31To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 18 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
All my family rejoice with yours in the happy issue of the operation performed upon Mrs Smiths breast. The enclosed letter is intended as an answer to her’s to me, and to serve the further purpose of exciting in her a belief that her Cure will be radical & durable. I consider her as rescued from a premature grave. Since my last letter to you it has pleased God to make all my family very happy...
32To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1812 (Adams Papers)
My printer and my patients have kept me So busy for some Weeks past that I have fallen in Arrears to all my Correspondents. I Sit down with pleasure to discharge the first debt of that kind to my old friend of 1774. In my publication upon the diseases of the mind I have carefully avoided the Subject of the possessions in the New testament, also the Controversy about the nature of the mind. I...
33To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 26 April 1810 (Adams Papers)
In One of my letters written some time ago, I informed you that my eldest son had killed a brother officer and a friend in a duel at New Orleans. The distress and remorse which followed this event deprived him of his reason, and threw him into the marine hospital where he has been nearly ever since the duel. In the month of Feby: last he arrived in Philada in a state of deep melancholy &...
34To James Madison from Benjamin Rush, 19 March 1813 (Madison Papers)
Permit me to intrude a few moments upon your time, while I address you upon a Subject interesting to humanity. A certain Peter Graham a Scotsman came into this Country about ten years ago. In the month of November 1810 he gave notice to the proper Office that he intended in the time appointed by law to become a Citizen of the United States. He is now married to the daughter of an American...
35To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 14 June 1809 (Adams Papers)
My son Richard who has been a customer for the Aurora ever since he lived at the Jersey College, after reading your last letter, brought the enclosed papers from his office, and requested me to forward them to you. I have lately met with an account of the brain of Voltaire being preserved by a Lady in a France, and showed to her friends as an object of affection and adoration. The author of...
36To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 6 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
You may tell your friend Mr Cranch that I included my Correspondent among the men who were so prominent in madness as to undertake the Cure of the madness of mankind by Appeals to their Reason. I have been a fellow labourer with you in this irrational business. But we will console ourselves with the comfortable reflection that we have aimed well. Were we to live our lives over again, and...
37To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 15 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
I am now Attending a daughter of Mr Mathew Careys. In One of my Visits to her, I mentioned your Opinions to him upon the Subjects of a Navy, and your documents upon the Subject of its Origin in the United States. He requested a Sight and Copies of your letters containing those Opinions & documents for a publication which he expects Shortly to issue from his press. I said I could not comply...
38To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 10 April 1813 (Adams Papers)
I put the papers you sent me into the hands of Mr Carey. Some of them will be published in an Appendix to his history of the rise, and progress of the American Navy.—They shall all be returned to you in a few days.— I rejoice with you in the 5th: Naval Victory of our Country. The year 1812 will I hope be immortal in the history of this World for having given the first Check to the overgrown...
39To James Madison from Benjamin Rush, 13 March 1809 (Madison Papers)
Retired as I live from the political World, and devoted as I am Obliged to be to the duties of my profession, I have not been an indifferent Spectator of the events Which have elevated you to the Chair of the United States. Permit me to express, not only the pleasure I feel in common with a great majority of your fellow Citizens, but to unite my Congratulations with those of your early and...
40To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 11 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
Alas! What a difference between your last, and former letters!—Instead of being charmed with the effusions of your vigorous highly cultivated Understanding and sportive imagination, your letter of the 2nd of Novr contains nothing but accounts of “graves & tombs” and “dust converted into paper,” and of “sorrows written with rainy eyes upon the bosom of the earth.”—It affected me in the most...
41To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 5 May 1809 (Adams Papers)
I am much pleased with the Specimen you have given of the Use of your Wings upon a certain Subject in your last letter. Your publications in the newspapers show still further how important to the public, to posterity, and to your family honor are the words you have preserved of your political life. Your defence of the rights of our Seamen is much admired. It discovers with the Experience &...
42Benjamin Rush to Thomas Jefferson, 3 [March] 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
In a letter which I received a few days ago from M r Adams , he informs with a kind of exultation , that After a correspondence of five or six & thirty years had been interrupted by various Causes, it had again be been renewed, and that four letters had passed between you & himself. him . In speaking of your letters he says “they are written with all the elegance, purity and Sweetness of Style...
43To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 20 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
My son Ben sent me a quarter Cask of Old muscat Wine as a present from the Isle of Samos. The Vessel on board of which it was sent, to avoid Capture put into Boston where her Cargo is to be sold. I have requested Messrs Walley & Foster merchants of Boston to deliver it to your Order free of all Costs. I beg your Acceptance of it as a small Mark of the gratitude and friendship of Dear Sir /...
44To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 26 July 1809 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you three numbers of Duane’s papers that you may see in what manner the late news from St James’s has operated upon one Class of our Citizens. Your Communications Continue to excite Attention. A general wish prevails among those who read them, that they may be preserved & perpetuated in the form of a pamphlet, or of a larger Work. My Wife and youngest daughter left me on the 8th of...
45To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 21 December 1810 (Adams Papers)
We read of Hurricane Months in the West Indies. Men of business are exposed to them no less than the West India islands. I am now in the height of Mine. For a few minutes only, I have torn my eyes from the tumultuous Scenes that surround me & turned them towards Woolaston in Massachusets. I see you in your Arm Chair—surrounded by your family. How do you do? And you! good madam—the faithful...
46To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 1 February 1810 (Adams Papers)
With this letter you will receive a bundle of Auroras, and another of the same size by the post of the next day—They are filled very much of late with our state politicks, but you will find many Columns still filled with complaints against Great Britain—so my son Richard tells me, for I assure you I have not read a Column in any one of them these six months. My wife asked me a few days ago...
47To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 11 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
I will say of the Wine which you have done me the favor to accept, What you said to me when I called to thank you for the Appointment you gave me in the Mint. “You have not more pleasure in receiving it, than I had in giving it to a faithful Old revolutionary Whig.” I hope the wine is of a good quality, and that it will assist the influence of the present times invigorating your body and Mind...
48To James Madison from Benjamin Rush, 29 October 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have the honor to send you herewith the 4th report of the directors of the African institution in London and an adjudication of an appeal connected with the African trade, both of which appear to contain matter highly interesting to the National honor of the United States. Can nothing be done to wipe away the Stain that has been brought upon our moral and national character by the infamous...
49To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 16 March 1813 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed letter to Dr Waterhouse contains the Welcome intelligence that his son has passed his examinations for a degree in our University with great honor, and that he will in a few weeks be created Doctor of Medicine. The documents you sent me relative to the Origins of the American Navy are now in the hands of Mr Carey who is heartily disposed to do ample justice to the early, uniform &...
50Benjamin Rush to Thomas Jefferson, 11 February 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
Few eforts of the Acts of my life have given me more pleasure than the one you are pleased to acknowledge in your last letter . I wish in your reply to M r Adams’s letter you had given him the echo of his Communications to you respecting his daughter M rs Smith and her husband
51To James Madison from Benjamin Rush, 9 December 1810 (Madison Papers)
I have great pleasure in informing you that the operation I mentioned in my letter of Friday was this day performed upon your nephew, and with the happiest result. I refer you to Dr Physick’s letter for the particulars of it. The only design of this hasty note is [to] comply with my promise, and to inform you that I shall this evening at the request of your nephew communicate the news of the...
52To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 14 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
I once met Mr Sawbridge at the house of his Sister Mrs McCaulay in London. In speaking of some of the public men who had for a number of years conducted the Affairs of the British Nation, he said “the only difference between the Duke of New Castle, and the Earl of Chatham was the former in thier Choice of Officers to execute thier plans, was—the former preferred a grave fool—the latter a...
53Benjamin Rush to Thomas Jefferson, 3 May 1809 (Jefferson Papers)
Though late, I hope I am not among the last of your friends in congratulating you upon your escape from the high and dangerous appointment which your Country (to use the words of Lord Chesterfield ) inflicted upon you during the last eight years of your life.—Methinks I see you renewing your Acquaintance with your philosophical instruments, and with the friends of your Youth in your library —...
54To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 4 February 1811 (Adams Papers)
All the Coins are in readiness; and Subject to your order. At present no Opportunity of sending them to Petersburg offers from our city. Shall I send them to you by the post, put up in such a manner as to be mistaken for a small book? or will you request any one of your friends now in Congress to call for them on his way to massachussets next month? I have no Objection to the reading the dead...
55To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 27 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
Dont complain of my Wife. You have not a better friend, nor a great Admirer in the United States. She devours your letters. The reflection you have noticed, was aimed, not at the Subjects, but at the frequency of our letters. It was uttered with an Air of pleasantry, such as you have Often advised in your excellent Mr. Adams. The Anecdote I Alluded to respecting the fast day is as follows....
56To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 5 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
I return you the Copies of your letters to the Messrs Smith and thier Answers, with my Advice (as you have done me the honor to ask it) by no means to publish them . “Scandal (Dr Witherspoon used to say) will die sooner than you can kill it.” I can subscribe to the truth of this assertion of our Old Scotch Sachem from my own experience. Not a paragraph or even a line did I ever publish in...
57To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 20 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
The time cannot be very distant when you and I must both sleep with our fathers. The distinguished figure you have made in life, and the high offices you have filled, will render your removal from the world, an object of universal Attention. Suppose you avail yourself while in health, of the sensibility of which awaits the public mind to your character soon after your death, by leaving behind...
58To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 4 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
Herewith you will receive a copy of my medical Inquiries and Observations upon the diseases of the mind. PS My bookseller has disappointed me in not sending me a Copy of my book which I intended for you. It shall follow this letter in a day or two.—I shall wait with solitude to receive your Opinion of them. They are in general accommodated the to the “Common Science” of Gentlemen of all...
59To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 4 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
I have no objection to your knowing that by the “great hammer of the earth” I meant Napoleon. George the 3rd: I believe to be the great hammer of the ocean. I consider them both as the scourges of the human race, and in the language of the souls under the altar, I feel disposed to cry day and night,—“how long—how long” O! Lord wilt thou suffer them to trample upon the rights of individuals and...
60To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 22 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
The letter from Col: Smith to which you have alluded was not received with yours of this day. Was it withheld,? or was it lost by the way?—I was much pleased in seeing his Name upon record among the Successful Candidates for a Seat in Congress from the state of New York. The Air, the Society, and the great Objects which will occupy his mind in Washington will recussitate him, and Show his...