Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania

Benjamin Rush was thirty years of age when he signed the Declaration of Independence.1 Born in Pennsylvania, Rush was raised by his mother and stepfather.2 Rush was trained at the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University.3 Rush considered the idea of becoming a lawyer, but decided instead to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh.4
Having completed his medical education, Rush gained experience in Paris and London before returning to Philadelphia.5 He practiced as a physician and lectured on chemistry at the college of New Jersey.6 Rush became friends with several prominent men while practicing as a physician, including Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.7 Rush suggested the name Common Sense to Thomas Paine for his very famous pamphlet.8

Rush married the daughter of Richard Stockton, another signer of the Declaration of independence.9 The two were married by John Witherspoon, yet another signer of the Declaration of Independence.10

Rush was elected to the Continental Congress in June of 1776.11 This was just in time for him to sign the Declaration of Independence.12 Rush was not re-elected to congress in 1777 because he had been opposed to creating Philadelphia’s constitution.13

Rush became surgeon general of the Continental Army, and his work in the medical field was very influential.14 Rush’s medical ideas were controversial as he experimented with bloodletting and purging, and he also was an advocate for psychiatry and the better treatment of the mentally ill.15

In 1797, Rush was appointed to be the Treasurer of the United States Mint by President John Adams.16


1 David Hawke, Honorable Treason: The Declaration of Independence and the Men Who Signed It (New York: Viking Press, 1976), 68.
2 Ibid, 69.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 The National Park Service, “Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania,” http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/declaration/bio42.htm, (accessed October 10, 2007).
6 Hawke, Honorable, 70.
7 National Park Service, “Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania.”
8 Hawke, Honorable, 71.
9 National Park Service, “Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania.”
10 Bernard A. Weisberger, “The Paradoxical Doctor Benjamin Rush,” Americanheritage.com, December 1975, under “Volume 27, Issue 1,” http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1975/1/1975_1_40.shtml (accessed October 13, 2007).
11 Ibid.
12 National Park Service, “Benjamin Rush, Pennsylvania.”
13 Ibid.
14 MSN Encarta Online, s.v. “Benjamin Rush,” http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574064/Rush_Benjamin.html (accessed October 11, 2007).
15 Encarta, “Benjamin Rush.”
16 Ibid.

Deborah Howse