The Day General Grant Expelled the Jews
by
Gary North
GaryNorth.com
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In less than
one week, no one will be publicly celebrating the sesquicentennial
of one of the oddest events in American history: General Grant's
expulsion of the Jews from his military district on December 17,
1862.
Jonathan D.
Sarna, who teaches history at Brandeis University, has written a
book on this event, one which gets no space in high school and college
textbooks on American history: When
General Grant Expelled the Jews (2012).
In the weeks
prior to Lincoln's issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which
emancipated no slaves, General Grant grew weary of Jews who
violated the government's price controls on cotton. He wrote a letter
to C. P. Wolcott, the Assistant Secretary of War, dated December
17, 1862.
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..
I mean, what
can you expect from people who had decided that fiat money issued
by Congress – greenbacks – was not as good as gold? Just
because the greenbacks traded at a discount to gold's price was
not proof that they were not as good as gold. No, sir. It was the
fault of "unprincipled traders," who in some way –
no one is quite sure – colluded with one another, thereby driving
the price of greenbacks down.
These people
refused to let the government buy cotton at a fixed price. They
bid up the price and bought it out from under the military. Can
you imagine anyone doing such a thing?
So, Grant decided
to nip this in the bud.
General
Order Number 11, December 17, 1862
1. 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.
2. Within
twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order by Post Commanders,
they will see that all of this class of people are furnished with
passes and required to leave, and anyone returning after such
notification, will be arrested and held in confinement until an
opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished
with permits from these headquarters.
3. No permits
will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose
of making personal application for trade permits.
The
Wikipedia article on this order goes into considerable detail
on the background of this order.
On November
9, 1862, Grant sent an order to Major-General Stephen A. Hurlbut:
"Refuse all permits to come south of Jackson for the present.
The Israelites especially should be kept out." The following
day he instructed General Joseph Dana Webster: "Give orders
to all the conductors on the [rail]road that no Jews are to be
permitted to travel on the railroad southward from any point.
They may go north and be encouraged in it; but they are such an
intolerable nuisance that the department must be purged of them."In
a letter to General William Tecumseh Sherman, Grant wrote that
his policy was occasioned "in consequence of the total disregard
and evasion of orders by Jews."
Grant tightened
restrictions to try to reduce the illegal trade. On December 8,
1862, he issued General Order No. 2, mandating that "cotton-speculators,
Jews and other Vagrants having not honest means of support, except
trading upon the miseries of their Country ... will leave in twenty-four
hours or they will be sent to duty in the trenches."
Grant was not
alone in his disgust for Jews "as a class," who continued
to seek out ways to satisfy free market demand in cotton. His colleague,
William Tecumseh Sherman, had spotted the same practices. In a letter
from Union-occupied Memphis, July 30, 1862; he wrote:
I found
so many Jews and speculators here trading in cotton, and secessionists
had become so open in refusing anything but gold, that I have
felt myself bound to stop it. The gold can have but one use –
the purchase of arms and ammunition. . . . Of course, I have respected
all permits by yourself or the Secretary of the Treasury, but
in these new cases, I have stopped it.
 Gold
had lots of uses, both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Both domestic currencies sold at a discount to gold. Residents on
both sides recognized that gold was sound money and fiat money was
not.
Grant's order
was enforced.
The order
went into immediate effect; Army officers ordered Jewish traders
and their families in Holly Springs, Oxford, Mississippi, and
Paducah, Kentucky to leave the territory. Grant may not have intended
such results; his headquarters expressed no objection to the continued
presence of Jewish sutlers, as opposed to cotton traders. But,
the wording of the order addressed all Jews, regardless of occupation,
and it was implemented accordingly.
There were
about 150,000 Jews in the United States.
Read
the rest of the article
December
12, 2012
Gary
North [send him mail]
is the author of Mises
on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com.
He is also the author of a free 31-volume series, An
Economic Commentary on the Bible.
Copyright ©
2012 Gary North
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