Isaac Wise on Grant as a Presidential Candidate

Isaac Wise on Grant as a Presidential Candidate in The Jewish Messenger, August 24, 1866

We have to say this: As a Jew, we can not and will not vote for a man who has done us a more shameless injustice than any man in power, in this century, has done us in any civilized country. Therefore we hope and expect that the entire Jewish press will come out boldly and justly against the movement to nominate General Grant as President of the United States. Again, as citizen who loves his country and her free institutions, who considers it is his solemn duty to protect justice and freedom as much as it may be in his power, we can not and must not entrust the banner of justice and freedom to the hands of a man who, when possessing the brief power of a commander of a volunteer army (and among them thousands of Jews) abused it so outrageously, and trampled upon his fellow-citizens because they were too weak to resist. That man, in our estimation, is unfit to be the chief of a republic whose citizens claim equal justice and equal freedom. Therefore we hope and expect from all political leaders to drop the scheme of nominating General Grant. As a man, we feel an aversion to every person who disrespects the just claims of humanity and justice, and General Grant by his order No. 11, 1862, is guilty of that disrespect.
That is part of what we have to say on this point, and we will say it over and over again, until the masses shall know and appreciate it….When a few scanty and poverty-stricken insurance companies in New York offended the Jews by an order not to insure their property, there was noise, meetings, resolutions, &c.; now when one who outraged the Jew beyond measure or comparison, one who outraged the Jew; the man and the citizen, the laws of the United States and the sacred cause of justice and humanity, is proposed

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License