The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, November 10, 1905, Image 8
, r 1 the jew in American!'
f history. !'
The Achievements ofthe j'
Persecuted Race in the
Land of Liberty. j,
i(
l?y Max .). Kaliler, Uorres|>oniling'
Secretary of the Jewish Historical |
Society.
Arrangements are being made :
throughout the United States for the '
celebration on Thanksgiving Day, of
the tao-hundredlh-ai d-fiftieth anui-'
versary of the settlement of the Jews
in the United States, and representu- '
tire Jews in every State and Territory
are active on committees appointed
to take charge of this commemora
lion. The approaching Thanksgiving
It .. ?:11 '.1 t > 1
i?ij win (i<iius iiifvtj a special signin- ;
cinre for the million and a <|uarter (
Jews residing in this land, who will |
thou invoke (lod's blessing on this !
beloved country, which, lirst among I
the nations of modern times, recog- !
nized the Jew's title to all the rights '
of man, and permitted him, in common
with all other members of tlio
boJy politic, to worship the .\lmiglity |
Fathor, according to the dictates of .
hi* own conscience.
In Ii'i.Vi, at a time when the terrors j
of the Inquisition throated the Jew
who disregarded Spanish and Portugese
edicts of expulsion, when France
and most sections of Ciermany were
closed to him, and when Menasseh
ben Isratl was about to begin his
I
only partially successful negotiations 1
with Cromwell for a repeal of Edward !
I.'s edict of expulsion of the Jews
from England, the directors of the
Dutch West India Company, whicn
governed Now York at the time, in- !
structed Governor Stuyvestant, with I
respect to a petition submitted by I
professing Jews who had arrived at
New Amsterdam from Brazil the year
before, that Jews "shall have permission
to sail to and trade in New
Netherland, and to live and remain
there, provided the poor among them i
shall not become u burden to the
Company or the community, but be
supported by their own nation."
Contemporary construction of this
grant shows that it was not intended
to be limited by unexpressed conditions,
and hence it may be regarded j
as the first great charter of civil and ,
political rights made to Jews in mfXj/tP
and ?- ?..o ?..rfi.c?n Jew
emphasize in this commemoralioi
also the further fact that they ur
not mere recent arrivals and inter
lopers on th's continent, but, with
out reference even to the very mater
ial aid they afforded to Columbus
in furtherance of his discoveries, an
their viry extensive settlement i
South America and the West Indie
during the period immediately follow
iog the discovery, have been anion
the pioneers in this land, entitled t
be counted, in priority of settlement
alongside of the Pilgrim Fathers, an
the Jamestown settlers.
As American precedents in the d
reetion of Jewish emancipation an
the good results flowing therefroi
were invoked as potent arguments i
favor of the bestowal of similar righ
by the leaders of the French Revol
tion as well as by English Liber
leaders, and have been commend*
to the attention of Russia ai
Roumania in our own day I
President Roosevelt and his late 1
nientod Secretary of State, .lohn Ha
it is obvious that interest in this a
niversary is not confined to Jews li
ing on this side of the Atlant
Nay more, questions concerning <
tablishmeut of religious liberty coi
monly presented themselves in h
tory connected with political com
quences, advantageous or disadvn
tageous, to be apprehended, especia
in relation to struggles betwe
(christian and Mohammedan, (fatho
and J'rotesta.jt, High Church a
Low Church, so that it may
doubted whether any better exam)
can be found anywhere than in t
matter of treatment of the Jew,
the study of the development of
ligious liberty. In America the J
first achieved equality before the la
In the beautiful language of Da*
Dudley Field, "the greatest achie'
ment ever made in the cause of h
inau progress is the total and fii
separation of the State from t
Church;" this nation "first rent t
shackles that priestly dorninati
hod been forging for centuries, a
solemnly decreed that no man shoi
dare intercopt the radiance of t
Almighty upon the human soul."
KAKLY JEWISH RELATIONS TO AMKRK
In spite of prohibitions upon Je
ish settlement in Spanish and Port
guese lands, Jews settled in evercroasiDg
numbers in South Aineri
aud tho West Indies during the s
tocutb and seveuloeutb coutun
? _* 1
hough the chief sources of our information
concerning them are the
l>loody records of the Inquisition. In
ingular contrast to the Spauish ndrenturcr,
the .lew proved to he a
purlicol irly valuable economic ac- ;
(Uisition, and we lind that it was
chiefly tiirough his efTorts that Brazil's
sugar factories and diamond interests
developed, nearly all the
profitable centers of these industries
being in Jewish hands, and becoming
practically valueless after their expulsion,
in lt?r?4. Some idea ?f the
enormous number in which Jewish
fugitives from the Iberiau Peninsula
settled in Brazil is afforded by the
circumstance that over live thousand
resided in the city of Recife alone at
the time of its surrender by the
bu'ch to the Portuger.e, shortly before
the Dutch grant now being commemorated.
The grant of I i>.V) expressly recites,
amorg the inducing causes for its
promulgation, the bpnvr losses sue
tained by the Jews by reason of the
surrender of Brazil and tire heavy
Jewish holdings of stock in the Dutch
West India Company, among whose
directors they were also to be counted.
In fact, the protfer of Jew'sh
assistance in electing a proposed
capture of Brazil was largely instrumental
in shaping the character of
the charter awarded to the Dutch
West India Company on its organization,
and the pecuniary returns
from these very features made possible
such economically unattractive
colonizing efforts as the settlement
of New Amsterdam. When the Dutch
capitulation of Brazil took place, in
1(55I, thousands of fugitive Jews,
frt(juent)} despoiled of their property,
lied northward to the West Idnies,
and a small party of twenty-three arrived
on the ship St. Caterina at
New Amsterdam about September 1,
1051. Stuyvesant's reception of
them was decidedly unfriendly and
hostile, and the grant of 1(555 was
made in answer to to a petition to
the directors asking for relief against
the measures of the irascible, bigoted
governor.
Coming down, then, more specifically
to the history of the Jews
within the present limits of the
United it should be noted
that history into
may divide*'mJi-nh mnr Ko
.nree periods, each
" designated as marked by the arT^3
3 of a different stream of immigratio
1 The iirst period, ending about 181
e ; may be styled the period of Sephrac
" migration, most of the Jewish setth
" being of Spanish or Portugese stoc
and numbering in all only about thi
'? ; thousand at the close of the peri
j for the whole United States, abc
n | one-sixth of whom has settled in N
8 i York; next, came the period of G
1r* 1 man migration, running down
about. 1880, when the total Jew
? j population of the country was ei
mated at about *250,<>00, of wh
d number about 100,<K)0 resided
New York City. An apprecia
number of Austro-Hungarian i
l(* Polish immigrants arrived during
m I closing decades of this period, ot
in j nationalities being also represent
t8 j It is due chiefly to the heavy niij
u* tion from Russia and Roumania si
u' j 1NS0, by reason of anti-Semitic pe
( cution, that the Jewish populatioi
3C* the country has increased during
by I nflvjf ttrpntv.fivA rpwro frr\rin ohm
- j?*? ' '
rt" l-iiunrter of a million to a million
>'? I a quarter, and of Greater New V
n* | from I <">,000 to about 7~>0,<?.
iv* ' I)KVKI.O KXT Ol CIVll. AKI) POI.ITi
'C- j KIOHTH.
| After Stuyvestant's plana for
,n" 1 expulsion of a party of these Brazi
! Jewish arrivals at New York v
^e- ; frustrated by the instructions of
! directors of the company, he con
Hy ! ued for a time to block full Jei
en j enjoymentofcivil and political rig
lie : denying to them right
n(l : trade in the adjacent districts an
be own real estate and to become bu
j ere, but sharp rebukes from his
be 1 periors in Hollund soon compf
f?r him to grant these privileges. >
re the directors, however, in measu
ew Jewish rights in large degrees
lW- j those enjoyed in Holland, fori
'id public Jewish worship, while s
v'e* tioning private services in indivii
1U_ households, prohibited their enga]
,tl' in retail trade or holding publicjo
be and even directed the establishn
be of |a CJhetto, though, fortuna
0,1 there is no proof that such such
n(' vival of the Dark Ages ever actu
Jbl disgraced any section of terri
be within the United States. After
British conquest of New York,
'A rights of Jews, fortunately for tli
iw- continued to be governed by tin
;u- tablished customs of tlie colony,
in- stead of the more illiberal and un
lea taiu British laws, though this re?
ix- ed in a declaration in 1<>85, that
oh, Jews wore uot to bo allowed to ti
I
at retail or to hold public worship, i
Within a short- period thereafter, <
however, Jewish religious rites were 1
performed eo openly that the Jewish i
! synagogue is pictured and described t
on the Miller map of New York of I
lt>'.?5, and a Jewish cemetery was es- t
tablished as early as lf>5<>, on New I
Bowery, near Oliver Street, marked
to-day by an appropriate tablet i
erected a few years ago. i
A number of years before Parliament
passed the Act of ITiU, permitting
Jews to be naturalized in the
British colonies, the New York Colonial
Assembly had cuucted laws
permitting Jews to omit the words
"upon ihe true faith of a Christian"
when taking the oath prescribed upon
beiug naturalized, and Jews were in
the enjoyment of all civil and noliti
cul rights in New York during many
years before these w?re guaranteed
to them by such fundamental organic
laws as the New York Constitution
j of 1777 and the federal Constitution.
i While their treatment was not quite
so liberal, in general, in the other
colonies where they had settled before
the Revolution, which included
Rhode Islsnd, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
South Carolina, and Georgia.
New York may be regarded as fairly
typical in this respect, and the States
admitted into the Union after tne
Revolution, in which Jews ofteu figured
as pioneers, never attempted in
the slightest degree to abridge Jewish
rights, civil or political, so that from
the Revolution on, the United States
could be pointed to by the oppressed
Jews in Europe us illustrating the
advantages resulting from absolute
religious liberty. It is, conversely,
of interest to note that the influence
of the Old Testament and the Hebrew
Theocracy were very potent, forces in
shaping the evojution of the government
of the Puritan and our own democracy,?tendencies
ably delineated
bj the Hon. Oscar S. Sirauss in his
work on "The Origin of Republican
Form of Government of Government
in the United States."
.IKW8 AS CITIZENS AND SOI.DIEKS.
Reciprocally, the Jews in America
have ever rejoiced in the proud privilege
of performing all the duties of
American citizenship, whether on the
battlefield, in public life, or in private
ranks. In Stuyve6tant's time
they vigorously p'/^tested agalust beis*
>11. I instead of standing guard, like othi
2. I citizens, and aecordinirlv. we fin
lie Jews serving, in far more than the
3rs due proportion, in onr colonial war
:k, in the Revolution, in the Civil Wa
*ee and in the late Spanish-America
od War. The names of over sevt
>ut thousand Jewish soldiers who servi
ew during our Civil War have been ct
er- lected by the efforts of the Ho
to Simoo Wolf, of Washington,?i
ish enormous proportion of the tot
sti- Jewish population of the tirr
ich Earlier still, during the Revolutio
in two reached the rank of colonel, o
ble being Col. Baum, of Pennsylvan:
ind the other being Col. David 8 Fran!
the who was sent to Europe as bearer
her the treaty of peace with Engla
ed. when officially 6igned, and who t
?ra- ured as one of the marshals in Pre
nee dent Washington's ^inaugural proci
rse- sion.
a of Similarly, a Jewish rabbi march
the alongside of two Christian ministi
it a in the procession of 178S in Philad
and phia in honor of the adoption of t
ork Constitution, this, says Col. Thorc
W. Higginson, "really constituti
t'AL the first Parliament of Religions
this country." He adds: "It see
the strange that no historical painter,
ban to this time, has selected for
yere theme that fine incident. It shoi
the have been perpetuated in art, 1
tin- the landing of the Pilgrims or Wai
vish ington crossing the Delaware."
hts, certainly does not detract from I
to significance of the incident to obse
d to that the existence of this Jew
rgh- congregation in Philadelphia at tl
su- time was duo to the solemn deter
>lled nation of the patriots of the >i
>on York congregation to abandon jN
ring York en masse at the approach of
by British, even though the congre
jade tion might be disrupted in cor.
anc- (juence. But space does not peri
Jual enlarging further on the numeri
ging acts of Jewish patriotism that Am
ITice can Jewish historical students h
lent delighted to chronicle, though pt
tely ing reference must bo made to Ha
sur- Solomon, the friend of Robert Moi
ally and Madison, the broker throt
tory whom Congress received her Frei
' the and Dutch loans, and who himi
the loaned several hundred thousand (
lem, lars to his adopted country in
J es- darkest days of the Revolution;
in- Judah Touro, the distingui*!
cer- Southern philanthropist, who joii
lult- Amos Lawrence in making the B
the ker Hill monument possible, anc
rado[(jomuijo4oro Uriah V. Levy, rank
og officer of our navy at the outbreak
>f the Civil War, owner of Jefferson's
lome at ~ Monticello. Similarly,
ivhile Judah P. Benjamin, the "brains
jf tho Confederacy," was still a leading
advocate of Southern rights in
the Senate, such Jewish Abolitionists
as the Rev. Dr. David Einhorn,
Michael Heilpriu. and Moritz Pinner
awakened the Jewish conscience
agaiiict sluvery in th.i North. The
number of Jews who have held high
public office in the United States
senate and in Congress, on the State
and the federal bench, as representatives
of their country abroad, and ut
the head of their municipal governments,?aye,
even as governors of
States, makes a most respectable
showing.
JEWS IN COMMERCE
It may be frankly couccded that it
is in the field of commerce, however,
that the Jews rendered most valuable
services to this country, and this
was even more true, probably, durI
Iho 1 :
tug uiu tcin U17 (jtraunij; our revolutionary
War than in our own day
Joseph Addison, writing in his felicitous
style in the Spectator in 1712
with respect to a matter peculiarly
familiar to him as au official of the
British coloniul office, said of the
Jews that "they are, indeed, so dls
seminated through all the trading
parts of the world that they are become
the instruments by which the
most distant nations converse witli
one another and by which mankind
are knit together in u general correspondence."
Before the days of defined
foreign, or even intercolonial,
trade, therefore, laws shutting retail
trade to the Jews made them pioneerf
and prime promoters of suoh newly
created trade, which became, not
merely profitable, but actually indis
pcnsable, for our colonies. Aaron
Lopez, of Newport, who owned a fleet
of thirty vessels shortly before the
Revolution, engaged in trade between
Newport, the West Indies, and
Africa; Louis Gomez and his sons
were exporters of wheat on a very
large 6cale in colonial New Yoik
early in the eighteenth century;
Jaoob Franks, of New York, and
David Franks, of Philadelphia, were
the royal purveyors of army supplies
during the French and Indian War;
Hayman Levy, the fur dealer ol
Revolutionary New York, had close
>r and was at one time the emplo;
1(j of John Jacob Astor, and Da
ir Gradis and his sons largely control
s> the trade of France with Amer
r before our Revolution.
1 ?
in Jews were among the founders
?n the New York Chamber of Com mei
and one. Sampson Simson, figures
,j. its seal as a member of the comr
_ foo rppnivinor if.a ffnm t.iio
II . V"v -vvv.?.wb "V? VV
in lonial governor. They were i
;al among the founders of the New Y
ie> Stock Exchange, and,ever since t
in> time have been growing in imports
qo in America as bankers, brok
\&t iinanciers, and railroad magnates
CS| well as in such lines of trade as
0f ton, tobacco, coffee, jewelry, met
nd leather, meats, cloak and shirt in<
ig. trie8; and department stores.
g{. the other hand, when we turn
Pg. suggestive letter written by Mrs
Maria Gbilds in 18:1-1 with refer<
e(i to the thousands of Jewish in
era grants, practically destitute, t
ej. arriving in New York from Germi
he to escape unfavorable economic
ias legal conditions, "not rich as Je
ng in the traditional sense, but rich <
}n in hopes and energy and enterp
m8 and remember how many achiev
Up competence, if not large fortunei
his * few decades, we note the ana
jld between these German Jewish in
ike grants and the Russian of our
sh- day,?the unskilled laborer whon
H encounter in our large cities, w
the in? W|th indomitable zeal in ord<
rve graduate from the "sweat-six
ish Throughout the country we ma;
bat aay encounter the descendant!
mj. Jewish peddlers of a few decades
lew eager to bring sacrifices for the
iew loved land that has done so mucl
the them in opening to them the p
ga. leading to comfort and culture.
I8e. With schools and colleges wel<
mit ing them, the American Jews to
ous fcjoice in the fact that practh
pri. every large American university
Hve important chairs tilled by Je
iss- professors, and that they rank
yln among this country's distingui
rrl? lawyers and physicians, journa
jgl, and artists, inventors and ]
ach wrights. Thomas Jefferson, i
3Q|f letter too little known (direct!
irti. Isaac Harbv and dated Januar
(he pointed out that, on hia
t0 initiative, he had abolished the
he(] forced study of Christian theolof
ne(t the university over which he presi
UM. so that such cruel obstruction
1 to Jewish scholarship should do lo
log bar Jewish admission to higher c
g7irCPKMW<l?Wi/a
IlI/yirfflTirjBr f?ggCl^iSTO7vK
1THC .
ADAM
1SCHAAF?
3J Is the high grade Piano to
K We are willing to put this
jx with any #500 or $600 Pian<
i K terial, mechanism, construe
S about one-half the price. J
JgJ proof. We invite vou to cc
Kj piano, and if you want a P
?8 get. Have several grades ?
tj Upright" is just #100. Yoi
h in buying a Piano from you
I Wonder Store ?
> i 1 n :?:
> lar learning; yet even the unfavora- W)
ble conditions of our early history
! permitted Jews to furnish to our
country such apostles of culture as P
1 Lorenzo da Ponte, the father of Ital'
ian literature and Italian opera in
I America; John Howard Payne, the
son of a Jewish mother, who taught
us to chant "Home, Sweet Home;"
i Emma Lazarus, Strakosch, and LeoI
pold Damrosch, and, latest of all,
American Jewish scholarship has now
' created the "Jewish Encyclopaedia,"
; the proudest monument of Jewish
learning of the last three centuries.
I PLANS FOR THE CKLEIIK ATION.
? The plans for the present celebrai
tion are meeting with a cordial rei
sponse in every section of the land,
and embrace appropriate exercises to V\
i be held on Thanksgiving Day at
" Carnegie Hall, in New York, and re:
ligious services in all the synagogues
; and Jewish 6abbath schools and
i similar institutions throughout the
i land. An appropriate p
I memorial
York him*
led mlttoe" in charge of
ica contains representatives ia.
State and Territory In the Unio?. iir\
of dicates how completely the Jews have
rce, identified themselves with every seeon
tion of the land. It is not without
nit- interest to observe that the commitco
tee in charge includes, among others,
ilso twelve Jewish judges of the State and
ork federal courts, fifteen college profeshat
sors, three gentlemen who have ocnce
cupled seats in the United States
ers, Senate and four from the House of
, as Representatives, two attorney-genercot
als of the Empire State, three exals,
mayors of important cities, eight
ius- well-known editors, two artists, five
On well-known financiers, twenty-two
to a lawyers, sixty clergymen, seventyi.
L. five ministers, und two gentlemen
mce who have represented our country in
iml- foreign lands as minister plenlpotenhen
tiary and consul-general, respectively,
my, The following gentlemen constitute
and the executive committee in charge ol
ws" the celebration: Jacob H. Schiff,
only chairman; Dr. Cyrus Adler, Hon.
rise, Samuel Oreenbaum, Daniel Guggened
a heim, Prof. Jacob H. Hollander, Hon.
b, in Edward Lauterbach, Adolph Lewilogy
sohn, Louis Marshall. Isaac N. Selig
ami- man, Rev. Dr. H. Pereira Mendes
own Hon. N. Taylor Phillips, Hod. Simor
i we \V. Rosendale, William Salomon
ork- Louie Stern, Hon. Oscar S. Straus,
ir to Hon. Mayer Sulzberger, and Max J
op " Kohler, honorary secretary.
s of Cleared for Action.
ag?f When the body is cleared for action
be- by Dr. King's New Life Pills, you cai
i for it by the bloom of health on th<
cheeks: the brightness of the eyes; tin
atns f,rmnes8 0f the flesh and muscles; tin
buoyancy of the mind. Try them. A
2om- * C. Duke's drug store, 25 cents.
-day ^
ia11y Land Sale.
r Una
. , 1 will sell on Monday. Doc. 4th, a
wisn cnion Court House during the lcga
high hours of sale, one hundred and sixt;
shed acres ?f land, lying on the West side o
the public road leading to Neal Shoalf
dists it being a portion of the Nathaniel Gisl
alay- Jr., home place. Terms of sale, on<
half cash, balance in one and two yean
" a 44-4t Jos. F. Gist.
y 6? Notice to Creditors.
own .
en- All parties who are indebted to th
jn Estate of Isaac Dogan, Deceased, ar
hereby notified to make payment e
Ided, once to the undersigned; all parties wh
s to have claims against said Estate are r<
. quired to file same with the undersigi
1 ? ed, duly proved. 8. Mkans Bbaty,
joou- 43-3t Admiuistratoi
\
SaSSSaais! j
> i
buy and save money. ft vi
Piano in competition \ \ . ' Jf
3 for comparison in ma- ' i
tion, beauty and tone at jj
Seeing and testing is the >, >
>me at once and see this |
iano this is the one to | *
of others, The "Baby 2
i save from $60 to $90 5
r home agent. jx
1 Music House| ?
?rop in at the
almetto Drug Co.
# '
Their prices are right.
Their goods are right.
Their location is right.
Their prescription care is s M
right. - / ^
Call and you will be right ^
fe till all Drs. prescriptions^*-"*!!!^
ight or day. Nig^d^aiJs
tswered by djjiHg*T^none 159,
Palmetto Drug Co.,
Huiet & Renwick, Owners.
m ?
nrun
i nc
cash. Bargain Store
I has received a new line of
Ladies Neckwear, Belts, Ribbons
and Plain and Changeable
Silks. The collars are
simply beautiful, made of
Chiffon, P. K.'s and Felt.
COME AND SEE OUR NEW
RIBBONS.
We have a piece of Taffeta
Silk, black, 36 inches wide,
guaranteed, at $1 per yard.
We have the largest and most Jf
up-to-date line of Shawls and
Fascinators we have ever
i handled. Buy your Shoes,
' Dress Goods, Jackets and
Underwear from
: MRS. D. N. WILBURN.
I _
We find that we are a little
over-loaded on
PINE BOX PAPER
and for the next thirty days (
? we will offer some real bar- ^
a gains in this line. We have
I a beautiful selection of 50c
t goods, surpassed by none in
town at this price, which we
will offer for thirty days, or
until sold out, for 35c per box.
t Remember that it is new and
i strictly up-to-date. We will
J have it displayed in our win?,
dow for a few days. Be sure
e to call and look it over even
i. if you do not need any just
now.
l DUKE DRUG CO. ^
it
? Sole Agents for Huyler's Candy
J; In Onion.
f. Under Hotel Union. Union, S. C*
v