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John Adams And Benjamin Rush Comparison

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Maria Callas
John Adams to Benjamin Rush: The Legendary Correspondence
History 121
March 1, 2015

The sound of a letter being torn open upset the quiet of John Adams’s quaint office in Quincy, Massachusetts. Adams was excited to see that the letter was a response from his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush. Before the age where a conversation consisted of a single word lighting up an iPhone, eloquently handcrafted letters were mailed between people documenting ideas, thoughts, feelings and illustrating important pieces of history. John Adams and Benjamin Rush’s legendary correspondence gave society with an eye-opening look into their personal thoughts, morals,and feelings. Thier close friendship was a catalyst to one of the greatest …show more content…

Benjamin Rush was 29 years younger than John Adams; he was born in Philadelphia in 1764. During the 1700’s and 1800’s the medical field was a forum for social and political changes. Doctors were held in high regard and were integral members in their communities.TO Rush’s mind, politics and medicine were not two different concepts but rather very connected. Rush explored many diseases and their rational cures; he also thought about “curing” politics. He was interested in changing the structure of federal and state government, tax reform, public education and creating a sewage system. According to Charles Strozier an expert in American History and Psychohistory, Benjamin Rush was “wonderfully American--utopian, confident, assertive, bold, progressive, and hopeful. He knew no boundaries and disdained constraints on the human soul.” Rush studied at Princeton and had a father-son relationship with Benjamin Franklin. He also studied under John Redman, at Edinburgh University. While living in Philadelphia Rush wrote a pamphlet detailing contemporary issues separating the colonists and the british. While involved in politics he made lots of connections and friendships most importantly John Adams. He married Julia Stockton and had nine children. In history he is known for being a famous doctor, who made contributions in the field of psychiatry and a signed of the Declaration of Independence during his minor role in the American …show more content…

By 1805 Adams had read Shakespeare twice in and was an avid reader of Cicero and the Bible. These texts fueled his mind to contemplate ideas. Adams and Rush discussed epic poems and romantic novels like Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake. They also discussed topics in education. Rush believed that the study of Greek and Latin was outdated and instead students should study modern languages. Abigail Adams agreed and claimed that Greek and Latin which was studied only by men left women out of the conversation. While Adams saw truth in her argument, he believed Greek and Latin was an important part of understanding and interpreting historical ideas and texts of the

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