The signers of Declaration of Independence were a varied lot comprising merchants, lawyers, landed gentry, farmers, and political agitators as well as several medical men prominent in colonies. Indeed, first signature on Declaration is that of Josiah Bartlett, a physician who represented the most Easterly Province, and in 1793 became first governor ofNew Hampshire. Another medical signer was Lyman Hall of Georgia, who became governor of his state in 1783 and was instrumental in establishing a state university. Best known today is Benjamin Rush (1746-1813) of Philadelphia, who as a leading physician and teacher not only exerted an important influence on practitioners of his time and for several generations after his death, but is also regarded as father of American psychiatry because of his pioneer endeavor to raise study and treatment of mental and emotional illness to a systematic, scientific level. (For this reason American Psychiatric Association established an annual Benjamin Rush Lecture on Psychiatric History which I inaugurated in May 1967.) In this bicentennial year, therefore, it may be of interest in light of his political and medical experience to examine how Rush viewed impact of American Revolution on health of his contemporaries. Benjamin Rush was born in Byberry, Pennsylvania, son of a farmer and gunsmith. After graduating from College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in 1760, he was apprenticed to John Redman, a Philadelphia physician. In August 1766, he entered University of Edinburgh and received his medical degree in June 1768 after presenting a thesis on gastric digestion, De coctione ciborum in ventriculo, based on several experiments performed on himself and friends. Shortly after his return to Philadelphia in 1769, Rush was elected professor of chemistry in College of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania) and began practice of medicine. Rush was an early and ardent proponent of American independence. In Edinburgh he had adopted republican principles, and in Philadelphia he became actively involved in colonial resistance to Crown. In 1776, he was elected to Continental Congress and signed Declaration of Independence. Rush joined Continental Army in December of that year and from April 1777 to January 1778 served as surgeon-general of armies of Middle Department. But differences arose between Rush and William Shippen, director-general of medical service, which led to his resignation and resumption of private practice in Philadelphia. In 1789, he was appointed professor of theory and practice of medicine in medical faculty of College of Philadelphia. At same time, Rush continued to advance national unity and foster political stability in young American republic. Thus he advocated adoption of Constitution, and helped to frame Pennsylvania state constitution of 1790. From 1797 to 1813, he served as treasurer of United States Mint. Like his contemporaries Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Rush was a representative of American Enlightenment. A major impulsion toward action for public good was to release mankind from trammels of ignorance and to improve conditions of life in a rational manner. Consequently Rush advocated a national system of education, with various state-supported schools, including a national university and technical schools. He also championed higher education for women, and was largely responsible for founding of Dickinson College in western Pennsylvania. He was also a principal founder, in 1786, of Philadelphia Dispensary for Poor, first free dispensary in United States. The abolition of slavery, temperance and penal reform were other causes for which Rush worked. He was an early and passionate proponent of abolitionist cause, serving as president of Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery. Rush was a strong advocate of temperance and legal control of drinking. In 1787, together with Benjamin Franklin and several like-minded men, he organized Philadelphia Society for Alleviating Miseries of Public Prisons. This group succeeded in having death penalty in Pennsylvania abolished for all crimes except murder in first degree. Underlying Rush's medical, political, and reform activities were a group of ideas within which those on social