Rush knew all the big names of his time period. His friends included Benjamin Franklin, John Addams, and Thomas Jefferson. He encouraged Thomas Paine to write Common Sense. Adams wrote that Rush had contributed more to the Revolution than Franklin! It was Rush who pressured Adams and Jefferson to reconnect after years of alienation.
As a physician, he championed humane treatment for the mentally ill and identified addiction as a medical, not a moral, condition. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 when 10% of the population died, Rush courageously stayed in Philadelphia. Many doctors fled the city along with anyone else who had somewhere else to go. The African American community came out to assist; it was thought they were immune to the disease!
Rush saw war and the disease and injuries that took lives. He triaged troops and was with Washington when he crossed the Delaware and at battlefields including Brandywine, Trenton, and Princeton. He knew that more soldiers died from sickness than the sword and created standards of hygiene for the military, including the first military buzz-cut.
Rush was a practicing physician. He lived before we understood viruses and bacteria, when bleeding and purgatives were employed. He was called to educate and outfit Lewis and Clark for their expedition. His purgative known as Rush's Pills included mercury, which has helped us track Lewis and Clark's journey! Rush thought up the circular surgical theater.
He was a lifelong educator, medical writer and lecturer. He founded Dickinson College to bring higher education to rural Pennsylvania and campaigned for free public education.
An ardent abolitionist, Rush supported the founding of the first African Methodist Church. He was a dedicated Christian who supported the separation of church and state while maintaining the importance of faith as a moral guide.
Rush knew that when the war was over, the real work of founding a nation would begin which needed to balance "science, religion, liberty and good government."
Rush married the daughter of another Declaration signer, Julia Stockton. They had thirteen children. Rush was a devoted and loving husband and father, but his illustrious fame and high standards were hard to live up to. His son became an alcoholic who ended up hospitalized, a 'madman' who was studied by the actor Edwin Forrest while preparing for his breakout role as King Lear. Another son, Richard, was close to John Quincy Adams and became his vice presidential candidate and he was commissioned to collect the James Smithson trust money which funded the Smithsonian.
Fried's chapter on what happened to Rush's papers and letters explains why he disappeared from memory until mid-2oth c. Julia Rush's most treasured and private letters by her husband were in the family until 1975 when they were donated to the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia.
The story of Rush's life was exciting to read. As a popular history, I found it very accessible and quick reading. A Goodreads friend told me that Rush was her favorite Founding Father. It appears he was John Adams' favorite as well, judging by his response to Rush's death as recorded by Abigal, which Fried includes in the book:
"O my friend, my friend, my ancient, my constant, my unshaken friend! My brother, art thou gone? Gone forever Who can estimate thy worth, who can appreciate thy loss? To thy country, to thy family, to thy friends, to science, to literature, to the world at large? To a character which in every relation of life shone resplendent?" John Adams upon the death of Rush as reported by Abigal Adams
"...a better man than Rush, could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest." Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams
"I know of no Character living or dead who has done more real good in America." John Adams response to Thomas Jefferson's letter
I received a free ebook through First to Read in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
RUSH: REVOLUTION, MADNESS, AND BENJAMIN RUSH, THE VISIONARY DOCTOR WHO BECAME A FOUNDING FATHER
By STEPHEN FRIED
Hardcover | $30.00
Published by Crown
Available Sep 04, 2018
ISBN 9780804140065
