Benjamin’s Rush: Early American Science

The basic ground rules of this spirit of inquiry are encapsulated in the title of Benjamin Franklin’s ground-breaking work Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1751; shelfmark: 538.l.5.(6)) just as they are in Medical Inquiries and Observations (4 Vols., Philadelphia, 1805; shelfmark MFR/3019 1 Reel 36:1), the most important writings of Franklin’s friend and fellow Philadelphian, Benjamin Rush (1746-1813).…
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Founding Fathers, Settled States vs Federal Rights

The Rallying Cry of Secession The appeal to states’ rights is of the most potent symbols of the American Civil War, but confusion abounds as to the historical and present meaning of this federalist principle. The concept of states’ rights had been an old idea by 1860. The original thirteen colonies in America in the…
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