Benjamin Rush, Rejoinder to Murder by Death

Butterfield (Letters, 491, n. 3) comments that this "Rejoinder" is "one of BR's most effective statements of his humanitarian principles. Accused of a dangerous rejection of Mosaic law, BR retorted that 'It becomes Christians to beware how far they condemn the popular virtue of humanity, because it is recommended by deists,' and goes on to cite the contributions of Voltaire, Beccaria, and others." (see also 1788-6)