Papers of John Adams, volume 19

From William Cushing

To Thomas Jefferson

To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 21 February 1789 Rush, Benjamin Adams, John
From Benjamin Rush
my dear friend, Philadelphia Feb: 21st 1789.

Few events have happened since the 17th of septemr: 1788, which have afforded me more pleasure than your election to the Vice president’s chair. It is the cape stone of my our labors respecting the new goverment. Mr Rutledge had some friends in Pennsylvania—But your friends prevailed. Mr Wilson had great merit in this business. Mr Morris likewise advised it. There is an expectation here which I 387 have humoured, that your influence will be exerted immediately in favor of a Motion to bring Congress to Philada:— New England alone must determine this question—for our Quaker & German manners will always give new york an Advantage over us in the Opinion of southern gentlemen. There was a time when yankies & Aristocratic new yorkers were less United. I wish to see the Congress in Philada: for two reasons principally. 1 To silence the clamors which begin to circulate in some of the southern states, of the interested & local Views of the Eastern States, & 2ly to prevent a few years hence a removal of the Seat of goverment to a more Southern, a less healthy & less republican State.—

I lost your excellent pamphflet by lending it to One of our printers, but shall endeavour to procure a copy which was printed from it in one of our newspapers in the year 1777.— I enclose you a copy of the four letters you refer to, published in the same year—also a small tract on the late test law of Pennsylvania by the same Author.1 my His enemies have done him the honor of saying in our public prints, that it repealed that impolitic law.—

Besides the four persons whom you have mentioned in your letter, a fifth character of more consequence than either of them must be brought into a View in giving a history of the Constitution of Pennsylvania. Reed’s Administration likewise, stained—by folly—fraud— and Violence will must be described in a review of the revolution in Our state.—2 The rank & connections of both these gentlemen forbid the truth to be told of them for many years to come.— I shall however begin the work, and bequeath it to my children. It will afford them some instruction. With this, they will receive many Other documents of the revolution, and of eminent political & military characters.— The enclosed Anecdote of yourself, was extracted from One of them.3

The conduct of Delaware & maryland in thowing away all their Votes for a Vice president I believe was influenced in part by a jealousy of the new England States, which has been revived, & inflamed by their vote in favor of the meeting of the first Congress in New york. Philadelphia is the head Quarters of federalism. There will be no cordiality between the Eastern & some of southern states ’till the Congress fixes in Philada or Baltimore.

Your correspondence will always be agreeable to me, and you may rely upon Secrecy when ever your letters are confidential.—

I move at present only in the line of my profession.— but my eyes— and ears—and fact-book—are as usual open my decided & 388 unequivocal conduct in politicks has thrown me at a distance from the present chief magistrate of Pennsylvania.— He is the counterpart of your friend in the late elections in massachussets. I employ my leisure hours in pursuits which have for their Objects the happiness of my Country. In some of these I have been successful.— From Others, I have reaped nothing but abuse, and a Consciousness of having aimed well.

Adieu—my dear friend. From / yours very sincerely

Benjn Rush

P.S: It is said that Mr Thomson does not intend to apply for the Secretaryship of the senate. would not that appointment be a suitable one for Col: Smith?— The propriety of placing a person in that office so nearly connected with the chief & executive officer of the Senate, must be obvious to every one.

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Dr Rush Feb. 21. 1789.”

1.

Along with his 1777 Observations upon the Present Government of Pennsylvania, for which see Rush’s letter of 22 Jan. 1789, above, Rush likely sent his Considerations upon the Present Test-Law of Pennsylvania, Phila., 1784, Evans, No. 18770.

2.

Joseph Reed, a former aide to George Washington and a prominent critic of the 1776 Pennsylvania constitution, served as president of the state from 1778 to 1781. In Aug. and Sept. 1778, with the help of Attorney General Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Reed directed 23 treason trials of alleged Philadelphia loyalists, including the conviction of Quaker artisans Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts. Rush joined the widespread public appeal for their pardon, but the two men were hanged on the commons in Philadelphia (vol. 15:374; ANB ; David Freeman Hawke, Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfly, Indianapolis, Ind., 1971, p. 228; Louis P. Masur, Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865, N.Y., 1989, p. 75).

3.

The enclosure has not been found. Rush often alluded to his planned history and compiled material for it in several notebooks. In light of a wave of history writing on the same topic, he chose not to finish it and by 1805 claimed to have burned the bulk of his research. “I am half inclined to be very angry with you for destroying the Anecdotes and Documents you had collected for private Memoirs of the American Revolution. From the Memoirs of Individuals, the true springs of events and the real motives of actions are to be made known to Posterity,” JA wrote to Rush on 4 Dec. 1805 (Rush, Letters , 1:500; Biddle, Old Family Letters , p. 87).