occupation (Hageman, Hist. of Princeton, II, 80-3; V. L. Collins, Princeton Past and Present, Princeton, I945, sect. 92); the Quaker Meeting House, built in I 76o and still standing

near Stony Brook southwest of the town (Hageman, II, 66-72; Collins, sect. I I 6); and "Castle Howard," as it is called, on the road to Kingston, east of the town, residence of the tory widow of Capt. William Howard (Hageman, I, 95; Collins, sect. I46). 2 Moses Bloomfield (I729•I79I), of Woodbridge, N.J.; surgeon and senior surgeon in the hospital department I 7 7 7I 780 (Wickes, Hist. of Medicine in N.J., p. I49-5I; Heitman, Register).

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8 DECEMBER 1777 8

Major Robert Stockton (d. 1805), a cousin of Richard Stockton the Signer, a Princeton landowner who was very active throughout the war as local quartermaster (Hageman, Hist. of Princeton, I, 77-8, 173-4; Stockton, Stockton Family, p. 32-3).

4 Probably Dr. Isaac Foster (d. q8z), of Massachusetts, who was in the hospital service, 1775-178o, and held the post of deputy director, eastern department, from I I Apr. 1777 (Heitman, Register).

To W:i'lliam Duer

1

Dear Sir, Princetown, December 8th, 1777 I beg leave to trouble you for a few minutes with some remarks upon the medical establishment, which in spite of the munificence and good intentions of the Congress has not produced that happiness which was expected. The reason of it appears from experience to be owing to your having deviated from the plans used in all European armies, and in particular from that most excellent one which is now in use in the British army. It is as follows: I. There is an inspector general and chief physician, whose only business it is to visit all the hospitals, to examine into the quantity and quality of the medicines, stores, instruments, &c., and to receive and deliver reports of the number of sick and wounded to the commander in chief. 2. There is a purveyor general, whose business it is to provide hospitals, medicines, stores, beds, blankets, straw, and necessaries of all kinds for the sick and wounded. He is allowed as many deputies as there are hospitals. He has nothing to do with the care of the sick. 3· There are physicians and surgeons general, whose business it is to administer the stores provided by the purveyor general and to direct everything necessary for the recovery, the convenience, and happiness of the sick. The purveyor is subject to all their orders, which are always made in writing to serve as vouchers for the expenditures of the purveyor. As an additional check upon the purveyor, none of his accounts are passed until they are certified by the physicians and surgeons general. This renders it impossible to defraud the sick of anything prescribed or purchased for them. The physicians and surgeons general have deputies under them who are called seniors and mates. This is a short account of the outlines of the British system, which is said to be the most perfect in the world. I shall now compare it with the establishment now in use in the American hospitals.

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The director general possesses all the powers of the above officers. He is chief physician, inspector general, purveyor or commissary general, physician and surgeon general. All reports come through his hands, by which means the number of sick, wounded, and dead may always be proportioned to his expenditures and to his fears of alarming Congress with accounts of the mortality of diseases. He can be present only in one place at a time but is supposed to be acquainted with all the wants of his hospitals. This is impossible. The sick therefore must suffer, for the surgeons of hospitals have no right to demand supplies for them, the director general being the only judge of their wants. Lastly, his accounts are not certified by the physicians and surgeons general, so that the sick have no security for the stores and medicines intended for them. A director general may sell them to the amount of a million a year without a possibility of being detected by your present establishment. All that the Congress requires of him are receipts for the purchase of the articles intended for the sick. These ample and incompatible powers thus lodged in the hands of one man appear to be absurd as if General Washington had been made quartermaster, commissary, and adjutant general of your whole army. And your having invested him with a power to direct the physicians and surgeons in anything while he acts as purveyor is as absurd as it would be to give the commissary general a power to command your commander in chief. To do the duty of purveyor general only, requires a share of industry and a capacity for business which falls to the lot of few men in the world. What can be expected then from one who, added to that office, is responsible for every life in the army? Give me leave to mention what Dr. Monroe, 2 the best writer upon military hospitals in our language, and who served during the whole of the last war in Germany at the head of the British hospitals, says upon this subject: "The directing and purveying branches ought NEVER to be entrusted to the same person, as the temptation for accumulating wealth has at ALL times and in ALL services given rise to the grossest abuses, which have been a great detriment to the service as well as to the poor wounded and sick soldiers, and has occasioned the loss of MANY lives. And therefore neither the physician general, nor any of the physicians or surgeons of the army, or any other person concerned in the direction of the hospital, ought ever to act as purveyor or commissary. Nor ought they ever to have anything to do with accounts, contracts, nor any other money affairs relating to [ 172 )

8 DECEMBER 1777 the hospital; and if ever they be found to intermeddle with these affairs, they ought to be immediately dismissed the service. "The purveying or commissariate branch ought to be entirely distinct from the physical. The purveyors or commissaries ought punctually to obey whatever orders they receive from the surgeons and physicians. "The direction of all military hospitals ought always to be committed to the physicians who have the immediate care of the hospitals. "Every other physician at the different hospitals ought to direct everything about the hospital which he attends, and his orders ought punctually to be obeyed." I do not mean by this comparison of our plan with the British system to hint anything to the prejudice of the present director general of our hospitals. All I shall say is that if he possessed the abilities of a Bacon, the industry of a Boyle, and the integrity of Aristides, he could not execute one half of the extensive powers you have given him. The sufferings of the sick from the want of medicines, stores, and bedding, their irregularities from the want of officers to command and guards to watch them, most of the mortality, and ALL the waste, peculation, negligence, and ignorance which have prevailed in our hospitals during the whole of this campaign are to be in part charged to the very nature of our establishment. General Howe has exactly 1000 sick and wounded in his hospitals in Philadelphia. Our army, with no more battles and exposed to no more hardships or causes of diseases than Mr. Howe's, has now upwards of 3,000 sick and wounded in our hospitals. Trifling diseases are prolonged and new ones often contracted by the negligence, ignorance, and wants that are entailed upon us by the establishment. No man can suspect I wish for any alteration in the system from a desire of holding a higher or more lucrative office in it than the one I have received from the Congress. I would not accept of the directorship of our hospitals upon its present footing for the riches of India. On the contrary, I am resolved to retire as soon as the campaign is closed, since I cannot act agreeable to the dictates of my conscience and judgment. If you adopt the British plan (and without it you will waste your treasure to no purpose and destroy the lives of half your soldiers in another campaign), I wish you would call upon Dr. Jones 3 of your state to fill the office of inspector general. For industry, humanity, and skill he has few equals in

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America. His integrity and impartiality where justice and his country are at stake cannot be called in question; and I am told he will not object to an honorable appointment in our department in the line of his profession. His health will be promoted by the gentle exercise and change of air which will be necessary for him in doing his duty as inspector general. , Let me con jure you, my dear sir, by your love of human nature, to direct your attention to this important object. Our cause suffers, the CoNGREss suffers by the many monuments of sickness and distress which are to be seen in most of the villages in Pensylvania and New Jersey destitute of a hundred of those necessaries and comforts with which our country abounds. Dr. Shippen has taken pains to represent my complaints of the sufferings of the sick as intended to displace him. This method of rising into importance I know has been practised with success in our department. But I despise it. And to show that I aimed only at the happiness of my distressed countrymen and the honor of my country, I shall seal my disapprobation of our medical establishment as well as of its administration with my resignation. A battle is inevitable. Nothing but a desire of assisting the poor fellows who are to suffer in it detains me a moment in the department. With compliments to Mr. Morris and Mr. Duane4 (to whose good sense and impartiality I beg you would submit this letter), I am, dear sir, your most humble servant, B: RusH &S: Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, 1

For the circumstances identifying the addressee, see BR's letter to Duer of I 3 Dec. I777> following. William Duer (I747-I799) was a New York delegate to Congress, I 777-I 779, and afterwards Hamilton's assistant secretary of the treasury, I 789 (DAB). 2 Donald Monro, M.D. (I7~7-I8o~), brother of Alexander Monro secundus, BR's Edinburgh teacher; physician to St. George's Hospital, I758-1786; in military service in Germany, I 76o- I 76 3 ( DNB). BR here quotes the appended "Essay" in Monro's Account of the

XIX.

Diseases Which Were Most Frequent in the British Military Hospitals in Germany, from January 1761 to ... March 1763. To Which Is Added, An Essay on the Means of Preserving the Health of Soldiers, and Conducting Military Hospitals, London, I764. BR has added his own devices of emphasis, however, in the paragraphs quoted. 8 John Jones, M.D.; see BR to Hazard, 8 Nov. 1765. 4 James Duane (I733-I797), lawyer, landowner, and judge; delegate to Congress from New York (DAB) .

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1

To William Duer

Princetown, December I3 1 I777 Dear Sir, In my letter to you a few days ago, I informed you that we had 3000 patients in our hospitals. Since the dating of that letter I have discovered that they now amount to sooo. They consist chiefly of the southern army, and amount to near one half of the nu.mber of troops which composed that army during the last campalgn. I have heard with great pleasure that you are about to new-model the army. For God's sake, do not forget to take the medical system under your consideration. It is a mass of corruption and tyranny and has wholly disappointed the benevolence and munificence of the Congress. It would take up a volume to unfold all the disorders and miseries of the hospitals. What do you think of sooo being supported with stores, hospital furniture, &c., sufficient for only I 500 men? What do you think of 6oo men in a village without a single officer to mount a guard over them or to punish irregularities? This is the case at this time in Princetown, and the consequences are: Old disorders are prolonged, new ones are contracted, the discipline of the soldiers (contracted at camp) is destroyed, the inhabitants are plundered, and the blankets, clothes, shoes, &c., of the soldiers are stolen or exchanged in every tavern and hut for spirituous liquors. I have witnessed these things for these six months and have complained of them to the Director General, to the Congress, and to the generals of the army to no effect. What do you think of 400 sick being crowded into a house large enough (according to the calculations of Pringle, Monroe, and Dr. Jones, 2 who have all written upon military hospitals) for only ISO? This has been done in one place, and the consequence of it was a putrid fever was generated which carried off I 2 soldiers in three days (who all came into the hospital with other diseases) and many more in the space of two weeks. Upon my complaining to the Director General that he had crowded too many sick into one house, he told me "he was the only judge of that, and that my only business was to take care of all he sent there." Your system justified his making me this answer, although it does not oblige him ever to go inside of a hospital or to expose himself to the least danger of being infected by a fever. Six surgeons have died since last spring of fevers contracted in our hospitals, and there is scarcely one who has not been ill in a greater or lesser degree with it. Nothing like this has happened in the northern department. The reasons of which are

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these. Dr. Potts has confined himself solely to the purveying business, and Dr. Treat,3 who served as a surgeon in the British hospitals last war, has introduced the British system in its most minute parts into the hospitals under his direction. I wish some members of Congress (not related to Dr. S n) would visit our hospitals and converse with the principal surgeons in them. 4 Although Dr. S n has taken great pains to extort the power of appointing them out of the physician and surgeon generals' hands, and has made some of them dependent upon his will, yet I believe you will not find more than one man among them who does not reprobate our system and who will not ring peals of distress and villainy in your ears much louder than anything you have heard from me. I bequeath you these broken hints as a legacy, being determined, as soon as I can with honor and a clear conscience leave my present charge, to send you my commission. I beg leave to repeat my solicitation in favor of Dr. Jones (of New York) being appointed inspector general of your hospitals. He will save you millions of dollars, and what are more estimable, thousands of lives in a year. I would rather serve as a mate in a hospital under him with the British system than share with the present Director General in all his power and glory. I am bound in justice before I quit this subject to speak with gratitude of Dr. Craik5 and Dr. Bond, the Director General's principal assistants. We owe a great deal to their humanity, and I cannot tell how much worse our situation would have been had it not been for them. The Director General has found out at last that (agreeable to Monroe's plan) none but a physician should have any hand in directing the hospital he attends, and to remedy the defect of his directing by proxy he has lately given some of our seniors warrants to act under him. That is, I commission them to give the sick physic but he commissions them to prescribe what and how much they shall eat and drink, how much pure air they shall breathe, and in what hospital they shall be attended, as if all these things were not properly the business of a physician and were not of a thousand times more consequence than doses of jalap or ipecacuanha. You may make any use you please of this letter and my name with it. I know what it is to be a generous friend and am equally tenacious of the character of a generous enemy. I am, dear sir, with compliments to your colleague Mr. Duane, your most humble servant, B: RusH

. [ 176 ]

24 DECEMBER 1777 .ffddressed: The Honble William Duer Esqr: Member of Congress at Yorktown. To be forwarded as speedily as possible by Mr Seargant. iMS: Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XIX. 1 This letter, filed with that of 8 Dec. 1777, preceding, bears the following endorsement in the hand of Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress: "Letters of Doctr. B. Rush, 8th & I 3 Deer. 1777· Read 1 Jany. 1778. Referred to Mr. Wetherspoon, Mr. Harvie, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Dana, Mr. Harnet." See Jour. Cont. Gong. for I Jan. I778 (x, 9), where it is further stated that a letter dated 25 Dec. I777 from Governor William Livingston of New Jersey, on the subject of the hospitals, was referred to the same committee. The committee was "fully authorized to take every measure which they shall deem necessary, for the immediate relief of the sick, and report such alterations in the medical department, as they shall deem best adapted to answer the end of its institution." A report was delivered on 6 Jan., recommending certain measures for supplying the sick with clothing and blankets, also ordering that an inspector from Congress visit the hospitals and that Shippen and BR attend Congress on the z6th "to be examined touching certain abuses said to

prevail in the hospital" (Jour. Cont. Gong., x, 23). 2 ,Jones' treatise, entitled Plain, Concise, and Practical Remarks on the Treatment of Wounds and Fractures, N.Y., I775> deriving in part from Pringle's Observations on the Diseases of the Army, was the first American surgical textbook (Packard, Hist. of Medicine in U.S., 1, 5II-u, 6I7). 3 Jonathan Potts was deputy director general, and Malachi Treat was physician general of the northern department at this time (Duncan, Medical Men in the A mer. Rev., p. zoo). 4 MS: "it." 5 James Craik (1 730-I 8I4), of Maryland, born in Scotland and trained at Edinburgh, had served as chief medical officer to Virginia troops in the French and Indian War; deputy director general of hospitals, I777-I783; named physician general in I 79 8 at the request of Washington, whose personal physician Craik was. BR wrote Craik a long letter of advice at the time of the appointment in 1798. (DAB; BR to Craik, z6 July I 798.)

To Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson

1

My dear Madam, Princetown, December 24, 1777 My worthy and dear mother-in-law has lately favored me with a sight of a copy of some original letters written to you by your mother. 2 To say nothing of the elegance with which they are penned, I can truly say I have never seen anything that for sentiment and tenderness affected me more. I have scarcely passed an hour since I saw them without feeling some striking passages in them obtruded upon my mind. Had I never had the pleasure of your acquaintance, nor heard anything of your character, I am sure I should have surmounted a hundred obstacles and have asked a thousand questions to have been informed of the fate of one who had been the subject of so many prayers and the object of so much affection. The ordinary history of families and individuals would have justified [ 177 ]

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me in disbelieving that such a person should have been bereaved in a few years of all his relations, separated from all his friends, and afterwards by a misfortune (worse in some respects than death) from a husband. Your account of Mr. Fergusson in your letter of this evening in some measure precludes my offering you any consolation drawn from the sources mentioned in my last letter. I can only look forward to a peace with Great Britain, which will probably (as in all wars like the present) include acts of indemnity in favor of persons on both sides of the question. This may once more restore Mr. F to his family and country. In the meantime, my dear affiicted friend, rest assured that you possess an unbounded share of the sympathy of your friends and of every friend of human excellency, and that your name will never be mentioned in company or upon any other occasion without exciting (with an involuntary sigh) a glow of the highest esteem and warmest affection from everyone that has ever known you. It is the last thing I shall ever believe, that the prayers of a parent like yours should be lost and that a life uniformly devoted as yours has been to benevolence and the great rational purposes of existence should end in a total separation from the common blessings of even temporal happiness. Divine providence I believe has something in store for you to which your present affiictions may appear hereafter to have been as necessary an introduction as the unnatural conduct of Benjamin's brothers was to the deliverance of his father Jacob's family. 3 The present war so prolific of distress is fruitful likewise in proofs of a general and particular providence. It is in some measure to renew your grief to tell you of the happiness I enjoy in the society of my dear Julia. I have not a wish that is not gratified in her. Many thanks to you for your congratulations on the birth of our dear boy. It afforded us some pleasure to find that he possesses one quality which your mother tells us you possessed in your infancy in one of her letters. He is so good-tempered that he seldom or never cries. He spends his whole time in sleeping, eating, and pulling his mama's caps and handkerchiefs to pieces. Yes, my dear madam, I was the man who introduced Mr. F into your acquaintance. 4 Ah! -but the drama is not yet closed. All may yet end well, for "all is for the best." His office will enable him to show mercy to our countrymen in captivity, and this may prepare the way for his future reconciliation with his country. Can I serve you in diverting the attention of the legislature or Council of Pensylvania to 5 your property if anything is intended against [ 178 ]

24 DECEMBER 1777 it? Most of the gentlemen of the Council are of my acquaintance. Many thanks for your remembrance of my wife in the pound of green tea. With the best compliments to Miss Stedman/ I am, dear madam, yours sincerely, BRusH Addressed: Mrs Fergusson at Graeme Park favd by Mr. Paul.

tMS: Joseph E. Fields, M.D., Joliet, Illinois. 1 Elizabeth (Graeme) Ferguson (I 73 7-I 8or), eminent bluestocking of pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia, a close friend of the Rush and Stockton families, and a victim of the events of the Revolution. There are tributes to her literary talents and Christian virtues by BR in his Autobiography (p. 320-r) and his Sixteen Introductory Lectures (p. 96, note) ; he was also probably the author of the revealing "Account of the Life and Character of Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson" that appeared in the Port Folio, 3d ser., I (r8o9), 520-7, which gives the most graphic picture available of the "Attic evenings" over which Miss Graeme had once presided. Her later misfortunes were directly owing to her secret marriage in 1772 to a Scot named Henry Hugh Ferguson (or Fergusson), who returned to the British Isles in I 77 5, reappeared in Philadelphia two years later with Howe's army, and toward the end of I777 became British commissary of prisoners. Ferguson unscrupulously involved his wife in some underhanded and unsuccessful negotiations to bring about a quick peace, with the result that he was attainted and his share of the estate ( Graeme Park, Horsham, Montgomery co.) that his wife had inherited was confiscated. Mrs. Ferguson's remaining property was also forfeited for a time, hut through the efforts of influential patriot friends, including BR, it was restored to her in I 78 I. She never saw her husband again and died in comparative poverty. (nAB; Port Folio, as cited above; Simon Gratz, "Some Material for a Biography of

Mrs. Elizabeth Fergusson, nee Graeme," (I915], 257-32.1, 385409; Van Doren, Secret History, p. 4I-2, roo-4; Thomas A. Glenn, Some Colonial Mansions and Those Who Lived in Them, Phila., I899, p. 36798; BR to Mrs. Ferguson, 25 Dec. I 787.) 2 Mrs. Ferguson's mother was Ann Diggs (I700-I76s),wifeofDr. Thomas Graeme (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 161) • There is some account of her, and of the letters mentioned here, in the sketch, presumably by BR, in the Port Folio. 3 Told in the latter half of Genesis. 4 In a journal kept by Mrs. Ferguson and quoted by Glenn (p. 389), it is stated that she first met Ferguson at her father's house, 7 Dec. 1771, and that they were secretly married four months later. 5 Thus in MS; BR doubtless meant "from." 6 Mrs. Ferguson's sister Ann had married Charles Stedman (whose nephew Charles, a tory lawyer of Philadelphia, served with Howe and wrote the longstandard History of the . . . American War, London, 1794); Miss Stedman, whose given name was probably Eliza, was thus a relative by marriage and evidently made her home with Mrs. Ferguson (Thomas H. Montgomery, A History of the University of Pennsylvania . .. to A .D. xno, Phila., 19oo, p. 215; DNB, under Charles Stedman; Glenn, Some Colonial Mansions, p. 383, 396). PMHB, XXXIX

[ 179 ]

To George Washington

1

Sir, Princetown, December 26, 1777 I have delayed troubling your excellency with the state of our hospitals in hopes you would hear it from the Director General, whose business it is to correspond with your excellency upon this subject. I beg leave therefore at last to look up to you, and through you to the Congress, as the only powers than can redress our grievances or do us justice. I need not inform your excellency that we have now upwards of 5000 sick in our hospitals. This number would cease to be alarming if our hospitals could afford such accommodations to the poor fellows as would ensure them a speedy recovery. But this is far from being the case. There cannot be a greater calamity for a sick man than to come into our hospital at this season of the year. Old disorders are prolonged, and new ones contracted among us. This last is so much the case that I am safe when I assert that a great majority of those who die under our hands perish with diseases caught in our hospitals. When I consider the present army under your excellency's command as the last hope of America, I am more alarmed and distressed at these facts than I have words to express. I can see nothing to prevent the same mortality this winter among our troops that prevailed last year. Every day deprives us of four or five patients out of 500 in the hospital under my care in this place. The same complaints are heard from every quarter. The surgeons have been blamed for these things, but without reason. I shall briefly point out to your excellency the real causes of them. 1. Too many sick are crowded together in one house. I have seen 20 sick men in one room ill with fevers and fluxes large enough to contain only 6 or 8 well men without danger to their health. Six of our surgeons have died since the I st of last May from attending the sick under these circumstances, and almost every surgeon in the department has been ill in a greater or lesser degree with fevers caught in our hospitals. It should be the business (as it is certainly the interest) of the surgeons to prevent the sick being thus crowded. But unfortunately the Congress have given the sole power of judging of these things to the Director General and his deputies, who from the nature of their business are never obliged to go inside a hospital. 2ly. The hospitals are provided in the most scanty manner with the stores necessary for sick people, and these are too often withheld from them from the want of checks upon the officers of the [ 180 ]

26 DECEMBER 1777 hospital whose business it is to provide and administer them. Beef and bread are by no means suitable diet for men in fevers. 3· There is a want of hospital shirts, sheets, and blankets to be worn by the sick. Nothing but a miracle can save the life of a soldier who lies in a shirt and blanket which he has worn for four or five months before he came into the hospital. 4· There is a want of guards and an officer to command at every hospital. It is foreign to my purpose to take notice of the inconveniences which attend a soldier living any time at a hospital without being subject to military government. All the discipline and sense of subordination he acquires at camp are generally lost as soon as he enters the door of our hospitals. But it is my business to mention other inconveniences which arise from our want of guards. The men by going out when they please catch colds, they sell their arms, blankets, and clothes to buy rum or provisions that are unsuitable for them, they plunder and insult the inhabitants; while within doors they quarrel and fight with each other, disobey their surgeons, matrons, and nurses, and thus defeat the most salutary plans that can be contrived for their recovery. An officer with a suitable guard at every hospital I am sure would save many hundred lives and many thousand pounds to the continent every year. 5. The medical establishment is a bad one. It gives the director general the most incompatible offices. The offices held by him are held by no less than three physicians in the British hospitals, who are all independent of each other and who, by checking each other, perfectly secure to the sick all the good offices and medical stores that are intended for them by government. Before any material change can be made in our system, it will be in your excellency's power to stop in some measure the ravages our hospitals are making upon the army by ordering the surgeons immediately to billet such of the sick as are able to help themselves in farmhouses. The air and diet of a farmer's kitchen are the best physic in the world for a soldier worn down with the fatigues of a campaign. I have prescribed them with great success in this neighborhood, but my influence is not great enough to make the practice universal through the department. I have found the farmers volunteer in taking the poor fellows into their houses, especially when they were indulged with the soldiers' rations of beef and bread in exchange for the milk and vegetables they gave them. If this most necessary measure can be immediately carried into execution, I am sure it will add 3,000 men to your army in the spring who must otherwise perish in our hospitals. Perhaps the authority of Congress [

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may be necessary, or of the State of Pensylvania, to facilitate the execution of the measure. If your excellency will only recommend it, I am sure it will immediately take place. With the most perfect esteem, I have the honor to be your excellency's most obedient and devoted servant, &S: Library of Congress, Washington Papers. 1

The present text of this letter is from the recipient's copy. A draft (or copy of a draft) is in BR's Notebooks, vol. 4, and has been printed by Dr. Corner in the Autobiography (p. I 346), in the MS of which BR intended to insert it but did not. The text is both corrected and expanded in the recipient's copy; e.g., the suggestion of billeting in farmhouses is not in the draft. 2 Washington's reply stated that the substance of BR's letter, with another from Governor Livingston on the same subject, had been communicated to Dr.

Shippen. The Commander in Chief deplored the lack of provisions and of discipline in the hospitals and said he had ordered "a discreet Field Officer to visit the principal Hospitals." He stood ready to do everything in his power to render "the situation of these unhappy people who are under the necessity of becoming the inhabitants" of hospitals "as comfortable as possible" (Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, x, 2 9 7). But this reply was not written until u Jan. I 778; see, further, Appendix 1, below.

To Patrick Henryl Dear Sir, York town, January 12, 1778 The common danger of our country first brought you and me together. I recollect with pleasure the influence of your conversation and eloquence upon the opinions of this country in the beginning of the present controversy. You first taught us to shake off our idolatrous attachment to royalty, and to oppose its encroachments upon our liberties with our very lives. By these means you saved us from ruin. The independence of America is the offspring of that liberal spirit of thinking and acting which followed the destruction of the specters of kings and the mighty power of Great Britain. But, sir, we have only passed the Red Sea. A dreary wilderness is still before us, and unless a Moses or a Joshua are raised up in our behalf, we must perish before we reach the promised land. We have nothing to fear from our enemies on the way. General Howe, it is true, has taken Philadelphia; but he has only changed his prison. His dominions are bounded on all sides by his outsentries. America can only be undone by herself. She looks up to her councils and arms for protection, but alas! what are they? Her representation in Congress dwindled to only twenty-one members. Her [ 182 ]

12 JANUARY 1778 Adams, her Wilson, 2 her Henry, are no more among them. Her counsels weak, and partial remedies applied constantly for universal diseases. Her army-what is it? A major genera!S belonging to it called it a few days ago in my hearing a mob. Discipline unknown, or wholly neglected. The quartermaster's and commissaries' departments filled with idleness and ignorance and peculation. Our hospitals crowded with 6ooo sick but half provided with necessaries or accommodations, and more dying in them in one month than perished in the field during the whole of the last campaign. The money depreciating without any effectual measures being taken to raise it. The country distracted with the Don Quixotte attempts to regulate the prices of provision; 4 an artificial famine created by it and a real one dreaded from it. The spirit 'of the people failing through a more intimate acquaintance with the causes of our misfortunes-many submitting daily to General Howe, and more wishing to do it only to avoid the calamities which threaten our country. But is our case desperate? By no means. We have wisdom, virtue, and strength enough to save us if they could be called into action. 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 inferior 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 of the new office of inspector general of our army in order to reform abuses. 5 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 and weak counselors would have ruined her long ago.m You may rest assured of each of the facts related in this letter. The author of it is one of your Philadelphia friends. A hint of his name, if found out by the handwriting, must not be mentioned to your most intimate friend. 7 Even the letter must be thrown in the fire. But some of its contents ought to be made public in order to awaken, enlighten, and alarm our country. I rely upon your prudence and am, dear sir, with my usual attachment to you and to our beloved independence, yours sincerely . .;fddressed: His Excellency Patrick Henry Esqr: Governor of Virginia. 8

MS (unsigned): Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Dreer Collection. 1

The composition of this letter, in a mood approaching desperation respecting the American cause, was the rashest act of BR's life. The effects of his act

upon his reputation have been touched on in the Introduction; the immediate effects upon his relations with Washington (to whom Henry promptly trans-

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION mitted the letter) are dealt with in Appendix: r. To explain why he chose to address his complaints to Henry is to absolve BR in some degree from the worst charges that have been made against him. A plotter of treachery does not communicate his hopes and fears by mail to mere acquaintances. BR relates in the Autobiography that during the first and second Continental Congresses, 1774-177 5, he became acquainted with Henry, who was at the time his "patient under the inoculation for the smallpox." They conversed, perhaps frequently, on military and political subjects, but there is no evidence that after Henry's return to Virginia in Aug. 1775 the two men ever met or corresponded. In the spring of 1777, however, BR heard from General Gates that Henry had entertained a poor opinion of Washington's military talents at the outset of the war. Recent events, BR supposed, could only have confirmed Henry's opinion, and so he wrote off to the Governor of Virginia with an expectation of interesting him in the grand (if very nebulous) military and political reformation BR had in mind. It is to BR's credit that he never spoke bitterly--even to John Adams-of Henry's conduct in turning over the letter to Washington. (BR, Autobiography, p. 11o-u, II3; BR to John Marshall, 5 Sep. I 804; to Adams, I 2 Feb. I 812; and Appendix r, note 12a below.) 2 James Wilson (1742-1798), lawyer, judge, constitutional theorist, and land speculator, had been retired from the Pennsylvania delegation to Congress in 1777 for the same reason that BR had -namely, opposition to the Constitution of I 776. Both having moved from radical to conservative positions in I 7 76, BR and Wilson were close friends and political allies during the Confederation period. Wilson, who had lived at Carlisle before the Revolution, aided in the organization of Dickinson College, and BR, in gratitude, urged Wilson's claims for the chief justiceship of the United States. BR's sketch of Wilson among the Signers is a tribute of unqualified praise to "a great and enlightened statesman." (DAB; BR, Autobi-

ography, p. I5o; BR to Montgomery, I5 Apr. I784, and to John Adams, 4 June I 789.) 3 John Sullivan (1740-I795), of New Hampshire, at whose headquarters BR lodged on 3 Jan. I 77 8 (BR to Adams, I 2 Feb. to 9 Mch. I 812; BR's Diary, PMHB, XXVII [I903], I48). 4 BR persistently opposed this method of combating inflation. See his speeches in Congress in Feb. I777• in his Diary, PMHB, XXVII (I903), IJZ-3 1 I3S-6. For a general discussion of attempts at price control during the Revolution, see Miller, Triumph of Freedom, p. 440-5. 5 Conway had been promoted major general and appointed inspector general on I4 Dec. I777 (DAB). 6 See BR to Adams, 2 I Oct. r 777, note 4· 7 It is nearly impossible to suppose that BR did not expect Henry to recognize the "Philadelphia friend" who wrote this letter, if not by the handwriting, then certainly by the sentiments. It was an unsig-ned rather than an anonymous letter, and these are quite different things: the latter attempts to conceal the identity of the writer from the addressee, the former from everyone but the addressee. There were such good reasons for not signing letters during the progress of hostilities that it was a not uncommon practice. Thus R. H. Lee, writing from Congress to Mrs. Macaulay in London, 29 Nov. I775: "You know the Writer of this letter and therefore it is as unnecessary to sign it, as it would be to assure you of his affection and esteem" (Letters, ed. J. C. Ballagh, N.Y., I9II-I9I4 1 I, I63). A somewhat parallel case is Jefferson's letter to William Fleming, 8 June I 779 -a private letter on official mattersunsigned "because letters have miscarried" (Writings, ed. Ford, n, I9o). It may be remembered, too, that BR's letter to Ruston of 29 Oct. I775• which glows with praise for Washington, was not signed. BR had no more sense of guilt in writing the present letter than he had in writing the earlier one; in the mere omission of the signature there was nothing nefarious, though it has always been represented so. We shall

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15 JANUARY 1778 probably never know whether Patrick Henry surmised who the author was. For the correspondence between Henry and Washington relative to the unsigned letter, see Washington, Writings, ed. Sparks, v, 512-15. 8 The cover bears two memoranda, of which one reads: "Private, but accompanying other public Letters Was open'd by [two initials illegibly run together]. Feb. 7th. 1778." The other reads: "Mount Vernon June 18, 1784. Before perusing the letter, I can take upon me to declare, that, From the knowledge I have of Dr. Rush's handwriting, I have not the least doubt

but what it was written by him; William Gordon of Jamaica Plain Massts. Bay." Gordon, who was BR's old friend and correspondent, treated this episode with circumspection in his History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America, London, 1788. He quoted the "anonymous letter" at some length as evidence of a cabal against Washington, but, while intimating he knew who the author was, gave no hint as to his identity; see the History, m, 54-6o. All the same, Gordon took BR's part in the controversy over the hospital department (same, p. 70-2).

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia,

Yorktown, January I 5th, I 778 Upon my arrival in Yorktown I found such a general disposition among the members of Congress to correct the abuses and reform the system of our hospitals that I readily yielded to the solicitations of my friends in suspending my resignation. Dr. Shippen is summonsed to appear with me on the 26th of this instant before the Congress to answer for the many complaints that are made against his management of his hospitals. It will be a disagreeable task to accuse him publicly of ignorance and negligence of his duty. But the obligations I owe to my country preclude all other ties. I shall act strictly agreeable to the dictates of my conscience, and if the system is altered and Dr. Shippen can be restrained by proper checks from plundering the sick, I shall not resign my commission but shall serve another campaign. This resolution is taken not only from a sense of duty and a love for my country, but in consequence of the advice of some very worthy members of Congress, who assure me that a contrary step will be ascribed to a want of perseverance or to downright disaffection. Nothing is talked of here but a reformation of every department of the army. General Gates (who has accepted of his seat at the head of the Board of War), with General Miffiin, Colonel Pickering, and three members of Congress, are to set off to the army immediately for that purpose. 1 As there is a rupture between General Gates and General W--g--n, it is feared no great things will be accomplished by this measure. Conway has banished himself from Headquarters by speaking disrespectfully 2 of the

[ I85 ]

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Commander in Chief. These things occasion great uneasiness to all the true whigs, who foresee from General Washington's coolness to the two first officers in his army a continuation of all the calamities under which we have groaned for these two years in the middle states. The Congress act a prudent part. They consult General Washington in everything, but they are determined to support the authority and influence of Gates and Conway. General Burgoyne is to be detained till the convention is ratified in England. 3 This decisive step in Congress gives universal satisfaction. York town is a pleasant village seated on a romantic creek called CODORUS. It contains above 500 houses. Most of the inhabitants are Germans. I have dined twice at General Roberdeau's. 4 Mrs. Clymer 5 was friendly to a great degree. You are her first favorite. I was struck in a most agreeable manner with the resemblance between you and Miss Nanny Roberdeau, and kissed her over and over for your sake. There are several other Philadelphia families in this place. I rode a few days ago I 8 miles from this town to a village called Hanover to see a beloved and worthy cousin (formerly Polly Leech) now married to a Mr. Maclane, prothonotary of the county, a worthy man of excellent understanding and easy fortune. 6 They are a very happy couple. I was the more struck with their fondness and respect for each other, as the day I spent with them (the 1 Ith of this instant) was the anniversary day of our wedding, when I took you, my sweet angel, to my bosom. "Long may that morn with fairest luster rise And find us still more happy and more wise.m I feel in spite of my dislike to the government of Pensylvania that I am still a Pensylvanian, and envy the poorest creatures from Philadelphia that occupy a couple of rooms in a safe place in this state. You and Jack in a Dutchman's garret with a few whig friends, strangers to fear and unskilled in the arts of whining, would complete my happiness. What say you to being my VADE MECUM if I stay in the hospitals next summer? AN ANECDOTE

A lieutenant in the Scotch brigade in the Dutch service, whose father lost his estate in the year 1745 for joining in the rebellion in Scotland, wished for an opportunity of avenging the injustice which the crown of Britain (in his opinion) did to his family. He [ 186 ]

15 JANUARY 1778 left his regiment therefore, changed his clothes and name, and came over last fall to New York by the way of London. To his great mortification he found it impossible to escape from New York in order to join our army. This obliged him to enlist as a private in a company of new levies, with whom he came round in November last to Philadelphia. Unfortunately for him, his captain was so pleased with him that he made him a sergeant, which prevented his standing sentry and precluded him from an opportunity of deserting. But he escaped at last from the lower end of the town in the middle of the night by walking along the edge of the wharfs, determined if called upon by a sentry to appear as if he had been walking in his sleep. He was kindly received at Headquarters, where, though dressed as a common soldier, he soon captivated everybody with his conversation and war news. He is a perfect gentleman and an accomplished officer. He has been sick for a few days under my care. I am charmed with his behavior. He speaks French and Latin and seems to be acquainted with most subjects of polite and ordinary conversation. His name is Sinclair. 8 He asked the privilege of serving in our army only as a cadet, but the Congress I believe intend to give him an adjutant's commission. Two deserters have since come in from his company who confirm all that he says of himself that could come to their knowledge. They say that he made himself the idol of the company. He resembles Captain Macpherson of the I 7th British regiment. I cannot tell when I shall see you, but shall not fail of writing to you by every opportunity. Send General Green's letter to me by Mr. Penn. 9 It is in the table drawer in our room under the looking glass. Poor Mrs. HalP 0 is gone to Headquarters to try to get leave to go into Philadelphia to implore General Howe to let her sons come out on parole. Adieu. Love as usual. Kiss Jack for me. Yours sincerely, BRusH P.S. I doubt whether a letter from you will reach me at Yorktown. Therefore you need not write by the bearer. Dr. Shippen is making great interest in Congress against me. He has complained in a letter to the Congress of my absence from my duty and station, meaning the hospital in New Jersey. 11 I have prepared my charge against the system and his administration of it. If I should plead in vain, and the Congress should resolve to support him in his folly and negligence, I shall see you as a private citizen in a few weeks. ( 187 ]

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Adieu. General Gates and his lady came to town last night. He is in good health and spirits. [One line heavily inked out.] Poor Mr. Plearnet 2 (your old friend) is drowned. lMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 The new Board of War was organ- of BR's friend and fellow signer of the ized in Nov. 1777 at Washington's sug- Declaration of Independence, George gestion, but two of the appointees to Clymer, on whom see BR to Montthe Board-Mifflin and Gates-were on gomery, 15 Apr. 1784 (DAB, under bad terms with the Commander in Clymer). 6 Polly Leech was probably the Chief. For opposing views of the motives of Congress and the resentment of daughter of Isaac Leech and Rebecca Washington, see Knollenberg, Washing- Hall, a sister of BR's mother. Polly ton and the Revolution, p. 46-9, and married Archibald McClean (variously Miller, Triumph of Freedom, p. 254-8. spelled) of Hanover and later of York, The other member here mentioned by a surveyor, member of Assembly, 1776, BR was Timothy Pickering (1745- and prothonotary of York co., 17771 829), of Massachusetts, whose long I 786. (Pleasants, "Hall Family," p. and checkered career as soldier and 135; J. W. Jordan, "York, Penna., in politician is well known and whose post the Revolution," PMHB, XXXII (1908], at this time was adjutant general. After 495·) 7 Source not found. Pickering settled in Luzerne co., Penna., 8 Nothing further concerning this adin 1 7 86, he was associated with BR in the movement against the state Constitu- venturer has been found in BR's papers tion and for the Federal Constitution. or the usual documentary sources. 9 John Penn (1740·1788), of North From 1791 they were sharply opposed in politics, but they continued to corre- Carolina, lawyer, delegate to Congress, spond from time to time, and in 1807 and signer of the Declaration of InPickering sent his son William, a victim dependence; as a result of BR's letters of insanity, to Philadelphia for treat- to Duer in December, Penn had been ment by BR in the Pennsylvania Hospi- appointed by Congress on 6 Jan. J778 tal. (DAB; letters to Pickering, below, to visit the army hospitals (DAB; Jour. from originals in the Mass. Hist. Soc., Cont. Gong., x, 23). 10 Not clearly identifiable. Pickering Papers. Pickering's letters to 11 Shippen's letter (Ms in L.C., Papers BR were sold in the several Biddle Sales in 1943, and are now widely scattered.) of the Continental Congress, No. 78, 2 MS: "disrespectly." xrx) was dated from Lancaster, 18 Jan. 3 Congress on 8 Jan. ordered the 1 7 7 8. (BR's postscript could therefore sailing of Burgoyne and the "convention not have been written before the 19th, troops" suspended because of violations when Shippen's letter was read in Conby Burgoyne of the Saratoga Conven- gress; Jour. Cont. Gong., x, 6o.) In tion (Jour. Cont. Con g., x, 29-35; it Shippen observed that he had heard Burnett, Letters of Members, m, iii-iv, of many complaints made by BR, but that if he (BR) "is of any use, there and frequently). 4 Daniel Roberdeau (1727-1795), may arise some cause of complaint at Philadelphia merchant, radical political Princeton from his long absence from leader, brig. gen. of the Penna. As- his duty without leave at this important sociators, and delegate to Congress, period. . . . I must add, some amend1777-1779· His daughter Ann (1767- ments to our system may be made but 1833), called "Nanny" below, was Dr. Rush, from his ignorance of the later Mrs. Jonathan Swift of Alex- state of our Hospitals and not knowing andria, Va. (DAB; Roberdeau Buchanan, his duty, has not hit upon any of them" Genealogy of the Roberdeau Family, (Gibson, Bodo Otto, p. 213). 12 Unidentified. Washington, 1876, p. 122-4.) 5 Elizabeth (Meredith) Clymer, wife

( 188 )

To James Searle Dear Sir, Yorktown, January 21, 1778 True whigs like true Christians always love one another. This is the only apology I shall make for troubling you with this letter. The Congress have concluded to detain Mr. Burgoyne and his army till the convention is confirmed by the Court of Britain.1 The reasons they intend to give to the public for this measure are as follows: 1. He refused to deliver up the accouterments of his soldiers, although by the articles of capitulation they have ever been included in the word arms. 2. He has refused to have a descriptive list taken of his men. 3· General Carleton has violated the convention by compelling the Canadians who returned upon parole to take up arms. It is even suspected, and that not without reason, that Burgoyne intended to have sailed for Philadelphia instead of Great Britain, and that the 7000 arms lately taken at Wilmington were intended for his men. A packet from our Commissioners in France has been opened, and the dispatches replaced with blank paper. 2 This state trick smells too strong of villainy to have been perpetrated anywhere but on the other side of the water. There is as yet a simplicity and stupidity even in the wickedness of the rascals of this country. An American villain would have stolen the whole packet and thereby have given the express an opportunity of returning for a duplicate of his dispatches. It is in vain now for the Court of Britain to hold out to the world the pacific disposition and assurance of the Court of France. The manner of stealing our dispatches (perhaps at a great risk and an enormous expense) shows that they placed no dependence upon the declarations of that Court. They have acknowledged to the nation and to the whole world that they are a set of liars. I am so deeply persuaded that all things work together for the good of our cause that I have no doubt but the loss of that packet will appear hereafter to have been as necessary for the safety and happiness of this country as the loss of Ticonderoga was last summer for the destruction of General Burgoyne's army. My business in this noisy, crowded town is to request a dismission from the hospitals. The Congress will not grant it till I point out the abuses which prevail in them. Next Monday is set apart for that purpose. I expect, if not banished for the negligence, inhumanity, in justice, &c., which have prevailed in our hospitals during the last campaign, to retire to a small farm in the neighborhood of Princetown, where I shall remain till I can get back to Philadelphia. [ 189 ] .

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If I can carry with me a single Continental dollar, with as much clothing as will cover my dear wife and boy, together with our liberty, I shall be satisfied. One of my marks you know of a good whig is that he must not grow rich during the war. One of yours is that he cannot be a good whig unless he grows poor during the war. I shall be a whig of the first magnitude if measured by your scale. I left Mrs. Rush and the whole family of women in good health about three weeks ago. They would be happy in a visit from you in the spring. With best compliments to Mrs. Searle, I am, my dear friend, your affectionate, humble servant, B. RusH Printed: Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, m (1879), 232-3· 1 2

See preceding letter, note 3· On this episode, see Burnett, Letters

of Members, there.

III,

25,

and references

To John Adams Dear Sir, Yorktown, January zznd, 1778 I know not whether to rejoice or condole with my country in your late appointment. 1 I am aware that your abilities and firmness are much wanted at the Court of France, and after all that has been said of the advantages of dressing, powdering, and bowing well as necessary accomplishments for an ambassador, I maintain that knowledge and integrity with a common share of prudence will outweigh them all. Let the servants of despotism wear the "volto Sciolto" with the "pensieri Stretti" of Lord Chesterfield. 2 Let them smile with hatred or disgust in their bosoms, and let them in their intercourse with you divorce all honor, friendship, and truth. I am willing to risk the safety of our country upon this single proposition, that you will effectually "baffie and deceive them all by being perfectly honest." Our people here pant for a French war, and our Commander in Chief, at the head of 15 ,ooo of the finest troops in the world, has held out the probability of a rupture between France and England in the spring as a cordial to support them under their past and I suppose future inactivity. A clergyman of the Church of Scotland in preaching upon these words, "If you ask for bread, will he give you a stone? If you ask for fish, will he give you a serpent?m remarked very ingeniously, "No, my brethren. But often when you ask for a stone, he gives you bread, and when you ask for a serpent, [ 190 ]

22 JANUARY

1778

he gives you fish." The same reasoning I believe applied to our wishes and prayers for a French war. I dread it for a year to come as the greatest evil that can befall us. We are but half in love with liberty. We are but half taught in the great national arts of government and war on which alone our independence can be maintained and perpetuated to future ages. Our moral and political iniquities are not half purged away. A French war therefore by restoring peace to this country would leave us in the puny condition of a seven-months child.-I am daily looking out for some great military character to start up, perhaps from the plow, to save this country. Sweden had her Gustavus, Holland her Prince Maurice, and Portugal her Briganza. Does providence refuse us such genius to prevent that danger to liberty which the fascination of great military talents produces upon vulgar minds? If so, let us adore his wisdom and be patient under the blunders of all our generals. Rome was on the eve of ruin when Pompey alone could make war on Mithradates, destroy the pirates, bring corn to Rome, and oppose the invasion of Caesar. General Gates' success has rescued this country in a degree from its idolatry to one man. I told him a few days ago that if I thought he alone was able to save this country, I should vote for his being banished. "Yes," said he with a spirit truly republican, "you would do better to vote to have my throat cut." I came to Yorktown to lay down my commission. But the Congress cannot accept of it till I point out to them the defects of the establishment and the abuses which have prevailed in it. Dr. Potts' whole expenses in the northward department, with an army larger than Washington's and with 3000 sick, amounted only to I5I,OOO dollars from January I, 1777 to January r, 1778. Dr. Sh--n's in only eight months of that time have amounted to about 400,000 dollars. In the northward department no man ever suffered from the want of anything. In ours, hundreds have died from the want of everything. Notwithstanding this, I expect that Dr. Sh--n will be acquitted honorably and my complaints dismissed as groundless, malicious, &c. But times must alter, or this is a ruined country. Nothing but integrity in private and justice in public bodies can preserve a republic. If calamities are necessary to teach us wisdom and virtue, I wish God would rain down showers of them upon us. I shall not sympathize with Mrs. Adams 4 till I hear whether you intend to leave her behind you. My best compliments to her (though unknown). Make an apology to Miss Adams for me for [

191 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

not sending her Dr. Gregory's Legacy to His Daughters. 5 It was out of print in Philadelphia.. Adieu. While you are gazed at for your American-manufactured principles, and gazing at the folly and pageantry of animals in the shape of men cringing at the feet of an animal called a king, I shall be secluded from the noise and corruption of the times and spending my time in the innocent employments of husbandry on a farm in Jersey with an amiable wife and rosy boy. If you can redeem an half an hour from business, it will give me pleasure to hear from you. You shall in return have all the shade and light of our affairs from me. Embrace Dr. Dubourg of Paris for me. He is a real republican and ought to have been born and lived in better times and in a better country. Once more adieu. Yours-yours-yours, B: RusH P.S. I have sometimes seen a sick man recover under all the disadvantages of ignorant physicians, a negligent nurse, bad diet, and unsuitable medicines, owing entirely to the strength of his constitution. This encourages me to hope well of my country. Her stamina are sound notwithstanding she has been these two years in the hands of quacks. The goodness of her constitution alone will save her from the feebleness and ignorance of her counsels and arms. &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 On 28 Nov. I777 Adams was elected joint-commissioner to France to replace Silas Deane; he sailed I 3 Feb. I 77 8

(DAB). 2 "The height of abilities is, to have volta sciolto and pensieri stretti; that is, a frank, open, and ingenuous exterior, with a prudent and reserved interior; to be upon your own guard, and yet, by a seeming natural openness, to put people off theirs"-Lord Chesterfield to his son, I9 Oct. O.S. I748 (Letters, ed. Bonamy Dobree, London, I9J2, IV, I248). 8 See Matthew 7 :9; Luke I I :I I. 4 Abigail (Smith) Adams (I 74418 I 8), who was eventually to share

fully in her husband's friendship with BR, and who delighted in retailing to her friends racy passages from BR's letters to her husband (DAB; numerous allusions in the Adams-Rush correspondence). 5 A copy of this volume, A Father's Legacy to His Daughters (London, I 774; Phila., I 77 5, I 778, &c.), accompanied BR's letter to Mrs. Adams of 3 Sep. I 77 8, q.v.; the author was John Gregory, Sr., BR's teacher at Edinburgh. The Adamses' only daughter was Abigail (I765-I8IJ), later Mrs. William Stephens Smith (Roof, Colonel William Smith and Lady, passim).

[ 192 ]

To Henry Laurens

1

Sir, York town, January 25th, 1778 I take the liberty of informing you that in conformity to an order of Congress to attend at this place on the 26th of this instant, I have obeyed the summons and am now ready to enter upon the business they have assigned for that day. As the Director General of the military hospitals has contradicted the assertions contained in my letter to General Washington in a public letter addressed to the whole body of the Congress, I shall esteem it a particular favor if Congress will indulge me with the privilege of a public hearing, in order that I support the complaints I have made of the abuses which prevail in our hospitals. 2 I have the honor to be with the utmost respect your most obedient humble servant, B: RusH .Addressed: The Honble: The President of The Congress of the United States. &S: Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XIX. 1 Henry Laurens (1724-1792), merchant, planter, and a leading patriot of Charleston, S.C.; delegate to Congress', 1777-1779, and president, 1777-1778; peace commissioner, q8z-1784 (DAB). 2 BR's letter was read to Congress on the z 6th; on the z 7th it was referred, together with his previous letters and also letters from Shippen and others relative to the hospital department, to a committee of five, which was "instructed to confer with Dr. Shippen and Dr. Rush, and report specially: The members chosen, Mr. Witherspoon, Mr. Penn, Mr. Lovell, Mr. Gerry, and Mr. Roberdeau" (Jour. Cont. Gong., x,

93-4) . The request for a public hearing was not granted. Witherspoon wrote W. C. Houston on the z8th: "Dr. Rush and Dr. Shippen are here just now and were Yesternight and this forenoon examined before a Committee of whom I am Chairman as to the Abuses in the Hospitals. No Pains will be spared to rectify what is amiss as far as practicable" (Burnett, Letters of Members, m, 59). In view of the excellent relations known to subsist between BR and the majority of the members of the committee, the first result of their deliberations is surprising. This was BR's resignation; see the following letter.

To Henry Laurens Sir, [York] January 30, 1778 Finding it impossible to do my duty any longer in the department you have assigned me in your hospitals in the manner I would wish, I beg the favor of you to accept of the resignation of my commission. 1 [ 193 ]

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I have the honor to be with great respect your most obedient humble servant, BENJN RusH &S: Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, 1 The events immediately leading to BR's resignation are recounted in extenso by BR in his letter to John Morgan of ca. June 1779, q.v.; see also BR to Roberdeau, 9-19 Mch. 1778. According to these accounts, John Witherspoon, chairman of the investigating committee, explained to BR after the hearings in which BRand Shippen had participated that no such sweeping reforms as BR had hoped for would be recommended by the committee in its report, and that Shippen, supported by strong backing in Congress, would make a fight to ho~d his post. One of the two doctors, said Witherspoon-and this is supported by Witherspoon's letter to BR of 2 Feb. 1778 (Burnett, Letters of Members, m, 67 )-would have to resign. Since the reformation in the department was to be "very trifling," BR wrote his res-

XIX.

ignation to be handed in by Witherspoon. It was written in two forms, and Witherspoon submitted the one above, "which," he told BR, "was accepted without a word said by any Person upon the Subject"; see also Jour. Cont. Gong., x, 101. (Richard Peters, secretary to the Board of War, wrote, however, to Robert Morris on 3 Feb. that the hospital department was "convulsed to its Center. Rush has resigned. There is so much said on both Sides that I fancy both were wrong at least in some degree." Burnett, Letters of Members, III, 67, note.) The alternative form of BR's resignation has not been found, but what may be a rough draft of it, running to twentyfour 16mo pages and without date, is among the Rush MSS, XXIX, II5·

To Nathanael Greene?

1

Lancaster, February 1st, 1778 Dear Sir, I set down in the name of our unfortunate countrymen to acknowledge the obligations of the hospitals to his Excellency General Washington and to the general officers of the army for sending military inspectors to see that the sick are properly attended and provided with everything necessary for them. The advantages resulting from having gentlemen independent of the officers of the hospitals constantly in their neighborhood are so obvious that I wonder it has been so long neglected, especially as the Director General informed a committee of Congress that he had repeatedly applied for them, together with a small body of guards, to the principal officers of the army, but to no purpose. I was happy in being able to inform the same committee that I had been much more successful in my applications to the general officers of the army, for that my first letters to the Commander in Chief and to yourself had immediately procured a· field officer to visit all the [ 194 ]

1 FEBRUARY 1778 hospitals and a determination to keep up guards and the discipline of the army among them. I find from examining Dr. Shippen's return of the numbers who die in the hospitals that I was mistaken in the accounts I gave of that matter in my letters to you. From his return of December last I find very few have died in proportion to the number I have mentioned. All I can say in apology for this mistake is that I was deceived by counting the number of coffins that were daily put under ground. From their weight and smell I am persuaded they contained hospital patients in them, and if they were not dead I hope some steps will be taken for the future to prevent and punish the crime of burying the Continental soldiers alive. It is a new evil under the sun, and I hope a new punishment will be discovered for it. As most if not all the abuses which have prevailed in the hospitals during the last campaign have been ascribed to a want of harmony between the Director General and myself, I have (to prevent the future operation of that apology for murder) resigned my commission. Nothing can be more unjust than the insinuation. I sacrificed my feelings and judgment to harmony till my conscience grew uneasy with my silence. I complained with delicacy. I laid nothing to the direct charge of Dr. Shippen in my letter to General Washington. I have always blamed his officers and the system for the principal abuses which prevailed in the department, and if I was forced into any personal charges of ignorance and negligence in Dr. Shippen, they were extorted in defending myself from his charges against me. I am so much absorbed in the great object of the war, and in the means of carrying it on, that I have not a moment's leisure to be angry or dispute with anything but putrid fevers or with anybody but General Howe. Apropos-I have made a discovery-a sure and certain method of destroying Howe's whole army without powder or ball or without any of the common implements of death. Lead them through any of the villages in Lancaster county where we have a hospital, and I will ensure you that in 6 weeks there shall not be a man of them alive or fit for duty. The Board of War have ordered 4000 copies of an address published last spring in a newspaper containing directions to officers for preserving the health of the soldiers. 2 I know from your humanity and attention to the poor fellows you will not be wanting in your endeavors to circulate and enforce it. I bequeath it as my last legacy to my dear countrymen in the line of my profession.

( 195 ]

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I am not disgusted or distressed with the opinion of our superiors concerning the cause of my complaints or of my resignation. My dear country, freedom, and independence are words as big with charms to me as ever. I shall therefore join the army in the spring as a volunteer, and while there are 500 men in arms in America I shall never keep back the mite of my labors and life from the service of my country and posterity. 8 With great esteem I have the honor to be, dear sir, your sincere friend and humble servant. &S (autograph copy; foot of last page, with signature, shaved off): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 The addressee has been assigned with some certainty from the circumstance that it was to Greene that BR addressed his first appeal for military guards at the hospitals (2 Dec. 1777, q.v.). Greene had evidently replied favorably, but his letter is missing; see BR to Mrs. Rush, 15 Jan. 1778. See also BR to Washington, 26 Dec. 1777, and note 2 there on Washington's reply. 2 See BR to the Officers in the Army, zz Apr. 1777· 3 In his letter to BR of 2 Feb. Witherspoon said: "I have mentioned to some Members what you proposed to me about the Expedition you know of but they seemed to be at a Loss what station or Character you could sustain" (Bur-

nett, Letters of Members, Ill, 67). Perhaps, as Burnett suggests, the "Expedition" was the invasion of Canada by an army under Lafayette and Conway which was planned by the Board of War but which soon proved abortive; see Burnett, Letters of Members, III, 4 7, and note; 64, and note; 113 ; Knollenberg, Washington and the Revolution, ch. VIII, and appendices thereto. But a week later BR was thinking of joining the Pennsylvania militia in an independent movement against Howe (letter to John Adams, 8 Feb. 1778), and he may well have had the latter plan in mind in writing thus to Greene. On the plan for an offensive against Howe, see also Appendix I, below.

To William Shippen Sir, Lancaster, February I , 1778 Before I received your message by Dr. Fallon/ I had sent in my resignation. I think it proper to mention this circumstance lest you attribute that step to any fear I entertained of suffering by a court-martial. You know I had nothing to dread from that quarter; and I take this opportunity of informing you that nothing but the remembrance of an early connection with you, a tenderness for your worthy family, and in particular an affection for your amiable and promising son Tom, 2 prevented my collecting and producing vouchers of the abuses of our hospitals which would ultimately have ended in your dishonor. The illiberal censures you passed upon my conduct before the committee of Congress did not force from me several anecdotes of your conduct (properly attested) that would [ 196 ]

l FEBRUARY

1778

have shown more than a roo other things the extreme danger of the medical system. The one I mentioned (a suspicious one only) was intended to show that nothing but a change of the system would do justice to the sick, be safe to the directors or purveyors, and agreeable to the surgeons. You have supposed that I am busy in traducing you. Far from it. I declare solemnly I feel no personal resentment against you, and that a superlative regard to the comfort and lives of our soldiers and the honor of the department were my only motives in appealing to General Washington and in complaining to the Congress of the abuses in the hospitals. I have been advised to publish the accounts I have written and delivered of the said abuses with proper vouchers, which I could collect by hundreds. But I have declined it. I have no revenge in me. What would the inhabitants of Pensylvania in the neighborhood of the hospitals-what would the surgeons-what would the military inspectors say to the following extract of your letter to Congress of the 18th of last month: "No fatal disease prevails in the hospitals, very few die, and the hospitals are in very good order"? 3 Think of these things. If you can establish the truth of these assertions before next spring, I shall be satisfied and bless the day I left the department. Wishing you health, peace of mind, and as much happiness as you wish yourself, I am yours,

BRusH &S (draft or copy): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, "Notes on Continental Congress, &c.," vol. 2. 1 Shippen's message is missing. James Fallon was a senior hospital physician and surgeon at Yellow Springs (now Chester Springs), near Valley Forge (Duncan, Medical Men in the Amer. Revolution, p. 393; Gibson, Bodo Otto, p. I52, 329). 2 Thomas Lee Shippen (I765-I798), with whom BR was friendly during the whole of the younger man's short life. Shippen later traveled in Europe and was trained as a lawyer in the Inner Temple. He appears to have been a very genial young man, and his death was a

blow from which his father never recovered. (Roberdeau Buchanan, Genealogy of the Descendants of Dr. William Shippen, the Elder, Washington, 1877, p. 9; Ethel Armes, Nancy Shippen: Her Journal Book, Phila., 1935, passim.) BR wrote an obituary tribute to Shippen which appeared in the Phila. Ga~ zette, 3 Mch. I 798; see BR to Anne Hume (Shippen) Livingston, I Mch. (L.C., Shippen Papers). I 798 3 Shippen's letter of I 8 Jan. 1778 is printed in Gibson, Bodo Otto, p. 213.

( 197 ]

To Horatio Gates Dear Sir, Lancaster, February 4, 1778 Herewith you will receive a copy of the Directions for Preserving the Health of the Army published by order of your board. Mr. Dunlap 1 waits upon you to know in what manner they shall be sent and distributed through the camp. I need not inform you that it is my last legacy to my countrymen in the line of my profession. I wish therefore it might prove as useful to them as possible. As I have constantly acted from motives of the most republican nature since I came into public life, I am neither disgusted nor distressed with that partiality in some of our superiors which made the resignation of my commission a necessary step to restore (not order, economy, or discipline) but harmony to the medical department. As there is a union in politics which is often fatal to liberty, so there is a harmony in the operations of war which is fatal to victory. To harmonize with ignorance, negligence, and prodigality of the property and blood of freemen, is in my opinion high treason against the United States. When I am capable of living in harmony with such vices, may heaven abandon Jubal 2 and may the delightful words of freedom and independence cease to excite music on the strings of my heart! My country, in which I include the people at large and posterity, is dearer to me than ever, and while there are 500 men in America in arms I shall not withhold from it the humble mite of my labors and life. The executive council of this state are anxious to collect the force of Pensylvania and to direct it against General Howe in the spring. Suppose you urge our friend Miffiin to offer his services to them to head the militia. If Cadwallider, Meredith, 3 and Reed can be employed by the council with proper appointments, I am sure they will carry with them all the whig strength of the state even under the present weak and unpopular government. In this manner alone be able to preserve his popularity, to will our friend M serve his country, and to confute the contradictory clamors of his enemies. Your advice I know will determine his conduct, and your weight with the council, joined with the weight of the delegates from Pensylvania, will I am sure determine the measure of calling upon gentlemen who have been in opposition to the government to assist in opposing the common enemy. It is to no purpose to talk of filling up our Continental battalions with recruits or drafts. The hospitals in the villages of this state have put an end to that business. The common people are too much shocked with spectacles of ( 198 ]

8 FEBRUARY 1778 Continental misery ever to become Continental soldiers. The militia alone must save this state. We do not expect too much from them. They have saved the 4 eastern states. When properly commanded and led on speedily to action, they are the best troops in the world, especially in a war and country like ours. A few lines from you will find me next week at General Miffiin's. With respectful compliments to Mrs. Gates/ Mr. Bob/ and the gentlemen of your family, I am, my dear sir, with the greatest respect and affection, your sincere friend and most humble servant, B: RusH P.S. The Marquis de la Fayette and General Conway have embraced each other as a pledge of their harmony in their expedition.6 elf ddressed: The Honble: Major General Gates President of the Board of War at Yorktown. OlfS: New-York Historical Society, Gates Papers. 1 John Dunlap (I747-I812.) 1 Philadelphia printer and publisher, in whose Pennsylvania Packet, 22 Apr. I 777 1 the Directions had first appeared; the tract as separately published also bore Dunlap's imprint but was issued at Lancaster, where Dunlap kept his shop during the occupation of Philadelphia (DAB). Of Dunlap BR wrote in an obituary tribute that "He was early and uniformly my friend" (Autobiography, p. po). 2 Addison, Cato (I7I3), rv, iv, 138. 3 Samuel Meredith (1741-I817), Philadelphia merchant and financier; brig. gen., Penna. Associators, 1777177 8; held various political offices and

was treasurer of the United States, 17891801 (DAB). 4 Gates' first wife was Elizabeth Philipps (d. I 783), an Englishwoman (Patterson, Gates, p. 7-8, 347) · 5 Robert ( 17 58-17 So), Gates' only son (same, p. 18-19, 319). 6 BR refers, quite misleadingly, to the arrangement in which Lafayette acquiesced during his visit to York at this time, whereby Conway would be third in command in the Canadian expedition, with McDougall or Kalb as Lafayette's second in command (Henry Laurens to John Rutledge, 30 Jan. to 3 Feb. 1778, Burnett, Letters of Members,

m, 64-5).

To John Adams My dear Sir,

Lancaster, February 8, 1778 My application to Congress in favor of our hospitals turned out as I expected. My complaints were dismissed as groundless, factious, &c., and the Director General was honored with the approbation of the Congress. Had you been there, I am sure matters would have taken another turn. Would you have winked at a complaint of the Director General having bought 6 pipes of wine at £150 a pipe, storing and conveying them with hospital stores, and afterwards selling them upon his own account for £soo-o-o apiece? Would you [ 199 ]

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have winked at the hospital stores being used in common by all the stewards and commissaries created by the Director General? Would you have winked at the Director General being unable to produce a single voucher from the surgeons of the hospital of the expenditure of his stores and medicines? Would you have winked at bills for poultry and a hundred other delicate articles bought for the hospital which no sick man ever tasted? Would you finally have winked at false returns of the numbers and of the mortality in the hospitals? No, you would not. You would have taken the alarm at the most distant hint of these things, and would never have rested satisfied till a court of inquiry or committee of Congress had confuted or established those insinuations. Unfortunately, the charges I made against Dr. S.'s maladministration lost much of their weight from a supposed personal resentment I entertained against him. Nothing could be more foreign to truth. I acknowledge I had not lived always in harmony with him. This in my opinion would have been high treason against the States, for when I learn to live in harmony with ignorance, negligence, and prodigality of the blood and property of my country, may I shake hand with Great Britain, and may the delightful words of freedom and independence cease to excite music on the strings of my heart. To restore harmony (not order, economy, or discipline) to our hospitals, I have resigned my commission. My country is dearer to me than ever, insomuch that I intend after settling my family upon a farm in New Jersey to turn out as a volunteer with the militia of Pensylvania during the next campaign. 1 Adieu. A safe and successful voyage to you! Yours-yoursyours, B: RusH .ffddressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: at Braintree near Boston. &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 This makes clear that BR had given up any notion of joining the expedition

under Lafayette against Canada (see letter to Greene?, 1 Feb. 1778).

To George Washington Princetown, February 25th, 1778 Sir, I should think myself inexcusable in leaving the army by resigning my commission without informing your excellency that I was compelled to that measure by the prevalence of an opinion among some people that the distresses and mismanagement of the hospitals [ 200 ]

2 5 FEBR"l-! AR Y

1778

arose from a "want of harmony" between Dr. Shippen and myself. Next to the conviction of my own mind that this was not the case, I wish to have it known to your excellency that none of them originated in that cause. So anxious was I to cultivate harmony with Dr. Shippen while in office with him that I laid none of the abuses which prevailed in the hospitals directly at his door. But as my obligations to living in harmony with him upon that account have now ceased, justice to my country, a regard to the honor of the army, as well as duty to your excellency, call upon me to lay the following facts before you. "Bethlehem hospital, February I7. "This is to certify that the wine allowed to the hospital at Bethlehem under the name of madeira was adulterated in such a degree as to have none of the qualities or effects of madeira. "That it was a common practice with the Commissary General to deduct one third, sometimes more, sometimes less, from the orders for wine, sugar, molasses, and other stores ordered for the sick by the surgeons. "That none of the patients in the hospital under our care eat of venison, poultry, or wild fowl (unless purchased by themselves), and that large quantities of those articles were bought by Mr. Hasse, 1 the assistant commissary of the hospitals, by order of the Director General. "That the Director General never entered the hospital but once during about six weeks' residence in the village of Bethlehem, although the utmost distress and mortality prevailed in the hospital at that time. · "That a putrid fever raged for three months in the hospital and was greatly increased by the sick being too much crowded and by their wanting blankets, shirts, straw, and other necessaries for sick people. "That so violent was the putrid fever in the hospital that 9 out of I I surgeons were seized with it, one of whom died; that out of 3 stewards, 2 died with it and the 3rd narrowly escaped with his life; and that many of the inhabitants of the village caught and died with the said putrid fever. "That there have died [in this place] 2 200 soldiers (8/IO of whom with a putrid fever caught in the hospital) within the space of 4 months. "Signed Wm. W. Smith Saml. Finley James E. Finley Robt. R. Henry.m (copy) [ 201 ]

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"This is to certify that the return for the hospital at Bethlehem for the month of December was 420 patients, 4 and that there died within the said month above 40 patients. 5 Saml. Finley." (copy) Vouchers of the same kind have been collected from several other hospitals, all of which tend to show the negligence and in justice of the Director General and of some of the officers connected with him. I am not acquainted with the number of the deaths in all the hospitals in the department for these last four months. In Reading there have died 1So, in Lancaster 120, in Princetown between So and 90 (60 of whom died in December and January). These returns are only from one fourth of the hospitals which have existed within the four last months. I think from the best general accounts I can collect that the number of deaths in the hospitals from which I have obtained no returns cannot amount to less than seven or eight hundred more. This account will appear to be the more distressing when I add that the mortality was chiefly artificial and not the consequence of diseases contracted at camp. Eight-tenths of them died with putrid fevers caught in the hospitals. In the height of the calamities and mortality which have been enumerated, the Director General wrote a letter to the Congress with the following declaration: "No fatal disease prevails in the hospitals, very few die, and the hospitals are in very good order." This letter was dated on the 18th of January last. 6 This extraordinary mortality among our soldiers is not necessarily entailed upon military hospitals. Dr. Potts lost only 203 men between the Ist of March and the 10th of December last, inclusive of all those who died of wounds. He suffered his patients (who were at one time very numerous) to want for nothing. The putrid fever never made its appearance in any one of his hospitals. What satisfaction can be made to the United States? What consolation can be offered to the friends of those unfortunate men who have perished-or rather who have been murdered in our hospitals-for the in justice and in juries that have been done to them? One half the soldiers who have been thus sacrificed might have proved hereafter the price of a victory that might have established the liberties of America. While our brave countrymen were languishing and dying from the total want or scanty allowance of hospital stores, I am sorry to [ 202 ]

25 FEBRUARY 1778 add that the Director General was employed in a manner wholly unbecoming the dignity of his office and the liberality of his profession in selling large quantities of madeira wine, brown and loaf sugar, &c., &c., which had been transported through the country in hospital wagons and secured as hospital stores under the name of private property. [Four lines heavily scored out.] I have only to congratulate your excellency upon the change which the Congress have made in the medical system whereby the business of providing for the sick is put into the hands of Dr. Potts, a gentleman of established character for integrity, humanity, and capacity in the management of that part of the duty of a director of a hospital_T I beg your excellency's acceptance of the enclosed little pamphlet, 8 and am with the warmest sentiments of regard and attachment your excellency's most affectionate, humble servant, B: RusH 9 P.S. I beg your excellency's pardon for not acknowledging before this time your ready attention to my application for guards and a military inspector for each hospital. The instructions given by your excellency to the inspectors are excellent and have already produced the most salutary effects in the hospitals. &S: Library of Congress, Washington Papers. 1

Not further identified. Brackets in MS. 3 Of these four military physicians and surgeons, James E. B. Finley, BR's former pupil, has already been identified. Samuel Finley, Jr. (1748?-I8oi), James' older brother, was a College of New Jersey graduate, 1765, in the Massachusetts medical service (A Finley Genealogy, n.p., 1905, p. 4-5). William W. Smith may be the William Smith who served as surgeon ,of the 1st battalion, Penna. Flying Camp, 1776 (Heitman); a William W. Smith (d. 1793) graduated as bachelor of medicine at the College of Philadelphia, 1780 (Univ. of Penna., Gen. Alumni Cat.). Robert R. Henry (d. 18o 5), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1776, served with New Jersey and New Hampshire troops from 1777 to the close of the war (Wickes, Hist. of Medicine in N.J., p. 284-5; Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., 1908). 2

4 Note by BR: "The return of the Director General to the Congress for December was 320 in the Bethlehem hospital." 5 Note by BR: "The Director General's return of deaths in the said hospital for December was only 2 1." 6 See BR to Mrs. Rush, I 5 Jan. 177 8, postscript. 7 On 6 Feb. the committee appointed to investigate hospital conditions had brought in a report, which was adopted at once and subsequently printed for distribution {lour. Cont. Gong., x, 128-3 I ; broadside copy in L.C., Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XXII, 567). These resolutions embodied most of the reforms BR had been urging; see Appendix 1, below. 8 Doubtless the Directions for Preseroing the Health of Soldiers. 9 It was of this profession of regard by BR that Washington wrote with deep resentment to Patrick Henry on 28 Mch.

[ 203 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION 1778 in revealing that BR was the author of the unsigned letter to Henry of 12. Jan. 1778 (Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick,

XI, 164-5). For Washington's action on the present letter, see Appendix I, below.

To Daniel Roberdeau Dear Sir, Princetown, March 9th, I778 I was so fully convinced that ALL the distresses and mortality of the military hospitals arose from the purveying business being lodged in Dr. Shippen's hands, that in my complaints of the abuses which prevailed in the hospitals I aimed chiefly to have that part of the system changed which gave Dr. Shippen the powers of a purveyor. I had no personal resentment against him and therefore took no pains to collect vouchers of his ignorance, negligence, or in justice. A change in the system (such as I wished for) I was sure would place the sick and the public beyond the reach of suffering from those vices. The patience with which Dr. Shippen heard the hints I gave of his peculation, and his declining to call upon me for public or private satisfaction for what I said of him before the committee of Congress, were sufficient to convince any man that my insinuations were well-grounded. I expected the committee would have obliged me to prosecute him in a court-martial. The task would have been disagreeable unless I had been compelled to it. It is now too late to force me into that measure, but a regard to the honor of the Congress and my own character require that I should trouble you with the following facts. Judge after you have read them whether my charges against Dr. Shippen were founded in malice, and whether a "want of harmony" was the cause of the extraordinary distress and mortality which have prevailed in the hospitals under his direction. [Here follow copies of the two affidavits included in the letter to Washington, preceding. Also the following affidavit:]

"Lancaster, February I 2, I 778 "This is to certify that I delivered to the hospital in Lancaster 120 coffins from October 6, 1777, to February 9, 1778, 32 1 in December, and 33 in January I 778. (copy) George Burckhert.m Similar vouchers with the above might be obtained from every hospital in the department if stronger testimonies were required of the negligence, in justice, and falsehood of the Director General.

[ 204 ]

9 MARCH 1778 I hinted to the committee of Congress that Dr. Shippen had sold six pipes of wine at Reading as his private prop.erty while the sick were dying from the want of it, and the Doctor's confession of his having bought that number of pipes upon his own account was received by the committee as a justification of that act. I said that I was not without my suspicion of many other acts of the same nature, which had I mentioned I am sure would not have admitted of the same apology. I shall mention a few of them. Dr. Fred. Kuhn, 3 a senior surgeon of the hospital, informed me that he stowed two pipes of madeira among the hospital stores in Lancaster by Dr. Shippen's order early last spring. In the fall, when Dr. Kuhn came to Lancaster to take charge of the hospital in that place, Dr. Shippen ordered him to make use of one of the pipes of madeira for the sick in the hospital under his care. But to Doctor Kuhn's great surprise when he went and demanded the wine, a friend of Dr. Shippen's came with an order from the Doctor and demanded the wine as the Doctor's private property, and sold the two pipes for the Doctor at £400-o-o apiece. Dr. Potts informed me that he knew of Dr. Shippen's having sold several hogsheads of brown sugar to a person in Reading. Mr. Bryan4 (the vice-president of Pensylvania) asked me if loaf sugar was a useless article in our hospitals. I told him no, but that we could never get an ounce of it to use either in diet or medicine. He then informed me that the Director General of the hospitals had sent 46 loaves of it from Manheim to a shopkeeper in Lancaster to be sold upon his account. These facts are known to thousands in Pensylvania and New Jersey. The tale of "private property" will not go down with honest-thinking men. What would you think of a colonel of a regiment or a commissary of provisions who traded largely in firearms or bullocks at a time when his soldiers suffered from the want of them? The sick of the army died from the want or scanty allowance of those very articles from the sale of which Dr. Shippen has made a fortune. I have not been able to collect an exact account of the deaths in all the hospitals in the department from the Ist of November last to the Ist of March. In Lancaster there have died 120, in Reading I 70, in Bethlehem 200, in Princetown above IOO, and from comparing general accounts of the deaths in other hospitals I think at the lowest computation they cannot amount to less than 7 or 8oo more. Not more than 200 of these perished with disorders brought from the camp. The rest perished with want or died of a putrid [ 205 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

fever caught in the hospitals. Dr. Potts lost only 203 soldiers (inclusive of his wounded) between the 1st of March and the 10th of December last. His sick, who were at one time numerous, abounded in everything, and no putrid fever ever found its way into any one of his hospitals. What would be the fate of a general officer who would throw away 1000 Continental troops in a drunken frolic or sell them to an enemy? He would expiate his crime with his life. And shall 1000 of your brave soldiers be lost ignobly in a hospital? Shall the cry of murder resound through every graveyard in the villages of Pensylvania? And shall no inquiry be made into these things? Is there a court in Europe so far gone in the system of favoritism as to suffer such things to pass with impunity? I am sure there is not, and I have too high an idea of the integrity and disinterestedness of Congress to believe that when the facts which have been enumerated are known to them they will suffer the affairs of the hospitals to be ended by a few resolutions to amend the medical system. Peculation is the only rock on which our country cari be shipwrecked. But if gigantic crimirtals escape, who will complain hereafter, or who will 5 fear to offend with impunity? Public and private integrity are the only basis on which a republican government can be erected or maintained. Should a philosopher in Europe hear that the Director General of all the hospitals of the united States was a man who had been absorbed for the last 1 5 years of his life wholly in pleasure, that he was wholly ignorant of the method of governing and directing military hospitals practised in old European armies, that he entered his hospitals but once in 6 weeks, that he spent whole nights and days in reveling and debauchery, that he was universally suspected of having robbed the sick and the public of _many thousands, and that he had made false reports of his hospitals to his masters-I am sure he would suspect that we were no longer a great republic but that we were advancing fast towards the depravity of manners of a European country. I must not omit to add here that Dr. Morgan cannot long be a stranger to the history of Dr. Shippen's directorship. Suppose he should charge him with some of his misconduct in print? The Doctor as usual would probably be silent under it. But would not the honor of the Congress require that their officer should vindicate his innocence or suffer for his crimes? In the British hospitals no purveyor's account can be passed unless it is certified by the physicians and surgeons of the hospitals. Suppose the physicians and surgeons of the hospitals should be [ 206 ]

9

MARCH

1778

called upon to declare what stores have been appropriated to the use of the sick of those which are charged to them in Dr. Shippen's accounts. I fear the Doctor's accounts would never pass the commissioners. Dr. Brown (my late colleague) assured me that in no case had he seen for these several months barrels with wine, sugar, molasses, &c., come to a hospital without detecting upon an examination a third, a half, and sometimes two-thirds stolen from them. I beg that this letter may be shown to the Messrs. Penn, Geary, and Lovell, likewise to Mr. Clinghan. 6 With compliments to your good sisters, and sincere wishes for your happiness, I am, my dear sir, with great regard, your friend and humble servant, B: RusH March .I9, 1778. P.S. Since writing the enclosed letter I had the pleasure of seeing the resolutions of the Congress of the 6th of February amending the system of the military hospitals. 7 They contain not only every improvement I wished for, but several more, and I am happy in finding that they give universal satisfaction both to the [public?] 8 and to the surgeons of the hospitals. Had I expected such a change would have been made in the system, I should not have resigned my commission. And I beg it as a favor that you inform the members of the committee as well as our friends in York town, that I was induced to take that step by no other motive than Dr. Wetherspoon's telling me that very trifling alterations would be made in the system, and that it was absolutely necessary that one of us should leave the department. 9 This last declaration I imagined was dictated to him by the committee, and the manner in which he delivered it induced me to believe that it was determined in the committee that I should be dismissed from the service of my country. I now beg the pardon of the committee for so unjust a suspicion, and that my thanks may be presented to them for the attention to my complaints against the abuses of the hospitals. Their conduct in this affair does them honor and I hope will serve to encourage zeal, integrity, and disinterestedness in all the officers of the Congress. 10 off ddressed: The Honble: Daniel Roberdeau Esqr: Member of Congress at Yorktown. &S: Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XIX. 1 Note by BR: "The return of the dead in the Lancaster hospital by the

Director General to the Congress for December was only 12."

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Not further identified. Frederick Kuhn (ca. 1748-1816), one of three physician brothers of Lancaster, Penna., of whom Adam Kuhn was the best known; M.B., College of Philadelphia, I 77 I ; practised in Lancaster and is said later to have held a judicial appointment (Alex. Harris, A Biographical History of Lancaster County, Lancaster, I872, p. 356; Univ. of Penna., Gen. Alumni Cat.). 4 George Bryan ( I7JI-I79I), born in Dublin, was a Philadelphia merchant, judge, and leader of the radical ScotchIrish Presbyterian faction in Pennsylvania politics for three decades before his death; vice-president of the supreme executive council, I777-I779· In I779 Bryan incurred BR's lasting enmity by taking a leading part in the legislative annulment of the charter of the College of Philadelphia-an event which led to BR's breach with his fellow Presbyterians and the founding of Dickinson College. References to Bryan in BR's later letters are bitter. (DAB; BR to John Armstrong, 19 Mch. I783; to John Montgomery, 9 Apr. I 788; to Jeremy Belknap, .6 May I788.) 5 Following this word BR inserted the word "not" above the line, but his afterthought was an error. 6 William Clinghan (d. I790), of Chester co., a Pennsylvania delegate to Congress, I777-I 779 (Biog. Dir. Gong.). 3

7 This statement is puzzling, since BR had seen the regulations by 25 Feb., when he wrote the just preceding letter to Washington. There being no motive for his distorting the facts, it seems most likely that he wrote the letter to which this is a postscript earlier than he dated it. In the MS the date has, in fact, been corrected from February 9 to March 9, though this probably indicates only a slip of the pen, not the original date of composition. (BR must have gathered the depositions copied into his letter while visiting Bethlehem on I5 Feb. See his Diary, PMHB, XXVII

[I90J], I49·) 8 MS

torn. See note on BR:'s letter to President Laurens, 30 Jan. I77 8. lO On 3 Apr. this letter, together with BR's letter to Washington of 25 Feb. and Washington's letter of transmittal, dated 2I Mch., was laid before Congress. All the letters were referred to a committee (William Henry Drayton of South Carolina, Samuel Huntington of Connecticut, and John Banister of Virginia) that was directed "to enquire into the charges contained in Dr. Rush's letters against Dr. Shippen, and into the conduct of Dr. Shippen, as director general of the hospital, and to report 1>pecially to Congress" (Jour. Cont. Gong., x, 303). See further BR's letter to the committee, 20 Apr. I778. 9

To Horatio Gates Dear Sir, Princetown, April 9th, I 778 I beg leave to remind you that the small pamphlets entitled Directions for Preserving the Health of the Soldiers, published by order of the Board of War, have not yet reached the camp. I am sorry to say that the necessity for them is as great as ever. The few which have circulated among some of the officers of the army have given satisfaction and have produced some salutary effects. Our enemies hold out a thousand examples of discipline and conduct to us which we refuse to imitate. But they go further and show us that they possess more humanity towards their sweepings [ 208 ]

9 APRIL 1778 of the jails of Europe than we possess for the sons of the virtuous farmers of America. In an orderly book belonging to General Howe's army I picked up the following order a few days ago at Wilmington: "Lieutenant Colonel Mawhood1 begs leave to recommend to the several commanding officers of the 4th Brigade that the men be kept perfectly clean during the hot weather. That they change their linen three times a week, and that such men as choose to bathe be conducted under the care of an officer early in the morning or in the evening to some part of the river between the ferry opposite to South Amboy and the church, and that the men are forbid to bathe at any other time of the day or at any other place. No drilling after 8 in the morning or before 5 in the evening." Will not the loss of two armies in our hospitals at last teach us wisdom? No, the officers of the American army are incapable of industry, humanity, and attention to their men. Make their commissions valuable, give them half pay for life, and ALL will be well. Suppose we add to this a method of governing our troops by the eyes and ears of the general officers as well as by general orders? Every London paper I see gives me reason to hope more from the exhausted resources and blunders of our enemies than from our own exertions. Where now are their JO,OOO Russians? Where are the fruits of the negotiations for more troops promised in the last speech from the throne? They have all ended in a few subscription regiments. This year must prove a crisis to the British nation. I supped a few nights ago with the commissioners for the exchange of prisoners at Newtown. 2 The British officers, Colonels Stevens and O'Hara and Captain Fitzpatrick (all of the Guards), are polite, agreeable, and upon politics very moderate men. 8 Please to give my love to Miffiin, from whom no clamors can ever tear me. I shall write to him by the next opportunity that offers. Adieu, my dear sir, and believe me to be yours most sincerely, BRuSH

P.S. Have you seen the 5th number of The Crisis? 4 Common Sense I find has ascribed your conquests entirely to the southern army. The fact was new to me. Nothing is now wanting to mix with the incense but to lay the defeats of Brandywine and Germantown upon you. All this letter is inter nos. Jddressed: The Honble: Major General Gates at Yorktown. &S: New-York Historical Society, Gates Papers.

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Lt. Col. Charles Mawhood, 17th British regt., commanded the British force in the battle of Princeton in Jan. I 77 7, and in the following August was promoted colonel (W. C. Ford, comp., British Officers Serving in the American Revolution, Brooklyn, I897). 2 A village in Bucks co., Penna., south of Doylestown. Here the American commissioners (Commissary of Prisoners Elias Boudinot and Cols. William Grayson, Alexander Hamilton, and Robert Hanson Harrison) met the three British commissioners (see the following note) early in Apr. I778 to negotiate a cartel for a general exchange of prisoners between the two armies (Elias Boudinot, Journal or Historical Recollections ... , Phila., I894, p. 43-9; Washington, Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, XI, 2 n-IJ,

'1.76-7). 3 Humphrey Stephens, col., 3d Foot Guards; Charles O'Hara, col., 2d Foot Guards; Richard Fitzpatrick, capt., sth Foot Guards (Calendar of the Correspondence of George Washington ..• with the Officers, Washington, I9IS, r,

s66). ' The American Crisis was a serial publication by Thomas Paine (here nicknamed "Common Sense"), issued at irregular intervals between I 776 and I783. No. s was dated at Lancaster, 2.1 Mch. 1778. BR refers to a passage in which Paine observed that Washington's maneuvers in the Philadelphia area had prevented Howe from sending vital aid to Burgoyne (Paine, Complete Writings, ed. P. S. Foner, N.Y., 1945, I,

us).

To William Henry Drayton, Samuel Huntington, and John Banister

1

Gentlemen, Princetown, April 20th, I 778 I was favored with your letter a few days ago enclosing a copy of a resolution of Congress of the Jrd instant. I foresee many difficulties in the way of a committee of Congress coming at a knowledge of facts with respect to Dr. Shippen's maladministration of the military hospitals. Should the evidences be collected at Yorktown, the sick in the hospitals would suffer from the want of surgeons to attend them, for there are nearly as many witnesses against him as there are surgeons in the hospitals. I expected that the mode of trying him would have been by a court-martial, and for that reason I transmitted an account of his conduct to the Commander in Chief of the Army before I wrote to a member of Congress upon the subject. The army has written laws for the government of all its members; Dr. Shippen belongs to the army; most of the surgeons who are to be witnesses against him are in its neighborhood and can attend there without much expense to themselves or the public. Besides, there is a positive resolution of Congress for this purpose in the regulations of the hospital of the IIth of April, 1777. The words are: "That the director, deputy directors, physicians and surgeons general, and all other officers before enumerated shall be tried by a court-martial [ 2IO ]

20 APRIL

1778

for any misbehavior or neglect of duty as the Commander in chief shall direct.m If the Congress should agree to this mode of inquiring into Dr. Shippen's malpractices, I shall give in a list of the "names" of the evidences,S with their "respective places of residence," to the officer appointed to receive them, and shall esteem myself bound by the duty I owe to my country to appear at the court as his prosecutor. I am, gentlemen, with all due respect, your most obedient, humble servant, BENJA RusH ~ddressed: (on public Service.) The Honble: Messrs: W H: Drayton, Saml: Huntington, and Jno: Bannister Esqrs: Members of Congress at Yorktown. &S: Library of Congress, Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 78, XIX. 1 This committee, appointed 3 Apr. (see BR to Roberdeau, 9- I 9 Mch.) , wrote BR on 7 Apr. enclosing a copy of the order of Congress for an investigation of Shippen's administration of the hospitals, and requesting BR "to ascertain with precision, and transmit to us, the charges, and upon oath the evidence you have, or can procure, against [Shippen]; also the names of the witnesses, and places of their residence" (Burnett, Letter! of Membert,

m, IS7)·

2 See Jour. Cont. Cong., VII, z36 (under date of 7 Apr.). In consequence of BR's demand for a court-martial rather than another inquiry by Congress, no action was taken by the committee. The endorsement on this letter states that it was "read 4 June. Ordered to lie on the table.'' See also BR to Morgan, ca. June 1779. s BR meant to write "witnesses."

To Jonathan Bayard Smith?

1

Dear Sir, Princetown, April 20, 1778 There is no place in which I can be thrown that can make me indifferent to anything that relates to our dear country. The strength and resources of America, the determined spirit of a majority of the people, and the success of our arms in the northern department place the freedom and independence of the united States upon as broad a basis as any of the powerful monarchies of Europe. But our country, is still in danger, not of being conquered, but of groaning under all the calamities of a tedious, expensive, and desolating war; not from the power of Britain nor the machinations of the tories, but from the ignorance, indolence, and avarice of too many of our whigs. Andrew Allen 2 of Philadelphia told a friend of his some time ( 2II ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

ago that the continent would be lost from the want or, what amounts to the same thing, the destruction of our money. Poor fellow! There was a time when he could have pointed out a hundred other rocks on which we might have been shipwrecked. I agree with him in supposing that our principal danger is from that quarter. I beg leave therefore to submit the following queries to your attention as one of that board whose chief business is to consult about the finances of our country. 1. Has not the Congress confounded the credit and value of our money together? 2.. Have not all the temporary expedients they have adopted for supporting the value of the money injured its credit? 3· Is not the credit of our money as good as the credit of gold and silver was four years ago, and does any man (but here and there a Quaker) refuse it? 4· Has the success of our arms in any one instance helped the value of our money, and are not the articles of life as dear now as before Burgoyne was taken? 5. Would not its value remain the same if General Howe and his whole army were made prisoners of war in Philadelphia? 6. Is not the depreciated value of our money owing entirely to its excessive quantity, and would not an equal quantity of gold and silver circulating among us hold the same place in value as our paper money? 7· Are not all the attempts to restore its value by any other means than by TAXES as absurd as it would be to lower the surface of water in a bucket in any other way than by diminishing its quantity? 8. Is not the present artificial scarcity of provisions entirely owing to our regulating laws, and will not they in time produce a real scarcity? 9· Have not these laws corrupted our people by introducing frauds and a disposition to elude more necessary and practicable laws? The late scarcity of money at camp and in all the departments of the army has shown us in the clearest manner what may be expected from a diminution of its quantity. Goods of all kinds have fallen 20 percent in this state, and half-joes which sold here 4 months ago for £20 and £25 have lately been sold for only £12-o-o. The expenses of traveling are reduced. 3/9 is the highest that is given for a meal; in some places the price of a dinner is only zj. This revolution is not the effect of the regulating law, for except in grain and a few other articles it is treated with universal con[ 212 ]

20 APRIL

1778

tempt. The legislature justify it upon no other principle than "the recommendation of Congress.m We have frequent reports here from Philadelphia of a change in the British ministry and of the probability of a rupture between France and England.4 Mrs. Allen (the widow of John Allen) 5 is just come out of town. She says that Mrs. Delancey (old W m. Allen's daughter) has lately received a letter from her husband Jas. Delancey 6 in London, in which he informs her that terms will be offered to the colonies and of such a nature that he thinks his countrymen in America cannot fail of accepting of them. I am happy to find a very general disposition among our people to reject everything that can be offered on the part of G. Britain except an acknowledgement of our independence. I have written to the committee appointed to inquire into Dr. Shippen's conduct in the hospital and have requested a courtmartial for that purpose, as being the way which Congress have ordered in a resolution of the I I of April 1777 for trying all the officers of the hospitals. As Dr. Shippen has no superiors or equals in rank in the medical department, I take it for granted that the court will consist of general and field officers. I have promised to appear as his prosecutor in behalf of my country and of those unfortunate people whose sons, husbands, and fathers have been sacrificed by his ignorance, negligence, and in justice in our hospitals. I hope the event of the trial will show that I have had no personal malice against him, and that the "want of harmony" between us has had no share in the distresses and mortality of our soldiers. With compliments to Mr. Roberdeau and the good ladies his sisters, I am, dear sir, yours most sincerely, · BRusH P.S. There is a resolution of Congress of the 20th of February in Town's Evening Post, signed by Mr. Laurens and Chas. Thompson, 7 canceling the agreement between the army and the Congress, and declaring all soldiers now enlisted or to be enlisted to be soldiers during the war. 8 It has deceived a good many people. I have ventured to pronounce it counterfeited. Should not some notice be taken of it? April 21st. Since writing the above I have heard of the bill for restoring the colonies to the situation they were in in the year 1763.9 The good whigs here are afraid the Congress will vouchsafe to take notice of it. How would the independent crown of France receive [ 2I3 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION

propositions of submission from the Court of Britain? I hope ancient habits of subordination will not make us forget that we are an independent power. Suppose you treat the bill as King George treated our petition to restore us to I 763. Throw it under the table. Or1S: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. 1

The addressee's name has been assigned with virtual certainty, since the letter was written to a member of the board of treasury (see the close of the third paragraph), and the only incumbent of that board whom BR knew intimately was Smith, who had recently been named to it (Jour. Cont. Gong., x, ~44). The allusions to various Pennsylvania and New Jersey families would have been clear to Smith. 2 Andrew Allen (1740-I8~s), son of Chief Justice William Allen; a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, 17 59; provincial attorney general from 1769; served briefly in the Continental Congress, but opposed independence, put himself under the protection of Howe, 1776, and was attainted, 1779 (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 1479 ; Sabine, Loyalists) . 3 On the Pennsylvania price-regulating law, passed I Apr. 1778, see Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 51. 4 Treaties of alliance and commerce between the United States and France were signed at Paris on 6 Feb.; copies of the treaties arrived at York on 2 May (President Laurens to Washington, 3 May 1778, Burnett, Letters of Members, lll, 215). 5 John Allen (d. Feb. I778), eldest

son of Chief Justice William Allen; lawyer; married Mary Johnston of New York; remained loyal to the crown but died before he was attainted (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. I45; Sabine, Loyalists). 6 Margaret Allen (d. I 82 7) had married James De Lancey (I 732-18oo), landowner, turfman, and politician of New York; he had sailed for England in 17 7s and did not return (DAB; Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 154). 1 Charles Thomson (I 729-I 824), secretary of Congress. 8 On these forged resolves, printed 3 Apr. in Towne's Pennsylvania Evening Post, a tory newspaper published in Philadelphia, see Washington to Laurens, 23 Apr. (Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, XI, 301), and Laurens to Washington, 27 Apr. (Burnett, Letters of Members, m, 191). BR was evidently the first to notify Congress of this attempt to discourage recruiting. 9 The "bill" was Lord North's plan for a conciliatory commission, which was enacted by Parliament on I6 Mch. and news of which reached Washington on I7 Apr. {Van Doren, Secret History, p. 69-70, 87; ch. IV of this work gives the best account of the British conciliatory mission and its failure) .

To James McHenrf Dear Sir, Princetown, May 17th, 1778 Give me leave once more to recommend to your patronage and friendship Dr. James Finley. You know all the weaknesses as well as virtues of his heart. He is now a surgeon to Colonel Bigelow's regiment of the Massachusetts Bay forces. 2 I have no doubt of his knowledge in his business, and he will not want industry and humanity, but I wish you would add as much as possible to his reputation and weight with his regiment by visiting his patients with him [ 214 ]

17 MAY 1778 and giving him in every respect such directions as you think proper. You cannot confer a greater obligation upon me than by your good offices to him. You know that I have always felt for him the tenderness of a father, and he has deserved it by behaving upon all occasions to me with the duty and affection of a child. While I am forced by the violence and weight of Dr. Shippen's friends into retirement, it gives me pleasure to see oNE whom I had any hand in educating filling an honorable and useful post in the line of his profession in the army. May you continue to merit the esteem of your friends and the approbation of your country. I hope no man will relax in his zeal and industry in serving his country by contemplating my fate. I enjoy the reward of all my labors in the approbation of my own conscience. Virtue is no shadow, though Brutus pronounced it so. I have found it a substance, and would not exchange the pleasures I have derived from it for a fortune made by the sale of hospital wines and sugars, nor for the first honors that are in the gift of our Congress. I congratulate you upon our alliance with France. It is preferable for many reasons to an alliance with England. Men should rise now in the estimation of their country in proportion to the cordiality of their hatred to the British nation. Individuals may forgive each other, because there is a power in magistrates to prevent a repetition of injuries, but states being amenable to no laws can do themselves justice only by revenge and retaliating injuries. Adieu, my dear sir, and be assured of the friendship of yours, &c., BRusH .Addressed; Dr James McHenry Senior Surgeon of the Flying hospital camp Valley Forge By Majr Beatty. &S: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. 1 James McHenry (I753-I8I6), a native of Ireland who had emigrated to Baltimore and then studied medicine as BR's private pupil from I771, had joined the Continental medical staff in Jan. I 776. Captured at Fort Washington in Nov. of that year, he was exchanged in Mch. 1778, and on 15 May was appointed secretary to Washington. He did not practise medicine thereafter but rose to political eminence in his state, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of I 787, and

served as secretary of war under Washington and Adams, I 796-I 8oo. Between McHenry and BR, despite sharp differences in their politics later, there was always a cordial relationship, which is recorded in their now widely scattered correspondence. (DAB; BR to McHenry, 1 z Aug. I 8oo; Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., The James McHenry Papers, z pts., N.Y., I944·) 2 Col. Timothy Bigelow's regiment was the 15th Mass. Line (Heitman, Register).

( Zlj )

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia, Philadelphia, August 24, 1778 I hope you continue to mend. But why are you so silent upon the subject of our dear boy's health? Is he fallen away? Did he know you? How many teeth has he got? Does he run alone? Judge of my fondness for everything that relates to him by your own. I have sent you a small box of the green ointment to be applied once a day only, and in a very small quantity, to his sores. I am happy in the prospect of our dear Mama's coming to town with you. If she can bring a little hard money with her, Mrs. Stamper thinks she will stand a chance of getting better bargains of Mrs. Stedman1 than with hemp and lampblack. We have bought of her a most elegant mahogany cradle for our dear Jackey. The price was £1 8.o.o. I wish you would try to get me a dozen pounds of purging salts of Mr. Kelsey 2 or Mr. Robt. Stockton. This must not be neglected nor forgotten, as I have discovered by a new species of alchemy the art of converting a pound of that saline matter into 16 square dollars. Poor General Lee has been found guilty of all the charges brought against him, viz., disobedience of orders, an unsoldierly retreat, and insolence to the Commander in Chief, and is to be suspended for twelve months from doing duty in our army. 3 This sentence has not diminished my veneration nor lessened my attachment to my honored friend. I shall always view him as the first general in America. Adieu. Love as usual, and an hundred kisses for our dearest Jack. I am, my dear Julia, yours-yours, BRusH P.S. Mrs. Stamper sends much love to you and the family and compliments (with mine) to Dr. Read.' .Ifddressed: Mrs Julia Rush at Morven Princetown. favd by Dr McKnight. &S: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. 1

Not further identified. Enos Kelsey ( 1734?-t8II), a Princeton classmate of BR's, 176o, was a patriotic merchant of that place, serving as colonel of militia, New Jersey clothier general, deputy quartermaster general, &c; treasurer of the College, 2

17 96-1 81 o ( Aumni Records, Secretary's Office, Princeton Univ.). 3 On 12 Aug. 1778 Maj. Gen. Charles Lee was convicted by court-martial for disobedience to orders, misbehavior before the enemy, and disrespect to the Commander in Chief at the battle of

[ 216 ]

3 SEPTEMBER 1778 Monmouth Court House on z8 June (DAB; reprint of the court's Proceedings, 1778, in Charles Lee Papers, III, I-zo8).

' It is impossible to say to which one of several Reads, Reeds, or Reids BR may have referred here.

To Abigail Smith Adams Madam, [Philadelphia] September 3, 1 778 I set down with great pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of a letter from Mr. Adams dated February 8, with a postscript from you, 1 which through a mistake or neglect in some of the post offices did not reach me till the 10th of this instant. 2 I hope it is not too late to thank you for them both. The remedies you have demanded from me to relieve the anguish of your mind occasioned by parting with your dear Mr. Adams have now become unnecessary from my hand. You have drawn a hundred resources of comfort from other quarters since he left his native shores. You have heard of his safe arrival in France, of the marks of respect with which he was introduced into that country, and above all of his zeal and industry in promoting the liberties and adding to the stability of the independence of the united States. Give me leave to congratulate you upon each of these events. To grieve at the absence of a husband thus honored and thus employed partakes of the weakness of those who bewail the premature translation of a friend from the humble pursuits of earth to the active and beneficent employments of the kingdom of heaven. I am led by the many amiable traits I have received of your character from Mr. Adams to call upon you to rejoice in the happy changes that have taken place in the appearance of our affairs since my correspondence commenced with Mr. Adams. An alliance has been formed with the first monarchy in Europe; the haughty Court of Britain has been forced to sue to her once insulted colonies for peace; the capital of Pennsylvania, the object of the expenses and blood of a whole campaign, has been evacuated; the flower of the British army has been defeated; and above all, a French fleet hovers over our coasts. These, madam, are great and unexpected events and call for the gratitude of our country to the great Arbiter of human affairs. When the Duke D'Avignon saw his last ship perish in a storm the war before last at Hallifax, after having witnessed the destruction of a whole army by sickness, he cried out, "God is resolved to have all the honor of conquering us to himself." 3 In like manner heaven seems resolved to have all the glory of [ 217 ]

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deliverance to itself. The wisdom of our councils was often foolishness, and the strength of our arms was too often weakness. Even the capture of Burgoyne was the effect of a mistake in Congress. By recalling General Gates from Ticonderoga, they gave the enemy a post which afterwards led them into the heart of our country. The restoring General Gates to his command was not the effect of the wisdom of the Congress, but the result of the clamors and spirit of the people. Soon after my last letter to Mr. Adams I was forced to resign my commission of physician general to the army, having no prospect of being supported in doing my duty either by the Congress or principal officers in the army. This prepared the way for my returning to Philadelphia as soon as the enemy left it, where I am now settled with my family in the business of my profession. Our city has undergone some purification. But it still resembles too much the ark which preserved not only the clean but unclean animals from the deluge which overwhelmed the old war ld. I beg you would present Miss Adams with the little book which accompanies this letter. 4 It was written by Dr. Gregory, one of my masters, a worthy and eminent physician in the city of Edinburgh. My dear Mrs. Rush joins in best compliments to you and your little family with, madam, your most obedient, humble servant, BRusH !MS (letter-book copy) : Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4· 1 Written from Braintree, Mass.; printed in Old Family Letters, A, p.

I O-J 1. 2

Evidently an error, since BR's letter is dated 3 Sep. 8 In Sep. I 746 a storm largely destroyed the fleet of the Due d' Anville

(not Avignon) off the harbor of Halifax, N.S.; see Francis Parkman, A HalfCentury of Conflict, Boston, 1907, n,

ch. I

XXI.

• See BR to John Adams, :u Jan. 778, note 5·

To David Ramsay

1

Philadelphia, November 5th, 1778 My dear Friend, I am much obliged to you for opening a correspondence between Dr. Garden 2 and me. I beg you would thank the Doctor in my name for his polite letter, and tell him I shall not fail of answering it as soon as I meet with anything in the line of our profession worthy of his attention. Many thanks to you for your Oration. 8 It is pregnant with senti[ 218 ]

5 NOVEMBER 1778 ment and breathes a spirit of freedom which cannot be counterfeited. Some trifling alteration I think might have been made in the style. My great partiality to Swift, Hume, Bolingbroke, and Sir Wm. Temple as models of fine writing leads me to prefer SIMPLICITY to everything in composition. I do not wonder that Dr. Pope speaks of the "majesty," and Lord Shaftsbury of the "divineness" of simplicity in writing. In my opinion it is the perfection of style ap.d is generally a very late attainment of writers. I hear with great pleasure of your progress in reputation and in the esteem of your fellow citizens. I anticipate your rising on some future day to the first honors of your state. In your career towards political fame and importance you will soon lose sight of your old friend. I have detached myself wholly from public business and live only for the benefit of an amiable wife, a promising boy, and my circle of patients. This mode of life is the effect of choice no less than of necessity, for the power which now rules in our state is composed of my particular friends, from whom I could ask nothing in vain. Our new government is demolishing, and those furious patriots who have half ruined our state are now sinking into obscurity and contempt. We expect soon to see a convention called who will restore to us (with a few necessary alterations) our old constitution, under which Pensylvania became the first spot, not only in America, but upon the surface of the earth. 4 I cannot help calling upon you to offer up your thanks to God with mine that your friend Rush is now in the land of the living. On the 12th of last September I was seized with a most malignant bilious fever (caught from one of my patients) which reduced me to the brink of the grave. My physicians-Redman, Kuhn, and Morgan-shook their heads as they went out of my room. My friends could do little more than weep at my bedside. I made my will and took leave of life. But in the extremity of my danger it pleased God (on the 1 Ith day) to break the violence of my disease, and I am now through divine goodness so perfectly recovered as to be able to do business as usual. General Lee's trial is the common subject of conversation in this place. The sentence of the court-martial is now before Congress. They dare not confirm it, for the proceedings of the court which are printed not only show that Lee is innocent of the charges brought against him, but that he saved our army and country on the 28th of June. They dare not reverse it, for this would impeach the veracity and candor of our commander in chief, and he possesses nearly as much influence over the resolutions of our Congress as [ 219 ]

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the King of Britain does over the acts of the British Parliament. 5 DeWit and Barnevelt were sacrificed to the excessive influence and popularity of a stadholder. 6 They suffered death. We repine upon the cruelty of the mob of Amsterdam. We destroy reputation, which is dearer to a military man than life itself. CoNWAY, MIFFLIN, and Lee were sacrificed to the excessive influence and popularity of one man. They were the :first characters in the army and are all honest men. Where is the republican spirit of our country? For my part, I wish to see something like the ostracism of the Athenians introduced among us. Monarchies are illuminated by a sun, but republics should be illuminated only by constellations of great men. Adieu, my dear sir, and believe me to be your sincere friend and humble servant,

B: RusH t:MS (letter-book copy): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4· 1 David Ramsay (I749-I8I5), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I765, and M.B., College of Philadelphia, I 77 z, was at this time a member of the South Carolina legislature; he was later a delegate to Congress and author of important works in medical and political history, including a History of the American Revolution, Phila., I 7 89, in the composition and publication of which he had the aid of BR. BR said of Ramsay in I 77 3 that he was "far superior to any person we ever graduated at our college. . . . I can promise more for him, in every thing, than I could for myself." In the volume among the Rush MSS devoted to Ramsay's letters to BR, there is ample evidence of the pupil's lifelong devotion to his teacher. With a few exceptions BR's letters to Ramsay have not been found. Upon BR's death Ramsay prepared an extended tribute which he delivered before the Medical Society of South Carolina and afterwards published as An Eulogium upon Benjamin Rush, M.D., Phila., I8I3. This work was accepted by BR's sons, who had furnished information to Ramsay, as the authorized biography of their father; see Introduction, p. lxii (DAB; R. Y. Hayne's "Memoir" of Ramsay in Analectic Mag-

azine, containing BR's letter on Ramsay, VI [r815], 207; Ramsay's Eulogium; Ramsay's letters in Rush MSS, unnumbered volume, shelfmark Yi2/7257/F.) 2 Alexander Garden, M.D. (ca. I 730I 791), the eminent naturalist of Charleston, for whom the gardenia was named; since Garden, whose sympathies were strongly with the crown, left America soon afterward, the correspondence thus opened did not continue (DAB; Garden to BR, z8 June I778, Rush MSS, XXI). a An Oration on the Advantages of American Independence: Spoken before a Public Assembly of Inhabitants of Charlestown in South-Carolina, on the Second Anniversary of That Glorious .!Era, Charlestown: John Wells, jun., 1778 (Sabin, Bibl. Amer., No. 677oz). 4 The hopes expressed here, based on conservative gains in the Assembly, were very premature; see Brunhouse, CounterRevolution, p. 54-60. 5 Congress confirmed the sentence of the court-martial on Lee on 5 Dec. 177 8 (Jour. Cont. Gong., XII, 1195). 6 Jan De Witt (1625-1672), Netherlands patriot, killed by a mob; and Jan van Olden Barneveldt (1547-1619), advocate of independence for Holland, illegally arrested and executed (Webster's Biog. Diet.).

[ 220 ]

To William Gordon Dear Sir, [Philadelphia] December IOth, 1778 It gave me great pleasure to find from your last letter that your feelings and opinions accord so exactly with mine on the present state of our affairs. The time is now past when the least danger is to be apprehended to our liberties from the power of Britain, the arts of commissioners, or the machinations of tories. Tyranny can now enter our country only in the shape of a whig. All our jealousy should be of ourselves. All our fears should be of our great men, whether in civil or military authority. Our Congress begin already to talk of state necessity and of making justice yield in some cases to policy. This was the apology I was told for confirming the unjust sentence that was passed upon General Lee. Gordon1 tells us that in England the whigs in power are always tories, and the tories out of power are always whigs. I think I have discovered something of the same kind already in our country. In my opinion we have more to dread from the ambition, avarice, craft, and dissolute manners of our whigs than we have from a host of Governor Johnsons, Dr. Berkenhouts, Hutchinsons, or Galloways. 2 Virtue, virtue alone, my dear friend, is the basis of a republic. "Fiat justicia, ruat caelumna was my maxim during the short time I acted for the public. I had no political ambition to gratify. I neither feared nor courted any party. I loved liberty for its own sake, and I both loved and pitied human nature too much to flatter it. But what was the consequence? My political race was short. I thank my countrymen for dismissing me from their service. I want no offices nor honors from them. My temper and my business render me alike independent of the world. But still I will love them and watch for their happiness. I long to see the image of God restored to the human mind. I long to see virtue and religion supported, and vice and irreligion banished from society by wise and equitable governments. I long to see an asylum prepared for the persecuted and oppressed of all countries, and a door opened for the progress of knowledge, literature, the arts, and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. And these great events are only to be accomplished by establishing and perpetuating liberty in our country. 0! best of blessings! Who would not follow thee blindfold? Who would not defend thee from the treachery of friends as well as from the malice of enemies? But I must stop. When liberty-the liberty we loved and contended for in the years 1774 and 1775-is my subject, I know not where to begin nor where to end. 0! come celestial [ 221 ]

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stranger, and dwell in this our land. Let not our ignorance, our venality, our luxury, our idolatry to individuals, and our other anti-republican vices provoke thee to forsake the temple our ancestors prepared for thee. Put us not off with Great Britain's acknowledging our independence. Alas! the great ultimatum of our modern patriots. It is liberty alone that can make us happy. And without it the memorable 4th of July 1776 will be execrated by posterity as the day in which Pandora's box was opened in this country. I am impatient to see your History. How many chapters or volumes have you allotted for the blunders of our Congress and generals? Weak minds begin already to ascribe our deliverance to them. Had not heaven defeated their counsels in a thousand instances, we should have been hewers of wood and drawers of water to the subjects of the King of Britain. With compliments to Mrs. Gordon,4 &c., I am yours sincerely. tMS (letter-book copy): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4· 1

Not identified. A slip by BR? These are all British agents or tories. George Johnstone (I 7 3o-r 7 8 7) , M.P. and formerly governor of West Florida, was a member of Lord North's conciliatory commission of I 77 8 and bungled his assignment (DNB; Van Doren, Secret History, p. 98-104, and passim) • John Berkenhout (ca. I 73 oI 79I ), a London physician, accompanied the commissioners to America, journeyed to Philadelphia, and interviewed various persons (including BR, who had met Berkenhout in London) , for purposes which are not easy to explain 2

and which were certainly not fulfilled, for Berkenhout was in jail during most of his stay in the city (DNB; Van Doren, Secret History, p. 78-9, ro6-rr). The two others have been previously identified. 3 "Fiat justitia, ruat coelum": "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall" -a rhetorical dictum by Lord Mansfield in the case of Rex v. Wilkes (T. B. Harbottle, Dictionary of Quotations [Classical], London, r897, p. 70). 4 Elizabeth Fields, whom Gordon had married in London (DAB) •

To Horatio Gates Dear Sir, Philadelphia, March rst, 1779 I cannot omit embracing the favorable opportunity which now offers to Boston of acknowledging to you the continuance of my friendship for you and your good family. The influence of a party drove me from public life. I now live wholly for the benefit of an amiable wife and two children, and of my patients. But from the vale into which I have descended I often look back upon those illustrious republicans with whom I engaged in the present contro[ 2.2.2. ]

2 JUNE

1779

versy with Great Britain. I see Lee and MifBin separated from the throng that occupy the summit of the mountain.-See! my good friend, how they beckon to you to retire into the background of the picture with them before you are thrust from your rank and degraded in your character by the slander and persecution which have ruined them. You have conquered an army and saved your country. The war is nearly over, so that you cannot retrieve your ill fortune nor atone for your crimes by losing a province or wasting an army hereafter. Nothing but a resignation can save your reputation or restore you again to the favor of the public. Miffiin and Lee (who are both at this time in Philadelphia) join in much love to you and best compliments to Mrs. Gates and Bob with, my dear sir, your sincere old friend and humble servant, BENJA RusH 1 tlt1S: Ne,w-York Historical Society, Gates Papers. 1

Ironical as it is in the light of Gates' defeat at Camden in 1 78o, this letter is more important as a measure of BR's disillusionment with the Revo-

lutionary cause. In motivation it is much more nearly treasonable than the unsigned letter to Patrick Henry written the year before.

To James McHenry Philadelphia, June 2nd, 1779 Dear Sir, 1 Dr. Cutting tells me from you that I am in your debt, and I believe him. Having nothing to communicate to you, I thought it would be criminal to call off your attention from your present line of business by reading a letter of ceremony or even friendship. This is my only excuse for neglecting so long to answer your polite favor 2 which I received above a year ago at Princetown. The newspapers will give you all the reports of the day. The address from the Congress to the States, it is feared, will serve to increase the depreciation of our money. 3 They whispered formerly a pompous secret about new alliances, a foreign loan, and a general peace. The address holds out very different ideas. After deluging us with money, they call upon us to make the first shore without furnishing us with a compass or boat for that purpose. Even the appointment of a committee to negotiate a foreign loan has affected the credit of the money. We believed that business was finished six months ago. We now know it cannot be accomplished in less than the same number of months from the present time, and we are sure before that time can arrive without a miracle the money [ 223 ]

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cannot circulate among us. There cannot be a greater calamity to a people than to transact business with an uncertain medium of tender. The Continental money is the offspring of all the vice in our country. Its quantity and the instability of its value would corrupt a community of angels. Instead of being the sinews of our war, it acts the part of warm water to the natural sinews of our opposition. It relaxes and enfeebles every social, civil, and military virtue. The resources of necessity, the Spaniards say, are without end. A general bankruptcy in my opinion would be a less evil than an attempt to finish the war with paper money upon its present footing. A committee formed by a town meeting in this city have undertaken to save the money by regulating the prices of goods. But this will be only a partial and temporary remedy. Besides, it will ruin commerce and check agriculture. It resembles a violent puke given to a man in the last stage of a consumption. It must agreeably to every principle of finance hasten the dissolution of the money. Nothing but the immediate application of a foreign loan can rescue it from destruction. These detached thoughts are the speculations of a closet, for I now converse with nobody but my patients, my books, an amiable wife, and a healthy boy and girl. I have shook hands (I hope) forever with public life. In my beloved retirement I have recovered the enjoyment of peace, independence, and happiness, none of which in the present distracted and corrupted state of this country are to be found in power or office. With sincere wishes for your health and happiness I am, dear sir, your affectionate old friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH .;fddressed: Dr: James McHenry Secretary to his Excellency Genl Washington Head Quarters. Dr Cutting. Printed: The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XXIX (1905), 58-9; t.MS: Walter R. Benjamin, Autographs, New York, 1945. 1 John Brown Cutting (d. 1831), of New York, was apothecary of the eastern department, 1777-1779, and of the middle department, 1779-1780; his testimony at the court-martial of Shippen in 17 8o alienated him from BR (Heitman, Register; BR to Adams, 9 July 1807). 2 Not located. 8 Congress on 26 May approved "an address to the several states on the present situation of affairs" which de-

nounced monopolists of provisions and justified the heavy new tax quotas (lour. Cont. Gong., XIV, 649-57; Evans, Bibl. Amer., No. 16636). For the financial difficulties of Congress and the steps taken to overcome them, see E. C. Burnett, The Continental Congress, N.Y., 1941, ch. XXII; for local events at this time, particularly the Radical price-regulating committees, mentioned below, see Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 69-72.

[ 224 ]

To John Morgan Sir, [June? I779P You desire to know the particulars of Dr. Shippen's trial and acquittal at Yorktown, and of certain charges said to be brought against him by me for maladministration as director general of the military hospitals. In answer to your request I beg leave to inform you that I never brought any direct charges against Dr. Shippen and that no trial or acquittal ever took place. Soon after my accepting the office of physician general of our military hospitals, I discovered many abuses in the department which I thought were owing to the imperfection of our hospital system. I complained of them only in secret to a few members of Congress, particularly to Mr. Jno. Adams, Colonel Walton, and Mr. Gerry, but without effecting a reformation in them. When these abuses rose to such a height as to threaten the loss of half our army by the negligence, waste, and peculation which prevailed in the purveying departments of the hospitals, I thought it my duty to complain of them publicly to Congress. I charged the extraordinary sickness, mortality, and waste of public stores chiefly upon the lax nature of our hospital system, a system which had been fabricated by Dr. Shippen and which tempted to fraud almost beyond the possibility of detection. The Congress, instead of OJ,"dering a committee of their body to repair to the hospitals to inquire into the truth of the facts I had commended to them, summonsed Dr. Shippen and myself to appear before them on January 26, 1778, at Yorktown. We both came. A committee consisting o£2 was appointed to hear us. I complained 1st of the abuses that existed in the hospitals. I informed them that our sick suffered and died from the want of air, clean linen, blankets, and proper food; that the hospitals were crowded and that a putrid fever had been generated in most of them which had proved fatal to many hundred of our soldiers in the last month; that our hospitals were without guards, which rendered it impossible to govern the convalescents or to prevent their relapsing when cured; that I had demanded all the above necessaries for the sick over and over but without obtaining them. I then objected to the hospital system, that it invested the purveying and directing business in the same hands, which was as absurd as if the commissary general and the supreme command of an army should be united in the same person; that Dr. Shippen required no vouchers for the expenditure of hospital stores, which gave the commissaries [ 225 ]

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and stewards of the hospital the most unlimited opportunities to defraud the public; that there was nothing to prevent the Director General from converting all the stores of the hospital to his own use; that while our sick were suffering from the want of madeira wine at Reading, he had sold six pipes upon his own account which he had transported thither among hospital stores in public wagons. I concluded my complaints by declaring that I was not actuated by the least personal resentment against Dr. Shippen; that my complaints arose from the purest affection to my country; and that while some members of Congress affected to ascribe all the abuses and distress of the hospital to a want of harmony between Dr. S. and myself, I had only to beg the public's pardon that I had lived so long in harmony with him; and that to have harmonized any longer with him would have been high treason against my country. The Doctor replied to most of these complaints by denying them. He owned that he had sold six pipes of wine upon his own account at Reading, and plead as a precedent for his making money by the directorship of the hospitals that Dr. Naper 3 made a large fortune during the last war by being director general of the British hospitals in America. Dr. W etherspoon, the chairman of the committee, asked me for my proofs of the charges I had brought against the administration of the hospitals and particularly against Dr. Shippen. I told him that my business and only wish was to get an alteration made in the hospital system and to have the purveying business taken out of Dr. Shippen's hands-that I did not come there to detect roguesthat that was the business of Congress-but that if the Congress would send a committee to the hospitals or order a court of inquiry to be held, I would produce proofs of all the facts I had related and of many more of a more heinous nature. This proposal had no effect upon the committee. They treated the complaints I made of the sufferings of their brave soldiers with neglect, and were easily persuaded to believe that all their misfortunes arose from a misunderstanding between Dr. Sand me. Mr. Lovell, I well remember, palliated the crime of transporting wine in public wagons by saying it was common in all the staff departments, and added that the suspicions which fell upon the Doctor's integrity fell upon everybody in every age and country that was trusted with public money. After what had passed before the committee between Dr. S. and me, the Doctor declared to several members of Congress that he could not serve any longer with me in the hospitals. Dr. Wetherspoon, who informed me of this declaration, asked me if I did not [ 226 ]

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intend to resign. I told him no-that General Roberdeau had told me that the system was to be altered and that the purveying business would be taken out of Dr. S.'s hands. He then told me that it was necessary that either S. or I should leave the hospitals, for that we never could be happy together. I told him I could answer for myself that I should never have another contradiction with him provided the sick were removed by a change in the system beyond the possibility of being injured by him. He then repeated a second time that one of us must leave the department, that I had made myself m.any enemies in Congress by complaining of Dr. Shippen, and that I had better resign. To this I answered that I was very indifferent about the number of my friends or enemies in Congress, that I accepted of a commission to serve the army and my country. But perceiving the design of this conversation, I bid him speak out. "Do not think," said I, "to terrify me into a resignation by the fear of being dismissed by the Congress. You have suffered enough in the opinion of the public by dismissing Dr. Morgan without a trial. I dare you to dismiss me in the same manner." The Doctor replied that he had no hand in Dr. M.'s dismission and that he had opposed it. Here he changed his ground and told me that I had been deceived with respect to the alterations to be made in the hospital system, that no material changes would be made in it, and that the purveying business would not be taken out of Dr. S.'s hands. This piece of information, coming from the chairman of the committee that was to report upon the subject of my complaints, had the desired effect, for as I saw no prospect of doing my duty or of giving satisfaction to my country while Dr. Shippen had the charge and direction of the hospital stores, I sat down about an hour after this conversation and enclosed my commission to the President of the Congress. It was delivered in by Dr. Wetherspoon and accepted unanimously. General Roberdeau, I was told, complained of my quitting the services of my country after the assurances he had given me that the system was to be altered agreeably to my wishes and the promise I had made of returning with cheerfulness again to my duty in the hospitals. Dr. Wetherspoon neglected to explain the reasons of the sudden change in my conduct. The General heard of them the same evening from another person who was a witness of what passed between Dr. W. and myself. I do not mean to insinuate a complaint against the General for the public censure he pronounced upon me. His conduct through the whole was candid, honest, and such as became a member of Congress and a guardian of the lives and happiness of his countrymen. [ 227 ]

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Soon after I had left Yorktown, I heard that Dr. Shippen triumphed as if he had been acquitted by the formal sentence of a court. I bore for several months4 to hear of these things, until a regard for my own character (for I was charged of having accused him falsely) overcame that regard for the Doctor's worthy connections and that pity for himself which had induced me to keep silence. I therefore wrote to General R. as a member of Congress and charged Dr. Shippen with malpractices, several of which I specified. A committee of Congress was appointed to inquire into the truth of these charges. But as the Doctor had two brothers-in-law in Congress,5 and as I had before experienced the partiality of a large body of the house to the Doctor, I objected to appearing before the committee at Yorktown, but offered to prosecute him before a courtmartial agreeably to a resolution of Congress for trying all the delinquent officers of the hospital by the Articles of War. My letter to the committee was laid before the Congress in June 1778, and instead of procuring an order for a military court was ordered to lie upon the table, and the Doctor continued to en joy as large a share as ever of his republican masters' favor. This is a general account of what has occurred respecting my impeachment of Dr. Shippen and his supposed acquittal. I congratulate you upon your better success in awakening the attention of the Congress so far to a sense of their duty as to procure an order for a court to inquire into Dr. Shippen's conduct during his directorship of the military hospitals. You will be obliged to wade through an ocean of iniquity. I hope justice will be done to the public. A sacrifice is necessary to atone for the many thousands of our brave countrymen who perished from the want of necessaries of all kinds in the hospitals of Bethlehem, Reading, Lancaster, Dunkers town, Yellow Springs, Princeton, Burlington, and Trenton. My heart bleeds at the recollection of the distresses (most of which were of an artificial nature) which I have seen in those hospitals without the power of relieving them. As I have no doubt of your success in fixing the guilt of neglecting and robbing our hospitals upon the person who has done both, I have only to assure you that no man will rejoice more in seeing justice done to his country than your most humble servant, 6 BENJN Rusa tMS (draft) : Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

On 12. June I 779 Congress, after many months of deliberation and delay,

expressed its satisfaction with the conduct of Dr. John Morgan, former di-

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3 JULY 1779 rector general of hospitals, who had been relieved of his duties 9 Jan. 1777 (Jour. Cont. Gong., XIV, 724, and note). Three days later Morgan moved against the man who had displaced him, charging Dr. William Shippen, Jr., with misconduct in office and offering to appear against him in the proper court. Congress at once instructed Washington to have Morgan's charges investigated (same, p. 733). Then followed more months of delay, during which Morgan gathered evidence and bombarded both Congress and the Commander in Chief with appeals for action. The present letter, which contains the most circumstantial account of BR's resignation available, was probably written soon after Congress authorized the formal inquiry but before I 7 July, when BR, responding to a further request by Morgan, enumerated the charges against Shippen on which he would be willing to testify. The recipient's copy of the letter of I 7 July has not been found; contemporary copies are in L.C., Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 63, p. 15 1-4, and Washington Papers, xcm, 269; it has been printed by Duncan in Medical Men of the Amer. Rev., p.

294. For the Shippen court-martial, see BR to Mrs. Rush, 17 Mch. 1780. 2 For the names of the members, see note on BR's letter to President Laurens, 25 Jan. 1778. 3 I.e., James Napier, who was appointed first surgeon and director of the British military hospital in North America by Lord Loudoun, r 757 ; lived in New York City after the war; knighted, 1 77 8, as superintendent general of all the hospitals in Jamaica for the forces in North America (Stanley Pargellis, ed., Military Affairs in North America, z748-z765, N.Y. and London, I936, p. 346, 366; W. W. MacBean, Biographical Register of Saint Andrews Society of the State of New York, N.Y., I922I925, I, 45; Wm. A. Shaw, The Knights of England, London, I 906, II, 29 5). 4 An overstatement; BR's letter to Roberdeau was sent on I9 Mch. I778, seven weeks after BR's resignation. 5 Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee. 6 The draft was docketed by BR as follows: "Motives and reasons for my resignation in I 77 8-in a letter to Dr. Morgan."

To John Dunlap, with a Speech Which Ought to Be Spoken to Congress on the Subject of Inflation 1

Mr. Dunlap, [Philadelphia, 3 July r779] I recollect to have read some time ago a SPEECH in the Packet which ought to be spoken in Congress upon the subject of the Continental money. 2 I beg you would give the following SPEECH which ought to be spoken to the Congress a place in your useful paper, and you will oblige yours, LEONIDAS.

Gentlemen, Impressed with a sense of that dignity which you derive from the nature of your power over this country, I should feel myself overcome with the sight of my audience, did I not consider myself [ 229 ]

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as one of the people from whom you derive your authority. Let the subjects of monarchs tremble at the feet of their sovereigns. It is the glory of the citizens of America to approach their rulers with very different emotions. We consider government as instituted only for our happiness. We therefore invert the systems of government which are now established in Europe, and instead of addressing you as masters, I presume in the name of all the honest whigs in America to address you as the sERVANTs of the public upon a subject of the utmost importance to the safety and liberties of this country. I perceive, by your late publication, 8 that you are no strangers to the low value of your money. But why have you delayed so long to complain of this evil to your constituents? Why has the disease been suffered to run on to its last stage before you raised the cry of danger in the ears of your country? Alas! it is in vain to blame the arts of your enemies or the infamous practices of monopolizers and forestallers. The present depreciated state of your money must be traced only to the mistakes of the Congress. It is true, after you had emitted a certain sum, you instituted loan offices to borrow money upon the credit of the United States. But could you expect, while the press was kept laboring night and day, that any number of men would lend you money when, by realizing it in the most trifling article of merchandise, they might in a few months double their nominal sum? Had you stopped the press and at the same time called upon your constituents for loans, I have no doubt but with economy you might have carried on the war to the present day with not more than thirty millions of dollars in circulation. But I hasten to point out those defects in your management of the affairs of this country which have had the principal effect in depreciating your money. 1. You have committed the expenditure of your money to too many hands. Had you made the PRINCIPALS of each of the staff departments alone responsible for the expenditure of public money, you might have saved millions to the Continent, but by trusting every deputy of the departments you have multiplied the temptations and opportunities of peculation in proportion to the number of deputies in each of them. 2. You have been too negligent in the choice of the officers to whom you have committed the treasure of your country. You have acted as if you thought there was no connection between private and public virtue. How many of your officers have been called from billiard tables and taverns to execute the most important com[ 230 ]

3 JULY 1779 missions under you! These are the men who have reduced the value of your money. How could you expect the public to esteem it when they saw it entrusted to such hands? 3· You have neglected to call for frequent settlement of the accounts of officers in the staff department. Hence have arisen leisure and opportunities for embezzlement and fraud. This negligence has not only increased the quantity of money but has been the means of continuing men in office who, if a speedy and strict scrutiny had been made into their accounts, would long ago have been dismissed from the service of their country. 4· What shall I say of the commissions you have allowed to the quartermasters and commissaries with all their hosts of deputies? It was a bounty offered by Congress to ruin the money. Read the Journals of your House for April, May, and June 1778. They contain little else than grants of millions of dollars to your quartermasters and commissaries. I am far from impeaching every man who handles public money, but look into this and the neighboring states and see the change in the manners of most of the deputies in the staff departments. Come with me to a vendue. The man of ancient patrimonial estate is outbid for everything by an assistant deputy quartermaster's clerk. See him lay down his-I retract the word-your ten thousands for a farm. There is no end to his purchases. And unless you put a stop to the amazing perquisites of your staff officers, I expect in a few years to see the delegates of Congress the tenants of their own quartermasters and commissaries. When this shall happen, I hope you will be taught frugality and find some of your present officers as hard masters as they were unfaithful servants, as a just punishment upon you for the temptations and opportunities you threw in their way of acquiring fortunes at the expense of their country. 5. You have in jured your money by neglecting too long to recommend taxation to the states, and by substituting in the room of it the palliative remedy of laws for regulating the prices of goods. These laws must ever be partial and temporary in their operation. They moreover defeat themselves by relaxing the springs of enterprise and industry. You might as well attempt to prevent the rising of the tide of yonder Delaware by a resolution of Congress as to prevent the depreciation of your money by laws for regulating the prices of goods. If these laws were capable of execution, they would prove instantly fatal to the two pillars of our opposition, agriculture and commerce. I shall say nothing of the resolution of January 2d for calling the [ 231 ]

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emissions of May 20, 1777, and April II, 1778, out of circulation.' The feelings of your constituents rebelled at first sight against the measure of striking forty millions of dollars dead in their hands at one blow. It is too well known that your money has langvished ever since beneath the weight of this ill-judged resolution. Like a girl whose character has been suspected, it comes forward with diffidence into company, and in some places owes its good reception in the world more to the bullying of its cullies than to a conviction of its intrinsic merit. Having pointed out the causes of the depreciation of your money, I go on to show the evils it has produced in this country. And here, had I a thousand tongues, they would not be sufficient to exhaust the subject. It is the source of all the monopolizing and forestalling on the continent. Speculation in every class and profession of people is the natural offspring of the progressive depreciation of your money. The extravagance and luxury of the times are occasioned by nothing but the low value which is set upon your money. By your feeble attempts to support it you have established iniquity and unrighteousness by law. See yonder poor widow surrounded with a family of children! Mark her distracted countenance! Her orphans are crying for bread, and she has none to give them. She has spent the last dollar of a handsome principal which she was compelled to receive at the rate of one shilling in the pound. Alas! gentlemen, you have taught us to repent of our frugality and to lament over the remains of our integrity as the only obstacles that have laid in the way of our interest and happiness. In a word, the laws of God and the ties of consanguinity-even a saint's religion, a soldier's honor, and a brother's friendship-are hardly sufficient to protect us from fraud in all our contracts with Continental money. Where are the men who filled these seats in the year 1774? Where is the spirit of the illustrious RANDOLPH who presided over your counsels in the golden age of the controversy? 5 Happy soul! in being taken away before thou wast obliged to witness the degeneracy of the countrymen. Oh! (if a visit to thy once beloved countrv will not mar thy happiness) descend and inspire every member of this House with thy zeal for the honor of our cause, thy industry and punctuality in business, thy dignity and magnanimity in debates, thy perfect freedom from party and colonial attachments, and with all thy other national virtues, which have placed thee upon an equality with the first characters of antiquity and which will transmit thy name with theirs to the last posterity! [ 232 ]

3 July 1779 I come now to mention those things which alone can restore the credit of your money and secure to you the esteem and confidence of your countrymen. 1. Let it be your first care to do justice to the widow and orphan. You acknowledge the depreciation of your money every time you assent to a report from your treasury board, and yet you suffer resolutions to remain unrepealed which recommend laws for making it pass for equal nominal sums in bonds and debts at the old valuation of money. For Heaven's sake, let not our most righteous cause be any longer tarnished with such shocking in justice. I am not disposed to pry too much into the secrets of the divine government of our country, but I will risk the charge of superstition in asserting that I believe the in justice which has been committed under the sanction of law to the helpless members of our community is one of the principal reasons why the Supreme Being has so long kept back from us the blessings of peace and why he has made this summer so big with all the calamities of war. 2. As the quantity of your money is the source of its depreciation, let me con jure you immediately to stop your presses. Every dollar you emit after the present day is replete with poison to the liberties and virtue of our country. The first hand that touches it proves the falsehood of its denomination. You have not a moment to lose in doing this most necessary business. I shall pause while you dispatch a messenger to your printing offices to put a stop to the manufactory of dollars. The news of this measure will be more welcome to your constituents than the news of an hundred new alliances without it. I have no doubt but that it will immediately raise the value of your money 4 or 500 percent. 3· Open loan offices in every county and in every township in every state in the Union. Let men be employed to persuade the citizens of America to deposit their money in your funds. And as an encouragement to lenders, give 8 percent to every man who lends you above 2o,ooo pounds, and 7 percent to every man who lends above IO,ooo pounds. Be assured there will be real economy in this measure, and your constituents will thank you for it. 4· Instantly negotiate a foreign loan. I am no stranger to the offer of money that has been made to you by one of the wealthiest nations in Europe. 8 To contend about the manner of applying it, or about the persons the most suitable to be sent for it, is as absurd as if a man should employ an hour or two in disputing with a crowd about the most suitable kind of water to put out a fire that was consuming his dwelling house. Should you draw bills upon [ 233 ]

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your commissioners to the amount of six millions of Spanish dollars, you might immediately reduce the debt to a moderate compass, and by reducing the quantity of money in circulation prevent a great deal of that mischief which arises from the great disproportion between the quantity of money now and formerly among us. If your foreign loan could be converted into such goods as would suit the American market, and imported under a safe convoy, they might be sold to a great advantage, and the money arising from the sales might be lodged in your treasury or committed to the flames according to the success you meet with in your domestic loans. 5. If these hints are duly improved, taxation will become a useful remedy in appreciating your money. But without stopping the press, and without loans upon other principles than those already established, taxation will serve only to sink the value of your money. The farmer and landholder will immediately put the tax you demand from them upon their produce and houses. But 6. Nothing will do without a total change in the staff departments. Quick as the thunder follows the lightning, let reformation follow abuses, and punishment the crimes of your delinquent officers. Let it never be said that a single defaulter of public money found a patron or advocate within these walls. I believe your hands are perfectly clean. Nay, I will go further and add that your sacrifices of private interest and domestic happiness entitle you to the highest praise of your country, but if we were to judge of your characters by your conduct towards some public culprits who have been charged with the grossest frauds, we should have reason to suspect that you were paid for your lenity by drawing a share with them in the plunder of your country. Hark the roaring of cannon!-joyful sound! They proclaim the safe arrival of a fleet loaded with European and West-India goods. The navy of Britain that once spread terror and desolation along your coasts beheld their triumphant entry into our bay without daring to oppose them. Cast your eyes out of yonder windows. See! our harbor crowded with shipping, many of which have just been taken from our enemies. Read our newspapers, and behold the triumphs of our great ally in the Channel of England. The navy of France rises superior to the once irresistible navy of Britain. In a word, everything from without wears a most flattering aspect. Our independence is as firmly established as the mountains of Alleghany, and our situation gives us a right to demand an honorable peace. But, alas! what avail these things? Your money-your money will [ 234 ]

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a

render independence a misfortune, and peace curse to this country. Liberty-Liberty, thou once adored but now neglected object of our wishes!-Liberty, I say, can only be maintained by virtue. We fought for independence only because we thought the liberties of America could never be safe or perpetual in a reunion with Great Britain. Independence therefore is not the end of the present struggle; it is only one1 of the means of establishing our liberties, and even peace itself is not the object of the present war. It is LIBERTY. And you might as well think of preserving animal life in a burning volcano as to think of preserving liberty in the society or neighborhood of your money. I have fears within me that I am almost afraid to utter. None of you can be unacquainted with the depravity of morals and manners that preceded the overthrow of the Commonwealth of Rome. The effects of universal vice are the same whether produced by plentiful emissions of money or by the artful designs of a Marius or Sylla. Are you sure we have no Caesars nor Cromwells in this country? Are your new governments equal to all the exigencies of the states? Have not the committees now establishing among us arisen from the mischiefs that have been introduced by the quantity of your money? What is their tendency? Do they not lead to the necessity of more arbitrary governments than by fixed laws and constitutions? But I must quit this subject. Let your own knowledge in history and of human nature supply the- rest. Rouse then, gentlemen, to a sense of the danger of these infant states that are committed to your care. Let us read something more than "Yeas" and "Nays" and questions for recommitting and postponing business in your Journals. Your money-your moneydemands every thought and every hour. You have more to dread from this quarter than you have from the hosts of Britons, Hessians, New Levies, Refugees, Indians, and Negroes that are now in arms against you. I con jure you, therefore, immediately to bind yourselves to each other by an oath not to eat, drink, or sleep until you have arrested your money in its progress toward destruction and fixed it upon a permanent foundation. Printed: Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), 3 July 1779. 1

This pseudonymous communication is here first credited to BR. It could be assigned to him with some confidence merely on the basis of internal evidence: it is in the wholly unrestrained style of most of his strictures on public officers and policies; it deals with monetary

depreciation and attempts at price control exactly as BR deals with them elsewhere (compare particularly his letter to McHenry, z June 1779); it thrusts at administrative incompetence and wastefulness (with Director General of the Hospitals William Shippen ob-

[ 235 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION viously in mind) ; and it contains rhetorical devices and turns of phrase characteristic of BR's writing generally. In addition, however, there is external evidence tending to confirm BR's authorship. A few weeks later he contributed another letter (on the French alliance) to the Packet over the signature of "Leonidas" ; this letter is not printed here, but BR acknowledged his authorship in a letter to John Adams, 12 Oct. 1779, q.v. In 1782 BR published several more communications (on various public issues) in the Penna. Journal and employed the same pen name; one of these is printed below under date of 4 July 1782. 2 This "Speech," signed "A Customer," appeared in Dunlap's Packet on 27 Mch. 1779. It dealt with financial policy and advocated a foreign loan. It seems not to have caused a ripple in Congress, but the case was very different with "Leonidas' " speech to Congress, which stirred up a brief tempest. In Henry Laurens' Notes of Proceedings in Congress is the following passage, endorsed "Leonidas and Co. in Congress 3d July 1779": "Mr. Gerry said he spoke to privilidge, and stopt the reading of Public Dispatches. Complained of an insult offered to Congress by a Publication in Dunlap's Paper of this day, introduced under the Signature Leonidas, among which BR's letter to Boudinot of 9 Dec. I 8o2 (at fol. 46, not printed in the present collection) gives the fullest account of the Mint contention. Of the letters below bearing on Boudinot, see especially BR to Adams, 5 Apr. I8o8. 8 Susan Vergereau Boudinot (I 764I 854), later Mrs. William Bradford (Boudinot, Boudinot, n, 392). For BR's high opinion of her character and conduct, see his letter to Boudinot of 30 Jan. I78I. 4 James Tilton (I745-I822), of Delaware; M.D., College of Philadelphia, I 77 I ; served throughout the war in the hospital department; delegate to Congress, I783-I785; physician and surgeon general of the army, I 8 I 3 ; author of the important Economical Observations on Military Hospitals, Wilmington, I 8 I 3 (DAB) . 5 Probably Thomas Bond, Sr., M.D.

[ 249 ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION (1712-1784), long prominent on the Philadelphia medical scene; he instigated the plan of the Pennsylvania Hospital and gave the first course of clinical lectures there, 1766 (DAB). 6 William Claypoole, of Philadelphia, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1775, was apprenticed to BR, 177817 8 z, and afterwards settled at Wilmington, N.C. (Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., 1908; BR's MS List of Apprentices; BR to Claypoole, 2.9 July 1782.; Claypoole to BR, 12 Apr. 1787, Rush MSS, XXIV). 7 James Hall (d. x8ox), son of Elihu Hall, the Rushes' friend in Cecil co., Md., was apprenticed to BR in 1779, spent a period of study abroad, and was briefly BR's partner, 1784-1787; he afterwards practised in York, but returned to Philadelphia, and did not

prosper (BR's MS List of Apprentices; Hall's letters to BR, 1783-1797, Rush MSS, VII, XLIII; BR to Mrs. Rush, 2.72.8 June 1787; Autobiography, p. 86, 2.55-7). s Not identified. 9 Presumably Susan Boudinot (see note 3, above) and Susan ("Sukey") Stockton, Mrs. Rush's younger sister, later Mrs. Alexander Cuthbert, who frequently stayed with the Rushes in Philadelphia (Stockton, Stockton Family, p. 45). One of the Susans may, however, be Susan Hall, BR's cousin; see BR to Mrs. Ferguson?, 16 July 1782.. lO MS torn by seal. BR now had a second child, Emily, or Anne Emily, born 1 Jan. 1779; died x85o. She became Mrs. Ross Cuthbert and is frequently alluded to in BR's later letters (Biddle, Memorial, p. 2.42.-3).

1

To John Foulke

Dear Sir, April 25th, 1780 I sit down agreeable to the request with which you have honored me, to suggest to you a few hints before your departure in order to enfl,ble you to spend your time in the most profitable manner while you are abroad. The advice I shall give you is founded chiefly upon what I lost, not what I gained during my absence from home. I shall first say a few things that relate to your improvement as a man, and then add what I think will contribute most to improve you in your profession. I. Take leave of all your old acquaintances when you leave home. 2. Keep a diary, and insert in it the names of the persons you associate with every day, their professions, rank, and character, together with all the remarkable anecdotes, facts, and even opinions that fall from them in conversation. 3· Make yourself acquainted with the names, &c., of the most distinguished characters belonging to the pulpit, bar, and stage in every place you visit. 4· Attend shows of all kinds, and describe in your journal the most trifling of them. 5. In your visits to great men, attend to all their peculiarities, and record them. [ 250 ]

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5 APRIL 1780

6. Endeavor to get lodgings in reputable families, and make yourself intimate with them. 7· Attend particularly to numbers in your descriptions of persons or things. Don't confine yourself to inhabitants of towns or countries under this head; extend your ideas to classes, professions, and occupations of men, including even barbers, shoeboys, &c. 8. Visit every kind of manufactory, and describe them accurately in a book made for that purpose. Find out the price of each article at its delivery from the place of its manufactory. 9· Keep a journal of your expenses regarding only gross sums. Preserve all your accounts, even to tavern bills, as vouchers of your expenditures. IO. Spend an hour every day for 3 months in receiving lessons from some principal dancing-master. IO. Attend lectures on natural philosophy as well as on all the branches of medicine. Take short notes, but don't transcribe them. I 1. Attend the most celebrated hospitals. Record the recipes and modes of practice that are new or even common of each physician and surgeon, together with the most fashionable, I do not say powerful, medicines. I 2. Gain access to and cultivate an intimacy with a few eminent physicians and surgeons. You will profit more by asking them questions in a few hours than by attending hospital practice for years. IJ. Converse freely with quacks of every class and sex, such as oculists, aurists, dentists, corn cutters, cancer doctors, &c., &c. You cannot conceive how much a physician with a liberal mind may profit from a few casual and secret visits to these people. I4. Pick up your library on stalls or second-hand book stores, but buy no book without knowing its character. I 5. Gain access to some chemical elaboratory and apothecary's shop, and spend a few hours daily in each for some weeks. I 6. During your absence write often to your friends and to persons of distinction in your native city. Let all your letters be of such a nature that they will not in jure you by being read in public companies or handed through a neighborhood. I 7. Establish correspondences with men of learning and virtue in every place you leave. I 8. Renew your acquaintance with all your friends by visiting them as soon as you come home. 2 !MS (draft): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4-· [ 25I ]

A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION 1

John Foulke (1757-1796), of a Quaker family, graduated M.B. at the University of the State of Pennsylvania, 178o; studied and traveled in France, Germany, and Holland; afterwards lectured on natural philosophy in Philadelphia, was on the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and a fellow of the College of Physicians (H. M. Lippincott, "Dr. John Foulke, 1780, a Pioneer

in Aeronautics," General Magazine and Historical Chronicle, XXXIV [I 9 3 I1932], 525-33; BR to John Adams, 28 Apr. 1780), 2 A note at the end o£ this draft states that a copy of the same letter was sent or handed to Dr. Samuel Powel Griffitts when he went abroad in the following year.

To John Adams My dear Friend, Philadelphia, April 28th, 1780 This letter will be handed to you by Dr. John Foulke (a graduate in our University), a young gentleman of a respectable Quaker family who goes to France to finish his studies in medicine. He is a youth of a fair character and promising abilities, and friendly to the liberties of his country. It gave me great pleasure to hear of your safe arrival and favorable reception in Spain. 1 We long to hear of your entering upon the business of your embassy. I almost envy your children the happiness of calling that man their father who, after contributing his share towards giving liberty and independence, will finally be honored as the instrument of restoring peace to the united States of America. Our affairs wear their usual checkered aspect. Our governments are daily acquiring new strength. Our army, which I saw a few weeks ago at Morristown, has improved greatly since our former correspondence in discipline, economy, and healthiness. The number of our soldiers is small, occasioned not by a decay of the military or whiggish spirit among us, but by the want of money to purchase recruits. The new scheme of Congress for calling in the circulating money at 40 to I will I believe be adopted with some alterations by the states. This will we hope restore to our counsels and arms the vigor of I775· The French Alliance is not less dear to the true whigs than independence itself. The Chevalier de la Luzerne has made even the tories forget in some degree, in his liberality and politeness, the Meschianzas 2 of their British friends. Monsieur Gerard is still dear to the faithful citizens of America. We call him the "republican minister." Charlestown is in jeopardy, 8 but we believe all things will work [ 252 ]

13 JULY 1780 together for good for those who love the good old cause, the cause not to be repented of. Commerce and agriculture flourish in spite of the power of Britain by land and water, and even Pensylvania enjoys a temporary security for property and life under her new Constitution. Adieu. Compliments to Mr. Dana. Yours-yours-yours, BENJN RusH Addressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: (of the United States} now at Paris. &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 Adams had landed at Ferro!, Spain, on 8 Dec. 1779 (DAB). 2 For the celebrated Meschianza, or Mischianza, a pageant held by the British officers in Philadelphia as a farewell tribute to Sir William Howe in

May 1778, see Scharf & Westcott, I, 3 77-82, and Winthrop Sargent, The Life and Career of Major John Andre, ed. William Abbatt, N.Y., 1902, ch. IX. 8 See note on the following letter.

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 13th, 1780 The reduction (I will not say loss) of Charlestown 1 has produced a new era in the politics of America, such as you and I saw and felt and admired in the years 177 5 and 76. Our republics cannot exist long in prosperity. We require adversity and appear to possess most of the republican spirit when most depressed. The papers will inform you of the exploits of our governments, of our citizens, of our soldiers, and even of our ladies. If there is a single philosopher in the cabinet of St. James's; he will advise immediately to make peace with America. "The Romans govern the world," said Cato, "but the women govern the Romans." The women of America have at last become principals in the glorious American controversy. Their opinions alone and their transcendent influence in society and families must lead us on to success and victory. My dear wife, who you know in the beginning of the war had all the timidity of her sex as to the issue of the war and the fate of her husband, was one of the ladies employed to solicit benefactions for the army. She distinguished herself by her zeal and address in this business, and is now so thoroughly enlisted in the cause of her country that she reproaches me with lukewarmness. 2 Mr. Searle will inform you of what is going forward within doors. His zeal and integrity in the service of America, and of Pensylvania in particular, entitle him to

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the good offices and regard of all the friends of liberty on your side the water.-Adieu. From, my dear friend, yours most sincerely, BENJN RuSH tllfS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 Charleston, S.C., fell to a British force under Admiral Arbuthnot and Sir Henry Clinton early in May 1780 (Carrington, Battles of the Amer. Rev., ch. LXIII), 2 BR refers to a remarkable but little known episode in the Revolution-perhaps the earliest instance of what has become commonplace in modern "total war," namely, the mobilization of women's efforts in support of armies at the front. The movement in 1780, which was under the patronage of Mrs. Washington and the wives of the respective

governors, extended throughout the states, but the documentation for what may be called the "drive" in Philadelphia is uniquely complete. The correspondence of Mrs. Governor Reed relating to solicitation in the city is printed in Reed's Reed, n, 260-70, and the actual returns (including that for Mrs. Rush's "team") are given in an appendix to that work, p. 428-49. a On Searle's mission in Europe, see Mildred E. Lombard, "James Searle: Radical Business Man of the Revolution," PMHB, LIX (1935), 284-94•

To John Adams My dear Friend,

Philadelphia, August 25th, 1780 Behold the fruits of the French Alliance! Our young men no longer look upon Great Britain as their home or mother country, but turn their eyes entirely to France for all the purposes of business and knowledge. The bearer of this letter, Mr. Wm. West/ a young merchant of excellent character and of a respectable Quaker family, waits upon you with a proof of this assertion. I beg leave to recommend him to your particular notice and patronage. He will thank you for advice and information in everything that relates to his business or company. We are exhibiting to the world a new phenomenon in the history of nations. We are carrying on a war without its sinews. We raise, clothe, and feed whole armies without money. This must be in part ascribed to our patriotism and in part to the force of our governments, both of which circumstances have a favorable aspect upon the permanency of liberty in our country. We wait only for the arrival of the 2nd division of the French fleet to open the siege of New York. It is reported that it has been twice seen off the banks of Newfoundland. Our troops live with the French army as brothers -a thing unknown to Britons and Americans when they fought together. General Gates, who you know is used to creating armies, is doing [ 254 ]

23 OCTOBER 1780 wonders in the southern states. We expect every day to hear of Lord Cornwallis being confined to the sands of Charlestown. 2 Commerce and agriculture flourish among us in spite of embargoes and the regulation of prices. Nothing but a premature peace can ruin our country. Adieu. From your most affectionate humble servant, BENJN RusH

P.S. As you associate with academicians, I must give you a word for them. The heat of the weather in the shade has been for several days from 93 up to 95o of Farenheit's thermometer within these three weeks. Many have died from drinking cold water,S and a few have expired suddenly without labor or exercise from the excessive heat. &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

Not clearly identifiable. These hopes were shortly dashed to the ground; see note on the battle of Camden in the following letter to Adams. 2

s This was a subject that long engaged BR's attention; see BR to the Humane Society of Massachusetts, 9 Mch. 1793.

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 23, 1780 The discovery of Arnold's treachery, and the new Bennington Affair in the South,1 have given fresh hopes and spirits to the whigs. We had forgotten former deliverance under our late losses and mortifications. But we now find that Providence is on our side and that our independence is as secure as the everlasting mountains. We have discovered at last that God means we should live only from hand to mouth, to keep us more dependent upon his power and goodness. Our citizens are not wholly corrupted, our officers are experienced, and our soldiers are brave. We want nothing but wisdom in our Congress to collect and direct properly the strength of our country. The representation of Pensylvania in Assembly, which had degenerated to a very low degree, has improved considerably at the last election. Our men of education and ancient influence begin to take part in our governments, so that we hope soon to see the spirit, union, and dignity of I 77 5 revived among us. Our friends in Europe have nothing to fear from anything that can now happen to us. If our stock of virtue should ever fail us,

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there are certain passions in human nature which will form as effectual barriers against British power as our virtue did in the beginning of the controversy. There is pride and ambition enough in certain individuals of your acquaintance to rescue this country from the dominion of King George if the people should even incline to submit to it. But the latter is impossible. Our streets ring with nothing but the execrations of Arnold, whose treachery had for its object the subjugation and conquest of America. Your old friend Gates is now suffering, not for his defeat at Camden2 but for taking General Burgoyne, a persecution from a faction in Congress. His officers acquit him. They say he did his duty and deserved praise. He is to be tried for this misfortune at a time when he is deploring the loss of his only son (a most promising youth), who died a few weeks ago. 8 With respectful compliments to Mr. Dana, I am, my dear sir, yours most affectionately, BENJN RusH vfddressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: at Passy near Paris Capt: Bell. t711S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 Arnold's flight to the Vulture had British regulars (Carrington, Battles of occurred on 25 Sep., two days after the Amer. Rev., p. po-x). 2 Cornwallis' Andre had been apprehended; for the defeat of the main most authoritative account of Arnold's southern army under Gates at Camden, treason, see Van Doren, Secret History, S.C., occurred on 16 Aug. 1780 (Carch. VI-XV. The "new Bennington" must rington, Battles of the Amer. Rev., p. have been the battle of King's Mountain 513-18; Patterson, Gates, ch. xv). 8 The circumstances of Robert Gates' in South Carolina, 8 Oct. 178o, in which local militia under frontier-bred death are not known (Patterson, Gates, officers cut to pieces a detachment of p. 3 1 9).

1

To William Shippen

November 18th [I78o] It is with reluctance that I am obliged to appear in a newspaper controversy with a man of your unworthy character. I am well aware of the advantage you will have over me in point of leisure. While every hour of my time is employed in discharging the duties of my profession, you have nothing to do, from the manner in which you execute or rather hold your present office, but to transcribe the depositions of your stewards and commissaries. The regard I bear your worthy connections obliges me to lament that you have forced me to contribute my mite towards exposing

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18 NOVEMBER 1780 your crimes and awaking against you the resentment of your plundered country. Had you been well advi~ed, you would have avoided a public scrutiny into your conduct by resigning your commission and retiring with your blushing honors thick upon you. But you were permitted by heaven to continue in office, that public infamy (the worst of all punishments) might supply the place of public justice. I am much obliged to you for the extracts you have published from my letters written to you in the summer of the year 1776.2 They prove that I entered into the hospital department with you with prejudices in your favor, and that the rupture between us was occasioned only by your gross negligence of your duty and by your consuming and selling those stores which were proper and necessary for the hospitals. It is to no purpose for you to attempt to persuade the public that I used indirect measures with witnesses to induce them to appear against you. You know that I had no sinecures or rations of coffee, sugar, wine, spirits, and forage to lavish upon them. How far a plentiful allowance of these articles have 8 influenced your witnesses, the following extract of a letter from Dr. Otto/ the most respectable of them, will sufficiently show. It was received three weeks before he subscribed the certificate of the wants of the hospital at Trenton and of your neglect to supply them. The original letter is lodged with the printers of this paper. "I BEG I may be supplied with articles in the enclosed list, which things stand in very necessity o£.5 I shall take the greatest care to do my duty in the important office here to which you were pleased to appoint me, and all orders shall be punctually obeyed by, respected sir, your obedient and very humble servant, Booo Orro, Surgeon." The articles mentioned in the above list were the same which he declares in his certificate to be wanting in the hospital. His application to me is a proof that he had applied to you for them to no purpose, for he well knew that it was no more my business to furnish those articles than it was to provide beef and flour for the army. I take it for granted that the Attorney General of the State will take proper notice of this man's deposition. He knows the name and punishment of his crime. You mistake in supposing by this public attack upon your conduct in office that any reflection is intended upon the court that tried you, although I see no reason why the decisions of a military court

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in a free country ought not to be as subject to a public examination as the decisions of a civil court or the proceedings of a legislature. Considering the amazing number of your witnesses, and the unblushing manner in which many of them performed the evolutions you had taught them, I am surprised at the sentence of your courtmartial. They gave you only a cold acquittal of four of the charges against you, and this in all armies is considered only as a merciful construction of evidence. But they found you guilty of speculation. They convicted you of a crime against which the resolutions of Congress, the force of laws, the virtue of the army, the declamations of patriots, and the rage of mobs have been uniformly directed since the beginning of the war. The rules and articles of war provide no punishment for this crime: the court left this to the Congress and expected it would be severe and exemplary. I am told they were much disappointed and shocked with the news of your reappointment, and join with the other officers and surgeons of the army in considering their commissions as less valuable since the Congress have conferred a new one upon you. I have the highest respect for the public authority of our country; but I am satisfied that the safety of our infant republic consists in keeping a watchful eye over our rulers and in exposing their faults with a manly freedom. I am led here unwillingly to declare that the Congress threw every possible obstruction and delay for two years in the way of your being brought to a trial. At last you were dragged from their arms to appear before a court-martial. When the proceedings of the court were read in Congress, a sense of duty and justice for a while prevailed in the house. The Congress saw you lounging nine months in twelve in Philadelphia, an hundred miles distant from your hospitals, and therefore were forced to believe the proofs that were brought of your neglect of hospital duty. They were moreover better acquainted with the private characters of the witnesses in behalf of the United States than the gentlemen of the army who tried you; and, in spite of their partiality for you, nine states out of eleven refused to confirm the sentence of the court-martial. 6 The pensive genius of American liberty raised her eyes from the ground to read the vote, and a momentary joy irradiated her countenance, while peculation and every other species of public fraud grew pale and trembled for their fate. But the joy of virtue and the fears of vice were of short duration: the Congress soon relapsed into their ancient habits of favoritism. Whether it was the effects of their own madeira, issued to them at your own table, I will not pretend to say, but they repented of their virtue and re-

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18 NOVEMBER 1780 elected you director general of their hospitals. I am told only seven states concurred in your disgraceful appointment. I wish, for the honor of republican virtue, that the eastern states and the State of Pennsylvania, who pursued General Arnold for speculating in dry goods and who voted for the recalling of Mr. Deane on a report of his speculating in the British funds, had been among the six virtuous states who opposed your election. It requires no spirit of prophecy to add that, unless you are dismissed and the delegates who voted for you discovered and changed, it will not be in the power of foreign alliances or loans to save our country. In spite of them both, and even of the miracles and munificence of heaven, we must be undone people. Let not the friends of our union be offended by the freedom of these strictures upon Congress. The old maxim of dividing and conquering does not apply to the present circumstances of America. We must divide, or we shall be conquered. The speculator in office and the trimmer in power must be separated from the faithful servant of the public and the upright ruler of the people. The enemy are more encouraged to prosecute the war by that lust for gain which has at last contaminated some of our public officers than ever they have been by our parties and disputes. They have seen, by the success of a late experiment, how much the prostitution of rank and office to the purposes of speculation debases the heart and prepares it for seduction and treachery. I do not mean by this digression to insinuate that Sir Harry Clinton will ever tempt you with wagonloads of stores proper for hospitals, as he did General Arnold with the favorite articles of his speculations. It will be more natural for him to pass the speculator by and beset with his temptations those members of Congress who sanctified and rewarded his crime. Your injured country, which you have robbed above a thousand of its citizens by your negligence and inhumanity; the parents and children of those brave men whom you suffered to perish without honor or benefit to their country in your hospitals; and the graveyards of Bethlehem, Reading, Lancaster, Leditz [Lititz], PrinceTown, and Philadelphia, all of which you have crowded with the bodies of your countrymen, cry aloud for your dismission from office. You have become the butt of the camp, the jest of taverns, and the contempt of the coffeehouse. Women bedew the papers that contain the tales of your cruelties to the sick with their tears; and children who hear them read ask if you are made and look like other men. Your crimes, I believe, have been equaled in other countries.

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Lord Clive committed depredations upon human nature equally shocking with those you committed upon the soldiers of the United States. Even your acquittal is not without precedents in the annals of history. Men have been found in all countries who have prostituted their consciences for much less favors than you had conferred upon your witnesses. But your reappointment to your present high and important office, after the crimes you have committed, is a new phenomenon in the history of mankind. It will serve like a highwater mark to show posterity the degrees of corruption that marked the present stage of the American Revolution. BENJAMIN RusH 'Printed: Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), 1

This is the first of several contributions by BR to the controversy between John Morgan and William Shippen, conducted in the columns of the Pennsylvania Packet from Sep. to Dec. I 78o, reviewing in exhaustive detail Shippen's trial by court-martial; see BR's letter to Mrs. Rush, I 7 Mch. I 78o. This letter is primarily interesting for BR's attack on the integrity of Congress; either this or his next letter (in the Packet for 2. Dec., not printed in the present collection) may well be the one referred to by Abigail Adams as giving the British in New York so much diversion; see the Introduction, p. lxv. 2 Shippen had quoted in his "Vindication" two friendly notes written by BR in Sep. and Nov. I 776 relative to Shippen's management of the medical service

21

November

1780.

of the Flying Camp (Penna. Packet, I I Nov. 178o). 3 Thus in printed text; BR perhaps intended t9 write "may have." 4 Bodo Otto, Sr. (I 7I I-I 787), a German physician and apothecary who had settled in Germantown in I 755 and who later resided at Reading, served as a medical officer throughout the war (Gibson, Bodo 0 tto) • On this particular episode, see Gibson, p. 2.88-94. Otto's son, John Conrad, was later apprenticed to BR; see BR to J. R. Coxe, 2.5 May 1796. 5 Thus in printed text. 6 Only Pennsylvania and Rhode Island voted to confirm the acquittal; the vote to order Shippen's discharge from arrest was eight states to three (Jour. Cont. Cong., xvn, 744-6).

To John Adams My dear Sir, Philadelphia, January 21, 1781 1 Your favor of September 20 from Amsterdam came safe to hand. The contents of it were of so important a nature that I took the liberty of publishing them in our newspapers. They were known from the republican and liberal spirit of the sentiments to be yours and were well received by the public. I am happy in finding that your once unpopular name now gives weight to opinions and measures not only among the democraties of the East but the aristocraties of the southern states. I wish in your letters to your correspondents in Congress you would urge them to entertain a proper sense [ 260 ]

21 JANUARY

1781

of their own dignity and to act upon all occasions, especially in their intercourse with foreigners and the servants of monarchs, as the sovereigns of our country. I wish to see America acquire a national character and, instead o'f receiving, to impart manners and customs to the strangers of every description who reside among us. A republican state should be to monarchical governments what a good Christian should be with respect to the fashions of the world. A spirit of too much conformity proves equally ruinous to the principles and characters of them both. In spite of our ignorance and blunders, we continue to support our independence. The exportation of flour has had an amazing effect upon our agriculture, trade, and money. The last passes nearly equal to gold and silver, and if no more than the ten millions voted March I 8th, I 780, are emitted, there is no danger of further depreciation. I wish you would bear a testimony against a second inundation of paper currency among us. I have heard many things against the iron age, but I have no conception of greater political and moral evils than the paper age has introduced in the span of five years into our country. The mutiny of the Pensylvania Line 2 has had no effect upon the minds of whigs or tories. It appears upon examination that most of them were entitled to their discharge above a year ago. They are still devoted to our cause, and such of them as do not reenlist will add to the strength and defense of our country by entering on board privateers or other vessels of war. Tell the friends of America wherever you go that in Philadelphia, within 100 miles of the headquarters of the British army, we live as peaceably and comfortably as our bitterest enemies can possibly do in the neighborhood of St. James in Westminster. My dear Mrs. Rush thanks you for your polite attentions to her in all your letters. She joins with me in sincere wishes for your health and happiness. Adieu, my dear friend. Yours most sincerely and respectfully, BENJN RusH &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

In Old Family Letters, A, p. I 9-20. On the night of I Jan. I 7 8 I almost the entire Pennsylvania Line, encamped near Morristown, rose in mutiny on account of deficiencies in their pay and overextension of their terms of enlistment. After the first incidents there was no violence; accompanied by their helpless officers, the regiments marched as 2

far as Princeton and Trenton on their way to Philadelphia; and both Congress and the government of Pennsylvania, recognizing the justice of the soldiers' complaints, took immediate measures to relieve them. See Reed, Reed, n, ch. XIV; Carl Van Doren, Mutiny in January, N.Y., I943·

[ 26I ]

To Elias Boudinot My dear Sir, Philadelphia, January 30th, 1781 It gives me great pleasure to hear from time to time of the health and comfortable situation of our friends at Baskenridge. Our amiable little cousin continues to enjoy good health and spirits. A slight cold which confined her to the house for a day or two has left her, and she looks once more as blooming as any of the woodland nymphs that appear every Sunday in linsey-woolsey at Dr. Kennady's church. 1 Her swains have increased since my last. The blue-eyed Presbyterian 2 whom I mentioned in my former letter continues to ogle and sigh at a humble distance from what he. esteems the source of all female perfection. Sukey is the most dutiful creature in the world. She will not walk on the same side of the street and hardly worship in the same meeting with him till she is satisfied that Papa and Mama will not object to such familiarities. But to be more serious. She has made as many friends as conquests. I am stopped in the streets to hear her praises from her occasional acquaintances. I cannot tell you how much we esteem and love her. The first wish of my heart is to see a child of mine equally amiable and accomplished. God grant that she may long continue to repay you by her dutiful behavior for all the care and pains you have taken with her principles, manners, and health. I can conceive of nothing (except an assurance of future happiness) contributing more to smoothe the downhill journey of age than the sight of a child treading in the paths of virtue and reflecting by every part of her conduct equal honor upon her parents, her religion, and her sex. Now for news.-Virginia has at last given up her claim to the western territory, but with some reservations that are not quite satisfactory. Maryland in consequence of this has instructed her delegates to accede to the confederation. This our ministers and commissioners abroad tell us was all that was necessary to obtain loans, alliances, and even peace. Governor Walton with a heart overflowing with joy told me this morning that the above event was as big with important consequences to the united States as the taking of Burgoyne. 8 A certain Patrick Garvey 4 is to be sent into your state from hence to be tried as a spy. Our government have treated him with great rigor. Upon full investigation of his conduct and character, heappears to be an honest man and a true whig. He served as a clerk under Dr. Shippen and has lately made public some of the blackest [ 262 ]

12 JUNE 1781

frauds practised by him in the settlement of his books that ever disgraced our country. Shippen cannot escape-unless this man is ruined. I beg your attention and services to him. He will be sent to Monmouth Jail. Pray interest yourself in his behalf as in favor of the injured ri[ghts o£] 5 justice, humanity, and patriotism. Julia will write to her aunt by the next opportunity. With love to both aunts, Uncle and Aunt Pintard, 6 and the young folks, I am, my dear sir, most affectionately, 7 .Ifddressed: Elias Boudinot Esqr: at Baskenridge. (llt[S (signature cut out): Rush Family Papers, deposited in Princeton University Library. 1 Samuel Kennedy ( 1720-1787), born in Scotland, was Presbyterian minister at Basking Ridge, N.J., from 17 51 until his death; he also kept a school and practised medicine, whence the irregular title "Dr." (Sprague, Annals, III, 175-8). 2 Unidentified. 3 Virginia having ceded her western territory to the nation on 2 Jan. 17 8 1, the Maryland Assembly proceeded to ratify the Articles of Confederation, though formal announcement of that fact was not made until I Mch. (E. C. Burnett, The Continental Congress, N.Y., 1941, p. 498-sor). George Walton's estimate of the importance of this event was not exaggerated. 4 Patrick Garvey, sometimes called "Dr. Garvey," had been employed in the apothecary general's office during the first half of 178o, apparently as an accountant. He had found some irregularities in Shippen's accounts and given sworn depositions to that effect to BR, who published them in Dec. q8o. Prior to this, however, Garvey had been taken up by order of the supreme executive council on suspicion of trading with the enemy in New York. The information relative to Garvev was furnished in a lengthy depositio~ sworn before Presi-

dent Joseph Reed and Vice-President William Moore by Beesly Edgar Joel, something of an international adventurer purporting to be a British officer who had deserted. Joel associated Garvey with Joseph Stansbury (now known to have been one of Benedict Arnold's intermediaries with the British) in the contraband trade with New York-a trade which included, among other articles, deserters and escaped prisoners. What Garvey's fate was after being sent to Monmouth for trial has not been learned. (BR, public letter on the Garvey case dated r 6 December, in Penna. Packet, 2 3 Dec. 1 7 So; Joel's deposition, 23 Nov. q8o, in Pennsylvania State Archives, Revolutionary Papers, XLI, 8; Penna. Colonial Records, XII, 495, 585; Penna. Archives, tst ser., VIII, 576, 6z4, 648; Van Doren, Secret History, p. 196-7, 278.) 5 M s torn by seal. 6 Lewis Pintard ( 1732-18t8), New York merchant and at this time commissary of prisoners, married Susan or Susanna Stockton, who was Mrs. Rush's aunt and Mrs. Boudinot's sister (DAB; Stockton, Stockton Family, p. 24, 48). 7 A postscript added by Mrs. Rush has been omitted in the present text.

To Horatio Gates Philadelphia, June 12th, 1781 My dear Friend, I set down with great pleasure to answer your letter before it ;~as I take comes to hand. 1 I hope it is not lost, nor sent to

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it for granted it contains high treason. I honor you for it, for in politics I begin to think with General Lee that prudence is a rascally virtue. A citizen of the united States who dares to acknowledge himself a friend to monarchy (under any name or shape) is a traitor in the worst sense of the word-a thousand times more unfriendly to our country than the poor persecuted enthusiast who worships King George as the necessary head of his church. "Floreat Respublica" is the motto of my heart-and I hope you and I will never own any other sovereign than Goo and the LAWS of our country. This I know would be unintelligible stuff to the Sachems on the Banks of Potowmac and Hudson's river, in whom ambition and a lust for power have supplied the place of a love of virtue and liberty. But I am happy in writing to one who feels as well as understands the meaning of republican phrases. I mean to pay you a compliment the highest I am capable of when I add that you are a MAN. You hate a king and love liberty above all things. I shall endeavor to inspire my children with our republican ideas, and when they behave amiss I shall frighten them by telling them the king, the stadholder, the protector, or the dictator will catch them. The papers will give you the public news. The report of a negotiation at Vienna is well founded. Miffiin is now in town and recovers his popularity so fast that it is probable he will be our governor next year. Colonel Walton is much your friend. I think a letter to him would interest him in your welfare and reputation. With best compliments to Mrs. Gates, in which my dear Mrs. Rush joins, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BRusH ~ddressed:

Major General Gates Berkley County Virginia.

t711S: New-York Historical Society, Gates Papers. 1 The letter referred to has not been found. Gates in acknowledging BR's present letter called it "your red hot epistle upon Dictatorship" (26 July 1781; copy in N.Y. Publ. Libr., Ban-

croft Transcripts, Letters to Rush). 2 BR doubtless meant "Headquarters," with an oblique reference to the Conway affair of 1777-1778.

To Horatio Gates Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 5, 1781 Many thanks to you for your friendly letter. Yes, while the French alliance is dear to Americans, and a French fleet upon our coast is formidable to Englishmen, your name cannot be forgotten.

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5 SEPTEMBER 1781 General Greene, in a letter I lately received from him,1 speaks in the handsomest terms of your conduct in South Carolina and reprobates the conduct of Congress towards you. There is a greater crime in the eyes of some people than treason-it is republicanism. It will require half a century to cure us of all our monarchical habits and prejudices. At present we are Roman Catholics in government. A pope in religion and a king in power are equally necessary articles with many people. Let us have patience. Ou~ republican forms of government will in time beget republican opinions and manners. All will end well. Before this reaches you, the fate of Great Britain and the repose of Europe will probably be determined in Chesapeake Bay. 2 Heaven prosper our allies! I long to be satiated with revenge against Scotch Englishmen. Hyder Ally8 is the standing toast of my table. The enemies of Britain anywhere and everywhere should be the friends of every American. Virtue, justice, and humanity have exhausted their tears in weeping over her depredations upon human nature. Mr. Morris has become a new star in our American hemisphere. 4 Our safety consists in the number of our great men. Mr. Dickinson is talked of as a successor to Read. 5 Miffiin prefers the floor of the Assembly to a seat in the Council. Adieu, my dear friend. Mrs. Rush is now at Princeton. Were she here, I am sure she would join in most affectionate and respectful compliments to Mrs. Gates with your sincere friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH Jddressed: Major General Gates Berkeley County, Virginia. &S: New-York Historical Society, Gates Papers. 1

Greene's letter, dated 8 Aug. I78I, is now in the Clements Library. 2 On the day this letter was written, an action off the Capes of Chesapeake between Admirals De Grasse and Graves forced the British fleet to return to New York for refitting and thus sealed the fate of Cornwallis' army at Yorktown (Winsor, Narr. & Grit. Hist., vr, soi, 548). 3 Hyder Ali (d. I782), general and virtual ruler of Mysore, was "the most

formidable Asiatic rival" the English encountered in India during the eighteenth century; he reached the crest of his military power in I 78o (Encyclo. Brit., 9th edn.). 4 Robert Morris had been superintendent of finance-in effect, financial dictator-since Feb. I 78 I (DAB). 5 John Dickinson succeeded Joseph Reed as president of the supreme executive council in Nov. I 782 (Stille, Dickinson, p. 2 2 6-7) .

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To Nathanael Greene Philadelphia, October 30th, 1781 My dear Sir, The bearer, Captain Jacob Reed/ wishes to have the honor of expressing his obligations to you as a South Carolina man for the great and essential services you have rendered his native country. He is a gentleman of great worth. I ·have taken the liberty of introducing him to your acquaintance and recommending him for a share of that protection and friendship which the virtuous citizens of South Carolina have experienced in such ample measure from your benevolence. How is the mighty fallen! Cornwallis, the ravager (for he never conquered) of the South, the pride of Britain, and the pillar of all her hopes in America, is fallen, fallen, fallen! How honorable is this glorious event to the combined arms of France and America! How honorable to our illustrious General! And how important will be its consequence in the great republic of Europe! While the arbiters of the world view this conquest with astonishment, they cannot fail of casting an eye upon YOU. The springs of Eutaw will become immortal by your victory. 2 I dropped a tear over the heroes who fell in your well-fought battle, but I felt a satisfaction in reflecting that 500 of my countrymen out of only 1700 stood to be cut to pieces in defending the liberties of our country. Accept, my dear sir, of my humble thanks as well as congratulations upon your successes in the South. May heaven continue to preserve your health and life, and may you long enjoy from an approving [ ... ] 8 and a grateful country the reward of your services and zeal in establishing the liberties and independence of America. Mrs. Rush joins in the above wishes with, dear sir, your most affectionate friend and humble servant, BRusH P.S. Best compliments to Colonel Morris and Major Burnett. 4 OlfS: Pierpont Morgan Library, Yorktown-Cornwallis Collection. 1

Jacob Read (I75I-I8I6), of Christ Church Parish, S.C.; studied law in London; said to have attained the rank of colonel in the Revolution; member Continental Congress, 1783-1786; afterwards speaker of S.C. House of Representatives, U.S. senator, federal judge (Biog. Dir. Con g.). 2 For the action at Eutaw Springs, S.C., 8 Sep. I 7 8 I, see B. J. Lossing,

Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, N.Y., I85-o, n, 495-9· 8 Partly obscured in the margin, this word may be "mind" or "kind." 4 Lewis Morris, breveted lieutenant colonel, I 778; identified earlier. Robert Burnett (d. I854), major and aide-decamp to Greene from Mch. I 77 8 (Heitman, Register) .

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To Anthony Wayne Philadelphia, October 30th, 1781 My dear Friend and Fellow Citizen, After congratulating you upon the share of honor you have acquired in the glorious campaign of 1781, give me leave to introduce to your acquaintance the bearer, Captain Jacob Read, an eminent lawyer-and what is more to his honor, a genuine whig of the State of South Carolina. I beg you would please to make him acquainted with the Colonel Butlers, Colonel Stewart, Colonel Robinson/ and such other of our Pensylvania officers as are of our mutual acquaintance. Your friends follow you with their good wishes and prayers to the sands of Carolina. That country has been well watered with the blood of heroes. It requires only to be manured with a few more British carcasses to produce spontaneous laurels. This business we expect will be effectually done in a soil naturally fruitful by men who forced laurels out of the rocks of Stoney Point. Beware, my friend-not of bullets, for they do you no harmbut of a bilious fever. Avoid the evening air, drink wine moderately, wear flannel next to your skin, and take a dose of bark every day. Death from a fever or a flux may be natural to a citizen, but a soldier can only die naturally and professionally of a ball or a bayonet. Your native state watches you with an affectionate eye. She has services and honors in store for you when you have sheathed your sword. She has too a few censures laid up for you (provided you continue honest) from the hangers-on and time-serving, office-seeking gentry of our government. Adieu from, my dear sir, your sincere old friend and fellowcitizen, BRusH .!lddressed: The Honble: Brigadr: General Wayne Pensylvania line South Carolina Jac. Reed Esqr: &.S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers. 1 Col. Richard Butler and Col. Walter Stewart have been previously identified. Lt. Col. William Butler (d. I 789) then commanded the 4th Penna. Line; and Lt.

Col. Thomas Robinson (d. I 8 I 9) was an officer of the sth Penna. Line (Heitman, Register).

To Nathanael Greene My dear Friend,

Philadelphia, April rsth, I782 I set down with great pleasure not only to thank you for your letter by Captain Finley/ but to congratulate you upon the honorable and generous testimony the State of Carolina have given of your services to the cause of liberty and independence in their country. 2 I fancy I see you seated upon a farm near your impregnable heights of Santee or the bloody Spring of Eutaw, and enjoying in affiuence the fruits of a well-spent life and of an honest fame. You must quit Rhode Island forever. It is too contracted a spot in its manners and government for a mind like yours to expand in. South Carolina will afford great scope in a few years for genius and virtue to display themselves to the greatest advantage. Human nature there is in a state of activity or, as we chemists express it, in a state of fermentation. In Rhode Island the mind of man has reached its ne plus ultra. I lament with you the languor of the States. But the blame must not be laid upon the form of our governments. I find the same complaints made in all countries in the different stages of the wars of ambition and avarice. It is true France has done wonders for us. But may not even this have a beneficial effect upon our country hereafter? It seems intended by heaven to teach us the necessity of a perpetual Union and Confederation. If the combined force of all the States was unequal to the power of Britain, what can be expected from the spirit or resources of any one of them? I am so perfectly satisfied that the future peace, safety, and freedom of America depend upon our Union that I view the debt of our country with pleasure, especially that part of it which we owe to ourselves. The loan-office books are in my opinion a much stronger cement of the States than the labored Articles of Confederation. Our danger at present arises principally from two causes: rst, a too speedy peace with Britain, and 2ly, from Britain's acknowledging our independence. I wish the first may be deferred till a naval war has given us as many fleets and admirals as a land war has given us armies and generals. The last event would unnerve the resentments of America and introduce among us all the consequences of English habits and manners with English manufactures. To prevent this, and to enable us to transmit our feeling to our posterity, I wish Britain for 50 years to come may continue in all her acts of government to call us "rebels" and "deluded subjects." We stand in need of all the follies and vices of our enemies to give [ 268

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23 APRIL 1 782 us a national character. It is a melancholy truth that most of our virtues have sprung from those impure sources. The patriotism of too many is founded only in resentment. A true republican cherishes no passion but a love for liberty. He draws his sword without malice, and binds up the wounds he inflicts with it. The very blood he sheds is an acceptable offering in the temple of benevolence. With compliments to Mrs. Green, 3 in which Mrs. Rush joins, I am, my dear sir, yours most affectionately, BRusH t:MS: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. 1

Greene's letter of I Feb. I78z (Biddle Papers, pt. iii, no. 136; copy in N.Y. Publ. Libr., Bancroft Transcripts, Letters to Rush) was brought by Capt. Ebenezer Finley (ca. I754-179o), of Maryland, a son of Dr. Samuel Finley and a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 772; he was an officer in Conti-

nental artillery (A Finley Genealogy, n.p., n.d., p. 5-6; Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., I9o8). 2 The South Carolina legislature voted Greene I o,ooo guineas in its session of 178:1. (DAB). 3 The former Catharine Littlefield (d. I814) (same).

To Jacob Read Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April 2.3, 1782. Your favors dated from Baltimore and South Carolina came safe to hand. 1 I rejoiced to hear of your recovery and safe arrival in your native country. This letter I hope will find you in your own house in Charlestown surrounded with dear and ancient friends. My most respectful compliments and congratulations await your good mother and all the branches of your family! May you be long, very long, happy together! My dear Mrs. Rush has added another girP to our family since you left us. Her friends at Morven often talk of you. Miss Boudinott has spent the winter in Philadelphia. She has already humanized our friend Dr. Ramsay. With a little more attention to his hair and the seam of his stockings, I think the Doctor might engage to carry back with him to Carolina a Jersey or Pensylvania beauty. Our papers will give you all the public news. Excuse the shortness of this letter, and be assured that to hear from you at all times will give pleasure to the family of, dear sir, your sincere friend and humble servant, B: RusH .Jlddressed: Jacob Read Esqr: South Carolina. [MS: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina.

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION 1 These letters have not been found. 2

Susanna, or Susan, Rush, born 7

Jan. and died 27 May 1782 (Biddle, Memorial, p. 241).

To the Editor of '!'he Pennsylvania Journal: Against Spirituous Liquors 1

June 22d [r782] At a time when public spirit and philosophy are uniting their efforts to destroy human life by suggesting improvements in the art of war, I beg leave to lay before my countrymen a few thoughts upon the means of preserving life. The approach of harvest reminds me of the custom of consuming large quantities of spirituous liquors at that season. My design in the following essay is to show, first, That spirituous liquors are unnecessary; and, secondly, That they are mischievous and often produce the diseases they are intended to obviate during the time of harvest. First, that spirituous liquors are unnecessary to support hard labor in warm weather, I infer from the use of them being unknown in many ages and countries. The apparatus of the distiller is far from being an ancient invention. Even the toils of war in the warmest climates and seasons never suggested an idea of spirits to the armies of Greece, Carthage, or Rome. They supported the fatigues of laborious marches under a load of arms, which in some instances weighed sixty pounds, without any other liquor to allay their thirst than vinegar and water. Spirits were unknown in the warm and fruitful harvest fields of Palestine. Boaz, a wealthy farmer of that country, treats the beautiful damsel who came to glean in his fields with nothing but water that had been drawn for the use of his reapers. 2 But I add further that hundreds in this country have undergone the fatigues of working two or three weeks in harvest without tasting a drop of spirits. Instead of fainting under the weight of their labor, they have appeared at all times cheerful and alert, have complained but little of heat or fatigue, have exceeded their drinking companions in feats of active labor, and have, after the harvest was over, returned to their ordinary employments in good health. After the recital of these facts, it is hardly necessary to borrow an argument from analogy, or I might call the attention of my reader to the horse, who supports the fatigue and labor of the plow, [ 270 ]

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the team, and even of the race itself, with no other drink than simple water. I proceed, secondly, to show that the common use of spirits in harvest is hurtful, and often produces the diseases they are intended to obviate. Spirituous liquors are injurious inasmuch as they add an internal fire to the external heat of the sun. They relax the stomach, quicken the circulation of the blood, and thus dispose it to putrefaction. I believe there are few instances of people dropping down dead in a harvest field from excess of heat or labor. Upon inquiry, it is generally found that the sudden deaths which sometimes occur in this country in this season have been occasioned by the excessive use of spirituous liquors. After the stimulating effects of spirits are over; they act as sedatives upon the system; that is, they produce relaxation and languor. The system it is true may be roused in these cases by fresh and increased draughts of spirits, but these produce corresponding degrees of debility, so that in the evening of a day spent in the alternate and compound exertions of working and drinking, a laborer is a proper subject for a physician; he often stands in more need of a flesh brush or warm bath than of a supper or a bed. I say nothing here of the effects of the common use of spirituous liquors upon the tempers and morals of laborers. How many quarrels and how much indecent language are extorted from men of the most peaceable dispositions and decent conversation at ordinary times by the prevailing use of spirits in the time of harvest! It is equally foreign to my purpose to dwell upon the expense of drenching reapers for two or three weeks with spirits. Many a farmer of late years has paid a fourth part of the whole profits of his crop to a storekeeper for rum or whiskey to be expended at harvest. The highest and most expensive headdress of a city lady is not a more idle expense. The money spent for liquor is not only wasted to no purpose, but does real mischief. It produces fatigue, it destroys health, and in some instances produces sudden death. If it should be asked, How is the reaper to allay the thirst and support the profuse sweats that are excited by his labor? I answer, By the following simple, healthy, and frugal drinks. First, By buttermilk and water, or sour milk (commonly called bonne-clabber3 ) and water, or plain milk and water. These drinks are within the reach of every farmer. Secondly, By cider and water, or table beer and water. Both these [ 271 ]

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liquors will not be the worse for this purpose if they are a little pricked. 4 Thirdly, By water suffered to stand for some time upon parched Indian corn. This is a very agreeable and strengthening drink. It may be improved by the addition of a little vinegar. It was a species of parched corn dipped in vinegar that constituted the wholesome repast with which Boaz fed his reapers and treated his mistress in his harvest field. 5 Fourthly, By vinegar and water sweetened with molasses or brown sugar. This drink is pleasant and in some respects is preferable to any that have been mentioned. All these drinks are cooling and grateful to the stomach. They invigorate the appetite and obviate that disposition to putrefaction in the humors to which excessive heat and labor naturally dispose them. To obviate any ill effects that may arise from receiving these drinks into the stomach in a cold state, I would recommend it to reapers never to drink while they are warm without first wetting their hands or feet in cold water or grasping the cup they drink from (provided it is made of earth, glass, or metal) for about a minute with both their hands. The extraordinary heat of the body is conveyed off in both these ways with nearly the same certainty as an accumulated quantity of electric matter is conveyed from any body by means of a rod or any other conductor of electric fire.

R. 'Printed: The Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia), 26 June 1782. 1

This public letter is assigned to BR solely upon internal evidence, which is in this case altogether conclusive as to his authorship. The paper is not merely marked by his characteristic views and traits of style; it contains passages that he used elsewhere in his long campaign against distilled spirits. The letter may be regarded as the first planned operation in that campaign, though :there had been preliminary strokes in BR's early Sermons to Gentlemen upon Temperance and Exercise (Phila.: Dunlap, I 772) and in the Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers (q.v., under date of 22 Apr. I 7 77) . The most powerful blow was delivered in his celebrated tract called An Enquiry into the Effects of Spirit-

uous Liquors upon the Human Body, and Their Influence upon the Happiness of Society (Phila.: Thomas Bradford, n.d.). Conjecturally assigned to 1790 in Sabin's Bibl. A mer. (No. 74241) and to various earlier dates by other authorities, it is only certain that the tract was issued by July 1784, for a copy was acknowledged by Rev. John King in a letter of I 7 July of that year (Rush MSS, XLI) • Since the earlier issues are without date, and since the tract was widely reprinted both separately and in newspapers, magazines, and almanacs, no adequate bibliographical account of it can be given. BR himself made a practice of reprinting it in newspapers just before each harvest season ; see BR to Belknap, 6 May 1788, and also Penna.

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4 JULY 1782 Gazette, I8 June I788. BR's letters of I 788 and I 789 1 particularly those to Belknap and Lettsom, contain much information on the progress of his cause, which he had by that time persuaded the Methodists and other denominational groups to take up. Temperance was one of the few causes that BR continued to evangelize for after I790. In the 2d edn. of Medical Inquiries and Observations, I 8o 5 (I, 3 3584), he included a revised and enlarged version of the Enquiry, now entitled "An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind, With an Account of the Means of Preventing, and of the Remedies for Curing Them." This version was in turn (or perhaps had already been) separately printed and was also very widely reprinted. I have located over twenty different pamphlet printings, but this is a very partial record, for it is stated in the proceedings of the centennial temperance conference of I 8 85 (one hundred years, supposedly, after the publication of BR's tract) that I 72 1000 copies were distributed before I 8so by the American Tract Society alone {One Hundred Years of Tem-

perance, Phila., I886, p. uo). The first temperance society was founded, at Moreau, N.Y., in I8o8, under the immediate influence of the Inquiry, and a copy that fell into the hands of Lyman Beecher inspired him to preach his famous series of sermons against drink (John A. Krout, The Origins of Prohibition, N.Y., I925, p. 78, 8o-I). BR's efforts were put forth long before organized reform groups crusaded for total abstinence, and his nineteenthcentury followers were obliged to apologize for his insidious recommendation of wine and beer as substitutes for spirits. His delightful letter to John Adams of 16 Sep. 18o8 1 in which he satirizes all such efforts to change people's habits, would have filled them with consternation. 2 Note by BR: "Ruth, chap. ii, verse 9·" 8 Bonnyclabber, bonyclabber, bonny clapper: "Milk that has been thickened on becoming sour" ( DAE) • 4 Webster gives as one meaning of the verb prick: "to render, as wine, acid or pungent; to turn." 5 Note by BR: "Ruth, chap. ii, verse 14."

To the Editor of The Pennsylvania Journal: On the United States Navy 1

[4 July 1782] From the insular situation of Great-Britain, from the extent of her foreign territory, and above all from the commerce and resources of her American dominions, she necessarily became a great naval power. Before the discovery and settlement of the American colonies, all the states of Europe were nearly upon a footing in point of naval force. The ascendancy which Britain has acquired on the ocean has been in exact proportion to the greater commerce and populousness of her American colonies. However unwilling Britain may be to acknowledge it, her ablest statesmen have confessed that "the commerce of America" is stamped upon every beam and sail of her immense and powerful navy.

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Let no one be surprised therefore that she supports a naval war with so much equality against the combined navies of France, Spain, Holland, and the United States. This circumstance, if viewed and improved properly, may suggest two considerations of the utmost importance as matters of triumph and consolation to the Americans. First. If the resources of America alone gave Britain her present naval advantages, what will not America be capable of doing for herself when she opens her eyes to behold her native strength on the water? And, Secondly. If Britain is still so powerful and insolent upon the ocean from the former tributes of her colonies, what nation will increase and perpetuate that power by assisting her to reduce the United States? Surely not one. Her late naval victory in the WestIndies2 removes her further from an ally than ever. If Britain is so powerful and dangerous to the repose of Europe without America, what would she not be united with America, and especially with America conquered and enslaved? It is the interest of all the naval powers of Europe not only to prevent our dependence upon GreatBritain, but even our alliance with her upon terms of the most perfect equality. The nations of Europe, nay more, the benighted nations of Asia and Africa, cry daily with the souls under the altar, How long wilt thou, 0! Lord, suffer the beauty and order of thy moral government to be destroyed? How long wilt thou suffer the tranquillity of the globe to be disturbed? How long wilt thou suffer thy earth to be stained with human blood in a thousand places by the proud usurpations and extensive power of GreatBritain? The nations of Europe know well our resources for a navy, and I am not sure whether the most enlightened of them do not find the same consolation in observing our own ignorance of them that mankind have ever found in observing the strength of the largest and most useful animals combined with so much stupidity. Great Britain knows and trembles with her knowledge of our resources for naval power. She began the present war with the pretense of raising a revenue from America, but I have an authentic document to prove that a great statesman near the throne of Britain said to the Hon. Henry Laurens, Esq., a few years before the war in a conversation upon American subjects, "We must clip your canvas, you increase too fast in shipping. You will soon be too powerful on the water to be governed by the mother country.m Look at the conduct of Britain through every stage of the war. Why has she wreaked4 her jealousy chiefly upon our sailors? Why did she in [ 274 ]

4 JULY 1782 the first year of the war compel American seamen to fight on board her ships? Why has she given a bounty to every American seaman brought into Britain? Why has she made the walls of Mill Prison5 as familiar to many thousands of them as the walls of their own or their fathers' houses? Why has she confined them in loathsome jails and prison ships in each of her American ports, and thereby destroyed the lives of many thousands of them? The reason is plain. She knows that seamen are the nerves of a navy, and that no natural advantages from our climate and soil will ever make us an independent or happy people without one. An Englishman upon all national subjects is a fool, except upon the subject of a navy. "The wooden walls of Britain" is the second toast at every foxhunter's table in England. A colonel in the British Guards who was taken at York Town, in an unrestrained conversation with an American gentleman and a brother officer in the last war, at Bristol in this state, said that "the 17th of October, 1777, and the 19th of October, 1781, were trifling days to Britain compared with the- of June, 1778, when the British flag under Admiral Keppel was disgraced by Count D'Orvilliers. 6 We do not value armies, said he. Our dependence is upon our navy. Admiral Keppel has given it a blow from which it will with difficulty recover. He has taught the French to face us ship to ship and man to man. Your independence I fear will be established, but remember it must be acquired for you upon the ocean." I wish this speech of this liberal and enlightened officer could be read every morning in the Congress after the journal of the day. The British nation is a huge mob. They are led by their ears. A hue and cry will bring them to believe and to do anything. Through every stage of the American war they have been duped by different words. They were dragged into the war by holding out to them relief from taxation, by throwing part of the burdens of government upon America. "Substantial revenue" was the next parole. "Commissioners with full powers, &c." deceived the nation in the year 1778. The ministry in the meanwhile filled their pockets and provided for their friends. The minority in both houses of Parliament, after a seven years' apprenticeship, learned the art of the ministry. They adopted words that were accommodated to the wishes of the nation. "Peace with America" gulled the people and unlocked the doors of administration. They have now the treasures of the nation at their disposal. A war they know is necessary to keep the treasury full enough to gratify their avarice and ambition. Hear their panegyrics upon that king whom they have so often

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indirectly and justly execrated. Read their speeches upon American independence. The United States had far less to fear from the satiated fury and gratified avarice of Lord North and his junto than from the hungry poverty and unmortified pride of the present ministry. 7 There never existed in my opinion in any country a more formidable combination against the liberties of mankind. It is composed of the highest degrees of the integrity and ignorance, of the abilities and villainy, and of the wealth and prodigality of the whole British nation. The man who expects peace in less than seven years (without a miracle) looks for an event as contrary to the fixed principles of nature as for a stone to ascend against the laws of gravity. The price of a deception with respect to America is generally two or three campaigns. The present ministry have adopted two opinions as false as those opinions of their predecessors that we would not fight: that France and Spain would not assist us lest they should encourage a revolt in their own colonies, and that our cause would perish with the annihilation of our paper money. The new ministry foolishly suppose, 1st, That we are loosely attached to our independence, and 2dly, That we are not sincere in our professions of regard and affection to the French alliance. These mistakes will probably cost Britain another army, two or three more islands, and fifty millions of pounds. Englishmen have but one sense-that is the sense of feeling. Nothing but misfortune can make them wise. But the war, we are told, for the future is to assume a new complexion. It is not only to be carried on by sea, but it is to be a war of benevolence and Protestantism. It is intended only to reclaim us from the horrors of republicanism and popery. The author of this essay has already laid his thoughts before the public upon the subject of an American navy in several short pieces, published within these few weeks in the Pennsylvania Journal, under the signature of Retaliation. 8 He has written much and often in favor of the liberties, the independence, and alliance of his country; but he declares that he never was more deeply penetrated with a sense of the importance of either of them than he now is with a sense of the necessity and importance of a navy to the United States. A brave and sensible American colonel, in leading his regiment on to the second battle at Trenton, asked his troops when they came within sight of the enemy who they were. They answered, "Hessians, sir." He asked them what they were. They answered, "Men, sir;" and "What are you, my lads?" said the Colonel. "Why, men,

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4 July 1782 sir.'' "Then," said the Colonel, "let not one man be afraid of another." In like manner let us inquire what i~ the composition of that most formidable British navy that has spread desolation and tyranny over the world. It consists of nothing but oak and pine, kept together by hemp and iron. And what do we see on yonder shore? Why, forests abounding with oaks and pines, mountains abounding with iron ore, and a soil capable of producing all the raw materials of sails and ropes. Then let not the oaks and pines and iron of America be afraid of the oaks and pines and iron of Britain. LEONIDAS

'Printed: The Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia), 4 July 1782. 1

Between May and Aug. 1782, BR contributed numerous essays to the Penna. Journal over various noms de plume. Among them were seven papers signed "Leonidas" (29 May; 19 June; 4, 1o, I7, 3I July; and 14 Aug.) dealing with the French alliance, the American navy, public credit, and other topics. He acknowledged his authorship of the Leonidas series in a letter to Nathanael Greene of 16 Sep. I78z. (For his earlier use of this pseudonym, see under 3 July I 779.) The present letter, chosen as representative, was captioned "To the Rulers and People of America." Its arguments for a powerful United States navy were at least in part inspired by John Adams, who never tired of public and private sermons on this text. Hints of BR's conviction on the navy will be found in earlier letters, as in his pronouncement to Gen. Greene (letter of 15 Apr. I78z) that peace ought not to be concluded "until a naval war has given us as many Reets and admirals as a land war has given us armies and generals." He was to recur to his old arguments and to add new ones during the second war against England; see letters to Adams from Nov. 1812. to Jan. 1813. 2 Rodney's defeat of De Grasse off Dominica, 12. Apr. 1782. (Lecky, Hist. of England, v, 172). 8 BR told this story several times later, notably in a letter to James Madi-

son of 30 Jan. I 8o6 and in a letter to John Adams of 2 7 June 18 I 2, where the British minister is identified as George Grenville, father of the Stamp Act. Adams in replying corrected both the tenor of the British statement (it had been applied to New England shipping) and the identification of the speaker (he was not Grenville but the Earl of Hillsborough, secretary of state for colonies, 1768-1772). See Old Family Letters, A, p. 2.98. 4 Text: "reeked." 6 The Old Mill Prison, between Plymouth and Plymouth Dock, England, the principal place of confinement for American naval prisoners (New Engl. Hist. & Geneal. Reg., XIX [r86s], 74, note). 6 On the Keppel-D'Orvilliers naval battle-an indecisive encounter off Ushant in the English Channel in July 177 8 that had violent political repercussions in England-see Sir G. 0. Trevelyan, George the Third and Charles James Fox, N.Y., 1912-14, I, ch. v. 7 Lord North's ministry fell in March and was succeeded by the second and very short-lived ministry of the Marquis of Rockingham (Lecky, Hist. of England, v, 12.4-5). 8 Papers by "Retaliation" will be found in the Penna. Jour. for I 5 and 2 2 May I782.

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To Elizabeth Graeme Fergusont Dear Madam, Philadelphia, 16 July, 1782 For some weeks past our city has been amused with the expectation of a most splendid entertainment to be given by the Minister of France 2 to celebrate the birthday of the Dauphin of France. 3 Great preparations, it was said, were made for that purpose. Hundreds crowded daily to see a large frame building which he had erected for a dancing room on one side of his house. 4 This building, which was sixty feet in front and forty feet deep, was supported by large painted pillars and was open all round. The ceiling was decorated with several pieces of neat paintings emblematical of the design of the entertainment. The garden contiguous to this shade5 was cut into walks and divided with cedar and pine branches into artificial groves. The whole, both the building and walks, were accommodated with seats. Besides these preparations, we were told that the Minister had borrowed thirty cooks from the French army to assist in providing for an entertainment suited to the size and dignity of the company. Eleven hundred tickets were distributed, most of them two or three weeks before the evening of the entertainment. Forty were sent to the governor of each state, to be distributed by them to the principal officers and gentlemen of their respective governments, and I believe the same number to General Washington, to be distributed among the principal officers of the army. For ten days before the entertainment nothing else was talked of in our city. The shops were crowded with customers. Hairdressers were retained; tailors, milliners, and mantua-makers were to be seen covered with sweat and out of breath in every street. Monday, July 15, was the long expected evening. The morning of this day was ushered in by a corps of hairdressers occupying the place of the city watchmen. Many ladies were obliged to have their heads dressed between four and six o'clock in the morning, so great was the demand and so numerous were the engagements this day of the gentlemen of the comb. At half-past seven o'clock6 was the time fixed in the tickets for the meeting of the company. The approach of the hour was proclaimed by the rattling of all the carriages in the city. The doors and windows of the street which leads to the Minister's were lined with people, and near the Minister's house there was a collection of all the curious and idle men, women, and children of the city who were not invited to the entertainment, amounting, probably, to ten thousand people. The Minister was

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not unmindful of this crowd of spectators. He had previously pulled down a board fence and put up a neat palisado fence before the dancing room and walks, on purpose to gratify them with a sight of the company and entertainment. He intended further to have distributed two pipes of Madeira wine and $6oo in small change among them, but he was dissuaded from this act of generosity by some gentlemen of the city who were afraid that it might prove the occasion of a riot or some troublesome 7 proceedings. The money devoted to this purpose was charitably distributed among the prisoners in the jails and the patients in the hospital in the city. About 8 o'clock our family, consisting of Mrs. Rush, our cousin Susan Hall, our sister Sukey, and myself, with our good neighbors, Mrs. and Mr. Henry, 8 entered the apartment provided for this splendid entertainment. We were received through a wide gate by the Minister and conducted by one of his family forward to the dancing room. The scene now almost exceeds description. The numerous lights distributed through the garden, the splendor of the room we were approaching, the size of the company which was now collected and which amounted to about 700 persons, the brilliancy and variety of their dresses, and the band of music which had just began9 to play, formed a scene that resembled enchantment. Sukey Stockton said "her mind was carried beyond and out of itself." We entered the room together, and here we saw the world in miniature. All the ranks and parties and professions in the city and all the o:fficers10 of government were fully represented in this assembly. Here were ladies and gentlemen of the most ancient as well as modern families. Here were lawyers, doctors, and ministers of the gospel. Here were the learned faculty of the College, and with them many who knew not whether Cicero plead in Latin or in Greek, or whether Horace was a Roman or a Scotchman. Here were painters and musicians, poets and philosophers, and men who were never moved by beauty or harmony or by rhyme or reason. Here were merchants and gentlemen of independent fortunes, as well as many respectable and opulent tradesmen. Here were whigs and men who formerly bore the character of tories. Here were the president and members of Congress, governors of states and generals of armies, ministers of finance and war and foreign affairs, judges of superior and inferior courts, with all their respective suits of assistants, secretaries, and clerks. In a word, the assembly was truly republican. The company was mixed, it is true, but the mixture formed the harmony of the evening. Everybody seemed oleased. Pride and ill-nature for a while forgot their pretensions and offices,

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and the whole assembly behaved to each other as if they had been members of the same family. It was impossible to partake of the joy of the evening without being struck with the occasion of it. It was to celebrate the birth of a Dauphin of France. How great the revolution in the mind of an American! to rejoice in the birth of a prince whose religion he has beeh taught to consider as unfriendly to humanity. And above all, how new the phenomenon for republicans and freemen to rejoice in the birth of a prince who must one day be the support of monarchy and slavery! 11 Human nature in this instance seems to be turned inside outwards. The picture is still agreeable, inasmuch as it shows us in the clearest point of view that there are no prejudices so strong, no opinions so sacred, and no contradictions so palpable, that will not yield to the love of liberty. The appearance and characters as well as the employments of the company naturally suggested the ideas of Elysium given us by the ancient poets. Here were to be seen heroes and patriots in close conversation with each other. Washington and Dickenson held several dialogues together. Here were to be seen men conversing with each other who appeared in all the different stages of the American war. Dickenson and Morris frequently reclined together against the same pillar. Here were to be seen statesmen and warriors from the opposite ends of the continent talking of the history of the war in their respective states. Rutledge12 and Walton from the South here conversed with Lincoln and Duane from the East and the North. Here and there, too, appeared a solitary character walking among the artificial bowers in the gardens. The celebrated author of Common Sense retired frequently from company to analyze his thoughts and to en joy the repast of his own original ideas. Here were to be seen men who had opposed each other in the councils and parties of their country, forgetting all former resentments and exchanging civilities with each other. Miffiin and Reed13 accosted each other with all the kindness of ancient friends. Here were to be seen men of various countries and languages, such as Americans and Frenchmen, Englishmen and Scotchmen, Germans and Irishmen, conversing with each other like children of one father. And lastly, here were to be seen the extremes of the civilized and savage life. An Indian chief in his savage habits and the Count Rochambeau14 in his expensive and splendid uniform talked with each other as if they had been the subjects of the same government, generals in the same army, and the partakers of the same blessings of civilized life. [ 280 ]

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About half an hour after eight o'clock the signal was given for the dances to begin. Each lady was provided with a partner before she came. The heat of the evening deterred above one half of the company from dancing. Two sets, however, appeared upon the floor during the remaining part of the evening. On one side of the room were provided two private apartments where a number of servants attended to help the company to all kinds of cool and agreeable drinks, with sweet cake, fruits, and the like. Between these apartments, and under the orchestra, there was a private room where several Quaker15 ladies, whose dress would not permit them to join the assembly, were indulged with a sight of the company through a gauze curtain. This little attention to the curiosity of these ladies marks in the strongest manner the Minister's desire to please everybody. At 9 o'clock were exhibited a number of rockets from a stage erected in a large open lot before the Minister's house. They were uncommonly beautiful and gave universal satisfaction. , At 12 o'clock the company was called to supper. It was laid behind the dancing room under three large tents16 so connected together as to make one large canopy. Under this canopy was17 placed seven tables, each of which was large enough to accommodate fifty people. The ladies, who composed near one half of the whole assembly, took their seats first, with a small number of gentlemen to assist in helping them. The supper was a cold collation, simple, frugal, and elegant, and handsomely set off with a dessert consisting of cakes and all the fruits of the season. The Chevalier de la Luzerne now appeared with all the splendor of the minister and all the politeness of a gentleman. He walked along the tables and addressed himself in particular to every lady. A decent and respectful silence pervaded the whole company. Intemperance did not show its head, levity composed its countenance, and even humor itself forgot for a few moments its usual haunts; and the simple jests no less than the loud laugh were unheard at any of the tables. So great and universal was the decorum, and so totally suspended was every species of convivial noise, that several gentlemen remarked that the "company looked and behaved more as if they were worshiping:, than eating." In a word, good breeding was acknowledged, by universal consent, to be mistress of the evening, and the conduct of her votaries at supper formed the conclusion of her triumph. 18 Notwithstanding all the agreeable circumstances that have been mentioned, many of the company complained of the want of something else to render the entertainment complete. Everybody felt pleasure, but [ 281 ]

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it was of too tranquil a nature. Many people felt sentiments, but they were produced by themselves and did not arise from any of the amusements of the evening. The company expected to feel joy, and their feelings were in unison with nothing short of it. An ode on the birth of the Dauphin, sung or repeated, would have answered the expectations and corresponded with the feelings of everybody. The understanding and the taste of the company would have shared· with the senses in the pleasures of the evening. The enclosed ode written by Mr. Smith/9 son of the Reverend Dr. Smith, was composed for the occasion, but from what cause I know not, it did not make its appearance. It has great merit, and could it have been set to music or spoken publicly, must have formed a most delightful and rational part of the entertainment. About one o'clock the company began to disperse. Our family moved with the foremost of them. Before three o'clock the whole company parted, every candle was extinguished, and midnight enjoyed her dark and solitary reign in every part of the Minister's house and garden. Thus have I given you a full account of the rejoicing on the birth of the Dauphin of France. If it serves to divert your thoughts for an hour or two from the 20 at this train of reflections to which the shades and walks of season of the year too naturally dispose you, I shall be more than satisfied, and shall esteem the history which my attendance at the Minister's house has enabled me to give you as the most fortunate and agreeable event (as to myself) of the whole evening. Printed: The Port Folio [5th ser.J, IV (1817), 464-9. 1

No MS having survived, questions remain about both the addressee and the text of this letter. Mrs. Ferguson (on whom see BR's letter to her, 24 Dec. I 777) is merely a very plausible guess as to the addressee. Other than Mrs. Stockton, she was BR's only known feminine correspondent on literary subjects, and there are several details in the letter, too slight to notice here, that point to her rather than to her friend Mrs. Stockton. The possibility of its having been addressed to the latter or to some now unknown correspondent should not be ruled out. As for the text, there are two early printings: first, in the Columbian Magazine, I, 260-3 (Feb. I787), to which it was communicated by "A Customer" as "by a gentleman in this city, to a

lady in the country"; and second, in the Port Folio [sth ser.], IV (I8I7), 464-9, where it appears under the caption "Account of a French Fete in Philadelphia, in Honour of the Dauphin's Birth-Day. In a Letter from Dr. Rush, to - - - . " Besides many variations in phrasing, the I 8 I 7 text supplies personal names (obviously correct) for blanks left in the I 7 8 7 text and contains some matter (apparently authentic) not in the 1 7 8 7 text. Superficially it thus seems to be the better text. On the other hand, the closing sentences of the later printing not only vary in substance but are so much more hightoned in style than the simple and characteristic 1 7 87 ending that one suspects editorial sophistication. The I 8 I 7 version has been followed here only be-

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16 JULY 1782 cause it is more complete. But its paragraphing, which is sometimes very odd indeed, has been rejected in favor of the perfectly acceptable paragraphing of the I 7 8 7 printing when the two differ, and significant variations between the I 7 87 and I 8 I 7 texts have been indicated in the notes. 2 La Luzerne; see BR to Adams, I 2 Oct. I779· 3 Louis-Joseph, who was born 22 Oct. I 7 8 I and died at the age of eight (C. M. Allstrom, Dictionary of Royal Lineage, Chicago, I902-I904, I, I9I). Announcement of the birth of a dauphin was seized upon by La Luzerne to cement Franco-American ties, for in the spring of I 7 8 2, in consequence of Cornwallis' surrender, the British had begun preliminary peace negotiations with Franklin in Paris, and a peace commission under Sir Guy Carleton was also making overtures to Congress from New York (W. E. O'Donnell, Le Chevalier de La Luzerne, Bruges, n.d., p. 2I4-19). The letter of announcement from Louis XVI was read by the Minister in a formal audience granted by Congress on I3 May 1782, after which "an elegant entertainment" was tendered to him (Jour. Cont. Gong., XXII, 235, 248, 26o, 262, 278-9; Burnett, Letters of Members, VI, 348-50). At Newburgh on the Hudson the army and its French allies celebrated the event with a "fue de joye" and an extra gill of rum per man on 3I May; and on 5 June Washington forwarded to La Luzerne an address, composed by himself and signed by his officers, tendering their congratulations (Washington, Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, XXIV, 299, 300, 308, 3 I 3). It remained now for the Minister to draw the attention of the citizenry of America to the momentous event. With the aid of engineers and cooks from the French army, he was equal to the occasion. He had one unexpected piece of good luck, for Rochambeau at this moment asked Washington to confer with him in Philadelphia on grand strategy, and Washington's presence, however accidental, lent much to the occasion (same, p. 432). The effect of these proceed-

ings on the popular mind was considerable. The newspapers carried stories of the fete for days; all the diarists recorded the "Great doings . • • at ye French Ambassadors" (as Mrs. Drinker termed them in her Journal, p. I42); and the memory of the Dauphin of France, who was the unsuspecting obi ect of all the fanfare, was perpetuated for Americans in the names of a county in Pennsylvania and streets in Philadelphia and Lancaster. 4 This was John Dickinson's town house, rented by La Luzerne, on Chestnut below Seventh Street. The architectural and landscaping arrangements for the fete were executed by PierreCharles L'Enfant. Elizabeth S. Kite quotes a French officer's journal as follows: "The hall which [the Minister] caused to be built on purpose for the fete he gave on the occasion of the birth of the Dauphin, is very large and as beautiful as it can be. One cannot imagine a building in better taste; simplicity is there united with an air of dignity. It has been erected under the direction of Mr. de L'Enfant, a French officer, in the service of the American corps of engineers . . . . Mr. Barbe de Marbois, counselor of embassy of our court, is too modest to admit that his advice had something to do with the result" (L' Enfant and Washington, I79I-I792, Baltimore, I929, p. 5). 5 I 7 8 7 text: "shed"; probably the original reading. 6 In the I 7 8 7 text this sentence begins: "At half an hour after seven o'clock in the afternoon." 7 I787 text: "tumultuous." 8 In the I 7 8 7 text all the names are blanks, the intention doubtless being to shield the authorship. Susan Hall has not been further identified; BR had numerous Hall cousins. Sukey was Susan Stockton, Mrs. Rush's sister. I have not conclusively identified the Henrys. 9 Thus in both texts. 1 0 1787 text: "offices," which is more likely what BR wrote. 11 The two preceding words occur only in the I 8 I 7 text. 12 John Rutledge (1739-18oo), South

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A PHYSICIAN IN THE REVOLUTION Carolina statesman and jurist; at this time a delegate to Congress (DAB) • 18 1787 text: "Even M---n and R-d." They were political rivals at this time. 14 Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau (t725-18o7), lieutenant general commanding the French army in America; co-victor at Yorktown with Washington; a marshal of France, 1791 (La Grande Encyclopedie). 15 This essential word is not in the 1787 text. 16 17 8 7 text: "markees." 17 1787 text: "were." 18 The next eight sentences do not appear in the 1787 text, which concludes thus briefly: "At two o'clock in the morning, the company broke up, and we returned home. Our ladies speak with great pleasure of the entertainment, and as far as I have heard, no offense was given or taken the whole evening. "If this long letter gives you half as much pleasure in reading it as I have had in writing it, it will add greatly to my proportion of pleasure derived

from the entertainment. With great respect, I am, madam, your sincere friend, and most humble servant, 19

*******"

William Moore Smith (17591821), a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, 1775, a lawyer, and a poet of local renown. His Poems, on Several Occasions, Written in Pennsylvania was issued anonymously in Philadelphia, 17 86, and reprinted in London the same year with the author's name. "An Ode, on the Birth of the Dauphin of France. Presented to His Excellency, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, . . . on the morning of an Entertainment, Given on That Occasion," a tame Pindaric exercise, will be found at p. 7 1-6 of the Philadelphia edn. (Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates; Sabin, Bibl. Amer., No. 84839-41.) 2 0 Graeme Park (Mrs. Ferguson's estate in Montgomery co., Penna.)? Or, if the letter was addressed to Mrs. Stockton, the blank should be filled in with "Morven." I know of no reason why this particular season should have suggested melancholy reflections to either lady.

To William Claypoole! July 29th, 1782 The following short directions to Dr. Claypoole were given as the parting advice of his old friend and master. If properly attended to, they will ensure him business and happiness in North Carolina. 1. Take care of the poor. By becoming faithful over a few, you will become a ruler over many. When you are called to visit a poor patient, imagine you hear a voice sounding in your ears, "Take care of him, and I will repay thee." 2. Go regularly to some place of worship. A physician cannot be a bigot. Worship with Mohamitans rather than stay at home on Sundays. 3· Never resent an affront offered to you by a sick man. 4· Avoid intimacies with your patients if possible, and visit them only in sickness. 5· Never sue a patient, but after a year's services get a bond from him if possible.

16 SEPTEMBER 1782 6. Receive as much pay as possible in goods or the produce of the country. Men have not half the attachment to these things that they have to money. 7· Acquire a habit of visiting your patients regularly at one certain hour. 8. Never dispute about a bill. Always make reductions rather than quarrel with an old and profitable patient. 9· Don't insert trifling advice or services in a bill. You can incorporate them with important matters such as a pleurisy or the reduction of a bone. IO. Never make light (to a patient) of any case. I r. Never appear in a hurry in a sickroom, nor talk of indifferent matters till you have examined and prescribed for your patient. Yours sincerely, BRusH tJifS (draft): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 4· 1 On Claypoole, see BR to Mrs. Rush, 17 Mch. 1780. The instructions provide an insight into BR's own conduct as a practitioner; they are developed more extensively in two later lectures: Observations on the Duties of a Physician

••• (Phila., 1789; reprinted in Med. lnq. f!! Obs., 2d edn., z8o5, z, 385-408), and "On the Means of Acquiring Business ••• ,"delivered in z8o7 (No. x in Sixteen Introductory Lectures, p. 23255).

1

To Nathanael Greene

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 16th, 1782 The events of the present war crowd upon the mind in such a variety and in so quick a succession that it is difficult to reason upon them. I expected to have bequeathed at least a naval war to my children, but Mr. Fox,2 the British nation, the States of Holland, nay more, all Europe say we must have peace. I am afraid we are not ripe for it. But "whatever is, is right. 113 America possesses immense resources for national importance which can only be brought forth by commerce, which in the present state of things can only be the offspring of peace. If our States can be limited, we may continue our republican forms of government for centuries to come. I do not think wealth acquired by commerce (provided that commerce is not in the souls of men) is necessarily fatal to liberty. I view with you parties and factions without number rising up among the great after a peace, but these will contribute to preserve the [ 285 ]

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liberties of America. It will be by opposing the pride and ambition of the great families and officers of government to each other that the common people will find safety and freedom among us. The citizens of South Carolina view you already as a member of their state. 4 I wish you would begin by-times5 to use your great influence with them to obtain a law to prohibit the future importation of slaves into your country. For God's sake, do not exhibit a new spectacle to the world, of men just emerging from a war in favor of liberty, with their clothes not yet washed from the blood which was shed in copious and willing streams in its defense, fitting out vessels to import their fellow creatures from Africa to reduce them afterwards to slavery. Let it not be said that your soil can only be worked by Negroes. This is to make war upon nature. The natural fertility of the earth in all warm countries shows that heaven never intended hard labor to be the portion of man in such countries. I do not urge the emancipation of the slaves now among you. They are rendered unfit by their habits of vice (the offspring of slavery) for freedom. To make them free therefore would be both to injure them and society. Make their situation comfortable by good treatment. Time may unfold a method hereafter of repairing to their posterity the injustice that has been done to the present generation. Let Great Britain stand alone as the author of the American trade to Africa. Let not our united republics be stained with the importation of a single African slave into America. I have endeavored to serve my country lately by publishing some essays upon a navy under the signature of Leonidas. They were attacked with virulence by Dr. Arthur Lee under the signature of Virginius. 6 This Dr. Lee is the brother-in-law of Dr. Shippen.Adieu. Yours sincerely, B: RusH Compliments to Mrs. Green. iMS: The John Work Garrett Library, Johns Hopkins University. 1

The MS gives no indication of the addressee, but the letter is undoubtedly a reply to one from Greene of 14 Aug. 1782 (now in the Clements Library), describing the military and political situation in Georgia and his plans for settling permanently in the South. 2 Charles James Fox (1749-18o6), whig statesman, one of the secretaries of state in Rockingham's second administration, which had, however, gone

out of office in July ( DNB). 3 Pope, An Essay on Man (17331 734), r, 294. 4 Greene's honorarium from the South Carolina legislature was paid in confiscated lands; he was granted a plantation called Boone's Barony, south of the Edisto, together with the slaves attached thereto (F. V. Greene, General Greene, N.Y., 1893, p. 2 86). 5 "By-time," "bye-times": odd hours,

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intervals not occupied with one's main work (OED). 6 On BR's "Leonidas" articles, see above, 4 July 1782. Answers to Leonidas

1782

by Virginius will be found in the Freeman's Journal (Phila.), 7 and 21 Aug. 1782.

To Anthony Wayne My dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 16, 1782 The evacuation of Savannah, though a voluntary act of the enemy, was attended with circumstances that have given you credit among your friends. 1 Pennsylvania loves you. You are one of her legitimate children. Let nothing tempt you to abandon her. The strangers and vagabonds who have usurped her government can only be deposed by an union of the native and ancient citizens. There are honors in store for you here. Chester County claims you. Come, my friend, and set down with companions of your youth under the shade of trees planted with your own hand. Come and let the name of WAYNE descend to posterity in your native state. If your descendants act as you have done, it cannot fail of being respected while the sun shines and while the rivers flow. 2 The exertions of the enemy for some months past have been great upon the ocean. This city has lost at a moderate computation eight hundred thousand pounds by captures since the first day of January last. The spirit of the ministry it is true is changed, but the profits of the war are so immense in New York to Digbt and his officers that we can expect no mitigation of our losses at sea until the sound of peace reaches the last British cruiser upon our coast. Peace appears to be inevitable, but I doubt much whether we shall have it in less than a year from the present time. John Adams has negotiated a loan for five millions of florins, and the Congress have authorized Mr. Morris to borrow four millions more of dollars in Europe or America at any interest or upon security he chooses to give. This will probably extricate us from our present difficulties. Taxes alone will not do. It will be sufficient during the war if we can raise enough by taxes to pay the interest of funded monies. John Dickinson is talked of as president and General Mifflin as vice-president of our state for the ensuing year. Mrs. Rush joins in best wishes for your happiness with, dear sir, your sincere friend and fellow citizen, BENJN RusH &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wayne Papers.

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Savannah had been evacuated by the British on I I July (B. J. Lossing, Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, N.Y., I85o, n, 535). 2 A ritualistic phrase from Indian

oratory that BR liked and used in varied forms. 8 Rear Admiral Robert Digby (I 73zI 8 I 5), British naval commander in North America at this time (DNB).

To John Warren

1

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 12, 1782 In consequence of the dissolution of the charter of our College by Mr. Reed's faction, I have ceased to exercise my professorship in the present University. 2 The rules for graduating in the College when I had the honor of teaching in it were as follows. No young man was ever admitted to an examination for a bachelor's degree in medicine who had not previously attended the lectures on anatomy, chemistry, the materia medica, and the practice of physic. The examinations were Ist, private before the professors only, and 2d, public before the trustees of the College and as many strangers as pleased to attend. If the candidates had been admitted to degrees in the arts, they were examined only in medicine; if not, they were examined in the Latin language and natural philosophy. Between the private and public examinations the candidate produced to the professors specimens of his abilities by writing an answer to a physiological question and by giving the treatment of such a case as should be described to him. At the public commencement orations and disputes upon medical subjects were introduced and conducted in the same way as in commencements in the arts. A charge was always delivered to the graduates by one of the professors. Three years after conferring the degree of B.M., the degree of M.D. was conferred upon the candidate's producing a Latin dissertation upon some medical subject and defending it publicly against such objections as should be made to it by any of the professors. After the degree of doctor of physic was conferred, the graduate was taken by the hand in a formal and solemn manner by each of the professors as a sign of his being admitted to an equality of rank with them. With sincere wishes that medical science may flourish with you and never be chased from you by domestic broils, I am, dear sir, with the greatest respect, your friend and humble servant. tli1S (early copy, not in BR's hand): Massachusetts Historical Society, Warren Papers.

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John Warren (1753-I8xs), a graduate of Harvard, I 77 I, served in the Continental hospital department and became the leading surgeon of Boston. In 178:t Warren was requested by the President and Corporation of Harvard College to prepare plans for a medical school (the present letter being an answer to an inquiry from Warren dated :z.6 Sep. I 78:t, printed in Warren's Warren) , and was himself appointed first professor of anatomy and surgery. (DAB; Edward Warren, The Life of John Warren, M.D., Boston, I874> p. 2.48-9, and ch. XIII, passim.) 2 BR refers to the legislative Act of 27 Nov. I779> whereby the old charter of the College of Philadelphia was virtually annulled on the ground that the administration had narrowed the original non-sectarian foundation to an Anglican footing. (It was, besides, notorious that Provost Smith had tory leanings and that the College was a stronghold of hostility to the radical state government.) Under the terms of the Act of I 779 the institution passed into the control of the state government, which appropriated an annual fund of £I,500 from confiscated estates for its support, and its officers were obliged to take a prescribed oath of loyalty to the new government. The new University of the State of Pennsylvania was a more democratic institution than the old College of Philadelphia, but BR publicly and privately denounced the Act of reconstruction as an unlawful seizure of power inspired by a desire for vengeance, and the oath of loyalty to the Constitution of I 77 6 stuck in his throat. When, in July 178o, the members of the old medical faculty were invited to resume their posts, he was among those who refused to do so.

William Shippen, whose father, inevitably, was on the new board of trustees, promptly accepted. This was an additional grievance to BR, who in Feb. 1781 joined John Morgan in memorializing the trustees on Shippen's unfitness because of his damaged reputation as director general of hospitals. The evidence is conflicting on the question of how long BR held out against the oath and against Shippen. His lectures were advertised in the fall of I 78 I, but at about the same time James Hutchinson was elected professor of chemistry, and he held the appointment, at least nominally, until Nov. I 783, when BR was reelected. Chemistry was certainly neglected at the University during this period. On :z. I Nov. I 78:t William Quynn, a medical student from Baltimore, wrote home saying that "It is unfortunate for the Students that the dessention which subsists between Dr Rush & Dr Shippen; prevents Rush's Lecturing on Chymistry, a branch, Indispensably necessary to constitute a Physician" (Md. Hist. Mag., XXXI [I936], I88). Carson merely says that after an irregular condition in the medical department for three years the whole faculty was again at work in Nov. 1783. This is no doubt accurate, but it is far from circumstantial. (The Act of 1779 is in A. J. Dallas, comp., Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Phila., 1793-1797, I, 815-21. See also Univ. of Penna. Trustees' Minutes, 1780-1783; BR to Nisbet, 27 Aug. 1784; an exchange of public letters between John Ewing and BR in Penna. Packet, z6 Feb. and 2 Mch. 1785; Cheyney, Hist. Univ. Penna., ch. IV; Brunhouse, CounterRevolution, p. 77-9; Carson, Hist. of theMedical Dept. of the Univ. of Penna., p. 89-91; Goodman, Rush, p. 128-9.)

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To John Montgomeri Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 15th, 1782 Every friend to the freedom and independence of Pensylvania in this city lamented your being left out of the Assembly. The effects of the Freeholder 2 seem confined chiefly to your county. Here the falsehoods contained in it were detected and exposed in a few hours. The operation of it cannot last long anywhere. The inhabitants of your county little know how much they owe to your prudence and firmness in the cause of our country, or they would repair the insult they have offered you by bringing the authors of that most infamous libel to shame and punishment. "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?m The expiring faction have forfeited their souls without gaining the state by the exchange. The friends to virtue and moderation and the only true supporters of the Constitution will be a majority in the Assembly after all the pains that have been taken to prevent it. Mr. Dickinson will most probably be our president. Mr. McKean 4 has lost his election in Chester, and Mr. Reed his expected retreat to McKean's seat on the bench. I fear our scheme for a college over Susquehannah will be retarded by its wanting your support in the house. 5 When will our Presbyterians learn to discern their true interest and study to be wise for their posterity? Mr. Dickinson wishes for an opportunity of serving us. We are his old friends, and he still loves us. But what shall I say? He was almost universally opposed by our society at the late election. If Colonel McPherson 6 will take the lead in applying for the charter, he shall not want for assistance out of doors. Mr. Dickinson will become a liberal contributor to us. I intended to have proposed to you to call the college after him and his worthy lady, joHN AND MARY's College. 7 Your friends I believe will if possible show your county the sense they entertain of their treatment of you by putting you into Congress next month. With compliments to Colonel Magaw, I am,.my dear sir, your sincere friend and humble servant, BENJN: RusH iMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

John Montgomery (I7zz-I8o8), was born in Ireland and emigrated to Carlisle about I 740; served in the Forbes expedition, I 7 58; chairman,

Cumberland committee of observation, I 7 74; member Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, I 77 5-I 776; colonel of associators, I 776-1777; member of Assembly,

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5 NOVEMBER 1782 I78I-I782; delegate to Congress, I782I 7 84; appointed associate judge of Cumberland co., I 794; charter trustee of Dickinson College, I 7 831 and treasurer of the board from I798; lived at Happy Retreat, in a house still standing, just west of Carlisle. Though his letters show him to have been barely literate, Montgomery was a representative of the very finest qualities that Scotch-Irish character and American frontier conditions produced. Between him and BR there sprang up a friendship which time and tribulations cemented ever more strongly. Together they were the real builders of Dickinson College, toward which they each displayed feelings like those of a fond though sometimes exasperated parent toward a wayward child. The great bulk of their extensive correspondence, both sides of which are through BR's foresight preserved in the Rush Mss, deals with the early years of the College and constitutes a richly detailed history of that institution. (Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, II, 3 I 6- I 7; Rush-Montgomery correspondence in Rush Mss, XLI-XLIII; BR, Autobiography, p. 314-a tribute on the occasion of Montgomery's death.) 2 "A Freeholder" signed a broadside, "To the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania," which contained the ablest statement of the Radical or Constitutionalist position before the elections of I 782; it has been attributed to George Bryan (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 265-6).

8

Mark 8:36. Thomas McKean (I734-I 8 I 7), lawyer and statesman of Delaware and Pennsylvania; delegate to Congress from Delaware and signer of the Declaration of Independence; chief justice of Pennsylvania, I 777-I 799; shifted from a Federalist to a Jeffersonian position because of his French sympathies, and was elected governor of Pennsylvania, I799; reelected I8o2 and I8os (DAB). 5 Dickinson College at Carlisle was a brainchild of BR's conceived earlier this year at a meeting with Montgomery and probably other Republicans (conservatives or anti-constitutionalists) at William Bingham's house in Philadelphia; the exact date of the meeting is not known. BR's motives in planting a college on the frontier were in part altruistic and in part intensely personal, as the following letters show. See L. H. Butterfield, "Benjamin Rush and the Beginning of John and Mary's College over Susquehanna," Journal of the History of Medicine, III (I948), 427-42. 6 Robert McPherson (ca. I730-I789), a politician and soldier of York co.; charter trustee of Dickinson College, I783 (Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, II, 336). 7 John Dickinson, who was about to become president of the supreme executive council, had married Mary (I 740-I 8o3), daughter of Speaker Isaac Norris, in 1770 (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 53). 4

To John Montgomery My dear Friend, Philadelphia, November 5th, 1782 The exertions of Reed's faction at the late election were their last breath. 1 It will be impossible for them ever to deceive the state again. I can forgive the honest whigs who were duped by them. Their conduct showed a laudable jealousy for their liberties. But the conduct of Reed, Bryan, Arthur Lee (member of Congress from Virginia), and Sergeant ought to expose them to general censure. The £rst of this junto, viz., Reed, declared a few days ago at Chester "that if the test law was repealed, he would be active [ 291 ]

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in a way he had never been before," meaning that he would draw his sword against the Assembly. Sergeant nearly at the same time said at Bucks Court that the bayonet would decide the present dispute between the Constitutionalists and the Republicans. What punishment can be bad enough for men who thus wish to involve the state in the horrors of a civil war to gratify their ambition and personal resentments? But this is the consequence of strangers and vagrants intermeddling in our politics. When members of the same state divide into parties, the partialities of ancient citizenship moderate their rancor and defend them from the last extremities of revenge. Nay more, they often bring them back again to good fellowship. But this can never happen where parties are headed by strangers. They can feel for nothing but themselves. They see no old schoolmates, no relations, no members of the same church or of the same clubs among those who are opposed to them to plead for charity and forbearance towards their errors or conduct, and hence their fury is unmixed and without bounds. Happy for Pensylvania, the time of our deliverance from these adventurers is at hand. There can be little doubt of Mr. Dickinson being president. Shame will compel some to vote for him whom inclination would not. He is everything that his friends would wish him to be. His enemies (who are the enemies of virtue and public justice) sicken and tremble at his name. The late election in this city produced a discovery fatal to Mr. Reed. Upon being called upon to show his certificate, it appeared from it that he had not taken the oath of allegiance till October 9th 1778. Compare this with his persuading General Cadwallider and others of his friends to desert to the enemy in 1776 and 1777· You will hear of more discoveries of a similar nature in a few weeks. [Five lines are here scratched out beyond legibility.]2 Let us be active, my friend, in rescuing the state from the hands of tyrants, fools, and traitors. Heaven has committed a great and important trust to our care-no less than the liberties of the first state in the Union. We are already a little nation. Our posterity expect that we will do for them what our ancestors did for us. I have pledged myself to my friends that I will never relinquish the great object of a good constitution. Let us look out in time for censors. a No man who has been in office or power since the Revolution I think ought to be in that council. What do you think of Colonel Richd. Butler? He has both knowledge and a penetrating judgment, and as he is a gentleman in the full import of that word, I am sure he must think with us. I have just heard of his marriage. This will [ 292 ]

5 NOVEMBER 1782 make him more anxious for posterity than ever. My best respects and most affectionate congratulations attend him. Your friends will push you hard for a seat in Congress. Mifllin, Bingham, Cadr. Morris, Dick Peters, Thos. Fitsimmons, and James Moore (of Chester County) are all talked of as your colleagues.4 Don't forget the child of our affections, "John and Mary's College." Adieu. Yours sincerely, B: RusH P.S. Compliments to Colonel Magaw. &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

For the state election of October I 782, )n which the Republicans made noteworthy gains, see Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 12. Iff. The present letter shows BR in full stride as a leader in Republican strategy. 2 BR in this paragraph first touches on a controversy in which he was deeply involved, which broke out at intervals for nearly a century, and which is not yet entirely settled-namely, the question of Joseph Reed's rumored disloyalty in Dec. I 776. The controversy became known as "The War of the Grandfathers" (though War of the Grandsons would have been a more appropriate name) and eventually had serious effects on BR's reputation. See Introduction, p. lxii, note 5· 8 Under the Constitution of I 776 a "council of censors," which was to be elected every seven years, had the sole power to initiate constitutional amendments and to call a convention for that purpose. The first council of censors would sit in the fall of I 783 ; the election of I 782 was a preliminary struggle for control of that body. (Selsam, Constitution of 1776, p. I99-20o.) 4 Most of these Republican stalwarts were BR's intimate friends. Three of them-Miffiin, Peters, and Fitzsimonswere elected to Congress, with John Montgomery and James Wilson, a week later; this was a clean Republican sweep (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. I 24). Miffiin has been previously identified. William Bingham (I 75 2I 8o4), a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, 1768, made a fortune in

the West Indies, where he served as Continental agent, 1776-I78o; married Ann, daughter of Thomas Willing, the eminent banker, I 7 So; had extensive banking and land interests; delegate to Congress, I786-x789; U.S. senator, I 795-1 8oi; aided BR in establishing Dickinson College and was a charter trustee (DAB; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. 1 I). Cadwalader Morris ( r 741-r 795), merchant, ironmaster, and banker of Philadelphia and Birdsboro; delegate to Congress, I 783-1784 (nAB). Richard Peters (I 744- I 828), was a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I76I, and lawyer; served on the Continental board of war, I777-I78I; delegate to Congress, I782-I783; member and speaker of Penna. Assembly, I787-I790, and of the state Senate, I 79I-I 792; judge of the U.S. district court of Pennsylvania from I 792; a pioneer in scientific agriculture (DAB) • Thomas Fitzsimons (I74I-I8n), whose name is variously spelled, an Irish Catholic immigrant, was a Philadelphia merchant and militia officer; delegate to Congress, I 782- I 78 3, and to the Federal Convention, I 7 87i member of Congress, I 789-I 795, where he nearly alienated his old and bosom friend BR by supporting Hamilton's funding plan (DAB; Fitzsimons' letters to BR, 1789I 790, calendared in Biddle Papers, pts. i-iii; BR, Autobiography, p. p8an obituary tribute). James Moore was a member of Assembly for Chester co., I78I-I782, I784-I789 (J. S. Futhey and G. Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Phila., I88I, p. 380).

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To John Armstrong

1

Sir, Philadelphia, March 19, 1783 The early respect I was taught to entertain for your character, and the agreeable connection we once had together, are the only apologies I shall offer for opening a correspondence with you upon the subject of a college at Carlisle. 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 unacquainted 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 against them by way of retaliation. The only design of this letter is to explain more fully to you the advantages to be derived to the state at large and the Presbyterian society in particular from a nursery of religion and learning on the west side of the river Susquehannah. 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 members of the Assembly are of the same opinion, among whom is the Reverend Mr. Joseph Montgomery. 2 But supposing the present trustees held the University by the most equitable and constitutional tenure, it cannot be viewed as a nursery for the Presbyterian Church. Only I I out of 24 of the present trustees are Presbyterians. Dr. Ewing3 was elected by a majority of a single vote. He will probably be the last Presbyterian clergyman that ever will be placed at the head of that institution, should it even continue upon its present footing. From its extreme catholicism, I am sorry to say that, as no one religion prevails, so no religious principles are inculcated in it. The fault here is only in the charter, for all the teachers I believe are friends to Christianity and men of pious and moral characters. 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 create 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 wor[ 294 ]

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1783

ship is necessary to support religion; and education is the surest way of producing a preference and constant attachment to a mode of worship. Religion could not long be maintained in the world without forms and the distinctions of sects. The weaknesses of human nature require them. The distinction of sects is as necessary in the Christian Church towards the perfection and government of the whole as regiments and brigades are in an army. Some people talk loudly of the increase of liberality of sentiment upon religious subjects since the war, but I suspect that this boasted catholicism arises chiefly from an indifference acquired since the war to religion 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. But divinity] 4 cannot be taught without a system, and this system must partake of the doctrines of some one sect of Christians-hence the necessity of the College being in the hands of some one religious society. The universities of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and I believe of every other kingdom in Europe are in the hands of particular societies, and it is from this circumstance they have become the bulwarks of the Christian religion throughout the world. The expense of an education in Philadelphia alone, exclusive of the influence of a large city upon the morals of youth, is sufficient to deter the farmers from sending their sons to the University of Philadelphia. The distance of the College of New Jersey from the western counties of this state makes the difference of one fifth of the expense in the education of a young man in traveling twice a year backwards and forwards to and from his father's house. It has long been a subject of complaint among us that the principal part of the emigrants from Pennsylvania into new countries were Presbyterians. This has greatly reduced our numbers and influence in government. It is I believe pretty certain that we do not now compose more than one fourth or fifth part of the inhabitants of the state. A college at Carlisle, by diffusing the light of science and religion more generally through our society, may check this spirit of emigration among them. It may teach them to prefer civil, social, and religious advantages, with a small farm and old land, to the loss of them all with extensive tracts of woods and a more fertile soil. 5 The influence of commerce in giving weight in government is well known. The city of Philadelphia from this circumstance

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formerly governed all the counties on this side the Susquehannah. The same cause will no doubt produce the same effect upon the return of peace. A college at Carlisle, by diffusing knowledge and eloquence through the counties over Susquehannah, will make the only possible balance that can exist to the commerce and wealth of our city. The report which has been circulated by two or three gentlemen in Philadelphia of this college being the offspring of personal resentments and party vices is altogether without foundation. The design is equally patronized by men of every political and religious party in the frontier counties of Pennsylvania. The trustees (who have been named) are drawn equally from Constitutionalists and Republicans and from Old and New Lights. And still further to remove all jealousies respecting the Presbyterians, five or six of the trustees are taken from the English and Lutheran churches. Several of our largest contributions have been from gentlemen of different religious sentiments from ourselves. The President of the State (who you know is a Quaker) has given us a tract of land worth £6oo, and Mr. Bingham (who is an Episcopalian) has subscribed £400 in loan-office certificates. The subscriptions in a few weeks we expect will amount to £3000 in this city alone. The story suggested by Mr. Bryan, that I am actuated by resentment against the University for turning me out of my professorship in my endeavors to serve the interests of religion and of the Presbyterian Church in your county, is too absurd to be contradicted. 6 Mr. Bryan is a man of too much understanding to believe it himself. The object of the present undertaking is benevolent, and the motives for it are pure and disinterested. The extraordinary encouragement we have met with, notwithstanding some difficulties that have occurred in the prosecution of the scheme, satisfy me that our well-meant endeavors have met and will continue to meet with the smiles and blessing of heaven. Thus, sir, have I laid before you a few of the many arguments that might be mentioned in favor of a nursery of religion and learning at Carlisle, and at the same time I have I hope obviated all the objections that have been offered against it. It is not because the friends and projectors of this institution fear anvthing from the opposition to it that has originated in this city that I have taken the liberty of writing to you upon this subject. The principal design of this letter is to prevent your ancient and respectable character from being lessened in the smallest degree in the opinion of your friends by opposing an institution that [ 296

J

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1783

promises such solid and extensive advantages to the Church and State. One fact more I must beg leave to mention which I think ought to have its weight with the citizens of Carlisle. The value of land in the neighborhood of Princeton before the College was erected there was from JO/- to 40/- an acre. It has risen in the space of five and twenty years to £8-o-o and £10-o-o per acre, which is £5-0-0 an acre more than land sells for in the neighborhood of most of the villages in New Jersey. I am, sir, with great respect, your most obedient, humble servant. &S (copy, not in BR's hand but endorsed by him): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 John Armstrong (17I7-1795), pioneer and Indian fighter; major general, I 77 7; delegate to Congress, I 77 8-17 8o, I787-I788 (DAB). While BR was attempting to gain local support for the establishment of a college at Carlisle, General Armstrong, a Radical and one of the most prominent citizens of that place, was reported to have expressed opposition on the ground that it would split the Presbyterians in the state and weaken the College of New Jersey {John King to BR, 9 Jan. I783, Rush MSS, XLI). To conciliate him, BR employed in this letter every art and argument at his command, including the highly effective appeal, at the close, to Armstrong's interest as a propertyowner in Carlisle. Armstrong eventually yielded, became a charter trustee, and served as president of the board for nine years (Morgan, Dickinson College, p.

12). 2 BR's brother-in-law; see letter to Mrs. Rush, 24 Jan. I 777· 8 John Ewing (I732-I8o2), a College of New Jersey graduate, 1754; pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, from I 759; D.D., Edinburgh, I 77 3 ; provost and professor of natural philosophy in the University of the State of Pennsylvania, I 779; he continued to hold these posts after the reorganization of the institution as the

University of Pennsylvania, 179I, and gained some recognition as a scientist. For a number of reasons, not all of them clear, BR conceived an implacable hatred for Ewing, of whom he used language stronger than he did of any of his other antipathies. Ewing was for BR the embodiment of all that was evil in the Radical administration, and it was Ewing's part in the ordination of Ashbel Green at the Second Church in I 78 7 that impelled BR to leave the Church and faith in which he had been reared. The contest in denunciation between BR and Ewing became so notorious that Francis Hopkinson published a skit on it in I 785 that is by far the most readable product of the controversy. (DAB; Sprague, Annals, III, 2 I6l 9; Hopkinson, Miscellaneous Essays, Phila., I 792, n, 13 8-45; BR to Charles Nisbet, 27 Aug. I784, and to Ashbel Green, 1 I Aug. I 787.) 4 Top line of page partly concealed in mounting sheet. 5 The migratory propensity of the Scotch-Irish in the western counties was frequently denounced by BR; see especially his epistolary essay addressed to Thomas Percival, 26 Oct. I 786. 6 See George Bryan to John King, 9 Dec. I 782, extracted in King's letter to BR, 5 Oct. I 784, Rush MSS, XLI, Bryan had made a shrewd guess.

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1

To John King

Philadelphia, April 2nd, 1783 Dear Sir, I have written so fully to Mr. Black2 upon the subject and manner of a petition to the Assembly that I hope it will be unnecessary to add anything about either in this letter. As I fear the gentlemen to whom I have written over the mountains will not fully comprehend our wishes and intentions, I beg you would transmit copies of your petition to them. The sooner your petitions are circulated and sent down, the better. The opposition to our scheme has sunk into insignificance from Dr. Ewing & Company. But there is reason to fear a more formidable opposition from another quarter. Mr. Reed has awakened by means of his pamphlet3 Episcopal and Quaker prejudices a year or two before we had destined them to rise up against us. We have Presbyterian strength enough to succeed this year-I would not ensure our success after next October. Let us therefore be up and doing. I am in hopes Colonel Montgomery, Mr. Wilson, and a few more of the Republican party have such claims upon the gratitude of the state that a direct opposition to us from high-flying Church whigs will not show its head this year. I do not blame them for their prejudices against our society. We have forgotten in the course of the Revolution two things. 1st, That we are a very small society compared with the collected mass of all other societies, and 2ly, That we are a very modern society in Pensylvania compared with many others. These considerations should have taught us to moderate our desires after a monopoly of the power of the state, and not to have imposed with so much violence a constitution, laws, and rulers upon our more ancient fellow citizens wholly contrary to their habits and prejudices. These errors in the conduct of our society have arisen from i?:,norance in the society at large and wickedness in some of their leaders, both of which we expect to correct by a college. It is by means of such an institution that our enemies can expect to see us adopt the ancient spirit and character of true Pensylvanians. Education upon the pious and liberal principles we propose will extract all acrid humors from our veins and fill them with the poet's "milk of human kindness." It will melt us into the common mass of peaceable citizens and make us better rulers as well as better citizens in a republican government. While these advantages will attend4 other religious societies from favoring our college, what shall we say to the many advantages that will be derived from it to our own? I pass over the title it will give us to a just share of the power of the state

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2 APRIL

1783

and the reputation with which it will enable us to hold it, for our kingdom I hope hereafter will not be of this world. It will be a bond of union to our whole society. It will teach us all to accent Shiboleth alike. It will form new ties and friendships among us stronger in some instances than the ties of blood. It will be a kind of Mount Zion to which all our tribes will look up and which will prevent our being hereafter the wandering Arabs of America. It will convey knowledge and religion, with population, agriculture, and government, over the widely extended and fruitful territory that has lately been ceded to the United States. It will give system and consistency to our society however extended or scattered. But there is no end to the advantages of such an institution. As a postscript to Dr. Ewing's letter to Mr. Lang/ I beg leave to mention a curious anecdote. Just before the Doctor went to England to solicit benefactions for the New Ark Academy, I mentioned to him my wishes in strong terms for his success and added that I should be glad to see another Presbyterian academy on or near the Susquehannah, for I then entertained the same ideas upon the subject of education and the means of promoting the interests of our society that I now do. The Doctor assented to it, but in a letter I received from him after he arrived in London he recommends such an institution warmly and adds that he did not despair of seeing a plan for a college or an academy carried into execution in the western parts of Pensylvania and another in North Carolina wholly for the benefit of our society. 6 You are at liberty to communicate this fact to Mr. Lang and your other friends. The original letter shall be produced if necessary. We see from this discovery that circumstances may change the opinions of men, but truth and reason like the attributes of the Deity endure forever. There is a strange mixture of folly and absurdity in the opposition of Dr. Ewing and his junto to our college. One while they say our plan is too contracted. Then they accuse us of an attempt to divide the Presbyterians, thereby tacitly confessing that they consider their university as a Presbyterian institution. One while they say our college is to be a nursery for the Arminianism of the Old Lights-with the Old Lights they accuse us of a design to spread the enthusiasm of the New Lights through the state. One while Mr. Dickinson is considered as the wild projector of the scheme, then the infamy of it is laid upon Colonel Montgomery and myself. In some of their letters and conversations I am considered as a fool and a madman. In others I am considered as a sly, persevering, and dangerous kind of fellow. Almost every epithet

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of ridicule and resentment in our language has been exhausted upon me in public newspapers and in private cabals since the humble part I have acted in endeavoring to found a college at Carlisle. I have lately extended my views beyond the attainment of our charter to the means of procuring a library and philosophical apparatus. Our beloved president has promised us 500 volumes from the valuable library of his late father-in-law, Isaac Norris. 7 I have renewed my correspondence with several eminent dissenting ministers in Britain since the news of peace, on purpose to draw from them at a future day supplies of books and other articles for a college. Among the many advantages which the Revolution will produce to the interests of commerce, science, and religion, I hope the union of the friends to truth and simplicity in worship and church government in every quarter of the world into a great Christian republic will not be the least. I do not despair of seeing our sister churches in Holland contribute towards the advance~ent of their own doctrines and mode of worship in this new country. You will have a delicate part to act at the meeting of your presbytery, but firmness and decision will carry all before. them. Remember the Duke of Rocheficeau's maxim, "The only way to be established is to appear so.'' 8 I expect the assistance of your and Mr. Black's company in soliciting contributions in Philadelphia next May. It will give me great pleasure to improve my acquaintance with you and to render your attendance upon the synod as agreeable as possible. With great respect I am, my dear friend, your most obedient, humble servant, BENJN RusH P.S. Mr. Wilson will draw up our charter. His education in a British university and his perfect knowledge of all the charters of the American colleges will qualify him above most men for this business. &S: Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia. 1

John King (I74o-I811), a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I 766, was pastor of the Presbyterian church at Upper West Conococheague, near present Mercersburg, Penna., from I 76 9 to his death; a leader in the movement to found Dickinson College and a charter trustee; D.D., Dickinson

College, I 792 (Sprague, Annals, III, 281-5; Alfred Nevin, Churches of the Valley, Phila., 1852, p. 83-II6; King's letters to BR in Rush MSS, XLI). 2 John Black (d. 1802), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1 77I, pastor of the Upper Marsh Creek (now Gettysburg) Presbyterian church, I 77 5-

[ 300 ]

I794; in the latter year he voluntarily retired because of opposition from the community to his work for temperance; active in organizing Dickinson College, and a charter trustee {Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, II, 66-9; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. II ; Black's letters to BR in Rush MSS, XLI). 3 Remarks on a Late Publication in the Independent Gazetteer, with an Address to the People of Ponnsyl~ania, Phila., I78 3· 4 I.e., accrue to. 5 John King discusses this letter, which decried the plan of Dickinson College, in a letter to John Montgomery, 24 Mch. I783, forwarded to BR (Rush MSS, XLI). Rev. James Lang was pastor of the East Conococheague (now Greencastle) and Falling Spring Presbyterian churches from I767; he was also a charter trustee of the College (Centennial Memorial of the Pres-

bytery of Carlisle, I, 442-3; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. II). 6 In I77 3 Ewing had solicited funds in England and Scotland for an academy at Newark, Del., chartered by the Penns in I 7 6 9 ; the academy was the precursor of the University of Delaware (DAB); Ewing's letter, dated from London, 17 Dec. 1773, is in the Rush MSS, IV. 1 About 1,500 volumes were eventually given to the College from the library of Isaac Norris (I70I-I766), a leading Quaker politician in provincial days {DAB; James W. Phillips, "The Sources of the Original Dickinson College Library," Penna. Hist., XIV [1947], I08-I7). 8 This maxim is probably paraphrased rather than quoted, for Bell's Philadelphia edition of the Duke de La Rochefoucauld's Maxims and Moral Reflections {I 77 5), which BR probably used, contains only parallel forms of BR's aphorism; see, e.g., No. XL (p. 23).

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 27, 1783 I have just received a letter from Mr. Black in which he tells me that Messrs. Cooper and Craighead1 have become the opponents of our college, and that several other members of the presbytery had cooled very much towards the design. He ascribes it all to their visit to Philadelphia during the setting of the synod. We have nothing to fear from this opposition and lukewarmness while they act under the influence of Dr. Ewing. The Colleges of New Jersey and Philadelphia owe :much of their prosperity to his opposition to them. His friendship alone is fatal to a literary institution. Witness the New Ark Academy, which his schemes have reduced to a shoe factory or a stable. You must attend here at the setting of the Assembly. I can do nothing without you. The subscriptions are generally signed, and I do not think the least difficulty will occur in getting our charter passed through the house. What can equal the folly and madness of our society? Our power is extinct in Pensylvania, and yet we refuse to entrench ourselves in the only bulwark that can save us from total annihilation as a part of the government. [ 301 ]

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Every friend to the federal union laments your hasty flight from our city. 2 I am afraid it will defeat your generous plans of Continental revenue. The experiment of calling out the militia was at last tried but without effect. Only 13 men assembled at the parade of Colonel Reed's battalion. The universal cry was the men have been neglected and in jured, and it is wrong to shed their blood only for the sake of preserving the dignity of government. Mr. Dickinson's conduct in the close of the business has met with universal approbation. I believe the Assembly will justify him. I am sorry to add that Mr. Boudinot's proclamation3 has been torn down and otherways insulted by the common people. Our papers already teem with scandal against you. The sooner you return, the sooner the controversy between you and our state will be terminated. You cannot spare the attachment and support of Pensylvania in the present declining state of your power. What recommendation of Congress was ever refused or even controverted before now by our state? Come and spend at least a few months in Philadelphia to heal the breach between us; afterwards I wish you may never spend another month in any of the large cities of America. It is in a village only where you will be unable to corrupt the manners of the people by your example in expense and splendor. Cities contain the combustible matter of vice; villages are less capable of infection by you. Should Congress conclude finally to settle at Princeton, I shall cheerfully convey to them one half of a 20-acre lot in the heart of the town and an 100 acres of woodland within two miles of the same. The College would make an excellent place for your offices. The wisest thing the trustees of it could do would be to sell it to the public. The revenue arising from the price of it would maintain two or three professors, while the boys might be boarded with more advantage to their morals and manners in private houses. 4 - Yours sincerely, BENJN RusH tMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 Robert Cooper (ca. 1732-18o5), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 176 3, pastor of the Middle Spring church, near Shippensburg, Cumberland co., 1765-1797; a charter trustee of Dickinson College (Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, n, 46-7; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. n). John Craighead (1742.1 799), pastor of the Rocky Spring church, near Chambersburg, Cumber-

land (later Franklin) co., 1768-1799 (Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, II, 47-8). Black's letter mentioning their opposition is in the Rush MSS, XLI, dated 2.1 June 1783. 2 On 2.1 June some three hundred mutinous Pennsylvania troops made a show of force against the Pennsylvania supreme executive council then in session at the State House; their object was to exact a pledge of back pay before

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they were disbanded, and they enjoyed the more or less open sympathy of the Philadelphia citizens. However, in picketing the council, the troops were inadvertently, but perhaps not without satisfaction, picketing the Congress also, since that body was meeting in another room of the State House. Congress in its turn endeavored to exact promises from the council, namely, to bring the culprits to justice. When President Dickinson declined to call out the militia (whose temper he was uncertain of), Congress left the city by night (24 June) and sat in Princeton for the next five months. A full and welldocumented account of the "Sergeants' Revolt" is in Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, chs. I-III; see also Jour. Cont. Gong., XXIV, passim; Burnett, Letters of Members, VII, xxi-xxvi, and passim; Boudinot, Boudinot, ch. XVIII; Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 135-9; Irving Brant, James Madison, the Nationalist, Indianapolis and N.Y., 1948, p. 293-6. BR had much more to say on the subject in letters to Montgomery and President Boudinot in July and August, q.v. He had himself had a part in quelling the mutiny that he perhaps never revealed to anyone. In Apr. I 8 I 2 he composed a letter on the subject to John Adams, the draft of which (in Rush MSS, XXIX, 12oA) has been printed with commentary by James E. Gibson ("Benjamin Rush Terminates a Post-War Mutiny ..• ," Coll. Phys.

Phila., Trans., 4th ser., XIII [I945], I 34-8). Here BR asserted he had acted as intercessor with Dickinson for the mutinous troops who had marched in from Lancaster, and that Dickinson had promised to intercede for them with Congress to obtain their demands. As BR told the story in old age, the circumstances cannot be made to fit the known historical facts very well, and no other evidence of his participation in the affair has been found. Furthermore, he probably never sent the letter, for no copy has been found in the Adams MSs, and Adams in his letters made no allusion to BR's account of the incident. It is therefore hard to say how much credence should be placed in BR's account. This is not to suggest that he was untruthful, but only that he may have had reservations about his own statement of the facts and decided to keep the incident as secret as it always had been. 3 The proclamation announcing Congress' adjournment to Princeton and the reasons therefor was dated 24 June and was posted that night in the streets. (Boudinot was president of Congress.) A facsimile may be seen in Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, facing p. 28. 4 This was a strongly held opinion of BR's; see letters to Walter Minto, 24 Mch. and 19 Sep. 1792, and to Montgomery, 30 May 1803.

1

To John Bayard

July znd, 1783 2 Dear Sir, Friday Evening Herewith you will receive the copy of the letter I promised to send you to our mutual and worthy friend General Armstrong. 3 I shall only add that the issue of the elections last October confirmed me more than ever in the opinions contained in it. The opposition of our society to a convention I find adds fresh vigor to the prejudices against us. I lament it! because I am sure that event must take place sooner or later. Pensylvania cannot be happy or united under its present forth of government. The wealth and the sense [ 303 ]

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of the state, together with a great rna jority of the people, are in favor of some alterations in the Constitution. We may better our situation by a change. We cannot reduce ourselves below our present rank or insignificance in the state. If the present Constitution continues, our society will know nothing but its inconveniences. Its power has departed from us. Its offices will probably soon follow. They can be preserved only by uniting and concurring in the present views and wishes of other societies. I have lamented often that my political principles and conduct have separated me from the friends of my youth, and above all from those whose religious principles and mode of worship are most agreeable to me. My heart is still with them, and I think the time is not very distant when they will think as I have done for seve[n] 4 years past upon the subject of the politics of our state. With sincere wishes for everything that you wish for yourself, I am, dear sir, with the most undiminished respect for your person and character, your sincere old friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH tMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 John Bayard (I738-I8o7), Philadelphia merchant and leader in the Revolutionary movement, was colonel of associators, I 776, and later speaker of the Assembly and delegate to Congress; he was also a trustee of the College of New Jersey from I 778 and very active in Presbyterian affairs (DAB; J. G. Wilson, "Colonel John Bayard and the Bayard Family in America," N.Y. Geneal. &J Biog. Record, XVI [I88s], 49-72). 2 The date is in all probability wrong: 2 July I783 fell on Wednesday, not Friday; but, more important, the letter to John Armstrong mentioned in the first sentence, was apparently not written until 30 July I 783; see the

following note. The date should therefore probably be I or 2 Aug. (I Aug. I 783 was a Friday). 3 This letter, dated 30 July I 783 (copy, not in BR's hand, in Rush MSS, XLI) became notorious, for it contained BR's statement that the Presbyterians must reform themselves "before we are driven beyond the Mountains." This became public and, naturally, enraged certain Presbyterians. The letter is not printed in the present collection because its substance was repeated in BR's letter to Charles Nisbet of 27 Aug. I 784, q.v. See also BR to Bayard, 25 June I 7 84 (Rush MSS, XXXIX). 4 One or more letters missing in margin; the word may be "several."

To John Montgomery My dear Sir, July 4th, 1783 1 The enclosed letter from Mr. King I opened at the request of the bearer of it. The contents of it are no ways discouraging. All will end well. [ 304 ]

4 JULY 1783 I cannot describe the rage of all classes of citizens at the approach of your troops to restore the order of our city. 2 Your conduct is now compared to the conduct of the British Parliament towards the town of Boston in 1774. For God's sake! as you value all that we have gained by the Revolution, consider what you are doing. In striving to support the dignity of the federal government you have cut one of the strongest sinews that tied us together. Learn wisdom from the conduct of Great Britain. Right or wrong, you must yield a little or you are undone. The flame of resentment against you is catching fast through the state. The council is supported and justified now by everybody. Their levee was crowded this morning at the President's house with citizens of every description and party. You have no time to lose. If you remain one week longer at Princeton feeding one another with ideas of insulted and wounded dignity (all stuff in a republic), you may lose Pensylvania forever from your wise plans of Continental revenue. You have not a single advocate in our city. An hundred ludicrous anecdotes are told of you every day. I expect soon we shall see you in a ballad. For heaven's sake! forget and forgive. I honor your power, and I place all my hopes of the perpetuity of our happiness in the restoration of your influence and government over the United States. Adieu. Remember anodynes, not blisters, are the proper remedies for Pensylvania in the present stage of her disorder.-Yours sincerely, BENJN RusH P.S. The sergeants have confessed that two c1t1zens came to them on Friday evening before the 21st of June and urged them to use threats with council to obtain their pay. They recommended to them to go up to the State house on Saturday, as the Congress never assembled on that day. The description of one of the citizens answers to that of a noted incendiary. iMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

Not found. President Boudinot's appeal to Washington of 21 June had brought three regiments of Continental infantry and a detachment of artillery under 2

Maj. Gen. Robert Howe on a rapid march to the scene; the troops encamped at Germantown on 5 July (Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, p. 6o-6).

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To Mrs. Rush

1

My dearest Julia, Philadelphia, July 12, 1783 I fear you suffered from the heat in the morning and from the rain in the afternoon on your journey. I have had a dull time of it since you left me. To your honor and the honor of matrimony I can truly say, the longer I live with you the more unhappy I am in a separation from you. The noise of Dick2 and N ancy 3 on the stairs, in the yard, and even in the parlor is music to me compared with the melancholy silence which reigns through every apartment of the house. I hope Miss Susan Boudinot continues to mend. My love to the sweet lamb. Tell her her swain's house in Jrd street is finishing and furnishing fit for the reception of the Dauphina of the United States. 4 Respectful compliments and love to the President and his lady, to your Mama, sisters, and brother. Kisses for Jacky and Emelia, and respects to Dick. I could not help using that word when I thought of the dear little fellow. He talks-and looks-and behaves (eating in the parlor out of the question) so much like a gentleman that I cannot treat him like a child. Adieu. Yours, my better half, BENJN RuSH &S: Princeton University Library. 1 A note in the hand of Richard Rush is attached to the MS and reads as follows: "This may perhaps be a curiosity to some of my descendants. Miss 'Susan Boudinot,' means our Mrs. Bradford of after days. She is called 'the Dauphina,' as being the daughter of Uncle Boudinot then President of Congress, and, as such, the Executive head of the government of the old I 3 states. 'Her swain's house in 3rd street' must probably mean one that her father was preparing for Mr Bradford in anticipation of his marriage to this only daughter of his. 'Dauphina' of France, Daughter of France-clever badinage this. 'Jackey and Emelia,' mean my brother John and sister Emily. 'Dick and Mary' stand for me and my sister Mary of course. The letter came to me in the half sheet as here. I infer that it was directed to Morven where my mother then was, and

that my old great Uncle and Aunt Boudinot were guests at Morven with my grandmother then head of it, Mr. Boudinot being her brother and Mrs. Boudinot sister of my grandfatherthen deceased. R.R. Sydenham, I 8 56." 2 Richard Rush, born 29 Aug. 1780, whose exemplary career in public service as attorney general of Pennsylvania and of the United States, minister to Great Britain and to France, and secretary of the treasury under J. Q. Adams, bore out his father's jocular view of his promising qualities as a three-year-old. Richard's growth, education, and early political advancement may be clearly traced in the letters that follow. By his translation to national office in I 8 11, Richard alienated his father and was cut off in favor of his younger brother James (his older brother, John, was by this time insane) ; see BR to

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2 AUGUST John Adams, 9 Dec. I8II. This unhappy event was partly compensated by the cordial epistolary intercourse that continued between father and son, for BR, though he would not admit it, was proud of his brilliant son and followed his career with the keenest interest. BR's letters to Richard have not be\!n found among the Richard Rush Papers still owned by descendants and deposited in the Princeton Univ. Library; Richard's letters to his father are in Rush MSS, XLIV. (DAB; Powell, Richard Rush, especially chs. I-II; BR, Autobiography, p. 297-8; BR's letters to John Adams, I 809-1812, below.) 3 Richard Rush misread this name as "Mary" (see note z, above), but Mary Rush was not born until the following

1783

May. "Nancy" is probably a familiar name for Anne Emily, the "Emelia" mentioned below. 4 Susan Boudinot married William Bradford (I 755- I 795), brother of BR's friend Thomas, in Oct. I784; he was a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 77 2; colonel in the Revolution; at this time attorney general of Pennsylvania; later chief justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court and briefly attorney general of the United States under Washington. It was in connection with Judge Bradford's will that BR became involved in his protracted legal dispute with Bradford's father-in-law and Mrs. Rush's uncle, Elias Boudinot. (DAB; BR, Autobiography, Appendix

IV.)

To Elias Boudinot Dear Sir, Philadelphia, August 2nd, 1783 I am sorry to find by a letter from Mrs. Rush that my answer to yours by her has miscarried. I hope it has not gone into New York. Please to inquire after it. I do not mean to defend the conduct of our council or of the citizens of Philadelphia. I should wish they were a thousand times more criminal in the eyes of the world, provided their infamy would justify the Congress. Indeed, my friend, the States deceive you in their pretended sympathy with you. Strangers from Europe as well as every state in the Union condemn you. You are called the little Congress, and in many companies no Congress at all. Our whole state have taken part with the council and the city of Philadelphia, and I have no doubt but some measures will be adopted when the Assembly meets (unless your return to Philadelphia prevents them) that will separate us forever. Madness you know begets madness. The first act will probably be to put a stop to our taxes being paid into the federal treasury. The report of this has already affected Mr. Morris's notes. You have no time to lose. For God's sake, be wise, and let not those words dignity of Congress1 produce the same fatal effects upon our Union that Supremacy of Parliament has produced upon the British empire. The house is on fire-it is no matter where it kindled or who blew the flame. Buckets-buckets should be the cry of every good citizen. We do [ 307 ]

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not want you back again for our own sakes. We know full well how much of the 1 so,ooo per annum you spend among us comes out of the Pensylvania treasury. You cannot hurt us by your absence unless you can carry our Delaware (the vehicle) and our Germans and Quakers (the sources of all our wealth) along with you. I am known by but a small part of your body-none of them swallow boluses from my shop-but I solemnly declare that I view their sullen, pettish, puerile absence from our city in so alarming a light to our Union and future consequence as a nation that I would willingly give 1000 guineas to bring them back again (if it was only for one month) to Philadelphia. I protest no defeat or catastrophe that happened to us during the war distressed me half so much as your present conduct. "The Congress is angry. The Sovereigns of the new world are in a passion-at what? Has England broken her late treaty? Is all Europe in arms against her? No. Sergeant NogeP called them rascals, and a few drunken soldiers insulted them as they walked the streets.-Oh! no, this is not all. Mr. Dickinson looked coolly on, and though called upon over and over would not run the dogs through the body." This is the daily language, my friend, of every table and every company in our city. I am distressed to hear such things. Dearly as I love my native state, I could cheerfully sacrifice a great part of her honor to save the honor-I almost hate the word-it smells of dignity-! ought to have written the CHARACTER of Congress. With love to all the family, I am, dear sir, in great sincerity, yours, BENJN RuSH

P.S. Three wrongs will not make one right. The soldiers did wrong in revolting, the council did wrong in not calling out the militia, and the Congress are doing wrong in remaining at Princeton. The two former have come right. Congress alone persevere in the wrong. If you fled for safety, come back-the mutiny is quieted. If you fled till a power could be collected to protect you, come back -here are I 500 of your troops devoted to your wills. But if you availed yourselves of an ostensible excuse only to detach Congress from their stronghold in Philadelphia, then stay where you are till you are duped and laughed at on Hudson's river. Excuse the freedom with which I write to you. I honor your authority. I am zealous above all things for our Union, and I place all my hopes of the safety, perpetuity, and happiness of our government in the [ 308 ]

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success of the late wise and benevolent resolutions of Congress upon the subject of finance. 3 &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gratz Collection. 1 The proclamation of 24 June, signed by Boudinot, had repeatedly used the phrase "Dignity and authority of the United States." 2 Sgt. Christian Nagel, 3d Penna. Line, had served the mutineers' ultimatum upon President Dickinson on 2 1 June. In the court-martial ordered by Gen. Robert Howe, Nagel and a fellow sergeant, John Morrison, were sentenced to death as leaders of the mutiny, but

both were pardoned by Congress on I 3 Sep. I 783. (Burnett, Letters of Members, vn, 226, with references there; Collins, Continental Congress at Princeton, p. I44-5.) 3 The plan for establishing a permanent federal revenue, passed in April and sent to the States with an eloquent address composed by Madison (Irving Brant, James Madison, the Nationalist, Indianapolis and N.Y., 1948, ch. XVI).

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September I, 1783 The ice is at last broken, and leave has been obtained to bring in a bill to found a college at Carlisle. los. Montgomery opposed the place violently and plead hard for the sickly banks of Susquehannah, where the youth would enjoy fogs and the society of boatmen, wagoners, and suchlike companions for half a century to come. He lost his motion by only four votes. McClene, Hoge, and all your county members except Brown and Duncan joined him. 1 Duncan spoke warmly and sensibly. Sharp Delany2 and Clymer behaved well upon the question. Sharp detests Joseph's act in his opposition so much that he declares unless his name is struck out from among the trustees he will not support the scheme any longer. It shall be done. 3 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 design. Ewing and Reed could not oppose us with more specious and insidious maneuvers. Do come to town immediately. We suffer daily from the want of your advice and passionate honesty1 as Sharp calls it. Everything hangs upon the next two weeks. It 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 Carlisle. Colonel McPherson and Jackson4 are much engaged 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

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nothing. The charter is ready and has been carefully reviewed by Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Wilson. 5 Yours sincerely, BRusH Haste, haste, my friend, or we are undone. Wilson will be at Princeton tomorrow or next day. v!ddressed: John Montgomery Esqr: Member of Congress Princeton. favd. by Majr Jackson. &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 All the persons named were mem- Philadelphia druggist and an active pabers of Assembly from Cumberland co. triot, was a Republican member of James McLene (I730-I8o6), of An- Assembly; from I 7 84 he was collector trim, was a member of the Provincial of the Port of Philadelphia (Simpson, Conference and of the Convention of Eminent Philadelphians, p. 308; MarI 776, also of the Convention of I 789; tin, Bench and Bar, p. I 3 I). 3 Joseph Montgomery became a memseveral times member of Congress ber of the board, however, in I 7 8 7, and (PMHB, IV [I88o], 93-4; Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, served till his death (Dickinson Coln, 348). Jonathan Hoge (1725-I8oo), lege, Alumni Record, p. I 2). 4 Probably William Jackson (I759of Silver Spring or Hogestown, was a member of the Convention of I 77 6, and I8z8), of South Carolina, who was the from I791 was an associate judge of bearer of this letter; major and aide-deCumberland co. (PMHB, III [I879], camp to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln in the 442). William Brown was later judge Revolution, he is best remembered as of common pleas (Penna. Archives, zd secretary to the Federal Convention of ser., m, 749). Stephen Duncan, of 1787 (DAB). 5 The act chartering Dickinson ColCarlisle, became a charter trustee of Dickinson College (Dickinson College, lege was passed on 9 Sep. 17 83 (MorAlumni Record, p. I r). gan, Dickinson College, p. 13). 2 Sharp Delany (ca. I739-I799), a

To William Cullen Philadelphia, September 16th, 1783 My dear Friend, 1 Your letter by Mr. Todd made me very happy, but did not (because it could not) add to my sense of obligation and friendship to you. The events of the late war have not lessened my attachment to my venerable master. The members of the republic of science all belong to the same family. What has physic to do with taxation or independence? One of the severest taxes paid by our profession during the war was occasioned by the want of a regular supply of books from Europe, by which means we are eight years behind you in everything. Your First Lines was almost the only new work that was smuggled into the country. Fortunately, it fell into my hands. I took the liberty of writing a preface to it and of publishing it during the war. 2 The American edition had a rapid sale and a general cir[ 310 ]

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culation throughout the United States. It was read with peculiar attention by the physicians and surgeons of our army, and in a few years regulated in many things the practice of our hospitals. Thus, sir, you see you have had a hand in the Revolution by contributing indirectly to save the lives of the officers and soldiers of the American army. Mr. Todd cannot fail of doing well in our country. He will have his choice of two or three public schools, each of which will be worth not less than £rso-o-o sterling a year to him. The practice of physic still continues to be laborious and by no means profitable in proportion to our labor in this new country. The professions of physic, surgery, and pharmacy are still blended together. Our medical school has declined during the war, but we expect will revive with the peace. The crowds of strangers which our commerce has invited to our city, together with some other circumstances, have rendered the present season extremely sickly. The scarlatina has been epidemic among us. Your treatise upon this disorder 3 has been my guide in all the cases that come under my care. I cannot conclude this letter without repeating my obligations to you for the friendship I experienced and the instruction I derived from you while in Edinburgh. If I have added anything to my stock of ideas since I left youif I have been a patient observer of nature and a faithful compiler of facts-if I have been in any degree useful or successful in my profession, I owe all these things to you. May you live long, very long, to enjoy such effusions of gratitude from your pupils, and continue every year to bless the world with your invaluable works. With most respectful compliments to your family, I am, dear sir, your most affectionate pupil and obliged friend and humble servant, BENJN. RusH fMS (early copy, not in BR's hand): University of Glasgow Library. 1

James Tod, a Scottish schoolteacher who had recently emigrated to America. He was a friend of Charles Nisbet's and was involved in BR's negotiations to persuade Nisbet to accept the principalship of Dickinson College; see BR to Nisbet, 27 Aug. 1784. With little doubt he was the same James Tod who kept the first printing establishment in Princeton, N.J., I786-I787, and who afterwards resumed schoolteaching and died

at New Utrecht (now part of Brooklyn), L.I., in I 8o2 (V. L. Collins, Early Princeton Printing, Princeton, I 9 I I, p. 6-u). 2 Cullen's First Lines of the Practice of Physic was published at Edinburgh in four volumes, I 776-I 784; BR instigated an American reprint of the first two volumes, Philadelphia, I781-I783. 3 Not separately published.

[ JII ]

1

To John Coakley Lettsom

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, November 15, 1783 Accept of my thanks for your friendly letter and the books that accompanied it. It is an act of charity to pour upon a benighted American the discoveries of the last eight years in Europe. I have feasted upon each of your pamphlets. Your account of the life and character of our worthy friend Dr. FothergilP will insure you a place in the temple of fame. It has attached me more to my profession than ever. No man ever discharged all its various duties or supported its honor with more fidelity and dignity than our deceased friend. Let heroes pursue glory and happiness in arms; I wish for no greater share of both than are to be derived from imitating Dr. Fothergill. The state of our country for some years past has been unfavorable to improvements of every kind in science. I approve of your plan for instituting a medical society in Philadelphia, and am not without hopes of seeing it carried into execution as soon as the minds of our literati are more perfectly _detached from the political subjects that have swallowed up all the ingenuity and industry of our country. The only return I can make you for your publications is to beg your acceptance of a small tract I published about two years ago upon the hackneyed subject of inoculation. 3 I have prepared four or five essays for the press, each of which contains something new. 4 The first is on the usefulness of blistering and bleeding in obstinate autumnal and winter intermittents. Dr. Hall can inform you of my mode of using these remedies and the success that attended them. The second is upon a new mode of curing the tetanus. I think I have discovered that opium is in general hurtful and that it does service only when it is given in such doses as to obtain its stimulating effects. My facts upon this subject were collected during my services in the military hospital of the United States. The third essay is upon the usefulness of calomel in the ulcerous sore throat of angina scarlatina. The fourth contains proofs of the existence of a moral faculty from the influence of diseases upon that principle. Upon this subject I have collected some curious and interesting facts. If you think these essays, put into a decent plain dress, will stand a chance of selling in London, I shall commit them to the press and send copies of them to you early in the spring, to be published under your inspection and patronage. With great [ JI2 ]

15

NOVEMBER

1783

respect for your useful and eminent character, I am, dear sir, your sincere and affectionate friend, BENJ. RusH 'Printed: Pettigrew, Lettsom, m, 186-8. 1

John Coakley Lettsom (I 744-I8I5) , of London, a Quaker physician, philanthropist, and miscellaneous writer, was born in the Virgin Islands and trained at Edinburgh and Leyden, where he obtained his M.D., I769. An eccentric even in eighteenth-century England, most of Lettsom's eccentricities had some benevolent purpose, such as his campaign against the use of hair powder because it wasted flour needed for bread for the poor. BR met Lettsom in I 76 8 or 1769 at the London home of Dr. John Fothergill (see the following note), and, in Lettsom's words, "from that period, to the time of his [BR's] decease, our correspondence was maintained by an uninterrupted intercourse of literary communication." Some forty letters from Lettsom to BR are in Rush MSS, XXVIII (where will be found the letter, dated 8 Sep. I783, to which BR is replying); about half that number from BR to Lettsom were printed by Lettsom's biographer Pettigrew. The topics of the correspondence are very diverse, e.g., medical news and publications, balloons, the mangel wurzel plant, books for Dickinson College, abolition of the slave trade, ardent spirits, penal and prison reform, the future of America, and the source of yellow fever-the last being a subject on which the two disagreed. Lettsom served as a sort of literary agent for BR in England, arranging for the pub-

lication of BR's wntmgs there, and sometimes, with or without his correspondent's permission, sending communications from BR to the Gentleman's Magazine and other journals. For BR's talents and character Lettsom had the highest esteem. That BR reciprocated his English friend's high regard is indicated by his naming one of the settlements on his land in Northern Pennsylvania for ,Lettsom; the name "Letsome" may be seen on Reading Howell's map of the state in I792, on Sugar Creek south of Tioga Point. (DNB; Pettigrew, Lettsom; Lettsom, Recollections of Dr. Rush, London, I 8I5 ; Abraham, Letts om, ch. XVIII.) 2 Lettsom published Some If ccount of the Life of the Late John Fothergill this year. Fothergill ( I712-I78o), was a Quaker physician of London and close friend of Benjamin Franklin; like Lettsom, he had an extensive American correspondence and patronized the American arts and sciences. BR later named a tract of land on the Loyalsock Creek for Fothergill; it lies south of "Letsome" on the Howell map of I792. (DNB; BR, Autobiography, p. 54-5.) 3 The New Method of Inoculating for the Smallpox. • . , Phila.: Cist, I78I; new edns. in 1789 and 1792. 4 This is the first mention of the scheme which grew into the long series of BR's Medical Inquiries and Observations, I 7 89-1798.

To John Montgomery My dear Friend, Philadelphia, November 15th, 1783 Both your letters with the certificates came safe to hand. I shall procure the interest on them and pay Mr. Fisher1 out of it for drawing the charter of our College. I am impatient for your return to Philadelphia to revive the subscriptions. Pray bring General Armstrong along with you. He ( 313 ]

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will assist us among the Arch Street and Hill congregations. If he will not accompany you, Mr. Duncan or Colonel Magaw I hope will. The former (Mr. Duncan) will best supply the place of General Armstrong. I have lately received a letter from my friend Dr. Erskine on the subject of our College. I find he has been poisoned, I suspect by some friend to the Jersey College. He thinks we have too many colleges and that we had better unite our funds, libraries, and philosophical instruments into one common stock. Worthy man! He knows nothing of the distance of Princeton from Carlisle or of the immense country which opens to the latter institution over the mountains. I shall remov~ his prejudices in my next letter. Dr. Wetherspoon declines (for a while) going to Europe-in the meanwhile Jos. Reed has offered to collect for the Jersey College in England. He sails in two weeks. 2 I am preparing some thoughts to lay before the board of trustees upon the subject of education proper for a college in a new republican state. 3 I hope you and General Armstrong will not forget to engage a minister to give us a sermon and prayers suitable to the great and solemn 6th of April next. General Mifllin will accept of the chair of Congress. He and Peters were reelected unanimously by the Assembly-you were chosen by 43 votes. You have done too much mischief to the palefaced faction ever to be forgiven by them. The censors go on unanimously. 4 Judge Evans 5 thinks we shall have a convention. If the censors refuse it, it may easily be brought about by an appeal from the Assembly to the state. Massachusets Bay has adopted the impost in all its parts, and Howell6 says Rhode Island must follow that great state. All will end well. Adieu. Compliments to Mr. Duncan, General Armstrong, Colonel Magaw, Colonel Smith/ and Dr. McCroskrey. 8 - Yours sincerely, BENJN: RusH .Ifddressed: The Honble: John Montgomery Esqr: at Carlisle. [MS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 At a venture, this is Miers Fisher (r748-r819), Quaker lawyer, politician, and man of affairs, brother of BR's early friend Samuel R. Fisher (Anna Wharton Smith, Genealogy of the Fisher Family, Phila., I 896, p. 49-

52). 2

On this mission, which was a flat

failure, see Collins, Witherspoon, II, 138-43; Reed, Reed, II, ch. XVIII. 3 This paper was presumably read at the meeting of the board in Carlisle the following April and was published in BR's Essays, under the title "Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic." It is still worth reading.

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5 DECEMBER 1783 4 The first council of censors had been elected in October; the Republicans had a majority of members, but not the two-thirds necessary to control it entirely (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. I56). 5 John Evans (I728-I783), of Chester co., a justice of the Penna. supreme court, I777-I783, and a member of the council of censors; he died soon after this letter was written and was succeeded on the bench by BR's brother Jacob (J. S. Futhey and G. Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Phila., I88I, p. 539). 6 David Howell (I747-I824), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 766; for a time professor of natural philosophy and mathematics at Rhode Island College (Brown University) ;

later eminent as a lawyer and jurist; he was at this time a Rhode Island delegate to Congress (DAB). 7 Probably James Smith (ca. I7I9I8o6), a lawyer of York, signer of the Declaration of Independence (having been elected to Congress with BR by the Convention of I776); he was a colonel of militia in the Revolution and later held numerous civil posts (DAB). s Dr. Samuel Allen McCoskry (I75II 8 I 8) , a physician in Carlisle, was a charter trustee of the College; his second wife was Dr. Charles Nisbet's daughter Alison (Miller, Nisbet, p. 247, 302; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. I I; Conway P. Wing, History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Phila., I879, p. I8I-2).

To Charles Nisbet Sir, Philadelphia, December 5th, 1783 I receive with great pleasure the honor you have done me in opening a correspondence with me. 1 I shall do everything that lies in my power to assist Mr. Napier 2 in forming connections and establishing himself in business in our city. I am much surprised at seeing so many falsehoods published in the British newspapers respecting the reception of British and Irish emigrants in this country. Upwards of 6,ooo souls have arrived in this city since the peace, all of whom have been kindly received and comfortably accommodated. Tradesmen have found immediate employment and high wages; farmers have found a choice of land of every kind and at a moderate price; and servants have found abundance of wholesome food and convenient clothing in the houses of their masters. Very few of them have died since their arrival. This can easily be accounted for from the near resemblance of the climate of the middle states to the climate of Britain and Ireland. We have heard with great pleasure from Mr. Bowie 3 and others of the share the United States have had in your good wishes and prayers during the late Revolution. Come, sir, and share with us in that liberty and independence which you have loved. We have not toiled and bled in vain. Our governments are daily acquiring

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strength and consistency, and our people become every day more subject to law and order. Europe in its present state of political torpor affords no scope for the activity of a benevolent mind. Here everything is in a plastic state. Here the benefactor of mankind may realize all his schemes for promoting human happiness. Human nature here (unsubdued by the tyranny of European habits and customs) yields to reason, justice, and common sense. Come, sir, and spread the influence of science and religion among us. America seems destined by heaven to exhibit to the world the perfection which the mind of man is capable of receiving from the combined operation of liberty, learning, and the gospel upon it. The trustees of Dickinson College are to meet at Carlisle on the 6th of next April to choose a principal for the College. I have taken great pains to direct their attention and votes to you. From the situation and other advantages of that College, it must soon be the first in America. It is the key to our western world. With great respect for your eminent and useful character, I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant, BENJN: RusH ._-fddressed: The Revd: Dr Charles Nesbet At Montrose Scotland.

&S: Amherst College Library. 1

Nisbet's letter, dated from Montrose, Scotland, 5 Aug. I783, is in the Rush MSS, XLI. Nisbet's career and his relations with BR have been outlined in a note on BR's letter to Witherspoon, 1 Aug. 1767. Among all the trustees of Dickinson College, BR was the only one who had met Nisbet, and it was his idea exclusively (as is intimated further on in this letter) to invite Nisbet to accept the presidency of that institution. The letter notifying Nisbet of his election will be found under the date of I 91 Apr. 17 84. After long and prayerful deliberation, Nisbet at length accepted and in 17 85 came to America. BR had hoped Nisbet would prove another Witherspoon. What actually happened, largely recounted in BR's letters

from 17 8 5 onward, has been told more connectedly in the article cited on p. 46, above; see also Joseph B. Smith, "A Frontier Experiment in Higher Education," in Bulwark of Liberty: . . . The Boyd Lee Spahr Lectures in Americana, N.Y., &c., I95o, p. 74·IOI. 2 David Napier, a linen manufacturer of Montrose, who planned to emigrate to the United States (Nisbet to BR, 5 Aug. 1783, Rush MSS, XLI). 8 Ralph Bowie (d. I8I6), a Scottish lawyer and friend of Nisbet's who emigrated about this time, settled at York, Penna., and prospered (BR to an unknown addressee, 24 Sep. I 784, MS, Amherst College Library; Hist. Cat. St. Andrew's Soc, Phila., n, 54-5).

I

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III. CHRONOLOGY 1784 April. Journeys to Carlisle for first meeting of trustees of Dickinson College at the site. 1784. Publishes An Enquiry into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors upon the Human Body, and Their Influence upon the Happiness of Society. 1784-1787. In professional partnership with Dr. James Hall. q86 Feb. 2 7· Delivers annual oration before the Philosophical Society: An Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral F acuity. I 786. Founds, with others, the Philadelphia Dispensary for treating the poor. 1787 January. Charter fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. 1787 April. Participates in reorganization of Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and is elected one of the secretaries. 1787 June. Attends dedication of Franklin College (of which BR is a charter trustee) at Lancaster. I787 November-December. Attends as a delegate the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Federal Constitution, and urges its adoption. J787-1791. Writes tracts favoring free common schools, education for women, a national university, reform of penal laws, &c., &c. I 789 Oct. 24. Elected to chair of theory and practice of medicine in the reconstituted College of Philadelphia. I 789. Publishes first volume (of five) of Medical Inquiries and Observations. J791-1792. Named professor of the institutes of medicine and of clin~cal medicine in the newly organized University of Pennsylvama. J79I-I793· Active in founding the First African Church (St. Thomas') in Philadelphia.

Part III. (ompleting the ~volution: ~ r3r[ultitude of Causes,

1

7 8 4-- I 7 9 2

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April 15th, 1784 After an agreeable ride, I arrived safe in Philadelphia on the Tuesday after we parted with you at Carlisle. 1 I had the pleasure of finding all our friends highly pleased with what we had done. I think of it constantly with a satisfaction which I cannot describe. But our difficulties are not yet over. Your presence will be necessary here in May next, not only to obtain private subscriptions for our College but to interest Mr. Clymer 2 in behalf of our petition in the Assembly. 3 He is now the only speaker in the house. His exertions were very useful in obtaining our charter. You know how to gain his heart. Mr. Pettit4 has succeeded Mr. Delany in the Assembly. You know his connections. I am afraid of his influence, for he has abilities. Suppose you wait upon him and solicit his support of our petition. Mr. Dickinson, our worthy president, speaks in high terms of the pleasure he enjoyed in his journey. He is charmed with the liberality of sentiment and behavior of our clergy. Colonel Hartlei likewise gives them great credit and speaks in their favor in all companies. Some of our next professors must by all means be chosen from among other religious societies. It will help to remove the prejudices which Dr. Ewing & Co. have raised against our society. A German Lutheran or Calvanist teacher will allure us many pupils and connect us with their people in government. An Episcopalian will draw pupils even from this city. It will be enough for us that the principal and a majority of the trustees are Presbyterians. Perhaps Mr. Davidson6 may be added to our number. I wish he and Wm. Linn7 could be made joint ministers of your church. Such unions are very frequent in Scotland where there is a diversity of opinions in a congregation. They might both be made professors in the College, which would lessen the burden of our maintaining two ministers and give perfect satisfaction to both parties. I write this in confidence and beg it may go no further.

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I should have thought it improper to have touched upon a subject in which I am not interested, had it not been connected with the honor and interest of our College. I expect to convey notice to Dr. Nisbet next Monday in a short letter of his election. 8 Adieu. Yours-yours, BENJN RusH P.S. Mr. Wilson approves of all we have done and will concur heartily with you in getting the buildings. 9 He thinks they may be paid for in loan-office certificates. A good thought! Mr. Davidson seems highly pleased with the prospect of concurring with us in our College if he is settled at Carlisle. He says he is willing to teach history, chronology, and geography. All will end well. BINGHAM's PoRcH. 10

.!lddressed: The Honble: John Montgomery Esqr Member of Congress at Annapolis. &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 BR had returned two days earlier from a ten-day jaunt to Carlisle for the first meeting of the trustees of Dickinson College held in that town, 6-8 Apr. A very detailed diary of the trip was kept by BR and is now in the possession of Dr. Josiah C. Trent, of Durham, N.C.; it has been published, with notes by the present editor, in PMHB, LXXIV (I95o), 443-56. 2 George Clymer (I739-I8IJ), Philadelphia merchant and patriot, entered Congress with BR in July I 776, in time to sign the Declaration of Independence; later a member of the Penna. Assembly, of the Federal Convention of I 787, and of the first Congress under the Constitution; the friendship that subsisted between him and BR grew closer as the two men grew older (DAB; BR, Autobiography, p. I49). 8 For a grant of aid by the State to the College. The first grant was not made until two years later; see Good, Rush and His Services to Education, p. 120. 4 Charles Pettit (I736-I8o6), formerly of Trenton, had married Sarah Reed, half-sister of Joseph Reed, through whose influence Pettit had obtained various posts in New Jersey province

and was appointed assistant quartermaster general in I 77 8 ; he was afterwards a merchant in Philadelphia, member of Assembly, I784-I785, and delegate to Congress, I785-I787 (DAB). 5 Thomas Hartley (I 748-I 8oo), lawyer, of York, had been active in the beginnings of the Revolutionary movement; col., I Ith Penna. Line, I 777I 7 79; member of council of censors, I783-I784, and of the state ratifying convention of I 7 8 7; charter trustee of Dickinson College; Federalist member of Congress, 1 7 89- I 8oo (DAB; Heitman, Register; Dickinson College, Alumni Record) . 6 Rev. Robert Davidson (I 750-I 812) was a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I 77I, where he taught history and ancient languages, I 7 82-I 784, and received a D.D., I784; assistant minister of the First Church, Philadelphia, from about I774; called to Carlisle as minister of the Presbyterian Church, April I785, and, at BR's instance, appointed professor of history, geography, chronology, rhetoric, and belles lettres in Dickinson College; succeeded Nisbet as president of the College in I 804 but resigned after five years. Davidson, who in I8o7 married John Montgom-

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19 APRIL 1784 ery's daughter Margaret, was a principal figure in the early history of Dickinson College and is frequently mentioned in BR's letters. Roger Taney, an early student at Dickinson, wrote a delightful sketch of Davidson as teacher. His textbook in geography, written by himself, was Geography Epitomized; or, a Tour round the World: Being a Short but Comprehensive Description of the Terraqueous Globe Attempted in Verse for the Sake of the Memory . •• , Phila., 17 84, a part of which Taney could (and did) repeat after half a century-a proof of Davidson's effective, if limited, pedagogical technique: "Round the globe now to rove, and its surface survey, Oh, youth of America, hasten away;" &c. (DAB; Sprague, Annals, III, 322-6; Morgan, Dickinson College, p. 107, 166-79; Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates.) 7 Rev. William Linn (1752-18o8), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1772, and chaplain to Pennsylvania troops in the Revolution, was pastor of Big Spring Presbyterian Church, Newville, Cumberland co., 1777-1784; charter trustee and first secretary of the board of Dickinson College; pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church, New York City, 1787-18o5, where he served as chaplain to Congress and achieved high repute as a pulpit orator. BR hoped in 17 84 to bring Linn to Philadelphia to his own (the Second Presbyterian) church. (Centennial Memorial of the

Presbytery of Carlisle, II, 56-9; BR to Linn, 4 May 1784.) 8 See the following letter. 9 "The 'public works' used by the colonies for military purposes have had a long list of names: Washingtonburg, one of the early places named for the General; the Public Works, the W arks, the Barracks, the Indian School, the United States Government Hospital; and now, in 1933, the United States Field Medical Training School"-Morgan, Dickinson College, p. 27, note. (In 1936 and afterward the Medical Field Service School was replaced by various other U.S. Army training schools.) BR's term for these army magazines and shops was frequently "the public buildings." They stood northeast of the village on property owned by James Wilson. For a dozen years or more attempts were made by the College authorities to purchase or lease the buildings. Nisbet strongly urged acquiring them, and for a time his family occupied one of them. As some of the following letters show, BR's views on the question of acquisition fluctuated. See Morgan, p. 7 s-8; also T. G. Tousey, Military History of Carlisle and Carlisle Barracks, Richmond, 1939, passim. 1 0 Note by BR, added after the return of Montgomery's letter: "These words allude to the first conversation upon the subject of a college at Carlisle between Jno. Montgomery and B. Rush having taken place at Mr. Bingham's porch."

To Charles Nisbet Dear Sir, [Philadelphia, z9? April z784] 1 Herewith you will receive a letter from his excellency Governor Dickinson, enclosing an account of your being elected principal of Dickinson College, together with a small bill of exchange to assist in defraying the expenses 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 ( 32I ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

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 seem to depend upon your accepting of their appointment. And if to live with people of principles congenial to your own in religion and governmentif to fill a station the highest and most respectable that a minister of the Presbyterian Church can arrive to in any part of the worldif 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 2 in extent-if any or all 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 gentlemen who (when I except myself) are all men of the first character for probity, public spirit, and property in the state. Mr. Dickinson, our present worthy governor and the illustrious author of the Farmer's Letters, is president of our board. 13 of our number are clergymen, 9 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) and are all Calvanists in their religious principles. Two or three of them intend to write to you at the meeting of our synod, which will be sometime in next month. The board of trustees is composed of men of all sects, although a majority of them are Presbyterians, but the charter of the College allows of no exclusive privileges 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 promoted 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 the world that we are not strangers to toleration, and it will teach our youth to exercise liberality and charity towards those who differ from them in religious tenets. The town of Car lisle lies I 20 miles to the westward of Philadelphia and about I 8 miles from the river Susquehannah. It consists of about 300 houses, most of which are built of limestone. It lies in a healthy and fertile plain bounded on the north and south by two high mountains. Within a mile of the town there winds a small [ 322 ]

19 APRIL 1 784

river called by the Indian name of Canadoginet, 3 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 general an orderly people. Two or three general officers who have served with reputation in our army, four or five lawyers, a regular-bred physician, and a few gentlemen in trade of general knowledge and of 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 Lutherans. Neither of them are provided at present with ministers. 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 addition to our faculty of professors. If your preaching should prove acceptable to the Presbyterian congregation, I think it highly probable that they will add £so-o-o 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 expected from you for the benefit of your pupils. I suppose 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 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 republic. From your character and principles I conceive you would be extremely useful to us in communicating instruction upon these subjects. Our College is as yet a new-born infant. It has all the parts and faculties of a man, but they require growth and extension. To you, sir, it lifts up its feeble hands. 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 broken English. The natives of Ireland and the descendants of Irishmen have carried it to the western counties. The Juniata and Ohio rivers have borne it on their streams through every township of the state that lies beyond Carlisle. Our saints pray for 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

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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 republic. I beg leave to inform you that the trustees of the College do not expect that £so-o-o sterling will defray the expenses of the passage of your family to America. It was upon this account that they voted that your salary should commence on the day of your embarkation. If you should incur any unexpected expenses beyond the amount of £so-o-o and the sum that will be due to 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 America. 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-o-o and £3-0-0 sterling an acre. The expense of provisions at Carlisle is I believe nearly the same as at Montrose. I have neglected to give you a history of the difficulties we have surmounted in bringing our College to its present agreeable situation and prospects. Ignorance, 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 advice unfriendly to our wishes. Only think and act for yourself, and we shall be satisfied. Our views and characters will bear the severest examination. I honor Dr. Wetherspoon for his abilities. He has diffused a great deal of true wisdom through our country, but I am sorry to add that he did not carry the same character back with him to Scotland that he brought from it to America. "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world.m This, my dear friend, must not be read to anybody except to the Doctor hi-mself. 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 Dr. Smith, 5 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 laborer 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 [ 324 ]

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from you as soon as possible after this comes to your hands will be very acceptable. I have only to offer my house as your house 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. The enclosed extract from one of our newspapers will serve to show you the manner in which your election has been announced to the state. [To this was added a general account of the charter of the College.] 6 To the direction of heaven I commend you. May the Governor of the World and the great Shepherd of the Church send you in safety to the arms and prayers of thousands! From &c., BRusH tMS (letter-book copy, signed by BR but only partly in his hand): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. I. 1 This is undoubtedly the letter mentioned by BR in writing Montgomery on 15 Apr. as to be written on the following Monday, i.e., the 19th. 2 This word omitted in MS. 8 Now spelled "Conodoguinet." 4 II Timothy 4:xo. 5 Samuel Stanhope Smith ( 17 sol 8 I 9), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 769; founded Hampden-Sydney College; married Ann Witherspoon, I 77 5 ; professor of moral philosophy at Princeton from I 7 79, administering the College during Witherspoon's absences; succeeded Witherspoon as president, 1795-I8Iz; author, among other works, of a pioneer ethnological treatise, An Essay on the Causes of Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species, Phila., I 787, frequently reprinted. Smith was too liberal in his theology for some of his Presbyterian

brethren, and his letters to BR show that he looked to his philosophical friend for support in his efforts to prove that, if properly approached, philosophy and divinity are not far apart. There were other bonds between the two men, for BR was Smith's physician and was also consulted by Smith respecting illnesses among the Princeton students. Smith was an intimate member of the Stockton domestic and literary circle and preached funeral sermons for both of BR's parents-in-law; that for Richard Stockton was published, Trenton, 1781. (DAB; Samuel H. Monk, "Samuel Stanhope Smith," in The Lives of Eighteen from Princeton, ed. Willard Thorp, Princeton, 1946, p. 86-xxo; Smith's letters to BR, 1783-I812, in Rush Mss, XXII; BR's letters to Smith have not been found.) 6 Brackets in MS.

1

To Lady Jane Wishart Belsches

Philadelphia, April 21st, 1784 Madam, The long delay of your ladyship's polite and friendly letter I am afraid has given your ladyship occasion to suspect that I have been

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deficient in friendship or good manners. It did not come to hand (though dated in May 1783) till the latter end of last month. Accept of my thanks for your kind remembrance of me. The very soul of friendship breathes in every line of your letter. 2 I wish it was in my power to satisfy you in all your inquiries respecting-how shall I revive your grief by mentioning the name of my dear friend and your much-loved brother Captain Leslie? He fell at the head of his company in attempting to flank a party of the American army. One of our militia told me that he saw him with his right arm extended, animating and leading on his troops at the instant of his fall, when 3 the fatal bullet which deprived him of life penetrated his bowels. His death was sudden, for the gentleman who gave me the above information told me that he lay on the ground with his arm extended exactly as he saw it before he fell. His body was thrown into a little baggage wagon, I believe by his servant, and conveyed with the baggage of our army to Pluckamin, a small village in New Jersey about 30 miles from Princeton. His watch and everything valuable belonging to him were taken from him by our soldiers. I never heard of the picture you have inquired after. In his pocket was found a letter from me which I wrote to him upon his arrival in New York, 4 in which I requested him to make my house his home if the fortune of war should throw him into the hands of the Americans, and to show that letter to General Washington or General Lee, who would as soon as they saw my name give him a pass to come to Philadelphia, where he would find a house and heart still open to receive him. This letter was carried to General Washington, who politely ordered him a coffin and afterwards buried him with the honors of war-a mark of respect to an enemy at that time very uncommon in our army. His remains were deposited in a Presbyterian churchyard. In traveling through the village of Pluckamin the next year, I paid a visit to his grave. It was covered with verdure. I plucked a sprig of grass from it. I entered into the feelings of each of his family. I mourned for his dear and venerable parents-! mourned for his brothers-! wept for his sisters, for I well recollect how dear he was to your ladyship and to Lady Mary. The insecure state of graveyards during the war induced me to delay putting the tombstone over his grave I had ordered for it. The graveyard is now enclosed, and I shall give orders to have his name and character preserved i~ marble as soon as possible. 5 I am much obliged to your ladyship for your polite inquiries after my present situation and connections. In January 1776 I married [ 326 ]

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the eldest daughter of your old acquaintance Mr. Richd. Stockton of New Jersey. She was then only 16 years old, she was admired for her beauty, but her temper, prudence, understanding, and excellent accomplishments attracted and fixed my heart. Figure to yourself a woman of your own size, with brown hair, dark eyes, a complexion 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. I am afraid to trust myself upon the subject of her character-the lover will blend itself with the writer. Think only what the friend, the companion, and the wife in the full meaning of each of those words should be, and you will then have a just idea of my happiness. We have had five children-two sons and three daughters. Two of the latter are no more. They died in their first 6 6 months of short and sudden indispositions. Our eldest child, John, is between 6 and 7 years of age, a handsome, promising boy. Our second, Emely, is between 5 and 6, a pleasant, sweet-tempered girl. Our third, Richard, is near four years old, a rough, boisterous fellow but a great pet with his Grandmama Stockton, who keeps him chiefly at Princeton. He is the more dear to her as he bears the name of his grandfather, Mr. Stockton, who died of a cancer in his neck about 3 years ago. Mrs. Rush's family is truly amiable. Her eldest brother is a young lawyer of promising abilities and character. 7 Her two eldest sisters (who are twins) are ladies of highly cultivated minds and manners. 8 One of them is at present in my family; they generally spend the winter alternately with us. Heaven has blessed me not only with domestic happiness but with unexpected and even unsought-for degrees of external prosperity. I got a pretty little fortune with Mrs. Rush and have added to it from the income of my business so as to produce an estate which, if thrown into cash, would yield about £300-o-o a year sterling. My business is still extensive and profitable. I have not a wish now to gratify with respect to the honors or emoluments of my profession. My countrymen have been too partial to me. I record these things with a grateful heart to the Author of every good gift and for your ladyship's information only. They are proper to be seen only by such a friend as you. My friends tell me that I look much as I did when I first returned to live among them from your country. My hair has become a good deal gray, but this was occasioned by a violent attack of a putrid fever which I caught from one of my patients in the

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autumn of I 778 and from which my recovery was deemed the next thing to a miracle. 9 My dear Julia (for that is the Christian name of Mrs. Rush) would have done herself the honor of writing to your ladyship by the present opportunity, but she is at present too much indisposed for that purpose, occasioned by a situation that promises very soon an addition to my family. She is no stranger to the story of Edwin and Angelina. 10 She has more than once bedewed (your} her letters with her tears. My heart (she says) became more valuable to her when she found that it had been so long and so faithfully preserved by Angelina. She knows that she owes her conquest in part to (you) her, for it was by singing "The Birks of Endermay" 11 the first evening I was introduced to her, with the same air and lisp that I once heard (your ladyship) Angelina sing the same sweet song in Nicholson's Square,12 that she opened an avenue to my heart. I had indeed seen her once before, but it was when she was only 4 years old. In coming out of the College hall at Princeton after taking my degree, I saw a little creature in danger of being trodden down by the crowd that attended the graduations. I flew to her relief and took her into my arms, and as the evening was dark I carried her to her father's house, which was a quarter of a mile from the College, in company with her Mama, listening with great pleasure to her prattling all the way. 13 This child is now my wife. There is a difference of 14 years in our ages. I have not the most distant hope of ever seeing any of my dear friends in Edinburgh. But it is possible for us to live together even in this world in the persons of our posterity. If my eldest boy should prefer the study of medicine, and it should please God to spare his and my life till he is 19 years of age, I shall most probably send him to Edinburgh to finish his studies. 14 He will need no recommendations to your ladyship. You will I am sure find him out. You will introduce him into companies that will polish his manners and at the same time improve him in principles and morals. You will teach your pretty little daughter to treat him with attention and to spare those blushes to which his youth and ignorance will naturally expose him. The distant idea of his approaching Miss Wilhelmina in the meadows or in the park with his hat in his hand, bowing respectfully to her and afterwards gallanting her home, talking all the way of the interesting story of Edwin and Angelina, excites in my min~ sensations so tender and so complicated that I cannot find language to describe them. Excuse the length of this letter. It has recalled so many departed

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ideas to my memory that it has inspired a melancholy frame of mind so delightful that I should never tire in indulging it. With my most respectful compliments to your honored parents and all the family of Melville, as also to Sir John (though I have not the honor of his acquaintance), I am, madam, with the greatest respect and most perfect esteem, your ladyship's sincere friend and most humble servant, BENJN RusH P.S. Kiss your sweet little girl for me and Mrs. Rush a ~housand times, and once for my son John. tJI1S (letter-book copy, begun in Mrs. Rush's hand, finished by BR): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, val. 1. 1 Formerly Lady Jane Leslie, daughter of the Earl of Leven; see BR to David Leslie, I 8 Sep. I 768, and, for the background of the present letter, an article in Princeton Univ. Libr. Chron., IX (1947-1948), 1-12. 2 This letter has not been found. 3 This word omitted in MS. 4 This letter, after searches of all likely repositories, has not been found. 5 Capt. Leslie's tombstone was erected soon afterward and may still be seen in the churchyard at Pluckemin, on New Jersey Highway zo6, a few miles north of Somerville. The inscription chosen by BR, largely weathered away, has been faithfully recut at the instance of the Somerset County Medical Society. See further, BR to Lady Jane Wishart Belsches, 4 July 1 785. 6 This word omitted in MS. 7 Richard Stockton (q64-1828), known as "The Duke," a graduate, I 779, and later a trustee of the College of New Jersey; admitted to the bar, 1784; Federalist U.S. senator, 17961799, and congressman, I 813-1 8 I 5 (DAB). Political differences evidently prevented intimacy between BR and his brother-in-law. 8 Susan Stockton has already been identified. Her twin sister was Mary, called "Polly" (d. I 846), who became the wife of the Rev. Andrew Hunter (Stockton, Stockton Family, p. 8o). She was an intimate correspondent of BR's; some of her letters to him are in Rush

9 Mrs. Rush copied the letter to this point; the rest is in BR's hand. 10 "The Hermit" or "Edwin and Angelina" is a pathetic ballad by Goldsmith (inserted in The Vicar of Wakefield, 1 76 6) of two lovers parted and many years later brought together. As the scored-out pronouns below indicate, Edwin and Angelina were the tender pseudonyms that BR and Lady Jane had adopted in the days of their affection. 11 A Scottish air with words by David Mallet: "The smiling morn, the breathing spring." It should be noted that in his Autobiography BR gave a less romantic reason for his first attachment to Julia Stockton, namely, her high opinion of Dr. Witherspoon's preaching. 12 In Edinburgh, just south of the University buildings. 13 This was at the commencement of 1763 (BR, Autobiography, p. u6). 1 4 John Rush did not go to Edinburgh, but BR's third son, James, did, in I 810. By that time Lady Jane's daughter, Williamina, had married William, son of Sir William Forbes (executor of James Boswell). The Forbeses lived at Fettercairn House, where a mass of Boswell's papers was brought and lay buried from sight until 1930 (Claude Colleer Abbott, A Catalogue of Papers Relating to Boswell, Johnson, & Sir William Forbes, Found at Fettercairn House, Oxford, 1936).

MSS, XXIII-XXIV,

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To Granville Sharp Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April27, 1784 1 Mr. Taylor should have met with a kind reception from me had he arrived in Philadelphia, but unfavorable weather having driven him to Charlestown, he has been induced to settle in that country, where the obstacles in the way of a stranger acquiring business in the profession of the law are much less than in Pennsylvania. I am happy in being able to gratify your partiality for America by informing you that the spirit of peace and good government begins to diffuse itself through every part of the United States. The Congress are daily acquiring influence and power. The 5 percent impost (which is to pay the interest on our public debts) has been passed in South Carolina, where it once met with violent opposition, and we have good reason to think that in the course of the summer it will be consented to by all the New England states. Our army has quietly melted away into peaceable citizens. It is a singular fact in the history of those men, that since the news of the peace there has not been a single soldier belonging to the American army detected in the violation of any law of any of the states. They have returned to their former occupations and now form a part of the yeomanry of our country. Mr. Washington, formerly the commander in chief of our armies, has assumed the dress and manners of a Virginia planter. On his way home after delivering his country, he was caught in a shower of rain between Philadelphia and Baltimore. To screen himself from it, he dismounted his horse and took a seat in a common stage wagon. When the wagon stopped at a tavern, the innkeeper, who knew the rank and character of his illustrious guest, invited him into a private chamber and offered to prepare a dinner for him and his two aides by themselves. "No-no," said our hero. "It is customary for the people who travel in this stage always to eat together. I will not desert my companions." Upon which he sat down and dined with a large company in a common room in a country inn. Some of the company were persons of great obscurity and by no means qualified for such a companion as the Gustavus Vasa of America. I am happy in being able to inform you that attempts are now making to revive the Episcopal Church in the United States. 2 Though a member of the Presbyterian Church, yet I esteem very highly the articles and the worship of the Church of England. There are but two ways of preserving visible religion in any country.

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4 MAY 1784 The first is by establishments. The second is by the competition of different religious societies. The revival of the Episcopal Church in our own country will produce zeal and a regard to the ordinances of religion in every other society. Such is the liberality produced among the dissenters by the war that I do not think they will object to a bishop being fixed in each of our states, provided he has no civil revenue or jurisdiction. Negro slaving3 has revived in the southern states. Alas! poor human nature! But it is nearly extinct in the middle and eastern states. The divine principle of "doing to others what we would have them do to us" will I hope yet spread to the Carolinas. In the meanwhile let us not relinquish the great object of propagating sentiments of justice and humanity in that part of the world. Good Mr. Benezet4 is in bad health. I am afraid the world will not long en joy the benefit of his pious labors in the cause of humanity. He is now 70 years of age. I do not know a man who has crowded more good actions into the same compass of life. His epitaph may be: "He went about doing good." We have lately opened our College at Carlisle and appointed the Reverend Dr. Nesbit of the Church of Scotland, a man of liberal sentiments in religion and politics, to be our principal. The College promises fair to spread the lights of Science and the Gospel over our western country. With great regard, I am, dear sir, your truly affectionate, humble servant, BENJN. RusH iMS (letter-book copy, not in BR's hand): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. I. 1 George Taylor, an Englishman who undertook the practice of law in Charleston; in a letter dated 2 Apr. I7 84 Taylor sent BR a long account of his vicissitudes by sea (Rush MSS, Box No.9). 2 BR took an active interest in the nationalizing of the Episcopalian de-

nomination; see letters to Richard Price, IS Oct. I785, 22-23 Apr. I786. Sharp was the son of an Anglican bishop. 3 A copyist's error for "slavery" 1 Or perhaps BR means the slave trade. 4 The name as rendered by the copyist is an unreadable scrawl; Anthony Benezet died on 3 May I 784.

To William Linn Dear Sir, Philadelphia, May 4th, 1784 It gave me great pleasure to find upon my return to Philadelphia that our appointments were so highly approved of by friends of [ 331 ]

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our College in this city. In a letter which I received last week from Dr. Erskine, he has placed the coming of Dr. Nesbit almost beyond a doubt. He proposes four questions to me through Dr. Erskine, all of which I had fortunately answered in my letter to Dr. Nesbit which accompanied the President's letter of invitation. Mr. Bowie (the Scotch gentleman who gave one of the certificates of Dr. Nesbit's character) speaks in high terms of a Mr. Middleton/ an Episcopal minister in London, who he thinks would make an excellent professor of moral philosophy, logic, and metaphysics. He is a whig in politics and a Calvanist in religion. You may conceive fully of his principles when I add that he was one of those young gentlemen who were expelled the University of Oxford for praying extempore about the year 1768. Mr. Bo_wie says he thinks £150-o-o currency from the College and £so-o-o from the Episcopal congregation at Carlisle yearly would tempt him to accept of an appointment from us. I conceive great advantages would arise from our filling one of our professorships with an Episcopal minister of Mr. Middleton's excellent character. He will cooperate with Dr. Nesbit in making our College a school for the prophets. He will remove prejudices against our society as being too much attached to each other, and above all he will allure pupils from this city and from other parts of the state who belong to the Episcopal Church. If we can fill the mathematical and natural philosophy chair with a Lutheran minister, our plan will be complete. Mr. Davidson, if he settles in Carlisle, will probably teach the same branches in our College that he has taught here, that is, history, chronology, and geography. This will give us three professors, including the principal, which will be enough for our society. I know the wishes of some of your friends respecting a professorship in the College. But, my dear sir, I do not wish to see Columbus chained to an oar. I have (ever since I became acquainted with your talents) destined you to a much higher sphere of usefulness than to teach boys to read and speak our language with propriety. Your name has been mentioned as a colleague to Dr. Sproat. 2 In this city all your gifts will be called into action. Here you will best promote the honor of our religion and the reputation of our society. We expect to see you at the meeting of the synod, when we hope your preaching two or three times in the city will be the means of exciting a proper attention to you from Dr. Sproat's church. I think with great pleasure of the zeal and uniformity discovered at our late meeting at Carlisle. Delightful task! to accompany the progress of population and government with the standards of

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4 MAY 1784 science and religion! Happy County of Cumberland and highly favored Village of Carlisle! your hills (once responsive only to the yells of savages and beasts of prey) shall ere long awaken our young philosophers from their slumbers to trace the planets in their courses. And thou, Canedoginet, whose streams have flowed so long unnoticed and unsung, on thy banks shall our youth first feel the raptures of poetic fire! There he shall learn, by praising thy silver streams winding along the variegated country, to celebrate the praises of those friends to God and man who by their wisdom, valor, or piety have devoted themselves to the best interests of mankind. With great respect, I am, dear s1r, your affectionate humble servant, BENJN RuSH

P.S. I am every day hurt exceedingly by hearing that our society (with a few Germans whom they influence) stand in the way of the wishes of a majority of the state in favor of a convention. 3 I wish it was otherwise. We shall never know any but the tyranny of the Constitution, for neither our wealth nor numbers will long command the power of this state. Besides, we show an intolerant spirit (not less criminal in politics than religion) in resisting the reasonable wishes of our fellow citizens for the arbitration of a convention. I wish it was thought compatible with the duties of the pulpit to teach our Presbyterian farmers how much the credit of religion and the honor of society were concerned in their preserving more neatness about their farmhouses. 2. In clearing their fields from dead trees. 3· In building higher and better fences. 4· In abolishing whiskey distilleries and converting them into milkhouses. [5.] In drinking cider and beer instead of whiskey, toddy, or grog. 6. And lastly in spending less time in attending Constitutional meetings at taverns and more time in improving their farms. By attending to these things we should not hear of whole congregations of our society being bought out every year by the Germans, nor should we be reproached (as we justly are) with our great deficiencies in paying taxes. I wish to see the paternal house and farm more valued by our people. The roof under which they drew their first breath, the church in which they were dedicated to God, and the spots where they spent their days of childhood and innocence should be made if possible too dear to them ever to be exchanged for the wilderness of the Ohio or Kentucke. 4 tMS (letter-book copy, not in BR's hand): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, val. 1.

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Not further identified; Montgomery opposed this suggestion by BR, in a letter of 7 May (Rush MSS, xu). 2 James Sproat (I722-I793), a Yale graduate, I74I; succeeded Gilbert Tennent at the Second Church in Philadelphia, I768; D.D., College of New Jersey, I78o; died, with most of his family, in the yellow fever epidemic of I 79 3. BR resigned from Sproat's congregation in I787, but not because of any ill-feeling toward the pastor. (Sprague, Annals, III, 125-9; BR to Ashbel Green, II Aug. I787, and to Mrs. Rush, I8-I9 Oct. I793·) 8 The Constitutionalist minority in

the council of censors had succeSBfully blocked the Republican majority's effort this year to call a convention to frame a new constitution. See Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. I56-63. 4 These reflections were the product of BR's observations on his first trip across the Susquehanna a month earlier; see also his letter to Thomas Percival, 26 Oct. I 786. In replying, Linn gloomily observed that his people continued to "drink on. They will have the Constitution & the bottle at any hazard whatever" (20 July, Rush MSS,

XLI).

To Charles Nisbet Dear Sir' Philadelphia, May I sth, I 784 I did myself the honor of writing a long letter to you last month, in which I endeavored to state your appointment to be principal of Dickinson College, in Cumberland County, in such terms as to induce you to accept of it. I informed you of the great opportunities of usefulness which were before you, and of the happiness you might enjoy in your new and elevated station. I have now only to add that the public mind is more filled than ever with expectations from your character. They destine our College to be THE FIRST IN AMERICA under your direction and government. The ministers who compose the Synod of New York and Philadelphia begin to feel themselves interested in your arrival. They expect, in proportion to your superior knowledge and abilities, that you will bear a superior share of the labor in the harvest fields of the Church in America. Mr. Bowie tells me that you have a dislike to the sea. I am not in the least jealous of that element. It cannot-it must not separate you from us. Your benevolence and sense of duty I am sure will overcome every fear and even antipathy itself. Remember the words of the Saviour-"/t is J'H-"I, who govern both winds and waves. I, who have qualified you with so many gifts and graces for the station to which you are called. I, who by my Providence have made your name known and dear to the people of America. I, who have many people in that country to be enlightened and instructed, directly or indirectly, by you. I, who preside over the whole vineyard of my Church and, therefore, know best in what part of it [ 334 ]

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to place the most skillful workmen. It is I, who call you to quit your native country and to spend the remainder of your days in that new world in which the triumphs of the Gospel shall ere long be no less remarkable than the triumphs of liberty. I have now done with ministers of my Providence. Washington and the Adamses have finished their work. Hereafter I shall operate on the American States chiefly by the ministers of my grace." I neglected to inform you in my last letter of the seal of your College. 2 The device consists of a Bible, a Telescope, and a Cap of Liberty-the two last placed over the first. The motto is Pietate et Doctrina tuta libertas. This excellent sentiment was suggested by our worthy governor, Mr. Dickinson, a gentleman who unites with the finest accomplishments of the man and the patriot a sacred regard to the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. You will receive with this letter a duplicate of his letter of invitation, together with a copy of the minutes of your election, and No.3 of a bill of exchange. We expect to see you this fall. I beg, upon your arrival in our river near our city, that you would convey notice of it to me. My carriage shall be ready at a moment's warning to conduct Mrs. Nisbet3 to my house, where I shall insist upon you and your whole family making your home till you set out for Carlisle. Adieu. Yours-yours, sincerely, B. RuSH .,lddressed: The Rev. Dr. Charles Nisbet, Montrose. Printed: Miller, Memoir of Nisbet, p. 112-14. 1 "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." Matthew 14:27. 2 BR and Dickinson were the committee instructed to report a design for a seal at the April meeting. The symbolism is utterly characteristic of BR, and the motto of Dickinson. The seal was cut by a German artisan at York named Fisher. (BR's Diary of his tour

to Carlisle, 1784, PMHB, LXXIV [1950], 453-4·) 3 Nisbet had married Anne Tweedie in q66; BR was later to attribute a great share of Nisbet's querulousness to her influence (Miller, Nisbet, p. 24; frequent references in BR's letters to Montgomery, below).

To Charles Nisbet Dear Sir, Philadelphia, August 27th, 1784 As you are about to become a citizen of Pennsylvania, I think it my duty to give you a particular account of some matters that will enable you to form a judgment of the state and perhaps direct you in your future conduct and connections.

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Pennsylvania contains about 350,000 souls. Our inhabitants are composed chiefly of English, Irish, 1 and German emigrants with their descendants. They are divided further by a diversity of religions. The English, who are by far the most numerous and wealthy, are chiefly Quakers and Episcopalians. The Germans consist of Lutherans, Calvanists,2 Menonists (a species of Baptists), and Roman Catholics. The Irish are in general Presbyterians. They compose about I/6 or I/8 of the state, and as they are a modern society and not very remarkable for industry, they possess not more than I/20 of the wealth of the state. They are subdivided into four lesser sects, viz., Old Lights, New Lights, Seceders, and Covenanters. The Old and New Lights agree in all the essentials of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The former are thought to be more attached to the doctrinal, the latter to the practical parts of Christianity. The ministers of the former are in general the most learned. The ministers of the latter are the most animated but least connected in their public discoveries. Both parties belong to one synod, and both sides claim many able divines and pious ministers. The Seceders and Covenanters are the same kind of people here as they are in Scotland. The passive conduct of the Quakers and the moderate conduct of the Episcopalians threw our government wholly in the hands of these four sects of Presbyterians in the year I 776. The Germans, who are an uninformed body of people, submitted to their usurpations and formed a principal part of their strength. Their first act of power was to impose a Constitution upon the state full of innovations and wholly contrary to the ancient habits of the people. This Constitution was formed by a fanatical schoolmaster 3 who had art enough to sanctify it with Dr. Franklin's name. It consists of a single legislature and of a new-invented body of men called a council of censors, and of many other newfangled experiments, absurd in their nature and dangerous to the liberties of the state. By precluding 2/3 of the state from voting by means of the most disgraceful test laws, they have contrived to support their Constitution to the present day. 4 The oppressions of this party were so great, and their private and public character so infamous, that they were deposed in the year I 780 by their former adherents. The Old Lights almost to a man forsook them, and near 0 of the New Lights. The party consists now only of the Seceders, Covenanters, and a few New Lights with about 0 of the Germans, particularly the Calvanists. They are headed by Dr. Ewing, a certain Geo. Bryan, Joseph Reed, and a few more Presbyterians of good educations but of bad private characters. They possess nothing but the

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Constitution, which unfortunately cannot be altered unless Ji of the people concur in it, and here they are called the Constitutional party. The legislative power and most of the offices of government is in the hands of what is called the Republican party. These consist of the Episcopalians, Quakers, Lutherans, Menonists, and moderate Presbyterians. They are in general the ancient inhabitants of the state and are distinguished for their wealth, virtue, learning, and liberality of manners. Mr. Dickinson and Robt. Morris, our celebrated financier, are of this party, together with most of those patriots and heroes who have been most active in bringing about the Revolution. The College of Philadelphia formerly belonged to this party. It was founded by the Episcopalians and supported by them without the least aid from government for 22 years. This College with all its funds was seized in the year I 778, contrary to justice and policy and even contrary to their own Constitution, by the Constitutional party. Dr. Ewing, Geo. Bryan, and Jos. Reed (then president of the state) took the lead in the most nefarious business. Dr. Ewing, as the reward of his activity in this fraudulent act, was honored with the provost's chair. £I500 a year was added to the ancient funds of the College by the Assembly. But Heaven has frowned upon the impious act. The College has fallen into general disrepute. Boys of I 4 and I 5 years of age not half educated are admitted to the honors of the College, and morals and manners are kept out of sight as much as they are at riding or fencing school in Great Britain. Foreseeing that this act in robbing a college of its charter could not be lasting, and anxious to provide a seminary for better education of our youth, a few gentlemen of our society projected the College at Carlisle in the year I78I. It promised great advantage to the state in that western district. It bid fair to soften the tempers of our turbulent brethren, to inspire them with liberal sentiments in government and religion, to teach them moderation in their conduct to other sects, and to rescue them from the charges of bigotry and persecution that are so often brought against them. It was intended further to reform and civilize our German citizens, too many of whom imagine the whole business of life to consist in labor, and all its happiness in gold and silver and fine plantations. The friends of the College of Philadelphia saw this undertaking with fear and indignation. Dr. Ewing wished to hold the key of all the learning in the state in his hands. They all dreaded the effects of a good education upon their narrow schemes, for they knew 3 8 out of 40 of the trustees were opposed to them in politics and would

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inculcate principles contrary to their wild and interested ideas of policy and government. Every attempt was made to prevent our obtaining a charter, but to no purpose. The characters of some of the projectors of the College were calumniated by them even in the public newspapers. Their shafts fell heavily upon me, but none of them penetrated even the cuticle. One while I was the projector. Then I was the tool of the enterprise. One while I was a fool and a madman. Then I was a deep designing fellow. One while I was the enemy of Presbyterians. Then I was an enthusiast in promoting their interest to the awakening of the jealousies of other societies. It is but justice to Dr. Ewing to own that he was the most violent in circulating these calumnies. I perceive by your letter by Mr. Sparks that he has pursued me across the ocean. I absolve poor Mr. Todd, for as a stranger and expecting a favor at that time from Dr. Ewing, he could not well refuse his commands to be the vehicle of his falsehoods. I find you have formed a tolerable opinion of the Doctor's character from his art in employing Mr. Tod in conveying his slanders to you. I will give you his portrait in a few words. In the vices of the heart he has few equals. Revenge, envy, malice, and falsehood rankle forever in his bosom. But this is not all. He is deficient in outward morality. His servant was fined a few weeks ago for driving his wagon on the Sabbath day, if not by his order, certainly by his permission. He has been seen reeling in our streets. Don't be uneasy at reading these things. He has brought no reproach by this conduct on our holy religion, for no man at any one time of his life ever believed him to be a religious man. As to Dr. Witherspoon, would to God-but I am restrained by the feelings of ancient friendship and my regard for his former pious and respectable character. He deserves your pity5 and prayers. Thus, my dear friend (for by that epithet I must for the future address you), have I given you a short but faithful account of the present state of parties and politics in Pennsylvania. May I share in your friendship hereafter only in proportion as you shall find every word in this letter strictly true. I am happy to find from your letter to Governor Dickinson that you intend to apply for books before your embarkation. The more you beg and bring with you the better. I have the highest idea of the necessity of a large library for our College. We shall appropriate a sum of money for that purpose when you come over to furnish us with a proper catalogue of such books as will be most necessary and useful. I wait with impatience for your arrival to share with us in the [ 338 ]

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glorious trials of bringing our school of the prophets to maturity and perfection. Yes, sir, I can appeal to the Searcher of hearts when I declare that no party or interested motives ever influenced me for a moment in the part I have taken in promoting the establishment of a college at Carlisle. The extension of the Kingdom of Christ and of the empire of reason and science in our country were the only principles that have actuated6 my conduct. Heaven has approved of and blessed my good intentions. I desire among other things to acknowledge with humility and gratitude that he has made me the instrument of obtaining your election as our principal, for I first mentioned your name to our board of trustees. Indeed, sir, Heaven bid 7 my thoughts to you as the head of our College in the same instant I adopted the idea of concurring in it, which was the year q8 1. With every possible sentiment of respect and esteem, I am, my dear friend, yours most affectionately and sincerely, BENJN RusH tMS (letter-book copy, not in BR's hand): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 1. 1

I.e., Scotch-Irish. This is BR's usual term for members of the German Reformed Church. 3 James Cannon; see BR to Mrs. Rush, 23-24 July 1776. 4 On BR and the test laws, see note 3 on the following letter. 5 MS: "piety." 6 MS: "attracted." 7 Thus in Ms: BR perhaps wrote "led." 8 The hand in which this letter was copied is that found in a number of letter-book copies made at this period and is probably that of an apprentice. In respect to grammar and sense this copyist left much to be desired. In respect to substance, BR's long and disingenuous 2

account of political and religious factions in Pennsylvania was prompted by a (missing) letter from Nisbet expressing doubts about coming to America. The doubts had been raised by a letter written from Philadelphia in the spring by James Tod, who had recounted the history of Dickinson College from the point of view of one of its leading opponents, John Ewing, provost of the University of the State of Pennsylvania. BR was convinced that Ewing had, in fact, "dictated" Tod's letter to Nisbet; and Ewing, BR, and Tod aired the matter in a series of letters printed in the Penna. Packet, 17 1 18, 26 Feb. and 2 Mch. 1785.

1

To----

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, November 10, 1784 Everything will be done by your friends here to promote the views and interest of Colonel Edwards 2 consistent with honor. We lament the unfortunate issue of the election in your county. Why

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have our friends neglected to send down proofs of the frauds at Lebanon and Upper Paxton? We seem to content ourselves with acting defensively only. This is bad policy. We shall never vanquish our adversaries till we treat them like savages, by carrying hostilities into their country. We must attack them for their public abuses and private vices. By compelling them to act on the defensive, we shall carry the state with us. The frauds and villainies that were pointed out by the first majority of the censors, if properly stated in the papers, would ruin them forever. Do employ a leisure hour now and then in this business. Your pieces shall be conveyed in secrecy to the press. The fragments of the Republican party met at the city tavern after their defeat, and agreed to recommend it to their friends throughout the state to set on foot petitions indirectly among the nonjurors for a revision of the test law. 3 The Republicans must appear in this maneuver as little as possible. It is most probable the petitions will have no effect upon the present Assembly. But their refusal will serve to show their inconsistency, to rouse and irritate the sons and friends of the non jurors, and above all to fix the dye of their infamy in such a manner that neither time nor repentance will ever be able to wipe it away. I beg you would communicate this information to Colonel Slough, 4 Colonel Hubly, 5 and to such other of our friends as you think will be active in promoting the wishes of your friends in Philadelphia. Petitions from the non jurors are in great forwardness already in Northampton and several other of the Quaker and Menonist counties. With great regard, I am, dear sir, yours most sincerely, BENJN RuSH &S: National Museum, Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 1

Probably addressed to ,•Brevet Maj. Gen. Edward Hand (1744-18oz), of Lancaster, a Republican friend of BR's and a member of Congress though not at this time in attendance (DAB; Burnett, Letters of Members, vn, lxxiii). Another possibility is Jasper Yeates (1745-1817), also of Lancaster, an even more ardent Republican than Hand, later associate justice of the Penna. supreme court (DAB) • 2 Not clearly identifiable. 8 BR and the Republican party were at this time engaged in a fight to re-

peal the test laws that kept so many of their natural allies, the "nonjurors," disfranchised. The test laws of the Revolution (1777, 1778, 1779) were aimed at loyalists but were continued by the Radicals as a means of retaining their power, for a substantial fraction of the citizens of the state had refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution-among others, the Quakers (who disbelieved in oaths on principle) and those opponents of the reigning party who considered the tests illegal devices for enforcing acceptance

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13

NOVEMBER

of the Radicals' Constitution. An attempt under Anthony Wayne's leadership to obtain repeal was almost successful in Sep. I 7 84, and both parties carried the issue to the people, BR himself producing an anonymous pamphlet called Considerations upon the Present Test-Law of Pennsylvania ... , Phila.: Styner and Cist, I 7 84. The test laws were fundamentally modified in Mch. 1786, and abolished three years later. (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 154-5, 179-81; Stille, Wayne, p. 304-8; BR to Price, 22. Apr. I 786.) 4 Mathias Slough (I733-I8u), col., Lancaster associators, I 776; member of

1784

Assembly several times between 177 3 and I 783 ; held many local offices and was proprietor of the White Swan Tavern in Lancaster (Charles I. Landis, in Lancaster Co. Hist. Soc., Papers, XVIII [I914], I48~52.) • 5 John Hubley (1747-182I), aLan-

caster lawyer; member Convention of I 776 and of the ratifying convention of 17 87; commissary with rank of major in Revolution; charter trustee of Franklin College, I 786, and long the manager of its business affairs (PMHB, III, 442.-3; Dubbs, Franklin and Marshall College, p. 95).

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, November 13th, 1784 Herewith I enclose you a copy of a private letter (No. I) written without the knowledge of any of the trustees in Philadelphia by our president to Dr. Nesbit. 1 It is big with ruin to our hopes and prospects at Carlisle. I am at a loss to account for this most extraordinary act in Mr. Dickinson. Whether he 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 future drafts 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. Colonel Macpherson says that if a motion was made to take away our charter in the present House of Assembly, he is sure it would not be seconded. In questions of an obviously public nature, the Constitutional party hang together, but in private affairs they are governed by their judgments and interests. We have not twenty enemies to our College out of the city of Philadelphia. Even suppose they should take away our charter, they would only take away our power of giving degrees. Dr. Nesbet might still be the head of a great and useful academy. The trustees in Philadelphia have agreed to send a private letter to Dr. Nesbet to contradict in positive terms the information conveyed in Mr. Dickinson's letter. They have agreed likewise to call a meeting of the board at Carlisle by means of an advertisement ( 341 )

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

on the 2nd Tuesday of January to pass a vote of disapprobation of the said letter and to inform Dr. Nesbet that our charter and his support are equally secure. I hope you will not fail of attending this meeting, and by circulating the contents of these letters to obtain as large a meeting as possible. I shall if possible write to Mr. King. But if an opportunity offers, I beg you would write to him likewise. I have spoken very plainly to Mr. Dickinson, and set before him the consequences of his conduct in strong terms. I have told him that he has in jured not only the Republican party but their opponents, who bad as they are in some things are incapable 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 his reputation among the trustees. But all this has had no effect upon him. He positively refuses to contradict his letter. We parted with his saying that "it became us to act with prudence." I replied in a warm tone that "Prudence when honor was concerned was a rascally virtue." Colonel Mcpherson, Mr. Wilson, and General Erving 2 express their feelings in very spirited language. November 15th. Since writing the above, Mr. Dickinson has written a letter to Dr. Nesbet. I enclose you a copy of it marked No. 2. 3 It will render the meeting in January unnecessary. But the trustees now in town will notwithstanding send their letter to Dr. Nesbet. I wish the trustees in Carlisle would follow our example. I enclose you a copy of our letter marked No. 3. 4 I have written a long private letter to Dr. Nesbet, in which I have gently hinted at the peculiar weaknesses of our president's character. 5 If you conclude to write a letter to Dr. Nesbet, the sooner you send it to me the better. Let it be firm and spirited. Remember the old French duke's maxim, "The only way to be established is to appear so." My hopes are placed in the goodness of that Being who has so eminently appeared in favor of our institution that he will as effectually defeat the effect of Mr. Dickinson's letter as he did the effects of Dr. Ewing's. In the meanwhile let each of us put our shoulders to the wheel. It is not by supine wishes that we can do anything. Idleness and timidity in our present circumstances are equally criminal. In conducting this business to its present (I hope) happy issue, I have experienced degrees of anxiety I never felt before. Colleges, like children, I find are not born without labor pains. But all will [ 342 ]

13 NOVEMBER 1784 e~d well. Our Brat will repay us hereafter for all the trouble it has gtven us. With most respectful compliments to the gentlemen of our board in Carlisle, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely,

BENJN RusH

P.S. Mr. Wilson intends to write a private letter to Dr. Nisbet. Dr. Wetherspoon (who seemed hurt at being suspected or rather detected in acting in an unfriendly manner to our College) told me two weeks ago that he intended to write to Dr. Nesbet to advise him to accept of our invitation. November 16. Since writing the above, I have received the enclosed long letter from Dr. Nesbet. 6 After you have submitted it to the inspection of the trustees in your neighborhood, please to return it by a safe hand. Colonel Macpherson, to whom I have read it, thinks you had better collect all the trustees in your county immediately by expresses at Carlisle to subscribe your private letter. This mode will be more eligible than to convene them as a board, for this would make the subject of their meeting public and expose Mr. Dickinson, which we have hitherto avoided. I wish General Armstrong and Mr. Cooper would each of them write a private letter to Dr. Nesbit. Their letters will have weight with him, for Dr. Wetherspoon, as you will see by Dr. Nesbet's letter to me, has made him acquainted with their names and characters. Colonel Macpherson says he will urge Mr. Black to draw up a letter to be signed by the trustees of York County similar to ours. !MS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 Enclosure No. I, a letter from Dickinson to Nisbet of 25 Oct. I784, is present in two copies in the Rush MSS, XLI: one is in Dickinson's hand as furnished to BR; the other is in BR's hand as furnished to Montgomery. It informed Nisbet that the political change brought about by the election of I 2 Oct. would retard or perhaps prevent the establishment of a college at Carlisle, and advised him not to sail before obtaining assurance of more favorable prospects. 2 Probably Brig. Gen. William Irvine (I74I-I8o4), a friend of Washington's and prominent in western Pennsylvania affairs; in Congress, I786-1788, I793I 795; trustee of Dickinson College from

1788 (DAB; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. 12). 3 Dickinson to Nisbet, I5 Nov. I784 (Rush MSS, XLI; two copies). The writer points out that the more conciliatory spirit shown by the Assembly since his last letter augurs favorably for Dickinson College. 4 The Philadelphia trustees (BR, James Ewing, Robert Macpherson, and Henry Hill) to Nisbet, 15 Nov. 1784 (Rush MSS, XLI; also in Miller, Nisbet, p. 124-5): The "apprehensions and fears" expressed in Dickinson's letter of z 5 Oct. are "wholly without foundation." 5 This letter is apparently lost; BR's next recorded letter to Nisbet is that

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES of z8 Nov., following, which mentions BR's having written three letters in three weeks.

6 This letter is not identifiable among the Rush MSS.

To Charles Nisbet My dear Friend,

Philadelphia, November 28, 1784 I am afraid I shall oppress you with the number and postage of my letters; but I cannot omit an opportunity which offers tomorrow, by the way of London, of informing you that I have written three letters to you within these three weeks, in each of which I have given you such assurances of the safety and flourishing state of our College as will determine you to embark in the spring for Pennsylvania. Mr. Dickinson seems very sensible of the prematurity of his fears communicated to you by the November packet. You will receive with my letters a letter from him in which he acknowledges a change in his opinions and prospects. If our river should not freeze before Christmas, you will receive a letter from the trustees in the neighborhood of Carlisle. But if the obstructions in our navigation should check any future opportunities of writing to you, you may presume as much upon their honor and friendship as if you had received bonds from each of them. Not only honor and friendship but interest, patriotism, and religion are all concerned in your support. · I find by your papers that your ministry propagate as many falsehoods about us now as they did during the war, when it was more difficult than at present to contradict them. The factions, riots, and executions in London, and the bankruptcies, clamors, and distresses of every part of England and Scotland afford a most striking contrast to the order, industry, and contentment which prevail in every part of this country. After the disbanding of an army of ro,ooo men, it was expected that the strength of our government would have been tried. But we have happily been mistaken. Not a single instance has occurred of a soldier having broken the peace in any one of the states. All the crimes that have been committed since the war have been by deserters from the British army and emigrants from Britain and Ireland. And ~ndeed even these have been comparatively few. The means of subsistence here are so easy, and the profits of honest labor so great, that rogues find it less difficult to live by work than by plunder. You are at liberty, if you please, to make this information public through the channel of your newspapers. [ 344 ]

10 DECEMBER 1784 We have allotted a room in our house for your reception, which goes by the name of "Dr. Nisbet's room." My little folks often mention your name, especially my boys, who have been taught to consider you as their future master. Possibly this will be the last letter you will receive from me on the other side of the Atlantic. To the direction and protection of Heaven I commit you, till I take you by the hand on the peaceful shores of Pennsylvania. Adieu! Adieu! Yours, BENJAMIN RusH

.ffddressed: The Rev. Dr. Charles Nisbet, at Montrose, Scotland. Printed: Miller, Memoir of Nisbet, p. 116-18.

To John Montgomery My dear Friend, Philadelphia, December 10, 1784 What is the matter? I am distressed to find you so gloomy. The steps that have been taken I hope will bring over Dr. Nisbet in spite of Mr. Dickinson's letter. The trustees in York County have had a meeting and written a letter to the Doctor. 1 It is bold and manly, and I dare say will have the effect that is intended by it. The Assembly passed a report to pay the interest on all kinds of certificates, but Mr. Dickinson has thrown in a remonstrance against it from the council which we are afraid will prevent its passing into a law. His reasonings are weak but very popular. Thus has he attempted to cut off the last hopes and dependence of his College. But what then? I well remember the inscription over the foundling hospital in Paris. It is: "My father and my mother have abandoned me, but the Lord hath taken care of me." Let this be the motto of our College. God, you know, does not love to have rivals in anything. All will end well. Mr. HilP is in fine spirits and expects to attend our next meeting. Mr. Bingham will probably be with us in the spring. His fortune as well as his heart for a while will be at our service. Go on with your collections. Get moneyget it honestly if you can. But get money for our College. Next year's Assembly will probably be favorable to us. Even the present Assembly, if properly pushed out of doors, I believe would do something for us. The Congress is expected in Philadelphia-when I shall not fail of using my connections with the delegates from the East and South to carry our point with respect to the buildings.

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I have collected the books you wrote for, and hope to send them before the traveling is obstructed by the ice and bad weather. Adieu. Yours, &c., BENJN RusH

P.S. See Mr. Smith's letter! 3 The College of New Jersey was supported for several years at New Ark without the least fund. It maintained itself by tuition money. The College of Philadelphia flourished for several years in the same way. The professorship of divinity which Mr. D. promised to endow must for a while fall to the ground. However, with books and a little direction from Dr. Nisbet, candidates for the church may do very well at Carlisle. Our poor friend Mr. D. is alas! steady in nothing but in his instability. This is the only fixed trait in his character. .Jfddressed: John Montgomery Esqr at Carlisle favd by Dr McCoskrey. [MS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

This letter has not been located. Henry Hill (I7J2-I798), a Philadelphia wine merchant; member of the Provincial Conference and Convention of I 776; colonel in the associators, I776; member of Assembly, I780-I784, and of the supreme executive council, 2

I785-I788; charter trustee of Dickinson College; one of the executors of Franklin's will (PMHB, lii [I 879], 44I-2; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. I I; Franklin, Writings, x, 50 I). 3 No doubt a letter from Samuel Stanhope Smith; not located.

To William Cullen Philadelphia, December

22, I 784

My dear and venerable Friend, I want words to convey to you the pleasure I derived from your very friendly letter by Mr. Dobson. 1 It has revived in me all the enthusiasm for science with which you inspired me in the years I 766 and I 768. I shall be unhappy till I receive your latest edition of your Nosology and Materia Medica; 2 and I shall not cease to pray that you may not only live to finish your work upon "the art of preserving health," but that you may stamp a value upon it that shall ensure, not its sale only but its immortality, by living till you are an hundred years old, and much longer if it shall please God to continue to you your powers of usefulness and happiness. From seeing your name prefixed to the dedication of Dr. Wilson's treatise upon The Influence of Climates upon Vegetable and Animal Bodies, 3 I was induced to read it. The Doctor has mistaken the influence of woody or uncultivated countries upon health in the [ 346 ]

22 DECEMBER

1784

conclusion of his work. The new settlements in every part of the United States, but more especially in Pennsylvania, are always healthy. Funerals are such uncommon things in our new countries that they are resorted to as a kind of spectacle. A gir1 in an intermitting fever, 200 miles from Philadelphia, drew a crowd of people about her from many miles' distance on purpose to see whether it was possible for a person to be hot and cold at the same time. Her tremors threw them into consternation. It is only in proportion as these new countries are cleared of their woods that they become sickly, in consequence probably of a more free passage being opened for the propagation of exhalations from the rivers. On the River Susquehannah, I oo miles from Philadelphia, fevers twenty years ago were unknown one mile from the shore. They now extend above ten miles from the river, owing to the country being more cleared. It has been remarked further that, in proportion as a country is improved by draining and the different species of agriculture, it becomes again healthy; so that we have been able to establish the two following propositions, viz., "that clearing a country makes it sickly," and that ((cultivation makes it healthy." The city of Philadelphia stands between two rivers, viz., the Delaware and Skuilkill. Before the war a wood grew between the city and the latter river. While the British army lay in Philadelphia, they cut down the whole of that wood for fuel, in consequence of which bilious, remitting, and intermitting fevers have increased in our city in the ratio of five to one compared with years before the war. This has been ascribed to the loss of those woods which formerly intercepted the exhalations of the Skuilkill. 4 Some observations that occurred to me during my attendance upon the American military hospitals have led me to dismiss opium as a remedy in the cure of the tetanus and to substitute in the room of it large doses of bark-wine, 5 with occasional doses of oil of amber, with great success. I have always found tetanus from wounds connected with an absence of inflammation, and have therefore excited it by scarification or by pouring irritating substances into the wound. The cases that have issued favorably under the above treatment have been carefully recorded and in due time will be laid before the public. Your First Lines accompany population and government in every part of this western world. An edition of your last volume is now in the press in this city and will be published in a few days. 6 I hope his Britannic Majesty will not hear this; otherwise your salary as his physician in Scotland will be in danger; for he ought, in justice [ 347 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

to his former principles and conduct, never to forgive the man that has taught his once ungrateful subjects the art of restoring health and prolonging life-perhaps for the purpose of employing both hereafter in lessening his own power. With respectful compliments to Mrs. Cullen, 7 I have the honor to be yours most affectionately, BENJ. RusH Printed: John Thomson, Account of the Life of William Cullen, Edinburgh and London, 1832-1859, 1, 650-2. 1 Cullen's letter, dated 16 Oct. 17 84, is in Rush Mss, XXIV. Mr. Dobson remains unidentified. 2 Cullen's Synopsis Nosologiae Methodicae, Edinburgh, 1769, was one of the most influential medical books of the century; the authorized edition of his Treatise of Materia Medica did not appear until 1789 (DNB). 8 Alexander Wilson, Some Observations Relative to the Influence of Climate upon Vegetable and Animal Bodies, London, 17 8o. 4 The empirical observations made here are for the most part sound and, being favorite ones with BR, give him a claim to consideration as a pioneer sanitarian. Thus in his advice to army officers on encampments (see under 22 Apr. I 777) he had stressed the advantage of sites to the windward of rivers; and in "An Account of the Climate of Pennsylvania" (first published in Amer. Museum, VI-VII [I789-9o]), he asserted that "Winds which pass over mill-darns and marshes in August and September

generally carry with them the seeds of fevers" (Med. lnq. & Obs., 2d edn., I 8os, I, I I I). He repeatedly emphasized that American fevers were the result of "neglecting to follow the ax with the plow and with suitable drains to carry off the moisture in a harmless way" (to Lettsorn, 28 July I796, Pettigrew, Lettsom, III, I 94; see also his letter to an unidentified correspondent, I6 Apr. I 790, and "An Account of the Climate of Pennsylvania," Med. lnq. & Obs., 2d edn., I 8o 5, I, 108-9). 5 Thus printed, but BR must have meant "bark and wine." 6 This is a puzzling statement. BR had brought out a Philadelphia edition of Cullen's First Lines in two volumes, I 7 81- I7 &3 ; see above, BR to Cullen, I6 Sep. I783. An additional volume of Cullen's work was published in Edinburgh in I 784, but there is no record of a I 784 or I 7 85 reissue of it in Philadelphia. 7 Anna Johnstone, whom Cullen had married in I74I (DNB).

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, January 4, 1785 Herewith you will receive Mr. Bell's/ Mr. Sharp's/ and my own donations in books. Mr. HalP has promised to have his contribution made out next week. With them I expect to send you two large globes (the most elegant ever imported into America). They are in part a gift from Jackson & Dunn, 4 Booksellers, in Philadelphia. They will be very necessary next spring. I am doing all I can with the delegates now in town and do not [ 348 ]

4 JANUARY 1785 despair, by means of secret influence joined with a public petition, of getting the buildings. Give over our College! God forbid! No, not if every trustee in the board (half a dozen excepted) perjured themselves by deserting or neglecting their trust. I am neither tired nor discouraged. The necessity and advantages of a college at Carlisle appear the same now to me as they did in the year 1781 5 when we first projected it. We must succeed-unless the trustees at Carlisle are determined to chase learning as the Gadarenes once did Jesus Christ from their borders. I consider your languor as the only enemy we have now to encounter. We have overcome Mr. Dickinson's treachery. Mr. Hall will send you some newspapers and a new pamphlet written by that turbulent spirit Dr. Rush, who I hope will never be quiet while there is ignorance, slavery, or misery in Pennsylvania. Our Assembly are drunk with power. I am told attacks are preparing upon our society. You see a hint at our tyranny as Presbyterians in the protest of the minority upon the rejection of the motion for repealing the test law. The new Academy 6 will ruin the University. It is a more fatal blow to them than Carlisle College. Their subscriptions amount to £4700.0.0 Mr. Morris, Dr. White, Dr. Magaw, Dr. Clarkson, Mr. Peters, Mr. Hopkinson, Ed. Shippen, Mr. Willing, &c., &c., are chosen trustees. 7 Adieu. Yours-yours, BENJN RusH .Jlddressed: John Montgomery Esqr: at Carlisle. tMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 Presumably Robert Bell (ca. I7327 84), publisher and bookseller in Philadelphia from I 768 to his death in the fall of I 7 84; BR had introduced I

Thomas Paine to Bell, who published Common Sense (DAB; BR, Autobiography, p. I I4). 2 Granville Sharp. His donation and those of others mentioned here are dealt with in James W. Phillips' article, "The Sources of the Original Dickinson College Library," Penna. Hist., XIV (I947), I08-I 7• 3 William or David Hall, sons of David Hall (d. I772), who had been Benjamin Franklin's business partner; the Hall brothers, with William Sellers, published the Pennsylvania Gazette for many years (Clarence S. Brigham, Hist. and Bibliog. of A mer. Newspapers,

n, 933-41 Brown and Brown, "Directory of Book-Arts"). 4 Booksellers and stationers, Chestnut between Second and Front Streets (Phila. Directory for I 7 85) . 5 The last digit was altered by BR from "z" to "I," but the change, which was an error, shows how ingrained was BR's habit of recording dates from memory one year early. There are dozens of examples of this habit in his letters, but only the most significant instances have been noted. 6 The Episcopal Academy, organized at a meeting on I Jan. I 7 85 and incorporated in I 7 8 7, struggled through early vicissitudes and still survives; the first building was erected on Chestnut Street near the State House (Jackson, Encyclo. of Phila., u, 630-1).

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES 7

The following have not been previously identified: William White, D.D. (I748-r836), a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I765; rector of Christ Church for many years, and first Protestant Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania, 1787; brother-in-law of Robert Morris; in introducing White to Richard Price the following year, BR said of him that "He is almost the only man I ever knew of real abilities . . . that had not a single enemy"-an opinion BR reiterated more than twenty years later (DAB; BR to Price, 2 7 Oct. I786, and to John Adams, 9 July I8o7). Samuel Magaw, D.D. (I735I 8 I 2), a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I 757; rector of St. Paul's Church, Phila., I 78 I-I 804; vice-provost and professor of moral philosophy in the University of the State of Pennsylvania, I782-9I (Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates). Gerard us Clarkson, M.D. (I 73 7-90), trained under

Dr. Thomas Bond and in Europe; a prominent Episcopal layman; at the time of Clarkson's death, BR spoke of him as "our 'beloved physician'" (John Hall and Samuel Clarkson, Memoirs of Matthew Clarkson . . . and Gerardus Clarkson, Phila., I89o, p. 85ff.; BR to Jeremy Belknap, I9 Nov. I79o, Mass. Hist. Soc., Belknap Papers). Edward Shippen (r729-I8o6), lawyer, provincial councilor, and successively associate and chief justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court from I 79 I ; he was also from time to time the Rushes' landlord-a relationship that did not endear him to BR (DAB; BR to Mrs. Rush, I-2 Nov. I793). Thomas Willing (I73I-I821), senior partner of the great mercantile firm of Willing, Morris & Co. in its various mutations; later president of the first Bank of the United States; father-in-law of BR's friend William Bingham (DAB).

To John Coakley Lettsom Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April 8, 1785 I was sorry to perceive by your last friendly letter that you have failed in procuring a loan for my friend Mr. W. 1 I lament the decay of the American character in London and wish I could say something in defense of it. War tends to loosen the bonds of morality and government in every country; the effects of it have been greatly increased by the people of America handling for four or five years a depreciating paper currency. The evils produced by both I hope will soon cure themselves. As niter, the offspring of putrefaction, is afterwards an antidote to that process of nature, so vice often furnishes the most powerful remedies against itself in the political as well as in the moral world. To reform as well as to enlighten our country, colleges and schools are now founding by the friends of humanity in most of the states. I have undertaken the duty of a trustee of a college lately established near the center of Pennsylvania at a village called Carlisle, I 20 miles to the westward of Philadelphia. The place where this village stands 30 years ago was inhabited by Indians and beasts of prey. It now contains above 300 houses, built chiefly of stone, and three churches. Thus may furnish you with a sample of the

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23 MAY 1785 rapid progress of population and improvement in Pennsylvania. The College of Carlisle owes all its funds to private donations. We have appointed a principal and two professors, and our prospects are very flattering of a large accession of youth from every part of the state. We suffer as yet a great deal from the want of a library. Granville Sharp, Esq., has extended his benevolence across the ocean; and we have recorded his name as a benefactor to our infant seminary in that way. I know the pleasure you take in doing good; I know your zeal in promoting knowledge; and hundreds testify your partiality to the American States. Will you give me leave to solicit your friendship to our College in begging a few books from your friends for our library? The sweepings of their studies will be very acceptable in our illiterate wooden 2 country. The lumber of the stalls in the streets of London, which are sold by weight, would make us truly rich. It will give me great pleasure to make our trustees (who are composed, with a few exceptions, of the first men in the state) acquainted with your name, and to assist in transmitting it to posterity in a country where the fame of learning and benevolence will exist after both have yielded in every part of Europe to the admiration of splendid buildings or to a veneration for hounds and horses. Your assured friend and humble servant, B. RusH Printed: Pettigrew, Lettsom, n, 4-25-7. 1

I.e., James Wilson, who was seeking capital abroad for land-promotion schemes in America (DAB). Lettsom's

letter, dated 9 Oct. 1784, is in the Rush MSS, XXVIII.

2 Thus in the printed text.

To the Trustees of Dickinson College Gentlemen, Philadelphia, 23rd May 1785 After having made the necessary preparations for attending the meeting of your board next month, it is no small disappointment to me to be deprived of that pleasure. I have submitted to the advice of my friends, as well as to the' dictates of my own judgment, by consenting to remain in Philadelphia in order to receive Dr. Nisbet, upon his arrival from Scotland, in such a manner as to give him the most favorable ideas of the disposition of our trustees towards him. Agreeably to the vote of the board in September last, I have executed the business committed to me. The enclosed resolve of

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Congress subscribed by their secretary will show that the public buildings have been obtained for our use agreeably to our request. Mr. Montgomery can show you the petition of the committee to the Congress for that purpose. From the friendly disposition manifested by the Congress to us, and from some conversations I have since had with several members of that body, I have reason to think it would not have been much more difficult to have obtained the gift than the use of the buildings. I mention this that we may not lose sight of them as our own property in the course of two or three years. The lot on which the buildings are erected belongs to Mr. Wilson, one of our board. He has declared his readiness to convey it to us upon a moderate ground rent forever. The sooner this business is transacted the better, as it will facilitate all future negotiations with Congress upon the subject.1 The subscriptions in specie have been collected only in part. Agreeably to your orders, I laid them out in certificates funded on the excise at 3 for one, but upon perceiving that that fund was changed from specie into paper and that certificates of every kind belonging to the State were funded in our hands, I sold the abovementioned certificates at £35-o-o specie in the hundred pounds and purchased final settlements with the money at £25-0-0 in the hundred. By this speculation I added above £6o-o-o in certificates to our College funds. I have likewise purchased a few more with specie at £22-10 in the hundred, amounting in all to about £1so-o-o. I enclose you a list of the Philadelphia subscriptions and payments. I shall draw the interest upon them as fast as I collect them, and exchange it if possible into specie. I presume I shall be excused in advancing all the interest I shall draw upon the certificates collected in Philadelphia to Dr. Nisbet upon his arrival. We shall probably owe him the greatest part of it, for his salary you know begins from the day of his embarkation. After having thus rendered a short account of my stewardship, I beg leave to suggest a few things to the board which I conceive are calculated to promote the interest of our institution. r. In the present state of the College I beg leave to recommend frequent meetings of the trustees. As our quorum is happily so very small, a board may be obtained once a month from Carlisle and its neighborhood. The funds and the regulations of the College, as well as the expectations of Dr. Nisbet, who has a right to insist upon frequent appeals to our advice and assistance, all concur to make this measure necessary. Our child is at present in arms and

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23 MAY 1785 will stand in need of all the tenderness and vigilance which its parents can bestow upon it. 2. In order to increase our funds, suppose we prevail upon Dr. Nisbet in the course of the ensuing summer to solicit subscriptions for us in all the Presbyterian congregations in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The first impressions which a stranger of eminent abilities and in a public station will make upon the human mind will be very favorable to his success. One of the board may probably be prevailed upon to accompany him. 3· From the high character of Dr. Davidson as a teacher, and from the zeal he has already manifested to promote our College, I wish much to see him occupy a professor's chair among us. His habits and reputation as a professor in the University of Philadelphia will add greatly to the credit of our infant seminary. Geography, history, and chronology are now so familiar to him that I am persuaded he could favor us with an hour a day for three or four months in the year without detracting in the least from his duties to his congregation. 4· I hope we shall not lose sight of a German teacher in our College. The Germans now compose nearly one third of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania. They must be enlightened, or we shall not long enjoy the benefits of that light we are endeavoring to spread among our inhabitants of other nations. It is painful to take notice of the extreme ignorance which they discover in their numerous suits in law, in their attachment to quacks in physic, and in their violent and mistaken zeal in government. The influence of our College, if properly directed, might reform them and show them that men should live for other purposes than simply to cultivate the earth and to accumulate specie. The temperate manner of living of the Germans would make them excellent subjects for literature, and their industry and frugality, if connected with knowledge, would make them equally good subjects of quiet and legal government. 2 5. A philosophical and mathematical apparatus is absolutely necessary for our College. I hope the trustees will appropriate a few hundred poun~s for that purpose. Money cannot be better laid out in our present circumstances. The reputation of such an apparatus will draw pupils to us, and from these the support of our professors I hope will be principally derived. 8 Thus, gentlemen, have I thrown a few thoughts together upon subjects which will probably come before you at your next meeting. I submit them to be corrected or dismissed by circumstances. What-

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ever you conclude upon in the course of your next session shall find in me the same support as if it had been proposed by myself. I have no will of my own in the great work of humanity in which we are engaged. The regulations for the College which were committed to me in company with two other gentlemen cannot be completed till the arrival of Dr. Nisbet. I conceive they will subdivide themselves into two kinds. The first must explain the duties and govern the conduct of the trustees and masters. The second must relate only to the conduct and studies of the youth committed to our care. The only one necessary to be adopted at present, perhaps, is that no money be appropriated or paid without a vote of the board and that the president's or vice-president's warrant be necessary for that purpose. 4 The Reverend Mr. Boyd5 signified to me that it would be impossible for him to accept of a seat at our board. This will make it necessary for you to elect a trustee in his room. I need not remind the board that his successor agreeably to our charter must be a clergyman. General Watt6 informed me a few days ago that if a proper application was made to the present Assembly at their next session, he had no doubt but they would grant us a few thousand acres of land in the new purchase and exempt it at the same time while it is our property from taxation. Could General Armstrong or Mr. Duncan be prevailed upon to spend a week or two in Philadelphia during the next session of the house, I have no doubt but such a grant might be obtained. The delay of such an application must be attended with evident inconvenience, for the best lands will probably be taken up before next spring. I lament that I cannot serve the institution in this important business. A majority of the present Assembly are unfortunately under the influence of two men who have been my personal enemies ever since I took part in your efforts to establish a college at Carlisle. "Alexander the Coppersmith did me much harm"-the Lord reward them not (to use the words of the French translation of that text) according to their works. 7 I cannot conclude this letter without congratulating you upon the agreeable events that have come to pass since yo¥r last meeting respecting our College. The object of our affections and cares I hope is now happily removed beyond the possibility of being injured by the malice of enemies or the timidity of friends. The events that have happened in our favor are so much beyond the reach of human wisdom or human fortitude that it would be a species of impiety not to suppose that our College, from its first

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8 JUNE 1785 foundation to the present hour, has been the peculiar care of heaven. Let this thought encourage us to proceed with vigor and industry in opposing the trifling difficulties that are still before us, and let us suppose nothing done while anything remains to be done. With great respect I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant, BENJN RuSH &S: Dickinson College Library. 1

On IS Jan. I785 BR on behalf of the trustees addressed a petition to Congress for use of the "public buildings" at Carlisle by Dickinson College; and a favorable report of a committee of Congress, endorsed only "read passed Feby. I78s,'' is in L.C., Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 20, n, I 798o. The Jour. Cont. Gong. record adoption of the report on 7 Feb. BR saw that the petition received an attentive hearing by writing a number of friends in Congress; see his letter to Jacob Read, I6 Jan. (Pierpont Morgan Libr., Signers Coll., Ser. I) , and replies to BR from several delegates printed in Burnett, Letters of Members, VIII, 12, I7, r8-I9, 22-3. 2 Compare BR's more expanded reflections in this vein in his letters of 3 I Aug. I78S and I9 June I787. 3 The provision of a scientific apparatus was to be the object of BR's efforts for many years. On I 8 Mch. I 7 85 he told Montgomery that the apparatus was to "exceed any collection yet imported into America" (Rush MSS, XLI) ; his purpose was at length accomplished in I 8o8; see letters to Montgomery of 5 July and IO Aug. I8o8.

4 A draft of these regulations by BR, with corrections by other members of the committee and probably by the board itself, has very recently been found and is now in the Dickinson College Library. Extending to twenty octavo pages, the paper is called "Plan of education for Dickinson College." See, further, letters to Montgomery, 20 and 23 Aug. I785, and especially that to the Trustees, 2I Oct. I786. 5 William Boyd (I 758-I 807), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 7 7 8; Presbyterian minister at Lamington, N.J., from I784; trustee of the College of New Jersey from I 8oo (Sprague, Annals, III, 444-6). 6 Frederick Watts (d. 1795), of Cumberland co., lt. col. of a Penna. battalion in the Flying Camp, I 776; brig. gen. of Penna. militia, I782-r783; frequently a member of the Assembly and in r 78 7 elected a member of the supreme executive council (Heitman, Register; Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 33I-2). 7 See II Timothy 4:I4: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm: the Lord reward him according to his works."

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 8th, 1785 After congratulating you from the bottom of my heart upon Dr. Nisbet's safe arrival/ I beg leave to suggest a few things to you that are calculated to make an agreeable impression upon the Doctor and therefore will have an happy effect upon his future opinions and conduct.

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES 1. Let one of the best speakers in the College be appointed to deliver an address to him upon his first entrance of the school. Request Dr. Davidson to compose it for him. 2.. I take it for granted that all the trustees, and I wish as many of the inhabitants as you can get together, would meet the Doctor on his way near Carlisle. 3· Suppose the Court house bell should be rung as he enters the town. The news of these things will make a clever paragraph in our Philadelphia papers and help to allure scholars to our College. 2 I shall do everything that lies in my power to show the Doctor to advantage to our citizens. Many of our first people have promised to visit and entertain him. Mr. Dickinson has gone to the Delaware State. Adieu. 0! Virtue-Virtue! Who would not follow thee blindfold! With compliments to your worthy pastor, as also to all our friends, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BRusH

.Jlddressed: John Montgomery Esqr at Carlisle favd by Mr Millar. &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 This letter must have been written before BR saw Nisbet, for the latter wrote Lord Buchan on the 13th that he had arrived "last Thursday," which was the 9th (Miller, Nisbet, p. 133). 2 Nisbet had a colorful introduction to American rural life, for he reached

Carlisle on the Fourth of July, having been escorted from Yellow-Breeches Creek to Boiling Springs by the Carlisle troop of light horse; Montgomery to BR, 6 July; Thomas Hartley to BR, 9 July; Nisbet to BR, 18 July, in Rush MSS, XLI.

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 14th, q85 I hope you received my letter by Mr. Semple. 1 Dr. Nisbet expects to see you on Saturday or Monday next. He is impatient to see the place where he is to end his days. I cannot tell you how many friends he has made in our city. His preaching is sensible and elegant, and his conversation and agreeable manners charm everybody. In a letter which I received by him from one of my correspondents in Scotland, he has these words, "I follow Dr. Nisbet with solicitude across the ocean. Such another man you will not soon be able to select and carry from us. He is a moving library. He is a Greek and Latin scholar to whom we have few to compare. He is still more distinguished for his command of modern Ian-

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4 JULY 1785 guages. His reading is extensive, his memory vigorous, his discernment quick, his judgment sound. In theology he is a sound Calvanist, in politics a thorough whig, in heart-an American." This I believe is the Doctor's true character. I am so chained down to his company that I regret leaving him for a moment to attend my business. Indeed, my friend, in the arrival of Dr. Nisbet I conceive a new sun is risen upon Pennsylvania. His whole soul is set upon doing good, and his capacity for it has seldom I believe been exceeded by any man's in this country. I have advanced him 50 guineas out of my own pocket, having as yet received no interest money. Several of our certificates are not of this state, and those depreciation notes you sent me are not funded, but I will try to exchange them for final settlements which in our hands are funded. I find great difficulties and delays in collecting our subscriptions. Mr. Hill is very friendly. The Presby.terians begin to visit our Doctor. All the first people in our city have taken him by the hand. He is overcome with the attentions of our citizens to him. Adieu. Yours sincerely, BRusH .Jlddressed: John Montgomery Esqr or in his absence General Armstrong at Carlisle favd by Mr Blaine. fMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

Not identified; nor is the letter sent by him known.

To Lady Jane Wishart Belsches Madam, Philadelphia, July 4th, 1785 To awaken every ppwer of the mind and agitate them alternatively with the emotions of grief, friendship, and religion, seems to be the prerogative of each of your ladyship's letters. To perpetuate my sympathy with you in your grief for your much loved and amiable brother, I beg leave to request your ladyship's acceptance of a small picture set with hair on the back of a miniature portrait of Mrs. Rush. The device represents your ladyship as having arrived in America and visiting your brother's tomb. The gentleman1 whose friendship for him procured him a military funeral and obtained for his dust a retreat in a churchyard, is represented as pointing to the monument under which his remains are deposited. On the monument are inscribed these words: "Cap[ 357 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

tain Wm. Leslie ob. January Jrd, aged 26." Near your ladyship's lips is placed the following exclamation: "Ah, Willie!" Above the urn which stands on the monument are these words: "My Redeemer liveth." Over the whole device is thrown a large weeping willow. I have committed this pledge of friendship and token of sympathy to the particular care of Captain Ritchie of the ship Alexander, who has promised to deliver or convey it safe to your ladyship in Edinburgh. The figures of the monument, the urn, the lady, the willow, and all the letters are composed of your ladyship's hair. The figure of the gentleman is composed of mine. The portrait of Mrs. Rush was drawn several years ago, and though well executed is not thought to be a very flattering likeness. Dr. Nisbet discovered a striking resemblance between her and your ladyship's sister, Lady Ruthven. I have often observed it. If this be the case, your ladyship will easily suppose there must be some family shades of likeness between you and Mrs. Rush. MS (letter-book copy in Mrs. Rush's hand): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 1. 1

I.e., BR himself; see BR to Lady Jane,

21

Apr.

17 84.

1

To Thomas Henry: Observations as Physician General in the Revolution Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 22, 1785 The enclosed observations are at your service. Instead of dilating them with theories and cases, which would add only to the number of books but not to the stock of facts, I send them to you in as short a compass as possible. They are not so fit for the public eye as I could wish; but if you think them worthy of a place in your Transactions, you are welcome to them. Be assured, dear sir, of the great regard of your friend and humble servant, BENJAMIN RusH REsULT OF OBSERVATIONs, &c.

2

The principal diseases were putrid fevers. 3 Men who came into the hospitals with pleurisies, rheumatism, &c., soon lost the types of their original diseases and suffered or died with the putrid fever. 2. This putrid fever was often artificial, produced by the want of sufficient room and cleanliness. 1.

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3· It always prevailed most, and with the worst symptoms, in winter: a free air, which could only be obtained in summer, always prevented or checked it. 4· Soldiers billeted in private houses escaped it and generally recovered soonest from all their diseases. 5. Convalescents and drunken soldiers were most exposed to putrid fevers. 6. The remedies that appeared to do most service in this disease were tartar emetic in the beginning, gentle doses of laxative salts, bark, wine (two or three bottles a day in many cases), and sal volatile. 7· In all those cases where the contagion was received, cold seldom failed to render it active. Whenever an hospital was removed in winter, one half of the patients generally sickened in the way or soon after their arrival at the place to which they were sent. 8. The army when it lay in tents was always more sickly than when it lay in the open air; it was always more healthy when kept in motion than when it lay in an encampment. 9· Militia officers and soldiers who enjoyed health during a campaign were often seized with fevers upon their return to the Vita Mallis at their respective homes. There was one instance of a militia captain who was seized with convulsions the first night he lay on a featherbed after lying several months on a mattress and on the ground. The fever was produced by the sudden change in the manner of sleeping, living, &c. It was prevented in many cases by the person lying, for a few nights after his return to his family, on a blanket before the fire. IO. I met with several instances of bubos and ulcers in the throat, as described by Dr. Don. Monro; they were mistaken by some of the junior surgeons for venereal sores, but they yielded to the common remedies of putrid fevers. I I. Those patients in putrid fevers who had large ulcers and even mortifications on their backs or limbs, generally recovered. I 2. There were many instances of patients in putrid fevers who, without any apparent symptoms of dissolution, suddenly fell down dead upon being moved; this was more especially the case when they arose to go to stool. IJ. Those officers who wore flannel shirts or waistcoats next to their skin in general escaped fevers and diseases of all kinds. I4. Lads under twenty years of age were subject to the greatest number of camp diseases. [ 359 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES I 5. The southern troops were more sickly than the northern or eastern troops. I 6. The native Americans were more sickly than the Europeans. I7. Men above thirty and thirty-five years of age were the hardiest soldiers in the army. Perhaps this was the reason why the Europeans were more healthy than the native Americans; they were more advanced in life. I8. The troops from Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina sickened for the want of salt provisions. Their strength and spirits were only to be restored to them by means of salt bacon. I once saw a private in a Virginia regiment throw away his ration of choice fresh beef and give seven shillings and sixpence specie for a pound of salt meat. I9. Most of the sufferings and mortality in our hospitals were occasioned not so much by actual want or scarcity of anything as by the ignorance, negligence, &c., in providing necessaries for them. After the purveying and directing departments were separated (agreeably to the advice of Dr. Monro) in the year 1778, very few of the American army died in our hospitals. 4

'Printed: Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Memoirs, ( 178 s), so6-9. 1 Thomas Henry (I734-I8I6), of Manchester, England; surgeon-apothecary, chemist, writer on scientific and medical subjects; successively secretary and president of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, of which BR had been elected an honorary member earlier this year ( DNB; Henry's letters to BR, in Rush MSS, vu). 2 BR reprinted this tract in an expanded form in his first collection of papers: Medical Inquiries and Observations [I], Phila.: Prichard & Hall, I 789, p. I 8o-s. With one or two exceptions of particular interest, no attempt is made here to record the changes and additions. The later version is easily accessible in BR's Med. Inq. & Obs., 2d edn., I8os, I, 267-76, which has, moreover, two additional paragraphs (p. 275), one of them praising Dr. Tilton's famed log hospital, erected in the winter of 1779-1780 at the Jockey Hollow camp of the Continental army near Morristown (and recently restored by the National Park Service).

II

8 In the later versions of this paper BR eschews the term "putrid" fever or fevers, and instead designates the principal diseases in the hospitals as "the typhus gravior and mitior of Doctor Cullen." 4 In the later versions of the tract BR added, as a final paragraph, the following interesting peroration: "Hospitals are the sinks of human life in an army. They robbed the United States of more citizens than the sword. Humanity, reconomy, and philosophy, all concur in giving a preference to the conveniencies and wholesome air of private houses; and should war continue to be the absurd and unchristian mode of deciding national disputes, it is to be hoped that the progress of science will so far mitigate one of its greatest calamities, as to produce an abolition of hospitals for acute diseases. Perhaps there are no cases of sickness in which reason and religion do not forbid the seclusion of our fellow-creatures from the offices o£ humanity in private

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20 AUGUST families, except where they labour under the calamities of madness and the venereal disease, or where they are the

1785

subjects of some of the operations of surgery."

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, August 20, 1785 After an agreeable journey we arrived in Philadelphia the evening before last. 1 Mrs. Rush is in good health and speaks in high terms of her excursion and in particular of your town. We found through divine goodness all our little folks well. We were happy in being able to contradict the terrible reports of Dr. Nisbet's illness and the sickliness of Carlisle. 2 We found Harrisburgh, Lebanon, and Pottstown much more sickly than your town. It will be your own faults if you do not banish fevers forever from the village. The Works I fear will not be made healthy at all times, unless you can prevail upon Major Wilson to sell his mill dam, and afterwards destroy it. Pray lose no time in draining the meadow near the town. I expect to hear in a few weeks of the east end of the town being as sickly as the Works. I wish the masters would attend to the clothing of the boys next month and charge them to avoid the evening air. Keep up Dr. Nisbet's spirits. I have heard since my return to Philadelphia from a lady lately from Montrose that Mrs. N was as much dissatisfied with Montrose as she is with Carlisle. Her natural temper, she says, is to complain and find fault. This is between ourselves. She adds, withal, that she is a goodhearted woman and that with all her whinings she never made anybody unhappy but her husband. The Reverend Mr. Jones 3 talks of setting up a lodging house at Carlisle. Do stop him on his return from the Warm Springs, and try to fix him. He will draw pupils from this city. We may allow him hereafter £25 a year for teaching our boys to read and speak properly. This I am sure will make you completely happy. I am afraid the language of our plan of education is not sufficiently correct to be printed as it passed the board. Besides there are some things in it that are not quite proper for a newspaper. Suppose I make a few extracts from it from a rough copy which I have in my possession and send it to your printers, or print it first in our papers. I think with great pleasure of the appointment of Dr. Davidson. I feel myself relieved of an immense weight when I think how much he will divide with us our cares and anxiety for the College. My

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

best compliments to him. You will see from the enclosed paper the progress Mr. Campbell4 is making at York town. The German College will succeed. 5 It will probably be fixed at Manheim. I hope this will rouse our society over the Susquehannah. I find Mr. Jonth. Hoge very friendly to us. He thinks something may be done for us at the next session of the Assembly. I wish General Armstrong would write to all your members, as also to Mr. Maclene and Colonel Bayard. The Colonel has lately lost his wife-an excellent woman! 6 I wish your printers would publish the account of the York town Academy in your paper. It will serve to rouse your citizens to imitate their example. I hope at your meeting in October to hear of a vote for building a neat college 100 feet by 6o, with a hall and 6 rooms in it, at the west end of the town. It may be done for £1200 -and go to work as you will, you never will have the Works free of all encumbrances for less than £4000. After all, they will never do your town much service. On the contrary, I should not be surprised at their producing a new town near them and even hurting the value of lots and houses in the old town, as the present Carlisle will then be called. Mrs. Rush joins in compliments to the ladies of your family with a high sense of their politeness to her, with, dear sir, yours sincerely, BRusH P.S. I beg you would send the enclosed letter to Dr. Nisbet. Say nothing about his note to me to anybody. His letter to me is full of complaints. 7 Do keep up his spirits. Get Dr. Davidson to concur with us. I have written to him in great freedom. If we pay him his salary punctually, and get him sufficient assistance in the College, his complaints will all rebound on himself. My compliments to your son John, 8 and request him to favor us with a description of the cave near Carlisle in your Gazette. 9 It shall be republished in the Philadelphia papers . .:MS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 BR had attended a meeting of the board of trustees at Carlisle on 9 Aug. (Morgan, Dickinson College, p. 35). He and Mrs. Rush had stayed with the Montgomerys. 2 Nisbet and his family had taken up residence in one of the buildings at the "Public Works," as the military storehouses and shops east of the town were

sometimes called; he and Mrs. Nisbet became sick very soon after their arrival in Carlisle (same, p. 42-3). 8 Rev. Daniel Jones (d. 1814), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 766, who was living in Philadelphia at this time, moved to Carlisle the following year; BR proposed him as an English master at the College, but with-

23

1785

AUGUST

out apparent result (Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., I9o8; Phila. Directory for I 7 85 ; Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, I, 44I-2; BR to Trustees, Apr. I 786). 4 Rev. John Campbell (I752-I8I9), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I77o, and rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, York, I 7 84-I 7 89, was a founder and first principal of York Academy, which opened its doors in I 7 87; Campbell was afterwards, I789-I8I9, rector of St. John's in Carlisle (Alumni Records, Secretary's Office, Princeton Univ.; J. P. Wickersham, A History of Education in Pennsylvania, Lancaster, I 886, p. 492-3). 5 This is BR's first allusion to an enterprise conceived by German cultural leaders in Philadelphia and Lancaster, and realized two years later in the establishment of Franklin (now Franklin and Marshall) College at Lancaster. The important part that BR played in this undertaking may be seen in his letters of 3I Aug. I785, 2I Jan., and I9 June I787. 6 Col. John Bayard's second wife was Mary Grant Hodgson, who died I3 Aug. 1785 (N.Y. Geneal. and Biog. Record, XVI [I885], 63), 7 Between the lines of this and the following letters is concealed the strange story of the breach between BR and

Nisbet. The outpouring of homesickness and complaints in Nisbet's letters written after his arrival at Carlisle in July quite stunned BR, who refused to see Nisbet during his (BR's) visit to Car lisle; Nisbet himself was bedridden and could not call on BR. The letter enclosed to Nisbet mentioned here has not been found. Nisbet's "note" is an appeal to BR, date-lined "Tomb of Dickinson's College," IO Aug., to call on Nisbet. Nisbet's "letter" may be a long letter of I 8 Aug., now in Dickinson Coli. Libr. The other letters bearing on the quarrel are in Rush MSS, XLI. 8

Not further identified. On I July 1785 BR had written Montgomery introducing George Kline, who wished to establish a newspaper at Carlisle (Rush MSS, XLI). The Carlisle Gazette published its first number on 10 August (Brigham, Hist. and Bibliog. of Amer. Newspapers, 11, 832). A description of the limestone cave on the bank of the Conodoguinet a mile and a half from Carlisle is given in Sherman Day, Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania, Phila., 1843, p. 270-1. Johann Schoepf wrote that "The ladies of Car lisle are accustomed to resort thither to drink tea" (Travels in the Confederation, ed. A. J. Morrison, Phila., I 9 I I, I, 215). 9

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, August 23, 1785. All our friends here highly approve of our building a college in the town of Carlisle. Suppose you propose to your citizens to tempt the trustees at their next session with a generous subscription for that purpose? Some of them may subscribe stone, some lime, other boards, and others work. In this manner less cash will be required. Mrs. Rush tells me that General Irvine sent a bottle of mineral oil to your house for me. Do send it by the first safe conveyance. I shall send you a relation of the Widow Stamper's next week for Mr. Tait's schooP Adieu. Compliments to your family. BRusH

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

P.S. I am preparing a short abstract of our plan of education for our papers. You may republish it in the Carlisle paper. &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

Robert Tait, also spelled Tate by BR, a Scottish immigrant who had this month been appointed "master of reading and writing the English language

in Dickinson College"; he was dismissed in the following May (Morgan, Dickinson College, p. 105-6; Tait to BR, zo May q86, Rush MSS, XLII).

To the Citizens of Pennsylvania of German Birth and Extraction: Proposal of a German College 1

Friends and Fellow Citizens, [Philadelphia, 3r August I785] Every good man beholds with pleasure the pains which several religious societies have taken to encourage learning among themselves since the Revolution. The Episcopalians have established a flourishing academy in the city of Philadelphia. The Presbyterians have established a college at Carlisle. The Roman Catholics and the Quakers still devote themselves to the care of their respective schools in Philadelphia. If each society in this manner takes care of its own youth, the whole republic must soon be well educated. It has been found by experience that harmony and Christian friendship between the different religious societies is best promoted by their educating their youth in separate schools. This practice is, moreover, more favorable to the religious instruction of youth, as catechisms and forms of worship are more readily introduced into schools where all the children are of one sect than where they are of different religious denominations. When we consider the number and wealth of the Germans in Pennsylvania, we are at a loss to account for their having so long neglected to establish a college for the education of their youth. They compose nearly one third of the inhabitants of the state. They fill the treasury with their taxes, and their blood was shed liberally in the establishment of the independence of the state. But what advantages do they derive from their numbers, their wealth, or their patriotism? How few of their sons, born and educated in Pennsylvania, fill the learned professions, or possess offices in the state! Instead of this, are not the Germans at the mercy of the lawyers of other societies, and of the quacks of their own nation? Do they not often lose their estates, from their ignorance of the laws of their country, in making their [ 364 ]

31

AUGUST

1785

wills and in buying and selling property? Do they not often sacrifice their lives by trusting to men who pretend to inspiration in physic but who are without principle or education? Have they not often been misled by demagogues of other nations and religious societies? All this is entirely owing to their want of learning, which would defend them from mistakes, deceptions, and abuses in law, physic, and in government. 2 The Germans in Europe are wise and learned. Why should they not be equally so in Pennsylvania? The Germans in Pennsylvania are wealthy, and therefore they can afford to educate their children. It is learning alone that gives influence to wealth and makes it a source of happiness. The Germans are a temperate, patient, and industrious people; they are therefore the best subjects for learning as well as the best members of republican governments. Some narrow-minded people have said that if the Germans have a college of their own, it will be the means of keeping up their language in our country,S and therefore they advise that they should send their sons to the English colleges in Philadelphia and Carlisle. But this objection should have no weight. I should be very sorry to see the German language lost in Pennsylvania. It will be the inlet into the state of all the learning of one of the wisest nations in the world. Besides, the German youth will more readily acquire knowledge in the language in which they have been taught to express their first ideas than in any other. They will moreover be more easily instructed in the principles of their own religion in their own language. But further, I conceive, by teaching and learning in their own language, they will sooner acquire a perfect knowledge of the English language. A thirst for learning excited by German books will naturally lead them to study the English language for the sake of becoming acquainted with English authors who abound with knowledge in all arts and sciences. Besides, when the German youth find that a knowledge of the English language is the road to eminence at the bar, to honor both in the State of Pennsylvania and in the General Assembly of the United States, they will not want motives for learning to speak and write it with force and elegance. I take it for granted that one of the first teachers that would be appointed in a German college would be a professor of the English language. But supposing it possible that the German youth should not acquire a knowledge of the English language in their college, what Pennsylvanian of British or Irish extraction would not prefer them as fellow citizens learned in the arts and sciences and skilled

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

in politics and government rather than in a state of ignorance of them all? A man who is learned in the dialect of a Mohawk Indian is more fit for a legislator than a man who is ignorant even in the language of the learned Greeks. The German language has existed for fifty years in Pennsylvania. It never can be lost while German churches and schools exist in it. A German college will serve to preserve it, but it will preserve it, not in its present state, but in its original force and purity. It will do more. It will open the eyes of the Germans to a sense of the importance and utility of the English language and become perhaps the only possible means, consistent with their liberty, of spreading a knowledge of the English language among them. Another objection that has been made to a German college is that it will tend to render the Germans a distinct people from the other citizens of the state. This objection is equally weak and groundless with the former. It is ignorance and prejudice only that keeps men of different countries and religions apart. A German college, by removing these, will prepare the way for the Germans to unite more intimately with their British and Irish fellow citizens and thus to form with them one homogeneous mass of people. A third objection that has been made to the establishment of a German college is that it will lessen the cultivation of the state by converting some of our best farmers into scholars. What! are the Germans to be doomed forever to labor and never to partake of the refinements and advantages which accompany literature? But I deny the fact. The agriculture of the state will always keep pace with our improvements in arts and sciences. Look at the island of Great-Britain, where philosophy has lent her aid to husbandry, and compare the increase, produce, and exports of her farms with the state of agriculture in those countries in Europe where the ground is only scratched by illiterate peasants, and then say whether there is not a prospect of agriculture being advanced to a degree of perfection hitherto unknown in our country by spreading learning among our farmers? The profits of a farm in Pennsylvania are the result of the combined influence of the industry and economy of our farmers and of the natural fertility of the soil. Suppose we add to these the influence of an acquaintance with books containing an account of the improvements and discoveries in agriculture and rural economy that are daily making in other parts of the world, is it not probable that the profits of a farm would be much more considerable? I pass by the pleasure to be derived from taste and convenience-utility and beauty being blended together in the dis-

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AUGUST

1785

position of fields, gardens, fruit trees, and meadow ground-which will follow education among our farmers, and hasten to remark that as our rulers are chosen chiefly from among this class of citizens, it will be absolutely necessary to spread learning among them. The time is remembered with shame and indignation when the people of Pennsylvania were called upon to "reject men of learning" in choosing a body of legislators to form a system of government for the state. 4 The business of government is incompatible with the duties of the three learned professions; our rulers must be taken therefore from the cultivators of the earth. Their seasons of recess from labor give them leisure for the purposes of government, and their manner of life secures them best from that corruption to which all governors are naturally disposed. I anticipate a revolution in our state, big with human happiness, when the farmer and the scholar shall be blended together and when the same men who have been competitors for fame at our colleges shall be competitors for honor in the councils of the state. America already beholds this scene of political happiness and glory in the eastern states. Nearly one half the members of the legislature of Connecticut are graduates in the College of NewHaven-hence the wisdom and stability of her laws. A large proportion of the assemblymen and senators of the State of Massachusetts are graduates in the College of Cambridge-hence are derived the perfection of her constitution and the freedom and dignity of her government. If these hints should meet with the approbation of my German fellow citizens, I beg leave to recommend to them immediately to obtain funds and to apply to the legislature for a charter for a college to be established at Reading, Lebanon, Lancaster, or Manheim. A village should be preferred to the city of Philadelphia, not only because education will be cheaper, but because the youth will be kept out of the way of those vices which always prevail in large towns. Happy State of Pennsylvania! When all the numerous sects and nations that compose thy citizens shall be equally wise and free! "When wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times! m When all thy ministers of the Gospel, thy lawyers, and thy physicians, like "thy governors, shall be from among ourselves! " 6 When the different religious sects, like the different strings in a musical instrument, shall compose a harmony delightful in the ears of Heaven itself! When the shores of the Ohio and Tioga, and all thy numerous and extensive rivers shall be adorned with churches,

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

courts of justice, and seminaries of learning, filled with men who have been educated in the principles of religion and liberty in our American colleges! When the descendants of British and Irish subjects shall come from the east and from the west and meet their German fellow citizens on the same footing in the councils of the state! And when religion without superstition, learning without pedantry, and liberty without licentiousness shall blend their rays together and enlighten every corner of the land! A FRIEND TO EQUAL LIBERTY AND LEARNING IN PENNSYLVANIA.

Printed: Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 31 August 1785. 1

This public communication is assigned to BR solely on the basis of internal evidence, but one cannot read two paragraphs together without encountering repeated and unmistakable indications of BR's style and thought. This is the first of a number of public statements made by him in the interest of his fellow citizens of German birth and extraction. Since he was eager to win support for the Republican party in the state, his motives may be considered as partly political. Yet his private utterances about the Pennsylvania Germans have almost invariably the same friendly and admiring tone. It is not too much to say that BR was the first wholehearted friend the Germans gained among the front-rank leaders of nonGerman stock in the state. He had studied their language, he had observed with admiration their agricultural economy and their simple, pious manners, and he now came forward, though engaged in founding a college that he had hoped would attract German youth, with a plea for an independent German college. Probably in his conversations with German friends in Philadelphia, they had put him up to composing the appeal, and he had agreed to do so provided his name could be withheld. (The Penna. Gazette states that the article had first appeared in a German language paper.) At any rate, the proposal materialized in Franklin College at Lancaster. BR was to serve as a charter trustee of this institution and to write a delightful account of its opening ceremonies (letter to Mrs. Stockton,

I 9 June I 7 8 7). The culmination of all this was his "Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania," which was for its time uniquely sympathetic and which still makes illuminating reading. The "Account" originally appeared in the Columbian Magazine, m, 22-30 (Jan. I789), was included in BR's Essays (I798), and because of its importance in the cultural history of the Pennsylvania Germans has been reissued several times in both English and German; see Emil Meynen, Bibliographie des Deutschtums der K olonialzeitlichen Einwanderung in Nordamerika, Leipzig, I937> Nos. 375-8. 2 Note by BR: "Wherever learning is confined to one society, or to a few men, the government of that country will always be an ARISTOCRACY, whether the prevailing party be composed of rich or poor. It is by diffusing learning that we shall destroy aristocratic juntos of all parties, and establish a true commonwealth." 8 This was then and long remained a delicate and controversial subjectbetween English and Germans, and among the Germans themselves. See BR's letter of I 9 June I 7 8 7 and the notes in my separate edition thereofA Letter Describing the Consecration of the German College at Lancaster, Lancaster, I945, p. 27, J2, 33· 4 This alludes to some incident in the party battles under the Constitution of I 776 that I cannot explain. 5 Isaiah 3 3 :6. 6 Quotation not traced.

[ 368 ]

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September I I, 1785 It is all in vain. After using every possible argument with Dr. Nisbet that friendship, religion, or honor could dictate to prevent his returning to Scotland, I find by his letter of the 4th of this month that he is inflexible.1 He complains of the heat and sickliness of our climate. But from the extract of the letter I sent to General Armstrong and from the good humor and patience with which he bore the hottest of our weather in Philadelphia, I have reason to think he is actuated by other reasons. Dismal stories are propagated through our city against us from his family by the people who come from Carlisle. In one of his letters to me he talks much of our "scanty funds," and from good authority I hear of complaints which seem to indicate that his family think him disgraced and ruined by having so small a charge. They abuse, I hear, everyone that had any hand in bringing him to America, especially me. In short, my friend, we have made an unfortunate speculation in our principal. With all his endowments for his place, he is a mere machine in the hands of his wife and children. This I am told was the case at Montrose, and to such a degree that many people predicted that they would destroy his usefulness in this country. Poor man! I pity him and cannot help applying to him the words of the poet:

"If parts allure thee, see! where Nisbet shined, The wisest, brightest, weakest of mankind.m It remains now only to convey him back to his native country. He prays to have his passage paid home. This will be hard upon us, but I believe we shall in the end be the richer for it. Mr. Dickinson advises it. He says, "No college can be well governed or flourish under the direction of a man who cannot govern his own family." The President is very friendly and in good spirits. Mr. Hill wishes no more arguments to be used to detain him. I hope the trustees will accept of his resignation in October and even consent to pay his passage to Scotland. Such deep prejudices have taken possession of his family against our College and country that I am sure we never can be happy with them. We can get a successor to the Doctor in our own country for half the salary we have contracted to pay him. If we cannot, unfortunately, unite in Dr. Davidson, there is a Mr. Edwards,S son of the celebrated president of the College of New Jersey of that name, in Connecticut, who is in every [ 369 ]

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respect equal to the task. He entered college on the same day with me and was afterwards a classmate of my brother's, who speaks of him as a prodigy of abilities and learning. He is now about 42 years of age and is as eminent for his piety, prudence, and benevolence as he is for his learning. My brother tells me that when at college Dr. Finley often submitted to be taught by him, especially in the mathematics. He has lately buried his wife. The sooner the Doctor sails after October, the better. Keep up your spirits. "Rejoice not over us, 0 our enemies, though we fall yet shall we rise again.m Deliverance and enlargement shall arise to us from another quarter, while Dr. Nisbet will probably be feeling (which God forbid) the evils denounced against the family of Esther. 5 Yes, my friend, I still maintain that all will end well. Do you recollect the harsh and cruel note I received from Dr. Nisbet at Carlisle? 0! my friend, it is nothing compared with a letter I received from his son Tom in answer to a most friendly letter I sent to him to try to reconcile him to Carlisle and our country.6 With compliments to your family, in which Mrs. Rush joins, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RuSH P.S. The enclosed is a friendly letter to the Doctor. 7 Please to deliver it. iJIIS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

Nisbet reached this decision after the board meeting in August; BR and others attempted to dissuade him from resigning, but in vain. His resignation was accepted at the October meeting, but since Nisbet would not sail on any vessel but that on which he had come over, he deferred returning till spring. Over the winter his health improved and he began teaching classes. On 9 May 1 786 he was reelected principal, though the trustees had been very divided on the point, and BR (with others) agreed reluctantly. See the following letters, especially those to Montgomery; also Morgan, Dickinson College, p. 43ff. 2 Adapted from Pope on Lord Bacon, Essay on Man (1733), IV, 281-2.

3 Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (17451 8o1), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1765, and D.D., 1785; minister of a church at New Haven at this time; president of Union College, 1799-1801 (DAB). 4 Adapted from Micah 7:8. 5 See Esther 3. 6 The letter from Nisbet's son dated August 1785, is in the Rush MSS, XLI. Thomas Nisbet, the oldest son, had a pen as caustic as his father's. He fell a victim to one of the vices of the country -drink-and died, according to his father's biographer, "without reformation" soon after his father (Miller, Nisbet, p. 302). 1 This enclosure has not been found.

[ 370 ]

To Richard Price

1

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October I 5, I 78 5 I took the liberty of publishing, with your name, your excellent letter on the test law of Pennsylvania. 2 It has already had a great effect on the minds of many people, and I doubt not will contribute more than anything to repeal that law. Dr. Franklin, who has succeeded Mr. Dickinson as our governor, has expressed his surprise at the continuance of such a law since the peace, and we hope will add the weight of his name to yours to remove such a stain from the American Revolution. The Doctor enjoys in his eightieth year the full exercise of all faculties of his mind. While Spain boasts of her Ximenes, France of her Fleury, and Britain of her Mansfield, all of whom sustained the burden of government after they passed the eightieth year of their lives, America claims a Franklin, inferior to none of them in activity of mind and clearness of perception on the great affairs of government. We expect, in consequence of his arrival, a revolution in favor of reason, justice, and humanity in our country. He has already begun to point out abuses and to propose schemes that are full of wisdom and benevolence. 8 I was made very happy by observing that the dissenters of all denominations had united with the Quakers in England to petition Parliament to put a stop to the African trade. We perceive already the good effects of the abolition of Negro slavery in Pennsylvania. The slaves who have been emancipated among us are in general more industrious and orderly than the lowest class of white people. A school has been set on foot for their children by the Quakers in this city; 4 and we have the pleasure of seeing them improve in religion and morals under their instructions, as well as in English literature. Learning begins to spread in all directions through our country. Dickinson College grows daily in funds, pupils, and reputation. The two colleges in Maryland, founded by Doctor Smith, bid fair for being useful to that state. 5 The spring which the human mind acquired by the Revolution has extended itself to religion. The Episcopal clergy and laity have held a convention in this city and agreed on such alterations in their discipline, worship, and articles as will render the Episcopal Church the most popular church in America. They have adopted a form of ecclesiastical government purely republican. A church judicatory is to consist of a bishop, three presbyters, and two or three laymen. They have reduced their thirty-

[ 37I ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

nine articles to nineteen and have reserved from their creeds only the Apostles'. Their baptism, their marriage and burial services are likewise made more consonant to common sense as well as true Christianity. 6 While these changes are going forward in the Episcopalian Church, the Presbyterians and Baptists are showing an equal spirit of innovation. A considerable body of them who had been educated in the strictest principles of Calvinism, and many of whom are people who have long been eminent for their piety, have separated from their respective churches and are now forming an independent society under the direction of Mr. Winchester, an eloquent and popular Baptist preacher who has openly and avowedly preached the doctrine of final restitution. 7 Tenets of the same kind are now spreading rapidly in New England, &c. Printed (without signature}: Tke American Museum,

I,

132-4 (February

1]8]). 1 5 Washington College, Chestertown, Dr. Richard Price (172.3-1791), of Newington Green, near London; Md., chartered in 17 82 through the nonconformist minister, intimate friend efforts of William Smith, the former of Franklin, and writer on politics, provost of the College of Philadelphia; economics, and morals; two of his and St. John's College, chartered in tracts relating to America were highly 17 84. Smith, however, had no part in influential in this country, and in 1778 the founding of St. John's. (Bernard he was invited by Congress to become C. Steiner, History of University Edua citizen of the United States. A group cation in Maryland [Johns Hopkins of his letters to BR, I78I-1790, will Univ. Studies, 9th ser., m], Baltimore, be found in the Rush MSS, XLIII ; BR's 1891, p. 9-10.) 6 For an account of the first General letters to Price have for the most part been published among "The Price Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Letters," Mass. Hist. Soc., Procs., 2d Church, which met in Philadelphia, ser., XVII (1903), 2.63-378. (DNB; Carl Sep.-Oct. 1785, see Charles C. Tiffany, B. Cone, "Richard Price and the Con- A History of the Protestant Episcopal stitution of the United States," Amer. Church in the United States of America, Hist. Rev., Lm [1947-1948], 726-47.) N.Y., 1895• ·p. 343ff. See also BR to 2 Price's letter, dated 22 July 1785 Price, 22-23 Apr. 1786. 7 and printed in Penna. Gazette, 14 Sep., Elhanan Winchester (175I-1797), declared: "That is a miserable legisla- an itinerant preacher of New England ture which relies much on tests; for in origin, a writer on theological subjects, general they bind only honest men." and one of the principal founders 3 Franklin had arrived from France of the Universalist Church in the United on 14 Sep. and a few weeks later was States. BR's connection with Winchester elected to the presidency of the supreme was to be intimate and of the first imexecutive council (DAB) • portance in BR's own religious develop4 The promotion of education among ment, for the impact of Winchester's the Negroes was largely the work of radical doctrine of "universal restorathe Quaker Anthony Benezet, who him- tion," or salvation for all mortals, fell self conducted a school for Negro upon BR just at the time he was alienchildren for some years and in 1784 ated from the Presbyterians for political left his estate to endow it (George S. reasons. In 1787, when Winchester Brookes, Friend Anthony Benezet, sailed for England to evangelize there, he carried a letter of introduction from Pbila., 1937, p. 45-52).

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BR to Price, and the two men corresponded for some years thereafter. In I 790 BR helped to draft the articles and plan of government of the Universalist Church at its first convention. It is fair to say with Richard Eddy, the historian of the Universalist Church, that whatever BR's connections may have been with other denominations, he was in later life a believer in Univer-

salism. (DAB; correspondence of BR and Winchester, I 788-I 79I, in Edwin M. Stone, Biography of Rev. Elhanan Winchester, Boston, I836, p. I83-99; other letters from Winchester in Rush Mss, XXII; BR, Autobiography, p. 163-4, I8s; Richard Eddy, "Benjamin Rush," Christian Leader, I Oct. 1885; and the same author's Universalism in America, zd edn., Boston, I886, ch. m.)

To John Erskine Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 25th, 1785 In my last letter I informed you of the polite and hospitable reception Dr. Nisbet met with in this country. The friends of liberty entertained him as if he had been an ambassador, and the friends of religion treated him everywhere like an apostle. With the most elevated prospects of his usefulness both to the civil and religious interests of mankind, and with the most perfect satisfaction with his abilities and attainments, we are called upon to lament human weakness and the uncertainty of human hopes by consenting to part with him. In order to explain the mystery of this almost unparalleled event in the history of human affairs, I must lay before you a few facts. Exactly two weeks after Dr. Nisbet arrived at Carlisle, I received from him a long letter which contained the following paragraph. "Providence hath hitherto kept us free from the ague, but we are experiencing another severe disorder. The desiderium patriae or maladie de pais so fatal to the Swis is very severe upon us at present. My wife and children are unhappy and laying plans to return to Scotland or to convey me thither. I know not where this will end.m Soon after I received the letter which contained the above extract, the Doctor and his whole family were sick with the intermitting fever, a disease to which all newcomers are more or less subject and which has prevailed more than usual during the last summer. It is considered here as a trifling disorder, and after a season may easily be avoided by a little caution. The Doctor (naturally timid) sunk under his fever. His wife and children availed themselves of the debilitated tone of his mind and body and succeeded in their plan to convey him back to Scotland. He lays the blame of his returning upon the heat of our climate. I wish the world could

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believe that this was the true reason, but it is notorious that the last summer was uncommonly cool in Pennsylvania and that till he formed the resolution of returning he bore our hot weather with patience and good humor. There can be no doubt but his wife and children are at the bottom of this disgraceful business. I wish to throw a veil over their behavior from the first day of their arrival to the present moment. The Doctor's eldest son is thought to be the principal agent in the business. Every argument that could be drawn from religion, patriotism, reason, the doctrine of climates, character and interest, and the laws of the animal economy has been used both with the Doctor and his son Tom, but all to no purpose. Dr. Wetherspoon cannot speak of his conduct with common patience. The friends of religion mourn in secret over the dishonor he has brought upon them by deserting his post. The friends of liberty now consider British patriotism as a speculative opinion and no longer a practical principle. The enemies of the College triumph in his defection, and what perhaps is worse than all-the trustees of the College have consented without reluctance to dismiss him and even to bear his expenses back again to Scotland. Alas! poor human nature!

"If parts allure us, see! were Nisbet shined, The wisest, brightest, weakest of mankind." But the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and although we know not at present the meaning of this mysterious providence, yet I am fully persuaded that we shall not only know it but rejoice in it hereafter. The funds, pupils, and friends of our College (under this heavy blow) have increased even since Dr. Nisbet's intention of returning has been publicly known. A Dr. Davidson, a man of great worth and considerable learning, has been appointed pro tempore to succeed Dr. Nisbet. Probably he will finally fill the principal's chair for life. We have besides a mathematical master and two teachers of the dead languages and one of English-a Mr. Robt. Tait, formerly of Edinburgh, a man of great piety and well acquainted with his business. We shall thank you for the continuance of your friendship to our library. Dr. Nisbet will hardly sail till next April. If he complains in his letters of any other disorder than the intermitting fever, it must be ascribed wholly to the distraction of his mind produced by his family. We have lately had a fortunate change in the representation of Pennsylvania in favor of the virtue, understanding, and property of the state. Dr. Franklin has succeeded Mr. Dickinson as our [ 374 ]

2

5 OCTOBER 1785

president or governor. We expect under his auspices to have our test laws repealed and perhaps our Constitution amended. The Doctor possesses in the 8oth year of his age the full exercise of all the faculties of his mind. I beg you would present my most respectful compliments to Lady Leven and furnish her with a copy of this letter. 2 Perhaps it would be proper to lay the state of facts related above before Lord Buchan, who from his excellent principles cannot fail of being wounded with the Doctor's conduct. 3 The following is a copy of a declaration drawn up by him and delivered to the trustees for publication. "Carlisle, October 18th, 1785 "The subscriber being apprehensive that the sudden resignation of his office and retreat to Europe may be misinterpreted by the public, especially by those at a distance, thinks it proper to give notice in this manner for the vindication of all concerned that he does not leave his office from any disgust at the present state of the College or from any difference with the trustees, from whom he has received the greatest civilities, but merely because he found that his constitution and time of life render him too weak to bear the heats of this climate, on which account solely he retires to Scotland for the recovery of his health. "Subscribed, Chas. Nisbet" With compliments to Mrs. Erskine and the ladies of your family, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, B: RusH Addressed: The Revd: Dr: John Erskine One of the Ministers of Edinburgh. Capt: Willet. tJI1S: Yale University Library, Franklin Collection. 1 This extract is from a letter of Nisbet's dated I 8 July I 7 85 (Rush

MSS, XLI). 2 The Countess of Leven had advised Nisbet not to come to America, pointing out that BR's "warm and lively temper" rendered him untrustworthy in affairs of this kind and that the project of a college at Carlisle was "at best but an indigested scheme" (Miller, Nisbet, p. Io4, Io9). 3 David Steuart Erskine (I 742I829), IIth Earl of Buchan, a friend of BR's from his student days and of Nisbet's. A noted eccentric, Buchan rode

many hobbies, two of which were Scottish antiquities and the young American nation. He had many American correspondents and frequently threatened (without, apparently, ever seriously meaning it) to leave the degenerate British Isles and live "philosophically" on the American frontier. Contriving to combine two of his passions, in I 79 I he sent the painter Archibald Robertson to paint a portrait of Washington and to present him a box made of wood from the oak that sheltered Sir William Wallace after the battle of Falkirk. For the history of this box, which was

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES afterwards presented-ironically enough -to BR, see a letter to Buchan of 2.2. Oct. 18o6 and note, below. (DNB; R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, Boston, 18z9,

II, 347-8; Reed, Reed, II, 406-7; Luther P. Eisenhart, "Walter Minto and the Earl of Buchan," Amer. Philos. Soc., Procs., XCIV [1950], z8z-94.)

To John Montgomery My dear Sir, Philadelphia, November 28th, 1785 I sincerely congratulate you upon your success in Baltimore. Indeed, my friend, I consider you as a main pillar of our new literary fabric, and however much you may be persecuted during your life, posterity will consider you as the first and greatest benefactor of Cumberland County, and by no means the least benefactor of the whole state. I rejoice to hear that Dr. Davidson has added to the number of his and our friends in Baltimore. His zeal and industry in the service of our institution I hope will not lose their reward. I feel an union of heart with him. Show me a man that loves and serves our College, and he is my brother. After this, I hope I need not tell you that I am not-I cannot be offended at you for anything you have said or can say in your letters. I hear from a variety of reports and private accounts that Tom Nisbet has changed his mind, and that it is probable the Doctor will not return to Scotland. Poor man, I have constantly considered him as insane, his wife as foolish, and his son Tom as worse than both. If he concludes to stay, I take it for granted he will be reelected. We cannot do otherwise without incurring the folly of instability and thereby of resembling himself. I think, as we have a new bargain to make with him, we ought to offer him only £300 a year currency, until the College and his reputation recover from the blow they have both received by his late conduct. When I urge the measure of reelecting 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 Doctor will do his duty and give over whining and complaining, I shall love and serve him as much as if nothing had happened. I find Dr. D. still opposed as a principal. I hope it will not be necessary to appoint him or any other man in this country to our principal's chair. The Reverend Mr. Erwin 1 speaks in very moderate terms of Mr. Smith's abilities and scholarship. He says his brother John of Virginia2 is a man of the first genius in the family. [ 376 ]

28 DECEMBER I 785 The Assembly will not give us more than a few hundred pounds in cash and 6 or 8,ooo acres of land, and we shall have hard work to get a law for these, owing entirely to our deluded Presbyterian brethren in the house opposing the revision of the test law. Several of our Republican friends will oppose us, who, if the Presbyterians would cease from persecution, would vote us two or £J,OOO. They consider a Presbyterian college only as a nest for vipers and Bryans and Ewings to engender in.-Adieu. Yours, &c., BRusH Jddressed: John Montgomery Esqr at Carlisle Mr Blythe. tMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 Benjamin Erwin (d. 18p), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 776; Presbyterian pastor in Rockingham co., Va., I78o-I8o8, and afterwards in Kentucky (Alumni Records, Secretary's Office, Princeton Univ.). 2 John Blair Smith (I756-I799), younger brother of Samuel Stanhope Smith; a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 773 ; succeeded his brother as president of Hampden-Sydney Acad-

emy (later College), I779i leader in the successful fight for religious freedom in Virginia; pastor of the Third or Pine Street Church in Philadelphia, I 79I-I 795, I 799; first president of Union College, I 795-I 799· BR highly praised Smith's character and talents shortly before the latter's death from yellow fever in I 799· (DAB; BR to John Montgomery, 2 I June I 799.)

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, December 28, 1785 I have just now received your favor by Dr. Wilken 1 and have little to add to my former letter by Mr. Creigh. 2 Dr. Smith I believe will not only accept of our chair but be pleased with it. This I have from one of his most intimate friends. His wife lately joked me upon the subject and asked me what her husband had done that we would not choose him to be our principal. I replied, "Certainly, madam, he would not exchange Princeton for Carlisle." "Try him," said she, "He always admired the town and liked the people of Carlisle." By advice of Mr. Wilson, I shall offer Dr. Lettsom's Journals of the House of Commons to our Assembly. They are worth a guinea a volume and amount to 30 volumes. This money will purchase four times the number of more useful and necessary books for a college. If I succeed, we can write the Doctor's name in the books we purchase. 8 The less you say of Dr. D. [Davidson], the better. Let him fill

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what place he will-he will do us honor and be a necessary pillar of our College. You shall hear no more of Dr. Edwards from me, not because I have altered my opinion of him, but because I cannot persuade all of the trustees to think of him as I do. I am sorry to hear such disagreeable accounts of poor Mr. Tate. How unfortunate are we in Scotch speculations! Indeed, my friend, I every day think less and less of our "newly adopted sons of America." They not only want our habits but have violent prejudices against us. I beg of you to get the enclosed memorial in favor of the Bank4 published in your paper. It will help to spread proper notions of justice and wise government through your and the neighboring counties. Our Philosophical Society have lately appointed me to deliver the annual oration before them. Every leisure moment from the duties of my profession is taken up in preparing it. The subject I have chosen for it is "An Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes upon Morals.m This has led me to consider the moral education of youth upon new and mechanical principles. It will be delivered in February, probably in the presence of our Assembly, whom I shall not fail of complimenting for their late donation to our College. Adieu. Yours sincerely, BENJN RusH .Jl ddressed: John Montgomery Esqr: at Carlisle. tMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

Not identified.

2 John Creigh (I74I-I8IJ), of Car-

lisle; member of the Provincial Conference, I 776; member of Assembly, I 7 85; trustee of Dickinson College, I 7 8 8I 8I3, associate judge of Cumberland co. from 1797 (Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle, u, 220-I; Phila. Directory for I 7 8 5 ; Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. I 2). 8 On this affair, see also letters to Montgomery, 20 Feb. I 786, and to

the Trustees, Apr. I 786. 4 Not found. 5 Published as An Oration, Delivered before the American Philosophical Society, Held in Philadelphia on the 27th of February, z786; containing an Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty, Phil a. : Cist, 1786. This was BR's most important philosophical paper and a landmark in the development of psychiatry as a science.

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, February 20, 1786 I received your scolding and friendly letters. 1 Call me fool, madman, turncoat, or Roman Catholic, if you will-! will always call [ 378 ]

20 FEBRUARY

1786

you "a passionately honest man," my friend, and the father and pillar of our College in Cumberland County. What!-not exchange the Journals of the House of Commons for modern history or books on mathematics! Why, my friend, they will not be worth to us their carriage to Carlisle. We had better sell them to a pastry cook and get a neat edition of them cut out in wood. I am sure my friend Dr. Lettsom will thank us for exchanging them, especially if we inscribe his name in the books we procure instead of our own. Remember the effects of your advice when I attempted to procure an apparatus for our College through the friendship of Mr. Hill. He would have advanced the price of it and probably have given it to us afterwards. I now despair of ever seeing such an apparatus as he offered for our College. Poor, poor College, how often hast thou been wounded in the house of thy friends! · It is time to forgive and forget all Dr. Nisbet's failings. But if anybody denies his having complained of our co:untry, you may tell them that he has lately received a severe letter from one of his countrymen to whom he had vented his complaints. This was before he concluded to stay in our country. He now writes in a different style. I have written a long letter2 to him and advised him to accept of £300 for the first year or two till he recovers his former character. I find Mr. King is opposed to his having the old salary. Poor man! I shall always believe that his fever affected his intellects. Hereafter I hope he will realize all the prospects we entertained of his usefulness upon his first arrival. I shall do my utmost to get our £soo raised to £woo by the Assembly. Funded certificates now sell for 7I- and 7I 6 in the pound in this city. If I lived at Carlisle or at Cunecocheague or at Marsh Creek, nothing should induce me to change my mode of worship. But in Philadelphia, where it is equally pious to renounce the devil and Dr. Rush among the Presbyterians, I cannot think it my duty to continue among them. I disturb their devotion every Sunday, and they will neither accept of forgiveness nor of services from me. There are not more than 10 Presbyterian families that employ me, and most of them pass me without speaking to me in the streets. You wonder at my leaving the Old Side church. It was because I detected the father of the Old Side party, Dr. Ewing, in lying, drunkenness, and profane conversation, and afterwards found him

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supported by Old Side Presbyterians and New Side Skunks in every part of the state. I shall not, for I cannot, change my principles, and I shall ever respect the worthy and liberal-minded gentlemen of your country and with whom I have been connected. Compliments to Dr. Davidson. I dare not write you all my reasons for opposing his election to our chair. When I see you, I shall tell you them. He has not a better friend nor a warmer advocate in all companies in our board, nor in our city, than yours sincerely, BRusH .Addressed: John Montgomery Esqr at Carlisle. favd by Mr Buchannan. 3 &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

These letters are missing. Also missing. 3 Doubtless James Buchanan, Sr. (d. I 8 2 I), father of the President, a ScotchIrish immigrant who kept a store near and later in Mercersburg, Franklin co.; 2

President James Buchanan was a graduate of Dickinson College, I809 (George T. Curtis, Life of James Buchanan, N.Y., I 883, 1, 1-2; DAB, under the younger Buchanan).

To the Trustees of Dickinson College Gentlemen, Philadelphia, [April] 1786 I lament that the state of my health will not permit me to meet you on the 2nd Tuesday of May agreeably to my wishes. I hope you will indulge me therefore in laying before you a few things in the form of a letter relative to the institution committed to our care. I have sent to Mr. Laird1 an account of the interest money received by me for several years. The certificates on which I drew an interest this year amount to £322s. Besides these I have two certificates amounting to 1041 dollars, on which I expect to draw an interest as soon as I can get it exchanged at the Continental treasury in New York, and 200 which do not belong to this state. Besides these certificates, there are £7s7-10 yet to be collected in Philadelphia, £64 S of which are in good hands, as also So dollars in specie. Our interest hereafter (happily for us) will be drawn every half year. As soon as all the sums subscribed are collected, I shall send the subscription papers to Carlisle. I hope the board will approve of my having laid out the £sao given to us by the Assembly in certificates. It purchased £1 sao with two years and an half interest due on them, £90-o-o of which I received a few days after I purchased them. I wish all the cash we can collect and spare from [ 380 ]

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our building could be applied in the same way. The opportunity of increasing our funds by this speculation will not last probably more than a year or two longer. There never was any danger from speculating in our funds. At present to suspect them, when the object of our speculations is the public good, is to distrust not only government but divine Providence. I hope it will not be necessary to use any arguments to dissuade the board from sinking their funds by purchasing at present the public works. Our professors, I trust, possess so much public spirit as to be willing to teach in the schoolhouse for a few years till the value of our lands will enable us to purchase or build a large and splendid house for that purpose. Let us imitate the German economy in settling a farm by building a barn before a dwelling house. Let our funds be our barn, out of which, if they are managed properly, a college and houses of all kinds will grow in the course of a few years. 2 As the credit and increase of our College will depend upon the healthiness of the town of Carlisle, I must be excused for bearing a testimony once more against the stagnating waters in the neighborhood of the town. Unless that source of contagion and disease can be removed this year, I fear our College must sink or be removed to Chamberstown or Shippensburgh. I conceive an attention to this business one of the most important objects that will come before the board at their present meeting. A philosophical apparatus is indispensably necessary immediately for our College. Part of it may be made at a moderate price in this city. Unless this apparatus is procured in the first establishment of our College, it will probably not be procured these fifty years. It will soon be considered as a species of luxury in philosophy, especially when it is found that we can manufacture bachelors of arts, as has been done in other American colleges, without one. Gentlemen who have been taught philosophy by these instruments have the same opinion of attempts to teach boys to prophesy as they have of the custom of teaching young men natural philosophy without the aid of an apparatus. Mr. Dickinson informs me that no notice was taken at the last meeting of the board of his late donation of a farm to the College near the town of Carlisle. I hope the board will not fail of voting him their thanks for it. I take it for granted that proper notice will be taken of Dr. Davidson for taking charge of the College upon the abdication of Dr. Nesbit and thereby preventing that measure from proving fatal to the institution. His disinterestedness in accepting of the appointment [ 381 ]

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without any stipulation for his pay, his sympathy with our struggling funds, and his uncommon industry, zeal, and prudence in discharging all the duties of his station entitle him not only to a just reward but to the thanks of the board. As our treasury is now empty, suppose we give the Doctor an obligation payable to him with interest for the salary that is now due to him. His regard for the advancement of learning and religion I presume will render this measure satisfactory to him. Let us not be afraid of a little debt. Our lands will soon not only extricate us from debt but prove a source of immense revenue to us. One half of them will be obtained on the east branch of the Susquehannah and the other half on the waters of the Allegany agreeably to Mr. Montgomery's request. I have purchased upon credit, by the advice of Mr. Montgomery and at the request of some of our professors, the Encyclopaeidia Britanica-an invaluable work in 12 volumes-, as also a few books upon mathematics for the use of the College. The price of them all is £32-15. To enable me to pay part of this money I have only to request that 'the board would please to pass a vote to empower me to sell 30 volumes of the Journals of the House of Commons which were sent to my care for the College last fall by a physician in London. They may be useful in the State house library, but it would distress me to hear that a student of Dickinson College had ever wasted half an hour in examining even their title pages. He would find nothing in them but such things as a scholar and a gentleman should strive to forget. 8 The Reverend Mr. Jones, who is now settled in Carlisle, has a high character in this place for reading and speaking the English language correctly and agreeably. Should the trustees think proper to honor him with a professorship of oratory, I am persuaded it might tend to draw pupils from this city. I dare say he would be contented with a salary not exceeding £40 or £so per annum if his business were confined only to teaching our boys to read and to speak well. One day in the week appropriated for this purpose would be sufficient. As the product of our funds will not be equal to the expenses of the current year, I wish a subscription upon loan could be opened among the trustees. This is the last year perhaps that such an exertion will be necessary. It is rendered so I believe only by the unfortunate consequences of Dr. Nesbit's determination last fall to return to Scotland. This measure will not cease to operate upon the funds and character of our College till the parents and guardians [ 382 ]

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of children have witnessed the effects of another summer upon the Doctor's temper and constitution. I beg leave to propose that a member of the board be appointed to draw up before the next meeting of the trustees a short history of the rise and progress of our College, a copy of our charter and of our plan of education, a list of the contributors to our College, and an account of our professors, library, &c. This should be printed in two or three sheets of paper and distributed gratis by hundreds through every part of this and the western divisions of the southern states. I believe no man in the board to be better qualified for this undertaking than the Reverend Mr. King. I beg leave to conclude this letter by reminding the board of the great objects of the institution committed to our care. It was intended not to create but to destroy party spirit, both civil and ecclesiastical. It was further intended as a nursery for religion and patriotism as well as for human learning. Should any measure be adopted contrary to these views, the design of the College will be frustrated, and the blessing of heaven will justly be forfeited upon

it. The difficulties in the establishment of our College are now nearly at an end. We have passed the Red Sea and the wilderness. A few of us it is true have been bitten by fiery serpents in the way, but the consciousness of pure intentions has soon healed our wounds. We have now nothing but the shallow waters of Jordan before us. One more bold exertion will conduct us in safety and triumph to the great objects of our hopes and wishes. With the greatest respect I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant, BENJN: RuSH .;[ddressed: For the Trustees of Dickinson College at Carlisle.

&S (partly in BR's hand, partly in another hand but with insertions throughout by BR): Henry E. Huntington Library. 1 Probably Samuel Laird, who served as secretary to the board of trustees, 1784-1790, and became a trustee in 1794, serving until 1807; a Samuel Laird, perhaps the same person, was sheriff of Cumberland co., 1771-1773, and presided over the court of common pleas, 17 84-17 86 (Dickinson College, Alumni Record, p. 12; information from Professor Whitfield J. Bell, Jr., Dickinson College) . 2 Nisbet had been strongly urging the

acquisition of the Works in recent letters to BR, for the grammar school building was hopelessly inadequate: "To erect a College in the Corner of a Grammar School is a Scheme that never was thought of in any other Age or Place of the World" (Nisbet to BR, 30 Jan. 1786, Rush MSS, XLI). 3 BR did not have his way in this affair, for the Commons Journals sent by Lettsom are still in the Dickinson College Library.

To John Dickinson Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April 14th, 1786 Give me leave to request your acceptance of the enclosed pamphlets and to congratulate you upon the l~te endowments of your College by our legislature. The £soo in cash given by the State has been laid out in certificates from which we shall draw £90 immediately and the same sum annually. The IO,ooo acres of land will be taken up on the East branch of Susquehannah by Mr. Maclay1 and will probably sell in seven years for £15000. The trustees were divided upon the propriety of reelecting Dr. Nisbet, especially if his old salary was to be paid to him. To secure his reelection, I advised him to accept for one year of something less. This has given him great offense, and he has complained of me to Dr. Wetherspoon and Mr. Hill in very indelicate terms. Considering what a blow his resignation was to all our hopes and prospects, and that we still hold him by the precarious tenure of his wife's caprice, I think he should have showed some sympathy with us by offering to serve at a reduced salary till he had recovered the College and his own character to the state they were in i:n July 1785. But I find he is wholly interested and that health, life, and salary are his first objects-nor is this all. From the great partiality the Constitutionalists have lately discovered to him and from his imbibing prejudices against me, I fear he is throwing himself into their hands. Mr. Smiley2 introduced a motion into the Assembly a few days ago for granting him a 1000 acres of land. It surprised the Republican party, not one of whom ever heard a word of it before. It was intended to detach him from us by creating a new set of obligations. But in this they were disappointed, for the motion was almost unanimously rejected. I give you credit for your prediction. You always said the Constitutionalists would get our College into their hands. It belongs to them to oppose, overset, or steal every valuable institution. I shall not be dissatisfied if it enlightens and reforms them. I regret only the consequences of Dr. Nisbet's joining them in their present low state of virtue, for no man can be of their party and preserve his integrity. You will excuse bad writing when I tell you that I am just recovering from an attack of a fever. My dear Mrs. Rush has lately added another boy to our family. 3 She joins in respectful compliments to Mrs. Dickinson and Miss [ 384 ]

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Sallt with, my dear sir, your sincere old friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH P.S. The revenue to our College from the funded certificates amounts to £225, and if they were all collected will amount to £300. I have lately received several boxes of valuable books from London for the College. Our library consists at present of 2700 volumes. &S: Dickinson College Library. 1 Either William (1734-18o4) or Samuel (174I-I811) Maclay, the two brothers of Franklin co. who had markedly parallel careers as surveyors, land-promoters, members of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and as supporters of Jefferson in Congress. Both were on friendly terms with BR, though William, as BR told John Adams, was "one of my early and most intimate friends. He is a scholar, a philosopher, and a statesman." During the first two sessions of the First Congress, 17891790, Senator William Maclay and BR were in very close touch; unhappily BR's side of the correspondence has disappeared entirely, and the long and important series of Maclay's letters to BR was broken up and scattered in the sales of the Biddle Papers in 1943. (DAB, under both Samuel and William; BR to John Adams, 22 Jan. 1789; Biddle Papers, pt. i-iii.) 2 John Smiley, or Smilie (1742I 8 I 3) , born in Ireland, had been an ardent patriot and served as a private in the Lancaster associators; he now represented Westmoreland co. and was

to represent Fayette co. from I 7 86 to 17 89 on the supreme executive council; opposed the Federal Constitution in the state ratifying convention of I 78 7; member of Congress, 1798-I813 (McMaster and Stone, Penna. and the Federal Constitution, p. 752-3). 3 James Rush, born 15 Mch. 1786. He was sent to the College of New Jersey, graduating in 1805; M.D., University of Pennsylvania, I 809; studied further at Edinburgh and London; inherited his father's practice, for which BR had carefully groomed him. He inherited also the principal share of his father's estate, including the papers now known as the Rush MSS. James practised for a time but grew more interested in his researches on the voice (his Philosophy of the Human Voice, Phila., 182 7, was long a standard treatise) , married a very rich wife, Phoebe Ridgway, and, dying in 1869, left his estate to the Library Company of Philadelphia. (DAB; Introduction, p. lxii-lxiii.) 4 Sally Norris (177I-I855), daughter of John Dickinson, died unmarried (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 64).

To Richard Price Dear Sir, Philadelphia, 22nd April, I 786 I am very happy in being able to inform you that the test law was so far repealed a few weeks ago in Pennsylvania as to confer equal privileges upon every citizen of the state. The success of the friends of humanity in this business should encourage them to persevere in their attempts to enlighten and reform the world. [ 385 ]

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Your letter to me upon the subject of that unjust law was the instrument that cut its last sinew. 1 The States have almost generally appointed a Convention to sit next September at Annapolis for the sole purpose of conferring upon Congress additional powers, especially for the purpose of regulating our trade. 2 Republics are slow in discovering their interest, but when once they find it out they pursue it with vigor and perseverance. Nothing can be done by our public bodies till they can carry the people along with them, and as the means of propagating intelligence and knowledge in our country are as yet but scanty, all their movements are marked with appearances of delay and procrastination. To remedy these inconveniences, colleges, newspapers, and posts are establishing in all our states. I have thrown my mite into these necessary undertakings by publishing a small tract containing a plan for the diffusion of knowledge and a few thoughts upon the education proper for a republic, a copy of which I have sent for you directed 'to the care of Mr. Granville Sharp. 3 I have requested Mr. Dilly to send you a copy of an oration which I had the honor to deliver before our Philosophical Society last winter "Upon the Influence of Physical Causes upon the Moral Faculty." It has had a quick sale and an extensive circulation in this country. As it contains some new opinions in religion and morals, as well as in physic, it will stand in need of the protection of my friends in London to preserve it from the rage of criticism. If political prejudice blends itself with literature, I shall find no mercy from British reviewers. I have avoided everything that could awaken an idea of the folly of Great Britain in the late war. In science of every kind men should consider themselves as citizens of the whole world. The oration is dedicated to our great and good friend Dr. Franklin. 4 A volume of Transactions will be published by our Society in the course of a few weeks. 5 It will contain many useful essays, particularly two long ones by Dr. Franklin, one on chimneys, the other on the means of lessening the evils and dang[ers of] 6 navigation, both written on his late [journey] from Europe to America. Continue, my dear sir, to love, to def[end, and] to enlighten the United States. We sh[all not] disappoint nor disgrace you. The vi[gorous] good sense and the property of our count[ry are] coming forth daily and seizing upon power and offices. The scum which was thrown upon the surface by the fermentation of the war is daily sinking, while a pure spirit is occupying its place. Please to communicate these facts to Mr. Adams, who I know from his [ 386 ]

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perfect knowledge of human nature and of our country will be prepared to believe them. Yours sincerely, B: RusH P.S. I am sorry to perceive by my letter to you dated October rs, 1785, and printed in all your papers, that you have in your note mistaken my account of the alterations in the articles, liturgy, &c., of the Episcopal Church in the middle and southern states. Their Articles are still Calvanistical, and they hold no union in principle with the new sect of Episcopalians in Boston. I wish this matter could be rectified in your papers, but without my name. 1 The Socinian tenets are confined to a few people. I do not find that the spirit of inquiry that has broken out in religion has among any sects, except one in Boston, invaded the doctrine of the Trinity. Printed: Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2d series, xvn

(1903), 34-1-2. 1 The influence of President Franklin was also important. The law revising the test act was passed 4 Mch. I786; see Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. I 79-8 I. 2 The Annapolis Convention met on I I Sep. q86 for the purpose of improving commercial relations among the states. Since only five states were represented, the Convention adjourned on I4 Sep. without performing any business except to issue a recommendation that the states should appoint delegates to meet in Philadelphia the following May to devise means of rendering "the constitution of the Frederal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union" (DAH; Charles C. Tansill, comp., Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States, Washington, I92.7, p. 39-43). 3 The tract alluded to is A Plan for the Establishment of Public Schools and the Diffusion of Knowledge in Pennsylvania; To Which Are Added Thoughts upon the Mode of Education, Proper in a Republic. Addressed to the Legislature and Citizens of the State, Phila.: Dobson, I786. It appeared anonymously. The second part was originally written for presentation at the

meeting of the board of Dickinson College in Apr. I 7 84. One of BR's English friends sent extracts from "This small, but important, publication" to the Gentleman's Magazine; see LVI (I786), pt. ii, p. 77 5-9. The two pieces were reprinted as the first and second items in BR's Essays, I798. 4 Franklin had requested BR to omit "that most extravagant encomium on your friend Franklin" (which was in the oration as read on 2.7 Feb.) when the oration was published. With some reluctance, BR complied, first sending Franklin the text of the dedication for approval. (Franklin to BR, Mch. I 786, and BR to Franklin, I I Mch. I 7 86, in Franklin, Writings, IX, 494, and note; also BR to Franklin, 3 Mch. I 7 86, in Amer. Philos. Soc., Franklin Papers.) 5 Volume II of the first series of the American Philosophical Society's Transactions. 6 The brackets here and below are in the printed text. 1 For BR's role in the organization of the Protestant Episcopal Church, see also a letter to Granville Sharp, undated but probably written in May I 786, of which an extract appears in Prince Hoare's Memoirs of Granville Sharp, Esq., London, I8zo, p. 2.2.8,

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES with Sharp's comment. The "new sect of Episcopalians in Boston" refers to the Unitarian movement which began at King's Chapel in r 785; see Charles

C. Tiffany, A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, N.Y., r895, p. 368-g.

To Richard Price Philadelphia, May 25th, 1786 Dear Sir, My last letter to you by Capt. Kennadyt contained an account of an intended Convention of the States to assemble at Annapolis in Maryland next September for the purpose of agreeing upon certain commercial regulations and of suggesting such alterations in the Confederation as will give more extensive and coercive powers to Congress. We entertain the most flattering hopes from this Convention, especially as an opinion seems to have pervaded all classes of people that an increase of power in Congress is absolutely necessary for our safety and independence. Most of the distresses of our country, and of the mistakes which Europeans have formed of us, have arisen from a belief that the American Revolution is over. This is so far from being the case that we have only finished the first act of the great drama. We have changed our forms of government, but it remains yet to effect a revolution in our principles, opinions, and manners so as to accommodate them to the forms of government we have adopted. This is the most difficult part of the business of the patriots and legislators of our country. It requires more wisdom and fortitude than to expel or to reduce armies into captivity. I wish to see this idea inculcated by your pen. Call upon the rulers of our country to lay the foundations of their empire in knowledge as well as virtue. Let our common people be compelled by law to give their children (what is commonly called) a good English education. Let schoolmasters of every description be supported in part by the public, and let their principles and morals be subjected to examination before we employ them. Let us have colleges in each of the states, and one federal university under the patronage of Congress, where the youth of all the states may be melted (as it were) together into one mass of citizens after they have acquired the first principles of knowledge in the colleges of their respective states. 2 Let the law of nature and nations, the common law of our country, the different systems of government, history, and everything else connected with the advancement of republican knowledge and principles, be taught by able professors in this university. This plan of general education alone will render [ 388 ]

25 MAY 1786 the American Revolution a blessing to mankind. As you have staked your reputation upon this great event, with the world and with posterity, you must not desert us till you see the curtain drop and the last act of the drama closed. A small pamphlet addressed by you to the Congress and the legislature of each of the states, upon this subject, I am sure would have more weight with our rulers than an hundred publications thrown out by the citizens of this country. It will only be necessary in this pamphlet to be wholly silent upon those subjects in Christianity which now so much divide and agitate the Christian world. The wisest plan of education that could be offered would be unpopular among 99 out of an 100 of the citizens of America if it opposed in any degree the doctrine of the Trinity. Some of the members of the reformed Episcopal Church in the middle and southern states complained of the note you published with my letter in the English newspapers. 3 It has injured them in the opinion of some of the English clergy. You will perceive from their prayer book that their Articles, though reduced in number, are equally Calvanistical with the Articles of the old English Church. It is with singular pleasure that I inform you that public and private credit are reviving everywhere and that laws are gradually coming into force to compel the payment of old English debts. Whoever considers the effects of war upon morals in all countries, and then adds to these the effects of a sudden, total, and universal dissolution of all government, such as took place in America during the late war, will not be surprised at any of the events that have happened or at the laws that have been passed since the peace. It requires less charity than good sense to make proper allowances for all the vices of our country. The letters written by Dr. Nisbet to his friends soon after his arrival in America, from which so many extracts have been published in the Scotch papers, were written under a deranged state of mind occasioned by a fever which fixed itself upon his brain. The Doctor has since perfectly recovered his health and reason, has been reinstated in the College, and is now perfectly satisfied with our country. Our venerable friend Dr. Franklin continues to enjoy as much health and spirits as are compatible with his time of iife. I dined with him a few days ago in a most agreeable circle, where he appeared as cheerful and gay as a young man of five-and-twenty. But his conversation was full of the wisdom and experience of mellow old age. He has destroyed party rage in our state, or to borrow [ 389 ]

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an allusion from one of his discoveries, his presence and advice, like oil upon troubled waters, have composed the contending waves of faction which for so many years agitated the State of Pennsylvama. I beg my most respectful compliments to Mr. Adams, with whom I am happy to find you live upon the most intimate terms. Should you conclude that the publication of any part of the intelligence contained in this letter will serve our country, you are at liberty to make that use of it, but I must request that you will not give my name to the public with it. With the greatest respect, I am, my dear sir, your sincere friend and most humble servant, BENJN RusH P.S. Most of the complaints against our country which are published in your papers come from British agents, or from a set of men who have settled among us since the peace who want either virtue or abilities to maintain themselves and who would have been poor and unhappy in any country. Printed: Massachusetts Historical Society; Proceedings, zd series,

XVII

(I 903), 34-2-4-. 1

Not further identified. This was a favorite idea of BR's, set forth publicly in his "Address to the People of the United States. . . . On the Defects of the Confederation," Amer. Museum, 1, 8-II (Jan. I787), which was reprinted in H. Niles, Principles and Acts of the Revolution, Balti2

more, I 822, p. 402-4, and frequently later. BR elaborated his proposal, under the title "Plan of a Federal University," in a newspaper communication of 29 Oct. I 788, q.v., below. s BR refers to his letter of 15 Oct. 1785, q.v.; Price's theology was Unitarian.

To John Coakley Lettsom Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 2d, 1786 Give me leave to solicit the continuance of your friendship in an affair of some consequence to myself. My countrymen have applied to me to publish a volume of essays. These essays consist chiefly of old and some new tracts upon medicine. I have submitted to their advice, provided I can get them published in London under your inspection. I know not how they will be received in Britain, but I am sure they will have a ready sale and general circulation in America. The title of these essays [ 390 ]

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will be "Essays physical and literary by Benjn. Rush, &c., &c." The following subjects will be included in them:1 I. An Enquiry into the Diseases of the Indians in N. America with a comparative view of their diseases and remedies with those of civilized nations in an oration delivered before the American philosophical Society. 2. An account of the different Species of the Angina trachealis. 3· An Enquiry into the causes of the encrease of bilious andremitting fevers in Pennsylvania. 4· Observations on the cause and cure of the Tetanus. 5. An Account of Dr. Martin's Cancer powder, with brief remarks on the cure of cancers. 6. A new Method of curing obstinate Intermittents. 7· An Account of the Scarlatina Anginosa as it appeared in Philadelphia in I783. 8. An Account of a bilious Fever that appeared in Philadelphia in 1780 attended with some new and peculiar Symptoms. 9· Experiments and observations on worms and worm medicines. IO. Remarks Physical and Metaphysical on the life of Edward Drinker, a citizen of Philadelphia who died in the IOJd year of his age. I I. An Enquiry into the effects of spirituous liquors on the human body, and their influence on the happiness of Society. I 2. Observations on the cause and cure of the sudden disease brought on by drinking cold water in hot weather. IJ. An enquiry into the influence of physical causes on the moral faculty. An Oration, &c. 14· A new method of curing consumptions, with an enquiry into the cause of their encrease in America. I 5. Experiments, &c., on Digestion. I 6. Brief remarks on Camp diseases in America, &c. This is a table of the contents of the proposed volume. To you, sir, I commit my reputation in superintending the press 2 and in making a bargain with a bookseller in order to bring it into the world. If I am paid according to the trouble I have had in collecting and arranging the materials of these essays, you will dispose of them to advantage. But if their author's merit is to decide their price, I fear they will be dull sale. 8 But I trust you will do your best for me. If you find a backwardness in the booksellers in offering you cash for the copyright, you may offer to take a good price for it in books such as I shall choose. [ 391

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In the whole of this business I have full confidence in your friendship, prudence, and knowledge of the world. The Essays shall be prepared for the press and sent to London by Captain Willet or some other safe hand next fall.-Adieu. Yours sincerely, BENJN: RusH /MS (letter-book copy, not in BR's hand): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 1. 1 The titles are preserved exactly as written by the copyist, who was an erratic workman. Most of the articles listed appeared in the unnumbered first volume of BR's Medical Inquiries and Observations, Phila., I 789, but with altered titles.

2 This is apparently what the copyist wrote, though the word is a scrawl. BR elsewhere uses the term "press" as an equivalent for "printing" (to James Rush, 4 Sep. I8o9). 3 Thus in MS.

To William Cullen Philadelphia, June q, 1786 Dear Sir, The bearer, Mr. Benjn. Barton/ has studied physic for several years in our University with industry and success. The relish we have given him for your discoveries has determined him to pursue the stream to its fountain in Edinburgh. He wishes moreover to graduate in your University, where (unfortunately for all the other universities in the world) degrees have a kind of exclusive preeminence. It would confer a singular favor upon Mr. Barton if you would admit him to the honors of the College after one year's residence. His class will be admitted to degrees this year in our University, and nothing but his preference of a diploma from Edin [burgh to] one from us prevented his sharing with them in the honors of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Barton is a nephew of the celebrated Mr. Rittenhouse, our great American astronomer, and possesses such abilities, joined with a thirst for knowledge, as render him worthy of that connection. With great respect I have the honor to be, dear sir, your affectionate pupil and most humble servant, BENJN RusH Addressed: Dr: William Cullen Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. Mr Barton. /MS: Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Cullen MSS. 1 Benjamin Smith Barton (I766I 8 I 5), a nephew of David Rittenhouse,

after studying at York and Philadelphia, continued his medical and scientific

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18 JUNE 1786 training at Edinburgh, London, and Gottingen, graduating M.D. from the last-named university, 1789; from 1790 until his death he held a succession of chairs in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, succeeding BR in the chair of theory and practice, I 8 I 3. Barton wrote on many scientific

subjects but achieved greatest eminence in botany (DAB). He and his former teacher BR were more than once at odds with each other in later years, the basic reason for their antipathy being suggested in a letter from BR to John Redman Coxe, 28 Apr. 1796, q.v.

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June I 8th, 1786 How is it, my friend? Is it peculiar to Scotchmen and heads of colleges to be sordid and arbitrary? How melancholy the consideration that Smith and Ewing, Wetherspoon and Nisbet should all be so much alike in those two qualities! In consequence of Dr. Nisbet having applied to Mr. Hill to make up the dispute between us, I have written him a friendly letter1 in which I have forgiven him all the unkind, unjust, and cruel charges he has brought against me. General Armstrong put one of my private letters to him into his hands. This (though not a friendly act in the General) has produced a reconciliation between us; the letter contained some harsh epithets of the Doctor. You see from this fact that he can be governed only by treating him as he treats other people. This is the nature of most Scotchmen. I have advised the Doctor to be more cautious in complaining of the trustees and of the "sickly" and "dirty" town of Carlisle in his letters to his friends. It is a sorry bird that betrays its own nest. He will soon ruin our College, as he has done his own reputation, by such mad and imprudent conduct. His letters which are printed in the English papers give a dismal account of this country. They neither show his gratitude nor good sense. I have endeavored to overset them by informing all his friends in Scotland that he was out of his senses when he wrote them. The warm weather and an excursion to New Jersey have perfectly restored my health.--Adieu. Yours sincerely,

B: RusH iMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1

Not found.

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1

To James Beattie

Philadelphia, 1st August 1786 The American Revolution, which divided the British Empire, made no breach in the republic of letters. As a proof of this, a stranger to your person and a citizen of a country lately hostile to yours has expressed his obligations to you for the knowledge and pleasure he has derived from your excellent writings by procuring your admission into the American Philosophical Society, a certificate of which, subscribed by our illustrious president, Dr. Franklin, and the other officers of the Society, you will receive by the next vessel that sails to any port in North-Britain from this city. The stranger alluded to finished his studies in medicine in Edinburgh in the year I 769 and has ever since taught chemistry and medicine in the College of Philadelphia. His name (with the greatest respect for yours) is BENJAMIN RusH Printed: Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., zd edn., Edinburgh, 1807, n, 394-· 1 Rev. James Beattie (r73s-r8o3), professor of moral philosophy at Marischal College, Aberdeen, from 176o; author of philosophical and theological treatises and remembered in literary history for his popular romantic poem The Minstrel, I 770-1 774· BR several times avowed great admiration for Beattie's philosophical works, which he considered as satisfactory refutations of

H ume's sceptical doctrines; and "Beattie on Truth" is the spine title of one of the books in the Charles Willson Peale portrait of BR. Beattie acknowledged with warm appreciation BR's letter and the "very great honour" done him by the Philosophical Society. (DNB; Beattie to BR, 12. Dec. 1786, PMHB, LXX: [1946], 97-8.)

To Mrs. Rush Philadelphia, August 23, 1786 My best beloved, 1 I gave Mr. Baynton a letter for you on Monday, but an accident having detained him till tomorrow gives me another opportunity of writing to you. I refer you to Dr. Hall for a particular account of his success with Miss H. and her father. 2 I think it probable from present appearances that they will be settled as man and wife next spring. The Doctor is in high spirits. I continue to devote a great deal of my time to the boys. They ride with me in all my excursions. John has accompanied me three [ 394

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23 AUGUST 1786 times in my visits to the different wards of the Hospital. He stood by me and saw a painful and bloody operation performed a few days ago without an emotion. This morning he went with me into the cell of a young woman once handsome and of a respectable family. She was chained to the floor. Upon seeing a potato in John's hand which the steward of the Hospital had given him, she asked him for it and accompanied her request with tears. John advanced at once and gave it to her. She instantly filled her mouth with the whole of it, and for half a minute it seemed as if it would have choked her. John viewed her as if he had been petrified. But he soon recovered his speech after we had got into the chair. He asked me what was the cause of madness, and in particular what was the cause of the poor woman's madness whom we had just seen, and further whether it was possible to cure it, how long the disease continued, and whether people ever died with it. These were his very words. I told him after answering all his questions that he seemed devoted to physic. "Yes," said he, "I will be nothing but a doctor." I have great pleasure in his conversation upon many subjects. With a vivacity bordering upon folly, he seems to possess a solid and correct judgment. His memory is almost without [ .... ] 3 Miss Juliana Turner4 speaks in high terms of your sisters and with great pleasure of little Mary. I have just returned from dining with Mr. Bingham. Dr. Hall and his father-in-law were of the party. Mrs. Bingham asked very kindly after you. The dinner was plentiful and elegant, and the company very agreeable. 5 With love to all the family of Morven, I am, my dearest Julia, yours, BRuSH P.S. The enclosed funeral sermon has been admired. 6 Addressed: Mrs: Julia Rush at Morven near Princeton Mr Baynton. &S: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. 1

Peter Baynton, of a well-known mercantile family, had acted as "comptroller for the General Post Office" in I 7 8o. The Rush and Baynton families were friendly neighbors. (Barratt, Old St. Paul's, p. 30, note; lour. Cont. Gong., XVIJ, 55 3; Phila. Directory for I 78 5 ; BR to Mrs. Rush, 5-6 Sep. I 793.) 2 James Hall, BR's partner at this time, subsequently married Eleanor, daughter of Col. Thomas Hartley of

York (W. C. Carter and A. J. Glossbrenner, History of York County, York, I 8 34, "Biographical Sketches," p. 7). 3 MS torn; one or two words missing. 4 Not further identified. 5 The most active and, it was frequently said, the most beautiful hostess of Philadelphia at this period, was Anne Willing Bingham (I 764-I 8oi). Recently returned from Europe, the Binghams were building the great

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES house at Third and Spruce Streets which was to become famous during the era of "the Republican Court." (DAll 1 under both Binghams; Thompson Westcott, Historic Mansions and Buildings of

Philadelphia, Phila., 1877, p. 337-49; Rufus W. Griswold, The Republican Court, N.Y., 1856, p. 253-7• and passim.) 6 Not identified.

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia,

Philadelphia, August 27, 1786 P.S. I have just now received your letter by Mr. Green. 2 You will please to read the enclosed letters according to their numbers. I am afraid to give James any physic till the warm weather is over lest we should bring on the usual disease of the season. Colonel Hartley's present will bear naming-nay more, its name is a decent one. It has no connection with a bed. It is equally the source of elegance and idleness to a lady. It may be used in any room of a house. It is composed of wood and was manufactured in France. . Dr. Hall, who loves to tease, will not In a word, it is a permit me to mention it. 3 1

.Addressed: Mrs: Julia Rush at Morven Princeton The Revd Mr Green. tJI.!S (unsigned): Mr. and Mrs. J. William Middendorf, Jr., Ruxton, Mary-

land. 1 Though called a postscript, this was actually a separate letter transmitting two or more others, not found. 2 Doubtless Ashbel Green, on whom see BR to Green, 11 Aug. 1787.

8 The most plausible guess that has been suggested to the editor is a fan; but readers are free to make their own guesses.

To the Trustees of Dickinson Collegel Philadelphia, October 21st, q86 Gentlemen, The peculiar situation of my business not permitting me to attend your meeting next month, I have taken the liberty of addressing a few lines to you upon the affairs of the College of Carlisle. I beg in the first place to renew my testimony against repairing or occupying the public works in the neighborhood of the town for a college. From the fullest information of the nature of the titles to those buildings, and from the price which would be demanded for them if a title could be made to them, I am persuaded that an attempt to procure or improve them for a college would end in the total annihilation of our funds. A more convenient and elegant building may be erected a few years hence at the west end [ 396 ]

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of the town, and for one half the money that it would take only to repair the public works. The credit of our College will not be impaired by our professors' teaching for a few years in the schoolhouse which is at present occupied by them. The foundation of the reputation of the College of Princeton was laid in a private room at New Ark by that great man of God, the Reverend Mr. Burr. 2 The University of Edinburgh, now the first in fame in the world, resembles more a pile of old stables than a Temple of Science. It is said that before the time of the Emperor Constantine the churches had wooden pulpits but golden ministers, but after he took Christianity under his protection, the churches had golden pulpits but wooden ministers. The same may be said of literary institutions. If we have golden professors, the frugal size and humble appearance of our College will not prevent its growth or in jure its reputation for solid and useful learning. I was much surprised at hearing that the plan of education agreed to by the trustees in August 1785 has not been adopted by the professors of the College, and that the boys were left without any fixed rules for their government. In consequence of this, I have heard with great distress that some instances of irregular conduct in the young gentlemen have passed with impunity. I hope I need not point out the necessity of redressing these evils as speedily as possible. For this purpose I beg leave to recommend that the trustees would exercise a watchful eye over their own authority, and that they would divide the government of the College among every branch of the faculty agreeably to the spirit and letter of our charter. Unless this be the case, the dignity and usefulness of our teachers will be lessened and destroyed, and the republican constitution of the College will be reduced to the despotism of a private school. When our professors cease to be qualified to share in the power of the College, it will be proper to dismiss them, for government and instruction are inseparably connected. I hope the trustees will not rise therefore till they see government in full force and the just authority of each of the professors established in the College. The plan of education I believe is capable of some improvement, but this must be suggested by time and experience. In its present form I am persuaded it is best accommodated to the habits, prejudices, and present state of society in America. I am sorry to inform the board that my success in collecting the residue of our subscriptions has not been equal to my expectations. In consequence of an assurance made to me last spring that I should receive a year's interest on our certificates this month, I took the

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liberty of purchasing some philosophical instruments. Unfortunately for us, the state of the public treasury did not admit of Mr. Rittenhouse's3 paying more than half a year's interest on our certificates, the amount of which was £104.15.6, £67.3.6 of which I sent to Mr. Montgomery in an order on Mr. Duncan; the remainder I have appropriated to pay for part of the instruments. The deficient sum I hope to collect from two or three cash subscriptions due from the City of Philadelphia. I hope the board will excuse this wellmeant endeavor to advance the interest of our College. I know too well the wants and complaints of our teachers from the deficiency of their salaries, but when you reflect how much eclat a philosophical apparatus will give our College abroad, and how much it will render the study of natural philosophy easy and delightful to our young men, I flatter myself that I shall be forgiven for this mistaken speculation in the funds of our College. It shall be the last of the kind I shall ever venture upon without your permission. In consequence of this diminution of our revenue, and of the severe check our College received by Doctor Nesbit's resignation, which has deprived us of the resources we expected from a greater number of pupils, some exertions will be necessary to pay our principal's salary. For this purpose give me leave to recommend that a subscription be opened immediately among the trustees for a loan of cash to be repaid with interest as soon as our lands acquire such a value as to enable us to sell them to advantage. Although I neither consented to Doctor Nesbit's reappointment nor his present salary (for I then foresaw and predicted our present inability to pay it), yet I will not be deficient in bearing my full proportion of the deficient sum. Our honor, nay more the honor of our state, are concerned in making good our engagements with our teachers. If there should be any deficiency of patience or self-denial in any of them, let it be supplied out of the stock of the public spirit of the trustees. Let us reflect that we are doing infinitely less for our posterity by such sacrifices than our ancestors did for us, and that without their sacrifices we should never have known the inestimable advantages of religion and learning. It has pleased God to call us into existence at an important era. In such eras great men have been formed, and good men have delighted to live. Let us show ourselves worthy of our present stations in this country and thank God for the opportunity he has afforded us of imitating the example of the Saviour of the world by fresh acts of self-denial and benevolence. I have only to recommend in the last place that the trustees

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would publish in all the newspapers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia an account of the present state of the College subscribed by the vice-president of the board. In this account I wish to see included the names of our professors, the branches of literature taught by each of them, the amount of our library, a general list of our philosophical apparatus, and a particular account of the price of board and the nature of the accommodations in the village of Carlisle. This information will I hope serve to contradict the calumnies of our enemies and the imprudent communications of our friends, and thereby become the means of alluring pupils to the College. 4 I shall only add that the business relative to the plantation given to us by Mr. Dickinson in the neighborhood of Carlisle remains in the state it was left at the last meeting of the trustees. I know of no person so suitable to bring that business to a proper issue as the venerable vice-president of our board. With the greatest respect, I have the honor to subscribe myself your fellow laborer (though less than the least of you all) in the glorious work of extending the empire of reason, science, and religion in our country, as well as your affectionate, humble servant, BENJN: RusH &S (signed by BR, but only partly in his hand): Henry E. Huntington Library. 1 This letter was sent under cover of another of the same date to John Montgomery. The letter of transmittal (Rush MSS, XLII) stated that, unless the trustees were firm in their handling of Nisbet's case, BR would resign from the board. The quarrel with Nisbet reached its climax this fall and winter. The Principal had been sending bitterly complaining letters to friends in Scotland and the United States, some of which reached the public press; and BR, who was convinced that Nisbet's conduct would destroy the infant college, grimly declared, "If I can be supported, I will never quit him till I subdue his spirit" (to Montgomery, 18 Oct., in the same). 2 Aaron Burr, Sr. (1716-I757), one of the founders of the College of New Jersey and its second president, I 748-

I757; prior to the completion of Nassau Hall in I 756, the College classes were held in Burr's parsonage at Newark, N.J. (DAB). 3 Rittenhouse was state treasurer. 4 This proposed account, dated I 9 Dec. I786 and signed by John Armstrong as president of the board pro tem., was printed in the Philadelphia newspapers on 7 Feb. 1787 (text given in Good, Rush and His Services to Education, p. I 6 7-9). It is not known who wrote it, but clearly Nisbet did not; for he drew up, in four finely-written folio pages, a much more realistic account of his own, under the title of "The Present State of Dickinson College" (dated I5 Nov. I786, in Rush MSS, XLII). Nisbet's account, it is hardly necessary to say, did not reach the press.

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To Thomas Percival: An Account of the Progress of Population, Agriculture, Manners, and Government in Pennsylvania Dear Sir, [Philadelphia, October 26, r786] 2 Whatever tends to unfold facts in the history of the human species must be interesting to a curious inquirer. The manner of settling a new country exhibits a view of the human mind so foreign to the views of it which have been taken for many centuries in Europe, that I flatter myself the following account of the progress of population, agriculture, manners, and government in Pennsylvania will be acceptable to you. I have chosen to confine myself in the present letter to Pennsylvania only, that all the information I shall give you may be derived from my own knowledge and observations. The first settler in the woods is generally a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts of the state. His time for migrating is in the month of April. His first object is to build a small cabin of rough logs for himself and family. The floor of this cabin is of earth, the roof of split logs; the light is received through the door and, in some instances, through a small window made of greased paper. A coarser building adjoining this cabin affords a shelter to a cow and a pair of poor horses. The labor of erecting these buildings is succeeded by killing the trees on a few acres of ground near his cabin; this is done by cutting a circle round the trees two or three feet from the ground. The ground around these trees is then plowed and Indian corn planted in it. The season for planting this grain is about the 2oth of May. It grows generally on new ground with but little cultivation, and yields in the month of October following from forty to fifty bushels by the acre. After the first of September it affords a good deal of nourishment to his family, in its green or unripe state, in the form of what is called roasting ears. His family is fed during the summer by a small quantity of grain which he carries with him, and by fish and game. His cows and horses feed upon wild grass or the succulent twigs of the woods. For the first year he endures a great deal of distress from hunger, cold, and a variety of accidental causes, but he seldom complains or sinks under them. As he lives in the neighborhood of Indians, he soon acquires a strong tincture of their manners. His exertions, while they continue, are violent, but they are succeeded by long intervals of rest. His pleasures consist chiefly in fishing and [ 400 ]

26 OCTOBER 1786 hunting. He loves spirituous liquors, and he eats, drinks, and sleeps in dirt and rags in his little cabin. In his intercourse with the world, he manifests all the arts which characterize the Indians of our country. In this situation he passes two or three years. In proportion as population increases around him, he becomes uneasy and dissatisfied. Formerly his cattle ranged at large, but now his neighbors call upon him to confine them within fences 'to prevent their trespassing upon their fields of grain. Formerly he fed his family with wild animals, but these, which fly from the face of man, now cease to afford him an easy subsistence, and he is compelled to raise domestic animals for the support of his family. Above all, he revolts against the operation of laws. He cannot bear to surrender up a single natural right for all the benefits of government, and therefore he abandons his little settlement and seeks a retreat in the woods, where he again submits to all the toils which have been mentioned. There are instances of many men who have broken ground on bare creation not less than four different times in this way, in different and more advanced parts of the state. It has been remarked that the flight of this class of people is always increased by the preaching of the gospel. This will not surprise us when we consider how opposite its precepts are to their licentious manner of living. If our first settler were the owner of the spot of land which he began to cultivate, he sells it at a considerable profit to his successor; but if (as is oftener the case) he was a tenant to some rich landholder, he abandons it in debt; however, the small improvements he leaves behind him generally make it an object of immediate demand to a second species of settler. This species of settler is generally a man of some property. He pays one third or one fourth part in cash for his plantation, which consists of three or four hundred acres, and the rest in gales or instalments, as it is called here; that is, a certain sum yearly, without interest, till the whole is paid. The first object of this settler is to build an addition to his cabin; this is done with hewed logs; and as sawmills generally follow settlements, his floors are made of boards; his roof is made of what are called clapboards, which are a kind of coarse shingles split out of short oak logs. This house is divided by two floors, on each of which are two rooms; under the whole is a cellar walled with stone. The cabin serves as kitchen to this house. His next object is to clear a little meadow ground and plant an orchard of two or three hundred apple trees. His stable is likewise enlarged, and, in the course of a year or two, he builds a large log barn, the roof of which is commonly thatched [ 401 ]

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with rye straw. He moreover increases the quantity of his arable land, and instead of cultivating Indian corn alone, he raises a quantity of wheat and rye. The latter is cultivated chiefly for the purpose of being distilled into whiskey. This species of settler by no means extracts all from the earth which it is capable of giving. His fields yield but a scanty increase, owing to the ground not being sufficiently plowed. The hopes of the year are often blasted by his cattle breaking through his half-made fences and destroying his grain. His horses perform but half the labor that might be expected from them if they were better fed, and his cattle often die in the spring from the want of provision and the delay of grass. His house as well as his farm bears many marks of a weak tone of mind. His windows are unglazed, or, if they have had glass in them, the ruins of it are supplied with old hats or pillows. This species of settler is seldom a good member of civil or religious society; with a large portion of an hereditary, mechanical kind of religion, he neglects to contribute sufficiently 3 towards building a church or maintaining a regular administration of the ordinances of the gospel. He is equally indisposed to support civil government; with high ideas of liberty, he refuses to bear his proportion of the debt contracted by its establishment in our country. He delights chiefly in company-sometimes drinks spirituous liquors to excess-will spend a day or two in attending political meetings; 4 and thus he contracts debts which (if he cannot discharge in a depreciated paper currency) 5 compel him to sell his plantation, generally in the course of a few years, to the third and last species of settler. This species of settler is commonly a man of property and good character-sometimes he is the son of a wealthy farmer in one of the interior and ancient counties of the state. His first object is to convert every spot of ground over which he is able to draw water, irito meadow. Where this cannot be done, he selects the most fertile spots on the farm and devotes them by manure to that purpose. His next object is to build a barn, which he prefers of stone. This building is in some instances 100 feet in front and 40 in depth. It is made very compact, so as to shut out the cold in winter; for our farmers find that their horses and cattle when kept warm do not require near as much food as when they are exposed to the cold. He uses economy, likewise, in the consumption of his wood. 6 Hence he keeps himself warm in winter by means of stoves, which save an immense deal of labor to himself and his horses in cutting and hauling wood in cold and wet weather. His fences are everywhere repaired so as to secure his grain from his own and his neighbor's [ 402 ]

26 OCTOBER 1786 cattle. But further, he increases the number of the articles of his cultivation, and, instead of raising corn, wheat, and rye alone, he raises oats, buckwheat (the fagopyrum of Linnaeus), and spelts. Near his house he allots an acre or two of ground for a garden, in which he raises a large quantity of cabbage and potatoes. His newly cleared fields afford him every year a large increase of turnips. Over the spring which supplies him with water he builds a milkhouse, and over this, in some instances, he builds a smokehouse; 7 he likewise adds to the number and improves the quality of his fruit trees. His sons work by his side all the year, and his wife and daughters forsake the dairy and spinning wheel to share with him in the toils of harvest. The last object of his industry is to build a dwelling house. This business is sometimes effected in the course of his life, but is oftener bequeathed to his son or the inheritor of his plantation; and hence we have a common saying among our best farmers, "that a son should always begin where his father left off"; that is, he should begin his improvements by building a commodious dwelling house, suited to the improvements and value of the plantation. This dwelling house is generally built of stoneit is large, convenient, and filled with useful and substantial furniture. It sometimes adjoins the house of the second settler, but it is frequently placed at a little distance from it. The horses and cattle of this species of settler bear marks in their strength, fat, and fruitfulness of their being plentifully fed and carefully kept. His table abounds with a variety of the best provisions. His very kitchen flows with milk and honey-beer, cider, and home-made wine are the usual drinks of his family. The greatest part of the clothing of his family is manufactured by his wife and daughters. 8 In proportion as he increases in wealth, he values the protection of laws. Hence he punctually pays his taxes towards the support of government. Schools and churches likewise, as the means of promoting order and happiness in society, derive a due support from him; for benevolence and public spirit as to these objects are the natural offspring of affiuence and independence. Of this class of settlers are two-thirds of the farmers of Pennsylvania. These are the men to whom Pennsylvania owes her ancient fame and consequence. If they possess less refinement than their southern neighbors who cultivate their lands with slaves, they possess more republican virtue. It was from the farms cultivated by these men that the American and French armies were chiefly fed with bread during the late Revolution; and it was from the produce of these farms that those millions of dollars were obtained from the Havanna after the year 1 780 [ 403 ]

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which laid the foundation of the Bank of North America and which fed and clothed the American army till the glorious Peace of Paris.9 - This is a short account of the happiness of a Pennsylvanian farmer. To this happiness our state invites men of every religion and country. We do not pretend to offer emigrants the pleasures of Arcadia. It is enough if affiuence, independence, and happiness are ensured to patience, industry, and labor. The moderate price of land, 10 the credit which arises from prudence, and the safety from our laws of every species of property, render the blessings which I have described objects within the reach of every man. 11 From a review of the three different species of settlers, it appears that there are certain regular stages which mark the progress from the savage to civilized life. The first settler is nearly related to an Indian in his manners. In the second, the Indian manners are more diluted. It is in the third species only that we behold civilization completed. It is to the third species of settlers only that it is proper to apply the term of farmers. While we record the vices of the first and second settlers, it is but just to mention their virtues likewise. Their mutual wants produce mutual dependence; hence they are kind and friendly to each other. Their solitary situation makes visitors agreeable to them; hence they are hospitable to strangers. Their want of money (for they raise but little more than is necessary to support their families) has made it necessary for them to associate for the purposes of building houses, cutting their grain, and the like; this they do in turns for each other, without any other pay than the pleasures which usually attend a country frolic. Perhaps what I have called virtues are rather qualities, arising from necessity and the peculiar state of society in which these people live. Virtue should in all cases be the offspring of principle. I do not pretend to say that this mode of settling farms in Pennsylvania is universal. I have known some instances where the first settler has performed the improvements of the second and yielded to the third. I have known a few instances likewise of men of enterprising spirits who have settled in the wilderness and who, in the course of a single life, have advanced through all the intermediate stages of improvement that I have mentioned and produced all those conveniences which have been ascribed to the third species of settlers, 12 thereby resembling in their exploits not only the pioneers and light infantry but the main body of an army. There are instances likewise where the first settlement has been improved by the same family in hereditary succession till it has reached the

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26 OCTOBER 1786 third stage of cultivation. There are many spacious stone houses and highly cultivated farms in the neighboring counties of the city of Philadelphia which are possessed by the grandsons and greatgrandsons of men who accompanied William Penn across the ocean and who laid the foundation of the present improvements of their posterity in such cabins as have been described. This passion for migration which I have described will appear strange to an European. To see men turn their backs upon the houses in which they drew their first breath-upon the churches in which they were dedicated to God-upon the graves of their ancestors-upon the friends and companions of their youth-and upon all the pleasures of cultivated society, and exposing themselves to all the hardships and accidents of subduing the earth and thereby establishing settlements in a wilderness, must strike a philosopher on your side the water as a picture of human nature that runs counter to the usual habits and principles of action in man. But this passion, strange and new as it appears, is wisely calculated for the extension of population in America, and this it does not only by promoting the increase of the human species in new settlements but in the old settlements likewise. While the degrees of industry and knowledge in agriculture in our country are proportioned to farms of from 75 to 300 acres, there will be a languor in population as soon as farmers multiply beyond the number of farms of the above dimensions. To remove this languor, which is kept up alike by the increase of the price and the division of farms, a migration of part of the community becomes absolutely necessary. And as this part of the community often consists of the idle and extravagant, who eat without working, their removal, by increasing the facility of subsistence to the frugal and industrious who remain behind, naturally increases the number of people, just as the cutting off the suckers of an apple tree increases the size of the tree and the quantity of fruit. I have only to add upon this subject that the migrants from Pennsylvania always travel to the southward. The soil and climate of the western parts of Virginia, North and South-Carolina, and Georgia afford a more easy support to lazy farmers than the stubborn but durable soil of Pennsylvania. Here, our ground requires deep and repeated plowing to render it fruitful-there, scratching the ground once or twice affords tolerable crops. In Pennsylvania the length and coldness of the winter make it necessary for the farmers to bestow a large share of their labor in providing for and feeding their cattle, but in the southern states cattle find pasture during the greatest part of the winter in the fields or woods. For [ 405 ]

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these reasons, the greatest part of the western counties of the states that have been mentioned are settled by original inhabitants of Pennsylvania. During the late war the militia of Orange county in North Carolina were enrolled, and their number amounted to 3,soo, every man of whom had migrated from Pennsylvania. From this you will see that our state is the great outport of the United States for Europeans, and that, after performing the office of a sieve by detaining all those people who possess the stamina of industry and virtue, it allows a passage to the rest to those states which are accommodated to their habits of indolence and vice. 13 I shall conclude this letter by remarking that in the mode of extending population and agriculture which I have described we behold a new species of war. The third settler may be viewed as a conqueror. The weapons with which he achieves his conquests are the implements of husbandry, and the virtues which direct them are industry and economy. Idleness, extravagance, and ignorance fly before him. Happy would it be for mankind if the kings of Europe would adopt this mode of extending their territories. It would soon put an end to the dreadful connection which has existed in every age between war and poverty and between conquest and desolation. With great respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient humble servant. Printed: Rush, Essays, (1798), p. 213-25. 1

Thomas Percival, M.D. (I740I8o4), practised medicine in Manchester, England, from I 767, where he became active in scientific, educational, and humanitarian projects; founder and president of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society; author of Medical Ethics, Manchester, I 8o3, long a standard work ( DNB). A long series of letters from Percival to BR, I 7 86I8oi, will be found in the Rush MSS, XXVIII, but the whereabouts of BR's letters to Percival is not known. 2 The date is taken from the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, at a meeting of which, 6 Dec. I 7 86, the present epistolary essay was read and thereafter' ordered to be printed. It appeared in the Memoirs, III (I79o), I83-97, with the date and title given above. Actually, however, an earlier, shorter form of the same letter had been addressed by BR to Ben-

jamin Vaughan, then in London, under date of 5 Apr. I785. The MS of the earlier version, which is in an unidentified hand but with signature and some alterations in BR's hand, is among the Benjamin Vaughan Papers now in Amer. Philos. Soc.; a contemporary copy of it is in Yale Univ. Libr., Franklin Collection. The letter as now printed is the expanded version sent to Percival in I786, which was first printed in Nov. I786 in the Columbian Mag., I, I I 7-22. The text followed in the present printing is, however, the latest to have received BR's corrections, namely that in his Essays, 1798. Significant differences in the various texts, principally between the I 78 5 (Vaughan) and I 786 (Percival) versions, are recorded in the notes. It scarcely needs to be pointed out that many of BR's observations on the culture of the Scotch-Irish frontier resulted from his

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26 OCTOBER 1786 trips to Carlisle for board meetings of the trustees of Dickinson College in 1784 and 1785. The letter throws a strong light on the problems encountered by the founders of the College and especially by its first principal. It will also be noted that, in a dim and decidedly reluctant manner, BR anticipates the thesis respecting frontier democracy enunciated by Frederick Jackson Turner a century later. 3 In both the 17 85 and 17 86 versions BR wrote: "neglects to contribute anything." 4 In both the 1 785 and 17 86 versions, instead of the preceding phrase, BR wrote: "in hunting up a newspaper that contains a political publication." 5 The I 785 version had, instead of the parenthesis: "if they do not give him a place in the sheriff's docket.'' 6 This and the following sentence were first added in 1786. 7 The clause concerning the smokehouse was not added until1798. 8 The preceding sentence and a half (from "beer") was first added in 1 786. 9 The 1 785 version had an added phrase at the end of this sentence: "after the annihilation of the paper money of the United States." For the history of the Bank of North America, see Scharf & Westcott, nr, 2.089ff. 10 Note by BR, first added in 1786: "The unoccupied lands are sold by the state for about six: guineas, inclusive of all charges, per hundred acres. But as most of the lands that are settled are procured from persons who had purchased them from the state, they are sold to the first settler for a much higher price. The quality of the soilits vicinity to mills, courthouses, places of public worship, and navigable water -the distance of land carriage to the seaports of Philadelphia or Baltimoreand the nature of the roads all influence the price of land to the first settler.

The quantity of cleared land and the nature of the improvements, added to all the above circumstances, influence the price of farms to the second and third settlers. Hence the price of land to the first settler is from a quarter of a guinea to two guineas per acre; and the price of farms is from one guinea to ten guineas per acre to the second and third settlers, according as the land is varied by the before-mentioned circumstances. When the first settler is unable to purchase, he often takes a tract of land for seven years on a lease, and contracts, instead of paying a rent· in cash, to clear so acres of land, to build a log cabin and a barn, and to plant an orchard on it. This tract, after the expiration of this lease, sells or rents for a considerable profit." 11 The following paragraph was first added in I 786. 1 2 The remainder of this paragraph and the whole of the next were first added in I 786. The earlier text had, instead, the following short but revealing passage: "Perhaps it may tend to enlarge our ideas of the influence of country and religion upon the human mind to add that the first settlers are generally natives of Ireland or the descendants of old American families. The second species of settlers are generally natives of Ireland or the sons of Irishmen. The third species are for the most part Germans or of German extraction, or the descendants of English and Welchmen. The latter are chiefly Quakers. To this remark there are some exceptions. I have seen the German and Quaker corrupted by the society of the ancient American and Irishman, and I have seen the Irishman improved by living in the neighborhood of Germans and Quakers, so as to vie with them in industry, economy, and independence.'' 18 The following paragraph was first added in 1786.

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To Richard Price Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 27th, q86 This letter will be handed to you by the Reverend Dr. White of this city, who goes to London in order to be consecrated Bishop of Pennsylvania. He is a gentleman of a most worthy and respectable character. With prospects of an affiuent fortune and with the most liberal connections, he early devoted himself to the service of the sanctuary. He has officiated as one of the ministers of the Episcopal churches in our city for upwards of fourteen years with the utmost reputation. In every stage of the late war he was a consistent whig. In the most doubtful stage of the war he acted as chaplain to the Congress. He is almost the only man I ever knew of real abilities and unaffected purity and simplicity of manners that had not a single enemy. He carries with him the good wishes and prayers of thousands of his fellow citizens. Accept of my thanks for your very agreeable favor of July JOth. 1

I lament that your declining health will not permit you to undertake a second address to the citizens of America upon the subject of a new federal government. You will perceive by the papers that the Convention which was to have laid the foundation for that salutary measure in September last adjourned, from the want of sufficient powers for that purpose, till next May, then to meet in the city of Philadelphia. Some of our enlightened men who begin to despair of a more complete union of the States in Congress have secretly proposed an Eastern, Middle, and Southern Confederacy, to be united by an alliance offensive and defensive. 2 These confederacies they say will be united by nature, by interest, and by manners, and consequently they will be safe, agreeable and durable. The first will include the four New England states and New York. The second will include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; and the last Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. The foreign and domestic debt of the United States they say shall be divided justly between each of the new confederations. This plan of a new continental government is at present a mere speculation. Perhaps necessity, or rather divine providence, may drive us to it. Whatever form of political existence may be before us, I am fully satisfied that our independence rests upon a firm basis and that Great Britain will never recover from any of our changes in opinion or government her former dominion or influence in this country. [ 408 ]

27 OCTOBER 1786 The commotions in New England have happily subsided without the loss of a life or the effusion of one drop of kindred blood. 8 If your countrymen should show a disposition to rejoice in hearing of these commotions, it will only be necessary to remind them of the present distractions in Ireland, or of the late mob conducted by Lord George Gordon in the city of London, to convince them that stability, contentment, and perfect order are no more the offsprings of monarchical than of republican forms of government. The kingdoms of Europe have traveled into their present state of boasted tranquillity through seas of blood. The republics of America are traveling into order and wise government only through a sea of blunders. Our venerable friend Dr. Franklin has found considerable benefit from the use of the remedy you recommended to him, joined with the blackberry jam. He informed me a few days ago that he had not en joyed better health for the last 30 years of his life than he does at present. His faculties are still in their full vigor. He amuses himself daily in superintending two or three houses which he is building in the neighborhood of his dwelling house. One of them is for a printing office for his grandson, a promising youth who was educated by him in France. 4 An important revolution took place on the 10th day of this instant in favor of the wisdom, virtue, and property of Pennsylvania.5 Mr. Robt. Morris, the late financier of the United States, is at the head of the party that will rule our state for the ensuing year. This gentleman's abilities, eloquence, and integrity place him upon a footing with the first legislators and patriots of ancient and modern times. It is expected the charter of the Bank of North America will be restored and that the College of Philadelphia (seized by fraud and force by Dr. Ewing and his friends) will be given back to its original and just owners. If you should conclude to publish any part of my letters, I have only to request that you would not connect the extracts from them with my name. With the greatest respect and the most fervent wishes that your useful life may be prolonged for many, many years to come, I am, dear sir, your sincere friend and most humble servant, BENJN RusH 'Printed: Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceeding1, 2d series,

(1903), 352-4·

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES 1

This letter, which is in the Rush contains extremely interesting comments on American cultural progress. 2 A plan of regional confederation was being publicly discussed as late as Apr. 1787; see Carl Van Doren, The Great Rehearsal, N.Y., 1948, p. 21; also Warren, Making of the Constitution, p. zos-6. 3 BR refers to the incident in Massachusetts history known as Shays' Rebellion, which had not yet subsided and MSS, XLIII,

was not terminated without bloodshed (DAB, under Daniel Shays). 4 On these activities of Franklin, see Van Doren, Franklin, p. 739-41, 769. The grandson was Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798), who had been secretary to his grandfather abroad and who later founded the violently Antifederalist newspaper, the Aurora (DAB). 6 The Republicans made substantial gains in the state elections this fall (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 191-

3).

To John Montgomery Philadelphia, January 21, 1787 Dear Sir, an order on Mr. Dunprocured With some management I have can for £104-o-6 for Dr. Nisbet. I hope this will act as an opiate and compose his feelings. Pray let him have the whole of it. I have sent the order to General Armstrong. From a general idea that prevails in our city that our College is devoted to destruction from Dr. Nisbet's folly, I cannot collect the money that is due to us from subscription. My only hopes now are that God will change his heart or take him from us. No publication will do us any good while every letter from him to his friends is filled with complaints against the ho gpen, 1 the trustees, and the town of Carlisle. In a letter to one of his friends he expresses a desire of living in a city and of having charge of a parish instead of a college. I have had great pleasure in promoting the German College. The trustees have but one mind, and there are four or five of them who are as active as you and I have been in promoting the College of Carlisle. We have no hum's and ha's among us nor no doubts or fears of our final success in the glorious undertaking. While this is the case, all must end well. Dr. Franklin has given us £200-0-0 in specie. The IO,ooo acres of land to be granted to us will be situated next to the lands of our College at Carlisle. 2 No, my friend, I can never forget the first fruits of our labors. My affections have been too much tied to Dickinson College to be weaned by a second child, as you are pleased to call Franklin College. Even the vexation and disappointments I have suffered on her account increase my concern for her welfare. If the trustees

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17 FEBRUARY 1787 act with spirit and keep Dr. Nisbet from being their master, all will yet end well. I agree with you in reprobating the conduct of our Assembly in refusing to take certificates for debts due to the state for lands. I showed your letter to Mr. Fitzsimons. I wish you would send fresh petitions down to the Assembly at their next session. I think the measure may yet be carried. If it is not, I think the state will be convulsed and the influence of the Republicans destroyed at the next election. All the certificate holders here are in favor of the measure. Adieu. Yours sincerely, BRusH P.S. The early freezing of our river prevented my getting some glasses which I expected to receive from a glass factory in the Jersies to complete the electrical apparatus. I shall however send it as it is, with the other articles of the apparatus, in a few days. For my neglect and delays in this business, and for all the other injuries I have done to you, I beg only to be forgiven. He is a weak man who expects more than this for his services to his country. Mrs. Stockton (who is now in town) and Mrs. Rush send best compliments to you. tMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 Nisbet's expression for the grammar school building at Car lisle used by the College. 2 In a letter to Montgomery of 20 Dec. 1786 announcing that he (BR) has been made a trustee of "the German or Franklin College," BR speaks of his delight in "the zeal with which the

Germans push their undertaking. With them I have no prejudices to combat, no lies to contradict, no Ewing to contend with . . . . Heaven in this enterprise has rewarded me for the disappointment and vexation I experienced from Carlisle" (Rush MSS, :XLII).

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, February 17, 1787 I was made happy in hearing that the order on Mr. Duncan in favor of Dr. Nisbet had been received and that it has acted as an anodyne in composing certain convulsions that were awakened in the College. The publication signed by General Armstrong1 has given great pleasure in our city. The account of the library astonished everybody. If Dr. N. will only be prudent and silent upon the subject of [ 411 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

our present difficulties, we shall soon fill our College with pupils from every part of the state. The German College, by exciting emulation and increasing a taste for literature, will serve only to increase the number of our pupils, just as the cultivation of wheat on the Juniata has increased the price of it in Lancaster County. Dr. Franklin has subscribed £200 specie for his namesake. Mr. Morris and Mr. Bingham have each given £rso in certificates to it. The Germans have embraced it with enthusiasm. Alas! our poor Presbyterians do nothing with zeal or spirit but quarrel, persecute, and oppress. But let us not despair. I hope we are not destined with the Indians of our country to be annihilated for our vices. The apparatus is now complete and will be sent up by the first safe wagon that offers to Carlisle. The electrical apparatus will afford much entertainment to your town as well as the students. When you see it with the other articles of the apparatus, I am sure you will forgive me for having purchased it. I shall endeavor to attend your first commencement. My heart is still wrapped up in the dear petulant brat that has given me so much trouble, and if I thought my bones could receive pleasure after my death from being near the object of my affections, I should give orders to have them deposited under the present College of Carlisle. I hope you will not neglect to send down petitions to the Assembly in favor of receiving certificates in the land office. I have boldly opposed the conduct of the majority of the house upon this business in conversations with Mr. Morris, Mr. Clymer, and Mr. Fitzsimons. But they are still obstinate. Mr. Wilson is in favor of the measure and will use his influence with his friends to carry it at the next session. I shall not be idle. Adieu. Yours sincerely, B: RusH .!lddressed: John Montgomery Esqr at Carlisle. Capt Edmiston.

fMS: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 SeeBRtotheTrustees, 21 Oct. 1786.

To the Citizens of Philadelphia: A Plan for Free Schools

1

[Philadelphia, 28 March I787] Every friend to the prosperity of Pennsylvania must view with pleasure the establishment and success of those seminaries of learning which are intended to diffuse knowledge through the state; but [ 4I2 )

28 MARCH 1787 useful as these colleges and academies are, they are not sufficiently extensive in their objects to spread literature through the humble and indigent classes of the people: they are calculated chiefly for the benefit of the affiuent and independent part of the citizens of the state. The blessings of knowledge can be extended to the poor and laboring part of the community only by the means of FREE scHooLs. The remote and unconnected state of the settlements in the new counties will forbid the establishment 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 ignorance 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 choosing 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 ignorant and vicious, a nation, and above all a republican nation, can never be long free and happy. It becomes 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 legislature for a law to assess IOool. upon all estates in the city and liberties of Philadelphia, to be appropriated for the maintenance of schoolmasters, for the rent of schoolhouses, 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 maintained 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 diffused through that country, and hence too the [ 413 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

origin of the numerous exe~utions and inventions to punish and extirpate criminals of which we daily read such melancholy accounts in the English newspapers. Charitable contributions fall unequally upon the different members of society-a tax will be more equally borne 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 freeholder for a whole year to those schools. Besides, there will be real economy in the payment of this tax; by sowing the seeds of good morals in the schools and inspiring the youth with habits of industry, the number of the poor and of course the sum of the tax paid for their maintenance will be diminished. By lessening 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. SECONDLv, 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 language. Let the girls be instructed in needlework, 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, honest 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 had of the advantages derived by the Friends from connecting their schools and their church together in forming the morals of their youth, nothing further need be added in favor of this part of the plan. FouRTHLv, Let the money to be raised for the support of the schools be lodged in the hands of the city treasurer, to be appro-

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28

MARCH

1787

priated in the following manner: Let a certain number of persons of each religious society be appointed trustees of the free schools of their respective churches, and let a draft 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 religious society exceeds fifteen, let 30!. a year be allowed to them for the rent of the schoolroom and for paper, ink, pens, books, and firewood, and 6ol. a year when the number of scholars becomes so great as to require two schoolrooms. 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, LASTLY, Let the accounts and expenditures of the schools be open at all times to inspectors, to be appointed 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 era 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 the whole stock of our 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 alive upon the earth-he will not deliver him into the will of his enemies.m Printed: The Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), 28 March 1787. 1

The caption in the original newspaper printing reads: "To the Citizens of Philadelphia, and of the District of Southwark and the Northern Liberties." Though unsigned, the piece is indubitably by BR, as H. G. Good first pointed out (Rush and His Services to Education, p. 261-2). In advocating free, tax-supported schools, BR was well ahead of his time and in consonance with Jefferson's thinking; but it will be no-

ticed that he proposed to retain sectarian supervision of the schools. This paper should be compared with BR's earlier "Plan of Establishing Public Schools in Pennsylvania" ( 17 86; reprinted in Essays, 1798, p. 1-6), which proposed a state-wide program. The larger program, he now saw, was not feasible; but a local one was. See, further, BR to Mrs. Rush, 27-28 June 1787. 2 Psalms 41 :1.

[ 415 ]

To John Dickinson Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April 5th, 1787 The enclosed pamphlet, written with a design to procure further alterations in our penal law, humbly solicits your acceptance. It has made many converts in our city from the assistance it has derived from the miserable spectacle which is daily before our eyes. 1 I have great pleasure in informing you that your College is in a very flourishing condition. Pupils are coming and expected in great numbers from Maryland, Virginia, and even North Carolina. Twenty young men will graduate there in May. The philosophical apparatus has been received in good order and has given great satisfaction to the masters and scholars. The citizens of Carlisle have lately bought and given to the College for the use of the Principal a neat, commodious stone house. Thus, sir, after all our difficulties and disappointments, heaven has at last crowned our labors and wishes with success. The German College at Lancaster bids fair for becoming a wealthy and useful seminary. The Germans subscribe liberally to it. It is to be consecrated with peculiar pomp and solemnity on the 6th day of next June. From these two colleges we hope will issue rays of knowledge which shall finally reform our Constitution and laws, and humanize even the half-civilized inhabitants of the western counties of Pennsylvania. With respectful compliments to Mrs. Dickinson and Miss Sally, and kindest remembrance of Miss Maria, 2 in which Mrs. Rush joins, I am, dear sir, your affectionate, humble servant, BENJN: RusH Jddressed: John Dickinson Esqr at Wilmington. &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Logan Papers. 1 BR's Enquiry into the Effects of Public Punishments upon Criminals, and upon Society •.. , Philadelphia: James, I 7 8 7. This essay was read to the Society for Promoting Political Enquiries at Franklin's home, 9 Mch. I787, was reprinted by Dilly in London the same year and in BR's Essays, I 798. The background of BR's protest is best presented in a letter of May I 787 from Susanna Dillwyn to her father William Dillwyn: "I stept out to a booksellers & got two or three pamphlets, which I thought might be acceptable to thee....

The enquiry into the effects of Public punishments was occasion'd by the method they have lately adopted of making criminals clean the streets-dig vaults & cellars for public buildings-& do other work of that kind with great iron chains around them-to the end of which a monstrous ball of iron is fast'ned to prevent their running away -it is a painful sight and in other respects I believe they find more disadvantages than was expected from it" (Libr. Co. Phila., Dillwyn MSS). The "wheelbarrow law," as BR called it,

[ 416 ]

had been passed in 17 8 6, when capital punishment had been abolished for most crimes; but it did not work and was repealed in 1789, "hard labor in private" and ''solitary imprisonment" being substituted for chain-gang work. See

BR to Mrs. Rush, 22 Aug. 1787; to J. C. Lettsom, 28 Sep. 1787; Mease, Picture of Philadelphia, p. 158-6t. 2 Maria Dickinson (q83-I854), afterwards Mrs. Albanus C. Logan (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. 64).

To John Coakley Lettsom Philadelphia, May 18, 1787 Dear Sir, To a person who reJOICes in the extension of the empire of humanity and, above all, to a pupil and admirer of the celebrated Mr. Howard/ the enclosed publication,2 I am sure, will be an acceptable communication. The institution has grown out of his excellent history of Prisons, aided in a small degree by the pamphlet lately published in this city upon the effects of public punishments upon criminals and society. The Society at present consists chiefly of the people called Quakers: hence the peculiarity of the style of some of the sections of the constitution. I beg you would show it to Mr. Howard (if returned to London), or publish it in some of your periodical papers. I have sent you a packet by Captain Willet3 containing some copies of the constitution of the Society for abolishing Negro Slavery,4 to be distributed agreeably to their directions. Dr. Franklin is president of it. We expect to petition our Convention5 next week to make the suppression of the African trade in the United States an essential article of the new Confederation. Yours sincerely, BENJAMIN RusH Printed: Pettigrew, Lettsom, n, ·429· 1

John Howard (t726?-179o), the celebrated prison reformer, for whom BR felt the highest admiration and whom he invited to visit the United States in 1789. BR refers below to Howard's State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations, and an Account of Some Foreign Prisons, Warrington, 1777I 7So; several times reissued in enlarged form. (DNB; BR to Howard, 14 Oct. I789; Brit. Mus. Cat.) 2 Doubtless the Constitution of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, as printed in the Amer. Museum, I, 384-5 (May

I7 8 7). BR was one of the four physicians to the Society, whose duty was to advise on health measures in the prisons. 3 Not further identified. 4 The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully ' Held in Bondage was organized in I7 74, but was reconstituted and enlarged in Apr. I7 8 7. BR was one of the secretaries of the new Society, I7 87I789; one of its delegates to the early national conventions of abolition societies, I 79 3-I 79 8 ; and president from I803. (Amer. Museum, I, 388-9 [May

[ 417 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES 17 8 7] ; MS Minutes of the Society, in the Hist. Soc. Penna.) 5 I.e., the Federal Convention, which

first obtained a quorum of seven state delegations on 25 May (Warren, Making of the Constitution, p. uo).

To Richard Price Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 2nd, 1787 I set down with great pleasure to inform you that eleven States have this day been represented in the Convention now assembled in this city for the purpose of revising the federal Constitution. A delegation is expected in a few days from the 12th. Rhode Island is destined to all the distress and infamy that can arise from her total separation from the Confederacy. Her insignificance in point of numbers, strength, and character render this event of no consequence to the general interests of the U nion. 1 Dr. Franklin exhibits daily a spectacle of transcendent benevolence by attending the Convention punctually and even taking part in its business and deliberations. He says it is the most august and respectable assembly he ever was in in his life, and adds that he thinks they will soon finish their business, as there are no prejudices to oppose nor errors to refute in any of the body. Mr. Dickinson (who is one of them) informs me that they are all united in their objects, and he expects they will be equally united in the means of attaining them. Mr. Adams' book2 has diffused such excellent principles among us that there is little doubt of our adopting a vigorous and compounded federal legislature. Our illustrious minister in this gift to his country has done us more service than if he had obtained alliances for us with all the nations in Europe. You must not be surprised if you should hear of our new system of government meeting with some opposition. There are in all our states little characters whom a great and respectable government will sink into insignificance. These men will excite factions among us, but they will be of a temporary duration. Time, necessity, and the gradual operation of reason will carry it down, and if these fail force will not be wanting to carry it into execution, for not only all the wealth but all the military men of our country (associated in the Society of the Cincinnati) 3 are in favor of a wise and efficient government. The order of nature is the same in the political as it is in the natural world-good is derived chiefly from evil. We are traveling fast into order and national happiness. The same enthusiasm now pervades all classes in favor of government that actuated [ 418 ]

2 JUNE

1787

us in favor of liberty in the years 1774 and 1775, with this difference, that we are more united in the former than we were in the latter pursuit. When our enemies triumph in our mistakes and follies, tell them that we are men, that we walk upon two legs, that we possess reason, passions, and senses, and that under these circumstances it is as absurd to expect the ordinary times of the rising and setting of the sun will be altered as to suppose we shall not finally compose and adopt a suitable form of government and be happy in the blessing which are usually connected with it. The enclosed newspaper contains an address suited to our present hour of difficulty and danger:l The sentiments contained in it will discover its author. I enclose you likewise a copy of the order to be observed next week in the dedication of our new German and English temple of science and religion. 5 Accept of my thanks for the copy of your Sermons 6 by Dr. White. I have read them with great pleasure. I have even done more. I have transcribed part of one of them for the benefit of a pious and accomplished female correspondent in a neighboring state. 7 I am pleased with the moderation with which you have discussed the controverted doctrines in the first five discourses. I confess I have not and cannot admit your opinions, having long before I met with the Arian or Socinian controversies embraced the doctrines of universal salvation and final restitution. My belief in these doctrines is founded wholly upon the Calvanistical account (and which I believe to be agreeable to the tenor of Scripture) of the person, power, goodness, mercy, and other divine attributes of the Saviour of the World. These principles, my dear friend, have bound me to the whole human race; these are the principles which animate me in all my labors for the interests of my fellow creatures. No particle of benevolence, no wish for the liberty of a slave or the reformation of a criminal, will be lost. They must all be finally made effectual, for they all flow from the great Author of goodness, who implants no principles of action in man in vain. I acknowledge I was surprised to find you express yourself so cautiously and skeptically upon this point. Had you examined your own heart, you would have found in it the strongest proof of the truth of the doctrine. It is this light which shineth in darkness, and which the darkness as yet comprehendeth not, that has rendered you so useful to your country and to the world. I beg pardon for this digression from the ordinary subjects of our correspondence. I submit my opinions with humility to that Being who will not, as you happily express it, punish involuntary [ 419 ]

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errors, if such have been embraced by me. I seldom distress myself with speculative inquiries in religion, being fully satisfied that our business is to be good here, that we may be wise hereafter. With great respect, I am, dear s1r, your friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH Printed: Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, zd series, xvn

(1903), 367-9· 1 The Rhode Island legislature, dominated by a popular political faction, refused to send delegates to the Federal Convention; there was talk of reading "Rogue Island" (a name used by nonRhode Islanders) out of the Confederation, and a rumor was current a little later that the Convention had done so (Warren, Making of the Constitution,

P· 131-3, 198). 2 Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States, London, I787-I788, 3 vols. The first volume reached the United States as the Federal Convention was about to sit and, according to BR, was reprinted by Hall and Sellers at BR's instigation (letter to Adams, I 9 May I 812). Charles Francis Adams observed that the book was "much circulated in the convention, and undoubtedly contributed somewhat to give a direction to the opinions of the members" (John Adams, Works, IV, 276). 8 The Society of the Cincinnati had held a general meeting in Philadelphia in May and elected Washington presi-

dent general. In some quarters it was believed that the Cincinnati as a body favored the overthrow of the faltering republican confederation and the establishment of a monarchical government with Washington as its head. See a letter by Otto, French charge d'affaires, Philadelphia, IO June 1787, quoted in Warren, Making of the Constitution, p. 206. BR's approval of such a possibilityremarkable in view of his normal antimilitarism and his later Jeffersonianism -indicates that this belief was seriously as well as widely held. 4 I have not identified this article. 5 Order of Procession and Public W orship to Be Observed in the Dedication of Franklin College,,., Phila., 1787, a four-page folder with text in German and English. A type-facsimile of two pages is given in Dubbs' Franklin and Marshall College, p. 41. 6 Sermons on the Christian Doctrine, as Received by the Different Denominations of Christians,.,, London, 1787. 7 Very likely BR's mother-in-law, Mrs. Stockton.

To Annis Boudinot Stockton My dear Madam, Philadelphia, June 19, 1787 You take so kind a part in everything that relates to your son-inlaw, and to the welfare of Pennsylvania, that I cannot help gratifying your benevolence in both cases by giving you a short account of my late excursion and of the consecration of the German College in Lancaster .1 I left this city on Monday, June the 4th, in company with Mr. Bingham and a Mr. Corbin, 2 a gentleman of worthy character [ 420 ]

19 JUNE 1787 from Virginia and a particular friend of Mr. Bingham's, who seized that opportunity of visiting an interior county of our state. We arrived in Lancaster the next day at 2 o'clock, and after taking a hasty dinner Mr. Bingham and myself with Mr. Hamilton3 and Mr. Rawle• (from Philadelphia) proceeded to the Court house, where we found upwards of 30 of the trustees assembled from every part of the state. The business was opened by a prayer in the German language by the Reverend Mr. Helmuth. 5 After this, we elected the officers of the board. A silence now ensued for a few minutes, when at the request of Mr. Rawle, who sat next to me, I rose and addressed the meeting as nearly as I can recollect in the following words: "Mr. President and Gentlemen, I cannot resist the inclination I feel, from seeing so many respectable characters assembled in this house, of rising to congratulate you upon the joyful occasion. We are met here to lay the foundation of a seminary of learning the objects of which are of the utmost importance to Pennsylvania. By means of this seminary in the I st place, the partition wall which has long separated the English and German inhabitants of the state will be broken down. By meeting occasionally in this board we shall form connections with each other that will be alike useful to ourselves and to the state. Our children will be bound together by the ties of marriage, as we shall be by the ties of friendship, and in the course of a few years by means of this College the names of German, Irishman, and Englishman will be lost in the general name of Pennsylvanian. "A 2nd advantage that will result from this College will be, it will serve to unite the different sects of Christians among the Germans together. The Lutherans and Calvanists6 by sharing equally in the honors and government of the College will here bury all their past jealousies and disputes, while every other sect will here find protection and support. "3ly. By means of this College the English language will be introduced among our German fellow citizens. 7 In a state where all legal proceedings as well as commerce are carried on in English, a knowledge of it must be of the utmost consequence for the preservation of property. If our Germans expected at a future day to establish their language in Pennsylvania, they never can expect to see it established in our federal councils, where they must prepare to be called to assist in the government of the United States. The English language will be absolutely necessary to qualify them for usefulness in our great national legislature. [ 421 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

"4ly. By means of this College the German language will be preserved from extinction and corruption by being taught in a grammatical manner. The advantages we shall derive from it will be very great, inasmuch as it will enable us to understand and adopt all the discoveries in science that shall hereafter be made by one of the most learned nations in Europe. "sly. By means of this College the sons of the Germans will be qualified to shine in our legislature and to fill with reputation the professions of law, physic, and divinity. Their ministers of the Gospel and schoolmasters will no longer be strangers to their American habits and manners, but will be prepared for immediate usefulness by an education in this College. "With these views before us, I hope no pains will be spared to carry the design of the College into execution." After this speech, we proceeded to elect the officers of the College, an account of whom you will see in the annexed newspaper, which I have sealed on my letter that it may be preserved with it-if you think it worthy of that honor. 8 PHILADELPHIA,

JuNE

I

3.

Lancaster, June 8, 1787.

gy of the German Reformed Coetus and

last being appointed, by the charter of Franklin or the German College, for the first meeting of the trustees, they assembled at three o'clock at the Court-house, and unanimously elected

Lutheran Synod, the officers of all the

T

UESDAY

religious societies in the town, and many other respectable citizens, proceeded -itt pFeel!ssieR14 from the Court-house to the Lutheran Church, where the Rev. Mr. Weiberg 15 opened divine service with an excellent prayer, suited to the occasion.

The Rev. Henry Muhlenberg 9 Principal of the College. The Rev. William Handell10 VicePrincipal. The Rev. Frederick Valentine Milt-

delivered an elegant discourse in the

zeimer11 Professor of the Latin,

human learning to his German fellow-

Greek, and German languages. Mr. William Reichenbach1 2 Professor

citizens, and showed its influence upon

of Mathematics.

Afterwards the Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg German language, in which he recommended, in strong terms, the necessity of

religion, government, manners, and the various professions and occupations of

And the Rev. Joseph Hutchins 13 Pro-

men. 1 6 This discourse was followed by

fessor of the English language, and

one in English, in which the same sub-

and of the Belles Lettres.

jects were handled with great ingenuity

The next day the Faculty of the Col-

by the Rev. Mr. Hutchins.H Several odes

lege, followed by the Trustees, the Cler-

composed, and hymns chosen for the oc-

[ 422 ]

19 JUNE 1787 casion, in German and English, were sung (accompanied with the organ) in

solemn occasion, and was performed in a masterly manner. The Principal, who, I

a manner that pleased and affected everybody.18 The whole was concluded with a

personal acquaintance with him), is a

am told (for I have not the pleasure of a

well adapted prayer by the Rev. Mr.

man of extensive learning and great lib-

Herbst/ 9 Minister of the Moravian Church in this town, to the great

erality of sentiment, and who is universally beloved, delivered a judicious and

satisfaction and entertainment of a very crowded audience.

elegant sermon in the German language,

Extract of a letter from Lancaster, dated June 7· "We were yesterday gratified with a scene, to this part of Pennsylvania entirely new, and which was both grand and important---! mean the consecration and dedication of a Seminary of Learning. "On this occasion the people assembled from all parts of the adjacent country, to the amount of some thousands. The ceremony was calculated to excite in the minds of that very crowded audience the most agreeable emotions. The whole was conducted with a degree of decorum and splendor which I cannot find words to describe: But a circumstance, which must be truly grateful to the mind of every good man, justly deserves to be mentioned---It was a spectacle beautiful in itself, and which we may with certainty pronounce, no age, or country, nor any set of people, ever beheld before----On the same

and, after some interruption by music, a sensible discourse in English was delivered by one of the professors. The subject of this last sermon was the general utility of learning, and was calculated to impress upon every heart the exalted principles of benevolence. "All the teachers in the College are equally qualified with the Principal for the branches of literature assigned to them. Mr. Handell, the Vice-Principal, is a man of profound learning and of a most exemplary character. The Professor of the Latin, Greek, and German languages is a stranger in this place, but comes recommended to us as a man of critical knowledge and taste in polite literature. Mr. Hutchins, who was educated in the College of Philadelphia under Dr. Smith and Dr. Allison, is greatly esteemed among us, and has taught a school here for some time past with great reputation. The Professor of Mathematics is said to be an able man in

ly joined in the worship and adoration

his way. In short, a cluster of more learned or better qualified masters I believe have not met in any university. "I am informed, that in the prosecution of the business relative to the institu-

of the Supreme Being! a type, however

tion, the greatest unanimity and harmo-

small, of the glorious reign of the Mes-

ny subsisted among the trustees, though composed of gentlemen of a variety of different denominations, and even of different countries---a striking mark of the

day, in the same church, and to the same set of Christians, the ministers of four different religious persuasions successive-

siah, which we are promised will one day come. "The music was well adapted to the

[ 423 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES powerful effects of a liberal education, which (with perhaps a few instances to the contrary) will enlarge the mind and fill it with the purest sentiments of patriotism and public spirit! And it may not be unjustly remarked, that men of science will never suffer form to impede the prosecution of any undertaking which may tend to the general welfare. "From the establishment of this college, a new era will commence in Pennsylvania. The introduction of the English language among our Germans, who

constitute at least one fourth of the inhabitants of the state, cannot fail of being attended with the happiest consequences, both to themselves and to the public, while their own language will hereby be preserved from extinction and corruption, by being grammatically taught in the College, a circumstance this, which will enable them to become the vehicle to our country of all the discoveries of one of the most learned nations in Europe."

The next day we met at the Court house. The newspaper contains a full account of what followed. I shall only add to it that the account of the effect of the sermons, prayers, and music upon the minds of the audience is no ways exaggerated. It was to me one of the highest entertainments I ever enjoyed in my life. I enclose you a copy of the odes and hymns sung upon the occasion. 20 The odes were composed by the Reverend Mr. Helmuth. After the consecration was finished, the trustees assembled with a number of the citizens of Lancaster amounting in all to near So gentlemen, and dined together at a public house in the town. The design of this dinner was to make us better acquainted with each other. I improved it for this purpose by setting near and talking alternately with a Lutheran, a Calvanist, a Roman Catholic, 21 and a Moravian minister-all of whom I found to be sensible, agreeable men. My companions from the city enjoyed this instance of my attention to our new acquaintances. Nor were they deficient in similar acts of familiar intercourse with them. Mr. Hamilton charmed everybody with his easy behavior. Mr. Bingham interested the gravest of our German company in national politics, while Mr. Rawle forced his way into their hearts at once by conversing with them upon the subject of their College in their own language. After dinner the following toasts were drank. They were only 12 in number, to designate as well as to insult Rhode Island for her separation from the federal Union. 1. Franklin College-may it become a nursery of religion and learning while the sun and moon endure. 2. The President 22 and State of Pennsylvania. [ 424 ]

19 JUNE 1787 3· The influence of science upon agriculture, manufactures, government, and religion in the United States. 4· The Convention of the United States. 5. George Washington, Esquire-President of the Convention. 6. May the citizens of the United States discover as much wisdom in adopting a vigorous federal government to preserve their liberties as they did zeal and fortitude in defending them. 7. The King of France-the father of his people. 8. The United Netherlands. 9· Spain and the other friendly European powers. IO. The friends of science, liberty, and religion in GERMANY. I I. Perpetual harmony among the citizens of every nation and sect in Pennsylvania. May they ever consider themselves as members of the same family. 12. The friends and benefactors of Franklin College. At 6 o'clock the trustees left the table and returned to the Court house, where they were engaged till 8 o'clock in the business of the institution. The forenoon of the next day was spent in the same duties. At one o'clock we adjourned till next September. The trustees from Philadelphia dined at Mr. Yeates', 23 an eminent lawyer in: Lancaster, and spent an agreeable afternoon with him. The next day (Friday) we left Lancaster, and after a pleasant ride through a highly cultivated and beautiful country, we reached Philadelphia on Saturday about 3 o'clock. It has given me great pleasure to find that our conduct at Lancaster has given universal satisfaction. Disputes were happily prevented, ancient jealousies were composed, and a foundation was laid for a lasting union between men of nations and sects formerly opposed to each other. Nor is this all. By introducing the English language among the Germans, we have paved the way for the advancement of the Gospel in Pennsylvania. As soon as their ministers are able to preach in English (which they_ wish to do), they will collect together a great number of straggling English Episcopalians and Presbyterians who are too few or too poor to maintain ministers of their own denominations and who, in consequence of this, live without the benefit of the ordinances of religion. The Gospel will be safe in the hands of the German Lutherans and Calvanists, not only because they hold its most essential doctrines, but because they are just and punctual in maintaining their ministers. I discovered at Lancaster that they always lodge in private houses when they assemble at their synods and coetuses. Even their horses are kept in private stables, and their traveling ex[ 425

J

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

penses to and from their general meetings are always borne by their respective congregations. How honorable will it be for these worthy people, not only to preserve their religion among strangers, but to propagate it likewise in a foreign country! My prospects of the utility and perpetuity of our institutions for extending science and humanity arise in a great measure from the expectations I entertain of their falling into the hands of Quakers and Germans. From them Pennsylvania has derived the beginning and will probably derive the consummation of her fame and happiness. When the blessings and ornaments of science are added to their Christian morals and republican manners, they cannot fail of becoming the first people upon the face of the earth. The Quakers have showed us already the influence of human learning upon their character and manners. They rank everywhere highly at present in the republic of letters and government. The Germans will probably surpass them, as their principles admit of more unlimited pursuits upon literary subjects. At present they exhibit the most melancholy proofs of ignorance. They consider the whole business and duty of man to consist in acquiring land and money. They value each other chiefly for animal qualities, or at most for those qualities only which are essential to them as cultivators of the earth. "Can she work well?" is the first and often the only question a German farmer asks his son when he mentions the name of his intended bride to him. "Conrad is ruined," said an old German. "He has married Caty , and she is not able to carry half a hand"meaning that she could not do half the work of a man in a harvest field. A German farmer once lost his only son. One of his neighbors who came to condole with him told him he was sorry for his loss. "My loss," said he. "No loss to me. Hance has been working for himself these four years." I have been told that they seldom teach their women to write, and permit them to read nothing but the Bible and religious books .. From their extreme ignorance they are large contributors to the support of lawyers and quacks. Their carelessness in the forms of their titles and wills leads them often to the law, and their credulity, which is the offspring of ignorance, disposes them to prefer the boasting empiric to the sceptical regularbred physician. I must add here that this ignorance prevails most among the Menonists, who have proclaimed war against priests and schools ever since they suffered so much from the Bishop of Munster, who was both a priest and a man of learning. 24 I am not discouraged by these anecdotes in my attempts to introduce knowledge and civilization among them. They are ex[ 426 ]

19 JUNE 1787 cellent materials for scholars, citizens, and Christians; and should my life be spared for 20 years, I expect to be charmed by hearing the eloquence of my German fellow citizens in the senate, at the bar, and in the pulpit. I expect further to see them add to their wealth all the embellishments of polite and social life upon their farms and in their houses. Nor will their attainments in literature lessen the products of their industry. On the contrary, they will be doubled or quadrupled by them, for knowledge like the mechanic powers increases the force and activity of labor no less in agriculture than in the mechanical arts. The fears of some little-minded men, that we shall have too many colleges and too many learned men, are as absurd as it would be to say that we shall have too plentiful harvests, too much religion, or too much happiness. I have only to apologize for the length of this letter, and to add that if your pleasure in reading it is half as great as mine has been in my attempt to amuse you with it, I shall be highly gratified. With love to our good sisters and brothers at Morven, and most respectful compliments to our worthy friend Dr. Smith, I am, my dear madam, your dutiful and affectionate son, BENJN

Rusa

iMS: Franklin and Marshall College Library. 1 BR's account of the dedicatory ceremonies of Franklin (now Franklin and Marshall) College in June I787, though only recently recovered, is much the fullest account of this interesting and colorful event that has survived. The background of the College and BR's part in its establishment are related in my introduction to A Letter by Dr. Benjamin Rush Describing the Consecration of the German College at Lancaster, Lancaster, I945· Fuller explanatory notes are also provided there. (See also BR's letter to his German fellow citizens, 3I Aug. I785.) It is hardly necessary to point out that the interest of the letter is enhanced by BR's style, which was never more genial or graphic than it is here, and for good reasons. He was recording an event of the kind he most enjoyed sharing inthe launching of an agency for the cultural advancement of his countrymen. 2 Francis Corbin (I759-I8zi), member of the Virginia House of Delegates,

friend of George Washington, and a staunch Federalist ("The Corbin Family," Va. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., XXX [I9zz], 309-I8; Washington, Diaries, r748-r799, ed. J. C. Fitzpatrick, Boston and N.Y., I9Z5, III, z IS). 3 William Hamilton (I745-I8q), of Bush Hill and The Woodlands, landowner and gardenist; after the Revolution he was the principal representative in America of a wealthy and distinguished Pennsylvania family, most of whom were loyalists (Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. I 3 s-6; Thompson Westcott, Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, Phila., 1877, p. 415-

2.7). 4 William Rawle (1759-1836), a leading young Philadelphia lawyer; U.S. attorney for Pennsylvania, 1791; a founder of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, I 82 5; author of legal and religious works (DAB) . 5 Justus Henry Christian Helmuth (1745-18z5), German-born pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster,

[ 427 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES bach (1749-I82I), born in Germany, had only recently arrived in the United States; besides teaching, he served as treasurer of the College and practised surveying; later adopted Swedenborgian views and wrote mystical works published in both English and German (Alex. Harris, Biographical History of Lancaster County, Lancaster, I 872, p. I-Iv.) 47 5-6; Dubbs, Franklin and Marshall 6 This was BR's term to distinguish College, p. 63-5). 1 members of the German Reformed s Joseph Hutchins (I747·I8J3), Church from Lutherans; but the term attended the College of Philadelphia, was not agreeable to the Reformed them- I76s; D.D., I79o; rector of St. James' selves (see J. W. Hendel to BR, 26 Jan. Episcopal Church, Lancaster, I783I 787, Dubbs, Franklin and Marshall I 7 8 8 ; trustee of Franklin College; College, p. 13, note); and BR substi- author of lin II bstract of the First Printuted the term Presbyterians in his ciples of English Grammar, Phila., II ccount of the Manners of the German I 79I, which proved popular (Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates; Inhabitants ••. , 17 89. 7 On this controversial subject, see Dubbs, Franklin and Marshall College, BR's letter of 31 Aug. 1785, note 3· p. 65-6; information from the late Dr. 8 The clipping which BR pasted on George W. Lamb, librarian of the one of the sheets of his letter (contain- Church Historical Society, Phila.). ing a news story he himself must have 14 This phrase, for obvious stylistic composed) was from the Penna. Gazette reasons, was canceled by BR in the clipof I 3 June. ping. 9 Gotthilf Henry Ernest Muhlenberg 15 Caspar Dietrich Weiberg, or Wey(I753-I8I5), youngest son of the Lu- berg (d. I 790), pastor of the Race theran "patriarch," Henry M. Muhlen- Street Reformed Church, Phila., I 763berg, was educated at Halle and suc- I 790, and a trustee of Franklin College ceeded Helmuth as pastor of Trinity (Henry Harbaugh, The Fathers of the Lutheran Church, Lancaster, I 780, con- Reformed Church in Europe and tinuing there until his death; D.D., America, zd edn., Lancaster, I 872, n, Princeton, 1 7 87 ; versed in several I oo-8). 1 6 Published, by the desire of the sciences, he was preeminent in botany, a field to which he made important trustees, with the title Eine Rede, gehalcontributions (DAB; Princeton Univ., ten den 6ten June 1787. bey der Einweihung von der Deutschen hohen Gen. Cat., I9o8). 10 John William Hendel (I 740- Schute oder Franklin Collegium in I798), born in the Palatinate and edu- Lancaster ... , Lancaster, q88. 17 Published with the title Sermon cated at Heidelberg; pastor of the Reformed Church at Lancaster, I 764- Preached in the Lutheran Church, on 1769, I782-I794; D.D., Princeton, the Opening of Franklin College, in I787 (DAB; Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., the Borough of Lancaster, Pennsylvania: July r7th [!] 1787, Phila., I8o6. The I9o8). 11 Frederick Valentine Melsheimer long delay in publication of this ad(I749-18I4), chaplain of a regiment mirable discourse may have been owing of Brunswick dragoons in the British to Hutchins' bold appeals for the exservice; captured, and resigned the tinction of sectarian differences and the service, I 779; Lutheran pastor and supremacy of the English language schoolmaster in various Pennsylvania among the Germans. 1 8 See note zo, below. communities; a pioneer entomological 19 "Herbts" in the newspaper. John collector and scholar (DAB) • 12 John Christian William Reichen- A. Herbst (I7JS-I8xz), born in Swabia, I 769-1779; co-pastor of St. Michael's and Zion Churches, Philadelphia, from I 779; professor of German, Univ. of Penna., from I78o; D.D., Univ. of Penna., 1785. More perhaps than any other one person, Helmuth was responsible for the idea and plan of the "German College." (DAB; Dubbs, Franklin and Marshall College, ch.

[ 428 ]

27 JUNE 1787 was called to serve as pastor of the Moravian congregation at Lancaster, I 786, and was one of the charter trustees of the College; pastor at Lititz, Penna., from 1791 to ISII, when he was consecrated bishop; composed music still used in Moravian churches (information from Rev. W. N. Schwarze, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Penna). BR requested a copy of the prayer, which Herbst furnished and which will be found in the Rush MSS 1 XXXIX. 20 This enclosure has not survived; it was doubtless a copy of the Order of Procession and Public Worship sent also to Price; see preceding letter, note 5. Helmuth probably composed only the German hymn and ode, for the rendering of which he sent precise instructions (Dubbs, Franklin and Marshall College, p. 3 7-8). 21 Rev. John Baptist Causse, also spelled Cousie, Kauss, Gausse, &c., a Recollect father, pastor of St. Mary's Church, Lancaster, 1787-1789, and a charter trustee of the College (Ameri-

can Catholic Historical Society, Records, Ill [t89I], 143-7; v [1894], 327; XXII

[1911], 132;

XXV

[1914], 36-9).

22

This is the sole reference in BR's narrative to the great man for whom the College was named. Franklin was a charter trustee and contributed £zoo to the institution, but it has been established that he did not attend the fo\lnding ceremonies, despite a story by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur that he ( Crevecoeur) held a long conversation with Franklin at Lancaster on this occasion. See note in BR's Letter Describing the Consecration of the German College at Lancaster, p. 34-5· 23 Jasper Yeates (1745-18t7) 1 a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, 1 76 5 ; an active Republican politician in the Confederation period; associate justice of the Pennsylvania supreme court from 1791 (DAB). 2 4 For this somewhat tangled historical allusion, see note in BR's Letter Describing the Consecration of the German College at Lancaster, p. 36-7.

To Mrs. Rush Philadelphia, June 27, 1787 My dear Julia, Being called a few days ago to attend in the family of Jonas Phillips/ I was honored this morning with an invitation to attend the marriage of his daughter to a young man of the name of LEVY from Virginia. 2 I accepted the invitation with great pleasure, for you know I love to be in the way of adding to my stock of ideas upon all subjects. At r o'clock the company, consisting of 30 or 40 men, assembled in Mr. Philips' common parlor, which was accommodated with benches for the purpose. The ceremony began with prayers in the Hebrew language, which were chaunted by an old rabbi and in which he was followed by the whole company. As I did not understand a word except now and then an Amen or Hallelujah, my attention was directed to the haste with which they covered their heads with their hats as soon as the prayers began, and to the freedom with which some of them conversed with each other during the whole time of this part of their worship. As soon as these prayers were ended, which took up about 20 minutes, a small piece of

[ 429 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

parchment was produced, written in Hebrew, which contained a deed of settlement and which the groom subscribed in the presence of four witnesses. In this deed he conveyed a part of his fortune to his bride, by which she was provided for after his death in case she survived him. This ceremony was followed by the erection of a beautiful canopy composed of white and red silk in the middle of the floor. It was supported by four young men (by means of four poles), who put on white gloves for the purpose. As soon as 3 this canopy was fixed, the bride, accompanied with her mother, sister, and a long train of female relations, came downstairs. Her face was covered with a veil which reached halfways down her body. She was handsome at all times, but the occasion and her dress rendered her in a peculiar manner a most lovely and affecting object. I gazed with delight upon her. Innocence, modesty, fear, respect, and devotion appeared all at once in her countenance. She was led by her two bridesmaids under the canopy. Two young men led the bridegroom after her and placed him, not by her side, but directly opposite to her. The priest now began again to chaunt an Hebrew prayer, in which he was followed by part of the company. After this he gave to the groom and bride a glass full of wine, from which they each sipped about a teaspoonful. Another prayer followed this act, after which he took a ring and directed the groom to place it upon the finger of his bride in the same manner as is practised in the marriage service of the Church of England. This ceremony was followed by handing the wine to the father of the bride and then a second time to the bride and groom. The groom after sipping the wine took the glass in his hand and threw it upon a large pewter dish which was suddenly placed at his feet. Upon its breaking into a number of small pieces, there was a general shout of joy and a declaration that the ceremony was over. The groom now saluted his bride, and kisses and congratulations became general through the room. I asked the meaning, after the ceremony was over, of the canopy and of the drinking of the wine and breaking of the glass. I was told by one of the company that in Europe they generally marry in the open air, and that the canopy was introduced to defend the bride and groom from the action of the sun and from rain. Their mutually partaking of the same glass of wine was intended to denote the mutuality of their goods, and the breaking of the glass at the conclusion of the business was designed to teach them the brittleness and uncertainty of human life and the :ertainty of death, and thereby to temper and moderate their present JOys. [ 430

J

27

JUNE

1787

Mr. Phillips pressed me to stay and dine with the company, but business and Dr. Hall's departure, which was to take place in the afternoon, forbade it. I stayed, however, to eat some wedding cake and to drink a glass of wine with the guests. Upon going into one of the rooms upstairs to ask how Mrs. Philips did, who had fainted downstairs under the pressure of the heat (for she was weak from a previous indisposition), I discovered the bride and groom supping a bowl of broth together. Mrs. Phillips apologized for them by telling me they had eaten nothing (agreeably to the custom prescribed by their religion) since the night before. Upon my taking leave of the company, Mrs. Phillips put a large piece of cake into my pocket for you, which she begged I would present to you with her best compliments. She says you are an old New York acquaintance of hers. During the whole of this new and curious scene my mind was not idle. I was carried back to the ancient world and was led to contemplate the passovers, the sacrifices, the jubilees, and other ceremonies of the Jewish Church. After this, I was led forward into futurity and anticipated the time foretold by the prophets when this oncebeloved race of men shall again be restored to the divine favor and when they shall unite with Christians with one heart and one voice in celebrating the praises of a common and universal Saviour. I have only time to add that the pleasure I enjoyed in the sight and reflections I have recorded was soon damped by my being obliged to take leave of my dear friend and late partner Dr. Hall. He took me by the hand at 4 o'clock-but was unable to bid me farewell. His eyes filled with tears, and he attempted in vain to give utterance to his affection and grief. Mr. Blakely/ Dr. Griflitts, 5 and four or five more of his companions accompanied him to Gray's ferry. He has left a blank in every part of the house. I feel without him as if I had lost my right arm. John prefers visiting Morven in the holidays next month to a short excursion, agreeably to your proposal. I have promised Dick that he shall accompany him. Adieu. With love to your Mama, sisters, and brothers, and to our dear children, I am your affectionate husband, B: RusH P.S. June 28th. We met last night about our free schools. The company was well chosen and truly respectable. A plan was adopted that cannot fail (heaven continuing to smile upon the undertaking) of succeeding and doing the most extensive good. 0! Virtue, Virtue, [ 431 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

who would not follow thee blindfold! --Methinks I hear you cry out after reading this postcript, "Alas! my poor husband! he is as crazy as ever." I have sent the wedding cake by Mr. Stockton.6 fMS: Mr. Gordon A. Block, Jr., Philadelphia. 1

Jonas Phillips (1736-1803), born near Aix-la-Chapelle, later lived in London, Charleston, New York, and at length in Philadelphia, where, according to the Directory for 1785, he had a mercantile business on Market between Second and Third Streets; he was prominent in the Mickveh Israel Congregation (Morais, Jews of Philadelphia, p. z 7-8). 2 Rachel, daughter of Jonas Phillips, married Michael Levy; their son, Uriah Phillips Levy ( 179z-1862), rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Navy and acquired some celebrity for his purchase of Jefferson's home, Monticello, though the work of restoration was to be begun by Levy's nephew and heir, Jefferson M. Levy (same; also DAB, under Uriah P. Levy; Paul Wilstach, Jefferson and Monticello, sth edn., N.Y., 1939, ch. XIV). 8 She was the former Rebecca Machado (d. 1831), daughter of the Rev. David Mendes Machado, of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel in New York (Morais, Jews of Phi/adelphia, p. 2 8).

4

Not identified. Samuel Powel Griffitts ( 17 59I 826) , Quaker physician and philanthropist; M.B., University of the State of Penna., 178 I ; completed his training in Europe, carrying with him a letter of advice on traveling from BR (see note on letter to John Foulke, 25 Apr. I78o); a principal founder of the Philadelphia Dispensary, q86, and for many years an attendant physician there; professor of materia medica, University of Pennsylvania, I792-I796. Griffitts was almost the only physician of prominence who supported BR unreservedly in the controversy over treatment of the yellow fever in I 79 3 ; he believed that he had recovered from a severe attack by the use of bleeding and purging. (Thacher, Amer. Med. Biog.; W. S. Middleton, "Samuel Powel Griffitts," Ann. Med. Hist., 2d ser., X [I938], 373-90; frequent references in BR's letters to Mrs. Rush, Sep.-Oct. I 793.) 6 Probably Robert Stockton; see BR to Shippen, z Dec. 177 7. 5

To Richard Price Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 29, 1787 The bearer, the Reverend Mr. Winchester, has yielded to an inclination he has long felt of visiting London and has applied to me for a letter to you, for Americans of every profession and rank expect to find a friend in the friend of humankind. You are no stranger to his principles. I can with great pleasure add that his life and conversation have fully proved that those principles have not had an unfavorable influence upon the heart. With a few oddities in dress and manner, he has maintained among both friends and enemies the character of an honest man. He leaves many sincere friends behind him. I know not how his peculiar doctrine of Uni-

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1787

versal Salvation may be received in London. But in every part of America it has advocates. In New England it continues to spread rapidly. In this city a Mr. Blair/ a Presbyterian minister of great abilities and extensive learning, and equally distinguished for his humility and piety, has openly professed his belief of it from the pulpit. Mr. Winchester will deliver you two or three of our last newspapers. With great respect I am, dear sir, your friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH P.S. All will end well from the federal Convention. Printed: Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, zd series, xvn

(1903), 369-70. 1 This must be Samuel Blair (on whom see BR to Hazard, 8 Nov. 1765); he was in retirement at Germantown but

preached occasionally in Philadelphia (Sprague, Annals, m, 269-70).

To Ashbel Green

1

Dear Sir, August I Ith, 1787 When a man of 40 years of age changes his place and mode of worship, he ought to be able to give good reason for it. For many years my connection with the Presbyterians in Philadelphia had been rendered very disagreeable to me by the difference of our political sentiments. But I still entertained a hope that time would produce a uniformity in our opinions. I considered them as deceived by a few interested men, and hoped by a patient continuance with them to convince them of their folly in supporting either men or measures which equally disgraced their understandings and their morality. I therefore retained in every contest with their principles and leaders an attachment to their interests. (Of this I could mention many proofs. The charter, funds, library, professors, and students of a college projected and established for their benefit at Carlisle will I hope be considered as unequivocal proof.? In May 1785 I offered to maintain before the synod or a presbytery a charge against Dr. Ewing for lying, drunkenness, and unchristian language. This offer was made to Dr. Smith, Mr. Linn, Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Erwin. No notice was however taken of it, and the Doctor continued to retain his standing and to increase [ 433 ]

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in influence among the Presbyterians. This instance of neglect in a matter so essential to the honor of the religious society to which I belonged and the vindication of my own character would have detached me from it, had I not considered Dr. Sproat's church as an asylum from him. I thought while the Arch Street pulpit retained its purity (and the congregation their principles}, I never should have the mortification of seeing a man in it (whose disposition to injure me I believed was restrained by nothing but law from taking my life, and} whose profligate character fitted him more to officiate at the rites of a heathen god than at the worship of Jesus Christ. In this expectation I was disappointed. I declined to witness your ordination only because part of the solemnity of it was conducted by Dr. Ewing,3 and I have as the last act of separation from your society this day given up my seat in your church only because I was informed that Dr. Sproat had proposed to Dr. Ewing at the dinner which followed your ordination to keep up a friendly intercourse between their two societies by occasionally exchanging their pulpits. I thought it necessary to give you this information, that you might not suspect that disrespect to you was any part of my reason for leaving your church. On the contrary, I have great pleasure in assuring you that your character and talents were very agreeable to me, and that it would have been extremely agreeable to me to have sat under your ministry had not the events I have related rendered it improper. I beg this letter may be showed to Dr. Sproat and to such other members of your society as ascribe my separation from them to any other motive than the true one. I am not ashamed to confess that the step, though dictated by long deliberation, has given me great pain. The prejudices and friendships of my youth are among the Presbyterians, and most of my religious principles were (imbibed in the Arch Street Church) derived from them. I still wish to maintain a friendly connection with them, and I heartily forgive them for all the in juries I have received from them, and I pray God to deliver them from the influence of bad men and to spare them to compose a part of the Redeemer's new empire in America. With great regard and sincere wishes for your health and usefulness, I am, dear sir, your sincere friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH 4 /Jl.fS (draft): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS.

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16 AUGUST 1787 1 Ashbel Green , (r762-1848), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 7 83 ; installed as assistant to Dr. Sproat at the Second Church, 15 May 1787; principal minister, I793-1812; president of the College of New Jersey, I8 12-I822; influential in the Presbyterian Church organization and in the establishment of the Theological Seminary at Princeton; a voluminous writer on theological subjects, especially after his retirement. BR was perfectly sincere in the present letter in avowing that he held nothing against Green, toward whom he seems always to have felt a strong attachment and whom in I8o8 he proposed for the presidency of Dickinson College. In his autobiography, Green notes that, during their residence together in Philadelphia, BR and he sometimes collaborated in the treatment of mental cases; and while Green served at Princeton BR was his close adviser and supporter. (DAB; Green, Life, ed. Joseph H. Jones, N.Y., I849, p. 24; BR to Green, 9 Dec. I8o2 and 3 I Dec. r 812; BR to John Montgomery, I o Aug. I8o8.) It should be borne in mind that BR's resignation from his old church, though prompted by Ewing's part in Green's ordination, was also

partly owing to his own developing antipathy to orthodox Calvinism. 2 The draft was much scored out and interlined by BR; only the more significant deletions have been restored in the present text. 3 On this occasion Ewing preached a sermon which was afterwards published as Fidelity in the Gospel Ministry, Phila., I 787. In view of BR's charges against Ewing (for which, however, I have found no other testimony), there is a certain irony in the following sentence from the sermon : "The prostitution of the sacred office of the gospel ministry to men of dissolute morals and debauched lives . . . has done more injury to the religion of Christ, than all the open attacks of infidelity and atheism together" (p. 1J). 4 In a long, conciliatory letter, dated 24 Aug. I7 87 but not sent until I8 Sep., Green questioned the wisdom of BR's decision and suggested that he need not leave the fold altogether, since there was still the Pine Street or Third Church that he could join (Rush MSS, xxxrx). To this BR replied promptly and uncompromisingly; see letter of 19 Sep. I787.

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia, Philadelphia, August 16, 1787 "SoLITUDE," said a French author/ "would be delightful, had I anybody with me to whom I might impart the pleasure I derive from it." Nothing ever showed more fully how deeply implanted our desires are for social happiness than this simple declaration. I feel the force of it every hour of the day. To a mind like mine, which so soon (perhaps from its slender size) becomes plethoric with ideas and which delights so much in communicating them, it is a new and peculiar hardship to lose at once a domestic friend, a wife, and five children, to most of whom I had been in the habits of imparting every thought as soon as it rose in my mind. Benny2 not only eats and drinks with me but sets constantly in the parlor, but this will not do. He wants-I know not what. He has no relish for the lives of the poets-he has never visited with you the Hebrides. 3

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Even more, he dares not dispute nor contradict me, and this is not only the life of conversation but steel to the flint of genius. It awakens and excites the fire of the mind. Had I married a fool, I never should have disturbed a single sleeping prejudice upon any subject. My children too have had an influence upon me. Emely I am sure will inquire what and how much good her father had in him, while the boys will inquire how far the things I shall leave upon record are wise or just. That bosom must be languid indeed that does not swell with such considerations. Mrs. Harriot4 will deliver you a few newspapers. With love as usual, I am, my dear Julia, yours affectionately, BENJN RusH .llddressed: Mrs. Julia Rush Morven Princeton. 'iiFl Mr Fergusson. &S: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. Not identified. Benjamin Young, BR's apprentice since I 7 84, later served as BR's agent in western land transactions (BR, MS List of Apprentices; correspondence between BR and Young in the Rush Mss, XXXII; BR to Mrs. Rush, zi-2.2. Aug. I793). s BR is alluding to Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets, first issued under 1 2

this title in I 78 I, and to James Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D., I785. For BR's relations with Boswell and Johnson, see letter to James Abercrombie, 2.2. Apr. 1793· 4 Presumably Hazel Harriot, 15 3 North Second St.; BR was her physician (Rush MSS, Account Books).

To Mrs. Rush Philadelphia, August 22nd, 1787 My dear Julia, Your letter by Mrs. Stamper relieved me from the fatigue of my morning's business. I found it on the table upon my return from the Hospital. John's letter was well written. Tell him I shall answer it, and tell Emely I shall write to her by the first private opportunity that offers. I long to put Paley's Moral Philosophy 1 into your hands. I enjoy it only by halves from not reading it with you. I wish you to make yourself mistress of it. It will qualify you above all things to educate our children properly-for a great proportion of this business (from my professional and public obligations) must necessarily devolve upon you. By directing your studies, therefore, I shall instruct them-and this too after I am removed from them, for I have no idea of surviving you. We had yesterday an high scene2 before our doors. One of the [ 436 ]

1787

22 AUGUST

wheelbarrow men3 (who were all at work in cleaning our street) asked me for a penny. I told him I had none but asked him if a draught of molasses beer would not be more acceptable to him. He answered in the affirmative. I called Billy, who cheerfully (honest soul!) ran to the cellar and brought up one of his black gugs (as he calls them) full of beer, and poured him out a quart mug full. He drank and commended it-a second asked to partake of it-and a third-till at last the whole company consisting of I 2 or I 3 partook of it to the amount of three jugs full. The keeper of the poor fellows stood by and in a good-natured way indulged them in a little rest while they drank their beer. A crowd as usual gathered round them. One of them struck me above the rest. He took a large dog in his arms and played with him in the most affectionate manner. "This dog," said he "came from England with me and has been my companion ever since." A heart is not wholly corrupted and offers at least one string by which it might be led back to virtue that is capable of so much steady affection even for a dog. The conduct of the dog excited my admiration and conveyed a faint idea by his fidelity of that infinite love which follows the human species however much reduced by distress, debased by crimes, or degraded by the punishments of a prison, of ignominy, or of pain. Old Mr. Fisher4 dined with me yesterday. I am just agoing to dine with him today. New difficulties have occurred in the way of getting Mr. B1aine's5 house, but I hope in a few days to be able to inform you that everything is settled to our satisfaction. Since writing the last sentence I have discharged my last debt to Mr. Sproat's church. I find our leaving them has at last alarmed them. I gave as my last reason for it Dr. Ewing's preaching Mr. Green's ordination sermon and the prospect in consequence of it there was of often seeing him in the Arch Street pulpit. Adieu, thou dear right side of my heart. With all my passions, infirmities, and enemies, I know you believe that [ .... ] 6 P.S. Love as usual. Addressed: Mrs: Julia Rush at Mrs: Stockton's Morven Princeton. tJifS (signature cut out): Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. 1 Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, published in 1785 by William Paley, archdeacon of Carlisle, who is best remembered for his extremely popular Evidences of Christianity, 1794; Paley opposed the deists by endeavoring to give utilitarian principles a supernatural sanction (DAB; Leslie Stephen, History of English Thought in the

Eighteenth Century, London, 1881, n, 121·5). 2 MS

apparently reads "sence."

3 See BR to Dickinson, 5 Apr. 1787. 4

Not certainly identifiable. Not identified. 6 Several words have been cut away with the signature. 5

[ 437 ]

To Mrs. Rush My dear Julia, Philadelphia, 26 August 1787 I feel myself insensibly led by the law of association to devote this evening, as I did the two last Sunday evenings, to writing to you, and if your mind continues to vibrate with mine I am sure you will feel an expectation and a desire of a letter from me tomorrow exactly at the same hour you received one from me on the two Mondays you have spent at Morven. I dined this day with Mr. 0'Bryan1 and went with Mrs. O'Bryan and Mr. BlackwelP to St. Peter's Church in the afternoon. I drank tea with Mrs. Blackwell, who is indisposed, and finished the day by attending divine service at St. Paul's Church. Mrs. Blackwell read to me several pieces of her poetry, which were truly elegant and far above mediocrity. I think her not inferior to your Mama in poetical taste as well as invention. She begged me to present her love to you. I yesterday received a bill of £so-o-o sterling as part of an apprentice fee with a young gentleman from North Carolina. It will help to wipe off a good deal of debt. "The lord hath made provision for the whole way," said good Dr. Finley on his deathbed. We have hitherto found it so. Nor is this the only instance of divine goodness which it becomes us to commemorate. In dividing the lands I hold in company with Mr. McClay and others, I drew one tract of sao acres which he told me the next day would of itself be an handsome fortune for a child. Every foot of it (he says) is the richest meadow ground and is now covered with natural grass. Besides this I drew a tract of 1000 acres on the river Susquehannah which Mr. McClay says must sooner or later be the seat of a county town. I drew a third tract of sao acres of which as yet I do not know the character. 3 Saml. Caldwell has at last called his creditors together. 4 Poor Mrs. Caldwell may perhaps live to repent of her unsuccessful attempts to deprive me and my family of bread. Dr. Ewing's reverse of fortune only sleeps. How truly wise is it to leave the avenging of our injuries to him who claims it as one of his prerogatives! When shall I send Andrew 5 with the horses? Although my books have supplied in some degree the pleasure of your company, yet they begin to lose their relish without you. I daily hear and see many things which perish in my bosom from not being communicated. [ 438 ]

30 AUGUST 1787 "Thoughts shut up, want air, And spoil like bales unopened to the sun.''6 My volume of medical essays go to the press tomorrow. They contain more new opinions in medicine than ever I have published in morals or metaphysics. I have dedicated them to Dr. Cullen. 7 My love to the children and to every member of your Mama's family. The girls have not waited for my death to forget me. Tell Polly I have a cell in my brain full of new arguments in favor of our beloved system of religion, but she shall not have them till I receive answers to all my former letters to 8 her. Adieu. Think of me often, and be assured of the steady affection of yours [ .... ] .vfddrem:d: Mrs: Julia Rush at Mrs: Stockton's Morven Princeton. &S (signature cut out): L. H. Butterfield, Princeton, New Jersey. 1 Perhaps Michael Morgan O'Bryan, merchant in Pine Street between Second and Third (Phila. Directory for 1785). 2 Robert Blackwell (t748-I8Jt), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, 1768, and D.D., 1788; senior assistant minister of the United (Anglican, later Episcopal) Churches, Philadelphia, 1781-I812; trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, I789-1822.. By his second marriage, in 1783, to Hannah Bingham Benezet (d. 1 8 I 5), sister of William Bingham, he acquired a very large fortune. The Blackwells lived at 224 Pine Street, near Third, in a house long famous as an architectural landmark. (Princeton Univ., Gen. Cat., I9o8; Smith, Smith, II, 486-7; H. D. Eberlein and H. M. Lippincott, The Colonial Homes of Philadelphia and

Its Neighbourhood, Phila., 1912, p. 42-7.) 3 For a brief account of BR's operations in western lands, see Goodman, Rush, ch. XIII. 4 Samuel Caldwell was a merchant in Third Street between Walnut and Spruce ( Phila. Directory for I 785) . About Mrs. Caldwell and her conduct as here alluded to, I have found no information. 5 Evidently a servant. 6 From Edward Young, The Complaint (I742), Night II. 7 The first (unnumbered) volume of BR's Medical Inquiries and Observations did not, however, appear until I 789, and it was dedicated to Dr. John Redman, not to Dr. Cullen. 8 BR inadvertently wrote "from."

To Timothy Pickering Philadelphia, August 30th, 1787 Dear Sir, I have only time to assure you that you will meet with the steady support of your friends in executing the late law of the state of which you are appointed a commissioner.1 Perhaps a short visit to Philadelphia during the approaching session of the Assembly might be useful. Keep a good heart, and put a bold face upon things. All will end well. The new federal government like a new continental

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wagon will overset our state dung cart with all its dirty contents (reverend and irreverent) and thereby restore order and happiness to Pennsylvania. From the conversation of the members of the Convention, there is reason to believe the federal Constitution will be wise, vigorous, safe, free, and full of dignity. General Washington it is said will be placed at the head of the new government, or in the style of my simile, will drive our new wagon. With compliments to Mrs. Pickering, 2 I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN: RusH &S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Pickering Papers. 1

Pickering, who had recently moved to the Wyoming Valley, was charged with the task of introducing Pennsylvania laws into the new county of Luzerne, which was largely inhabited by persons settled by the Susquehanna Company, the Connecticut enterprise whose claims had been voided. The

assignment called for intrepidity, which Pickering displayed. (DAB; Charles Miner, History of Wyoming, Phila., 1845, Letter XXVI.) 2 The former Rebecca White, who shared the perils of her husband's undertaking in Luzerne co. (references in preceding note).

To Ashbel Green Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 19th, 1787 The only design of my letter to you1 was to satisfy you and your worthy colleague Dr. Sproat that a dissatisfaction with your characters was no part of my reason for leaving your church. I was the more induced to do this as I was told by one of your congregation that he had heard that "your preaching was not agreeable to me." After this information, it would be foreign to my friendly intentions to enter into a dispute with you about the politics of the Presbyterians or Dr. Ewing's character. I shall only observe that, had you lived longer in our city and en joyed more extensive opportunities of information and observation than you have done upon these subjects, you would probably have espoused the cause of party men and measures and decided upon my conduct with much less warmth and confidence. Your apology for the long delay of your letter was wholly unnecessary. As my letter to you did not require, so I did not expect an answer to it. I shall conclude our correspondence by repeating my sincere [ 440 ]

28 SEPTEMBER 1787 wishes for your health and usefulness, and that I am your friend and humble servant, BENJN: RusH fMS: Josiah C. Trent, M.D., Durham, North Carolina. 1

Of

II

Aug. 1787, q.v.

To John Coakley Lettsom Dear Sir, Philadelphia, September 28th, 1787 Accept of my thanks for your long and very entertaining letter of the 15th of July last. 1 As soon as I have read it before the Prison Society, I shall take the liberty of publishing some extracts from it in our papers, that thousands may be as much gratified with the accounts of the triumphs of Howard and humanity in every part of the world as I have been. I have the pleasure of informing you that, from the influence of our Prison Society, a reformation has lately taken place in the jail of this city in favor not only of humanity but of virtue in general. It is impossible as yet to tell the extent of that good which may be effected by such societies. One thing is certain, that if no alleviation is given by them to human misery, men grow good by attempting it. A prison sometimes supplies the place of a church and out-preaches the preacher in conveying useful instruction to the heart. I have sometimes been led, from witnessing the good effects of a familiarity with scenes of distress and of habits of relieving it, to suspect that the melioration of our world is to be brought about not so much by the improvements of human reason as by a faithful imitation of the example of our Saviour and a general obedience to the plain and humble precepts of the Gospel. But why do I prefer these to the improvements of reason? Reason accords with them all, and its brightest improvement consists in obeying the doctrines and obeying the precepts of the Christian religion. I rejoice to find you express yourself so confidentially2 of the future success of your new society for abolishing the African trade. I am not more certain of the light with which I am now enabled to direct my pen, or of the sympathy which I now feel for our African brethren, than I am of your finally putting an end to the traffic in human souls, provided you persevere in remonstrating against it. I recollect the time when John Woo1man8 and Anthony [ 441 ]

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Benezett stood alone in defending the claims of the Negroes to the rights of humanity and justice in Pennsylvania. Inspired by their example, I published a tract in favor of the poor Africans in the year 1772,4 a copy of which I believe you will find among the collections of Granville Sharp, Esquire, in London. This tract procured me many enemies and even exposed me to the pity of my friends, for they considered it as the ill-timed production of a rash young man and predicted with real concern that it would be fatal to my business and prospects in life. It was soon followed by many others upon this subject and by numerous publications in our newspapers, which, joined with the testimony of the Friends and Methodists against it, have finally overthrown the principles and in a great degree checked the practice of Negro slavery in our state. To the influence of Pennsylvania chiefly is to be ascribed the prevalence of sentiments favorable to African liberty in every part of the United States. You will see a proof of their operation in the new Constitution of the United States. In the year one thousand seven hundred and eight5 there will be an end of the African trade in America. No mention was made of Negroes or slaves in this Constitution only because it was thought the very words would contaminate the glorious fabric of American liberty and government. Thus you see the cloud which a few years ago was no larger than a man's hand has descended in plentiful dews and at last covered every part of our land. Let me con jure you therefore to tease your Parliament every year with petitions. Fill your newspapers with essays and anecdotes of the in justice and cruelty of the African trade. Remember the story of the importunate widow. Remember too the saying in your country by which we have often profited in America-"You may write down a parliament, you may write down a ministry, you may write down a king." Truth, though slow, is sure in its operation. Like spirit, it is indestructible and unquenchable in its nature. No particle of it can be lost. Sow plentifully, and a plentiful harvest will ensue. If not immediately, certainly in due time. Remember there is the same difference between the seeds of truth that there is between the seeds of plants. Some are annual, some biannual, while some like the trees of the forest require half a century before they arrive at perfection. The reformation which took place in the reign of Henry the 8th sprang from the seeds of truth which were planted by John Wickliff. The American Revolution in the year 1776 was the fruit of a tree planted in the year I 764 during the disputes [ 442 ]

28 SEPTEMBER 1787 about the Stamp Act by Dickinson, Adams, Otis, Bland,6 and other enlightened American patriots and legislators. Accept of my thanks for the pamphlet containing an account of the scarcity root and the seeds which accompanied it/ I have distributed the latter carefully and hope to send you, next year, an account of its being cultivated with success in our country. As a small recompense for the volume of your transactions which you did me the favor of sending to me, I beg your acceptance of two more cases of the successful use of calomel, bark, wine, and the cold bath in the tetanus. 8 I shall enclose them in a separate address to you, which address may if you think proper be prefixed to the account of them in your transactions. I am now preparing my essays for the press. 200 copies of them will be sent to London and the same number to Edinburgh. I expect great opposition to several of them, particularly the essay on worms, 9 and to one which I have styled "Free Thoughts on Pulmonary Consumptions.mo The last of them will probably be more acceptable, as it opposes no popular prejudice. The title of it is "An Account of the Effects of the Late American Revolution upon the Human Body."11 I have lately obtained the exclusive care of the maniacal patients in our hospital. They amount at present to 34· The remedies on which I place my chief dependence are the warm and cold baths. In some cases I have used them after the Indian method-that is, I direct the cold to succeed the use of the warm bath while the patient is in the lowest state of debility and the highest state of irritability from the action of the warm water. I shall carefully record the effects of these and other remedies upon my patients, and if any new facts should occur I shall not fail of communicating them to you. You see from this desperate undertaking I am still fond of voyages to Otaheite12 in medicine. I beg your acceptance of a small tract upon female education. 13 I shall have no objections, if you approve of it, to its being reprinted in one of your magazines, but it is too trifling to be reprinted in a separate pamphlet. I therefore beg it may not be obtruded upon the public eye in that form in Great Britain. From the experience of our citizens of the bad effects of our wheelbarrow law (as 'tis called), it will probably be repealed. This I hope will pave the way for the adoption of solitude and labor as the means of not only punishing but of reforming criminals. Our new federal government is very acceptable to a great majority of our citizens and will certainly be adopted immediately by [ 443 ]

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nine and in the course of a year or 1 8 months by all the States. When this shall happen, then to be a citizen of the United States with all its consequences will be to be a citizen of the freest, purest, and happiest government upon the face of the earth. It contains all the theoretical and practical advantages of the British Constitution without any of its defects or corruptions. While the nations of Europe have waded into order through seas of blood, you see we have traveled peaceably into order only through seas of blunders. Thus, my dear friend, have I endeavored to repay you for your long letter by one of an equal number of pages. I have only to add my most fervent wishes that you may long continue your successful labors for the advancement of science and humanity, and that like your illustrious predecessor Dr. Fothergill you may continue to diffuse the beams of your benevolence across the ocean. It is an high act of charity to enlighten the inhabitants of this new world in which the toils of clearing forests and the commotions that are inseparable from the establishment of a new government are so unfriendly to the cultivation of science. With great respect, I am, dear sir, your sincere friend and humble servant, BENJN: RusH tllfS {letter-book copy, not in BR's hand but endorsed by him as sent by "Capt Brougham"): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS, Notebooks, vol. 1

I.

In Rush MSS, XXXII. Presumably an error, by BR or the copyist, for "confidently." s The famous Quaker itinerant reformer and contemplative writer (I720· I772) (DAB). 4 An error for I 77 3 ; BR is referring to his Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, upon Slave-Keeping. 5 BR means I8o8; see the U.S. Constitution, art. i, sect. 9. 6 Richard Bland ( I7I o-I776), of Virginia, author of the influential Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, Williamsburg, I766 (DAB). 7 The scarcity root was the mangel wurzel. Lettsom, who had a high opinion of this plant, issued an account of it in a pamphlet translated from the French. The substance of the pamphlet, no doubt communicated by BR, appeared in the Columbian Magazine, n, I30·3 2

(Mch. I 78 8). See also BR to George Washington, 26 Apr. I788. 8 BR's "Observations upon the Cause and Cure of the Tetanus" first appeared in the Medical Society of London, Memoirs, I (I787), 65-76, and was several times reissued; see Amer. Philos. Soc., Procs., XCII (I948-I949), 36. Two further communications from BR on the same subject appeared in the Memoirs, II (I789), Io8-17. 9 "Observations upon Worms in the Alimentary Canal, and upon Anthelmintic Medicines," Med. Inq. & Obs. [r], I789, p. IS0-62, which reports some remarkable experiments conducted by BR in I77I· 10 Printed in Med. Inq. & Obs. [r], I 7 89, p. I 3 7·49· This influential essay recommended an heroic regimen of exercise, especially horseback riding, for consumptives.

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11

DECEMBER

11 Printed, with an expanded title, in the same, p. I 86-96. 12 The eighteenth-century name for Tahiti, which was discovered by Capt. Samuel Wallis in I 767 and quickly became a romantic symbol (A. S. Turberville, ed., Johnson's England, Oxford, I933> I, Io8ff.). 13 Thoughts upon Female Education, Accommodated to the Present State of

1787

Society, Manners, and Government, in the United States of America. Addressed to the Visitors of the Young Ladies' Academy in Philadelphia, 28 July, r787, Phila. : Prichard & Hall, I 787. This characteristic and important discourse, which was several times reprinted, is most readily accessible in BR's Essays (1798), p. 75-9z.

1

To James Currie

Sir, Philadelphia, December 11, 1787 Accept of my thanks for your polite letter and the important communication which accompanied it by Mrs. Stewart. 2 I shall take the liberty of publishing it with accounts of three more cases in which wine, bark, and the cold bath have succeeded in the cure of tetanus. Two of these cases were communicated to me by my pupils who had heard my opinions and practice upon that disease delivered in a course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania. The second edition of the tract upon the tetanus will appear in a volume of essays upon medicine in the course of a few months, a copy of which I shall take the liberty of transmitting to you. Some of these essays will call in question many established opinions and modes of practice in physic. In all of them, truth and utility, not novelty or fame, have been the only objects of my inquiries. On my way to Edinburgh in the year 1 766, I received many acts of attention from Mr. Statham's and Mr. Arthur Heywood's families in Liverpool. 3 If they are of the number of your acquaintances, please to inform them that the dissolution of our connection with each other as fellow citizens by means of the late war has not lessened the high sense I then entertained of their civilities to a young stranger. With great respect for your character, with which I have the honor to be well acquainted, I am, sir, your most obedient and much obliged humble servant, BENJN. RuSH off ddressed: Dr: Ja: Currie Physician at Liverpool. Capt: Clay. &S: Haverford College Library, Roberts Collection. 1 James Currie, M.D. (I756-t8os), a Scot who emigrated as a young man to Virginia but, remaining loyal to the

crown, returned to Scotland in 1776; trained for medicine at Glasgow and practised in Liverpool; performed pio-

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES neer researches set forth in his Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fever, Liverpool, 1797; advocated abolition of the slave trade; wrote a valuable life of Robert Burns (DNB; Sir William Osler, "Currie's Journal," Ann. Med. Hist., 1st ser., II [ 19 19], 8 I). Several interesting letters from Currie to BR,

1793-1796, are in the Rush MSS, 111. 2 The letter has not survived, and Mrs. Stewart has not been identified. 3 In his Scottish Journal BR mentions Heywood as "an eminent Merchant" in Liverpool who entertained him at supper in October 1766. No mention of Statham or his family is found in the Journal.

To Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson

1

My dear Madam, Philadelphia, December 25th, 1787 An unusual hurry from business and company prevented my answering your letters immediately after I received them. In the confusion which attended our moving, they were misplaced, in order more effectively to secure them, and it was not till this evening that I recollected the drawer in which I had laid them. I rejoiced in the discovery and now sit down with great pleasure to answer each of the matters proposed in your letter. I am fully of opinion that Mr. Young 2 will meet with a cordial reception from his former fellow citizens in Pennsylvania and that there will be no difficulty in getting his attainder taken off by the council of the State. He may either devote himself to farming at Graeme park or study the law if he prefers public and active life. His talents and habits of application to books must ensure him success at the bar in this country. He will be a natural and respectable guardian of your happiness. The form of our new government will I am persuaded meet his wishes and prejudices. Persons much less sanguine than myself have now no doubt of its being adopted and established in the course of the next year. By all means let us advise him to return to his native country. She has a claim upon him. He will be happy, useful, and respectable among us. If you think a letter from me will have weight with him in determining him to return, I shall cheerfully write to him upon the subject. From my past success in negotiating with the council in favor of Mr. Potts3 and Mr. Bond,4 I flatter myself I should not apply in vain in favor of manumission for your Alexr. from a leading member of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and send it to Graeme park. 5 I rejoice to find that a spirit of humanity has at last reached the southern states upon the subject of the slavery of the Negroes. In one-and-twenty years the new government will probably put an end to the African trade forever in America. 0! [ 446 ]

8 JANUARY 1788 Virtue, Virtue, who would not follow thee blindfold? The prospect of this glorious event more than repays me for all the persecution and slander to which my principles and publications exposed me about I 6 or 1 7 years ago. With respectful and affectionate compliments to Miss Stedman, and a thousand wishes for your happiness, I am, dear madam, your sincere friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH &S: William H. Welch Library, Johns Hopkins Medical School. 1

The addressee has been identified from internal evidence-specifically from the fact that Mrs. Ferguson lived at Graeme Park and that John Young was her nephew. 2 John Young (I757-I794), who, according to the "Account of the Life and Character of Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson" in the Port Folio (believed to be by BR himself) , was trained in the habits of scholarship by his aunt. A published letter he wrote Mrs. Ferguson on 1 July I77 5 indicates that he had at first embraced the American cause, evidently at her desire; but two petitions he addressed to Congress in I 77 7 show that he was captured in I776 while seeking to join the British forces. In I78o he purchased a commission in the British army, and he is said to have died in that service. (Port Folio, new ser., I [I8o9], 52.5; PMHB, XXIX [I9I5], 312., 390-I; L.C., Papers of the Continental Congress, No. 42., VIII,

455-62.; Keith, Provincial Councillors, p. I64-5·) s John Potts, Jr., brother of BR's friend Jonathan Potts, studied law at the Middle Temple, attainted as a loyalist, I 779 ; his attainder suspended, I 786 (Mrs. Thomas P. James, Memorial of Thomas Potts, Junior, Cambridge, I874, p. I53-63; Penna. Colonial Records, xu, 576-7; xv, 2.6). 4 Phineas Bond (I749-I8I5), a graduate of the College of Philadelphia, I766; lawyer; as a loyalist, his person and property were seized during the Revolution, but his attainder was suspended in 1786, when he returned to this country as consul, an office in which he served for many years in Philadelphia (Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates; Penna. Colonial Records, XI, 2.84; XV, 8, 2.I5). 5 I have no further information on this episode.

1

To Jeremy Belknap

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, January 8th, 1788 Accept of my thanks for your polite and friendly letter. I am no stranger to your name nor to your worthy character, and shall be very happy in cultivating a correspondence with you. Who knows how much good may be done by the union of the friends of order and humanity in every part of the world? However much they may be scattered over the surface of the globe, they are all members of one great republic. At the request of our mutual friend Dr. Clarkson, I enclose you a copy of the first account of the Pennsylvania Hospital. 2 From the

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reduction of its funds by the late war, its usefulness is of late much circumscribed, but the inconveniences arising from this circumstance have been in a great degree remedied by the establishment of a Dispensary in our city. 3 Upwards of 1500 patients have been relieved by it in the course of the last year and at the moderate expense of about £soo. Thus have we applied the principles of mechanics to morals, for in what other way would so great a weight of evil have been removed by so small a force? Our Society for Abolishing Negro Slavery are about to address our legislature in favor of a law to prohibit the fitting out, owning, or insuring vessels in Pennsylvania that are to be employed directly or indirectly in the African slave trade. It is expected this law will meet with no opposition. I beg of your acceptance of a Syllabus 4 of 12 lectures which I lately gave to the young ladies of the academy for whose benefit I threw together the hasty thoughts upon female education which I did myself the honor of sending to you some months ago. With great respect, I am, dear sir, your most obedient humble servant, BENJN: RusH ik!S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1

Jeremy Belknap (I744-I798), a Harvard graduate, I 762 ; Congregational minister at Dover, N.H., I 766I786, and at the Federal Street Church, Boston, from I787 until his death; author of The History of New Hampshire, I784-I792, and other works, and a principal founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, I791 (DAB). On 29 Sep. 1787 Belknap warmly acknowledged a copy of BR's Thoughts on Female Education, thus opening a correspondence which was voluminous and extremely friendly while it lasted. The keynote of it was struck by BR in the third sentence of the present letter: BR looked upon Belknap as his collaborator in a quick transformation of the world, or at least the nation, into a moralist's utopia. BR's feverish reform activities made Belknap gasp for breath and occasionally protest in his mild way. For reasons not known, their correspondence abruptly ended at the beginning of I794· It is possible, but not confirmed, that BR's Universalist views offended Belknap. BR's letters to Belknap are in

Mass. Hist. Soc., Belknap Papers; a selection from them has been published in the Society's Collections, 6th ser., IV (I89I). Belknap's letters to BR are in the Rush Mss, xxx. 2 This must be Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, written and published by Benjamin Franklin in I754· 3 The Dispensary, the first free medical clinic in the United States, had been established in the spring of I 78 6 through the joint efforts of BR and Dr. Samuel P. Griffitts; BR served for many years as one of the physicians (Ramsay, Eulogium, p. IIJ-I4; Goodman, Rush, p. I58-9; F. P. Henry, ed., Founders' Week Memorial Volume, Phila., I909, p. 745-52). 4 Syllabus of Lectures, containing the Application of the Principles of Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry, to Domestic and Culinary Purposes. Composed for the Use of the Young Ladies' Academy in Philadelphia, Phila.: Andrew Brown, 1787. This is one of BR's least known but most entertaining and rewarding publications.

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To Timothy Pickering Dear Sir, Philadelphia, January 29, 1788 I rejoice with your numerous friends in your agreeable prospects of peace and order in Luzerne County. The papers will give you an account of the progress of federal principles and events. Massachussets is much divided, owing to the province of Maine uniting with the insurgent counties. The opposition it is said is conducted by S. Adams. King and Gorham 1 write desponding letters to their friends in the middle states. But all will I have no doubt yet end well. A vessel lately arrived at Cape Ann brings the agreeable account of Georgia having ratified the Constitution. Our invaluable friend Mr. Wilson has concluded to embark for Europe in the spring to try to extricate himself from his present difficulties by disposing of some of his lands. His success cannot fail of adding to the value of all the lands in Pennsylvania. Mr. Coxe2 is full of a scheme of rendering the Susquehannah navigable by means of a lock upon one of the lakes or springs near the headwaters of the river. He proposes to defray the expense of it by means of an incorporated company in imitation of the one formed under the direction of General Washington. 3 Mr. Francis4 has adopted the plan and will push it with all his zeal and influence. Mrs. Rush (who has lately been much affiicted from the loss of our youngest boy) 5 joins in best compliments to Mrs. Pickering with, dear sir, yours sincerely and affectionately, BENJN RusH

P.S. General Sinclair6 informs us that he left the western counties in peace-disposed, he thinks, not to oppose by force the new government. Addressed: Timothy Pickering Esqr: Prothony: of Luzerne County Mr Scott. !7118: Massachusetts Historical Society, Pickering Papers. 1 Rufus King ( 1755-1827), later minister to Great Britain, and U.S. senator from New York; and Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796), merchant, land speculator, and politician; both were Massachusetts delegates to the Federal Convention and staunch Federalists (DAB, under both names). 2 Tench Coxe (1755-1824), of Philadelphia, writer on economics, promoter

of manufactures, and government official. Like BR, though somewhat later, Coxe shifted from Federalism to Republicanism. The two men collaborated in the maple-sugar project of 17901791. and for several years were close correspondents. (DAB ; Coxe, A View of the United States of America, Phila. and London, 1795, bk. 1, ch. V; Coxe's letters to BR in Rush MSS, XXVII.)

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The Potomac Company, organized in 1785, with Washington as president; its purpose was to link the Potomac and the Ohio Rivers (DAH). 4 Probably Tench Francis, a relative of Coxe's and a merchant in Philadelphia

(Phila. Directory for I78s). 5 The first William, who was born 8 Nov. 1787 and died 15 Jan. 1788 (Biddle, Memorial, p. 241). 6 Arthur St. Clair, at this time governor of the Northwest Territory.

To Noah Webster~ Dear Sir,

Philadelphia, February 13th, q88 Before I received your letter, I rejoiced to hear that you had become the editor of an American Magazine. 2 I wish always to see such publications wholly confined to the hands of men who possess American hearts. The literature of Philadelphia is under the direction chiefly of foreigners. Ancient citizens do homage to them and submit to support them even while they disapprove of their principles. From the imprudent conduct of Mr. Dallas3 in misrepresenting the proceedings and speeches in the Pennsylvania Convention, as well as from his deficiency of matter, the Columbian Magazine, of which he is the editor, is on the decline. Mr. Carey4 complains of a want of punctuality in the subscribers to his Museum. Should these two works fail, a great door will open to you, both of profit and usefulness, in your proposed undertaking. I object only to two things in it. rst, to the title of your magazine. I wish it could be called the Monthly Asylum. This will include pieces new and old. We connect the ideas of failure with the very name of a magazine in America. Asylum is a virgin title. 2ly, I object to your printing it in New York. Philadelphia is the primum mobile of the United States. From habit, from necessity, and from local circumstances, all the States view our city as the capital of the new world. I wish you would undertake it without any partners. You are equal alone to the task. But if you persist in the plan you have proposed, I must decline accepting of a share in it. I write from the impulse of the moment, and then only when I am not interrupted by professional avocations. For these reasons I dare not make myself responsible for a single contribution in a year. But when inclination and leisure favor me, your Asylum shall be the receptacle of all my lucubrations. I have now several essays in my drawer which shall be at your service. Perhaps I may make your work the vehicle of some tracts on medicine. At any rate, you may begin if you choose by republishing some old pieces with additions and amendments. [ 450 ]

13 FEBRUARY 1788 I am gradually withdrawing myself from public duties and public life-not because I am hurt by the slander of my enemies or the ingratitude of my friends, but because my health will not bear as formerly more labors than the duties of my profession. My boys too begin now to require some of those evenings which I formerly gave to my country. I consider the federal ship as nearly moored. 5 Let the proper officers now repair her rigging and stop her leaks. I am only a passenger. Mrs. Rush and your little pupils were much obliged by your kind remembrance of them. They join in best wishes for your prosperity with, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN: RusH Addressed: Noah Webster Esqr: New York. &S: New York Public Library, Webster Papers. 1 Noah Webster (1758-1843), "Schoolmaster to America," evidently made the acquaintance of BR and his family while lecturing at the University of the State of Pennsylvania in 1786I787; the two men corresponded on friendly terms and principally on medical subjects for some fifteen years thereafter. In their agreement on the local origin of yellow fever in an "epidemic constitution of the atmosphere," they stood united against the upholders of the theory of importation. (DAB; Cheyney, Hist. Univ. Penna., p. 143-4; Ford and Skeel, Webster, where a number of BR's letters to Webster are printed from originals now lost; Webster's letters to BR, Rush Mss, xxx.) 2 Webster had written BR on ro Feb. I 7 88 outlining his interesting plan for a truly federal magazine, to be conducted by a group of owner-editors in different parts of the country from Boston to Charleston; BR waa invited to serve as "proprietor" in Philadelphia. The American Magazine was, in fact, already launched; Webster's plans for it were, however, not realized, and it died with the last issue of volume I, Nov. 1788. (Ford and Skeel, Webster, I, 176-7; F. L. Mott, History of American Magazines, I74I·I8so, Cambridge, 1939, p. 104-7.)

3 Alexander James Dallas (17591817), a native of Jamaica, was to have a remarkably varied literary, legal, and political career; he became editor of the Columbian Magazine in I787 (DAB). His reporting of the debates in the Pennsylvania ratifying convention was much complained of by the Federalists; see McMaster and Stone, Penna. and the Federal Constitution, p. 15, 212. 4 Mathew Carey ( 17 6o- I 8 39), Irish patriot, settled in Philadelphia in I 784> published the conservative Pennsylvania Herald, I785-1788, wrote influential works on political economy, and eventually founded one of the great nineteenthcentury American publishing houses. A Catholic and endowed with a deep sense of civic responsibility, Carey seems always to have been on cordial terms with BR. BR wrote a public recommendation of Carey's American Museum (Penna. Gazette, 3o July 178 8) and contributed to it frequently. In the epidemic of 1793 the two men stood shoulder to shoulder, and they were again allies in the feud with William Cobbett, 1797·18oo. (DAB; Carey's Short Account of the Malignant Fever ... , I793> passim; BR to Carey, 5 Apr. 1798,24 Nov. r8o8.) 5 Partly torn by seal; this is apparently the reading.

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To G. H. E. Muhlenberg Dear Sir, Philadelphia, February 15th, 1788 I was much mortified in finding that a letter from you dated in June 1787/ by some strange fatality, did not reach me till the 4th of this month. The sentiments of friendship and benevolence contained in it are of so warm a nature that even the length of time that intervened between its being written and received had not cooled them. I rejoice to hear of the harmony that subsists between you and Dr. Handel and the zeal with which you are both actuated in promoting the great objects of the institution. I lament the languor that has infected our trustees in this city. I have tried in vain to bring about a meeting in order to collect our certificates and draw an interest on them. The present turbulent era is unfavorable to all peaceable enterprises. Nothing now fills the mind but subjects that agitate the passions. Let us not despair. As soon as our new government is established, the public spirit of our country will be forced to feed upon undertakings that have science or humanity for their objects. The conduct of the minority of our Convention, and of a majority of my old friends beyond the Susquehannah, determine me more than ever to look up to my German brethren (indulge the term) as the future reservoirs and vehicles to posterity of a great part of the knowledge, virtue, and religion of Pennsylvania. 2 I rejoice in the part a great majority of them have taken in the great contest about the federal Constitution. On them I rely chiefly to outvote, to outwork, and to outpray the Antifederalists in our state. I hope you do not neglect to fill your gazette with federal essays, anecdotes, and intelligence. Hall and Sellers' paper3 is filled every week with them all. Newspapers form the principles and direct the conduct of the greatest part of mankind in all countries. There is no doubt now of the adoption of the new government by nine states before the 1st of June and by twelve before the 1st of August.4. The Constitution has qeen well received in England and is much commended by the friends of America, especially by the great and good Dr. Price. Will not a letter of thanks from you and Dr. Handel be expected to the trustees of the New Jersey College for the degrees in divinity lately conferred upon you? 5 It may be conveyed to them through the Reverend Dr. Wetherspoon, the president of the College. [ 452 ]

MARCH OR APRIL

1788

With compliments to Dr. Randell, I am, dear sir, your friend and humble servant, BENJN RuSH 9118: Franklin and Marshall College Library. 1 Muhlenberg's letter, expressing gratitude for BR's help in launching Franklin College, is in Rush MSS, XXIII, dated zs 2June 1787. On these matters, see McMaster and Stone, Penna. and the Federal Constitution, ch. VI. There is evidence in BR's appeal to Muhlenberg to rally the German element in support of the Constitution that the Federalists were not without partisan motives in aiding the new institution.

3

The Pennsylvania Gazette. Nine had ratified by z 1 June; eleven by z6 July; the twelfth state, North Carolina, did not ratify until z r Nov. 1789 (C. C. Tansill, ed., Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the American States, Washington, 19z7, p. roogff.). 5 In all probability BR had proposed this action on the part of the College of New Jersey. 4

To David Ramsay Dear Sir, [March or April 1788] 1 I presume, before this time, you have heard and rejoiced in the auspicious event of the ratification of the federal government by six of the United States. The objections which have been urged against the federal Constitution, from its wanting a bill of rights, have been reasoned and ridiculed out of credit in every state that has adopted it. There can be only two securities for liberty in any government, viz., representation and checks. By the first the rights of the people, and by the second the rights of representation, are effectually secured. Every part of a free constitution hangs upon these two points; and these form the two capital features of the proposed Constitution of the United States. Without them, a volume of rights would avail nothing; and with them, a declaration of rights is absurd and unnecessary; for the people, where their liberties are committed to an equal representation and to a compound legislature such as we observe in the new government, will always be the sovereigns of their rulers and hold all their rights in their own hands. To hold them at the mercy of their servants is disgraceful to the dignity of freemen. Men who call for a bill of rights have not recovered from the habits they acquired under the monarchical government of Great Britain. 2 I have the same opinion with the Antifederalists of the danger of trusting arbitrary power to any single body of men, but no such power will be committed to our new rulers. Neither the House of

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Representatives, the Senate, or the President can perform a single legislative act by themselves. An hundred principles in man will lead them to watch, to check, and to oppose each other should an attempt be made by either of them upon the liberties of the people. If we may judge of their conduct by what we have so often observed in all the state governments, the members of the federal legislature will much oftener in jure their constituents by voting agreeably to their inclinations than against them. But are we to consider men entrusted with power as the receptacles of all the depravity of human nature? By no means. The people do not part with their full proportions of it. Reason and revelation both deceive us if they are all wise and virtuous. Is not history as full of the vices of the people as it is of the crimes of the kings? What is the present moral character of the citizens of the United States? I need not describe it. It proves too plainly that the people are as much disposed to vice as their rulers, and that nothing but a vigorous and efficient government can prevent their degenerating into savages or devouring each other like beasts of prey. A simple democracy has been very aptly compared by Mr. Ames 3 of Massachusetts to a volcano that contained within its bowels the fiery materials of its own destruction. A citizen of one of the cantons of Switzerland,4 in the year 1776, refused in my presence to drink "the commonwealth of America" as a toast, and gave as a reason for it "that a simple democracy was the devil's own government." The experience of the American states under the present confederation has in too many instances justified these two accounts of a simple popular government. It would have been a truth, if Mr. Locke had not said it, that where there is no law there can be no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community. 5 To look up to a government that establishes justice, insures order, cherishes virtue, secures property, and protects from every species of violence, affords a pleasure that can only be exceeded by looking up, in all circumstances, to an overruling providence. Such a pleasure I hope is before us and our posterity under the influence of the new government. The dimensions of the human mind are apt to be regulated by the extent and objects of the government under which it is formed. Think then, my friend, of the expansion and dignity the American mind will acquire by having its powers transferred from the contracted objects of a state to the more unbounded objects of a national [ 454 ]

9 APRIL 1788 government!-A citizen and a legislator of the free and united states of America will be one of the first characters in the world. I would not have you suppose, after what I have written, that I believe the new government to be without faults. I can see themyet not in any of the writings or speeches of the persons who are opposed to it. But who ever saw anything perfect come from the hands of man? It realizes notwithstanding, in a great degree, every wish I ever entertained in every stage of the Revolution for the happiness of my country, for you know that I have acquired no new opinions or principles upon the subject of republics by the sorrowful events we have lately witnessed in America. In the year 1776 I lost the confidence of the people of Pennsylvania by openly exposing the dangers of a simple democracy and declaring myself an advocate for a government composed of three legislative branches. 'Printed (in part only?): The American Museum, m, 4-18-19 (May 1788). 1

Written between 6 Feb., when Massachusetts, the sixth state, ratified the Constitution, and IO Apr., under which date the letter was printed in the London Gentleman's Magazine (LVIII, 546 [June I 788]) as if addressed to the editor. BR gave the letter wide circulation as a defense of his stand against a bill of rights. Sending a copy to Belknap (with his letter of 6 May I 78 8) for publication in the Boston papers, he said: "It contains my principles fairly stated." This was true, but this was the most conservative moment in BR's entire political evolution. Now, as at no other time in his life, he was aligned with Ames, Hamilton, and the others who feared and fought all tendencies toward democracy. 2 BR was regarded by the Pennsylvania Antifederalists as the champion of the party of reaction. The anonymous author of The Government of Nature Delineated; or An Exact Picture of the New Constitution, Carlisle, q88, p. I7, note, remarks: "Dr. Rush, in the state

convention, amongst other wise and learned sayings, hath the following remarkable observation, 'I am happy sir, to find that the convention hath not disgraced this constitution with a bill of rights'-whether ought Pennsylvania to reward such declarations with a suit of tar and feathers, or with a hempen necklace." 3 Fisher Ames (I 758- I 8o8), who, as a member of the Massachusetts ratifying convention, had just begun his short and brilliant career as a leader of the Federalist party (DAB) • 4 John Joachim Zubly (I724-I78I), a Swiss, was pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church at Savannah, Ga., from I76o; delegate to Congress, I775> but opposed the establishment of a republic and remained loyal to Great Britain (DAB; see also BR to John Adams, 2I July I789). 5 The line of thought is very characteristic of John Locke, but I have not found its exact source.

To John Montgomery Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April 9th, 1788 During the last winter and part of this spring, it has pleased God to visit my family with several affiictions. In the month of January [ 455 ]

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we buried our youngest son with a pleurisy. On the 2nd of March I was seized with the same disorder and lay for nine days in such a situation that my recovery is thought the next thing to a miracle. For my own part, I had taken leave of life. I not only settled all my worldly affairs but gave the most minute directions with respect to everything that related to my funeral. It pleased God to enable me to do this with an uncommon degree of composure, for the promises of the Gospel bore up my soul above the fear of death and the horrors of the grave. 0! my friend, the religion of Jesus Christ is indeed a reality. It is comfortable in life, but in a near view of the last enemy its value cannot be measured or estimated by the pen or. tongue of a mortal. As soon as I recovered, Mrs. Rush read your letter to me containing an account of the last disturbances at Carlisle. 1 I lament the prevalence of that ignorance in your county which favors so much the designs of bad men. But, my friend, be not discouraged. It is the prerogative of man to bring evil out of good, but it is the prerogative of God to bring good out of evil. Heaven has permitted Mr. Bryan and his colleague in the University2 to show themselves in their proper colors. I view them as oxen decorated with ribbons parading the streets of a great city previous to their being led to the place of their destruction. The new government will be established, nor will its establishment be followed with a civil war anywhere. Then will its enemies become like the enemies and opposers of independence-infamous and contemptible. I suppose you have seen Geo. Bryan's detested letters. They infallibly prove that he is the author of the "Centinel.m Our College will revive with the commerce, agriculture, and manufactures of our country with the establishment of the new government. All will end well. Let no time be lost in purchasing part of the public buildings. One half or one third part of them will serve our present purpose. We have now 1000 dollars of unfunded certificates and may have 1000 more as soon as we call on Mr. Bingham for his subscription. The rest may be bought for 216 up to 31- in the pound. If we delay the purchase till nine States adopt the government, these Continental certificates, commonly called balloons, may rise to 5I- or 7I 6 in the pound. Adieu. Yours sincerely, BENJN: RuSH &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS.

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APRIL

1 At the end of Dec. r 787 an Antifederalist mob in Carlisle broke up an attempt to celebrate Pennsylvania's ratification. The Philadelphia papers carried accounts for weeks afterwards; see McMaster and Stone, Penna. and the Federal Constitution, p. 486ff. I have not found Montgomery's account of the affair.

1788

I.e., John Ewing. The twenty Antifederalist letters signed "Centinel," which appeared in Oswald's Independent Gazetteer, Oct. 1787 to Nov. 1788, are believed to have been the work, not of George Bryan, but of his son Samuel (McMaster and Stone, Penna. and the Federal Constitution, p. 6-7). 2

8

To John Coakley Lettsom Dear Sir, Philadelphia, April21, q88 I sit down to inform you of the great pleasure I have enjoyed from hearing and reading of the progress of justice and humanity in Great Britain as far as they relate to the abolition of the African trade, as also to communicate a few facts to you upon this important subject. In the year 1772 1 I published two tracts in defense of the poor Africans, both of which you will find, I believe, in the possession of Mr. Granville Sharp. In the last of those tracts I took a view of the effects of slavery upon the health and lives of the Negroes, and mentioned from respectable authorities the diseases which were entailed upon them by their peculiar situation. As few or none of these facts have been taken notice of in any of the late publications upon this subject, I shall take the liberty of repeating them in this letter, in order to mix one more drop with the great stream of humanity which has lately been opened in England. 1. The locked-jaw or, as it is usually called among the planters, the jaw-fall, 2 is a very common disease among the children of the slaves, and carries off so many of them as evidently to affect their population. After many inquiries into the cause of it, I was perfectly satisfied that it arises from the heat and smoke of the cabins in which the children are born and from their being exposed afterwards to the cool air. 2. The hypochondriasis or, as it is called in the French West Indies, the mal d' estomac, is a very common disease among the slaves. It occurs soon after their importation and often proves fatal, with a train of painful and distressing symptoms which are ignorantly ascribed to the effects of slow poison taken by themselves or given to them by others. This disease, with all its terrible consequences, is occasioned wholly by grief and therefore stands justly chargeable upon slavery. 3· Childbearing among the slaves in the West Indies is attended with peculiar danger and mortality: this is occasioned entirely by the women having their bodies in jured [ 457 ]

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by carrying burdens beyond their strength when they are young, and in some instances by the figure of the pelvis being distorted by those kicks to which they are so often exposed in early life from sudden gusts of passion in their masters. I received this information from a Dr. Taylor of the Island of St. Kitt's, 3 who assured me at the same time that the white women of the island in general had very short and easy births compared with the women in European countries. 4· All the numerous chronic diseases which arise from a scanty or an excess of vegetable diet are common among the slaves in the West Indies. This evil, I have been well informed, cannot be remedied while slavery remains upon its present footing, for very accurate calculations have made it evident that the whole profit of a sugar estate, as it is now conducted, is saved from the necessary food and clothing of the slaves. Under all these diseases and the many other complicated evils which the slaves endure, we are told by their masters that they are the happiest creatures in the world, because they are "merry." Mirth and happiness are two distinct sensations of the human soul. I once heard a man say upon the eve of his marriage, as an apology for not joining in the gaiety of the company, that "he was too happy to be merry." The singing and dancing to which the Negroes in the West Indies are so much addicted are the effects of mirth and not of happiness. Mirth and a heavy heart I believe often meet together, and hence the propriety of Solomon's observation that "in the midst of laughter the heart is sad." 4 In the last war but two between Great Britain and France, a British transport was accidentally set on fire. The neighboring transports in vain attempted to relieve her. Some of the crew saved themselves by the longboat, while a few of them perished in the ocean by attempting to swim to the ships that lay within sight of them. The remaining part of the crew for a while filled the air with their cries for help and mercy. Suddenly there was a cessation of their cries, and nothing was to be heard on board the vessel but a merry tune on a violin, to which the crew danced with uncommon spirit for half an hour, when the catastrophe ended and the ship and crew disappeared forever. This curious fact was communicated to me by the son of an old lieutenant of a British ship of war, who was an eyewitness of the melancholy scene and who often mentioned to his children and in company the dying mirth of the crew as one of the most singular and wonderful things he had ever seen or heard of in the course of his life. From the facts that have been mentioned, instead of considering the songs and dances of the Negroes in the West Indies as marks of [ 458 ]

26 APRIL 1 788 their happiness, I have long considered them as physical symptoms of. melancholy or madness, and therefore as certain proofs of their mtsery. With great respect for your zeal and activity in the business of the Abolition Society in London, I am, dear sir, your affectionate friend and humble servant, BENJAMIN RusH 'Printed: Pettigrew, Lettsom, n, 432-5. 1

An error for 1773. BR alludes below to the Vindication of the Address, which was appended to the second edition of his Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements. 2 Quincy's Lexicon Physico-Medicum (N.Y., I 802), treats the "jaw-fall" under Cullen's name of "Trismus Nascentium, commonly, but improperly, called the Falling of the Jaw. It is a tetanic complaint which attacks infants in the course of the second week after their birth. Its chief symptom is a locked-

jaw, but the disorder does not appear to differ from the Tetanus, which see. It is generally fatal in two or three days; and is never expected after the child is a fortnight old." BR mentions this "species of tetanus" in an early essay (Med. lnq. &! Obs. [I], 1789, p. 175), and elaborates on its causes and means of prevention in "Observations upon the Tetanus," Med. Inq. & Obs., 2d edn., 18os, I, 254-5, 263. 3 Not further identified. 4 Proverbs 14:1 3·

To George Washington Sir, Philadelphia, 26th April 1788 I received a small quantity of the mangel wurzel or scarcity root seeds a few days ago from Dr. Lettsom of London. 1 In distributing these seeds among the friends of agriculture in this country, I should have been deficient in duty and patriotism to have neglected to send a small portion of them to your excellency. The pamphlet which accompanies the seeds will furnish your excellency with a particular account of the method of cultivating, as also of the great increase and useful qualities of this extraordinary vegetable. From an accurate examination of the plant, the botanists have agreed in its being a mongrel species of the beet. Dr. Lettsom has called it the "Beta hebrida." With respectful compliments to Mrs. Washington, in which Mrs. Rush joins, and sincere wishes for your excellency's health and happiness, I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, BENJN: RusH 2 MS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gratz Collection.

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On the mangel wurzel, see BR to Lettsom, 2 8 Sep. r 78 7. 2 Washington replied on ro May, stating that he intended to propagate the

plant "with care and attention," and extending his and Mrs. Washington's compliments to the Rushes (Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, XXIX, 495-6).

To Jeremy Belknap Philadelphia, May 6th, 1788 Dear Sir, I beg your acceptance of my thanks for the volume of the debates of your convention. 1 They do great honor to your state and will remain I hope as a lasting monument of the good sense, virtue, and knowledge that characterized the year q88 in the United States of America. The commerce in African slaves has breathed its last in Pennsylvania. I shall send you a copy of our late law respecting that trade as soon as it is published. 2 I am encouraged by the success that has finally attended the exertions of the friends of universal freedom and justice to go on in my romantic schemes (as they have often been called) of serving my countrymen. My next object shall be the extirpation of the abuse of spirituous liquors. For this purpose I have every year for several years past republished the enclosed tract 3 two or three weeks before harvest. The effects of this perseverance begin already to show themselves in our state. A family or a township is hit with the publication one year that neglected or perhaps ridiculed it the year before. Associations are forming in many places to give no spirits at the ensuing harvest. The Quakers and Methodists take the lead in these associations, as they have often done in all enterprises that have morality or the happiness of society for their objects. Many storekeepers among the Quakers now refuse to buy or sell spirituous liquors. In a short time, I expect there will be an act of the Quaker Society to forbid the sale or even use of them altogether except as a medicine. As my opinions upon the subject of the federal government have been often misrepresented by our Antifederal scribblers, I have to beg the favor of you to republish the enclosed extract of one of my letters to my friend Dr. Ramsay4 of Charleston in some of your papers. It contains my principles fairly stated. I believe I gave a part of them in my last letter to you. 5 The minority of Pennsylvania have nearly exhausted their malice. There will be no opposition by arms in any county in this state to the government when it is set in motion. Mr. Bryan like his brother Shays will now be left a solitary example of political insanity and

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wickedness. All will end well. The last thing that I can believe is that providence has brought us over the Red Sea of the late war to perish in the present wilderness of anarchy and vice. What has been, will be, and there is nothing new under the sun. We are advancing through suffering (the usual road) to peace and happiness. Night preceded day, and chaos, order, in the creation of the world. With great respect, I am, dear s1r, your friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH P.S. Dr. Clarkson and his amiable family are all well. .Addressed: The Revd: Mr: Jeremy Belknap Boston. &S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1 Debates, Resolutions and Other Proceedings of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Convened at Boston, on the 9th of January, 1788, Boston, 1788. Evans, llmer. Bibl., No. 212422 This was an Act supplemental to the Act of 1780 for the gradual abolition of slavery; the new Act, passed 29 Mch. 1788, prohibited various evasions of the earlier law; see A. J. Dallas, comp., Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Phila., 1793, n, 586-9o; Ed-

ward R. Turner, The Negro in Pennsylvania, Washington, 1911, p. 8o-1. 3 /Jn Enquiry into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors, for a bibliographical account of which see BR's letter to the Pennsylvania Journal, 22 June 1782, note. Belknap aided in its circulation in New England. 4 The letter of Mch. or Apr. 1788, above. 5 Dated 28 Feb. 1788; printed in Mass. Hist. Soc., Colts., 6th ser., rv (1891), 397-8.

To the Ministers of the Gospel of All Denominations: An Address upon Subjects Interesting to Morals. 1

Philadelphia, June 21, q88 From the nature of your pursuits, and from your influence in society, I am encouraged to address you upon subjects of the utmost importance to the present and future happiness of your fellow citizens, as well as to the prosperity of the United States. Under the great diversity of opinions you entertain in religion, you are all united in inculcating the necessity of morals. In this business you are neither Catholics nor Protestants-churchmen nor dissenters. One spirit actuates you all. From the success or failure of your exertions in the cause of virtue, we anticipate the freedom or slavery of our country. Even the new government of the United [ 461 ]

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States, from which so many advantages are expected, will neither restore order nor establish justice among us unless it be accompanied and supported by morality among all classes of people. Impressed with a sense of the truth of these observations, I shall briefly point out a few of those practices which prevail in America which exert a pernicious influence upon morals and thereby prepare our country for misery and slavery. I shall begin by pointing out, in the first place, the mischievous effects of spirituous liquors upon the morals of our citizens. I. They render the temper peevish and passionate. They beget quarrels and lead to profane and indecent language. They are the parents of idleness and extravagance, and the certain forerunners of poverty, and frequently of jails, wheelbarrows, and the gallows. They are likewise injurious to health and life, and kill more than the pestilence or the sword. Our legislatures, by permitting the use of them for the sake of the paltry duty collected from them, act as absurdly as a prince would do who should permit the cultivation of a poisonous nut which every year carried off ten thousand of his subjects because it yielded a revenue of thirty thousand pounds a year. These ten thousand men would produce annually by their labor, or by paying a trifling impost upon any one of the necessaries of life, twenty times that sum. In order to put an end to the desolating effects of spirituous liquors, it will be proper for our ministers to preach against, not the abuse of them only, but their use altogether. They are never necessary but in sickness, and then they are better applied to the outside than to the inside of the body. 2 II. Militia laws have an unfriendly influence upon morals, more especially where they authorize the election of the officers by the privates. The meetings of citizens for militia exercises are generally attended with intemperance in drinking, quarreling, profane swearing, and acts of violence to the property of the persons who live near the places where those meetings are held. It is a mistake to suppose that the defense of liberty requires a well-organized militia in the time of peace. 3 The United States proved in the beginning of the late war, and France has proved since, that armies of disciplined, irresistible troops may be formed in a short time out of the peasants of a country. War has lately become a simple art. All that is practical in it may be acquired in a few weeks. The most gallant exploits were performed during the late war by men who had been but a few days in the practice of handling firearms. [ 462 ]

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Ill. Fairs are a Pandora's box opened twice a year in many of the states. They are wholly unnecessary, since shops are so common in all the civilized parts of the country. They tempt to extravagance, gaming, drunkenness, and uncleanness. They are proper only in despotic states, where the more a people are corrupted, the more readily they submit to arbitrary government. IV. Lawsuits should be discouraged as much as possible. They are highly disreputable between persons who profess Christianity. The attendance upon courts exposes to idleness, drinking, and gaming; and the usual delays of justice seldom fail of entailing hereditary discord among neighbors. It is with inexpressible pleasure that I have lately seen an account of a recommendation from the Presbyterian Synod of New-York and Philadelphia to all the churches under their care to settle their disputes, after the manner of the primitive Christians and friends, 4 by arbitration. Blessed event in the history of mankind! May their practice spread among all sects of Christians, and may it prove a prelude of that happy time foretold in the Scriptures when war and murder shall be no more. V. The licentiousness of the press is a fruitful source of the corruption of morals. Men are deterred from in juring each other chiefly by the fear of detection or punishment. Now both of these are removed by the usual secrecy of a licentious press. Hence revenge, scandal, and falsehood are cherished and propagated in a community. But further: the cause of liberty is greatly injured by personal calumnies, for who will believe a truth that is told of a bad man that has been accustomed to read falsehoods published every day of a good man? Printers who vend scurrility would do well in considering that the publisher of scandal is as bad as the author of it, in the same manner that the receiver of stolen goods is as bad as the thief. It becomes the purchasers and readers of personal scandal likewise to consider that they are accomplices in the guilt of the authors of it. We read with horror the accounts of human depravity which has converted public executions into part of the amusements of several ancient and modern nations, but the depravity of the human heart is of the same nature in that man who can read with pleasure or even indifference the mangled character of a fellow citizen in a licentious newspaper. 5 VI. Horse racing and cockfighting are unfriendly amusements to morals and of course to the liberties of our country. They occasion idleness, fraud, gaming, and profane swearing, and harden the [ 463 ]

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heart against the feelings of humanity. These vulgar sports should be forbidden by law in all Christian and republican countries. VII. Clubs of all kinds where the only business of the company is feeding (for that is the true name of a gratification that is simply animal) are hurtful to morals. The society in taverns where clubs are usually held is seldom subject to much order. It exposes men to idleness, prodigality, and debt. It is in private families only that society is innocent or improving. Here manners are usually kept within the bounds of decency by the company of females, who generally compose a part of all p~ivate families; and manners, it is well known, have an influence upon morals. VIII. Amusements of every kind on Sundays beget habits of idleness and a love of pleasure which extend their influence to every day of the week. In those manufacturing towns in England where the Sundays are spent in idleness or frolicking, little or no work is ever done on the ensuing day; hence it is called St. Monday. If there were no hereafter, individuals and societies would be great gainers by attending public worship every Sunday. Rest from labor in the house of God winds up the machine of both soul and body better than anything else, and thereby invigorates it for the labors and duties of the ensuing week. Should I ever travel into a Christian country and wish to know whether the laws of that country were wise and just, and whether they were duly obeyed, the only question I would ask should be, "Do the people spend Sunday at church or in pleasurable entertainments at home and abroad?" The Sunday schools in England have been found extremely useful in reforming the children of poor people. Who can witness the practices of swimming, sliding, and skating, which prevail so universally on Sundays in most of the cities of the United States, and not wish for similar institutions to rescue our poor children from destruction? 6 I shall conclude my remarks upon this subject by declaring that I do not wish to see any new laws made to enforce the keeping of the Sabbath. I call upon ministers of the gospel only to increase and extend by their influence the pure and useful spirit of their religion. In riding through our country we may always tell by the appearance of the people we meet with on the road or see at taverns whether they en joy the benefit of public worship and of a vigilant and faithful ministry. Where a settlement enjoys these inestimable blessings, we generally find taverns deserted on a Sunday and a stillness pervading the whole neighborhood, as if nature herself had ceased from her labors, to share with man in paying her weekly homage to God for his creating goodness.

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Thus I have briefly pointed out the principal sources of vice in our country. They are all of a public nature and affect in a direct manner the general interests of society. I shall now suggest a few sources of vice which are of a domestic nature and which indirectly affect the happiness of our country. I. The frequent or long absence of the master and mistress from home, by dissolving the bonds of domestic government, proves a fruitful source of vice among children and servants. To prevent in some degree the inconveniencies which arise from the necessary absence of the heads of a family·· from home, it would be a good practice to invest the eldest son or daughter, when of a suitable age, with the government of the family and to make them responsible for their conduct upon the return of their parents. Government in a family is like an electric rod to a house. Where it is wanting, a family is exposed to the attacks of every folly and vice that come within the sphere of its attraction. II. Frequent and large entertainments weaken domestic government by removing children and servants too long from the eye of authority. They moreover expose children and servants to the temptation of eating and drinking to excess. III. Boys and girls should never be admitted as servants into a genteel family. They are seldom instructed properly by their masters or mistresses. Their leisure hours are moreover spent in bad company, and all the vices which they pick up are spread among the children of the family, who are generally more prone to associate with them than with any other. Where poverty or death makes it necessary to bind out children, they should be bound to those persons only who will work with them. By these means they will be trained to industry and kept from idleness and vice. IV. Servants, both male and female, should always be hired by the year; otherwise no proper government can be established over them. The impertinence and irregular conduct of servants arise from their holding their places by too short a tenure. It would be a good law to fine every person who hired a servant without a written good character signed by his last master and countersigned by a magistrate. This practice would soon drive bad servants out of the civilized parts of our country and thereby prevent much evil both in families and society. How many young men and women have carried through life the sorrowful marks in their consciences or characters of their being early initiated into the mysteries of vice by unprincipled servants of both sexes! Servants that are married should be preferred to such as are single. Matrimony in all ranks [ 465 ]

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of people lessens the temptation to vice and furnishes fresh motives to just conduct. V. Apprentices should always board and lodge, if possible, with their masters and mistresses when they are separated from their parents. Young people seldom fall into bad company in the daytime. It is in the evening, when they cease to be subject to government, that they are in the most danger of corruption; and this danger can be obviated only by subjecting all their hours to the direction of their masters or mistresses. I shall conclude this address by suggesting to ministers of the gospel a plan of a new species of federal government for the advancement of morals in the United States. Let each sect appoint a representative in a general convention of Christians, whose business shall be to unite in promoting the general objects of Christianity. Let no matters of faith or opinion ever be introduced into this convention, but let them be considered as badges of the sovereignty of each particular sect. To prevent all disputes, let the objects of the deliberations of this general convention be ascertained with the same accuracy that the powers of the national government are defined in the new Constitution of the United States. By this previous compact no encroachments will ever be made by the general government upon the principles, discipline, or habits of any one sect, for in the present state of human nature the division of Christians into sects is as necessary to the existence and preservation of Christianity as the divisions of mankind into nations and of nations into separate families are necessary to promote general and private happiness. By means of such an institution Christian charity will be promoted, and the discipline of each church will be strengthenedfor I would propose that a dismission for immorality from any one church should exclude a man from every church in the ecclesiastical union. But the advantages of this Christian convention will not end here. It will possess an influence over the laws of the United States. This influence will differ from that of most of the ecclesiastical associations that have existed in the world. It will be the influence of reason over the passions of men. Its objects will be morals, not principles, and the design of it will be, not to make men zealous members of any one church, but to make them good neighbors, good husbands, good fathers, good masters, good servants, and of course good rulers and good citizens. The plan is certainly a practicable one. America has taught the nations of Europe by her example to be free, and it is to be hoped she will soon teach them to govern themselves. Let her advance one step further-and teach [ 466 ]

24 JUNE 1788 mankind that it is possible for Christians of different denominations to love each other and to unite in the advancement of their common interests. By the gradual operation of such natural means, the kingdoms of this world are probably to become the kingdoms of the Prince of Righteousness and Peace. Printed: Rush, Essays (1798}, p. ILf.-24. 1

This "Address" appeared first in a newspaper (which I have not identified), and BR sent copies to Belknap (see letter of 24 June 1788) and to Montgomery (letter of same date, in Rush MSS, xur) for republication in Boston and Carlisle papers. Signed "Z," it was published in Amer. Museum, IV, 30-4 (July 1788), with the following editorial note: "The correspondence of the truly-benevolent writer of this essay is earnestly solicited by the printer." The text in BR's Essays (1798) has been followed here because it had the author's final approval. In this paper BR reached his high-water mark as a legislator of morals. If his proposals to abolish country fairs and eating clubs and to form a federal council on morals seem ridiculous, some of his advice on the management of a large household were extremely sensible for the times. 2 As Professor Krout has observed, BR's insistence on the physiological harmfulness of ardent spirits was a new and powerful argument in the controversy over strong drink and provided the basis of the organized temperance crusade of the next century (The Origins of Prohibition, N.Y., 1925, ch. rv). See also BR's letters to the Editor of the Pennsylvania Journal, 21. June 1 7 8 2, and to Lettsom, 16 Aug. 1788. 8 This and the following paragraph embody the only change made by BR in revising his "Address" for the Essays ( 1 79 8), but the change was a most significant one. Instead of these two paragraphs denouncing militia laws and

musters, the text printed in the American Museum ( 1 7 8 8) has the following paragraph: "Frequent elections produce idleness, tempt to drunkenness, and prove the seeds of calumnies, falsehoods, and quarrels among citizens and neighbors. Let ministers of the gospel use their influence to have those parts of all our governments mended which encourage the too frequent meeting of our people for these melancholy purposes. Liberty can exist only in the society of virtue. In our attachment to frequent elections as a means of preserving our liberties, we pull down with one hand more than we build up with the other. The election of magistrates and militia officers, by the people, has been found in a more especial manner to have a most pernicious influence upon morals. If the twelve apostles could all be raised from their graves, they could not in half a century (without new miracles) preach down all the vice that is engendered by magistrates and militia officers holding their commissions by the voice of the people." ' BR probably means Friends, i.e., Quakers, though the word is not capitalized in the printed text, and his usual term was "Quakers." 5 For further observations on this subject, on which BR naturally had strong feelings, see letter to Andrew Brown, 1 Oct. 1788. 6 Three years later BR organized the first Sunday school in Philadelphia; see letter to Belknap, 5 Jan. 1791.

To Jeremy Belknap Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 24th, 1788 I enclose you an "Address to the Clergy of All Denominations in America," which has been ascribed to me. From the candid and [ 467 ]

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favorable reception which the plan for an ecclesiastical federal government for the advancement of morals has met with in our city, I am disposed to hope for success in the proposal. I beg you would reprint it in your papers in Boston, but without my name. At the same time, I have no objection to being known as the author of it by Dr. Lathrop, Mr. Hilliard, and President Willard. 1 With great respect, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH P.S. There is now no doubt of the adoption pf the federal Constitution by Virginia. ,gddressed: The Revd: Mr Jeremy Belknap One of the Ministers of Boston. /JrfS: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1 Three clergyman friends of BR's: John Lathrop (ca. I740-I8I6), a graduate of the College of New Jersey, I 76 3; . minister of the New Brick (Unitarian Congregational) Church, Boston, from I779 (Sprague, Annals, VIII, 68-7z). Timothy Hilliard (I746-I79o), a Har-

vard graduate, I 764; co-pastor of the Congregational Church in Cambridge from I783 (same, I, 66o-z). Joseph Willard, D.D. (I 73 8-I 8o4), Harvard, I 76 5; classical scholar, scientist, and from I 78 I president of Harvard College

(DAB).

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 2nd, q88 Permit an old friend to congratulate you upon your safe arrival in your native country. 1 I rejoiced in reading of the respectful manner in which you were received by your fellow citizens. You serve a grateful and enlightened people. May you long continue to enjoy their confidence, and may they long, very long, continue to en joy the benefits of your patriotism and knowledge. I have to thank you for many short letters during your absence from America, but I owe more than I can express to you for your excellent volumes upon government. 2 They shall be the Alcoran 3 of my boys upon the great subject of political happiness. You have laid the world and posterity under great obligations by your remarks. I am not more satisfied of the truth of any ·one proposition in Euclid than I am of the truth of your leading propositions in government. Go on, my dear friend, in removing the rubbish of ignorance and prejudice from the minds of your fellow citizens. We live in an important era and in a new country. Much good may be done by individuals, and that too in a short time. America has ever appeared to me to be the theater on which [ 468 ]

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1788

human nature will reach its greatest civil, literary, and religious honors. Now is the time to sow the seeds of each of them. Providence seems to have intended you to have a material hand in this business. Your labors for your country are only beginning. I hope, expect, nay more, I am satisfied I shall see you in one of the first posts of the new government. The citizens of Pennsylvania will joyfully concur in this measure, especially if the southern and eastern states should gratify them by fixing the seat of Congress on the Delaware.4 This must be the compensation for their placing a citizen of Virginia in the President's chair and a citizen of New England in the chair of the Senate. The new government will demolish our Balloon Constitution. If it had no other merit, this would be enough with me. But it has a thousand other things to recommend it. It makes us a nation. It rescues us from anarchy and slavery. It revives agriculture and commerce. It checks moral and political iniquity. In a word, it makes a man both willing to live and to die. To live, because it opens to him fair prospects of great public and private happiness. To die, because it ensures peace, order, safety and prosperity to his children. Your letter enclosing one from the German chaplain of the King of Britain came safe to hand. 5 The packet of this day will carry an answer to Mr. Milkoff enclosing vouchers of the life, &c., of the German lady after whom he inquires. My dear Mrs. Rush joins me in most respectful compliments and congratulations to Mrs. Adams. We count five living out of eight children. Our eldest boy will act the part of a young midshipman on board the ship Union, which is to make a distinguished part of our procession in honor of the establishment of the new government.6 With every possible mark of respect and esteem, I am, dear sir, your affectionate old friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH .;[ddressed: The honble: John Adams Esqr: Boston.

&S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

Adams had arrived from Europe a month earlier and had promptly been elected to Congress, though because of the dissolution of the old Congress he never took his seat (Writings, I, 443; VIII, 483). 2 Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States; see BR to

Price, z June 1787.

s I.e., the Koran. The location of the seat of government was the frequent subject of BR's letters to Adams during the coming year. William Maclay in his Journal (N.Y., 19z7, p. 86) says flatly that he and BR "puffed John Adams in the papers and brought him forward for Vice-President" in order to make use 4

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES of his vanity "in our scheme of bringing Congress to Pennsylvania" (p. 83-4). Maclay looked on Adams as a dupe, but BR scarcely did. On the history of the struggle over locating the national capital, see Wilhelmus B. Bryan, A History of the National Capital, N.Y., 19I4, I, ch. I.

5 Dated z8 Feb. I 788; printed in Old Family Letters, A, p. z7-8. 6 John's commission "to repair on board the federal Ship the Union . . . in the character of a Midshipman," dated z July I788, is reproduced from the Rush MSS, xxxn, as an illustration in the present volume, facing p. I u.

To Elias Boudinott Observations on the Federal Procession in Philadelphia My dear Friend, Philadelphia, 9th July, q88 Herewith you will receive an account of our late procession in honor of the establishment of the Federal Government. It was drawn up by Judge Hopkinson, a gentleman to whose patriotism, ingenuity, and taste our city is much indebted for the entertainment.2 To this account I cannot help adding a few facts and remarks that occurred during the day and which were of too minute or speculative a nature to be introduced in the general account published by order of the committee of arrangement. The procession gave universal pleasure. Never upon any occasion during the late war did I see such deep-seated joy in every countenance. Foreigners speak of it in the highest terms, and many of them who have seen the splendid processions of coronations in Europe declare that they all yield in the effect of pleasure to our hasty exhibition instituted in honor of our Federal Government. The connection of the great event of independence, the French alliance, the Peace, and name of General Washington with the adoption of the Constitution was happily calculated to unite the most remarkable transports of the mind which were felt during the war with the great event of the day, and to produce such a tide of joy as has seldom been felt in any age or country. Political joy is one of the strongest emotions of the human mind. Think then, my friend, from the objects of it which have been mentioned, how powerful must have been its action upon the mind on this occasion. The first thing that struck me in viewing the procession was the occasion of it. It was not to celebrate a victory obtained in blood over any part of our fellow creatures. No city reduced to ashes-no army conquered by capitulation-no news of slaughtered thousands brought

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9 JULY 1788 the citizens of Philadelphia together. It was to celebrate a triumph of knowledge over ignorance, of virtue over vice, and of liberty over slavery. It was to celebrate the birth of a free government, the objects of which were to lessen the number of widows and orphans by preventing the effusion of human blood, to save human nature from the disgraces and desolations of war, and to establish and extend the blessings of peace throughout the continent of America. The order of the procession was regular and begat correspondent order in all classes of spectators. A solemn silence reigned both in the streets and at the windows of the houses. This must be ascribed to the sublimity of the sight and the pleasure it excited in every mind, for sublime objects and intense pleasure never fail of producing silence! Perhaps a greater number or a greater combination of passions never seized at the same time upon every faculty of the soul. The patriot enjoyed a complete triumph, whether the objects of his patriotism were the security of liberty, the establishment of law, the protection of manufactures, or the extension of science in his country. The benevolent man saw a precedent established for forming free governments in every part of the world. The man of humanity contemplated the end of the distresses of his fellow citizens in the revival of commerce and agriculture. Even the selfish passions were not idle. The ambitious man beheld with pleasure the honors that were to be disposed of by the new government, and the man of wealth realized once more the safety of his bonds and rents against the inroads of paper money and tender laws. Every person felt one of these passions, many more than one, and some all of them during the procession. No wonder then that it gave so much and such delicate pleasure. But this was not all. The emblems afforded food for the understanding likewise. The history of the most important events of the war, and the inscriptions and devices upon many of the flags, gave occasional employment for that noble power of the mind and added much to the pleasure of the sight. Even the senses partook of the entertainment, for the variety of colors displayed in the various ornaments of the machines and flags and in the dresses of the citizens, together with an excellent band of music, at once charmed the eyes and ears of the spectators and thereby introduced the body to partake, in a certain degree, of the feast of the mind. The effects of the procession upon the minds and bodies of our citizens deserve to be noticed. It forced open every heart, insomuch that many people provided cooling liquors with which they regaled [ 471

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their fellow citizens as they walked in the procession. It likewise invigorated the muscles of the body. The company assembled at eight o'clock and were upon foot at the place of parade and in the procession till one. The distance they marched was three miles, and yet scarcely a person complained of fatigue, although there were many old and weakly people in the procession. But this sudden excitement of the vigor of the body left a corresponding debility behind it, for I scarcely met a person in the afternoon that did not complain of fatigue and discover a desire to retire to rest early in the evening. It was very remarkable that every countenance wore an air of dignity as well as pleasure. Every tradesman's boy in the procession seemed to consider himself as a principal in the business. Rank for a while forgot all its claims, and Agriculture, Commerce, and Manufactures, together with the learned and mechanical Professions, seemed to acknowledge by their harmony and respect for each other that they were all necessary to each other and all useful in cultivated society. These circumstances distinguished this procession from the processions in Europe, which are commonly instituted in honor of single persons. The military alone partake of the splendor of such exhibitions. Farmers and tradesmen are either deemed unworthy of such connections or are introduced, like horses or buildings, only to add to the strength or length of the procession. Such is the difference between the effects of a republican and monarchial8 government upon the minds of men! I need not suggest to you how much this mixture of the mechanical and learned professions in a public exhibition is calculated to render trades of all kinds respectable in our country. Farmers and tradesmen are the pillars of national happiness and prosperity. It would seem as if heaven stamped a peculiar value upon agriculture and mechanical arts in America by selecting WAsHINGTON and FRANKLIN to be two of the principal agents in the late Revolution. The titles of farmer and mechanic, therefore, can never fail of being peculiarly agreeable in the United States while gratitude and patriotism live in American breasts. I wish the different trades in Philadelphia may avail themselves of their late sudden and accidental association and form themselves into distinct incorporated companies. Many advantages would arise to them from such institutions, especially if part of the objects of their union should be to establish a fund for the relief of the infirm or decayed members of their companies and of their widows and 9rphans. Two and sixpence or half a dollar thrown into a common stock by each trades-

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9 JULY 1788 man every month would produce a fund sufficient for all these benevolent purposes and would not be missed out of the ordinary profits of his labor. It is impossible to tell how much distress might by these means be prevented or relieved. It would give me pleasure to remark upon the effect of every article that composed the procession. But this would lead me far beyond the limits I have prescribed to myself in this letter. The triumphal car was truly sublime. It was raised above every other object. The Constitution was carried by a great law-officer/ to denote the elevation of the government and of law and justice above everything else in the United States. The sight of the ship complete in all its parts moving upon dry land conveyed emotions to every heart that cannot be described. She was a ship of war. I wish the procession could have been conducted without blending the emblems of peace and war together, but this was impossible while armies and navies are considered as necessary appendages of the sovereignty of independent states. The United States have taught the nations of the world that it is possible to terminate disputes by appeals to reason instead of the sword. I do not despair of this mode of deciding national disputes becoming general in the course of the approaching century. It will be a less change in human affairs than has been produced by reason and religion in the course of the last two hundred years. The clean white dresses of the victualers and bakers were very happily calculated to excite such ideas of their respective arts as could not fail of being agreeable to every spectator. The two oxen, with their decorations, made a noble figure. They were destined to the slaughterhouse the next day for the benefit of the poor, but such was the effect of an agreeable association of ideas that a general outcry was raised after they had passed by against the fate that awaited them. The most trifling object derived a value from being connected with this delightful and interesting exhibition. The large stage on which the carding and spinning machines displayed the manufactory of COTTON was viewed with astonishment and delight by every spectator. 5 On that stage were carried the emblems of the future wealth and independence of our country. Cotton may be cultivated in the southern and manufactured in the eastern and middle states in such quantities in a few years as to clothe every citizen of the United States. Hence will arise a bond of union to the states more powerful than any article of the new Constitution. Cotton possesses several advantages over wool as an article of dress and commerce. It is not liable to be moth-eaten and

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is proper both for winter and summer garments. It may moreover be manufactured in America at a less expense than it can be im~ ported from any nation in Europe. From these circumstances I cannot help hoping that we shall soon see cotton not only the uni~ form of the citizens of America but an article of exportation to foreign countries. Several respectable gentlemen exhibited a prelude of these events by appearing in complete suits of jeans manufactured by the machines that have been mentioned. The Clergy formed a very agreeable part of the procession. They manifested by their attendance their sense of the connection between religion and good government. They amounted to seventeen in number. Four and five of them marched arm in arm with each other to exemplify the Union. Pains were taken to connect ministers of the most dissimilar religious principles together, thereby to show the influence of a free government in promoting Christian charity. The Rabbi of the Jews6 locked in the arms of two ministers of the gospel was a most delightful sight. There could not have been a more happy emblem contrived of that section of the new Constitution which opens all its power and offices alike not only to every sect of Christians but to worthy men of every religion. In the course of the morning many speeches were made by different gentlemen that arose out of the incidents of the procession. Mr. P--- -, 1 who walked with the farmers just behind a man who was sowing grain, upon passing by the lawyers, said, "We sow, gentlemen, but you reap the fruits of our labors." Upon the procession being detained for a few minutes by an accident having happened to the carriage of the blacksmiths' shop, it was said, "that this was all in order, for it was an emblem of the obstructions and difficulties the Constitution had met with in its establishment from the arts of bad and the ignorance of weak men." The remarks of every man partook more or less of his profession, and the Constitution received nearly as many new names as there were occupations in the procession. The instructors of youth, with a numerous collection of boys of every size and age in their train, formed a most agreeable part of the exhibition. A worthy citizen who served in several battles during the late war informed me that this part of the procession affected him so much as to draw tears from his eyes. I must not forget to mention that the weather proved uncommonly favorable to the entertainment. The sun was not to be seen till near two o'clock, at which time the procession was over. A pleasant and cooling breeze blew all day from the south, and in the [ 474 ]

9 JULY 1788 evening the sky was illuminated by a beautiful aurora borealis. Under this head another fact is equally worthy of notice. Notwithstanding the haste in which the machines were made and the manner in which they were drawn through the streets, and notwithstanding the great number of women and children that were assembled on fences, scaffolds, and roofs of the houses to see the procession, no one accident happened to anybody. These circumstances gave occasion for hundreds to remark that "Heaven was on the federal side of the question." It would be ungrateful not to observe that there have been less equivocal signs, in the course of the formation and establishment of this government, of heaven having favored the federal side of the question. The union of twelve states in the form, and of ten states in the adoption, of the Constitution in less than ten months, under the influence of local prejudices, opposite interests, popular arts, and even the threats of bold and desperate men, is a solitary event in the history of mankind. I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the States, in its form and adoption, is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament were the effects of a divine power. 'Tis done! We have become a nation. America has ceased to be the only power in the world that has derived no benefit from her declaration of independence. We are more than repaid for the distresses of the war and the disappointments of the peace. The torpid resources of our country already discover signs of life and motion. We are no longer the scoff of our enemies. The reign of violence is over. Justice has descended from heaven to dwell in our land, and ample restitution has at last been made to human nature by our new Constitution for all the in juries she has sustained in the old world from arbitrary government, false religions, and unlawful commerce. But I return from this digression to relate one more fact from which I derived no small pleasure, or rather triumph, after the procession was over. It is that out of seventeen thousand people who appeared on the green and partook of the collation, there was scarcely one person intoxicated, nor was there a single quarrel or even dispute heard of during the day. All was order, all was harmony and joy. These delightful fruits of the entertainment are to be ascribed wholly to no liquors being drank on the green but BEER and CIDER. I wish this fact could be published in every language and circulated through every part of the world where spirituous [ 475 ]

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liquors are used. I wish further that a monument could be erected upon UNION GR.EEN8 with the following inscription, with which I shall conclude my letter:

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IN HoNoR. oF AMERICAN

BEER and CIDER,

It is hereby recorded, for the information of strangers and posterity, that q,ooo people assembled on this green on the 4th of July, q88, to celebrate the establishment of the Constitution of the United States, and that they separated at an early hour without intoxication or a single quarrel. They drank nothing but Beer and Cider. Learn, reader, to prize those invaluable FEDERAL liquors, and to consider them as the companions of those virtues that can alone render our country free and respectable. Learn likewise to despise SPIRITuous LIQUORS as Antifederal, and to consider them as the companions of all those vices that are calculated to dishonor and enslave our country.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t Since writing the above, I have been informed that there were two or three persons intoxicated and several quarrels on the green, but there is good reason to believe that they were all occasioned by spirituous liquors which were clandestinely carried out and drank by some disorderly people contrary to the orders of the day. I have only to beg your pardon for the length of this letter, and to assure you of the great regard with which I am your sincere friend and humble servant, To-------- --------, Elizabethtown, New Jersey. [ 476 ]

15 JULY 1788 P.S. I had like to have forgotten to inform you of two important facts that have occurred since the procession. 1st, it has been the happy means of uniting all our citizens in the government; and znd, it has made such an impression upon the minds of our young people that "federal" and "union" have now become part of the "household words" of every family in the city. A small anecdote connected with the effects of the procession shall finish my postscript. A worthy German who carried the standard of one of the trades, when he came home, desired his wife to take care of the flag till the next time he should be called upon to carry it, "and if I die," said he, "before I can have that honor again, I desire that you would place it in my coffin and bury it with me." Printed: The American Museum, rv, 75-8 (July 1788). 1

Boudinot was the probable recipient, since he was BR's principal correspondent in Elizabeth, N.J. (see the close of the letter). BR's authorship, manifest from the style and content throughout, is established by the presence of the text from the Amer. Museum in the volume of BR's tracts, bound up presumably by his son James, now in Libr. Co. Phila. (call no. ou/6o9I7/ou). The letter was printed under the title "Observations on the Federal Procession on the Fourth of July, I788, in the City of Philadelphia; in a Letter from a Gentleman in this City to His Friend in a Neighbouring State"; it has been reprinted several times. 2 Francis Hopkinson's "Account of the Grand Federal Procession," which he himself had largely arranged, appeared in the newspapers on 9 July and was reprinted in his Miscellaneous Essays, Phila., I792, n, 349-40I. The Federal Procession was the greatest spectacle presented in eighteenth-century

Philadelphia, and Hopkinson's minutely detailed "Account" does justice to the subject. The celebration, says Mr. Carl Van Doren, "was a dramatic epitome of the life and work of a separate state, a symbolic act of faith in the future of the United States" (The Great Rehearsal, N.Y., I948, p. 25I). 3 Thus in the printed text. 4 Chief Justice Thomas McKean. 5 For this remarkable display, see Hopkinson's "Account," in his Miscellaneous Essays, Phila., I 792, n, 363-5. 6 Jacob Raphael Cohen, minister of the Mickveh Israel congregation, I 784I8II (Morais, Jews of Philadelphia, p. I8). 7 Richard Peters; he was by profession a lawyer. s The name bestowed for the occasion on the grounds of William Hamilton's Bush Hill estate in the Northern Liberties, where the procession ended its threemile march.

To Jeremy Belknap Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 15th, 1788 From a wish to diffuse federal principles through our country, I have added a few observations to the account of our late procession published by Mr. Hopkinson, a copy of which I have

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enclosed, to be republished, if you think proper, in your papersbut without my name. From, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH P.S. I am preparing the lectures I gave in our female academy for the press. 1 I beg you would send me (to be inserted in them) a receipt for the spruce and sugar-maple beer you mention in your last letter. Since folding up my letter, I have received your favor of the 5th instant. 2 Accept of my thanks for your attention to my publications. I do not think we are as yet ripe enough in vice or poverty for a lying-in hospital in any part of this country. An attempt was made to establish one in this city last year, but without success. Our Dispensary supplies the necessity of such an institution at a 10th part of the expense that would attend it, and in a manner more consistent with female delicacy and the secrecy that is enjoined by the Gospel in acts of charity. .;fddressed: The Revd: Mr Jeremy Belknap One of the Ministers of Boston. !illS: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1 2

This project does not seem to have been carried out. Missing.

To John Dickinson Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 15th, 1788 Permit me to congratulate you upon the adoption of the federal government. The enclosed paper contains some of my feelings upon this most auspicious event. It is intended as a present to Miss Sally. The success of the new government in restoring order to our country will depend very much upon the talents and principles of the gentlemen who are to compose the federal legislature. Your friends in Philadelphia have destined you to be one of the members of the Senate from the Delaware State.1 I know how perfectly your present tranquil mode of life accords with the present happy frame of your mind. But remember, my dear friend, that "none liveth to himself." Even our old age is not our own property. All its fruits of wisdom and experience belong to the public. "To do good" is the business of life. "To enjoy [ 478 ]

16 AUGUST 1788 rest" is the happiness of heaven. We pluck premature or forbidden fruit when we grasp at rest on this side the grave. I know, too, your present infirm state of body, but an active interest in the great objects and business of the new legislature for a few years, by giving tone to your mind, will invigorate your body. Should you only assist with your advice for one or two years till all the wheels of the great machine are set in motion, your country will forgive your resignation of your seat in the Senate afterwards. With most respectful compliments to Mrs. Dickinson and Miss Sally, and love to Miss Maria, in which my dear Mrs. Rush joins, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH ..1ddressed: John Dickinson Esqr: Wilmington Dr Thornton. 2 &S: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Logan Papers. 1

In his reply of 4 Aug., Dickinson declared that his shattered health would not permit him to return to public life, and he never did so (Stille, Dickinson, p. 278, note).

2 Doubtless William Thornton ( 17 59t8z8), physician, inventor, and architect, who had recently settled in Philadelphia (DAB).

To John Coakley Lettsom Dear Sir, Philadelphia, August 16, 1788 The enclosed "Inquiry into the Justice and Policy of Punishing Murder by Deathm is intended as an appendix to the essay on public punishments. I presume you will have no objections to my principles upon that subject, for they evidently lead to the tenet of your society with respect to the lawfulness of war. If you approve of the "Inquiry," I take it for granted that you will procure a place for it in one of your periodical papers. It gave me great pleasure to perceive by an extract from one of your publications printed in our newspapers that you are engaged in a war against spirituous liquors. It will be in the power of the physicians to do more than divines, or even legislatures, in preventing their dreadful effects upon health, morals, and the general interests of society. I am so perfectly satisfied of this truth that I not only bear a testimony against their being used with diet but in medicine likewise. I believe they are safe in those medicines only which are given in drops. Where it is necessary to give tinctures by spoonfuls or in larger quantities, I direct [ 479 ]

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them to be made with water instead of spirit. And I have been happy in discovering that I have made a greater impression upon many diseases by medicines given in a watery than in a spirituous or vinous menstruum. From the operation of sundry publications in our newspapers against spirituous liquors, the sale and consumption of them has diminished one third in the course of the last year in the State of Pennsylvania. The Friends and the Methodists have taken the lead in rejecting them from their harvest fields, their stores, and even from their houses. It is expected that at the yearly meeting that is to be held in this city next month a recommendation will issue from the Friends to all their members to refrain not only from the use but from the importation and sale of those destructive liquors. This measure, like their first testimony against the African trade, will, it is to be hoped, prove a seed that will extend its branches and fruit over the United States. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia2 have likewise been active in this business; they have petitioned the Assembly of Pennsylvania to increase the duty and excise upon spirits. But they do not mean to stop here. It is expected they will meet the new government as soon as it is framed with a similar petition; 8 and from the present temper of the United States, there is little doubt of its success. From the effects of a late severe attack of pleurisy upon a constitution originally slender, I find myself unequal in point of exertion to many objects I wish to have seen executed before I leave the world. None lies so near my heart as the extirpation of spirituous liquors. To you, after I am gone, I bequeath a continuance of the war you have begun against them. You move in a great and extensive circle. One word from a London will spread further and do more good than a thousand essays in favor of humanity from a Philadelphia physician. I am, dear sir, your affectionate friend, BENJAMIN RusH 'Printed: Pettigrew, Lettsom, n, 43 5-7. 1

This was the earliest form of BR's assault on capital punishment, an assault that was to become a fierce and protracted campaign. The tract appeared in the Amer. Museum, IV, 78-82 (July I 78 8), and was afterward expanded and separately published as Considerations on the Injustice and Impolicy of

Punishing Murder by Death, Phila.: Carey, I 792; reprinted in London, I 793· As a result of the movement he had initiated, BR could announce in a postscript to his article when it was reprinted in his Essays (I798) that capital punishment had been abolished in Pennsylvania for all crimes except first-degree murder

19 AUGUST 1788 (p. 181). For a contemporary account tion of the local or foreign origin of of this reform, see Mease, Picture of the fever, and in 1 79 8 BR was the movPhiladelphia, p. 162-3; and for a later ing spirit in founding the Academy of discussion, see Albert Post, "Early Ef- Medicine, to propagate the doctrine of forts to Abolish Capital Punishment in local origins. The College, which has Pennsylvania," PMHB1 LXVIII (1944) 1 grown and prospered and now occupies 38-53. See also BR to Belknap, 7 Oct. a position at the head of institutions of its kind, long ago forgave BR for his 1788. 2 The College of Physicians of Phila- act of repudiation and has paid him delphia held its first recorded meeting frequent tribute as one of its founders on 2 Jan. 1787 and was incorporated and great men. (Ruschenberger, passim; 26 Mch. 1789. BR, who had for some Coll. Phys. Phila., Trans., 4th ser., IV, years been eager to establish such an Suppl., "Commemoration of the 15oth institution (see, e.g., his letter to Lett- Anniversary of the Founding," containsam of 15 Nov. 1783), was one of the ing among other things a reprint of BR's twelve senior fellows the constitution "Discourse" of 1 787 ; also BR to John provided for. On 6 Feb. 17 87 he de- Redman, 5 Nov. 1793, and to Ashton livered "A Discourse ... on the Objects Alexander, 20 Feb. 1798, below.) 3 This petition was eventually subof Their Institution" to the College, which is among the ablest of his efforts mitted to Congress on 27 Dec. 1790. Its of this kind and which has recently and central argument is "that a great projustly been called "a Declaration of portion of the most obstinate, painful, Independence of the American physi- and mortal disorders which affect the cian." The "Discourse" was printed in human body are produced by distilled the College's Transactions, I, pt. i spirits; that they are not only destructive (1793), xix-xxxi, a collection to which to health and life, but that they impair BR contributed four other papers, not to the faculties of the mind, and thereby mention six more that were originally tend equally to dishonor our character written as letters to him; BR was thus as a nation, and to degrade our species responsible for over a third of the con- as intelligent beings" (American State tents of the volume. After this en- Papers, Washington, 1832-1861, Miscelthusiastic beginning it is sad to report laneous, I, 20). The petition was signed that BR's relations with the College were by John Redman, president, and Samuel not long untroubled. The College offi- Powel Griffitts, secretary; but the subcially opposed BR's treatment of the stance and style attest BR's collaboration, yellow fever in 1793, and he resigned and he was in fact on the committee his fellowship on 5 Nov. of that year. appointed to prepare it (Ruschenberger, A further difference arose op. the ques- p. 44).

To Jeremy Belknap Philadelphia, August 19th, q88 Dear Sir, Ever since I was one-and-twenty years of age, I have unfortunately been engaged in combating vulgar errors or popular prejudices. The enclosed "Enquiry into the Justice and Policy of Punishing Murder by Death" is the boldest attack I have ever made upon a public opinion or a general practice. It has already made some converts and staggered many Old Testament saints and legislators. I wish to have it republished in your papers-for in the eastern states all improvements in government must origi[ 481 ]

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nate. The essay upon punishments was ascribed to Dr. Franklin in your papers. I have no objection to that mistake being corrected in the republication of the enclosed "Enquiry." Perhaps the republication of the dialogue upon spirituous liquors1 may do good in your state. The stroke at New England men was intended only for our state-it must be omitted in the Boston impression of it. I wait with impatience for the receipt for making maple and spruce beer. 2 Every day brings to light some facts which show the effects of the publications against spirituous liquors upon the public mind. They say in England "that you may write down a parliament, a ministry, and even a king." I have seen a tender and a test law written down in Pennsylvania. Let us try the force of the press upon spirituous liquors in every part of the United States. I call upon you, my worthy though unknown friend, to act the part of a pioneer in this business in Massachussets. Your success will be certain and your reward great, both here and hereafter. Dr. Ramsay will be our coadjutor in South Carolina. The good effects of our labors will appear in the next generation. Habitual drunkards are beyond the influence of reason, but young men will feel its force upon this subject and act accordingly. In the year I 9 I 5 a drunkard I hope will be as infamous in society as a liar or a thief, and the use of spirits as uncommon in families as a drink made of a solution of arsenic or a decoction of hemlock. Since writing the above, I have received your letter by Captain Dagget. 3 Accept of my thanks for it. Philadelphia porter sells for 8/4 a dozen, while British porter is offered for sale at I7/6. Good judges p,ronounce ours equal to that which is made in London. It is sold by the barrel in the same ratio to the English porter as by the dozen bottles. I congratulate you upon your success in bringing back the poor Negroes to Boston. I have enjoyed many such feasts as you describe in your letter. I love even the name of Africa, and never see a Negro slave or freeman without emotions which I seldom feel in the same degree towards my unfortunate fellow creatures of a fairer complexion. When shall CEthiopia stretch forth her hand4 to embrace the olive branch of the Gospel? And when shall the mystery of providence be explained which has permitted so much misery to be inf[licted)5 upon these unfortunate people? Is slavery here to be substituted among them for misery hereafter? They partake in their vices of the fall of man. They must [ 482 ]

7 SEPTEMBER 1788 therefore share in the benefits of the Atonement. Let us continue to love and serve them, for they are our brethren not only by creation but by redemption. From, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH

P.S. Compliments to my worthy friend Dr. Lathrop. ~ddressed: The Revd: Jeremy Belknap at Boston. &S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1 I have not identified this squib, which probably appeared in a news. paper. 2 Sent by Belknap in his letter of :u Sep. 1788 (Rush MSS, xxx).

3

Not further identified. "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God." Psalms 68:31. 5 MS torn by seal. ~

To Mary Stockton Philadelphia, September 7th, 1788 My dear Sister, I am much obliged to you for your letter. 1 I have often heard a high character of Hartley's book on the Millennium, 2 and shall not fail of reading it as soon as I have a little leisure from my business, which at present employs nearly every hour of the day and sometimes some of the hours of the night. I consider the Bible as I do the works of nature. The truths contained in it, like discoveries in philosophy, are of a progressive nature. We see the mysteries of both but in part. As in the works of nature discoveries have often been made by accident and by men of plain understanding without education, so truths have often been brought to light from the Bible by accident or by persons of little or no education. As a familiarity with the works of nature leads to discoveries in philosophy, so a constant and an attentive perusal of the Scriptures leads to a discovery of the truths of the Gospel. As discoveries increase in a geometrical proportion in philosophy by means of discoveries, so the more we know of the extent of the objects of revelation, the more easily we comprehend the minutest parts of it. How many things in the works of creation once thought to be useless have lately had the most sublime uses ascribed to them! And how many parts of the globe once thought to be deserts in the creation have lately been proved to be necessary to the health or convenience of mankind! In like manner how many passages and texts of Scripture once thought to be unmeaning or contrary to its general [ 483 ]

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tenor have been found to have a reference to some sublime truth of the Gospel, and to be in perfect consistency with the whole tenor of revelation! We daily tread upon mysteries in our fields or contemplate them in the woods or upon the water. The next generation will probably explain these mysteries and wonder at our weakness in overlooking them. In like manner we daily read chapters in the Bible rich with divine truths without perceiving them. The next generation will probably perceive them and wonder at our blindness in not finding them out. "Every verse in the Bible," says Luther, "is a bush with a bird in it. But the bird will not fly from it till the bush is well beaten." I have been astonished to find how much justice there is in this observation. I never read a chapter in the Bible without seeing something in it I never saw before-and I read no commentary upon it, unless you call the translations of the Bible into different languages a commentary, for these I find very useful in investigating difficult or abstruse passages. I think I have lately made a discovery of the meaning of a text which from its perversion has laid the foundation of one of the most unnatural and corrupt institutions of the Church of Rome, and which has done in other respects great dishonor to the Gospel. You will find this text in the I 9th chapter of St. Mathew and the 12th verse. 3 It has been supposed to recommend celibacy. But I think I shall prove it to be the strongest argument against it that religion or reason have ever suggested.-Marriage was instituted in Paradise before the Fall. All its pleasures therefore are free from sin. It is essential to the order and happiness of society-it must therefore be agreeable to the will of God. It is the most natural and successful mode of multiplying human beings-it must therefore be necessary to bring into existence the objects of the great covenant of redemption. Our Saviour's conduct while he was in the world accords in everything with these general propositions. He honored a wedding with his first miracle, and he rebuked the woman of Samaria for living with a man who was not her husband. Could a single life have been proper in any one person in the world, it certainly must have been in his mother Mary. But no. Even her body does not become sacred by bearing the Son of God. She afterwards publicly becomes the wife of Joseph and has children by him. St. Paul pronounces "marriage honorable in all, and the bed undefiled. 114 He likewise ranks "forbidding to marry among the doctrines of devils. 115 These general assertions overset every insinuation to the contrary that time and circumstances

7 SEPTEMBER 1788 introduced into his writings. In the beginning of the chapter from whence the before-mentioned verse is taken, our Saviour condemns the law of Moses for permitting easy divorces. They favor domestic infelicity, for where marriages are originally unhappy the annihilation of all hope of their becoming otherwise by a separation often removes the cause of their unhappiness. He then turns their attention from the law of Moses to the law of nature made in the Garden of Eden. "From the beginning," he says, "it was not so." That is, a plurality of wives was unknown in the first institution of matrimony. God made only one female for man, and to dignify the holy ceremony of marriage as much as possible he represents God himself as joining them together. Let no man, let no rash vow, and let no mistaken interpretation of Scripture therefore ever separate them from each other. Nay further, let no law ever be enacted for this purpose except for adultery, in which case the end of matrimony is frustrated by the introduction of sin and by a breach in the order of society. The disciples, shocked at the purity and strictness of this doctrine respecting divorces, say to him, if such difficult rules must obtain in matrimony and if so little latitude is to be given to escape from bad tempers or the many hundred sources of misery which occur in that state, then "it is not good to marry." Our Saviour saw at once the tendency of this observation. It militated against the order of nature and the decrees of heaven. Above all, it opened a door for sin, for he elsewhere says, "He that looketh after a woman" unlawfully "committeth adultery in his heart." 6 And he knew the human heart so perfectly as to know that no single man ever lived or could live without transgressing that divine law agreeably to its pure and spiritual interpretation. To impress this idea in the strongest possible manner, he declares that a man must cease by birth, by force, or by a delusion in religion to be a man before he can refrain from matrimony without sin. There is something apparently farfetched in this manner of answering his disciples, but delicacy required it. Our Saviour plainly tells them that his meaning was obscure-hence he introduces and concludes the verse with the following words: "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." The explanation I have given of this passage will appear more natural when we attend to the verses which follow it. "Suffer little children and forbid them not to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." It is as if he had said, I have given you one reason in favor of matrimony, but there is another reason now be[ 485 ]

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fore you. Behold these little children! Without matrimony they could have no existence, and without them all the decrees of divine love could not be fulfilled, for children compose a material part of the kingdom of heaven. The remarks I have made I believe apply only to our sex. Women, from not having matrimony in their choice, are kindly exempted from the necessity of marrying as a preventive from s[in)-1 Perhaps this may be the reason why the want of chastity in a woman is condemned so severely by her own sex-they know how much she sins without temptation. I shall make no apology for the subject of this letter. I write to you as a Christian and a philosopher, and not as a woman. In inquiries after divine truth, the distinction of sexes should be forgotten, for in this delightful exercise we "neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven." 8 I have only to request that, as there are some truths that (like certain liquors) require strong heads to bear them, you will be careful to prevent this letter from falling into improper hands. Let me hear from you often. In return for your letters I shall endeavor to gratify that partiality with which you have been pleased to honor my opinions, especially upon religious subjects. With respectful compliments to my good friend Mrs. Wallace, I am, my dear sister, yours affectionately, BENJN RusH .dddressed: Miss Polly Stockton at Burlington. ~ Mr Wallace. 9 iilfS: Rush Family Papers, deposited in Princeton University Library. 1

Not found. Thomas Hartley, Paradise Restored: or, A Testimony to the Doctrine of the Blessed Millennium, London, I 764 (L. C. Cat.). 8 "For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." The discussion below embraces verses 3-I4 of this chapter. • Hebrews I 3 :4. 2

5

I Timothy 4:3, I. Matthew s:z8. 7 MS. worn along a crease. 8 Mark u:zs. 9 Joshua Maddox Wallace (I75ZI 8 I 9), A.B., College of Philadelphia, 1767; A.M., College of New Jersey, I770; judge of common pleas, Burlington co., N.J., from I784. His wife was Tace, or Tacey, sister of BR's friends Thomas and William Bradford. {Univ. of Penna., Biog. Cat. of Matriculates; Hist. Cat. St. Andrew's Soc. Phila., r, 350-I.) 6

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To Andrew Brown: Directions for Conducting a Newspaper in Such a Manner as to Make It Innocent, Useful, and Entertaining~ Mr. Brown,

[r October r788] I have read your proposals for printing a newspaper and feel a disposition to subscribe for it, but shall delay to do so until I am satisfied that you conduct it upon the principles you have promised. In the meanwhile I shall take the liberty of suggesting a few directions for conducting a paper in such a manner as to make it innocent, useful, and entertaining. 1. Consider that we live three thousand miles from the nations of Europe and that we have but little interest in their domestic parties or national quarrels. The less therefore you publish of them, the better. 2. Avoid :filling your paper with anecdotes of British vices and follies. What have the citizens of the United States to do with the duels, the elopements, the crim. cons., the kept mistresses, the murders, the suicides, the thefts, the forgeries, the boxing matches, the wagers for eating, drinking, and walking, &c., &c., of the people of Great Britain? Such stuff, when circulated through our country by means of a newspaper, is calculated to destroy that delicacy in the mind which is one of the safeguards of the virtue of a young country. 3· If any of the above-named vices should ever be committed in the United States, the less that is said about it the better. What have the citizens of Philadelphia to do with the criminal amours of Mr. M----- of Boston? The frequent and minute histories of such gross vices take off from the horror they would otherwise excite in the mind. 4· Never suffer your paper to be a vehicle of private scandal or of personal disputes. If the faults of public officers are exposed, let it be done with decency. No man has a right to attack the vices or follies of private citizens in a newspaper. Should you under a false idea of preserving the liberty of the press lay open the secrets of families and thereby wound female honor and delicacy, I hope our legislature will repeal the law that relates to assault and battery and that the liberty of the bludgeon will be as sacred and universal in Pennsylvania as your liberty of the press. 5· Never publish an article in your paper that you would not wish

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your wife or daughter (if you have any) should read or understand. 6. The less you publish about yourself the better. What have your readers to do with the neglects or insults that are offered to you by your fellow citizens? If a printer offends you, attack him in your paper, because he can defend himself with the same weapons with which you wound him; type against type is fair play; but to attack a man who has no types nor printing press, or who does not know anything about the manual of using them, is cowardly in the highest degree. 2 If you had been in twenty Bunkers-hill battles instead of one, and had fought forty duels into the bargain, and were afterwards to revenge an affront upon a man who was not a printer, in your newspaper, I would not believe that you possessed a particle of true courage. If such a person injures you, if you are a Christian, you may forgive him or sue him. If you are a savage, you may challenge him to fight a duel. And if you are a wild beast, you may tear him to pieces with your claws or kick him into the gutter. 7· Publish as often as you can obtain them an exact but short account of all the laws that are passed in all the states in the Union. 8. Furnish your customers if possible with the future debates of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. 9· Let the advancement of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce be the principal objects of your paper. A receipt to destroy the insects that feed upon turnips, or to prevent the rot in sheep, will be more useful in America than all the inventions for destroying the human species which so often fill the columns of European newspapers. IO. Publish a price-current and a state of the weather once a week; and once a month publish a list of all the deaths in the cityand if possible the names of the diseases which occasioned them. 8 I I. Do not neglect to insert a good essay or paragraph because it has been published in another newspaper. Extracts from modern publications upon useful subjects will at all times be acceptable to your readers. Wishing you success in your undertaking only in proportion as you comply with these directions, I am your humble servant,

A FRIEND Printed: Federal Gazette (Philadelphia), 1 In Aug. 1788 Andrew Brown issued a prospectus announcing the revival of his Federal Gazette, a newspaper he had

I

TO THE UNION

4

October 1788.

briefly conducted in the spring. The present comment on the prospectus was published in the :first number of the

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7 OCTOBER 1788 revived paper. The useful features of journalism suggested by BR, some of them anticipated in his early letter to Thomas Bradford ( 3 June I 76 8) , should be considered in the light of his belief that newspapers should be distributed post-free; see his "Address to the People of the United States," Amer. Museum, I, 8-II (Jan. I787). The addressee, Andrew Brown (ca. 17451797), had an extraordinary career. According to William Cobbett, he was "an old Irish soldier" who deserted from the 47th regiment while stationed in Boston, entered the American service, and rose to the rank of major. This is partly confirmed by official records: Brown served as a volunteer at Bunker Hill (note BR's allusion in the present letter) and in May I777 was appointed deputy muster-master-general of the eastern department with the rank of major. After the war he came to New York and started a newspaper, the New York Journal, 1785, but his connection with it was brief, and by I 787 he was in Philadelphia, where for two years he conducted the Young Ladies' Academy. This was a pioneer educational venture, in which BR was Brown's active supporter. Having reestablished his newspaper, Brown continued publishing it until his death, changing its name in 1794 to the Philadelphia Gazette. Brown's Federal Gazette was the only newspaper in the city to continue uninterrupted publication during the epidemic of I 793· In a letter introducing

Brown to Thomas Jefferson, BR said that "His sacrifices to his principles and to the best interests of our country have been great" (IS Aug. I790; L.C., Jefferson Papers). The circumstances of Brown's death, with others of his family, from a fire in their home on 27 Jan. I 797, were peculiarly horrible. BR attended Brown after the fire. Rev. Samuel Magaw preached a funeral discourse on the occasion, but Brown's journalistic antagonist, William Cobbett, declared the event a just retribution upon Brown for his disloyalty to England! He died at the age of fifty-two. (Cobbett, RushLight, No. I, p. 37; Heitman, Register; Clarence D. Brigham, Hist. and Bibliog. of Amer. Newspapers, r, 656; n, 905, 9II ; BR, Thoughts upon Female Education, Phila., I787; Penna. Gaz., xo May I786, 27 Aug. I788; Carey, Short Account, p. 22, note; BR, Autobiography, p. 23 7-8; Simpson, Eminent Philadelphians; Barratt, Old St. Paul's, p. I II, 230.) 2 This was precisely what William Cobbett was to do to BR a decade later. See also BR's letter to the Ministers of All Denominations, 2.I June I788. 3 For BR's interest in collecting vital statistics, see his letter to Lyman Spalding, 9 Feb. 1802. 4 BR nowhere acknowledged this letter as his, but his authorship has been established not only from internal evidence but by the fact that the letter was reprinted in Amer. Museum, v, 488-9 (May 1789), as "by dr. Rush."

To Jeremy Belknap Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 7th, q88 I am very sorry the publication from your letter respecting the Negroes1 exposed you to fresh attacks from your enemies in Boston. It was extracted and sent to the press by a worthy Quaker to whom I lent your letter. Hereafter I shall use more caution with your communications. The receipts you sent me are very acceptable. 2 I expect to obtain a place for them in the American Museum, through which they will find an extensive circulation through our country. [ 489

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Our state has taken the lead in making arrangements for setting the new government in motion. By obliging the whole state to vote in one ticket, it is expected the Federalists will prevail by a majority of two to one in the choice of representatives for the lower house of Congress. Our senators are both highly federal. Mr. Morris' character for abilities and integrity is well known. Mr. Maclay possesses great talents for government. He was bred a lawyer but has spent the last twenty years of his life in a succession of public employments. He is alike independent in fortune and spirit. In his manners he is a perfect republican. My essay upon the punishment of murder by death has been attacked in our newspapers by the Reverend Mr. Annan8 (formerly of Boston). He rants in a most furious manner against Socinians and deists-and so far from treating me with the meekness of a Christian, he has not even treated me like a gentleman. His arguments are flimsy and such as would apply better to the 15th than the 18th century. They all appear to flow from his severe Calvanistical principles. It is impossible to advance human happiness while we believe the Supreme Being to possess the passions of weak or wicked men and govern our conduct by such opinions. "The Son of Man came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them," 4 is a passage that at once refutes all the arguments that ever were offered in favor of slavery, war, and capital punishments. Mr. Jno. Adams will probably have all the votes of our state for the Vice-President's chair. Mr. Hancock's frequent indispositions alone will preclude him from that mark of respect from Pennsylvama. From, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH P.S. I enclose you an oration which I composed for Dr. Clarkson's youngest son against spirituous liquors. 5 The Doctor and myself lately delivered a testimony against them in a public conference of the Methodists in this city at the request of their superintendent. 8 The Quakers have at their last yearly meeting recommended to their members to refrain from dealing in spirits in any way whatever. Go on-go on-go on-and all will end well. .ffddressed: The Revd: Mr Jeremy Belknap One of the Minister's of Boston. fllfS: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1

Belknap's letter of I 6 Aug. I 78 8 (Rush Mss, xxx) recounted a successful effort to recover certain Negroes kidnapped in Boston.

2 These were recipes for maple beer, wine, &c., sent in Belknap's letter of 8 Sep. 1788 (Rush MSS, xxx). BR published them in an article entitled "Ad-

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29 OCTOBER 1788 vantages of the Culture of the Sugar Maple-Tree" and signed "Agricola" in the Amer. Museum, IV, 349-50 (Oct. I788). For BR's interest in promoting maple products, see his letter to Jefferson, IO July I 79 I. 8 Robert Annan (I74l-I8I9), Scottish-born Associate Reformed minister, was Belknap's predecessor at the Federal Street Church, Boston, I 783-I 786, and was then called to the Old Scots Church, Philadelphia, where he served until about 18oi (Sprague, Annals, IX, "Associate Reformed," p. II- I 8) . Annan's answer to BR's "Enquiry" was published over the name "Philochoras" in the Amer. Museum, IV, 444-54, 547-53 (Nov.-Dec. I788); and BR replied with a "Rejoinder to a Reply to the Enquiry into the Justice and Policy of Punishing Murder by Death," same, v, 63-5, u I3 (Jan.-Feb. I 789). The "Rejoinder" is one of BR's most effective statements of his humanitarian principles. Accused of a dangerous rejection of Mosaic law, BR retorted that "It becomes Christians to beware how far they condemn the popular virtue of humanity, because it is recommended by deists," and goes on to cite the contributions of Voltaire, Beccaria, and others.

'Luke 9:56. 5 Written for young Clarkson to deliver at his Princeton graduation and printed anonymously in the American Museum, IV, 325-7 (Oct. I788), as "An oration on the effects of spiritous liquors upon the human body, and upon society; intended to have been spoken at a late commencement." It is a powerful specimen of anti-alcoholic eloquence. (On the custom of having commencement speeches written by eminent friends of those about to graduate, see an interesting letter from Edward Graham to William Paterson, Princeton, 8 July q86, in Mills, Glimpses of Colonial Society, p. 155-9; also BR to James Rush, 4 June 18os, and to John Adams, 2I Sep. I 8os.) George Clarkson (I77lI 8o4) was the son of Gerardus Clarkson; A.B., College of New Jersey, I 788; admitted to the Philadelphia bar, I 79 3 (Alumni Records, Secretary's Office, Princeton Univ.). 6 This was on 25 Sep. For the physicians' testimony against liquor as "the greatest poison to both body and soul of anything we had in our land," see a circumstantial account by a witness, quoted in Herbert Asbury, A Methodist Saint, N.Y., 1927, p. I46-7.

To Friends of the Federal Government: A Plan for a Federal Universiti [29 October z788]

"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, they will certainly come to pass unless the people are prepared for our new form of government by an education 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 United States shall be received after they have finished their studies and taken their degrees in the colleges of their [ 491 ]

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respective states. In this university let those branches of literature only be taught which are calculated 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 subjects of them. 1. The principles and forms of government, applied in a particular manner to the explanation of every 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 chronology. 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 necessary 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 chemistry 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, &c., but all the forest trees of the United States should be cultivated. The great Linnaeus of Upsal enlarged the commerce of Sweden by 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 illustrious naturalist rendered his country, by the application of his knowledge to agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, that the present king of Sweden pronounced an eulogium upon him from his throne soon after his death. 9· Philology, which should include, besides rhetoric and criticism, lectures upon the construction and pronunciation 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 pronunciation of the English language. Even modern English books should cease to be the models [ 492 ]

29 OCTOBER 1788 of style in the United States. The present is the age of simplicity in writing in America. The turgid style of Johnson, the purple glare of Gibbon, and even the studied and thickset metaphors of Junius are all equally unnatural, 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 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 languages, viz., the English and the Spanish, in the extensive regions of North and South-America will have upon manners, commerce, knowledge, and civilization, scenes of human happiness and glory open before us which elude from their magnitude the utmost grasp of the human understanding. IO. 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. I I. All those athletic and manly exercises should likewise be taught in the university which are calculated to impart health, strength, and elegance to the human body. To render the instruction of our youth as easy and 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, manufactures, and commerce, and in the art of war and 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 Europe 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 employed at the public expense in exploring

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the vegetable, 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 the 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 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 150l. or zool. a year, and let them depend upon the number of their pupils to supply the deficiency of their maintenance from their salaries. Let each pupil pay for each course of lectures two or three guineas. Let the degrees conferred in this university receive 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 person being chosen or appointed into power or office who has not taken a degree in the federal university. We require certain qualifications in lawyers, physicians, 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 quacks in law; why should we not be restrained in like manner, by law, from employing quacks in government? 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 increase the conveniencies of life, lessen human misery, improve our country, promote

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29 OCTOBER 1788 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 restore 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." This is false reasoning. 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 inspire them with federal principles, which can only be effected by our young men meeting and spending two or three years together in a national university, and afterwards disseminating their knowledge and principles through every county, township, and village of the United States. Till this is done-Senators and Representatives 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 literary institutions the surest means of establishing their power as well as of promoting the prosperity of their people. These hints for establishing the Constitution and happiness of the United States upon a permanent foundation are submitted to the friends of the federal government in each of the states by a private CITIZEN OF PENNSYLVANIA

Printed: The Federal Gazette (Philadelphia), 29 October 1788. 1 This pseudonymous communication first appeared in the Federal Gazette, 29 Oct. 1788, and was promptly reprinted in other papers and in the Amer. Museum, IV, 442-4 (Nov. 1788), where the editor ventured to "ascribe" it to Dr. Rush. The ascription is almost unnecessary, for the paper is a very characteristic production of BR's in both style and substance. It is an elaboration of suggestions he made earlier (see letter to Price, 25 May 1786) and is among the first of many proposals for the establishment of national and scientific institutions in the United States. (For several

studies and documentary works on this subject, see Good, Rush and His Services to Education, p. 179, note.) The originality of several of BR's suggestions, such as traveling fellows and government-sponsored scientific expeditions, deserve recognition. However, his recommendation that after thirty years only graduates of the government university be eligible for public office would have had dangerous consequences in view of the development of parties. Possibly that is the reason BR did not reprint the paper in his Essays.

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To Jeremy Belknap Dear Sir, Philadelphia, November sth, 1788 The difference of climate between Great Britain and the United States will render it unsafe to trust to any English publication upon the subject of brewing. The best thing your friend could do would be to employ a person to tempt a reputable journeyman brewer from our city to take the direction of his brewery in Boston. To encourage him to persevere in his undertaking, you may inform him that the barley raised in your state is thought equal to the English barley and that it is in great esteem among our brewers. I most heartily wish him success in his undertaking, although that success will lessen the exports of beer from our city to your state. Spirituous liquors give way in every part of the United States to beer and cider. But we must not relax in our publications against them. The perseverance as well as the arm of Hercules will be necessary completely to expel those monsters from our country. I enclose you my reply to Mr. Annan's attack upon me mentioned in my last letter. I have made a few proselytes in our city. Many of the Quakers have long held my opinions upon the subject of murder. Mr. Rittenhouse informed me a few days ago that he was not more satisfied of any truth in mathematics or philosophy than he was that it was wrong to punish murder by death. I enclose you likewise a "Plan for a Federal University," to be republished (if you and Dr. Lathrop see proper) in your papers. 1 Let us, my dear friend, follow the advice of an old divine to a young clergyman ''by doing all the good we can, by looking for persecution for all the good we do, and by learning to rejoice in persecution." Adieu. Yours sincerely, BENJN RuSH P.S. Truth has at last prevailed upon the subject of our penal laws. A committee of our Assembly has been appointed to revise them. Private punishments by means of solitude and labor are now generally talked of. &S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1

It was reprinted in the Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), 29 Nov. 1788.

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1

To the Pennsylvania Abolition Society

Philadelphia, November 14, 1788 There is now in this city a black man of the name of James Derham, 2 a practitioner of physic, belonging to the Spanish settlement of New Orleans on the Mississippi. This man was born in a family in this city in which he was taught to read and write and instructed in the principles of Christianity. When a boy, he was transferred by his master to the late Dr. John Kearsly, Jr., 8 of this city, who employed him occasionally to compound medicines and to perform some of the more humble acts of attention to his patients. Upon the death of Dr. Kearsly, he became (after passing through several hands) the property of Dr. George West/ surgeon to the Sixteenth British regiment, under whom, during the late war in America, he performed many of the menial duties of our profession. At the dose of the war he was sold by Dr. West to Dr. Robert Dove/ of New Orleans, who employed him as an assistant in his business, in which capacity he gained so much of his confidence and friendship that he consented to liberate him, after two or three years, upon easy terms. From Dr. Derham's numerous opportunities of improving in medicine, he became so well acquainted with the healing art as to commence practitioner at New Orleans under the patronage of his last master. He is now about twenty-six years of age, has a wife but no children, and does business to the amount of three thousand dollars a year. I have conversed with him upon most of the acute and epidemic diseases of the country where he lives, and was pleased to find him perfectly acquainted with the modern simple mode of practice in those diseases. I expected to have suggested some new medicines to him, but he suggested many more to me. He is very modest and engaging in his manners. He speaks French fluently and has some knowledge of the Spanish language. By some accident, although born in a religious family belonging to the Church of England, he was not baptized in his infancy, in consequence of which he applied a few days ago to Bishop White to be received by that ordinance into the Episcopal Church. The Bishop found him qualified, both by knowledge and moral conduct, tq be admitted to baptism, and this day performed the ceremony in one of the churches in this city. 'Printed: The American Museum, v, 61-2 (January 1789). 1

The circumstances prompting this communication are given in a note ac-

companying the text as printed in the

Amer. Museum:

[ 497 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES "The abolition society in London, having requested the society for the abolition of slavery in Philadelphia, to transmit to them such accounts of mental improvement, in any of the blacks, as might fall under their notice, in order the better to enable them to contradict those who assert that the intellectual faculties of the negroes are not capable of improvement equal to the rest of mankind, these certificates were accordingly forwarded to London, with the society's last letters, in addition to others heretofore sent." The present statement was one of two submitted by BR to the Society at its meeting on 5 Jan. 1789. The other related to Thomas Fuller, the "African Calculator," who lived and died a slave and could not read or write, but who achieved celebrity as an arithmetical prodigy; see George W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, N.Y., 1883, I, 398-4oo. 2 BR gives most of what is known about this early Negro physician, but among the Rush MSS, IV, are nine letters written by Derham, or Durham (as he himself appears to have written it), to BR between 1 789 and 1 8o 1. These highly interesting but not wholly literate

letters contain medical news, requests for medical supplies, and almost invariably some mention of gifts Durham is sending to BRand his family: pecans, oranges, turkey feathers for Mrs. Rush, &c. They acknowledge gifts of BR's publications in return. In a letter of 20 May 18oo Durham asks about his prospects if he were to move to Philadelphia, but it does not appear that he ever left New Orleans. 3 John Kearsley, Jr. (d. 1777), was a nephew and pupil of his namesake, the well-known physician, architect, and civic leader of Philadelphia; author of medical papers and member of the shortlived Philadelphia Medical Society organized by John Morgan, 1766; an ardent, even fanatical, tory, Kearsley was mobbed by a crowd of patriots in the summer of 177 5, was afterwards detected in treasonable correspondence with the British, and was jailed; he went insane during his captivity and died at Carlisle (W. S. Middleton, "The John Kearsleys," Ann. Med. Hist., III [1921], 391-402; Sabine, Loyalists, r, 597 ). 4 Not further identified. 6 Not further identified.

To John Adams Philadelphia, January 22nd, 1789 My dear Friend, Your affectionate and instructing letter of December 2nd1 did not reach me till yesterday. I embrace with my affections as well as my judgment that form of government which you have proved from so many authorities to be the only one that can preserve political happiness. It was my attachment to a constitution composed of three branches that first deprived me of the confidence of the whigs of Pennsylvania in the close of the year 1776. My observations upon the misery which a single legislature has produced in Pennsylvania have only served to increase my abhorrence of that species of government. I could as soon embrace the most absurd dogmas in the most absurd of all the pagan religions as prostitute my understanding by approving of our state Constitution. It is below a democracy. It is mobocracy, if you will allow me to coin a [ 498 ]

22 JANUARY

1789

word. If you will not, permit me to compare it to a wheelbarrow or a balloon. I never see our self-balanced legislature meet but I feel as if I saw a body of men ascending in one of those air vehicles without sails or helm. I have collected materials for a history of the Revolution in Pennsylvania, but despair of being able to arrange or publish them while I am so closely confined to the duties of my profession. 2 They contain such an account of the follies and vices of mankind as would tend forever to discredit a single legislature. You will perceive by the Philadelphia papers that your friends here have not been idle in preparing an honorable seat for you in the federal Senate. You will I believe have every vote from this state, and pains have been taken to secure the same unanimity in your favor in several of the adjoining states. I assure you, sir, that friendship for you has had much less to do in this business, as far as I have embarked on it, than a sincere desire to place a gentleman in the Vice-President's chair upon whose long-tried integrity, just principles in government, and firm opposition to popular arts and demagogues, such a dependence could be placed as shall secure us both from a convention and from alterations falsely and impudently called by some of our state governors amendments. Mr. Tench Coxe (now one of our delegates in New York) has had great merit in holding up your name to the public, by private letters as well as by publications, for the above station. I wish to make you acquainted with him. He has been extremely active and useful in spreading federal knowledge and principles in Pennsylvania as well as in other parts of the United States. Our representatives in the lower house of Congress are all federal. Mr. Fitzsimons is an enlightened merchant and an able politician. Mr. Clymer is judicious and perfectly upright. The country gentlemen are all sensible and some of them well-informed upon the subject of legislation. Our senators are Mr. Morris and Mr. McClay. The latter is one of my early and most intimate friends. He is a scholar, a philosopher, and a statesman. Few men unite such great speculative with such accurate practical talents. He was educated a lawyer but for many years past had left the bar in order to improve a large and clear estate in one of our [new? p counties. I rejoice to hear of the promising talents and manners of your sons. With sincere wishes for the increase of your domestic happiness and public usefulness, I am, my dear friend, yours affectionately, BENJN RusH

[ 499 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES Addressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: Braintree near Boston.

9v!S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. In Old Family Letters, A, p. z8-9. truth, I threw my documents into the It is impossible to say how serious fire and gave my pamphlets to my son BR's intention was to compile a history Richard" (I4 Aug. I8os). Adams was of the Revolution in Pennsylvania or indignant upon hearing this, but probmore generally. He was frequently to ably BR burned only certain pages from recur to the project in later letters to his notebooks (principally from vol. 4) Adams, saying in I 790, for example, among the Rush Mss, having copied bethat he had filled three notebooks with forehand his sketches of the Signers materials on that era that he would into his Autobiography, so that they leave to his children to prevent them are happily preserved. As for the pamfrom "being deceived by the histories" phlets, Richard Rush told Jared Sparks then being written (z4 Feb. I79o). But in I 82. 8 that they had all been destroyed in t8os, probably as a result of the by an accident quite recently (Sparks' publication of Marshall's Washington, "Journal," in Herbert B. Adams, Life he said of his proposed "Memoirs of and Writings of Jared Sparks, Boston the American Revolution" that, "per- and N.Y., I893, II, 49); this was probceiving how widely I should differ from ably a more serious loss than any notes the historians of that event, and how BR burned. 8 MS torn. much I should offend by telling the 1

2

To Jeremy Belknap Philadelphia, January 31, 1789 Dear Sir, friendly, pious, and instructing last your for Accept of my thanks letter. I must answer it at present only by enclosing you two of my last publications. Perhaps Mr. RusseP (your anti-grog printer) may republish the "Thermometerm in his paper. An engraver in this city proposes to strike off a large and neat impression of it to be hung up where it will do most good. The "Thermometer," in the next edition of it, will have a stem, and the bulb will be a blank. The Medical Inquiries &c.,S are at last published and will be sent to Boston to the subscribers as soon as the river opens. Adieu. "Behold he cometh!"-and "the time is short." This, my dear friend, is my apology for troubling the world with so many of my opinions upon paper. A weak breast daily tells me that I hold my life by a precarious tenure. With compliments to Dr. Lathrop, I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, B. RusH P.S. Has Dr. Lathrop seen Monsieur Petitpeire's treatise upon final restitution?' It is one of the most agreeable and eloquent performances that has appeared upon that subject. Addressed: The Revd. Mr. Jeremy Belknap Boston free Tench Coxe.

9v!S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers.

[ sao ]

21

FEBRUARY

1 Benjamin Russell (I76I-I845), publisher of the Massachusetts (from I 790, the Columbian) Centinel (DAB). 2 "A Moral and Physical Thermometer: or; A Scale of the Progress of Temperance and Intemperance," first(?) published in the Columbian Magazine, m, 3I (Jan. 1789), and very widely reprinted both here and abroad, in newspapers, periodicals, almanacs, sometimes as part of BR's tract against spirituous liquors, and perhaps in engraved form (as BR promises here, though no examples of the engraving have been found). Lettsom, to whom BR sent a copy about this time, replied on I 7 Sep. I 789 that he had had it reprinted (see the Gentleman's Magazine, LIX, pt. i, 399 [May I789]); and later (31 July I793) he wrote BR on stationery which he had had made up with the "Thermometer" printed on the first page (Rush MSS, XXVIII). It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that Lettsom has been credited with the invention of the device by a recent biographer (Abraham,

1789

Lettsom, p. 484); but BR's authorship is unquestionable and was acknowledged much earlier by Pettigrew in his Memoirs of Lettsom, r, I 6o. 8 That is, the unnumbered first volume, issued by Prichard & Hall, and dedicated to Dr. John Redman; Sabin, Bibl. Amer., No. 74226; Evans, Amer. Bibl., No. 22 u3. It was reissued by Dilly in London the same year, and, as Medicinische Untersuchungen und Beobachtungen, at Leipzig, I792. 4 Ferdinand-Oliver Petitpierre (I 722I 790), French Protestant theologian, who championed the doctrine of the noneternity of punishment, which seemed to him contrary to the sovereign goodness of God. His followers were called Petitpierristes, and his writings were widely circulated in English as well as French. BR may be referring to his Thoughts on the Divine Goodness, Bath, 178 8; reprinted at Hartford, 1794; Carlisle, 18oq &c. (La Grande Encyclopedie, xxvr, 530; L.C. Cat.; Brit. Mus. Cat.)

To John Adams My dear Friend, Philadelphia, February 21, 1789 Few events have happened since the qth of September 1788 which have afforded me more pleasure than your election to the Vice-President's chair. It is the capstone of our labors respecting the new government. Mr. Rutledge1 had some friends in Pennsylvania, but your friends prevailed. Mr. Wilson had great merit in this business. Mr. Morris likewise advised it. There is an expectation here which I have humored that your influence will be exerted immediately in favor of a motion to bring Congress to Philadelphia. New England alone must determine this question, for our Quaker and German manners will always give New York an advantage over us in the opinion of southern gentlemen. There was a time when Yankies and aristocratic New Yorkers were less united. I wish to see the Congress in Philadelphia for two reasons principally: To silence the clamors, which begin to circulate in some of the southern states, of the interested and local views of the eastern states, and 2ndly to prevent a few years hence a removal of the seat of government to a more southern, a less healthy, and less republican state. [ 501 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

I lost your excellent pamphlet2 by lending it to one of our printers, but shall endeavor to procure a copy which was printed from it in one of our newspapers in the year 1 777· I enclose you a copy of the four letters you refer to, published in the same year, also a small tract on the late test law of Pennsylvania by the same author. 3 His enemies have done him the honor of saying in one public print that it repealed that impolitic law. Besides the four persons whom you have mentioned in your letter/ a fifth character of more consequence than either of them, must be brought into a view in giving a history of the Constitution of Pennsylvania. Reed's administration likewise, stained by folly, fraud, and violence, must be described in a review of the Revolution in our state. The rank and connections of both these gentlemen forbid the truth to be told of them for many years to come. I shall however begin. the work and bequeath it to my children. It will afford them some instruction. With this, they will receive my other documents of the Revolution and of eminent political and military characters. The enclosed anecdote of yourself was extracted from one of them. 5 The conduct of Delaware and Maryland in throwing away all their votes for a vice-president 6 I believe was influenced in part by a jealousy of the New England states, which has been revived and inflamed by their vote in favor of the meeting of the first Congress in New York. Philadelphia is the headquarters of federalism. There will be no cordiality between the eastern and some of the southern states till the Congress fixes in Philadelphia or Baltimore. Your correspondence will always be agreeable to me, and you may rely upon secrecy whenever your letters are confidential. I move at present only in the line of my profession. My decided and unequivocal conduct in politics has thrown me at a distance from the present chief magistrate of Pennsylvania. 7 He is the counterpart of your friend in the late elections in Massachussets. I employ my leisure hours in pursuits which have for their objects the happiness of my country. In some of these I have been successful. From others I have reaped nothing but abuse and a consciousness of having aimed well. Adieu, my dear friend. From yours very sincerely, BENJN RuSH P.S. It is said that Mr. Thomson does not intend to apply for the secretaryship of the Senate. Would not that appointment be a suitable one for Colonel Smith. 8 The propriety of placing a person [ 502 ]

1789

MARCH

in that office so nearly connected with the chief and executive officer of the Senate must be obvious to everyone. MS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. I.e., John Rutledge. Thoughts on Government: Applicable to the Present State of the A merican Colonies. In a Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend (i.e., George Wythe), published anonymously in Philadelphia early in 1776; in Adams' Works, IV, 189-200. The pamphlet offered advice on framing state constitutions. See also BR to Adams, 4 Sep. I8II. 3 Observations upon the Present Government qf Pennsylvania, 1777; see BR to Wayne, 18 June 1777. Considerations upon the Present Test-Law of Pennsylvania, I784; see BR's letter to an unidentified correspondent, IO Nov. I784. 4 Dated 8 Feb. I 789; Old Family Letters, A, p. 30-3. 5 The enclosure is missing. 6 Delaware gave its votes for vice1 2

president to John Jay, and Maryland gave its votes to Benjamin Harrison (C. L. and E. H. Lord, Historical Atlas of the United States, N.Y., 1944, p. 2

u).

Thomas Mif!lin. William Stephens Smith (I 7ssI 8 I 6), lieutenant colonel and aide to Sullivan and Washington in the Revolution; married John Adams' daughter Abigail, I 78 6; held minor diplomatic and civil posts but wrecked his career by complicity in Miranda's filibustering expedition, I8o6. Smith was a friend of many of the great, but was erratic and a constant burden to his father-in-law, whom BR tried to aid in finding places for Smith. (DAB; BR to Jefferson, I I Feb. I8u; to Adams, II Sep. I8n, and 22 Jan. I813.) 7

8

To American Farmers About to Settle in New Parts of the United States 1

[ca. March z789]

I. Avoid removing to Kentucke and Niagara, for the following reasons: I. You will be exposed to great danger of being killed by the Indians on your way to those places. 2. You will be out of the reach, should you arrive at either of those places, of the protection of the new federal government of the United States. 3· You will probably be forever separated from your relations and friends. 4· You will be deprived of the advantages, for many years, of public worship and of schools for the instruction of your children. 5. You will labor for little or nothing, for while you will be obliged to pay fifteen shillings for a pair of shoes and in the same proportion for many other of the necessaries of life, you will be obliged to sell your wheat for one shilling and your Indian corn for sixpence a bushel. 2 [ 503 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

II. Avoid settling in those states where Negro slavery prevails. Poor farmers can never thrive among slaves. Your children will be corrupted by their vices, and the slaveholders will never treat you like Christians or fellow citizens. III. Choose lands for settlement that are near those navigable waters that run towards the Atlantic ocean and which are within the jurisdiction of the United States. The lands on the east and west branches of the Susquehanna and on the creeks which empty into it are of an excellent quality. The timber (which consists of sugar maple, beech, wild cherry, hemlock, &c.) is large, but the land is easily cleared, inasmuch as grubbing is seldom necessary upon it. The beech lands yield from thirty to forty bushels of wheat per acre and afford besides excellent pasture. Wheat sells on these lands for four shillings and sixpence and five shillings per bushel, and when the navigation and roads through these lands are improved, it will probably sell for much more. The lands in the bottoms of these waters yield hemp in great quantities, which sells in Philadelphia at a greater profit than wheat. The disputes at Wyoming are in a fair way of being quieted forever. At present, order and good government prevail in that part of the countrythe banditti who formerly disturbed it having moved off towards the lakes. 3 IV. Carry with you, wherever you go, a quantity of apple seeds, peach stones, and garden seeds-particularly the seeds of peas, beans, turnips, pumpkins, carrots, and beets. These last all grow easily in new ground and afford an immense increase. They afford moreover excellent food for cattle and horses and save a great expense in grain, which has been proved to be of too heating a nature for those animals. Carry with you likewise a large kettle in which you may make maple sugar in summer and potash in winter. Half a dozen pounds of powder and shot, with a good gun, will be necessary to provide food for your family before you will be able to raise stock enough for that purpose. Take with you a few pairs of strong homemade stockings and shoes, also a few horseshoes with nails to fix them on, for these articles are procured with difficulty in a new settlement. A farmer must carry with him the iron parts of all his implements of husbandry. There is one more article that must not be left behind if a farmer wishes to prosper in a new country, and that is the Bible. There are several expensive parts of household furniture that he should leave behind him for which he will have no use in the woods, such as a large looking glass, china cups and saucers, old pictures, and above all a brandy or [ 504 ]

MARCH

1789

whiskey case. Pure water from the virgin springs on his farm on common occasions, and maple beer or cider in the time of harvest, will afford him wholesome and agreeable drinks. A farmer who is temperate and industrious on his new farm cannot fail in the course of his life of leaving a handsome estate to his children. V. In planting your orchard, do not fail to prefer sweet apple trees to all others. They will also furnish you with the best Pomona wine and the richest syrup. Be careful likewise to preserve all the sugar maple, persimmon, and chestnut trees you find on your farm. The two former will afford you excellent sugar and syrup, and the last will furnish you with a nut which will be a wholesome and cheap substitute for West-India coffee. VI. The last advice I shall give is, for families of the same religion to settle in a country together. By those means they will be able sooner to erect a place of worship and to support ministers and schoolmasters. Without the restraints of religion and social worship, men become savages much sooner than savages become civilized by means of religion and civil government. The human imagination can hardly conceive a picture more agreeable than the sight of a family, depressed by poverty in an old settlement, removing to a new country and there creating new sources for independence and affiuence by converting woods into meadows and fields, causing forest trees to yield to orchards, weeds to regular gardens, and beasts of prey to useful domestic animals. To this picture of human happiness there can be but one addition; and that is, the same family carrying with them and preserving in their new settlement a sense of the obligations of religion and of the blessings of a wise, just, and vigorous government. Printed: The American Museum, v, 226-7 (March 1789). 1

This paper, printed anonymously and without date under the title "Advice to American farmers, about to settle in new countries," is here first attributed to BR. This .attribution is based entirely on internal evidence but is made with confidence: the article expresses in condensed form a number of the ideas and principles set forth in BR's more elaborate letters on western settlement (see under dates of :z. 6 Oct. r 7 86 and I 6 Apr. I 790) ; it opposes settlement in Kentucky (where the Scotch-Irish were migrating in ever-increasing numbers) in favor of settlement in those parts of Pennsylvania where BR had extensive holdings; and it is marked

throughout by BR's traits of style. 2 These "reasons" are more fully developed in another anonymous article printed a little earlier in the Amer. Museum (v, 59-6I [Jan. 1789]) that was almost certainly written and contributed by BR. It is entitled "A comparison between the prospects of advantage in the unsettled and unimproved parts of Pennsylvania, and in the new countries at Niagara, Kentucke, &c." See also the last several paragraphs of BR's letter to Thomas Percival, :z.6 Oct. I786. 8 See BR to Timothy Pickering, 30 Aug. 1787, and note I there.

[ sos ]

To John Adams My dear Friend, Philadelphia, 19th March 1789 From the influence as president of the Senate and a citizen of Massachussets that you will have in the councils of our nation, I have taken the liberty of addressing a few thoughts to you upon the subject of the residence of the Congress of the United States. I. The active and useful part which the eastern states have taken in the establishment of our independence and new government, and the system and stability of all their councils, have long disposed me to wish that they may always retain a decisive influence in the government of the United States. To maintain this influence, it must not be suspected. To prevent suspicion, it should be exercised in the center of the Union, and this we know is not in the city of New-York. 2. The States of Massachussets, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, from their size, will always be able to preserve an extensive influence in the new government. They have lately united in the choice of a vice-president. Should they unite in fixing the seat of the government in Philadelphia, they will have it in their power to preserve their just importance in all future distributions of the great offices of state. 3· The government will receive a tone and complexion from the circumambient air in which it is placed. New York is composed of one third Antifederalists, a third American citizens with British hearts, and a third honest Federalists. The Antifederalists and British-hearted citizens will be the principal companions of the new Congress. From the first they will learn to speak of the necessity of amendments in the new government in order to "quiet the minds of the people," and from the last they will learn to be very complaisant to all the vices of monarchy and to the corrupt manners of the city of London. Dr. Ramsay informed me that a lady in viewing some of the American troops in his presence, while he was chairman of Congress, remarked that they "looked like our blues," meaning a British regiment that wore a blue uniform; and Mr. Coxe informs me that a lady a few weeks ago in a large company inquired, "What news from our poor king?" Can the virtue of our Congress be safe in a city where such speeches are both common and popular? Think, sir, of the influence of light tea-parties, music parties, &c., &c., upon the manners of the rulers of a great republic. Should amusement or improvement be the great object of companykeeping? And are those men the most suitable companions for

[ so6 ]

19 MARCH 1789 members of Congress who have showed less zeal to establish the government from which they derive their authority than to detain them in the city of New York? By no means. They will act like children if they suffer themselves to be seduced by the gingerbread, nuts, and baby house which they have spread before them. 4· The foreign ministers, we are told, prefer New-York to Philadelphia. Farewell to the sovereignty and independence of the United States if even their wishes govern a single vote in which they are not interested! But why do these men prefer New York to Philadelphia? Because they find more friends to monarchy and more lax principles with respect to free governments in the former than in the latter city. In Philadelphia they could not find three characters that would join them in a laugh at the simplicity of dress or manners of an honest republican. 5· Philadelphia is the center state1 of the Union. She is wholly and highly federal. The new government was not only framed here but received from our citizens that impetus or offing 2 that finally carried it into every port in the United States. By the repeal of our test laws every citizen of Philadelphia is now interested in the government and of course will be disposed to show every possible mark of respect and civility to the members of the federal government. The proscription under which our Quakers and tories (who compose a great body of our wealthy citizens) were laid by our test laws during the war was perhaps the principal reason why members of Congress when in Philadelphia were neglected by them. Our libraries are large and well-furnished with modern and ancient books. Our numerous societies will afford ample scope for observation and instruction. From Philadelphia there will proceed rays of knowledge and federal sentiments (numerous in proportion to our superiority in point of numbers and federalism) that shall irradiate the whole United States. Here the human mind is in a state of fermentation. Here pleasure yields to business, and eating and drinking to useful conversation. Here Quakers and Germans tincture everything with simplicity, industry, and republicanism. Here the people and their rulers will be alike. Here the people are natives of America and visibly interested in its prosperity. Here learning, manufactures, and human improvements of every kind thrive and flourish. Added to these advantages, I have the pleasure of informing you that you will soon have an opportunity of seeing all your own principles and opinions realized in Pennsylvania in a new state constitution which shall move in exact unison (with some additional notes) with the government of the United States.

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

6. By delaying the removal of Congress to Philadelphia, you will probably be dragged in a few years to the banks of the Potowmac, where Negro slaves will be your servants by day, mosquitoes your sentinels by night, and bilious fevers your companions every summer and fall, and pleurisies every spring. 7. It is worthy of consideration whether the dishonorable steps which have been taken by some of the citizens of New York to injure the character of the city of Philadelphia do not deserve some severe marks of disapprobation. While the question for determining where the new Congress should meet was in agitation, it is a fact that several members of Congress were conducted to the treasury office in order to inspect the accounts of several gentlemen of Philadelphia which it was said would never be settled if the Congress sat within the vortex of their influence. 8. To these detached thoughts I shall only add one more, and that is that some of the leading characters in New York were unfriendly to your election, that they have views to which you will always be an obstacle, and that your conduct both public and private will always be exposed to uncandid and interested interpretations by them. 3 In Philadelphia you have many, many friends. Even our women and children have been taught to respect and love your name. To this information I could add much more, and was I near to your dear and amiable lady I would whisper in her ear that she will find more friendship under the long-ear'd caps of our Philadelphia Quaker ladies than under the British hats and caps of the ladies of New York. 4 I beg that this letter may be private. You have been so long and so successful in negotiation that you will know how to use the hints contained in it without mentioning the name of the author. With great respect and sincere regard, I am, dear sir, your affectionate and tried old friend, BENJN RusH

P.S. The Antifederalists in Congress will meet with a powerful support from Governor Clinton5 and his adherents in New York. Perhaps the government may not be strong enough to resist their combined machinations. In Philadelphia the Antifederalists are so few in number that it will be difficult to find them out, and when discovered they are so contemptible in point of character that the disaffected in Congress will be ashamed to associate with them. Like electrified clouds, our plus will unite with their minus, and a federal equilibrium will be produced which shall pervade the whole continent.

[ sos ]

27

MARCH

1789

Mr. Peters, the worthy speaker of our Assembly, intends to write to you shortly. He sincerely triumphs in your election. Mrs. Adams has a large claim upon his gratitude for her goodness to him when in London. .J!ddressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: Vice-President of the United States. &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

Thus in MS; BR probably meant "in the center state." 2 "To get a good offing" is a nautical phrase for "to get well clear of the land" (Century Dictionary). 3 For the intrigues of the New York factions-one Clintonian, the other Hamiltonian-to defeat Adams, see McMaster, Hist., I, sz6-30. 4 Nevertheless, Mrs. Adams next year thought it a "sad buisness to have to Remove" from New York to Philadel-

phia (letter to Mrs. Cranch, 30 May 1790, New Letters of Abigail Adams,

p. 49).

5 George Clinton ( 17 3 9- I 8 12), brigadier general in the Revolution; first governor of New York State, I 777, and six times reelected to that office; a powerful opponent of the adoption of the Federal Constitution; elected VicePresident of the U.S., 1804, and again in I8o8 (DAB).

To John Montgomery My dear Sir, Philadelphia, March 27th, 1789 The lottery for erecting a city hall will give 2000 dollars to our College. 1 This will pay our debts to our professors and afford a subsistence to Dr. Nisbet till our certificates are adopted by Congress. It is said by some people who have been lately in New York that a discrimination will be made between the certificates in the hands of original holders and speculators. If this should be the case, we must apply our certificates to the purchasing of the buildings at Carlisle and depend upon the character and prudent conduct of our teachers to support the College from tuition money. It is a general opinion here that the funds of the University will be divided between the Colleges of Carlisle, Lancaster, and Philadelphia. 2 A few petitions from the country will probably set the business in motion. This piece of information is only to yourself. The present Assembly have hardly left us a political blessing to wish for. The steps they have taken to bring about a convention 8 complete the triumphs of reason and virtue in Pennsylvania. It is no small gratification to me that this measure was projected by my fireside a few weeks ago by Mr. G. Wynkoop,' Mr. Maclay, Mr. Fitzsimons, Mr. Wilson, and myself. My parlor will therefore be the Bingham's porch of the new Constitution. Let me beg of you [ 509 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

to be active in obtaining subscriptions to petitions to the next session of the Assembly to call a convention. The sooner you set about this business the better. Otherwise the Antis will be beforehand with you. We shall have the best government in the Union. The Federalists are above t[hree toP one in the lower house of Congress, [while] four-fifths of the Senate will be federal. Pennsylvania will certainly be the seat of their permanent residence, but it is yet uncertain whether they will adjourn to Philadelphia before they move to their ten-mile district. Adieu. Yours sincerely, BENJN RusH P.S. Mrs. Rush sends compliments to your young ladies and retains a grateful sense of their kindness to her when in Carlisle. She would be happy to repay it in Philadelphia. vfddressed: John Montgomery Esqr: in Carlisle~ Mr. Marshall. &S: Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush MSS. 1 Concerning this lottery for the joint benefit of the city of Philadelphia and Dickinson College, see Morgan, Dickinson College, p. 126-8, where a newspaper advertisement of it is reproduced. Members of the Dickinson faculty secured tickets, or at least tried to, but BR himself disapproved of the lottery principle. Writing his sister, Mrs. Joseph Montgomery, 9 CMch. I 790, he advised her against taking tickets: "Money acquired in that way seldom proves a blessing to the possessor of it. Few people can bear the sudden acquisition of wealth. It seems to stamp with disapprobation any other method of becoming rich than by regular industry and economy" ( uncatalogued fragment, Hist. Soc. Penna., Gratz Coll.). 2 In this month the trustees of the former College of Philadelphia obtained from the Assembly a regrant of their property and powers, and Dr. William Smith returned as provost. For two years the University and the College existed independently before the merger of I79I (Cheyney, Hist. Univ. Penna., p. ISO). 8 The Assembly had voted on 24 Mch.

to obtain the sense of the people on the question whether a convention to alter the Constitution was desired. Petitions were circulated by the Republicans during the next several months, and in September the new Assembly, confronted with some IO,ooo signatures of persons praying for a convention, called for one (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. zzi-4). BR's activity in the cause is further evidenced in his letters to Timothy Pickering of z 5 Mch. and I 8 Apr. I 78 9, the latter being signed by other Republicans as well and enclosing copies of petitions to be signed (Mass. Hist. Soc., Pickering Papers). 4 Gerardus Wynkoop (I73z-ca. I 8 I z), of Bucks co., member of the Pennsylvania Assembly for nineteen years, and speaker in I 79 3 (Richard Wynkoop, Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America, N.Y., I 878, p. 59; Martin, Bench and Bar, p. x8z). On the plans in which Wynkoop and the others participated, see BR's Autobiography, P· I78. s MS torn by seal; the reading is somewhat doubtful.

[ 510 ]

To Enos Hitchcock

1

Dear Sir, Philadelphia, 24th April 1789 The Reverend Mr. Rodgers put into my hands a letter in which you request my opinion respecting a work you have prepared for the press upon the subject of domestic education. 2 I can only say that I am highly pleased to find that subject taken up by a gentleman of your principles and character in the literary world. The plan which you have chosen for your work will be new in this country. This perhaps may ensure it a more general reception and more extensive usefulness. The account you have given of the work is so short that I am not at liberty to approve or disapprove of it. I shall only remark that by making only two children the objects of all the parental care and instruction of the two principal characters in your book, you will be precluded from recommending those virtues and manners which are necessary to render family society between brothers and sisters useful and agreeable. Should you introduce five or six children (which are more 3 common in all families than two), you may inculcate many excellent lessons of fraternal respect from the youngest to the eldest, of protection from the eldest to the youngest, of delicacy, even in childhood, between the two sexes, and of affection between them all. The rights of primogeniture, so much esteemed among the Jews, I believe are founded in nature and have their uses in every family. Where the eldest son or daughter is honored and preferred by parents, a family is never without government in the absence of parents from home, and when these parents are removed by death there is a foundation laid in the habits of the younger children for a continuance of subordination in a family-a circumstance always essential to harmony and happiness. In the management of my children I have made two discoveries. Ist, That it is as necessary to reward them for good as it is to punish them for bad actions. Nay further, that rewards are of immense consequence in stimulating them to industry, virtue, and good manners. I was led to adopt this practice by contemplating the principles of action in man by which Goo governs his rational creatures. 2ly, I have discovered that all corporal corrections for children above three or four years old are highly improper and that solitude is the most effective punishment that can be contrived for them. I have used it for many years in my family with the greatest success. My eldest son, who is now near 12 years old, has more than once begged me to flog him in preference to confining him. The

[ 511 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

duration of the confinement and the disagreeable circumstances that are connected with it are proportioned to the faults that are committed. I have in one instance confined my two eldest sons in separate rooms for two days. The impression which this punishment has left upon them I believe will never wear away, nor do I think it will ever require to be repeated. Too much cannot be said in favor of soLITUDE as a means of reformation, which should be the only end of all punishment. Men are wicked only from not thinking. "0! that they would consider,"4 is the language of inspiration. A wheelbarrow, a whipping post, nay even a gibbet, are all light punishments compared with letting a man's conscience loose upon him in solitude. Company, conversation, and even business are the opiates of the Spirit of God in the human heart. For this reason, a bad man should be left for some time without anything to employ his hands in his confinement. Every thought should recoil wholly upon himself. If you can make any use of the hints that are contained in this letter in your publication, you are welcome to them. They are founded in experience as well as in nature, and if reduced to general practice I am sure would be found to be very useful. With great respect, I am, dear sir, your humble fellow laborer in the presumptuous business of making the world wiser and better, as [well as] 5 your sincere friend and well-wisher, BENJN RusH P.S. Permit me to object to the title of your book. "Domestic education accommodated to the present State of Society, manners, &c., in America" will be more simple and striking. Your name must be prefixed to it. Anonymous books do not succeed well in this country. .dddressed: The Revd: Enos Hitchcock at Providence, Rhode Island. &S: Harvard College Library. 1 Enos Hitchcock (r745-r8o3), Congregational clergyman; a graduate of Harvard, r 76 7; minister at Providence, R.I., from 1783; D.D., Brown, 1788 (Frederick L. Weis, The Colonial Clergy and the Colonial Churches of New England, Lancaster, Mass., 1936, p. ro6; Timothy Alden, Collection of American Epitaphs, N.Y., r8r4, IV, 96ror). 2 Published at Boston in r 790 with a dedication to Mrs. Washington. The work was entitled Memoirs of the

Bloomsgrove Family. In a Series of Letters to a Respectable Citizen of Philadelphia. Containing Sentiments on a Mode of Domestic Education, Suited to the Present State of Society, Government, and Manners, in the United States of America: and on the Dignity and Importance of the Female Character, z vols. The principal characters are two children named Osander and Rozella, the fancifulness of whose names little compensates for the dullness of the narrative. Jeremy Belknap said of the

[ 512 ]

For the A A

sCAt.i

MORAL

COL U MB !AN .MAG1fZ IN E. and

PHYSICAL . Tt1ERMOM ET£R:

·.

Or;

CE and lN.TIMPERA NCl:. ~(tb~ Pr{lgrm lj Ti;MPERAN ' --. in their USlial 0\'der. EFFEC'Ts, LIQ.yORS, with th'eir (

-

.

· TEMf.E RAN' CE.

.

T ~ ll;

~

Milk

and water, Vinegar and water)

Molasses and watjlr ;·

1f

tj

-t1 t

J

. Serenity of mind,. ~

Happine4s.

Cheerfulness,

Strength and

Nourishment, when t:ikc11 only

at ·meals, and }n moderate · quantities.

I N Tc 1!. M· P E 'R A .}1 C !:.

Debt:

Bla.ck-eyea ; Rags; Hunger;

Dr. Rush's "Moral and Physical Thermome ter," 1789

4 JUNE 1789 book: "It is a piece of patchwork [from Lord Kames and others]. It is, however, as good as can be expected from a man who never had any children to try his theory upon. Bachelors' wives and old maids' children, you know, are always the best educated and best behaved of

any in the world" (letter to Ebenezer Hazard, 14 Sep. 1790; Mass. Hist. Soc., Colts., sth ser., III [1877], 232). a BR inadvertently wrote "most." 4 See Deuteronomy 32:29. 5 MS torn by seal.

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 4th, 1789 I find you and I must agree not to disagree, or we must cease to discuss political questions. I would as soon believe that the British Parliament had once a right to tax America as believe that a major part of the citizens of New York were federal, or that many of the federal minority were so from proper motives. I know from good authority that some of the leading Federalists of New York pressed the Senate at Albany to relinquish the power of appointing federal senators to the Assembly rather than risk the loss of the residence of Congress in New York. But my principal objection to the continuance in New York is the influence which a city contaminated by having been for seven years a garrison town to a corrupted British army must have upon the manners and morals of those men who are to form the character of our country. I already see the effect of this influence and hear much more of it. The citizens of Pennsylvania are truly republican and will not readily concur in a government which has begun so soon to ape the corruption of the British Court, conveyed to it through the impure channel of the city of New York. I think this the most eligible spot in the Union for the present residence of Congress. Upon this account I am sure it will not be preferred. But Trenton, Annapolis, Chester town, or the Bank of the Ohio should all be preferred to New York. It is the sink of British manners and politics. I hope one of the last-mentioned places will be fixed upon soon. Otherwise such factions will I fear arise as will convulse our government. There is more known, said, and felt upon this subject than is proper to be communicated or than will be believed while Congress is perfumed with British incense in New York. When I speak of the influence of the New England states, I mean that influence in favor of virtue, order, and liberty which has long been a system with them but which is only felt by fits and starts by most of the other states. I wish to see such an influence revived [ 513 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

and perpetual in our country, and to ensure this I wish it not to be perceived or opposed. When I expressed a wish for a union in principle and conduct of Massachussets, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, I wished only for the predominance of numbers and property in the legislative and executive parts of our government. I highly respect Mr. Jay but supposed he would have been continued in his present office. 1 After stating the abilities, sacrifices and services of Mr. Wilson, could it be offensive to hear that he opposed the narrow views of those people who wished to render your election abortive or to dishonor you by the manner in which it was conducted? In this he acted a manly part, and I have a right to say that he was less influenced by personal regard than by genuine federal and republican principles. Letters from New York and Maryland (which I saw) strongly urged him to an opposite conduct. But he felt what you have expressed, and could his advice have prevailed fully, you would have had ten instead of eight votes from Pennsylvania. Why should we accelerate the progress of our government towards monarchy? Every part of the conduct of the Americans tends to it. We will have but one deliverer, one great, or one good man in our country. For my part, I cannot help ascribing the independence and new government of our country to thousands, all equally successful and equally useful in both those great events. This is not a time to mention, nor are you in the proper place to hear, who were unfriendly to your election in New York. That you may never mistake any of my opinions or principles in my future letters, I shall add to this long one that I am as much a republican as I was in 177 5 and 6, that I consider hereditary monarchy and aristocracy as rebellion against nature, that I abhor titles and everything that belongs to the pageantry of government, that I love the people but would sooner be banished to Iceland or T obalski than gain their favor by accommodating to one of their unjust popular prejudices, that I feel a respect for my rulers bordering upon homage but that I would not be jolted two hours in the stage that plies between New York and Philadelphia to be the prime minister of the United States, and that I have applied for no office and shall apply for none. Under all circumstances, I hope I shall be excused in thinking for myself at all times and upon all subjects.-To this detail of my principles I have only to add one feeling, and that is that I am, with as much affection and respect as [ 514 ]

8 JUNE 1789 I was in I 77 5 (notwithstanding our present contrariety of sentiment upon some subjects), your sincere friend and humble servant, BENJN RusH &S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 Adams in a letter of 17 May (Old Family Letters, .11, p. 35) declared himself in favor of John Jay as chief justice

of the United States. BR's candidate was James Wilson.

To John Coakley Lettsom Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 8, 1789 You oppress me with favors; accept of my thanks for the copy your friendship has procured me of Mr. Howard's late work/ It is not yet come to hand. As soon as I receive it, I shall do myself the honor of thanking him for it. In the meanwhile please to assure him that I shall prize it as much as if it was a bequest from one of the first and best characters of antiquity. I have derived many advantages from reading his first work, and can add further that all the improvements in the treatment and punishment of criminals in our country are derived from it. I enclose you a small root, three of which were sent to me from Dauphin County in Pennsylvania a few days ago. It possesses a most extraordinary glutinous quality. A small quantity of it, scraped or grated and afterwards made into paste with water, forms a cement of so cohesive a nature as perfectly to unite broken glass, china, or earthenware, insomuch that it will endure, when dry, the greatest heat. Two of the roots always grow together, connected by a fiber about an inch in length; one of them swims, and the other sinks, in water. The adhesive quality is confined, it is said, wholly to the heavy one. It throws up above the ground only a single leaf without any stalk, one of which I have enclosed you. This leaf appears in May or June and decays about the latter end of July. Some of the country people call it Adam-and-Eve, while others (the Germans) call it the Devil's-bite, from a story that is propagated about it, that the devil, foreseeing that it would be very useful to man, tried to destroy it, by biting off all its leaves except one; hence, they say, the solitary leaf which accompanies it. It is much used in the place where it grows, not only for domestic and culinary purposes but for the cure of diarrhoeas and dysenteries. I have sent for a peck or half a bushel of the root, and intend to give it a fair

[ 515 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

trial as a demulcent and astringent in those disorders. From its pleasant taste, I think it probable it will make an agreeable article of diet for sick people. 2 I am, &c., BENJAMIN RusH

Printed: Pettigrew, Lettsom, n, 438-9. 1

An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe, Warrington, I789. 2 This plant is now usually known by the more prosaic name of "putty-root." It is a native orchid, Aplectrum hymenale, found in woods and swamps generally throughout the eastern United States and in Ontario. It was first described by Thomas Walter in his Flora Caroliniana, London, I 788; see further, N. L. Britton and Addison Brown, An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions, N.Y., I896-I898, 1, 481, and fig. I I47· Professor Edgar T. Wherry of the University of Pennsylvania, who helped the editor identify the plant BR has here described with such enthusiasm, points out (private communication) that the leaf appears in September rather than May, begins to wither in April, and disappears in June. It is his opinion,

from the sparseness of the putty-root's growth, that it could not have been collected in any such quantity as a peck, though of course it may have been more plentiful before the forests were cut. Perhaps difficulty in obtaining a sufficient quantity prevented BR from carrying out his medical experiments; at any rate, there is no record of his having done so. The glutinous matter in the corm was widely used in the nineteenth century as a cement for earthenware. In reply to an inquiry regarding its present use, S. B. Penick & Company of New York, botanical producers and manufacturers, have stated: "We do carry a small amount in stock and sell only a few pounds each year. It is no longer considered a valuable item in materia medica and the value it once had of adhesive has long since passed by."

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, June 15th, 1789 I have been so long accustomed to regard all your opinions upon government with reverence that I was disposed upon reading your last letter1 to suspend my belief in republican systems of political happiness; but a little reflection led me again to adopt them, and upon this single principle, that they have never had a fair trial. Let us try what the influence of general science and religion diffused in early life will have upon our citizens. Let us try the effect of banishing the Latin and Greek languages from our country. 2 They consume the flower of human life, and by enabling us to read agreeable histories of ancient crimes often lead us to imitate or to tolerate them. Hitherto the factions have been fewer and less violent in America since the year 1776 than in many monarchies in the same number of years under less irritating or dividing circumstances. Passions which in Europe would have vented themselves in war [ 516 ]

2 JULY

1789

have discharged themselves only in newspaper scurrility or in inflammatory resolves or addresses. One thing further my profession has taught me, viz., that political passions produce fewer diseases in a republic than in a monarchy. 3 Disappointed ambition in Sweden and in Italy has produced sudden death from colics and apoplexies. In America, it has scarcely of late years produced a single hypochondriac disorder. In time I believe the effects of the political passions upon health and life will be still less perceptible in our country. And then likewise our republican form of government has already softened the religious passions. We have less bigotry than formerly; and while there is no court nor monarch, no mode of worship will be preferred from interested considerations. Do you not think it will be better to raise our people to a pure and free government by good education than to sink to their present vulgar habits by accommodating a government to them? Much has been done already to enlighten our citizens, but much more may be done. What do you think of a federal university and of English free schools in every township in the United States? I find we think more alike in your last letter upon a certain subject than we did in your first. I have a right to believe that the residence of Congress in New York has always been an object of more importance in the eyes of many people than the adoption or establishment of the federal government. Many pious people wish the name of the Supreme Being had been introduced somewhere in the new Constitution. Perhaps an acknowledgement may be made of his goodness or of his providence in the proposed amendments. In all enterprises and parties I believe the praying are better allies than the fighting part of communities. I am, dear sir, with great regard, your affectionate and steady friend, BENJN RusH (}'v.[S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

Dated 9 June (Old Family Letters,

A, p. 36-8). 2

See note on the following letter.

s Compare BR's observations on this topic in his Diseases of the Mind, p. 68-9.

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 2nd, 1789 1 I enclose you a small essay which I consider as a full reply to that part of your letter which defends the Latin and Greek Ian[ 517 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES

guages. I shall class them hereafter with Negro slavery and spirituous liquors, and consider them as, though in a less degree, unfriendly to the progress of morals, knowledge, and religion in the United States. In a few days I shall reply to other parts of your letter. From, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH tlv.lS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1

"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 ... ," published anonymously in Amer. Museum, v, 525-35 (June 1789); reprinted with an altered title in BR's Essays (1798), p. 2.1-56. There are notes for this essay in BR's Commonplace Book (Autobiography, p. 345-7). In his rejection of the classics in favor of scientific studies and modern languages, BR was in accord with Benjamin Franklin and,

of course, with later educational trends in the United States. His principal arguments are effectively stated in a letter to Rev. James Muir, 24 Aug. 1791; see also Introduction, p. lxvii, above. Most of BR's correspondents opposed his view of the classics, Adams for example declaring in his answer to the present letter: "I should as soon think of closing all my window shutters, to enable me to see, as of banishing the Classicks, to improve Republican ideas" ( 19 June 1789; Old Family Letters, A, p. 40).

To Elisha HalY My dear Kinsman, Philadelphia, July 6th, 1789 The respectable age and character of your venerable patient2 lead me to regret that it is not in my power to suggest a remedy for the cure of the disorder you have described in her breast. I know nothing of the root that you mention is found in Carolina and Georgia, but from a variety of inquiries and experiments I am disposed to believe that there does not exist in the vegetable kingdom an antidote to cancers. 3 All the supposed vegetable remedies I have heard of are compounds of some mineral caustics. The arsenic is the most powerful of any of them. It is the basis of Dr. Martin's powder. 4 I have used it in many cases with success, but have failed in some. From your account of Mrs. Washington's breast, I am afraid no great good can be expected from the use of it. Perhaps it may cleanse it and thereby retard its spreading. You may try it, diluted in water. Continue the application of opium and camphor, and wash it frequently with a decoction of red clover. Give anodynes when necessary, and support the system with bark and wine. Under this treatment, she may live comfortably many years and finally die of old age. [ 518 ]

6 JULY 1789 You forget the difference of our ages and constitutions when you propose my educating your children. You will most probably survive me. It will give me pleasure to serve my little namesake during your life-but, my friend, you must look out for somebody with better lungs than I have got, to whom you must commit the care of your little folks after your death. I have lately published a volume of essays upon medicine. By the first private opportunity that offers, I shall send you a copy of them. My dear Mrs. Rush on the 3rd of this month added a 4th boy to my family. We have now 6 children living. Their names and ages are as follow: John 12 years old, Emelia ro, Richard 8, Mary 5, James 3, and Benjamin 3 days old. 5 [We ha]ve buried three children, whose names were Susan, Elizabeth, 6 and William. Our eldest son is a promising boy and bids fair to make a scholar. The rest are like other children. Emelia is chiefly remarkable for her engaging temper and manners. My business continues to be extensive, but my health is so precarious that I know not how long it will continue so. Severe study in early life, and constant public and private pursuits since the year 1774, have nearly worn me out. Mrs. Rush joins in love to Mrs. HalF and yourself with, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN: RusH Jddressed: Dr: Elisha Hall Fredericksburgh Virginia. tMS: College of Physicians of Philadelphia. 1 Elisha Hall, M.D. (I7S4-I8I4), of Fredericksburg, was BR's cousin, being the son of BR's aunt, Ruth (Hall) Hall (Pleasants, "Hall Family," p. I 3 7; BR, Autobiography, p. 3o8). 2 Mary (Ball) Washington, mother of the President; she died in her eightysecond year in the following month (Charles Moore, The Family Life of George Washington, Boston and N.Y., 1926, p. 22, I39). 3 BR was much interested in cancer throughout his career, and though he occasionally gave limited approval to the use of caustic remedies, such as the one mentioned here, he remained highly skeptical of the various specifics for it brought forward from time to time. Three years earlier he had subjected Martin's highly praised cancer nostrum

to chemical and clinical tests. See "An Account of the Late Dr. Hugh Martin's Cancer Powder, with Brief Observations on Cancers," Amer. Philos. Soc., Trans., II (I786), 212.-17; reprinted with altered title in Med. Inq. & Obs. [1], I789, p. I63-8, and in later editions. This was a valuable paper in its day, unusual (for BR) in its laboratory approach to its subject. On cancer and tumors and their treatment, see further BR's letter to [Dr. Josiah Bartlett], 23 Feb. 1783, Dartmouth College Library, Bartlett Papers; also letters to Josephus B. Stuart, 24 May 18 I o, and to John Adams, 2 o Sep. I 8 I 1, below. ' 4 In his paper on Martin's powder, cited in the preceding note, BR tells something of Dr. Hugh Martin, who was formerly BR's pupil and who had

[ 519 ]

A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES allegedly learned the formula for his cancer cure from the Indians while stationed as a military surgeon at Fort Pitt during the Revolution. According to Heitman's Register, Martin was first a surgeon's mate with two Virginia regiments and afterwards a surgeon with the 8th Penna. Line, 1780-178!. An extremely interesting letter from Martin to BR from Fort Pitt, 13 May 1780, describes the country round about, praises its fertility and natural resources, including both coal and oil (Rush Mss, XXIV). Martin returned to

Philadelphia at the close of the war, had much success with his nostrum ( whicli he advertised in a pamphlet, A Narrative of a Discovery of a Sovereign Specific, for the Cure of Cancers, Phila., I 782), but died early in I 784. 5 This Benjamin died shortly afterward; a later son was given the same name (Biddle, Memorial, p. 229). 6 Elizabeth was born 14 Feb. 1783; the date of her death is not recorded (same, p. 228). 1 Caroline (Carter) Hall (Va. Mag. of Hist. & Biog., XXXVII [1929], 84).

To Jeremy Belknap Dear Sir, Philadelphia, July 13th, 1789 Mr. Hall the printer has neglected hitherto to republish the essay upon spirits, 1 probably from an opinion that it is less necessary than formerly. Much less rum will be used this year than last in this and the adjoining states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. From the influence of the Quakers and Methodists in checking this evil, I am disposed to believe that the business must be effected finally by religion alone. Human reason has been employed in vain, and the conduct of New England in Congress2 has furnished us with a melancholy proof that we have nothing to hope from the influence of law in making men wise and sober. Let these considerations lead us to address the heads and governing bodies of all the churches in America upon the subject. I have borne a testimony (by particular desire) at a Methodist conference against the use of ardent spirits, and I hope with effect. I have likewise written to the Roman Catholic bishop, Dr. Carroll,S in Maryland, to set an association on foot against them in his society. I have repeatedly insisted upon a public testimony being published against them by the Presbyterian Synod of this city and have suggested to our good bishop, Dr. White, the necessity of the Episcopal Church not standing neuter in this interesting business. Go then, my friend, and in your circle of influence or acquaintance "do likewise."4 You will find an essay upon the inutility of the Latin and Greek languages in the last number of the Museum which has been ascribed to me. I wish it could be republished in Boston. It has some able advocates in this city, particularly Dr. Franklin, Mr. Clymer, and Mr. Coxe. [ 520 ]

13 JULY 1789 Accept of my thanks for your kind inquiries respecting my health. Through divine goodness I have escaped last spring an attack of a disease in my lungs which for many years has visited me in different forms nearly every year. I am however still feeble and by no means equal in point of bodily exertion to all my public and professional duties. I thank God I enjoy, notwithstanding, good spirits and the support of hope which looks with composure and sometimes with joy beyond the grave. I am now preparing an address to be delivered before the visitors of the young ladies' academy in this city at the next quarterly examinations "upon the necessity and advantages of teaching children to read by means of the Bible." 5 I consider this as a matter of more importance in the world than keeping up a regular gospel ministry, and yet, strange to tell! there are religious men and even ministers of the gospel who disapprove of it. The great enemy of the salvation of man in my opinion never invented a more effectual means of extirpating Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools. The more I attend to the methods in which education is conducted in our country, the more I am disposed to suspect that our schools and colleges do more harm than good to the interests of humanity, virtue, and religion. What are Latin and Greek and mathematics and philosophy if they do not lead us nearer to the Parent of the Universe and the source and center of all perfection and happiness? From, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH &S: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1

I.e., in the Penna. Gazette, where it usually appeared about this season each year; see BR to Belknap, 6 May I 7 8 8, and note 3 there. 2 Referring probably to the successful opposition of the Massachusetts delegation in Congress to a high tariff on molasses, from which rum was manufactured (McMaster, Hist., r, 547-9). 3 John Carroll (I735·I8Is), of Baltimore, was the first Catholic bishop in the United States, I 789; later archbishop (DAB). Carroll had not yet been named bishop when BR wrote his letter, but as prefect apostolic of the United States he exercised certain episcopal

duties (Rev. Paul L. Love, Archivist of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, personal communication to the editor, I4 Sep. I 948). BR's letter has not been found among Bishop Carroll's correspondence preserved in the Archdiocesan Archives. 4 Luke I0:37· 5 There is no record that the address was given, but it was written and published under the title "A Defence of the Use of the Bible as a School Book in a Letter to the Rev. Mr. Jeremy Belknap of Boston," A mer. Museum, vn, IZ9-36 (Mch. I 79 I) ; reprinted in BR's Essays (I798), p. 93-II3.

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To John Adams My dear Friend, Philadelphia, July 21st, 1789 From an unfortunate concurrence of circumstances, I find myself under the influence of the same difficult command in corresponding with the Vice-President of the United States which the King of Syria gave to the captains of his chariots: "Fight ye not with small or great, save only with the KING of Israel.m The subjects upon which we differ are monarchy, titles, and the Latin and Greek languages. I repeat again that republicanism has never yet had a fair trial in the world. It is now likely to be tried in the United States. Had our government been more completely balanced, that is, had the President possessed more power, I believe it would have realized all the wishes of the most sanguine friends to republican liberty. Licentiousness, factions, seditions, and rebellions have not been restrained by monarchy even in Great Britain. They have been more numerous in that country than in any of the less free monarchies or more free republics of Europe. The factions, seditions, and rebellions of republics arise wholly from the want of checks or balances and from a defect of equal representation. The wisdom of modern times has discovered and in part remedied these evils. We may hope therefore that our republican forms of government will be more safe and durable than formerly. When we reject a republic, I wish we may adopt an absolute monarchy, for governments (like women, among whom it is said no one between a virtuous woman and a prostitute ought ever to please) should know no medium between absolute republicanism and absolute monarchy. There cannot be a greater absurdity than to connect together in one government the living principle of liberty in the people with the deadly principle of tyranny in an hereditary monarch. They must in time, with the best balance in the world, overset each other. They are created with implements of war in their hands. Fighting will be natural and necessary to each of them to preserve an existence. From a variety of circumstances, the victory 99 times in an 1oo will be in favor of the monarch, and hence will arise the annihilation of liberty. An hundred years hence, absolute monarchy will probably be rendered necessary in our country by the corruption of our people. But why should we precipitate an event for which we are not yet prepared? Shall I at five-and-twenty years of age, because I expect to be an old man, draw my teeth, put on artificial gray hairs, and [ 522 ]

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bend my back over a short cane? No, I will enjoy the health and vigor of youth and manhood, and leave old age to take care of itself. I will do more. I will husband my health and vigor, and try to keep off old age as long as I can by temperance, proper clothing, simple manners, and the practice of domestic virtues. The characters you so much admire among the ancients were formed wholly by republican forms of governments. Republican forms of government are more calculated to promote Christianity than monarchies. The precepts of the Gospel and the maxims of republics in many instances agree with each other. Please to take notice that when I speak of a republic I mean a government consisting of three branches, and each derived at different times and for different periods from the PEOPLE. Where this circulation is wanting between rulers and the ruled, there will be an obstruction to genuine government. A king or a senate not chosen by the people at certain periods becomes a sebimus, 2 a bubo, or an abscess in the body politic which must sooner or later destroy the healthiest state. A simple democracy, or an unbalanced republic, is one of the greatest of evils. I think with Dr. Zubly that "a democracy (with only one branch) is the Tivil's own government. 113 Those words he uttered at my table in the spring of I 776, upon my giving as a toast the "Commonwealth of America." At the same instant that he spoke the words, he turned his glass upside downwards and refused to drink the toast. I have no objection to men being accosted by the titles which they derive from their offices. Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, Senator, Councilor, Judge, or even Constable may all be used with propriety, but why should we prefix noble, honorable, or elective to them? Such epithets are a transgression of a rule in composition which forbids us to use unnecessary adjectives, inasmuch as they always enfeeble the sense of a sentence. I cannot think with you that titles overawe or restrain the profligate part of a community. The very atmosphere of London is impregnated with the sounds of "my Lord," "my Lady," "Right honorable," "your Honor," "Sir Tohn and Sir James"-and yet where will you find more profligate manners than among the citizens of London? The use of titles begets pride in rulers and baseness among the common people. Among the Romans, whom you so much admire, Caesar was Caesar, and Scipio was Scipio in all companies. The conquered provinces I believe first introduced titles. Among the Quakers the highest degrees of order are preserved without titles. But if we begin with titles in the [ 523 ]

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United States, where will they end? A new vocabulary must be formed to provide for all the officers of the federal and state governments, for the states still retain the power of creating titles. If titles are given to men, must not their women be permitted to share in them? By what rule shall we settle precedency? Shall a law or a title office be necessary for this purpose? In a word, my friend, I see no end to the difficulties, disputes, and absurdities of admitting titles into our country. They are equally contrary to reason and religion, and in my opinion are no more necessary to give dignity or energy to a government than swearing is to govern a ship's crew, or spirituous liquors to gather in the fruits of the earth. 4 Upon the subject of the Latin and Greek languages, I shall only ask two questions. Who are guilty of the greatest absurdity-the Chinese who press the feet into deformity by small shoes, or the Europeans and Americans who press the brain into obliquity by Greek and Latin? Do not men use Latin and Greek as the scuttlefish 5 emit their ink, on purpose to conceal themselves from an intercourse with the common people? Indeed, my friend, I owe nothing to the Latin and Greek classics but the turgid and affected style of my youthful compositions and a neglect of English grammar. At 22 years of age I read Lowth's lntroduction6 to the grammar of our language and Hume's History of England, as also some of Swift's works. By means of these authors I learned to put words together, and if I possess at this time any knowledge of style or language, I owe it to my having nearly forgotten the Greek and suspended for many years the delight with which I once read the Roman poets and historians. 7 I often look back with regret upon the four years I spent at an academy on the borders of Maryland and Pennsylvania in learning the Latin and Greek languages, and had not my master (a pious clergyman and an industrious farmer) taught me during those years the first principles and duties of Christianity, and at the same time given me habits of labor, which produced some knowledge in moral affairs, I should wish the memory of those years blotted out of my mind forever. I expect to prevail in the United States in my attempt to bring the dead languages into disrepute, for my next attack upon them shall be addressed to our American ladies. 8 They are not perverted by any prejudice upon this subject. They will hear from me the language of reason and nature, and their influence will render my opinions sooner or later universal. From the character you once gave [ 524

J

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me of Mrs. Adams and which I have had confirmed by all who have ever conversed with her, I anticipate support from her in my undertaking. If the years spent in teaching boys the Greek and Roman mythology were spent in teaching them Jewish antiquities and the connection between the types and prophecies of the Old Testament with the events of the New, don't you think we should have less infidelity and of course less immorality and bad government in the world? My friend the late Anthony Benezet, one of the greatest and best men that ever lived, used to say that "the height of all charity was to bear with the unreasonableness of mankind." Men love royalty, titles, and the Latin and Greek languages. They make wars, enslave their fellow creatures, distill and drink rum, all because they are not formed by REASoN. I have only to beg your pardon for the length of this letter, and to assure you that no difference of sentiment upon any subject can alter the respect and regard with which I am, my dear sir, your sincere friend, BENJN: RuSH tJI1S: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 I Kings 22:31. BR was replying to

several of Adams' letters, written in June and July, in which Adams had taken issue with him on the points listed below; see Old Family Letters, A, p. 36-43· 2 BR may have written "sibimus." In any case he apparently invented a word, for I have found no such form in any English, Latin, or medical dictionary, old or new. The Latin sebum (suet, grease) is used in modern physiology for the fatty secretion of the sebaceou: glands which lubricate the skin and hair (oED; Webster). Perhaps BR meant what is now called a sebaceous cyst. 8 See BR to Ramsay, Mch. or Apr.

1788.

' For the debates in the Senate on titles for the executive officers--a matter in which Adams was intensely interested --see William Maclay's diverting ac-

count in his Journal, N.Y., 1927, p. 21-3 7, and passim. In a note on titles in his Notebooks, vol. 4, BR observed that titles in civilized society are equivalent to nose jewels among the Indians. 5 The cuttlefish or "inkfish," frequently spelled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and sometimes today, as BR has spelled it (OED; Funk and Wagnalls, New Standard Dictionary). 6 Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English Grammar, London, 1762, often reprinted and much used in schools (Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone, Diet. of Authors). 1 The reader of BR's letters may be left to decide how sound BR's judgment is on this point. 8 This project was apparently not carried out.

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To Jeremy Belknap Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 13, 1789 1 Mr. W oodbridge has furnished me with an unexpected opportunity of enclosing you the London edition of my Medical Inquiries and Observations, to be presented by you with my most respectful compliments to the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston. I beg that you would at the same time present my thanks to the Academy for the honor they have done me in adding my name to the list of their members. 2 You will much oblige me by sending me a CERTIFICATE of my election. I have been very happy lately in receiving from Mr. Howard a present of the 2nd volume of his Account of Lazarettos and Hospitals. It is an excellent work and abounds with many useful facts which are of extensive application in medicine, morals, and government. He is particularly zealous in his testimonies against spirituous liquors, and in one part of his work laments the frequency of oaths, which he says are in almost all cases unnecessary. Innumerable facts in his work prove that solitude and labor reclaim the worst of criminals. With the history of lazarettos and hospitals, I received a copy of the Duke of Tuscany's new code of penallaws,3 in which I find he has abolished the punishment of death in every case whatever. In the introduction to this valuable little work, the Duke declares that since the reformation of the criminal law has taken place, crimes of all kinds have been less frequent than formerly. I am not more satisfied of the truth of any proposition in Euclid than I am of the truth of this declaration. Murder is propagated by hanging for murder. How disgraceful to our republics that the monarchs of Europe should take the lead of us in extending the empire of reason and humanity in this interesting part of government! From, dear sir, yours sincerely, BENJN RusH P.S. An unusual share of business has retarded the discourse on the "Use of the Bible in Schools." It will I hope appear in the course of the winter. 0! for an ocean of health and time! Addressed: The Revd: Mr: Jeremy Belknap One of the Minister's of Boston Mr Woodbridge. tJJ.fS: Massachusetts Historical Society, Belknap Papers. 1 2

Not identified. BR had been elected to this society,

founded 178o, on zo Aug. 1788 (American Academy of Arts and Sciences,

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14 OCTOBER 1789 Memoirs, xr, Centennial Volume, Cambridge, 1888, p. 36). 3 Peter Leopold (1747-1792), Grand Duke of Tuscany, I 765-1790, and afterwards Holy Roman Emperor, was one of the most enlightened of the en-

lightened despots (Encyclo. Brit., 9th edn.) . John Howard edited and published the Edict of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, for the Reform of the Criminal Law in His Dominions, Warrington, 1789 (Brit. Mus. Cat.).

To John Howard Dear Sir, Philadelphia, October 14, 1789 For by that affectionate epithet I will address you, although I have not the honor of a personal acquaintance with you. The design of this letter is not only to thank you for the acceptable presents conveyed to me through the hands of Dr. Lettsom, but to join my acknowledgements with those of your British and Irish fellow citizens for the immense services you have rendered to humanity and science by your histories of prisons and lazarettos. The operation and progress of truth, though slow, is sure. Your excellent works I have no doubt will prove a seed of improvements in criminal law for future generations. To me there is no truth in mathematics or even morals more self-evident than that solitude and labor might be so applied for all crimes as to make the punishment of death and public disgrace forever altogether unnecessary. 1 I heartily concur with you in all your opinions respecting the mischievous consequences of spirituous liquors, and have the pleasure of informing you that such have been the effects of the numerous publications and religious associations against them that not more than one half the quantity of them is consumed now that was consumed four or five years ago in the middle and eastern states of America. I am glad to meet with a testimony against the use of tobacco in your last work. I have prepared an attack upon it for the press in which I have endeavored from many facts and calculations to show its destructive influence upon health, beauty, time, and property. 2 This essay will probably make its first appearance in Great Britain in the Memoirs of the Manchester Society. I have only to add upon the subject of your work that I was much delighted to find a testimony, though a short one, against oaths. From long and faithful inquiries I am perfectly satisfied that they are not only contrary to reason and the spirit as well as precepts of the Gospel, but that the use of them admitted or required by law is the cause of a great [ 527 ]

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proportion of the falsehood and profane swearing which prevail in the world. 3 Shall not the United States be favored with a visit from you?' Ignorance and inhumanity prevail everywhere in our jails, though perhaps in a less degree from their size and number than in Europe. While in too many instances you can only deplore without being able to remedy the evils of jails in Europe, you may here perhaps forever prevent them by sowing the seeds of justice, policy, economy, and humanity in the minds of the present rulers of our country by your conversation and presence. You will find them easy of access, friendly, and disposed to be instructed, especially by one whose character they have long known and respected. In Pennsylvania you may command the friendship and services of thousands, especially of the people called Quakers. Remember, my dear sir, that we are at present in a forming state. We have as yet but few habits of any kind, and good ones may be acquired and fixed by a good example and proper instruction as easily as bad ones without the benefit of either. Upon the subject of criminal jurisprudence and the treatment of prisoners, the waters are troubled in every part of America. Come then, dear sir, and direct them into their proper channel. With great respect, I have the honor to assure you of the great esteem of, dear sir, your sincere friend and obliged humble servant, BENJN: RusH (MS (retained fair copy): Library Company of Philadelphia, Rush 1

BR meant: "to make punishment by death or by public disgrace forever altogether unnecessary." 2 "Observations upon the Influence of the Habitual Use of Tobacco upon Health, Morals, and Property," in BR's Essays (1798), p. 263-74. This paper, if submitted to the Manchester Society, did not appear there, for BR stated in the preface to his Essays (1798) that it

MSS.

was hitherto unpublished. 3 BR had recently published an article on the subject: "An Enquiry into the Consistency of Oaths with Reason and Christianity," Columbian Mag., III, 104-8 (Feb. 1789); reprinted in Essays (1798), p. 124-35· 4 Howard died of camp fever in Russia in Jan. I 790 and could not have received this letter or invitation (DNB).

To the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital Gentlemen, November 11, 1789 Under the conviction that the patients affiicted by madness should be the first objects of the care of a physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital, I have attempted to relieve them, but I am sorry to add [ 528 ]

29 DECEMBER 1789 that my attempts, which at first promised some improvement, were soon afterwards rendered abortive by the cells of the Hospital. 1 These apartments are damp in winter and too warm in summer. They are moreover so constituted as not to admit readily of a change of air; hence the smell of them is both offensive and unwholesome. Few patients have ever been confined in these cells who have not been affected by a cold in two or three weeks after their confinement, and several have died of consumption in consequence of this cold. These facts being clearly established, I conceive that the appropriating of the cells any longer for the reception of mad people will be dishonorable both to the science and humanity of the city of Philadelphia. Should more wholesome apartments be provided for them, it is more than probable that many of them might be relieved by the use of remedies which have lately been discovered to be effectual in their disorder. With great respect, I am, gentlemen, your friend and humble servant, BENJAMIN RusH Printed: Morton, History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, p. 14-3-4-· 1 For an account of these damp, unheated, and largely unventilated basement cells, see Morton, Hist. of the Penna. Hospital, p. u8-3o, with illustration at p. 129. BR had been placed in charge of the maniacal patients in 1787 (see letter to Lettsom, 28 Sep.

17 8 7), and this is the earliest of a long series of appeals for bettering the conditions of their confinement. See, e.g., BR to Samuel Coates, 30 Apr. 1798, and BR to the Managers, 24 Sep. 1810; also his Autobiography, p. 216, 262.

To Noah Webster Dear Sir, Philadelphia, December 29, 1789 1 Your acceptable letter shall be laid before the Abolition Society at their next meeting. I am sure it will meet with their most cordial thanks. It is enough to reconcile a man to censure and ridicule for present unpopular opinions and enterprises to see the progress of justice and humanity towards the poor Africans, for in the year r772 it was as much a mark of a distempered imagination to advocate their claims as it is now to defend the claims of criminals to the rights of humanity or to the means of reformation. The most virulent attack that ever was made upon me was in the year r772 2 for publishing a pamphlet in favor of a law to emancipate slaves in Pennsylvania.

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That man will be egregiously disappointed who expects the rewards of his patriotism or successful enterprises on this side the grave. Having lived to see my last political wish accomplished in the change of the Constitution of Pennsylvania,S I have taken leave of public life and public pursuits. Hereafter I expect to live only for the benefit of my family and my patients. Accept of my congratulations upon your marriage/ and best wishes for your health and happiness. Continue to do all the good you can by enlightening our country. Expect to be persecuted for doing good, and learn to rejoice in persecution.--Yours sincerely, BENJN RusH

P.S. Accept of my thanks for two letters previously to your last of the 4th of December. .5ddressed: Noah Webster Esqr: at Hartford Connecticut. &S: New York Public Library, Webster Papers. 1 The several letters from Webster to BR of this period, mentioned in the present letter, are missing. 2 This is BR's usual error for I 773· 3 A constitutional convention, in which the Republicans had a large majority, had met in Nov.; its work was

not completed until Sep. I 790 1 when a new state constitution, quite to BR's taste, went into effect (Brunhouse, Counter-Revolution, p. 225-7 ). 4 Webster had married Rebecca Greenleaf on :z6 Oct. I 789 (DAB).

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, February 12th, I 790 Ever since the last week in October I have been engaged in composing and delivering a new course of lectures on the theory and practice of medicine in the College of this city. 1 This arduous business has employed me so closely that it has separated me from my friends, detached me from all other pursuits, and, what I regret most of all, has deprived me for a while of the pleasure of your correspondence. Although we hold different principles upon some subjects, yet I cannot help loving and respecting you. You were my first preceptor in the science of government. From you I learned to discover the danger of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and if I have had any merit or guilt in keeping the public mind awake to its folly or danger for 13 years, you alone should have the credit of the former and be made responsible for the latter. But, my dear [ 530 ]

12 FEBRUARY 1790

sir, I learned further from you to despise public opinion when set in competition with the dictates of my judgment or conscience. So much did I imbibe of this spirit from you that during the whole of my political life I was always disposed to suspect my integrity if from any accident I became popular with our citizens for a few weeks or days. The reformation of our state government has completed my last political wish. Hitherto I have never known a defeat or final disappointment in any one of them. I ascribe my successes wholly to my perseverance. I claim this virtue boldly, since all my enemies admit my possessing it at the time they deny me every other virtue or quality of a politician. The experience I have had in public pursuits has led me to make many discoveries in the human heart that are not very favorable to it. I shall leave some of them upon record by way of beacons to deter my children from engaging in public life. One of them will be that a "politician can never suffer from his enemies." The folly, the envy, and the ingratitude of his friends are the principal sources of his suffering. Such is my apathy now to public affairs that I often pass whole weeks without reading our newspapers. I have never once been within the doors of our Convention, nor have I broken bread with a single member of the body who compose it. Heaven has been profuse in its gifts of family blessings to me. My dear Mrs. Rush is everything to me that a friend, a companion, and a wife should be to any man. Our children are affectionate and dutiful, and promising as to their capacities for acquiring knowledge. Nineteen out of twenty of my evenings are spent in their society. I see many men high in power or affiuent in office who in the year 1 776 considered me as one of the firebrands of independence. I feel the effects in a debilitated constitution of the midnight studies which I devoted for I 6 years to my country. I see nothing before me during the remainder of my life but labor and self-denial in my profession-and yet I am happy. I envy no man-and blame no man. 0! Virtue, Virtue, who would not follow thee blindfold! I want nothing but a heart sufficiently grateful to heaven for the happiness of my family and my country. I do not reject the modern languages as a part of academical education. I have found much more benefit from the French than I ever found from the Latin or Greek in my profession. I have found some advantages from a knowledge of the Italian and have been entertained by reading Spanish books. My partiality to these

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languages is one of the reasons of my having quarreled with the dead languages of Greece and Rome. With great regard I continue, dear sir, yours very affectionately and sincerely, BENJN: RusH .Addressed: The Honble: John Adams Esqr: Vicepresident of the United States New York. MS: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 On 24 Oct. I 789 BR succeeded John Morgan as professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the tempo-

rarily revivified College of Philadelphia (Goodman, Rush, p. 129).

To John Adams Dear Sir, Philadelphia, February 24, 1790 1 Your remarks upon the conduct of the tories and the "young fry" who are now crowding into the councils of our country perfectly accord with my own observations. The present Convention and Assembly of Pennsylvania and the present Corporation of Philadelphia are all £lied chiefly with men who were either unknown in 1776 or known only for timidity or disaffection. Your old friends have mingled with the Continental money of that memorable year and are as much forgotten as if they had paid the last debt of nature. This part of the issue of the American controversy has not disappointed me, for I both expected and predicted it from a conviction that the laws of property were as exactly ascertained as the laws of matter, and that power and wealth would never long be separated. There is one thing in which the tories have the advantage of the whigs. They are more attached to each other. They have come forth in a solid column in our state, and from the violence of many of the whigs who have been in power during the war, they have been joined by many of the most respectable republican whig characters among us. Had the whigs of Pennsylvania united in a good constitution and organized it with respectable officers, they would have transmitted all the power of the state to their latest posterity. But this event was prevented at first by Cannon, Matlack, and Dr. Young, and afterwards by Reed, Bryan, and Parson Ewing. The three latter reprobated the Constitution when it was £rst made, but they soon discovered that it might be converted to desirable private purposes. It gratified the ambition of Reed, the idleness of Bryan, and the avarice and malice of Dr. Ewing, for it was this man

[ 532 ]

24 FEBRUARY 1790 chiefly that directed the rage of the state against the freedom of the Quakers by severe test laws, and against the property of the Episcopalians by robbing them of the charter and funds of their College. The combination of this triumvirate to seize the power and treasury of the state was the result of system. In the month of October 1778 Mr. Reed waited upon me just as I had recovered from a bilious fever, and in a long conversation invited me to share with them in their premeditated usurpation. I objected to the proposal and told him that he would ruin himself by taking a part in the establishment or support of so bad a Constitution. The perfect knowledge I had of these gentlemen's characters enabled me to detect and expose their schemes in every period of their administration. They knew this well, and hence my destruction was a favorite object with each of them. From my taking the part of the persecuted Quakers and Episcopalians I was represented as the enemy of the Presbyterians in our state, and so far did this calumny succeed that it obliged me to retreat from their society to the church of my ancestors and in which I was born, viz., the Church of England. Such was the industry of Dr. Ewing in circulating the above calumny that he reduced my business by it among the Presbyterians in the course of two years from near an 100 to only ten families. For these sacrifices to my principles I did not receive the support I should have done from the friends of order and justice. Some of them avoided me at the time I was most persecuted as if I had been bitten by a mad dog. Others of them joined the hue and cry against me in order to recommend themselves to the tyrants of the day. Nor is this all. One of the Republican party who had long seen with pain the zeal and success of my services, I have reason to believe employed his talents for evil and ridicule against me in the public papers. 2 These are valuable facts for my children. They will serve to teach them that it is much less dangerous to awaken the keenest resentment of enemies than the envy of friends. In reviewing the history of the events which I have related (which are now passing rapidly from the memories of most people),' I feel no difficulty in exercising the Christian virtue of forgiveness towards my enemies. They are open and sincere in their enmity against me. They moreover did me honor by considering me as the principal in all the measures that were taken to oppose and defeat them. But my friends were unkind, ungrateful, and even treacherous, and while most of them acted a subordinate part in schemes planned by myself, they considered me only as an instrument in their hands to effect the purposes of their ambition or revenge. I wish I could love them as [ 533 ]

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I ought. In reviewing their conduct and my own in the disputes in our state, I am led to conclude this narrative with the famous Spanish prayer: "God deliver me from myself and my friends." The real whigs find as little credit in our histories of the Revolution as they meet with from the "tories and young fry." Whose heart is not affected at seeing that venerable patriot Saml. Adams traduced in so many instances by Dr. Gordon? 3 What incense is perpetually offered to one of the military characters that acted only an executive part in the Revolution, 4 and that too after the foundation of it was laid in principles and opinions disseminated by Otis, Quincy, 5 yourself, Saml. Adams, Dickinson, and a few others. Had I leisure, I would endeavor to rescue these characters from oblivion and give them the first place in the temple of liberty. What trash may we not suppose has been handed down to us from antiquity, when we detect such errors and prejudices in the history of events of which we have been eyewitnesses and in which we have been actors? I am sometimes disposed to question the talents of Caesar, the virtues of Antoninus, and the crimes of Commodus. I suspect the well-concerted plans of battles recorded by Livy to have been picked up in the barbers' shops of Rome or from deserters from the Roman armies. Of the events recorded by Dr. Gordon, how few of them embrace the whole of their connections? How little do we learn from them of the principles of actions in man. Of the effects of single and compound, private and public, democratic and monarchical passions upon the human heart. Of the motives of actions in our great men. Of the difference between abilities and success in enterprises. Of the real characters of the patriots of the different stages of the Revolution. To prevent my children being deceived by the histories of this day, I have nearly filled a large quarto volume begun in 1778 6 with anecdotes and characters of the principal agents in the Revolution. Besides this collection I have filled two small pocket octavos7 with facts connected with characters and events in 1776 and 1777, during which years I was in Congress or in the army. In one of them I find the following anecdotes. "Upon my return from the army to Baltimore in the winter of 1777, I sat next to Jno. Adams in Congress, and upon my whispering to him and asking him if he thought we should succeed in our struggle with G. Britain, he answered me, 'Yes-if we fear God and repent of our sins.'" This anecdote will I hope teach my boys that it is not necessary to disbelieve Christianity or to renounce morality in order to arrive at the highest political usefulness or fame. Again in Baltimore I asked Jno. Adams if he thought we were qualified for [ 534 ]

24 FEBRUARY 1790 republican forms of government. He said, "No-and never should be till we were ambitious to be poor." Hereafter if agreeable I shall send you some more extracts from these books. One of them contains your character at large 8 among the gentlemen who signed the declaration of independence. My own is the shortest and perfectest one. It consists of only these words: "He aimed well." I thank you for your polite wishes to see me restored to public life. There was a time when I would have accepted of an appointment abroad. My knowledge of several European languages and of many eminent literary characters would have added frequent opportunities to my disposition to serve my country. I have meditated with great pleasure upon the pains I should have taken in such a situation to employ my leisure hours in collecting discoveries in agriculture, manufactures, and in all the useful arts and sciences, and in transmitting them to my American fellow citizens. But the time is past for my accepting of that or of any other appointment in the government of the United States. I already see a system of influence bordering upon corruption established in our country which seems to proclaim to innocence and patriotism to keep their distance. I have erected and decorated my little bower. Its shade is already refreshing and its odors truly delightful. I cannot convey to you a more lively idea of this domestic retreat than by describing the manner in which the former part of the present evening has passed in my family. At the same table where I now set, I have had the pleasure of seeing my dear Mrs. Rush deeply engaged in reading Millot's "Account of the Manners and Laws of the Ancient Egyptians,"9 my eldest son plodding over Rollin's "History of Cyrus,'no and my second boy just beginning Goldsmith's History of England.11 In the course of the evening, frequent applications were made to me to explain hard words by my boys. One of them, who has just finished Ovid at school, asked me if there was such a river as the Nile or such a country as Egypt. My answer to this question led me to express my hearty disapprobation of the mode of education which makes the first knowledge of boys to consist in fables, and thereby leads them to reject truth, or to esteem it no more than the gross errors and fictions of the ancient poets. I must not forget to mention that my eldest daughter (between II and I2 years of age) composed a part of this family picture. She was employed in sewing but partook in all the conversatlon of the evening. This girl is all that the most indulgent parents could wish an only child to be. A compassionate heart is the principal

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feature in her character. Her little allowance of spending money is chiefly given away to the poor. To both her parents she is dutiful and affectionate in the highest degree. In the absence of her Mama, she makes tea for me and soothes me with a hundred little anecdotes picked up in her schools or in company. To this account of my family I have only to add that my venerable mother (now in her 75th year) occupies a room in my house. She is often indisposed in body, but all the powers of her mind are in their full vigor. Such is my veneration for this excellent parent that I never look forward to that hour which must perhaps soon part us without feeling an anguish which I cannot describe. I have now only to beg your pardon for the length of this letter, and to request you to destroy all that part of it which relates the private history of, my dear sir, yours very affectionately, BENJN: RusH 0118: Adams Manuscript Trust, Boston. 1 In Adams' letter dated Feb. I 790 (Old Family Letters, A, p. 53). 2 This alleged assailant has not been identified. 3 William Gordon's History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America, London, q88; N.Y., I789. 4 George Washington. 5 Josiah Quincy (174-4-1775), a Harvard graduate, I 763, lawyer, and leader in the pre-Revolutionary movement in Massachusetts (DAB). 6 BR first wrote "I 77 7" and then wrote "I 77 8" over it, or possibly vice versa. The notebook referred to is probably vol. 4 in the series of BR's Notebooks in the Rush Mss. 1 These are two of the three small notebooks now collectively called "Notes on Continental Congress, &c." in the Rush MSS. 8 See BR's letter to Adams of 13 Apr.

I 790. The sketches of the Signers and others may be read in BR's Autobiography, p. IJ8ff. 9 In one of the compilations of Claude-Fran p. I59ff.; McMaster, Hist., I, 568-78. The vehemence of BR's feeling against the funding plan is not easy to account for. It would scarcely be an overstatement to say that this one measure converted him from a Federalist to an Antifederalist, or Republican, position. The injustice done by it to Revolutionary soldiers and other patriots he considered a stain on the national virtue that nothing would ever remove. It dashed his sanguine hopes for the republic and, in combination with the

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A MULTITUDE OF CAUSES speculative mania that in part grew out of it, was a primary cause of the deepening political pessimism of BR's later years. His denunciations of the funding plan are so frequent in the letters that follow that it would be pointless to list them, but see especially the letter to Thomas Fitzsimons?, 5 Aug. I 790. 3 I have not confirmed this anecdote. BR met the historian William Robertson, D.D. (I72I-1793), in Edinburgh (Robertson was principal of the University), and gave an unflattering sketch of him in his Scottish Journal that was softened in the Autobiography, p. so. The History of Scotland, London, 1759, was brought out by Andrew Millar

(DNB). 4 BR is quoting from the H istoire philosophique et politique des etablissemens et du commerce des Europeens dans les deux Indes, usually called the History of the Two Indies, by Abbe Guillaume Thomas Fran