Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), republican and reformer, and an earnest supporter of the American cause, developed the practice and teaching of medicine in Philadelphia, where he was a center of medical controversy. He campaigned for the ratification of the Federal Constitution and in the early years of the new nation worked for reforms in the fields of prisons, insane asylums, poverty, education, and public medical care and campaigned for the abolition of slavery.