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General Order No. 11 (1862)

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General Order No. 11 is the title of General Ulysses S. Grant's order of December 17, 1862, during the American Civil War, that all Jews in his district (areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky) be expelled.

The order was issued as part of a campaign led by Grant against a black market in Southern cotton. Eventually he became convinced that it was being run, "Mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders."

Text of Grant's order

General Order No. 11 decreed as follows:

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," an administrative district of the Union Army of occupation composed of Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi,] 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.[1]

Reaction

A group of Paducah, Kentucky Jewish merchants, led by Cesar Kaskel, dispatched a telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, condemning the order as "the grossest violation of the Constitution and our rights as good citizens under it."[2][3] The telegram also noted it would "place us . . . as outlaws before the whole world. We respectfully ask your immediate attention to this enormous outrage on all law and humanity . . . ." Throughout the Union, Jewish groups protested and sent telegrams to Washington, D.C.

Kaskel also led a delegation to Washington, D.C., arriving there on January 3, 1863. In Washington, he conferred with Jewish Republican Adolphus Solomons and a Cincinnati congressman, John A. Gurley. After meeting with Gurley, he went directly to the White House. Lincoln received the delegation and studied Kaskel's copies of General Order No. 11 and the specific order expelling Kaskel from Paducah. The President told Henry W. Halleck to have Grant revoke General Order № 11, which he did in the following message:

A paper purporting to be General Orders, No. 11, issued by you December 17, has been presented here. By its terms, it expells (sic) all Jews from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked.

Grant revoked the order three days later.

On January 6, a delegation led by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise of Cincinnati, called on Lincoln to express its gratitude that the order had been rescinded. Lincoln expressed surprise that Grant had issued such a command and stated his conviction that “to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad.” He drew no distinction between Jew and Gentile, the president said, and would allow no American to be wronged because of his religious affiliation.

When he ran for President in the election of 1868, Grant was able to carry the Jewish vote and named several Jews to high office.

Similar orders from Grant

Although Order No. 11 was portrayed as being outside the normal inclinations and character of Grant, it has been suggested by some Civil War historians that the order was part of a consistent pattern. "[T]his was not the first discriminatory order [Grant] had signed ... he was firmly convinced of the Jews' guilt and was eager to use any means of ridding himself of them."[4] The source goes on to cite other orders issued by Grant:

  • La Grange, Tenn., November 9, 1862
    Major-General Hurlbut, Jackson, Tenn.:
    Refuse all permits to come south of Jackson for the present. The Israelites especially should be kept out.
    U.S. Grant
    Major-General
  • La Grange, November 10, 1862
    General Webster, Jackson, Tenn.:
    Give orders to all the conductors on the 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.
    U.S. Grant
    Major-General

There were also at least two other cases before General Order No. 11:[5]

  • On April 10, 1862, Grant issued an order "to all the conductors on the road, that no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the road southward."
  • On December 8, 1862, an aide of Grant, Colonel John V. DuBois, ordered "all cotton speculators, Jews, and all vagabonds with no honest means of support", to leave the district.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress: Order No. 11," Jewish Virtual Library.[1]
  2. ^ Markens, I., Abraham Lincoln and the Jews (New York 1909), at p. 11. This book may be viewed at Google Books.
  3. ^ See also Feldberg, M. (ed.), "General Grant's Infamy," Blessings of Freedom: Chapters in American Jewish History (American Jewish Historical Society 2002), at p. 119.
  4. ^ Korn, B., American Jewry and the Civil War (1951), at p. 143.
  5. ^ Rozsa, M. "The New Emporia: Outlaws Before the Law," The Bard Observer, Issue 13 (Bard College, 2005) (reprinted Dec. 17, 2006, Issue 1).[2]

External links


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