Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and the founder of Dickinson College.

"[2][3] He served as surgeon general of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

He opposed slavery, advocated free public schools, and sought improved, but patriarchal,[5] education for women, and a more enlightened penal system.

[16] Rush ultimately published the first American textbook on chemistry and several volumes on medical student education and wrote influential patriotic essays.

[14] Rush was active in the Sons of Liberty and was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress.

Rush's order "Directions for preserving the health of soldiers" became one of the foundations of preventive military medicine and was repeatedly republished, including as late as 1908.

One, to Virginia Governor Patrick Henry dated October 13, 1778, quotes General Thomas Conway saying that if not for God's grace the ongoing war would have been lost by Washington and his weak counselors.

[14]: 133–34  Rush's letter relayed General John Sullivan's criticism that forces directly under Washington were undisciplined and mob-like, and contrasted Gates' army as "a well-regulated family".

[22]: 212–215  Ten days later, Rush wrote to John Adams relaying complaints inside Washington's army, including about "bad bread, no order, universal disgust" and praising Conway, who had been appointed to inspector general.

In a letter to John Adams in 1812, Rush wrote, "He [Washington] was the highly favored instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to the establishment of the independence of the United States."

He was elected to the Pennsylvania convention which adopted the Federal constitution and was appointed treasurer of the United States Mint, serving from 1797 to 1813.

However, he also helped the population of the city by convincing Richard Allen to ask members of his African Methodist Episcopal Church and other free blacks, who it was believed were less affected by yellow fever than other Philadelphians,[27] to perform volunteer aid work for doctors and funeral homes.

Any apparent evidence to the contrary was only the perverted expression of slavery, which "is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it.

[39] His outspoken opposition to capital punishment pushed the Pennsylvania legislature to abolish the death penalty for all crimes other than first-degree murder.

[40] After the Revolution, Rush proposed a new model of education for elite women that included English language, vocal music, dancing, sciences, bookkeeping, history, and moral philosophy.

In his report on the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic of 1793, Rush wrote: "I have found bleeding to be useful, not only in cases where the pulse was full and quick but where it was slow and tense.

During that epidemic, Rush gained acclaim for remaining in town and treating sometimes 100 patients per day (some through freed black volunteers coordinated by Richard Allen), but many died.

He added that this "should teach white people the necessity of keeping up that prejudice against [miscegenation], as it would tend to infect posterity with … their disorder" and called for an "endeavour to discover a remedy for it.

In his autobiography, he writes "From a review of the three different species of settlers, it appears that there are certain regular stages which mark the progress from the savage to civilized life.

"[50] Rush published one of the first descriptions and treatments for psychiatric disorders in American medicine, Medical Inquiries and Observations, Upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812).

For this reason, some aspects of his approach could be seen as similar to Moral Therapy, which would soon rise to prominence in at least the wealthier institutions of Europe and the United States.

[22] In Diseases of the Mind (1812), Rush wrote: It has been remarked that the maniacs of the male sex in all hospitals, who assist in cutting wood, making fires, and digging in a garden, and the females who are employed in washing, ironing, and scrubbing floors, often recover, while persons, whose rank exempts them from performing such services, languish away their lives within the walls of the hospital.Furthermore, Rush was one of the first people to describe Savant Syndrome.

His students included Valentine Seaman, who mapped yellow fever mortality patterns in New York and introduced the smallpox vaccine to the United States in 1799.

[66] One of his last apprentices was Samuel A. Cartwright, later a Confederate States of America surgeon charged with improving sanitary conditions in the camps around Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana.

[68] Rush regularly attended Christ Church in Philadelphia and counted William White among his closest friends (and neighbors).

"[69] Christian Universalists consider him one of their founders, although Rush stopped attending that church after the death of his friend, former Baptist pastor Elhanan Winchester, in 1797.

Earlier, on July 16, 1776, Rush had complained to Patrick Henry about a provision in Virginia's constitution of 1776 which forbade clergymen from serving in the legislature.

To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science.

After hearing Elhanan Winchester preach, Rush indicated that this theology "embraced and reconciled my ancient calvinistical, and my newly adopted (Arminian) principles.

His wife, Julia Rush, thought her husband like Martin Luther for his ardent passions, fearless attacks on old prejudices, and quick tongue against perceived enemies.