(Newspaper). The New York Times. Vol. XVIII, No. 5362. Contains on p. 2, "Gen. Grant's Jew Order: Why It Was Issued - A Statement of the Circumstances of the Case." Also Editorial comment on p.4

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

November 30th

New York

1868

The New York Times features the notorious General Order No. 11 by Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant, expelling "the Jews, as a class...within twenty-four hours" from the Department of Tennessee. It appeared that Grant suspected certain Jews were trading with the rebels of the South. The Israelite, a newspaper edited by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, vehemently protested the grave injustice and Wise's lobbying resulted in President Lincoln revoking Grant's order. Consequently, in the Presidential campaign of 1868, a charge of anti-Semitism was levelled at presidential candidate Grant to which he responds in this issue of the New York Times. Grant writes to the Hon. I.N. Morris of lllinois giving "assurance that I have no prejudice against sect or race, but want each individual to be judged by his own merit. Order No. 11 does not sustain this statement I admit, but then I do not sustain that order. It never would have been issued if it had not been telegraphed the moment it was penned and without reflection." Grant's letter, written prior to the election was intended to appeal to Jewish voters. The editorial comment on p. 4 reads: "Gen. Grant's letter is a frank and manly confession of a mistake or a hasty error, and must be satisfactory to both his friends and his enemies of the Hebrew race." See B.W. Korn, American Jewry and the Civil War (1951) pp. 121-55; J.G. Heller, Isaac M. Wise: His Life, Work and Thought (1965) pp. 350-59, 374-75; EJ, Vol. VII, cols. 855-6