Declaration of Independence

“We must all hang together, gentlemen, or else we shall most assuredly hang separately.”

Benjamin Franklin- at the signing of the Declaration of Independence

“Signing Their Lives Away” is a book by Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese about the 56 who signed Declaration of Independence. The book is a short biography of each person (titled with an interesting fact about that person), and with a comic flavor. For example, “The signer everyone loved to hate” or “The signer who gave us Gerrymandering” or “The signer who objected to, well, everything” or “The signer who was sure he would hang” or “The signer who designed US flag” or “The signer who financed the war- and ended up in debtors’ prison” and so on. Each signer has an intriguing story, one such story belongs to Benjamin Rush whose biography is reprinted here.

Benjamin Rush- The Signer Who Loved to Gossip About Other Signers

Born: January 4, 1746

Died: April 19, 1813

Age At Signing: 30

Profession: Physician

Buried: Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Remember that kid in school who was smart and volunteered after school and was active in student government and a member of all the academic clubs and had a nice girlfriend and and and ….

Well, if the continental congress operated like high school- and in many ways it did- Benjamin Rush was the kid with the perfect credits. And just like high school, speaking one’s mind against one of the cool kids- in this case, George Washington- can sometimes come back to bite you in the bum. Luckily, Rush’s dedication to his patients and his contributions to early American politics far outweighed his loose quill and some questionable medical practices.

After the death of his father when he was a child, Rush was raised by his single mother, who worked in a grocery to secure an education for him. The family lived on a farm outside Philadelphia. Rush studied medicine at home and abroad, then returned to the colonies and embarked on a career that would make him one of the most famous physicians and medical teachers of his time.

Rush was famous for his political activities as well. Though he was not around for the vote on independence- Rush was one of the signers who was elected to congress after the Declaration of Independence ws approved but before it was signed- this youngest signer from Pennsylvania had already been quite active in the prerevolutionary colonies, especially with his pen. He wrote pro-colonist news articles that earned him attention well before he was elected to Congress. A friend of Thomas “Common Sense” Paine, Rush is said to have suggested the title for that famed pamphlet. He had a knack for describing a scene, as is evidenced by this account of the experience of waiting to sign the Declaration, from a letter he wrote to his friend John Adams: “Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?”

Rush wrote throughout his life about chemistry and medicine, his areas of professional expertise, but also about philosophy, the abolition of slavery, temperance, prison reform, and (here’s the part historians love) his fellow signers. It’s not that Rush was a gossip, but he was quick- maybe too quick- to share his opinions about others, and he kept extensive notes on his fellow signers and other players in the American Revolution. (He is quoted frequently throughout this book, for his observations provide same much-needed, in the- trenches insight into the signers themselves.) He detailed who had a sense of humor (George Ross), who had a checkered past (Samuel Chase), who was cynical (Abraham Clark), and whose speech was ungrammatical and vulgar (Benedict Arnold).

Rush’s eagerness to share his opinions of sometimes got him in trouble. In 1777, his talents as a physician were put to good use in his role as surgeon general of the armies of the Middle Department. But, true to form, he soon wrote a letter criticizing a superior, Dr. William Shippen. Rush resigned his post.

But the writing that had the greatest negative effect on his career came after the continental Army had been defeated at Brandywine and Germantown. Rush had penned more than one letter criticizing General Washington, but the one he wrote in January 1778 to Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia suggesting that the army would be better off with Thomas Conway, Horatio Gates, or Charles Ledd as a leader would forever associate Rush with the “Conway Cabal,” as episode of political and military back-and-forth that aimed to have Washington replaced as head of the colonial armies. Rush sent the letter anonymously, but when it made its way into Washington’s hands, the general recognized the handwriting. Oops. This was the final nail in the coffin of Rush’s military career.

In his medical practice, Rush was a strong advocate of using mercury and bloodletting as a great deal of criticism even in his own lifetime. Despite the fact that bloodletting was a common medical practice since ancient times, he was attacked in print by a newsman, who said Rush’s treatments had killed more patients than they saved. Rush sued for libel, but prosecution of the case was repeatedly delayed. The case wasn’t settled until late 1799, but George Washington’s death- which occurred December 14, 1799, before the liable case was settled- exacerbated Rush’s woes. Though Rush did not attend Washington at his deathbed, one of Rush’s disciples did, using leeches to such five to nine pints of blood from poor old Georg. People blamed Rush’s teachings for Washington’s death. Rush finally won the lawsuit, but his medical practice suffered in the wake of the case. In 1799, his buddy John Adams lent a helping hand, appointing Rush treasurer of the U.S. Mint, a position he held until his death in 1813.

Despite his embrace of questionable medical techniques, Rush’s other humanitarian contributions are beyond question. He treated many patients for no charge, and he established the Philadelphia Dispensary, the first free medical clinic in America. He stayed in Philly during the horrid yellow fever epidemic of 1793, caring for scores of patients each day seeing the town through the scourge when many doctors had fled. (He even suffered through the affliction himself.) Rush penned America’s first textbook about mental ailments, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon Diseases of the Mind, and his work in the field of mental health earned him the moniker “The Father of American Psychiatry.” (In keeping with his tendency to implement dubious medical treatments, Rush also contributed the “tranquilizing chair” to the psychiatric community, a restraining and sensory- deprivation device that bound limbs and fitted a box with a small opening over patients’ heads, “calming” them by restricting blood flow to their brains.) He was even visited in 1803 by Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark). The legendary explorer would later pack Dr. Rush’s anti-bilious pills, nicknamed “Rush’s Thunderbolts,” on his great journey west.

Late in his life, Rush was also able to use his skills as a writer to do some good. He is credited with restoring the friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, whose famous falling out was mended by Rush’s own letters as mediator. Long before Sigmund Freud, Rush advocated dream analysis. In 1809, Rush had a quasi-religious dream in which his two old friends had reconciled, enjoyed a rewarding correspondence, and had died “nearly at the same time.” Rush shared the details of the dream with both Adams and Jefferson, who eventually did reconcile, exactly as Rush had foretold. Eerily, both died on the same day, July 4,1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Despite the libel lawsuit, by the end of his life Rush was regarded as a deeply influential physician and was awarded medals from numerous foreign monarchs. In the end, typhus took his life. Of the American Revolution, he wisely wrote, “All will end well.” Of himself, he had an even simpler, yet accurate, summation: “He aimed well.”