141From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 23 April 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
Your friendly letter of Mar. 12. was recieved in due time and with a due sense of it’s value. I shall with confidence avail myself of it’s general prescription, and of the special should the state of my health alter for the worse. at present it wears a promising aspect. At length I send you a letter, long due, and even now but a sketch of what I wished to make it. but your candour will find my...
142From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 21 April 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
In some of the delightful conversations with you, in the evenings of 1798. 99. which served as an Anodyne to the afflictions of the crisis through which our country was then labouring, the Christian religion was sometimes our topic: and I then promised you that, one day or other, I would give you my views of it. they are the result of a life of enquiry & reflection, and very different from...
143From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 28 February 1803 (Jefferson Papers)
I wish to mention to you in confidence that I have obtained authority from Congress to undertake the long desired object of exploring the Missouri & whatever river, heading with that, leads into the Western ocean. about 10. chosen woodsmen headed by Capt. Lewis my secretary, will set out on it immediately & probably accomplish it in two seasons. Capt. Lewis is brave, prudent, habituated to the...
144From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Rush, 29 March 1802 (Hamilton Papers)
I felt all the weight of the obligation which I owed to you and to your amiable family, for the tender concern they manifested in an event, beyond comparison, the most afflicting of my life. But I was obliged to wait for a moment of greater calm, to express my sense of the kindness. My loss is indeed great. The highest as well as the eldest hope of my family has been taken from me. You...
145From 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.
146From 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.”
147From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 20 December 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have recieved your favor of Nov. 27. with your introductory lectures which I have read with the pleasure & edification I do every thing from you. I am happy to see that vaccination is introduced & likely to be kept up in Philadelphia. but I shall not think it exhibits all it’s utility until experience shall have hit upon some mark or rule by which the popular eye may distinguish genuine from...
148Abigail Adams to Benjamin Rush, post 21 September 1801 (Adams Papers)
I ought to have acknowledgd Your kind favour of July 23 at an earlier period; but the heat of Summer usually unfits me for every occupation; and I never expect to conquer that disposition to an intermitting fever which always assails me whenever I am debilitated by Heat, or any other indisposition; I have had a very severe attack of the disorder incident to the Fall, and tho it did not amount...
149From 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...
150From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 24 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your friendly favor of the 12th and the pleasing sensations produced in my mind by it’s affectionate contents. I am made very happy by learning that the sentiments expressed in my inaugural address give general satisfaction, and hold out a ground on which our fellow citizens can once more unite. I am the more pleased, because these sentiments have been long &...
151From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 14 December 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I have duly recieved your favor of the 2d. inst. and the melon seeds accompanying it. I shall certainly cherish them, and try whether the climate of Monticello can preserve them without degeneracy. the arrival of Genl. Davie here with the treaty is our only news. mr Elsworth is gone to England, and returns again to France to pass the winter in it’s Southern parts for his health....
152Abigail Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 October 1800 (Adams Papers)
I acknowledge the receipt of Your two favors one of the 9th and one of the 13 th . I am sorry You have felt yourself So much hurt by the report of a Man, whose object is apparent to every candid Mind. he feels himself an appostate, and like the first appostate, he is ready to curse those beams of light and truth which Show the height from which he has fallen. To be wounded in the House of our...
153From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 23 September 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I have to acknolege the reciept of your favor of Aug. 22. and to congratulate you on the healthiness of your city. still Baltimore, Norfolk & Providence admonish us that we are not clear of our new scourge. when great evils happen, I am in the habit of looking out for what good may arise from them as consolations to us: and Providence has in fact so established the order of things as that most...
154From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 12 September 1799 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved in due time your friendly letter inclosing two pamphlets . I have deferred acknoleging them till I could have time to read them. that time should be scarce here will seem odd to you. but mine, from an early breakfast to a late dinner is given to my farms, & from dinner to early bedtime to society or light reading. I have read that on animal life with very great delight. a great...
155From Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 22 January 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved yesterday your kind favor of the 4th. inst. and the eulogium it covered on the subject of our late invaluable friend Rittenhouse, and I perused it with the avidity and approbation which the matter and manner of every thing from your pen has long taught me to feel. I thank you too for your congratulations on the public call on me to undertake the 2d. office in the US. but still more...
156Edmund 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...
157From 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 .
158From 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...
159From 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...
160From 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...
161From 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...
162From 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...
163From 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.
164From 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...
165From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 3 May 1790 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
3 May 1790, New York. “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 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 Rush to JM, 24 Apr. 1790 , PJM William T. Hutchinson et al.,...
166From 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...
167From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 April 1790 (Adams Papers)
The Tories as you observe in your friendly Letter of 24 Feb. are more attached to each other; they are also, We must candidly confess, more of real Politicians.— They make to themselves more merit with the People, for the smallest services, than the Whigs are able to do for the greatest. The Arts, the Trumpetts the Puffs, are their old Instruments and they know how to employ them. The History...
168From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 20 March 1790 (Madison Papers)
I recd. your favor of the 10th. instant some days ago. Altho’ I feel the force of many of your remarks, I can not embrace the idea to which they lead. It would not be consistent with the view I have taken of the subject; nor indeed promise any chance of success agst. the present politics of the House. The Petitions on the subject of Slavery have employed more than a week, and are still before...
169From James Madison to Benjamin Rush, 7 March 1790 (Madison Papers)
Altho’ your last favour of the 27 Ult: does not require any particular answer, I can not let this occasional correspondence drop, without thanking you for so interesting a supplement to your former remarks on the subject lately decided in the House of Representatives. It not only gives me pleasure, but strengthens my conviction, to find my sentiments ratified by those of enlightened and...
170From 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...
171From 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...
172From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
“The Characters, I So much admire among the ancients,” were not “formed wholly by Republican forms of Government”— I admire, Phillip and Alexander, as much as I do Themistocles and Pericles, nay as much as Demosthenes— I admire Pisistratus, almost as much as solon: and think that the Arts, Elegance, Literature and Science of Athens, was his Work and that of his sons, more than of any or all...
173From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 24 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have persecuted you, too much with my Letters.— I beg you would give yourself no trouble to answer them, but when you are quite at Leisure, from more important Business or more agreable Amusement. I deny; that there is or ever was in Europe a more free Republic than England, or that any Liberty on Earth ever equalled English Liberty, notwithstanding the defects in their Constitution. The...
174From 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...
175From 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...
176From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your Single Principle, in your Letter of the 15 th must fail you.— You say “that Republican Systems have never had a fair Tryal.”— What do you mean by a fair Tryal? and what by Republican systems.— Every Government that has more than one Man in its soverignty is a republican system. Tryals innumerable have been made. as many as there have existed Nations. There is not and never was, I believe,...
177From 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,...
178From 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...
179From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 February 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your obliging favor of the 22 d Ult I rec d. last night.— I remember so much of the transactions, at the formation of the Pensilvania Constitution, that I wish you could save time enough from almost any other pursuit, to arrange your materials for an History of the Revolution in Pensilvania, to be published hereafter; at present perhaps it might not be prudent. The four respectable characters,...
180From 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...
181From 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...
182From 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...
183From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 February 1788 (Adams Papers)
The Letter that accompanies this, is from a Character so respectable, that I beg leave to recommend it to your particular Attention. The Correspondent will be found worthy of you.— I have taken Leave, and shall embark, as soon as the Equinoxial and its roughest Blusters are past. The Emperors Declaration of War announces louder Storms in Europe: but I hope to escape them all in a peaceful...
184From Alexander Hamilton to Benjamin Rush, 21 November [1787] (Hamilton Papers)
I send you herewith a Series of political papers under the denomination of the Federalist published in favor of the new Constitution. They do good here and it is imagined some of the last numbers might have a good effect upon some of your Quaker Members of Convention. They are going on and appear evidently to be written by different hands and to aim at a full examination of the subject....
185From John Jay to Benjamin Rush, 24 March 1785 (Jay Papers)
Such has been the State of my official Business, & of that which arose from my long neglected private affairs, that ever since the Removal of Congress to this Place, I have been obliged to trespass on my usual Punctuality in private Correspondences. Hence it happened that I have so long denied myself the Pleasure of replying to your friendly Letter of the 16 Jan y .— Accept my warmest...
186From 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...
187From 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...
188From 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...
189From 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...
190From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 September 1783 (Adams Papers)
Give me Leave to introduce to Your Acquaintance and Friendship, M r Thaxter, who goes home with the definitive Treaty. This Treaty which is but a Repetition of the Provisional Articles was all We could obtain, a poor Compensation for nine Months Negotiation; but I assure you We were very glad to get the Hand put to this. I was in hopes to have Soon Seen you in Philadelphia, but Congress have...