DOCUMENT: CLS-REBUILD · CLASSIFICATION: PUBLIC METHODOLOGY: SYMMETRIC · STATUS: ACTIVE
Who Sits at the Seat · Founder

Benjamin Rush

1746-1813 Founder Live

Philadelphia physician and signer; wrote on education in a republic, abolition, penal reform and medicine.

Ask Benjamin Rush a question

Answers come only from his own recorded words, with every quotation checked against its source.

Who he was

Benjamin Rush was a Philadelphia physician who signed the Declaration of Independence.

He wrote on education in a republic, abolition, penal reform and medicine. His essays include "Of the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic" and "Thoughts upon Female Education" (1787).

Why he is at the Seat

Rush is the Seat's voice on the civic side of the founding: what kind of education, institutions and habits a republic needs to last.

What we hold

Editions
  • Medical Inquiries and Observations (4 vols., 1805)
  • Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (1806; scanned text)
  • Sixteen Introductory Lectures (1811); A Memorial (1905); Old Family Letters (1892)
  • Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789 (Library of Congress, 1976-2000)
Size
About 1.0 million words classed as his own text. Word counts are whole files, so they include editors' headnotes and footnotes.
Coverage
0.4% of the 225 documents Founders Online catalogues as his. That catalogue holds only his letters to the great founders, so this figure says little.

Known limits

  • Most of his letters are missing (Butterfield's 1951 edition is under copyright). His political pamphlets and newspaper essays are uncollected.
  • The essays are dated only by the 1798 and 1806 collections, so the "as of" year does not apply to him.

Questions he answers well

The questions his engine was tested on before it opened.

  • What kind of education does a republic need?

Published answers

More in Prior Questions.