NEWS OF 150 YEARS AGO
January and February 1863
From The Missouri Democrat, Tuesday, January 20, 1863.
Why Gen. Grant Issued His Order Expelling Jews from His Department.
[From the Cincinnati Commercial, Jan. 19.]
EDS. COM: In your paper of this morning I noticed an article headed “General Grant and the Jews,” copied from the Israelite, of Cincinnati, and purporting to have been written by the editor of that paper from Washington, and to detail the conversation and action of the president, the Secretary of War and Gen. Halleck, on that subject.
I think the order was wrong, and ought never to have been made. But I would say, let the responsibility rest where it belongs. General Grant has enough to bear from the wonton and malicious attacks of irresponsible and untruthful newspaper correspondents, without making him the scapegoat to bear the sins of others. I will relate what I know about that order; then let the public judge who is to blame. On the evening of the 17th of December, I was sitting in the General’s office at Oxford, Mississippi, when a telegram was handed in, which he remarked was instructions from Washington, and read it, as near as I can recollect, as follows:
“We are reliably advised that Jews are buying up the gold in the various cities of the Union, for the purpose of investing in cotton in the South. This should be prevented. You will therefore, issue an order expelling from your lines all Jews who cannot give satisfactory evidence of their honesty of intentions.” On this General Grant issued his order, and all who gave evidence of honest intentions were exempt from the force of that order.
The Israelite will please copy.
A GENTILE.