Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) was an educator, physician, humanitarian, and Founding Father of the United States. In his speech, given before the Young Ladies’ Academy in Philadelphia in 1787, Benjamin Rush promotes the education of women as a way of preserving and promoting the American form of government. He begins by pointing out differences between British and American women. Rush argues that American women, because they marry at a younger age, must focus on useful forms of education that will aid them in their primary role, that of wife and mother. Women in the United States served as the “guardians of their husbands’ property.” In Britain, educated servants oversaw the homestead and property, while in the United States this role was predominantly played by the wife. Being educated helped in this role. Rush also points out that mothers acted as the next generation’s first and most important teachers. For the American nation to survive and thrive, ideas supporting the American democratic-republican form of government must be passed down from mother to child, generation to generation. Rush is encouraging the education of women as a way of accomplishing this.