Commemoration of the Life and Death of William Henry Harrison. A Funeral Address Delivered on Sabbath, the Fifth Day of Passover, at the Synagogue Mikveh Israel by Isaac Leeser.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

C. Sherman

Philadelphia

1841

Singerman 746.

Leeser's funeral address is the first published eulogy for a President by a Jewish cleric. A brief section here provides a keen insight into Leeser's democratic sentiments. “In the brief sketch we have just furnished of the life and services of General Harrison, it will be perceived that he passed through every stage of promotion, and that he rose from a humble standard-bearer to the chief command of the army and navy, and the presidency of the councils of his native land; and he thus reached a station as high as human ambition can look for; because the voluntary suffrage of a free people raising one of their own fellow-citizens to the highest honour within their gift, is a far more enviable distinction than a throne inherited by a stripling from a royal ancestry, or acquired through violence by an adventurous military chieftain.” (p. 13).