Grant’s Expulsion of Jews: What Does It Mean Today?

On December 17, 1862, during the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11. The order threw out all Jews in his western division of the Union Army. Grant gave Jews 24 hours notice to pack up and leave.  
A month before, 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.” A day later, 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.” 
How was the order enforced? Clearly, some degree of physical stereotyping would be required to effectuate it. 
Later, Grant wrote to General Sherman that he needed to issue the expulsion order because “of the total disregard and evasion of orders by Jews.”

What set Grant off? The immediate cause was a Union embargo on the cotton trade. In his words, the underground market for cotton was run “mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders.” 

This religious libel trafficked in the long-running stereotype of Jews as greedy, selfish actors. William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist reinforced the stereotype of the crooked Jew. 
Essentially, Gen. Grant charged all Jews as being corrupt.

Jewish community leaders spoke out. By January 4, 1863—a year after the expulsion took effect— President Abraham Lincoln revoked the General Order on January 4, 1863.

Reading the text of the order is also instructive:

“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.”

This week, Jews and all people of conscience commemorate the Holocaust.

Grant’s bigotry against Jews offers some timely comparisons.

Candidate Donald Trump promised voters a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” See this news story from December 7, 2015—11 months before the election (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/12/07/donald-trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-the-united-states/?utm_term=.8efa85df421b). This amounted to a total exclusion based on Grant’s similar thinking about Jews.

On July 26, 2017, President Trump announced that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the U.S. military—a total exclusion based on Grant’s similar thinking about Jews (as of October 2017, 20 countries allow transgender service members, as varied as France and Germany to Cuba and Thailand).

On August 31, 2016, candidate Trump specifically libeled Mexicans as a categorical group, saying:  “They're bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

The destruction of most of European Jewry was built on the type of despicable group libel communicated by Gen. Grant and Donald Trump. 

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There is a noteworthy postscript to Grant. He changed. After the Civil War, he was the primary commander for leading troops into Southern states to root out the Ku Klux Klan. 

By 1875, the Klan was crushed due in no small part to Grant’s relentless military and political efforts (by supporting law-abiding sheriffs and elected politicians, and working for elections free of Klan intimidation). 
Later, as president he appointed more Jews to office than any previous president. He condemned atrocities against Jews in Europe, putting human rights on the American diplomatic agenda. Grant was also the first president to attend a dedication of Jewish synagogue.

I welcome FB post, and your privately communicated thoughts to mhl@illinois.edu. Surely, I have only scratched the surface. Thanks to a wise friend who alerted me to Grant’s order.