Benjamin Rush was born on this day in 1745.
No simple list can encompass this complex and significant figure in American history. A physician who combined a curiosity about the workings of the human mind that earned him the name “father of American psychiatry” with anachronistic views such as holding on to blood letting as much of medical science was moving away from it. He mixed creative with frankly bizarre treatments for illnesses mental and physical. His theories about race were particularly repellent to contemporary readers. (Although he also advocated the ending of slavery.) He also appears to be the first physician to identify Yellow Fever.
Rush was a fierce supporter of the American Revolution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He is generally credited with facilitating the eventual reconciliation between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
And while he attended various Anglican and Presbyterian churches throughout his lifetime Benjamin Rush’s major theological interest appears to have been Universalism. He was a prominent attender of the Universalist Convention of 1790 where he advocated against capital punishment.
On his death John Adams declared “I know of no Character living or dead, who has done more real good in America.”
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