Blessings to Mankind

"Let our common poepole be compelled by law to give their children (what is commonly called) a good education. Let schoolmasters of every description be supported in part by the public, and let their principles and morals be subjected to examination before we employ them... This plan of general education alone will render the American Revolution a blessing to mankind."

Benjamin Rush

Educational Foundation

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object an life of all republican governments."

Benjamin Rush

Freedom's Existince

"It is favourable to liberty. Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal."

Benjamin Ruch 1786

A New Nation

"Tis done! We have become a nation."

Benjamin Rush

The Amor Patriae

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families. The Amor Patriae is both a moral and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations. This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first characters of history."

Benjamin Rush

Greatest of Evils

“A simple democracy . . . is one of the greatest of evils.”

~Benjamin Rush (Signer of the Declaration, Letter to John Adams on July 21, 1789)