LAST year, all over this land, we celebrated a centennial. It was
not in commemoration of a victory upon the battlefield, it was not
the celebration of a victory, but rather as we observe with fitting
ceremonies the anniversaries of the firing of the first guns in any
contest of right against wrong, so in this last centennial year we
commemorated the first booming of cannon in the great war against the
rum traffic, the beginning of a war that is not ended yet; all along
down the century the booming has been heard, and to-day this moral
fight is waging fiercely.
About one hundred and forty years ago, near the city of Philadelphia,
a boy named Benjamin Rush was growing up. It is said of him that as
he advanced from childhood to boyhood his love of study was unusual,
amounting to a passion. He graduated from Princeton College when only
fifteen years old, and with high honors. He began the study of medicine
in Philadelphia, but went abroad to complete his medical education and
studied under the first physicians in Edinburgh, London and Paris;
thus the best opportunities for gaining knowledge of his chosen
profession were added to natural abilities and the spirit of research.
He became a practising physician in Philadelphia, and was soon after
chosen professor of chemistry in a medical college in the same city.
While he is now at the distance of a century, best known as one who
struck the first blow for temperance reform, yet it is interesting to
know that when in 1776, he was a member of the Provincial Assembly of
Pennsylvania, he was the mover of the first resolution to consider the
expediency of a Declaration of Independence on the part of the American
Colonies. He was made chairman of a committee appointed to consider the
matter. Afterwards he was a member of the Continental Congress, and was
one of the devoted band who in Independence Hall affixed their names to
the immortal document which cut the colonies loose from their moorings
and swung them out upon a sea of blood, to bring them at last into the
harbor of freedom and independence. As was said of him at the meeting
in Philadelphia, last year: "He was a great controlling force in all
that pertained to the successful struggle of the colonies for national
independence." We are told that "He was one of the most active,
original and famous men of his times; an enthusiast, a philanthropist,
a man of immense grasp in the work-day world, as well as a polished
scholar, and a scientist of the most exact methods."
He was interested in educational enterprises; he wrote upon epidemic
diseases, and won great honor for himself, so that the kings of other
lands bestowed upon him the medals which they are wont to give to those
whom they desire to honor. And now let me quote again from one who
appreciates the character of this truly great man:
"This matchless physician, eminent scholar and pure patriot blent all
his wise rare gifts in one tribute and cast them at the feet of his
Master. He was a devout Christian."
At length his soul was stirred within him as he witnessed the
increasing evils of intemperance, and he wrote and published his
celebrated essay upon "The Effects of ardent Spirits upon the Human
Body and Mind, with an account of the means of preventing them, and
of the remedies for curing them." This is said to have been the first
temperance treatise ever published--the beginning of a temperance
literature. One hundred years ago, just one pamphlet of less than fifty
pages; now, whole libraries of bound books, besides scores upon scores
of pamphlets, leaflets and many periodicals devoted exclusively to the
cause of temperance! and nearly three quarters of a century after this
good man had gone to his rest, men and women from all over the land
thronged the city of his birth "To recount the victories won in the
war--and to strike glad hands of fellowship."
And now what made Doctor Rush great? What is the best thing said of him?