January 21 1863 – 1 Shevat 5623
Union General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck wrote to General Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War, explaining why he’d rescinded Grant’s Order 11 banning Jews from the area under his command. Grant claimed the Jews were smuggling cotton from the Confederate Southern states, ignoring a ban on enemy merchandise. President Lincoln had no objection to expelling “traitors and Jew peddlers,” if they were undermining the war effort, Halleck said. Yet the president could not countenance the expulsion of “an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks.” Lincoln thus frustrated the anti-Semitic general’s attempt to provide the only example of Jewish expulsion in American history.
Library of Congress CollectionOn the envelope in which a protest against Grant’s order arrived, sent by Bne B’rith in Missouri, Lincoln writes “I have today, Jan. 5, 1863, written Gen. Curtis about this. A.L.” The order was forthwith rescinded.
United Order “Bne B’rith” to Abraham Lincoln, January 5, 1863. Manuscript Division, Papers of Abraham Lincoln.