I always love stories about redemption and this is a great one. Grant’s initial actions show us the dangers of acting in haste, anger, and without reflection – yet he was able to make atonement for it later on. Abraham Lincoln comes out looking heroic and wise in the story as well.
by Jeff Jacoby
In the American experience, anti-Semitic decrees have been virtually unthinkable. Religious liberty is enshrined in the Constitution, and early in his presidency, George Washington went out of his way to assure the young nation’s Jews that “the Government of the United States . . . gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” During the long centuries of Jewish exile, powerful officials had often promulgated sweeping edicts depriving Jews of their rights or driving them from their homes. In America, that could never happen.
But 150 years ago this month, it did.
In December 1862, with the Civil War raging, the Union Army’s efforts to control the movement of Southern cotton was bedeviled by illegal speculation and black marketeers. Like many of his contemporaries, Major General Ulysses S. Grant — then commanding a vast geographic swath called the Department of the Tennessee — shared a crude stereotype of all Jews as avaricious, corner-cutting swindlers. That ugly prejudice boiled over in General Orders No. 11, the most infamous anti-Semitic injunction in American history: “The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from this department within 24 hours.”
The region commanded by Grant was home to several thousand Jews (including men in uniform serving under him). Fortunately, General Orders No. 11 had little direct impact on most of them. Jews were driven out of Paducah, Ky., and some towns in Mississippi and Tennessee, and there were accounts of Jewish travelers being imprisoned and roughed up. But a breakdown in military communications slowed the spread of Grant’s directive, and at least some officers had qualms about enforcing it. Brigadier General Jeremiah C. Sullivan, the Union commander of Jackson, Tenn., commented tartly that “he thought he was an officer of the Army and not of a church.”
What stopped the expulsion order cold, however, was the commander-in-chief. When word of Grant’s edict reached President Lincoln on Jan. 3, 1863, he immediately countermanded it. “To condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad,” the president declared. “I do not like to hear a class or nationality condemned on account of a few sinners.”
[.......]
As historian Jonathan Sarna relates in a recent book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” Grant’s order did his military career no harm. Within a few years he was commander of all Union armies and the Confederate surrender at Appomattox made him a national hero. He was elected president in 1868, and reelected four years later.
Yet for the rest of his life, Grant was ashamed of having attempted to evict “Jews as a class” for offenses most of them had never committed. “What his wife, Julia, called ‘that obnoxious order’ continued to haunt Grant up to his death,” Sarna writes. “The sense that in expelling them he had failed to live up to his own high standards of behavior, and to the Constitution that he had sworn to uphold, gnawed at him. He apologized for the order publicly and repented of it privately.”
Not surprisingly, Grant’s order got a good deal of attention in the 1868 presidential campaign — the first time a “Jewish issue” played a role in presidential politics. Grant didn’t deny that General Orders No. 11 had grossly violated core American values. “I do not sustain that order,” he wrote humbly. “It would never have been issued if it had not been telegraphed the moment it was penned, and without reflection.”
But it was as president that the full extent of Grant’s regret became clear. He opposed a movement to make the United States an explicitly Christian state through a constitutional amendment designating Jesus as “ruler among the nations.” He named more Jews to government office than any of his predecessors — including to positions, such as governor of the Washington Territory, previously considered too lofty for a Jewish nominee.
Grant became the first American president to openly speak out against the persecution of Jews abroad. In response to anti-Jewish pogroms in Romania, he took the unprecedented step of sending a Jewish consul-general to Bucharest to “work for the benefit of the people who are laboring under severe oppression.” All in all, the eight years of Grant’s presidency proved to be a “golden age” in US Jewish history. When he died in 1885, he was mourned in synagogues nationwide.
It was a remarkable saga of atonement. From scourge of the Jews to their great friend in Washington; from the general who trampled Jewish liberty to the president who made protection of their rights a priority. [........]
Read the rest - Ulysses S. Grant’s greatest regret
Tags: Civil War, Jeff Jacoby, Ulysses S. Grant
He opposed a movement to make the United States an explicitly Christian state through a constitutional amendment designating Jesus as “ruler among the nations.”
What genius came up with that one?
eaglesoars wrote:
If you ask Rodan, it was probably Rick Santorum…
lobo91 wrote:
Oh that’s hilarious because Santorum probably would agree with it.
Although personally honest, Grant’s two terms was loaded with cronyism and corruption.
Sherman also had some strong anti-Semitic tendencies.
I guess they couldn’t blame AIPAC back then. /
I always admired his wife Julia Dent Grant. She was cross eyed and wanted to get an operation to fix it but Grant forbade it saying “I kind of like her that way”.
On his death bed in 1885, Grant received his pre-war friend, and Civil War foe, and later his friend again, former Confederate General Simon Bolivar Buckner. Buckner had surrendered Ft. Donelson to Grant in Feb. 1862 when Grant demanded “unconditional surrender”. Later Buckner’s son, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. was killed on Okinawa commanding the U.S. 10th Army.
@ lobo91:
He definitely would try to do that.
@ Speranza:
I would love for Santorium to explain how he would create Utopia in America. He is on record of being against Individualism. I dread to think what Santorum would do if he had power.
Other Confederate Generals who were West Point friends or pre war army comrades of Grant were James Longstreet, John Bowen, Cadmus Wilcox, Harry Heth. In Mexico during the Mexican War, Grant met Robert E. Lee and John Pemberton (the Pennsylvanian who commanded the defense of Vicksburg and surrendered to Grant in July 1863). Grant also met as a West Point cadet a rather shy cadet from what is now West Virginia named Thomas J. Jackson later known as Stonewall Jackson.
Rodan wrote:
He would if he could.
http://www.ricksantorum.com/oped/resurrecting-religious-freedom
yea, he’s a monster alright
waldensianspirit wrote:
What the rest of Washington refuses to acknowledge.
waldensianspirit wrote:
He’s politically tone deaf -- his comment on JFK’s 1960′s speech about separation of church and state “making me want to puke” showed just that.
http://townhall.com/columnists/brucebialosky/2012/12/10/republicans_easy_way_to_defuse_social_issues/page/full/
Almost perfect. Take back the argument.
From the morning thread
@ Speranza:
Puke away. But your man Romney failed to increase even the mormon vote; actually lost them in contrast to Bush and McCain. They knew things
Bloomberg’s City And he’s decreeing against soda volume and salt
Meanwhile [after your hissy fits about Santorum]:
Report: U.S. And Britain In Talks To Provide Military Training, Air Cover To Syrian Rebels…
waldensianspirit wrote:
The Republican Party dragged down what you refer to as “my man” Romney. Romney got more votes then McCain did (McCain lost by 7%, Romney by 2.8%) and by the way the Mormon vote is not monolithic (Harry Reid is a Mormon in case you do not know that) any more then the Catholic vote is. “Your man Romney”, so what ‘s your point -- Rick Santorum would have been a better candidate, your “man” Santorum lost by what was it 18% when he ran in 2006?
waldensianspirit wrote:
What those that have to do with my “hissy fit” (nice segue) about Santorum?
waldensianspirit wrote:
Now there’s a brilliant plan…
@ waldensianspirit:
Santorum would have lost in a 45 sate blowout.
Speranza wrote:
It has to do with how out of touch your opinions are while you fight some noexistent secular right war against anyone with an iota of spirituality.
Your idea of a secular right take over of the country joined by the hiphop crowd is one of the most absurd ideas I’ve ever heard
Rodan wrote:
Who cares
Rodan wrote:
Can’t you find some new relevant material?
waldensianspirit wrote:
Apparently, we’re going to spend the next 4 years arguing over which irrelevant former candidate is responsible for Obama being reelected.
//How thrilling…
Charlie Crist probably would win by 45 states against the GOP. I guess winning without any principles is greatness because everyone loves a winner
waldensianspirit wrote:
You’re right -- Santorum should have been our candidate and Michele Bachmann our V.P. -- that would have worked out beautifully. Maybe we could have substituted Alan Keyes.
The Eisenhower administration has been gone for 53 years and we better wake up to the fact that we are well into the 21st century.
waldensianspirit wrote:
At this point, I think whoever promises the most free stuff will win.
Obama spent four years and with ‘counterfeited’ 6 trillion extra dollars bought votes; and folks are surprised he won in a majority immoral country???
lobo91 wrote:
And so it will be until the fail of the republic.
Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Bachmann Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Keyes Santorum Santorum Santorum Bachmann Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Bachmann Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Keyes Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Bachmann Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Keyes Santorum Santorum Santorum Bachmann Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Bachmann Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Keyes Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum Santorum
Cold front may delay launch of mysterious X-37B mini-shuttle
We still have a shuttle and I kinda like this one even though it’d be nice to have both
waldensianspirit wrote:
Which will come sooner than people think.
lobo91 wrote:
it done came… this is not America.
brookly red wrote:
The world is completely striated; borders are meaningless
@ waldensianspirit:
Hey we have tried it your way for 20 years with stupid culture wars that have turned off many parts of the country. The hypocritical stances of family values which is none of any politician’s business. The truth is most voters view our side as a bunch of angry hostile Theocratic loons. Your approach has failed.
As for your boy Santorum, he is nothing more than a self righteous Bible thumping Progressive He fools people like you with red meat rhetoric about abortion to implement a Leftist economic agenda.
Wake up, you are being played by Progressives who hide behind religion. But what do you care, as long as you hear some politician ranting and raving about abortion, family values or gays, it makes you feel better. It’s all about feelings for those allegedly on the Right like you. In reality, you have adopted the Marxist concept of Utopia. Government does not lead to Utopia.
Wake up!
@ Rodan:
Have fun building your secular right party with hiphop alliance; lot’s of luck
Rodan wrote:
See @ waldensianspirit:
A secular right ‘competitor’ to the Obama machine is a hoot.
Snowballs chance in hell
Ok Bill Whittle was cute with all that (Oh and he was pleasant to Bachmann) but the reality is; not a snowball’s chance in hell.
[Whittle should be ostracised for being a persuasive gentlemen]
waldensianspirit wrote:
really? try getting in Mexico from the south… try getting out of North Korea. There are plenty of real borders, just not here.
Anybody who has the morality to not want and take freebies confiscated from productive citizens can be members of my ideal majority Party; what else they say or do effects me like water on a ducks back
Another aspect of Jewish/American history some people might not know is Hyam Solomon. He was a Jew who came here from Poland and helped finance the Revolution.
Developed civilizations become more socially liberal over time, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly. It’s the natural order. When civilizations reverse course and become more socially conservative, it simply doesn’t end well.
Politicians fare poorly in conducting the affairs of men, therefore they should most certainly refrain from dabbling in the affairs of God.
@ eaglesoars:
Thanks for that! I love learning bits of history that are not commonly known. Very interesting.
@ Dolphin:
most welcome!
@ eaglesoars:
Judah P. Benjamin, Senator from Louisiana, then Confederate Secretary of War then Secretary of Sate. Later went to England and became a famous barrister.
MacDuff wrote:
I agree. When they start dabbling in religion or God they become tyrants see Robespierre and his “Festival of the Supreme Being”.
The Dreyfus Affair was a French scandal which revealed anti-Semitism at the highest ranks of the French Army and the French Catholic Church in the 1890′s. Interesting story. There have been numerous books and at least one movie about the subject. It would be an interesting topic for a thread.
huckfunn wrote:
There have been a few movies about the Dreyfus Affair. One was with Jose Ferrer called “I, Accuse” another was “The Life of Emile Zola” starring the great Paul Muni.
@ Speranza:
I’ve seen at least 1 of the movies. Can’t remember which one. At any rate, an interesting and tragic story. I’ve always been fascinated with the story.
The OOT is up.
@ huckfunn:
Saved that one to read tomorrow. Watching the game and hubby is none to happy with me right now. Plus it is way past my bed time for a week night. Glad I took tomorrow as a personal day, my clock just doesn’t know that!
huckfunn wrote:
It was not one of the Third Republic’s shining moments.
@ Dolphin:
Heh, sad game indeed for the Texans.
Now, where did the OOT go?
My comment disamapeared before I could post it.
@ Calo:
Looks like someone eated it…
@ Calo:
It was a satire piece. Funny as heck, but satire.
I am a NE loyalist. Have been for many, many years. Don’t talk sh!t or anything, but the Pats are my team. I am surprised that I am not sleeping in my truck -- lol.
Ultimately, I looked at this game as a win-win no matter how it turned out.
How is Lily? Saw you went over this past weekend.
Can I give you a call tomorrow?
Here is the link..
Again, really wish it were true.
http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/peta-crashes-biker-gathering-not-to-be-missed/27275/
The secular right is jobs and trade and a strong defense. It’s not hip hop etc. Faith based voters need to be able to tend to themselves first and then realize what the practical foundation of that faith is. God wants attention to detail more than a lot of breaking of glass. There are times when it is farsighted to vote for the second best candidate.
Dolphin wrote:
Sorry, I was still looking for myself, but I’m back.
Yes, please call tomorrow (not at the crack of dawn, please) and maybe we can set up a time after Christmas to do some footwork for the NRA Convention.
huckfunn wrote:
I have a question. In terms of French culture of the time, military and civilian, it is my impression that the hierarchy of the Catholic church was the arbiter of all that was holy and good. Correct?
One thing I have never understood and I hope someone here can tell me -- why was Dreyfus a target? Anti-semitism is not a detailed enough answer, if you don’t mind. Or, if you can recommend any books(s) I can download…………
@ Calo:
Will do.
Night all.
How to Alinsky the left.
@ eaglesoars:
Dreyfus affair
From Wikipedia.
A good enough place to start. But not the final word.
Guns are bad. No one should ever use them. Especially conservatives who are evil. We need guns though to fight off the conservatives. Once we win no one will need a gun anymore. So conservatives… Don’t use a gun. Not if you want a clear conscience. Don’t…. We are the only ones smart enough to use them wisely.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
Thanks. Most of it I knew but not the bit about his granddaughter. The clue seems to be the artillery info passed and that Dreyfus was framed for it. Has anyone ever figured out who the actual culprit was?
darkwords wrote:
Have you ever witnessed a true liberal in the presence of a loaded weapon carried by an ordinary civilian?
Hilarity ensues. Trust me.
About 5 years ago we had an infestation of coyotes. I won’t bore you with those details but Molly the Beagle and I had been threatened by a small pack (4) of coyotes on one of our walks. So for about a year, until animal control was able to animal control, when I walked Molly, I took my lady-like S&W 38 revolver w/us. In the summer, there’s no way to conceal. So, it wasn’t. Wish I’d had someone w/ a video cam following us.
I’m almost caught up with Vince Flynn’s books. I’m reading Extreme Measures now, and it has one of my favorite speeches in it:
Amen
@ lobo91:
Good Lord! Best lines I have read all day.
Thanks Rudolph, er, Leia.
@ Calo:
That’s why I like Vince Flynn’s novels. He gets it.
So does Brad Thor. We won’t see the villains transformed into Russian neo-Nazis if they ever make any of their books into movies.
@ lobo91:
Some nights I have to cry at how culturally deficit I am.
I have never read any Brad Thor novels.
Bah, I don’t even understand the Star Trek references some nights.
Please take pity in me.
Good morning everyone. Things have been busy and hectic. Show is done and pictures down, and I have a submission ready to go for another show. If I make the cut. Will find out in a couple of weeks. IN the mean time, Dim Sum walk was on the agenda.
@ PaladinPhil:
Hi Phil
I don’t know how to tell you which pic I’m referring to -- it’s the large one where your camera seems to be pointing up -- at the bottom the stone is blue, etc.
Anyway, nice ‘shading’ -- hard to do, I know. Nice work
@ waldensianspirit:
As I have been saying for some time, if you want to tell the most reliable conservative votes out there to piss off, feel free, but don’t expect to be winning any elections after that. The Religious/Social conservatives are the backbone of the Republican Party (to the extent that it has a backbone). Telling them to go to hell is about as productive as simple ceeding all future elections to the Democrats. The results will be about the same.
Define ‘pissing into the wind’
New York Democratic Rep. Steve Israel is calling for legislation to renew the federal ban on plastic guns, according to his official congressional website.
@ eaglesoars:
Thanks. I loved the smog accumulation along with the wetness of it. Old stone buildings are great for textures and looks.
@ eaglesoars:
Oh, and just hover the mouse over the picture and a title should pop up.
@ eaglesoars:
Since nobody makes “plastic guns” except for toy guns, I’d say this asshole just doesn’t know what he is talking about. Sure, there are plastic framed guns, like the Glock, but they still have a lot of steel in them. A solid plastic gun that can fire a projectile and kill someone is a work of science fiction. Next they will want to ban light-sabers.
Iron Fist wrote:
One thing about this whole issue. For me, I will never again vote against my principles or for someone without morals (I get to decide what they are for me). I can live with a secular party, but we all know that for it to be truly secular they have to stay out of all things dealing with my religion. No party or Government of either side can do that, it’s not in their nature.
The division is great on this. There’s not agreement even here! Fractures will and have torn the conservative side apart.
Tell me to STFU and STFD all you want, but it only strengthens my resolve, and doesn’t endure me to your way of thinking!
PaladinPhil wrote:
Ooooh. slow learner here.
Iron Fist wrote:
In THAT case I’m screwed.
gotta go -- real life summons me (remember when we all couldn’t WAIT to grow up?)
@ Iron Fist:
It’s good to see that Congress has time to worry about banning non-existent items. I guess that means they solved that whole “fiscal cliff” deal, right?
//
eaglesoars wrote:
Esterhazy was known as the culprit at the time.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
He committed suicide.