Dr. Benjamin Rush

Physician. Patriot Professor. I'm Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania. I was born in Philadelphia and trained in medicine at Edinburgh and Paris before returning home in 1769 to teach and write and heal the sick. My syllabus of lectures on chemistry was the first American textbook on the subject. I believe science must serve liberty. I said slavery was a crime and ignorance its cruel accomplice. I advocated for the education of women and public schools for every citizen. A republic, I warned, cannot rest on ignorance. Freedom must be taught, or it will perish. I treated the wounded as a surgeon in our war for independence, where blood, sweat and tears baptized a nation. I inoculated against disease in Pennsylvania State House you know today as Independence Hall. I stood beside General Washington at the crossing of the Delaware. Later, I trained thousands of physicians and reformed American medicine. I believed mental illness should be treated, not chained. In 1812, I published the first American work on the subject, and for this I had been called the father of American psychiatry. I ask you now, will you leave liberty to ink and paper, or will you practice it in mind and in the full measure of your courage?