On this day 250 years ago, Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia published his essay “On Patriotism” in which he wrote that if the ships headed to America with tea were allowed to unload their cargo “then farewell American liberty! . . . let us with one heart and hand oppose the landing of it. . . . Remember, my Countrymen, the present aera — perhaps the present struggle will fix the constitution of America forever –think of your ancestors, and of your posterity.”

Sources: Fried, Stephen, Rush: Revolution, Madness & The Visionary Doctor Who Became A Founding Father, New York, Broadway Books, 2018 at pp. 99-100; Norton, Mary Beth, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution, New York, Vintage Books, 2021 at p. 13.