1From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 26 June 1776 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : National Archives I have just received the enclos’d Letters by the Chevalier Kermorvan. By the Conversation I have had with him he appears to me skilful in his Profession. I hope in a few days to be strong enough to come to town and attend my Duty in Congress. In the mean time, I could wish you to introduce the Gentleman where it may be proper, and that you would translate the Passage...
2From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 4 April 1783 (Franklin Papers)
LS : Yale University Library I take the Liberty of introducing to your Acquaintance the Bearer Mr. Redford, because I am persuaded that I shall therein do you a Pleasure. His Character you will find in an enclos’d Letter to me from Dr. Price. I hope his Reception in our Country will be such as to make it agreable to him and induce him to settle among us; as from the short Acquaintance I have...
3From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 22 March 1768 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Dartmouth College Library It has been a great Pleasure to me to hear occasionally from others, that you were closely engag’d in your Studies, and distinguishing yourself by the Progress you made in them. I promise my self that you will return with such a Stock of useful Knowledge as will render you an Ornament to your Country; and that I shall have no reason to regret the Appearance of...
4From 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...
5From 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...
6From 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...
7From 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...
8From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 7 January 1775 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia This letter of introduction is the initial appearance in Franklin’s correspondence of a young man who later became important to him, first as his editor and then as Shelburne’s emissary during the peace negotiations of 1782. Benjamin Vaughan (1751–1835) was the eldest son of Samuel Vaughan, a wealthy English merchant with interests in...
9From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 17 June 1778 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Mrs. Elizabeth Mifflin Boyd, Chestnut Hill, Pa. (1955); AL (draft): Library of Congress This will be delivered to you by Mr. Archer, a young Gentleman of excellent Character, whose Zeal for the Cause of Liberty, and strong Desire of being serviceable to it and to our Country, with those Qualities of Mind and Acquirements that lay the best Foundation for his really becoming so, will I am...
10From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 22 August 1772 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library; letterbook draft: American Philosophical Society I am favoured with yours of June 24. and shall as it is my Duty endeavour to obtain the Royal Assent to every Act passed by our Assembly; and to that you recommend, the more particularly as I think it reasonable in itself, and connected with Liberty of Conscience a Fundamental of our Constitution. But I am doubtful...
11From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 26 December 1783 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from The Pennsylvania Packet, And General Advertiser, June 29, 1784; copy: Bibliothèque de Genève I do not know who is at present secretary of our philosophical society, and therefore I address to you, who read French, a book lately published here, which gives an account of one of the most extraordinary discoveries that this age has produced, by which men are enabled to rise in the...
12From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 14 February 1773 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : University of Pennsylvania Library; letterbook draft: Library of Congress In a Box to Mr. Bache I send you a Bundle of the Ephemerides; they came but lately to hand with Duplicates for me; tho’ it appears by my Letter that they were sent from Paris last May was twelvemonth. Where they have been all this time I have not learnt. I send you also one of Dr. Priestly’s Pamphlets, containing a...
13From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 3 May 1790 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 3 May 1790. Offered for sale in the Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 468, May 1943.
14From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 18 March 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved last night your friendly letter of the 12th. which shall be answered the first practicable moment. in the mean time I send you Latude which I happen to have here. affectionate salutations. RC (Swann Auction Catalogue, sale 2058, New York, 2005); address clipped: “Doctr. Benjamin [Rush]”; franked and postmarked.
15Edmund Randolph to Benjamin Rush, 24 June 1794 (Washington Papers)
26 June 1794. Encloses Heinrich Matthias Marcard’s letter to GW of 5 Aug. 1793, which GW gave to Randolph "with a request that I should answer it." As Marcard’s letter takes "distinguished notice" of Rush and "opens the way for some other pen, than an official one," to respond, Randolph asks Rush to reply to the letter. LB , DNA : RG 59, Domestic Letters. Rush wrote Randolph on 27 June that he...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 7 August 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to Dr. Rush and will be happy if he can take a dinner with him in the country with a small party of friends on Friday at three aclock.—He presumes Dr. Rush knows that his house is on this side the river 3, or 400 yds. below Grey’s ferry. RC (J. William Middendorf, Jr., Baltimore, 1949); addressed: “Dr. Rush.” Not recorded in SJL .
17From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 22 July 1774 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library; letterbook draft: American Philosophical Society I received your Favour of May 14. with the very ingenious Oration you deliver’d at the Society, for which I thank you. The Bookseller you had likewise sent it to (Mr. Dilly) being desirous of Dr. Huck’s Opinion and mine as to its Publication, we had, after separately reading it, a little Consultation upon it; the...
18From Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Rush, 25 July 1774 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I have already written to you as a Friend by this Conveyance. I now write to you as one of the Secretaries of our Philosophical Society, who understands French, to request your Attention to the enclos’d Papers, and that you would translate them for the Use of the Society. In this Ship, Capt. Falconer, I send a Box, containing a Number of Presents for the...
19From George Washington to Benjamin Rush, 10 May 1788 (Washington Papers)
Your favour of the 26th ulto together with the seeds of the manget werzel and the Pamphlet respecting the cultivation and use of this valuable plant, came safe and claims my particular acknowledgments. I thank you for both, and shall endeavor to propogate the former with care and attention. Mrs Washington Joins me in compliments to Mrs Rush. I am Sir &c. LB , DLC:GW . The copyist should have...
20From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, [3 May 1790] (Madison Papers)
… Your hint as to addresses from the H. of Rep. to the National Assembly was perfectly new. I am far from thinking that such a measure might not be formed as [to] do credit to this Country and good to both…. Printed extract (Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 468, “The Alexander Biddle Papers” [1943], pt. 1, item 151). See PJM Robert J. Brugger et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of...
21From 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...
22From 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.”
23From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 23 December 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 23 December 1801, Washington. Offered for sale in Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 484, “The Alexander Biddle Papers” (1943), pt. 2, item 200, which notes that the one-page letter “regards Dr. Rush’s son Richard who desired to visit Europe in the capacity of a private secretary to one of the American Ministers. Informs him that he will place the matter before the President.”
24From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 5 July 1790 (Madison Papers)
Permit me to introduce to you the Bearer Count Andreani a young nobleman from Milan, who after traversing Europe with a philosophical curiosity, is prompted by the same motive to visit America. You will find him well informed on many subjects, particularly on mineralogy and chemistry, and not more recommended to your esteem by his science, than he is by his agreeable manners to your...
25From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Rush, [13 August 1792] (Hamilton Papers)
[ Treasury Department, August 13, 1792. The dealer’s catalogue description of this letter reads: “Respecting proposed method for obtaining fresh water from salt water.” Letter not found. ] ALS , sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., May 24, 1943, Lot 117. Rush, who had been a member of the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, was a prominent Philadelphia physician and philanthropist. He was...
26From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 February 1790 (Adams Papers)
I cannot give up my dear Latin and Greek although Fortune has never permitted me to enjoy so much of them as I wished.— I dont love you the less however for your Indifference or even Opposition to them. Pray do you carry your Theory so far as to wish to exclude French Italian, Spanish and Tudesque?— I begun to fear that your multiplied phisical and other Engagements had made You forget me— But...
27Thomas 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...
28Thomas 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 &...
29From 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...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1808 (Jefferson Papers)
This will be delivered you by my grandson Th Jefferson Randolph, who goes to Philadelphia to attend a course of lectures in Natural history Anatomy & Botany. he will also attend the lecturer in Surgery, but as an amateur, and with a view to the care of a family when he shall have one, in a country situation where we have no surgeons & want them every day. he may then recollect and apply what...