Your Story Hour

Aunt Nikki: Hey everyone, come on! Your story hour is on. Welcome to Your Story Hour. I'm Aunt Nikki.

Uncle Jon: And I'm Uncle Jon. We're here to bring you today's inspiring story.

Aunt Nikki: Hello boys and girls, and hello Uncle Jon. Are you ready for part two of our story on Dr. Benjamin Rush?

Uncle Jon: Oh yes. Let's see. We left off when he married Julia Stockton. What happened next?

Aunt Nikki: A lot of things happened, and most of them seemed to result in a struggle of some kind.

Uncle Jon: Sounds interesting. If I remember correctly, this is a story that Aunt Carole recorded for us.

Aunt Nikki: That's right. In this episode, I think you'll see what I mean about the struggles in Dr. Rush's life. That's what I call this episode: "The Doctor Embattled."

Aunt Carole: One of the first challenges Benjamin faced, one which would impact him for years to come, involved a disagreement between two of his former instructors in Philadelphia: Dr. William Shippen and Dr. John Morgan. Benjamin supported Morgan, thus making an enemy of Shippen.

Then in 1773, Benjamin published an anti-slavery essay in the Philadelphia newspaper, appealing to the Bible to support his arguments. The essay was reprinted in New York and Boston and won him many new friends as well as enemies. Benjamin believed passionately that slavery was wrong, and in 1774, he and his friend Ben Franklin helped organize America's first anti-slavery society.

Ben Franklin: I'm very pleased with our work, young Benjamin. I hope anti-slavery societies will soon spring up in all our colonies.

Benjamin Rush: So do I, Dr. Franklin. Maybe we can persuade some of the other delegates to the Continental Congress to join our effort when it meets here in Philadelphia.

Ben Franklin: How do you feel about being a delegate?

Benjamin Rush: I'm honored and eager. The colonies must unite against the new laws—the Intolerable Acts—that Parliament has passed. We cannot let England treat us unfairly.

Ben Franklin: I agree. Parliament intended to punish Massachusetts for throwing that shipment of tea into Boston Harbor last December, but the Intolerable Acts show Parliament's contempt for all the colonies.

Aunt Carole: This first Continental Congress agreed to boycott all imports from England, and it sent a Declaration of Colonial Rights to Parliament. By the second Continental Congress in May of 1775, however, there was much disagreement among the delegates. Many of them still hoped to reconcile with England.

However, Benjamin didn't share this view. He urged his friend Thomas Paine to write *Common Sense*, a pamphlet that argued strongly for independence. It was published in January of 1776, and soon there was a new development. Congress had asked King George to send commissioners to help restore harmony, but King George had other ideas.

Benjamin Rush: Julia, I do believe we will soon seek complete independence from England. The attitude of Congress has hardened.

Julia Rush: But even some of the Pennsylvania delegates have pushed for reconciliation. Why the about-face?

Benjamin Rush: Because King George has paid to send thousands of Hessian soldiers to keep us in our place.

Julia Rush: Of all the mistreatment we've received from Parliament, that's the reason which has changed their minds?

Benjamin Rush: Yes, a frivolous reason to be sure, as if there's a difference between being killed by a Hessian bayonet or a British one.

Aunt Carole: Benjamin's prediction proved to be true, and a few months later, Richard Stockton and Benjamin Rush became the only father-in-law and son-in-law pair to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Benjamin Rush: Julia, when I set the quill to that parchment, I had such a feeling of freedom, of taking control of my own destiny and helping my countrymen do the same.

Julia Rush: I am so glad the declaration was approved.

Benjamin Rush: I just wish Tom Jefferson had not been persuaded to take out the section attacking slavery. Even Dr. Franklin said it should be deleted.

Julia Rush: Why? I know Dr. Franklin is against slavery.

Benjamin Rush: Because the Southern delegates were furious and we needed their votes. We needed all the colonies to approve the declaration.

Julia Rush: I see. Now that it has passed, how does Congress plan to proceed?

Benjamin Rush: For one thing, now that war with the British is inevitable, we've chosen George Washington as commander of our Continental Army. He's an excellent leader, a man of good character, and he has agreed to serve without pay.

Julia Rush: I've never heard of such a thing.

Benjamin Rush: He cares not for himself, only for his country.

Aunt Carole: Benjamin also cared deeply for his country, and early in 1777, he wrote a pamphlet on how military commanders could protect the health of soldiers, passing on much of what he had learned in London from the military physician, Sir John Pringle. He also included ideas of his own.

Benjamin Rush: Julia, I am convinced that cleanliness is the key to maintaining good health. The soldiers should wash their hands and faces at least once a day. They should change their clothes often and hang their blankets in the sun every day. That will combat the effects of the putrid miasma caused by the accumulation of sweat.

Julia Rush: I see. What else do you propose?

Benjamin Rush: Their hair should be short, no more than neck-length. Short hair is easier to keep clean.

Julia Rush: I'm glad you think that cleanliness contributes to one's health.

Benjamin Rush: It does, and so does diet. They should eat husked and boiled wheat with a little molasses instead of bread made from flour.

Julia Rush: Whatever for?

Benjamin Rush: Flour gets wet and spoils easily. Whole wheat is better. They should eat mostly fruit and vegetables with very little meat and no rum.

Julia Rush: But is not rum considered the best way to combat the effects of heat and cold?

Benjamin Rush: On the contrary, my dear, it makes them worse.

Aunt Carole: Benjamin also wrote that overcrowding should be avoided. Soldiers should wash their dishes and cooking utensils after meals. They should be given dry straw for beds. Latrines should be at a distance from camp, and commanders shouldn't make their men march during the heat of the day in summer.

Some suggestions were impossible to follow, as Congress had neglected to establish a commissary department to provide the weapons, food, and supplies the army needed. Before long, since the British army was approaching Philadelphia, Benjamin took Julia, who was pregnant with their first of what would be thirteen children, to stay with a friend outside the city.

Congress had appointed Benjamin to serve as a physician for the middle colonies where the fighting was fiercest. So after the birth of their son John, Benjamin left to inspect the military hospitals in New Jersey. Unfortunately, they were under the direction of his old enemy, William Shippen, and conditions were appalling.

Benjamin Rush: Dear Dr. Shippen, I beg you to provide supplies, food, and more rooms for the sick. They are badly overcrowded, which is resulting in a putrid fever. I see men shivering with cold on bare floors without a blanket to cover them. I hear them calling for a fire to warm them, for water, for suitable food, and for medicines—and calling in vain.

Aunt Carole: Benjamin tried for months to get Shippen court-martialed for dereliction of duty and outright theft of army supplies, but Shippen had powerful friends in Congress, and it would be some time before he would be persuaded to resign.

However, before that happened, Benjamin watched as the Continental Army lost in various battles. During his rounds of camps, he had often found soldiers who were lazy, filthy, and drunk. Desertions were common, the deserters sometimes taking army property with them. Although he liked George Washington personally, Benjamin thought a new commander was needed. He wrote to Patrick Henry urging that Washington be replaced. The results were not what he had hoped.

Julia Rush: Oh, Ben, my dear, you must not be so quick to attack. Patrick Henry forwarded your letter to Washington, and now you have lost the General's friendship.

Benjamin Rush: When I see wrong, I will speak out.

Julia Rush: And I'm not saying you shouldn't, but often the harm comes not in what's said, but the way in which it is said or written. You've already made powerful enemies by your attempts to have Shippen court-martialed.

Benjamin Rush: Thousands of men died unnecessarily because of his laziness, mismanagement, and dishonesty.

Julia Rush: You were right, but the way in which you approached the matter made it look like a personal vendetta. There is such a thing as tact, Ben.

Aunt Carole: As a result of the conflict, Benjamin resigned his position as physician for the middle colonies. He realized that if he had taken Julia's advice about not ruffling people's feathers, he would have saved himself much distress.

As time passed, the ragtag Continental Army shaped up and began to win battles. By the time the war ended in victory, Washington had forgiven Benjamin, and the young physician moved on to other causes, one of which was education. He taught chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at what is now the University of Pennsylvania. By using his student notes from Edinburgh, he produced the first chemistry textbook in the United States, which earned him the title of Father of American Chemistry. He also helped found a number of educational institutions.

Benjamin Rush: My dear brother Jacob, I am so happy that you could join us for dinner. With our sisters Rebecca and Rachel married again and our mother insisting on living on her own, we don't see nearly enough family these days.

Jacob Rush: I'm glad to be here with you, Ben, to celebrate the opening of Dickinson College.

Benjamin Rush: Dickinson College will always be close to my heart, but I can't stop there. We need a school to prepare young men and young ladies for the university.

Julia Rush: Young ladies? But the university doesn't accept young ladies.

Benjamin Rush: Not now, Julia, no, but I hope the day will come when they will be admitted.

Julia Rush: Perhaps some women could even get published.

Jacob Rush: Like your mother?

Julia Rush: Yes. Her poetry has been well received.

Jacob Rush: It has, Jacob, yet she worries that she has acted with impropriety. I have heard a number of people expressing the opinion that it is most unwomanly for a woman to have her works published.

Julia Rush: Yes, and that bothers her.

Benjamin Rush: But she mustn't think so. Her patriotic poems were very encouraging to all of us during the revolution, and her elegies on the death of your father claimed the hearts of all who read them.

Julia Rush: Do you really think so, Benjamin?

Benjamin Rush: I do, most heartily.

Julia Rush: Only one or two women have ever been published in America, but they've been sharply criticized.

Benjamin Rush: For our experiment in democracy to work, all Americans must be educated.

Jacob Rush: I've heard arguments that women should be educated, but I've heard others say that since only men are citizens, only men should be educated.

Benjamin Rush: That is utter foolishness. Who is a boy's first teacher? His mother. To teach her sons properly, a woman must be educated.

Jacob Rush: No need to lecture me, Ben. I'm convinced.

Benjamin Rush: Thankfully, the group founding our next new institution has decided it will admit both young men and young ladies.

Julia Rush: Oh, Ben, I'm so happy to hear it. What does Dr. Franklin think of the idea?

Benjamin Rush: He's providing such generous financial support that the rest of us have decided to call it Franklin College.

Jacob Rush: Young ladies receiving education beyond the basics? What an innovation.

Benjamin Rush: Not only that, Jacob. You will recall that about a third of the Hessians who were sent here by the British deserted their army and became Americans.

Julia Rush: You will admit the Hessians? How will that work? Most of them still speak only German.

Benjamin Rush: We've solved that problem. We'll offer classes in both English and German.

Julia Rush: A bilingual school? Well, it looks like you've covered everything.

Benjamin Rush: Not quite, I'm afraid. It has proven impossible to admit black students. I fear that admitting them will never happen. But it must! Someday it must. It will have to start with children. All children—boys and girls, black and white—should have the opportunity to go to school and without paying a penny.

Jacob Rush: I've never heard of such an idea.

Benjamin Rush: Neither have I. How would such a school even work? I firmly believe that children should be educated in religion and morals. Every denomination or religious group should open schools to educate the children of their members.

Aunt Carole: Free parochial schools that would admit boys and girls of all races were beyond even Benjamin's power to establish. But he did establish the Young Ladies Academy of Philadelphia, and he found practical ways to help African Americans. One project involved working with the Free African Society.

Benjamin Rush: The church building is coming together fast, Reverend Allen. And it's looking very nice indeed.

Reverend Allen: It certainly is, Dr. Rush. And I thank you for taking time from your medical practice to help us. You've been here every day.

Benjamin Rush: Well, my apprentices are doing a good job of filling in for me for a short time. I'm just happy to be part of such a worthy effort.

Reverend Allen: When the church is finished, we'll have a banquet to celebrate. We would like you to come as our honored guest.

Benjamin Rush: I would be honored indeed to be part of the celebration. Thank you.

Reverend Allen: Oh, thank you. Not only have you worked side by side with us, but you've brought other white men to help us.

Benjamin Rush: You're most welcome. Before I leave today, Reverend, I would like to propose an idea to you.

Reverend Allen: And that is?

Benjamin Rush: Well, I've noticed that most free black people work as servants.

Reverend Allen: This is true.

Benjamin Rush: It occurs to me that many people would prefer some other way to make a living.

Reverend Allen: They most certainly would.

Benjamin Rush: How about farming? Would that appeal to anyone?

Reverend Allen: Oh yes.

Benjamin Rush: Well then, I own 5,200 acres of land north of the city. If you approve, I'll donate that acreage to the Free African Society. You can give parcels of it to black families for farms.

Reverend Allen: Why, that's wonderful, Dr. Rush. I know several families right now who would benefit from such a generous gift.

Benjamin Rush: Then it's settled. As soon as I get home, I'll put it in writing. My brother Jacob is a lawyer and he'll make sure everything is legal.

Aunt Nikki: Benjamin Rush sure seems like a generous person, Uncle Jon.

Uncle Jon: That he does, Aunt Nikki. Makes me think of all the generous people who keep our stories on radio stations around the world.

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Aunt Carole: Not only was Benjamin enthusiastic about education and equality, he was a man with a big heart for all who needed help. Remembering the free medical dispensaries he had seen in Paris, he began to campaign to establish one in Philadelphia.

Benjamin Rush: Dr. Franklin, I'll never forget the sight of poor Parisians going into the dispensary with despairing faces and coming out with hope in their eyes. I swore then that if I ever got the opportunity, I would open such a clinic in Philadelphia.

Ben Franklin: What a grand idea. I'll be happy to join forces with you to make your clinic a reality.

Benjamin Rush: Wonderful. Your involvement will ensure success. I'll begin asking other leading men of the city for donations to provide the medicines we'll need.

Ben Franklin: It should be easy to stock the clinic with medicines, but what about physicians?

Benjamin Rush: I, for one, will donate time each week, and I'll ask other physicians to do the same. Any patient too ill to come to the clinic can have a friend or family member leave their name and address and a physician will go to their home.

Ben Franklin: What an excellent idea, Ben. Just excellent.

Aunt Carole: Founding the dispensary earned Benjamin the title of Father of America's Clinic System. He later also founded the first Humane Society, which made him the Father of American Veterinary Medicine.

Even as his public life continued to prosper, so did his family life. His mother finally decided to move in with them and his oldest son, John, became one of his apprentices. Then in 1793, when Julia and the younger children had gone to the country for the summer, two other leading physicians, Hugh Hodge and John Foulke, asked Benjamin to consult with them on the case of Mrs. Catherine LeMaigre.

Benjamin Rush: Fever, dry skin, vomiting, a yellow tinge to her eyeballs and face. How long has she been like this, Dr. Hodge?

Dr. Hodge: Her fever broke after about three days, Dr. Rush. Dr. Foulke and I thought she was on her way to recovery. And then suddenly the fever returned, her eyeballs and skin turned yellow, and the bleeding and vomiting started.

Benjamin Rush: I see, Dr. Foulke. I also notice the tiny red spots just under her skin.

Dr. Foulke: Petechiae.

Benjamin Rush: Yes. Dr. Rush, do you have any thoughts on these symptoms?

Dr. Hodge: Yes, I do, Dr. Foulke. I observed these very symptoms back in 1763 when I was an apprentice for Dr. Redman. In fact, I carefully described and recorded them in my notes. It's the bilious intermittent Yellow Fever.

Dr. Hodge: Yellow Fever? No! Don't say that, Dr. Rush. It's just another one of Philadelphia's frequent summer fevers—an influenza probably. You must not scare people with talk of an incurable disease.

Benjamin Rush: It is the Yellow Fever, Dr. Hodge.

Dr. Foulke: But Dr. Rush, Dr. Hodge is right. If you go around saying Yellow Fever, people will panic. Merchants, lawyers, maybe even the government will flee the city. Ships will refuse to dock here. The economy will be destroyed.

Benjamin Rush: It is Yellow Fever, gentlemen, and there's no use pretending otherwise.

Aunt Carole: Although Benjamin was a leading physician, it didn't stop others from attacking him for maintaining the illness was Yellow Fever. Eventually, though, even his worst critics had to agree with him, but nobody knew what caused Yellow Fever. Germs had not yet been discovered, and it never occurred to anyone that the annoying mosquitoes could be carrying such a terrible disease.

Dr. Hodge: I have noticed, Dr. Rush, that the attacks seem to be centered on Water Street. Some are saying that the illness has been caused by the shipload of spoiled coffee from Santo Domingo.

Benjamin Rush: Quite likely, Dr. Hodge. Just dumping it on the wharf like that was very careless.

Dr. Foulke: Yes, it's just rotting in the sun. It attracts swarms of mosquitoes which add to the misery of those who become ill, and the stink can be smelled as much as a quarter mile away.

Benjamin Rush: Quite right, Dr. Foulke. And we all know that such noxious odors cause disease. And add to that, Dr. Hodge, the stench of open sewers in the street and heaps of garbage in the open. It's a wonder we aren't all sickened. This filth must be cleaned up.

Aunt Carole: The city was cleaned up a little bit, but the disease continued to spread, and the worst predictions came true. Government officials, merchants, and everyone else who could afford to fled the city. Business came to a standstill. Many who fell ill were deserted by their terrified families. Some doctors died and most others left the city. Desperate men and women tried all the supposed preventative measures. They burned gunpowder, washed their houses with vinegar, and smoked cigars. Nothing helped.

Through it all, Benjamin worked day and night, faithfully visiting and treating the sick. Yet neither he nor those close to him were immune to the disease. Benjamin contracted the disease twice but recovered. However, his sister Rebecca and two of his apprentices died. In fact, hundreds were dying daily and nobody wanted to risk caring for them. But then, help came from an unexpected quarter.

Benjamin Rush: It's a pleasure to see you, Reverend Allen. What can I do for you?

Reverend Allen: This is my friend, Reverend Absalom Jones. He is also a leader in the Free African Society and we want to help you take care of the Yellow Fever victims.

Benjamin Rush: But none of the victims are Negro. All of the victims are white, and the white people of Philadelphia have not treated you and your people at all well.

Absalom Jones: We believe it is our duty to do all we can for our fellow mortals.

Benjamin Rush: In that case, gentlemen, I welcome your help.

Aunt Carole: Benjamin was very grateful for their assistance. He also taught his African American servants Marcus and twelve-year-old Peter how to treat his patients—bleed them often and administer the medicines that induced vomiting and diarrhea. These measures, according to the beliefs of the day, removed infection from the body.

Sadly, it soon became clear that African Americans were not immune, as most people, including Benjamin himself, had believed. Marcus caught the disease but recovered. However, many members of the Free African Society died even as they saved the lives of thousands for whom they cared. Benjamin's treatment, though very strange to us, met with some success and his patients began to survive. He wrote newspaper articles outlining his methods, telling people to keep clean and advising a mostly vegetarian diet. Toward the end of the epidemic, he received a surprising request.

Absalom Jones: Dr. Rush, Dr. William Shippen has contracted the fever. He is asking for you.

Benjamin Rush: Shippen? But Reverend Jones, Shippen has criticized my every move throughout this epidemic. I can't believe he wants me to attend him.

Absalom Jones: That's the message, Dr. Rush.

Benjamin Rush: Ben Rush, I've been your enemy for so long, I didn't think you'd come.

Billy Shippen: Well, Billy Shippen, right now we're not enemies. You're a sick man and I'm a physician. That's all that counts. Are you willing to accept my treatment?

Benjamin Rush: You used your methods on yourself and you survived. Do whatever needs to be done.

Aunt Carole: When the Yellow Fever epidemic ended, doctors who had done nothing to help those who were sick and dying called Benjamin a vampire for his vigorous bleeding of patients. Others took up the criticism and one writer was so vicious that Benjamin sued him for libel. When Benjamin won the suit, he generously donated the money to the Philadelphia General Hospital.

His influence in a number of areas began to make itself known. Not only was he able to heal the break between himself and Dr. Shippen, but he also helped restore the friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who had been separated over political issues. In addition, he wrote articles on various subjects. He believed, for instance, that insanity was an illness that could be cured and was able to persuade the hospital to construct a wing for mental patients with cheerful, comfortable rooms. Benjamin's passion for the humane treatment of mental illness became even more personal when word came that his son John, now a naval physician, was seriously affected by an unfortunate event.

Benjamin Rush: Julia, I have received a letter from the captain of John's ship.

Julia Rush: Oh no, it must be bad news.

Benjamin Rush: John was forced into a duel by a friend.

Julia Rush: A friend?

Benjamin Rush: Yes, it seems the friend felt he had been insulted or belittled. John apologized, but the friend said, "Fight the duel or I'll shoot you anyway."

Julia Rush: Is John—?

Benjamin Rush: No, no, no, no. He's alive, my dear. He won the duel.

Julia Rush: But—?

Benjamin Rush: The knowledge that he killed his friend has deranged his mind. The letter says he never washes and he has let his hair and fingernails grow until he looks like a wild man. He never speaks and doesn't give any sign that he has heard when others speak to him.

Julia Rush: We must bring him home, Benjamin, immediately.

Benjamin Rush: He's on the way right now.

Aunt Carole: Benjamin and Julia hoped that being home would cure John out of what we would now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, but he remained unresponsive. Eventually, John was placed in the mental health wing of the General Hospital where his father visited him regularly. Sadly, Benjamin's efforts to help his son failed, but John did benefit from the compassionate care he received as a result of his father's desire to help the mentally ill.

When we consider Dr. Rush's contributions in so many areas—his passion to further the causes of liberty, education, equality, medicine, and more—it's little wonder that when he died in 1813 at the age of 68, Thomas Jefferson paid him homage by penning these words: "A better man than Rush could not have left us." And John Adams added to that sentiment when he wrote that Dr. Rush has done more good in this world than Franklin or Washington. And that, as we all know, is high praise indeed.

Aunt Nikki: He was an admirable man, Uncle Jon.

Uncle Jon: He certainly was, Aunt Nikki. And although it wasn't mentioned in this story, Dr. Rush was a man who read the Bible and prayed every day. Obviously, he then acted on what he believed to be right.

Aunt Nikki: What better could be said of anyone?

Uncle Jon: Very true. And those are wonderful habits that we hope all you boys and girls will make your own. And in the process, learn the fine art of tact and diplomacy so that what you say and what you do will be seen in the most positive light possible.

Aunt Nikki: Very good advice. And now, I just have one more thing to say.

Uncle Jon: I think I may know exactly what you're going to say.

Aunt Nikki: Yes?

Uncle Jon: That we hope you boys and girls will join us next time.

Aunt Nikki: Well, Uncle Jon, I guess you did know exactly what I was going to say. So now I'll steal the next words out of your mouth and say, goodbye everyone. We love you very much.