In 1874 President Ulysses S. Grant and his full cabinet attended the dedication of the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. This was the first time an American President had attended such a service. This was a political attempt by Grant to change his tarnished image that resulted twelve years earlier when he issued General Order 11 as Major-General Grant.
General Order 11 was an order that was issues on December 17, 1862 which ordered the expulsion of all Jews in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. The order was prompted by Grant's belief that the Jews were the people primarily responsible for running the black market trade in southern cotton.
General Order No. 11 stated:
- The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the Department [of the Tennessee] within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.
- Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters.
- No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application of trade permits.
In a letter of the same date sent to Christopher Parsons Wolcott, the assistant United States Secretary of War, Grant explained his reasoning:
Sir,
I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into Post Commanders, that the Specie regulations of the Treasury Dept. have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied of this have I been at this that I instructed the Commdg Officer at Columbus [Kentucky] to refuse all permits to Jews to come south, and frequently have had them expelled from the Dept. [of the Tennessee]. But they come in with their Carpet sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel any where. They will land at any wood yard or landing on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy Cotton themselves they will act as agents for someone else who will be at a Military post, with a Treasury permit to receive Cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying gold.
There is but one way that I know of to reach this case. That is for Government to buy all the Cotton at a fixed rate and send it to Cairo, St Louis, or some other point to be sold. Then all traders, they are a curse to the Army, might be expelled.
A few weeks after its release President Abraham Lincoln revoked the order. Grant later stated that it had been written by a subordinate, and he had signed it without reading it. Lincoln, in reference to the order, stated "to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad". He went on to state that no American would be wronged because of religious affiliation and that he drew no distinction between Jew and Gentile.
-Professor Walter
