1From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 18 December 1810 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 18 December 1810, Washington. Offered for sale in Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 484, “The Alexander Biddle Papers” (1943), pt. 2, item 202, which notes that the one-page letter of about one hundred words “regards his nephew who was ill, and is consoled that he is receiving the attention of Dr. Rush and Dr. Physick.”
2Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 8 April 1813 (Jefferson Papers)
I should not so soon have troubled you with a reply to your friendly favor of Mar. 15. but for your saying that ‘if I wish to look into your work on the diseases of the mind you will send me a copy.’ I read with delight every thing which comes from your pen, and the subject of this work is peculiarly interesting. the book by Bishop Porteous which you were so kind as to inclose me, was safely...
3Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 20 April 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I do not know if you may have noticed in the Newspapers of a year or two ago that Edward Livingston had brought a suit against me for a transaction of the Executive while I was in the administration. the dismission of it has been the occasion of publishing the inclosed pamphlet, which is sent to you, not to be read, for there is nothing enticing for you in it, but as a tribute of respect &...
4From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
I acknowledge my fault in neglecting to answer two or three of your last favours. I now thank you for the Letters and the “Light and Truth” as I ought used to call the Aurora. What are We to think of all these Adventurers? Tom Paine, Cobbet Duane Carpenter, Walsh, Bristed? with twenty &cas. Are they all Sent out here, by Administration or opposition, French or English, Scotch or Irish? Our...
you will I hope pardon the Liberty I have taken to address myself to you Sir upon a Subject which has become very interesting to myself. since I have been on a visit to my Parents, I have met with a volume of your Medical inquiries, in which are containd some observations upon the use of Arsenic in the cure of Cancers and schirrous complaints— about May 1810 I first perceived a hardness in my...
6From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 23 October 1809 (Madison Papers)
I duly recd. the two pamphlets which you were so obliging as to inclose me; and had hoped ere this to have had the pleasure of reading them. From a glance at a few pages of the one on the Judiciary subject, I perceive that is very handsomely written at least. The subject of the other I have no doubt is handled in the elegant and philosophical manner so familiar to the pen of the Author. It is...
7From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
Shall I congratulate or condole with you on the appointment of your Son to be Comptroller of The Treasury? You will know the delightful Comfort of his daily Society and that of his Lady and their prattling Little ones, which I know by Experience to be in old age, among the Sweetest Enjoyment of Life, provided Always that it be not indulged to excess. I Should have thought too that his Office...
8From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
I recd. in course yours of the 7th. Fox was a remarkable Character. I admire the Morsell of History. Pitt was another. he has left nothing but speeches taken down by stenographers. I cannot pronounce either of them wise statesmen: yet perhaps they were as wise as they could be in their Circumstances. Great Men they both were, most certainly. Pitt I think was more correct in his Knowledge of...
9From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 30 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have been prevented from acknowledging, as soon as I could have wished, your kind favor of the 13th. inst. Under the circumstances my fellow Citizens have thought proper to place me, it is particularly grateful to me, to enjoy the good wishes of the most enlightened and virtuous among them: and above all of those whose long and personal acquaintance gives peculiar value to their favorable...
10From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 7 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters are not apt to lie a month unacknowledged. That of May 5th. is before me since which I have recd. an Aurora under your envellope. I thank you for both. Thanks too for your sons inaugural Dissertation. I wish him success in his studies Travels and Practice. May he become as eminent, as skilful, as humane, as virtuous and as successful as his father. I rejoice that your son Richard...
11From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Sobrius esto! Recollect your own Non Nobis! Your Letter of the 20th. of September I communicated to Mrs Adams as you advised. Mrs Adams to her Daughter, After a reasonable Time for Deliberation and Reflections the Heroine determined. The Mother and the Daughter went to Boston and consulted Dr Warren Junior, Dr Welsh, Dr Warren Junior having previously consulted Dr Tufts and Dr Holbrook. The...
12From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
Bacon the great Bacon was fond of Paradoxes. What could The Old Hunks mean by Great Men having neither Ancestors nor Posterity? Was not Isaac the son and Jacob the Grand son and Joseph the Great Grandson of Abraham? Was not Julius Cæsar the Posterity of the Anchises and Eneas? Was not King William the Posterity of the Great William Prince of orange and of the still greater Admiral Coligni? Was...
13From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 April 1811 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for the Trouble you have kindly taken in procuring the Samples of Coins for my Son J. Q. A; which Mr Quincy was so good as to deliver with his own hand: and am glad to learn from your Letter that Mr Erving in behalf of my Son T. B. A, has paid you the Amount of them. I thank you for your Letter of the 4th of March and your Congratulations on the Appointment of my Son to a Seat on...
14From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 April 1809 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice to find that Pensilvania has returned to reason and Duty in the affair of the Miss Writtenhouses. Our Massachusetts Legislature have not gone So far as yours did: but they have gone too far. I rejoice too at the Honourable Acquittal of your worthy Brother, but lament the Allarming Attack upon the choicest Institution of Liberty the Tryal by Jury. Without this there can be no legal...
15From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter to Waterhouse inclosed in yours of the 16th. Shall be Sent tomorrow. With them came the News of the Hornets Glory. If Our Nation had as much Religion as Jews or Gentiles, they would consider these Victories as a Revelation of the Importance and Necessity of a maritime defence. Lawrence is now enrolled with Hull, Decatur, Jones Bainbridge in the Record of our Naval Conquerors....
16From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
I have been entertained and diverted with the humour and the Wit of my Old Friend O Brian as you call him. The Jackass and the Cow, are most excellent Animals in their place and in their own sphere. None more useful. But neither is very well qualified for Legislators or Politicians: or to pursue the figure and hunt down the Allegory. Neither would make a figure at the new Markett Races, or in...
17From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 3 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I congratulate you, & your state and our Nation on the Acquisition of such a secretary of the Navy as you represent Sir honourable William Jones to be. I shall certainly write him a letter, before long; for I am recommender general of Midshipman & Pursers & Ensigns. I have not dared as yet to rise to a Lieutenant in Navy or Army. Talk not to me of dignity. Nothing can be more ridiculous and...
18From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 31 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
I have several sweet letters from you the last of which is the 20th of this month. The table of Cider and health and Rum and death I have given to Dr Tufts who will propagate it. It is a concise but very comprehensive result of long experiences, Attentive observation, and deep and close thought. I was too wise to go to the great celebration. the heat would have killed me. It was here as with...
19From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 29 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed is a Packet two Papers marked A. B. four Number ed 1. 2. 3. 4. A Letter from The Vice President and one from Mr Austin to him, 8 Documents in the whole, considering your Engagements it hurts me to trouble you with the Reading of these Papers: but you will be So amused with them, that you would have reprehended me if I had Suppressed them. If any of them fall within Mr Careys Plan, he...
20From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
A thousand thanks to Richard for his Auroras and ten thousand to you for your Letter of the 14th. I am not subject to low spirits, but if I was one of your Letters would cure me at any time for a Month. Voltaires Brain I shall never get out of mine. It will make me laugh whenever I think of it. The Jews and Nonotte have pickled his Brain in a more durable Manner and kept it in a more perfect...
21From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
If I could dream as much Wit as you, I think I should wish to go to Sleep for the rest of my Life, retaining however one of Swifts Flappers to awake me once in 24 hours to dinner, for you know without a dinner one can neither dream nor Sleep. Your Dreams descend from Jove, according to Homer. Though I enjoy your Sleeping Wit and acknowledge your unequalled Ingenuity in your dreams, I cannot...
22From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 6 November 1810 (Madison Papers)
I thank you for the “Report” on the African Trade, accompanying your favor of the 29th. We have been for some time aware of the evasions of the Act of Congs. on this subject; by means of foreign flags &c procured by our Citizens. But it is very difficult to bring the offenders to justice here; and the foreign Govts. with which the task lies, have not employed their authority for the purpose....
23From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
On this our Thanksgiving day, among innumerable other Blessings, I have to thank express my Gratitude for your favour of Nov. 11. I do not believe that Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy, which however I have never read, would do me more good. I hasten to answer your Questions, that your friendly Sympathies may be no longer afflicted or allarmed. Indeed I almost repent of the Simple Tale I...
24From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 4 February 1811 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 4 February 1811. Offered for sale in Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 499, “The Alexander Biddle Papers” (1943), pt. 2, item 169, which notes that the one-page letter of about seventy-five words reads in part: “I have just recd. your favor of the 7th inst. [not found] as I had before that communicating the death of my nephew [ Rush to JM, 30 Jan. 1811 ]. In thanking you for your...
25From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I loose no time in answering your Letter of the 15th, that my Confidence in your Love to your Country, the rectitude of your Judgment as well as your Intentions, and your Personal Friendship to me, are is so entire; that you are at Liberty to make what Use you judge for the Public Good, of my Name and my Letters. Personal and local and State Reflections and Allusions, in which I have indulged...
26From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I agree with you that The Ocean ought to be and must be the Theatre of the War. Our Government will come by Degrees to the right System. I have toasted The Wooden Walls, the Floating Castles the floating Batteries and the floating Citidels of The United States for Six and thirty years: and I now rejoice to find that many Persons now begin to drink my Toast with Huzzas. I am quite of The...
27From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 20 September 1811 (Madison Papers)
I have recd. your favor of the 6th. inclosing the Pamphlet from the Earl of Buchan. Could a portion only of his liberality & philanthropy, be substituted for the narrow Councils and national prejudices, which direct the course of his Government, towards the U. States, the clouds which have so long hung over the relations of two Countries, mutually interested in cultivating friendship, would...
28From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 6 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
Will your tranquilizing Chair, exorcise Demoniacks? Will it cure the Hydrophobia? I am Sure Our Country is possessed,—I am almost prone to Say, of The Devil—but Hugh Farmer, my quondam Friend reinforced by Dr Mead and his great Ancestor the Friend and Correspondent of Dr Twiss,—convince me that I ought to Say only,—of a Demon. If your Chair can cast out Demons, or if it can cure the...
29From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 29 October 1810 (Madison Papers)
The Bearer, Alfred Madison, a son of my brother, labours under a complaint, which being thought to require the best advice, has produced a resort to yours. You will best understand the nature of it from his own explanations, and your examination of it. His friends take the greater interest in his case, as he join⟨s⟩ to a capacity, beyond the ordinary rate in the opinion of his tutors, very...
30From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 26 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I shall expect your long letter; but I ought not to wish it with impatience: for you have such demands upon you for your time that I wonder how you can spare any to write answers to my impertinances, the astonishment of your family at my vivacity—is very just—Rochefaucault says when a mans vivacity increases with years it becomes frenzy at last nothing is indeed more ridiculous than an old man...