Here is a link to an interesting article about Benjamin Rush, a member of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  It’s about his plan for a “Peace-Office for the United States.”

Known as the
Father of American Psychiatry, Rush . . . was a noted physician and Professor
of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania . . . . Near the end of his life, he served as Treasurer
of the National Mint.

Rush was also
a prolific author. In 1798 he collected twenty-five of his previous
writings and published them in a volume he titled Essays,
Literary, Moral, and Philosophical (Philadelphia: Printed
by Thomas & Samuel F. Bradford, 1798). One of the essays had
been previously published in Banneker’s Almanac. This was
the work of Benjamin
Banneker (1731–1806), a noted black scientist, astronomer,
and surveyor who published an almanac from 1792–1797. Rush’s
radical essay was called “A Plan of a Peace-Office for the
United States.”

-MAD-