1From 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.
2From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 October 1812 (Adams Papers)
If you had investigated the Question, concerning Possessions or that about matter and Spirit, in your Treatise on the Diseases of the Mind it could have been only, by way of digressions like Swifts digressions concerning Criticks. his digression of the modern kind, his digression in praise of digressions his digression concerning Madness, in the Tale of the Tub: which although they are all...
3From 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.
4From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
Ask the great Lady, you quoted in your last, whether when I pray for the health of Philadelphia, and that no wasting Sickness may prevail there, I make a Girlish or a boying compliment to Doctor Rush? The next paragraph, requires a graver answer. But a Volume would not suffice. Take a hint.—I have lived among Infidel Philosophers for more than half a Century, and been engaged in continual...
5From 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...
6From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 17 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 19 of March deserves a particular consideration and answer, which I have not, till now, been able, from a multitude of avocations some frivolous yet indispensable, others of more consequence, to give it. The Influence which you Suppose I may have as President of the Senate, will be found to be very little, if any at all. you Say the Eastern States must not be Suspected: but...
7From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 February 1807 (Adams Papers)
You make me very happy when you Say, that you agree with me upon the Subject of the Perfectibility of Man. Let every Man endeavor to amend and improve one and We Shall find ourselves in the right Road to all the Perfection We are capable of: but this rule Should by no means exclude our utmost exertions to amend and improve others, and in every Way and by all means in our Power to ameliorate...
8Thomas 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...
9From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. your favour of the 26th. of Decr. You mention Cobbet. have you read Mr Randolphs Speech? Was there any Thing in Cobbets Writings more envious than that Speech? Now I assure you upon my honour and the Faith of the Friendship between Us; that I never Saw the Face of that Cobbet; that I should not know him if I met him in my Porridge Dish; that I never wrote one Word in his Paper and...
10From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 16 September 1810 (Adams Papers)
I am much obliged by your favour of the 8th. Oh how I wish, I had time to write, and you Patience to read The Anecdots I could dictate concerning “Chapmans” in New England! all “able bodied Men.” I deceived you a little by an Inference of my own from what The Edinborough Reviewers had written. I know not that they have mentioned you by Name or your Works by their Titles: but I read in them “If...
11From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 26 March 1806 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the fifteenth is received. In a cornfield, which I had manured with seaweed and Marsh mud, in a compost with other materials, I found, last fall, two plants of an uncommon Appearance which I Suspected to be the Kali: because—they resembled the descriptions of it which I had read in the Dictionary of natural History and in the Œconomical Dictionary, both of which quote Monsieur...
12From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, [17] February 1790 (Adams Papers)
I had heard, before I rec d your Letter of the 12 th , of your new Engagements in the Colledge added to your extensive Practice and other virtuous Pursuits: and therefore was at no loss to account for your long Silence. I have no Pretensions to the Merit of your manly and successful opposition to the Constitution of Pensilvania: but I am very willing to be responsible for. any Consequences of...
13From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
Omnicient Jackson Said to me, at his own Table and repeated it at mine in London, that Chatham flattered the Vanity of The Nation and gratified their Passion for War. but that he was a pernicious Minister. David Hartley Said to me often; (it was a favourite Observation with him;) that Chatham was a national Minister, but not a wise Minister. So far, I am out of your debt. I have given you a...
14Thomas 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 &...
15From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
Be pleased to accept my cordial congratulations on the felicity of your Family in the arrival of your Son and Daughter from Europe. The Doctor will be the Staff of your Age and you will be the Guide of his youth. The Daughter and her Infants will be the delights of her Mother as well as her Father. For myself, clothed as I am in the Sable, I may without repining, acknowledge the Seventy Sixth...
16From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 September 1779 (Adams Papers)
I had the Pleasure of yours of August 19, by the last Post, and thank you for your kind Congratulations on my Return. You judge right, when you Suppose, that I cannot be idle, but my Industry will probably be directed, in a different manner, in future. My Principles are not in Fashion. I may be more usefull here, as you observe, than in the Cabinet of Louis the 16. But let me tell you, that...
17From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of April 13, soars above the visible diurnal Sphære.— I own to you that avarice Ambition the Love of Fame &c are all mysterious Passions. They are the greatest Absurdities, Delusions and Follies that can be imagined, if in this Life only We had hope. In the Boat on our Return from Point no Point, the principal Topick of Conversation was Independence. — an intercepted Letter early...
18From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 June 1806 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the tenth, like all others from your pen, notwithstanding all your apologies, was a cordial to my Spirit. I must confess to you, that the data, upon which you reason from the Prophecies concerning the future amelioration of the condition of mankind, are too obscure and uncertain, to authorize us to build any System upon them for the conduct of Nations—It is well to understand as...
19From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 7 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
I am in great perplexity, Every day something Occurs to puzzle my feeble intellect. To whom can I apply for instruction so properly as to you, who are so great a Master: A Nation of Bees in the wilderness in a state of nature, has sagacity enough, to wander about till, they find a hollow tree in which they can be screen’d and sheltered both from the scorching beams of the sun in a summer which...
20From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 December 1808 (Adams Papers)
I know not whether I shall make you smile or weep, excite your ridicule or pity or contempt when I reveal to you the mistery of my long delay to answer your last Letters. But before I unriddle that unusual negligence, I must say a few words concerning our Friend Whartons Attachment to Prophecies and his habit of applying them to passing events. I have no objection to the Study, but I am aware...
21From 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...
22From 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...
23From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 July 1808 (Adams Papers)
Handsome Bradford, of thy City, allarmed me, the other day at our Athenaeum in Boston, by telling me, that Dr Rushes Business had amazingly encreased and was encreasing. Knowing thine Ardor in thy Profession, I was apprehensive that thy Zeal for the Health of the Sick would Soon eat thee Up, and consequently that thine Ether would escape from this Colluvies of Humanity to the Regions of...
24From Abigail Amelia Adams Smith to Benjamin Rush, 12 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
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...
25From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 November 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your Volume will not produce Answers or Examinations or reflections: but probably Reproaches, vilifications and Lies and Slanders enough. For there are no greater Liars than Men of Science and Letters Taste and Sense. Try His Observation in the civil political ecclesiastical or rather sacerdotal and phylosophical History of Chaldeans Egyptians, Jews Greeks Romans Zingisians Chinese,...
26From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 7 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
If I were as rich as Mr Stephen Gerard or Mr William Gray, I would publish and proclaim offers and promises of Rewards in Gold and Silver, in money and medals, for the best Essays on Several Subjects, Some of which I will now hint without any regard to arrangement. 1. 100 Dollars or Eagles if I could afford them, and a Gold Medal for the best History of our American Navy and its Exploits as...
27From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, September 1807 (Adams Papers)
I want to write an Essay.—Whom Shall I choose for a Model?—Plutarch, old Montaigne, Lord Bacon, Addison, Johnson, or Franklin? The last, if he had devoted his Life to the Study might have equalled Montaine in Essays or La Fontaine in Fables: for he was fitter more fitted for either or both than to conduct a Nation like Prony or Colbert. I am however too round about, to imitate the close,...
28From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
If I could be considered as a Friend to the Family I should Advise the Grand Children of Dr Franklin to divide the Real Estate among them in their several proportions rather than to sell it in order to divide the Money. Not a Liver or a Stiver was ever committed to Dr Franklin or any other Minister of The United States in Europe, “to be employed, in Secret Services to his Country.” The Million...
29Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 5 December 1811 (Jefferson Papers)
While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business or society that I can only write on matters of strong urgency. here I have leisure, as I have every where the disposition to think of my friends. I recur therefore to the subject of your kind letters relating to mr Adams and myself, which a late occurrence has again presented to me. I communicated to you the correspondence which had parted...
30From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 3 April 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Th: Jefferson being engaged in packing his books will thank Dr. Rush for the volumes lent him if he had done with them. He presents him his best compliments. Douignan de la vie humaine. 2. vols. Compendium of Physic. RC ( DLC : Rush Papers); addressed: “Dr. Rush”; endorsed by Rush. Not recorded in SJL . The first book TJ requested was Guillaume Daignan, Tableau des Variétés de la Vie humaine...