101From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
Letters! What Shall I Say of Letters? Pliny’s are too Studied and too elegant. Cicero’s are the only ones of perfect Simplicity, confidence and familiarity. Madam Sevignè has created a Sweet pretty little amusing World out of nothing. Pascalls Provincials exceed every Thing ancient or modern: but these were laboured with infinite Art. The Letters of Swift and pope are dull! Frederick’s to...
102From 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...
103From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 August 1805 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 14th gives an exact Analysis of Pennsylvania and its Parties: and from it, a probability results, that the Old Constitution will be revived. But, for what reason do you call it Dr. Franklins? I always understood it to be the Work of Cannon, Matlack, Young and Paine, and that Franklin, though President of the Convention, had no greater hand in its fabrick than the painted head...
104From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
I received yesterday your new Edition on Animal Life and Madam read it in the evening to me and all the Family, to the great delight and Edification of Us all. Whether it is all solid or not we can not say: but there are Ideas enough thrown out to excite and employ the attention and Investigation of all the Philosophers, Physicians and Surgeons. Accept of all our Thanks for this favour....
105From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 15 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
All that I have written you, hitherto, upon the history of the Original of our Navy, was from Memory, without thinking of Book or Paper. But in the course of my lucubrations I thought of the Journals of the Congress; waste Paper, which Seems to be forgotten by Mankind, and which I myself with the rest of the fashionable World have rarely opened for 35 Years. I had a long time to Search among...
106From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 5 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
Without waiting for an Answer to my last, I will take a little more notice of a Sentiment in one your Letters. You Say you “abhor all Titles.” I will take the familiar freedom of Friendship to say I dont believe you.— Let me explain my self.— I doubt not your Varacity. but I believe you deceive yourself, and have not yet examined your own heart, and recollected the feelings of every day and...
107From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
Upon honor, now, Rush! You cannot be serious in calling me, mad, to my Face! I learned a proper Answer to you, in Bedlam in England. In one of the Visits I made to that Hospital, I took a few Turns in the Area, where Some of the most harmless of the patients are permitted to walk. One of them a decent looking Man joined me, and conversed very Sensibly but with much animation for Some time: but...
108From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 April 1808 (Adams Papers)
I have your favour of the 5th. My dear Mrs Adams bids me present her friendly regards to you and Mrs Rush and all your family, and to say to you that she has read your Letter with pleasure excepting what relates to a Gentleman from whom she had before a great Esteem, and all she can Say upon that Subject is that she wished she had not read it. In my jocular prayer to the Saint I meant No...
109From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 20 June 1808 (Adams Papers)
I give you this Title for the present only. I Shall Scarcely allow you to be a political, moral, or Christian Philosopher, till you retract Some of the Complaints Lamentations, Regrets and Penitences in your Letter of the 13th.—But more of this presently. Mr John Reed, the first Lawyer who left a great Reputation in our State, in the Administration of Governor Shirley was a Councillor, or in...
110From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 14 July 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library; letterbook draft: Library of Congress I received your Favour of May 1. with the Pamphlet for which I am obliged to you. It is well written. I hope in time that the Friends to Liberty and Humanity will get the better of a Practice that has so long disgrac’d our Nation and Religion. A few Days after I receiv’d your Packet for M. Dubourg, I had an Opportunity of...
111From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 29 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have not done with your Letter of the 19th: I care not half, so much about Red Heifer, as I do about the Taureau blanc, the white Bull of Voltaire…. “All volition the Effect of his will, operating upon mind.” My pious learned Parson Wibert, once said to me “I believe God is the Author of sin; but I would not say it, because of the dangerous tendency of it.” My Friend! read in virgil;...
112From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 December 1788 (Adams Papers)
A multiplicity of avocations have prevented me, from answering your friendly Letter of the 2 d of July, till I am almost ashamed to answer it, at all. Your Congratulations on my Arrival and kind Reception are very agreable because I know them to be Sincere. your Compliments upon my poor Volumes are consolatory, because they give me grounds to hope that they may have done Some good. it is an...
113From 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...
114From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 24 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
The Decadency of Government is obvious, through the World and it is to be feared the cause of it is the general Relaxation of family discipline. It becomes you and me Seriously to consider whether We have not contributed our Share to this general Evil. Within a few days, my Rib had the boldness to Say to me “When you write to Dr Rush, you String together Epithets and Adverbs and Substantives,...
115From 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....
116From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
Yours of the 8th is yet unanswered.—I beg your Pardon for hinting, tho in jest at my Antinovanglian Prejudice. I do believe you as free from it as you ought to be, or as I am. Dearly as I love New England, I know it, and its faults. Your Idea of Pensilvania is perfect. In a few days you will See that I have been reviewing an old Scene. In 1775, You will See how the Committee on Trade and on a...
117From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 May 1810 (Adams Papers)
What can I say to my Friend in return for his Letter of 26th of April? My Grief for the Melancholy Fate of my Friend John is only equalled by My Sympathy with his amiable Family. In the midst of Grief remember Mercy. Richard remains to you as well as another Son, and several Daughters who do honor to their Parents and their Country. Oh that John had imitated the Example of his Father, and...
118From 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...
119From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 31 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
If I were not as disinterested as a Patriot, I should answer every Line from you as soon as recd. in order to get another. Your favour of Aug. 14 is yet, to my Grief unacknowledged. Neither Colonel Duane nor any other Newspaper will follow me through the long Journey I have undertaken. I am not certain that the Patriot will have Patience and Perseverance enough. In short I shall be so tedious...
120From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
Be pleased to accept my humble Duty for the notice you have condescended to take of me. I will do my best to shake a little animation into my Master for a few days or months or possibly years. But what is the prospect before him? What can he expect? or hope? or wish? He is 77 and more: three and twenty years will make him 100. thirteen years will make him 90: three years will bring him to...
121From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
Mrs Adams Says She is willing you Should discredit Greek and Latin, because it will destroy the foundation of all the Pretensions of the Gentlemen to Superiority over the Ladies, and restore Liberty, Equality and Fraternity between the Sexes. What does Mrs Rush think of this? Hobbes calumniated the Classicks, because they filled young Mens heads with Ideas of Liberty, and excited them to...
122From 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...
123From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 12 March 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library This will be delivered to you by Dr. Ross, who is strongly recommended to me by Persons of Distinction in England, and who, after travelling over a great Part of the World, wishes to fix himself for the rest of his Life in America. You will find him a very ingenious sensible Man, and be pleas’d with his Conversation: and you will therefore excuse my requesting for...
124From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 9 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
No! You and I will not cease to discuss political questions: but We will agree to disagree , whenever We please, or rather whenever either of Us thinks he has reason for it.— I really know not what you mean by apeing the Corruptions of the British Court. I wish Congress had been called to meet at Philadelphia: but as it is now here, I can conceive of no way to get it transported thither,...
125Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 16 January 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
I had been considering for some days whether it was not time, by a letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I recieved your welcome favor of the 2 d inst. I had before heard of the heart-rending calamity you mention, & had sincerely sympathised with your afflictions. but I had not made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that condolances were but renewals of grief. yet I...
126From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 31 July 1790 (Madison Papers)
I am just favored with your Eulogium on Docr. Cullen which from the taste of a page or two promises me an elegant treat. I am glad of the opportunity of repaying it with the inclosed Report of Mr. Jefferson on a Standard of weights &c. which can not fail to please all those who set a due value on public reformations, and see the aids to be derived to them from a regard to philosophic...
127From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 September 1807 (Adams Papers)
It is rare, that a Letter of yours remains so long upon my Table unacknowledged as has that of July 9th. Crudens Apophthagm is well worthy of your Remembrance and that of your Posterity for forty times forty years more. It is the only Clue to the Labyrinth of the World, the only key to the Riddle of the Universe. “Some Crimes are punished to prove a Providence; others escape to teach a future...
128From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 18 September 1783 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library M. du Trône, who will have the Honour of presenting you this Line, is recommended to me by very respectable Persons, as a young Gentleman of excellent Character, who goes to America with Views of residing there some Years, and practising Chemistry. I beg leave to recommend him to your Protection and good Counsels, and to those Civilities you delight in showing to...
129From 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...
130From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 April 1807 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 3d is received; I am willing to allow you Philosophers your opinion of the universal gravitation of matter, if you will allow mine that there is in some souls a principle of absolute levity that buoys them irresistibly into the Clouds. Whether you call it etherial spirit or inflammable air it has an uncontroulable tendency to ascend & has no capacity to ascertain the height...
131From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 30 September 1805 (Adams Papers)
Although it is a gratification to my feelings to write to you and a much greater pleasure to receive a Letter from you: Yet I have no desire to give you any trouble, or the least Anxiety on my Account when your Answer is delayed. I know your Avocations and respect them. No Apology is ever necessary, for any pause in our Correspondence. The Journals of Congress afford little light, in...
132From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 28 June 1801 (Madison Papers)
I have received your favor of the 23d. instant, inclosing one of the 15th. from Mr. Webster. The subject of Quarantine laws in Europe which oppress our commerce, had been brought to the attention of the Executive by suggestions from a Consul in Lisbon; and some arrangements have been under consideration for diminishing if not removing the evil. The interesting remarks in your letters, will...
133From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 1 October 1792 (Madison Papers)
I thank you my dear Sir for the obliging communications in your letter of the 10th Sepr. which I have but just recd; and am pleased to find your hopes so much re-animated by the aspect of our affairs. Much if not all may depend on the choice of an independent and virtuous representation for Penna. The enemies of republicanism seem aware of this, and to be exhausting their artifices to mislead...
134From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 17 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the Eighth, is another Monument to virtue and Piety, I would rather have your Birth and descent than that of any Howard or Montmorency, any Bourbon or Austrian, any Guelph or Stewart. The Antifederalists, Democrats, Jacobins, Republicans and Frenchmen, for all these Shades of Faction, and graduations of Party united twenty Years ago, to raise a popular clamour against me, for...
135From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 6 February 1805 (Adams Papers)
It seemeth unto me that you and I ought not to die without saying good-bye or bidding each other Adieu. Pray how do you do? How does that excellent Lady Mrs: Rush; How are the young ladies? Where is my Surgeon & Lieut? How fares the lawyer? Two learned & famous Physicians, Sydenham & Rush have taught us, that the plague & the yellow fever, and all other epidemic diseases when they prevail in a...
136From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for yours of Aug. 25 and the Papers enclosed. They are very high and very warm. You pretend that you have outlived your Patriotism; but you deceive yourself. Your feelings contradict your Assertions. You can never get rid of your Amor Patriæ and attachment to your Natale solum. At your age and mine it would perhaps be better for our Tranquility if we could outlive all our public...
137From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
In your Favour of the 4th., according to my Judgment you have given up the whole Controversy. You have no Objection, you say to teaching the youth in our Schools to read the dead Languages. By reading them, no doubt you, meant that they should so read them as to understand them. and they can be read to be understood, in no Way so well as by Writing and Speaking them. I therefore regret very...
138From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 31 August 1808 (Adams Papers)
Instead of preparing for Commencement, I am answering your delicious Letter of the 24th.—But where to begin or where to end! I will follow your own order. If I had ever heard that a Pen of Tacitus had been preserved among the Reliques of Antiquity, I Should Swear you had Stolen it to draw the Character of the most conspicuous moral political and military Character Phenomenon of this Age.— I...
139From 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...
140From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 6 December 1778 (Adams Papers)
I had the Pleasure of a Letter from you, a few days before I Sailed from Boston, which I have never been able to answer. I think I find more to do here; more Difficulty to do right and at the Same Time give Satisfaction, than I did, you know where. We Suffer here extreamly for Want of Intelligence from America, as We did there, and as I fear you do still for Want of it from Europe. We have...
141From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 July 1806 (Adams Papers)
I have two of your Letters to acknowledge, at once. The Treatise on the Spleen I have read, and been entertained by it, perhaps more than I should have been if I had been better acquainted with the sciences on which it depends. Your medical Speculations are to me as entertaining as Romances of which I am a great lover: but they are as much in request among the learned of your Profession: so...
142From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 30 June 1778 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Parke-Bernet sale catalogue, February 27–28, 1974, item 265. The Bearer M. Tessier, is well recommended to me as a Person of good Character and an excellent Surgeon, who purposes to go to America and offer his Services in our Armies. Having no Orders to send Surgeons thither, I could give him no kind of Encouragement by Promises of Employment or otherways. He therefore goes of...
143From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
Say what you will, that Man is in a poor case who is reduced to the necessity of looking to Posterity for Justice or Charity; and he who is obliged to fly to Newgate and to Cobbet for consolation, is in a more forlorn Situation Still. Col. P. is entertaing and instructing the Public by a new series of addresses to the People, the fourth number of which I read in Dr Parks Repertory last night,...
144From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 15 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have read D r Rush, de moribus Germanorum, with pleasure. As I am a great lover of paradoxes, when defended with ingenuity, I have read also the Phillippic against Latin and Greek, with some amusement: but my reverence for those Languages and the inestimable treasures hoarded up in them is not abated. Jean Jaques Roussseau’s phillippic against the arts and sciences amused informed and...
145From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 20th., My dear Friend, has filled my Eyes with Tears,—and, indurated Stoick as I am, my heart with Sensations unutterable by my Tongue or Pen. Not the Feelings of Vanity, but the overwhelming Sense of my own Unworthiness of Such a Panegyrick from Such a Friend. Like Louis the 16 I Said to myself Qu’est ce, que J’ay fait pour le meriter. Have I not been employed in Mischief...
146From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 September 1808 (Adams Papers)
I will not Stand upon Ceremonies, with you, and wait for the Return of a Visit, or an Answer to my last Letter. Whatever proportion of Loyalty to an established Dinasty of Kings, or whatever taint of catholic Superstition there may be in the present Sensations of the Spanish People, I revere the Mixture of pure Patri or however their Conduct may have been excited by British or Austrian Gold, I...
147From John Jay to Benjamin Rush, 23 January 1789 (Jay Papers)
Your Recommendation adds to increases the number of considerations which induce me to wish well to D r . Rodgers, for your Judgment relative to him as a Man and as a Physician cannot fail to have great Influence and will cooperate with my Regard for his worthy father to do him friendly offices. It will I assure you give me pleasure to cultivate the ^an^ acquaintance with your amiable friend M...
148From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 14 October 1784 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Haverford College The Chevr. Castiglioni, who will deliver you this Line, is an Italian Gentleman of Character and Family, from Milan. He proposes a Tour thro’ all our States. I beg leave to recommend him to your Civilities, and that you would introduce him to the Acquaintance of such of our Society as have a Tincture of Natural History & Botany in which he is particularly curious. With...
149From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 10 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
your Dream is out, and the Passage you read in the History that Richard was reading is come to pass: notwithstanding you said you believed no History but the Bible. Mr Mediator! You have wrought Wonders! You have made Peace between Powers that never were at War! You have reconciled Friends that never were at Enmity! You have brought again Babylon and Carthage long Since into Existen...
150From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 20 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
Answer or rather acknowledge my Letters by half a dozen at a time. I have a number of Anecdotes to write you, more for the sake of having them copied by my Females and recorded in my Letter Book, than for any valuable Use to you, tho they may amuse You. On Wednesday 13th. of this month I dined with our late Lt. Governor Gray, in Company with Vice President Gerry, General Boyd, Commodore Rogers...