1To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 8 October 1810 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you a small publication which contains an account of a new auxillary or palliative remedy for madness. It will serve perhaps be acceptable to some of your medical friends. You will I have no doubt amuse yourself and your fire side by wishing that it could be applied for the relief of napoleon,—George the third, and all the mad federalists & democrats in our country.— From Dear Sir /...
2To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 6 July 1811 (Adams Papers)
Yrs. of June 21st. came safe to hand. I shall reply to it give you the echo of it in a few days. Not knowing to whom it is proper to send the enclosed packet from Lord Bircham, I have taken the liberty to address it to you. It contains (I suppose) a curious, heterogeneous oration by his Lordship delivered before some Americans in Edingh: on the Anniverrsary of General Washington’s birth day.—...
3To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 20 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
Wealth, respect and friendship! from your grateful and affectionate friend. War with the “great hammer of the whole earth” to use the words of which the prophet Jeremiah applied to the king of Babylon, is now the order of the day in Philada.— MHi : Adams Papers.
4To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 5 July 1810 (Adams Papers)
In Contemplating the facility with which our Once chaste & vi mistress “American liberty” admits embraces of some of the most profligate and unprincipled men in our Country, I feel disposed to address her in the Words of the Song. “I loved thee! beautiful and kind, And plighted an eternal vow, So altered are your face and mind, ’Twere perjury to love thee, now. ” MHi : Adams Papers.
5To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 30 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
“Great men (says Lord Bacon) have neither Ancestors nor posterity.” This, you and I know is not the case with Writers. The enclosed pamphflett pamphflet is a proof that the passion for pen, ink and paper has descended in my family. It is written by my son Richard, who requests you will do him the honor to accept of a copy of it. Health, respect & friendship from / ever yours MHi : Adams Papers.
6To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 5 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
“salus, honor et bonus Appetitus.” to use the Words of Molière— from Dear sir ever / Yrs MHi : Adams Papers.
7To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 15 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
“Arma, Cestusque”, parmamque “repono,” upon the offensive subject of one of my late letters to you.— I sincerely rejoice in the successful issue of the operation upon Mrs Smith’s breast. I would reciprocate your expressions of pleasure upon the appearances of a recussitation of the Spirit of 177 4 at Washington did I believe they would terminate in any thing but in upon Speeches, Embassies...
8To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 25 August 1809 (Adams Papers)
I enclose you four numbers of Duane’s paper. They contain a good deal of matter relative to the dispute between our Country & great Britain. I have not read a column of it, but it excites general attention in our city, and of course is probably worth the notice of a Man who has not, like myself, outlived his patriotism. My wife, Uncle Mr Boudinot and his daughter it is said, have lately paid a...
9To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 12 June 1810 (Adams Papers)
Every moment of Amusement that I am able to afford you, is an Addition to my happiness, for which reason I send you from time to time all such numbers of Duanes papers as contain any new Speculations upon the state of our Country.—The enclosed, is I suppose of that nature, for I have read its title only. Have you seen Sillimans travels int o England, Scotland & Holland? They are gener ally...
10To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 March 1809 (Adams Papers)
When a young man I read Sidney upon government. In one of his Chapters, he agitates the following question—“Whether A civil War, or slavery be the greatest evil” and decides in favor of the Latter. In ing and revolving that Subject in my mind, I have been led to suppose there are evils more afflicting and injurious to a Country than a foreign War. The principal evil of War is death. Now Vice I...
11To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 21 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of August 1st is still unanswered. It is full of truth, and useful information and reflections. I regret that my son did not state the impressment of seamen being in 1807 an Act of the British Government. It would have obviated One of the Objections to the War by the Minority in Congress. Our Country is divided into two great parties called Fedarists and Democrats. The former are...
12To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 6 September 1809 (Adams Papers)
Although for many years past I have read nothing, but books upon medicine on week days, & upon Religion on Sundays, and have expected to continue to do so as long as I lived, yet you have almost persuaded me to read Fox’s history of James the Second. Your praise of it is enough for me, for I know how much your habits of reading and thinking qualify you to judge of the merit of books that...
13To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 19 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your two letters of yesterday & to day have made me serious. They discover a profound knowledge of times past, present & to come. I have directed one of my daughters to copy two sentences from your letter of this day to be sent to my son Richard at Washington who, poor fellow! is swamped in a beleif of the infallibility and perpetuity of the “powers that are”. I know he reveres your judgment....
14To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 4 March 1811 (Adams Papers)
Herewith th r ough the politeness of Mr Quincy you will receive the Coins for your son. I regret that some of them are not recently coined. None such have been issued lately from the mint. Your Son Thomas’s friend Mr Erving has paid me for them. Permit me to Congratulate you upon your Son John’s honourable Appointment to a Seat upon the bench of the United States. It gives great Satisfaction...
15To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 28 June 1811 (Adams Papers)
Act 1. Scene 2nd. Mr Adams alone in his Study. Enter B Rush. A: Aye Rush is that you? What is that paper you hold in your hand? R A Summary view of the physical, moral and immoral effects of certain hymns upon the body & mind of man & upon his Condition in Society. Permit me Sir to request your Acceptance of it. A What must I do with it? R: Send it to the parson of your parish, but if he “too...
16To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 17 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I began a long & confidential letter to you two weeks ago upon the Subject of one of your late letters, but an unusual pressure of business has prevented my finishing it. Judge of my the nature & extent of my engagements, when I add, that after lecturing twice, and visiting my normal number of patients this day, and entertaining some of my pupils at tea, I have since written six Answers to...
17To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 16 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
Mr Jefferson and I exchange letters Once in six, nine or twelve Months. This day I received a few lines from him in which he introduces your Name in the following Words. After mentioning the Visit paid to you by his two neighbours—the Messrs Coles last summer he adds, “Among Other things he [Mr Adams] adverted to the unprincipled licenciousness of the press against myself—adding— I always...
18To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 26 January 1813 (Adams Papers)
I return you Col Smiths & Dr Waterhouse’s letters The former is replete with good Sense. Alas! the evils of party Spirit! It is a greater Curse to our country than our War with Great Britain. It sacrifices every to itself . Unless appointements are made hereafter with a more wise and impartial hand, our Union cannot last. I am afraid the app situation in the medical department of the Army...
19To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, January 1810 (Adams Papers)
Accept of my thanks for your last letter.—I enclose you a few numbers of the Aurora. Shall we descend in a Calm or a storm to the our Graves? We are told your son is gone to Petersburg to put a torch to the flame of War, and that we are to be Allies of France and of all the powers on the Baltic in it. Mr Jackson has just left our city. He has been visited & entertained by Some of our first...
20To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 14 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
You have so far outdreamed me in your last letter, that I shall be afraid hereafter to let my imagination loose in that Mode of exposing folly and Vice.—My whole family was delighted in contemplating you upon your rostrum in the Garden of Versailles, and in witnessing the effects of your Speech upon your hairy, featherd and scaly Audience. Let it not be said “De republica America fabula...
21To 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...
22To 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...
23To 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 &...
24To 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...
25To 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...
26To 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...
27To 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...
28To 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...
29To 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 &...
30To 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 /...
31To 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...
32To 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...
33To 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...
34To 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...
35To 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 &...
36To 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...
37To 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...
38To 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....
39To 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...
40To 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...
41To 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...
42To 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...
43To 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...
44To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
Will you bear to read a letter that has nothing in it About politicks or War?—I will, without waiting for an answer to this question, trespass upon your patience by writing you one upon Another Subject. I was called on Saturday last to visit a patient About nine miles from Philadelphia. Being a holiday, I took my youngest son with me to drive me instead of my black Servant. After visiting my...
45To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 20 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
I shall begin my letter by replying to your daughters. I prefer giving my Opinion & Advice in you her Case in this way. You and Mrs Adams may communicate it gradually and in such a manner as will be least apt to distress and alarm her. After the experience of more than 50 years in cases similar to hers, I must protest agst: all local applications, and internal medicines for her relief. They...
46To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 19 December 1812 (Adams Papers)
Better and better! Dream on my venerable friend!—In one of the King of Prussias political letters to Voltaire written immediately after reading his Henriade, he tells him that he had dreamed that he had visited Elysium where he saw Homer and Virgil walking with dejected countenances. They were on their Way, they said, upon asking them what was the matter, to Minos, to ask permission to return...
47To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 17 October 1809 (Adams Papers)
Who were the ancestors and posterity of Homer, Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle? who were the ancestors and posterity of Cicero, Horace and Virgil? Were any of them philosophers, orators or poets? who were the ancestors and posterity of Walsingham Sully, Malborough and Wolfe? Were any of them statesmen generals, or heroes? I do not ask whether they were descended from gentlemen, or whether...
48To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 8 February 1813 (Adams Papers)
It was wholly unnecessary to bring forward the respectable testimony of Mr Langdon in order to rectify the mistake into which Capt Barrys communication & Capt P Jones, journal had led me. You do me great injustice in supposing I possess a single Pennsylvania, or anti new England prejudice.—I know my native state too well. It is a great exchange filled with men of all nations who feel no...
49To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 8 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
Mr Denny is the principal writer in the portfolio. He is precluded from introducing politicks into it by its proprietor Mr Sam Bradford, but—not from traducing the works of Whig, and American Authors. One of his Coajutors is a Dr Chapman a former pupil of mine and who owes me many—very many Obligations. He is the son of a Virginia Tory. After failing in getting into business, and suspecting...
50To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, April 1812 (Adams Papers)
In giving the history of the Controversies in which I was engaged in the military hospitals, and from which I suffered Abuse, and incurred the lasting resentment of the Character you allow you in your last letter, I neglected to mention in addition to the Change which my resignation produced in the expenses and Order of the military hospitals, that my Zeal and Sufferings in behalf of the sick...