Note 61 — Chapter XXIII
Reading edition
Dr. Benjamin Rush was then in the prime of life, being forty-eight years of age. He had already achieved the highest success in his profession as a writer and practitioner; and as a member of the continental Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, he had a wide-spread popularity. He founded the Philadelphia dispensary in 1786, and was one of the principal founders of Dickinson college, at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania. He was professor of medical science in the medical college of Philadelphia, and also in the medical college of Pennsylvania. He was president of the American Anti-slavery society and other associations for the good of mankind.
“In private life,” says Doctor John W. Francis, “his disposition and deportment were in the highest degree exemplary. Admired and courted for his intellectual endowments, he riveted to him the affections of all who enjoyed the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance. The affability of his manners, the amiableness of his temper, and the benevolence of his character, were ever conspicuous. He was ardent in his friendships, and forgiving in his resentments; and yet, entertaining a due regard for himself and a high sense of honor, he possessed a manly independence of spirit which disdained everything mean and servile. He had an extraordinary command of language, and always imparted his thoughts in a peculiarly impressive and eloquent manner. Those who had the happiness to experience the delights of his conversation will long recollect with pleasure his unassuming modesty, and the rich stores of knowledge he poured forth on the most instructive topics. Even when his opinions were solicited, they were given, not as the dictates or admonitions of a superior, but as the kind advice of a friend and equal. He never evinced any of that haughtiness and affectation of importance which sometimes attaches to men of eminence, and which so materially lessens the pleasures and comforts of social life.”—Sketch of the Life and Character of the late Doctor Benjamin Rush, in the American Medical and Philosophical Register, July, 1813.