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 ^he Influence of the Jem? 
 
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 J^he JlFogFe?? of the WofIcL 
 
 A LECTURE PRONOUNCED 
 
 By SIMON WOLF, 
 
 
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 •-.. 4>» > 'VvT^ A 
 
 '•>*'••••- 
 
•Jhe Influence of the Jeuu 
 
 ON 
 
 'pKigpe^ of the World. 
 
 A LECTURE PRONOUNCED 
 
 By SIMON 
 
 / 
 
 WOLF 
 
 9 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 April 1st, 1888. 
 
At the urgent request of many friends, I herewith offer to 
 the public an address first delivered in Washington, D. C., 
 before the “ Schiller Bund,” and subsequently in many cities 
 of the Union. I have now revised it; in fact made it almost a 
 new lecture; and it is an attempt to answer recent scurrilous 
 anti-Semitic speeches and publications. 
 
 I lay no claim to originality; only hope that it may inspire 
 others who are far more capable to do better. One thing I 
 can truthfully say—that months of weary labor have been 
 devoted to this work; and if it causes a single person to 
 modify his opinion in favor of the Jews, I am more than 
 compensated. 
 
 SIMON WOLF. 
 
 Washington, D. C., April /, 1888. 
 

“If there are ranks in suffering, Israel takes the precedence of all 
 the nations; if the duration of sorrows and the patience with which 
 they are borne ennoble, the Jews are among the Aristocracy of every 
 land; if a like nation is called rich in the possession of a few classic 
 tragedies, what shall we say to a national tragedy lasting for fifteen 
 hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the heroes.” 
 —George Egiot, in Daniel Deronda. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 Before I enter into the merits of my discourse, allow 
 me to briefly say that whatsoever will fall from my lips 
 to-night is not intended to humiliate the Christian or 
 for the purpose of elevating the Jew. Whenever I shall 
 speak of facts, they will be historical, leaving it to your 
 intelligence to construe, your imagination to color them. 
 My purpose, as far as in my power lies, is to disabuse 
 the minds of many, to gratify the hate and pride of no 
 one, but, if possible, to instruct all, for I have found in 
 my experience that the American Christians, no matter 
 how intellectual they may be, have but an uncertain 
 idea as to the history and characteristics of the Jews. 
 Some years ago I had to see the late Charles Sumner. 
 The burden of our conversation was the then condition 
 of the Jews in Roumania, and I found he knew more of 
 the Negro in Africa than of his Jewish fellow-citizen in 
 America; and from an intended interview of ten minutes, 
 it spun itself out to hours—he, as usual, anxious to be 
 enlightened, and not ashamed to concede his want of 
 knowledge. And what was true of this gifted statesman 
 is equally true of the majority of men—their knowledge 
 is either legendary or sectarian. 
 
 The subject is one that naturally lies nearest to my 
 heart, one that has engrossed every fibre of my being, 
 
6 
 
 grown with my growth, until it has assumed proportions 
 commanding and yet pleasing. 
 
 I sincerely hope that in the brief time allotted I may, 
 to some extent, give you a pen-picture of a people that 
 will live in your memory. Live in honor and respect. 
 Live in peace and harmony with the noblest and purest 
 of your aspirations. Not the Jew as a Chatham street 
 merchant, which character he has in common with 
 every race. Not the Jew as the warrior who by the 
 sword conquers and causes misery to millions,—but the 
 Jew who, by the sword of truth, cleaves the mail of 
 error and bigotry, who, with the torch of light and 
 morality, illuminates the highways and by-ways of the 
 world’s busy mart; in short, the man-Jew, the citizen 
 of a great and enlightened Republic in the highest and 
 best characteristics of manhood. There is no tyranny 
 more exacting than the proverb which, coined *by the 
 brain alchemists of every age, passes into daily life a 
 sovereign to dictate and to awe into silence truth and 
 every embodiment of fact. From this tyranny no people 
 has suffered to a greater extent than the Jewish, from 
 the dawn of earliest history up to the present day. We 
 are the constant target against which not alone every 
 whipper-in, but the noblest huntsmen have levelled 
 their arrows of thought—arrows, alas, too often tipped 
 by the poison of hate, envy, malice, and bigotry. 
 
 Shakespeare, “the noblest Roman,” Dickens, and 
 others have catered to a taste depraved, to a feeling 
 unjust; but, nevertheless, “Shylock and Fagin,” instead 
 of being recognized as types of wretched, debauched, 
 dissolute, or revengeful manhood, are held up as the 
 standard of Jewish morality and want of character. 
 
 Intolerance, with its legendary absurdities, aids by 
 bringing in the myth of the “Wandering Jew” to prove 
 that he lacks the feelings of common hospitality and 
 charity. And thus a people which saw creation in its 
 
7 
 
 / 
 
 inception, which have kept pace with the strides of 
 history,- is defamed, traduced, and persecuted. It is a 
 poor commentary on the intelligence of our age, par¬ 
 ticularly in this country, that the Jew, as he stands out 
 in the world of morals and thought, is so little known, 
 so little appreciated, and yet but for him there would 
 be no morals to preserve. He has been and is the great 
 conservator; others have fallen by the wayside; he has 
 kept right on; no sectarian bias has caused him to 
 swerve from the path of duty; his religion, pure and 
 simple, instead of being a burden, has been an impulse 
 aiding him to break through the dark clouds of preju¬ 
 dice; and, as every great writer now concedes, it was 
 the Jew who throughout the dark ages preserved intact 
 the glorious treasures of literature and science. And 
 to-day he stands in countries where his reason has full 
 sway the peer of the best, the inferior of no one. 
 
 And yet there exists “ the-harping-on-his-daughter ” 
 grudge of by-gone ages. Not a day passes that we do 
 not meet it, either in our business pursuits or in our 
 social intercourse; not only from those whose inborn 
 ignorance is their excuse, but also in those whose read- 
 ings have taken a wide range and who claim to be cos¬ 
 mopolitan. And to this deplorable fact no one has 
 contributed more than the Press, and not only the Press, 
 but even our lexicographers. The Jew is treated by 
 both with that contempt which is either the offspring 
 of ignorance and bigotry, or what is in a public educator 
 far worse—indifference or carelessness. 
 
 To deride, to jeer, to make the Jew the shaft of sense¬ 
 less wit, has been a welcome task to many of our jour¬ 
 nals; to define the word Jew as one who cheats, defrauds, 
 nay, “steals,” a standing definition sent broadcast by 
 Webster and Worcester; and only recently have these 
 unjust words been eliminated, owing to the efforts of 
 our esteemed fellow-citizen, one of my correligionists, 
 
8 
 
 the honored A. S. Solomons, Esq., of Washington. 
 The cruel words have taken deep root, however; and, 
 whether stricken out or not, they live, and have their 
 being in the hearts of those whose prejudice, like Ban- 
 quo’s ghost, “will not down.” The evil does not lie 
 in the definition of words, but in the want of knowledge 
 and liberality. Unfortunately, owing to the same 
 causes, the Jew is looked upon as an alien to refine¬ 
 ment, a pariah to patriotism, an outcast to social life, in¬ 
 capable of higher aims and objects other than the sordid 
 ones of amassing wealth or bribing themselves into 
 power. Some of the prejudice prevalent in the United 
 States against the Jew is to be traced and has its origin 
 in the German emigrant. Many coming here have had 
 but little education or refinement; they remember the 
 Jew in his old home as the outcast of society; they 
 cannot tolerate the idea that the Jew should be treated 
 with decency; they grow envious of his wealth and 
 public worth, and embrace every opportunity to insin¬ 
 uate those stale and bigoted ideas which at one time 
 disgraced Germany and proved a source of such great 
 sorrow and misfortune to the Jew, and have been 
 used as a political trick by the Iron Chancellor. Thank 
 Heaven, Frederick the Third has already proclaimed 
 his abhorrence of such methods. Let it be my pleasant 
 duty to show you who the Jew is; why he was perse¬ 
 cuted; the logical sequence of that persecution; his 
 standing in countries where oppressed—in countries 
 where free; also to show you how much he has con¬ 
 tributed to the world’s progress; and that instead of 
 being an object of pity or derision, he should, as he 
 deserves to, be admired, esteemed, and cultivated. I 
 shall not dwell on religious themes to proselyte—shall 
 only touch upon them as they are necessary to com¬ 
 plete the picture; nor shall I spare the foibles and follies 
 of my people, for, human as they are, they have human 
 
9 
 
 failings; and to have them treated on the score of hu¬ 
 manity, and not upon the senseless phrase “What 
 more can you expect; he is a Jew’ is the aim and 
 purpose of my discourse. 
 
 In quoting from many writers, I shall not let a single 
 Jew speak. Christians born, or those who became 
 such, shall alone tell the story of our woes and glory. 
 
 I shall not discuss the Bible characters one by one, 
 but simply ask, what character in history is equal to 
 that of Moses? How grandly he looms up. No figure 
 on the canvas of time surpasses him in knowledge and 
 
 the ethics of life. 
 
 He laid broad and deep those furrows in the field of 
 morality and law from which have sprung seeds of 
 eternal youth and order. On Sinai’s mount were given 
 to the children of men the sublime tenets that underlie 
 the safety and welfare of society, and which have done 
 more for the world’s progress than aught else. The 
 belief in a Supreme Being, not one of clay, wood, or 
 brass, but a spiritual one, was there inculcated. The 
 using of His holy name in vain interdicted. The keep¬ 
 ing of the Sabbath made obligatory. The honoring of 
 father and mother made the chief cardinal virtues, in 
 contradistinction of the then usages to kill old patents 
 or throw them to the wild beasts. The mother when a 
 widow became the slave of the eldest son. The laws of 
 Moses gave her the same honor, love, and obedience as 
 when the father lived. Life was at a discount; hence in 
 trumpet tones the law, u Thou shalt not kill. Society 
 suffered from licentious vices. Virtue among females 
 was unknown; hence the warning, “Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery.” Theft and perjury were condemned, 
 and even the evil thoughts were declared sinful. How 
 the 2,000 years of Indian and Egyptian history dwindle 
 into insignificance compared to that moment on Sinai. 
 The Pyramids built up by the tears and agony of slaves 
 
16 
 
 are nothing but rude stones to point the moral of man’s 
 inhumanity; but the laws of Moses were the pillars on 
 which the temple of virtue and morality was erected. 
 It was the birth-hour, not only of the Jewish people, 
 but of the world. The simple and yet deep truths of a 
 spiritual God, one who aids the enslaved and oppressed, 
 the honoring of parents, the respecting of your neigh¬ 
 bor’s household and property, the horror and infamy 
 of telling a lie,—these, and much more, were first enun¬ 
 ciated by Moses, and with these a new discovery was 
 made: Man examining himself by the light of these di¬ 
 vine laws found that he had a conscience. It is true 
 other nations made laws before and after, but they were 
 based on oppression; had for their object slavery—not 
 only physical, but mental. On Sinai’s mount was first 
 proclaimed equality and freedom. To Moses we owe 
 the Republican form of Government, the forming of a 
 Senate composed of select men; the election of tried and 
 trusted elders to advise and counsel had their being- 
 with him. The appointing of judges also, to whom he 
 gave the all-important advice to be ever just, not only 
 to the Israelite, but also to the stranger. * 
 
 They should not respect title, but honor all alike, 
 shun bribery, and do their duty fearlessly. The love of 
 your neighbor, fraternity, equality, mercy, and justice 
 were the ideals which Moses placed before his people. 
 It was a golden era; it was the betrothal of Israel to 
 holy and pure laws; and they have in the face of all, 
 after persecutions, remained true and steadfast, depart¬ 
 ing from these precepts only when their tyrants and 
 
 * [How different the conduct of a U. S. judge who, presiding in 
 Richmond, Va., in charging a jury while two Jews were on trial, said : 
 “ Gentlemen of the jury, the defendants at the bar are Jews, and that 
 implies everything.” Was there ever anything more infamous? And 
 right here let me say that this has grown into a deplorable evil with 
 both bench and bar.] 
 
II 
 
 oppressors robbed them of all independent action and 
 thought, or when too much freedom has turned their 
 heads, and led them into channels of materializing. 
 
 Boast of your Greek, Roman virtue and stoicism ; they 
 fade into the dim, hazy distance compared to Moses. Of 
 him it can be said that no charge of bribery or pecula¬ 
 tion was ever laid to his door. Rude as were the times, 
 he died poor, but rich in the love of his people. Sim¬ 
 ple as he had lived he was buried—no one knows 
 where—so as to teach his followers that God alone 
 should be worshipped—not inanimate clay ; no pomp 
 or display ; both were foreign to his nature. The world 
 has progressed since then, but such a character could 
 do no harm in these days of statesmanship. 
 
 The Jews began as nomads migrating “from nation 
 to nation, from State to State.” Their laws made them 
 agriculturists for fifteen centuries. Their exile has 
 transformed them into a mercantile people. They 
 have struggled for their national existence against the 
 Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Syrians, and Ro¬ 
 mans ; have been conquered and nearly exterminated by 
 each of these powers, and have survived them all. 
 They have been oppressed and persecuted by Emperors 
 and Republics, Sultans and Popes, Moors and Inquisit¬ 
 ors. They were proscribed in Catholic Spain, Protestant 
 Norway, and Greek Muscovy ; while their persecutors 
 sang the hymns of their psalmists, revered their books, 
 believed in their prophets, and even persecuted them 
 in the name of their God. And it can be truthfully 
 said that the Helots of Sparta, the Pariahs of India, 
 the Moslems of Turkey, the Negroes of America, have 
 suffered less than the Jews in Christian Europe. 
 
 The Jews of the Middle Ages were persecuted, not 
 only for their money, but also, as Goethe says to Ecker- 
 man, “Because they believed in God and Nature, and 
 in the victory of the good over the bad and yet the 
 
12 
 
 Christians who persecuted were, as Schiller says * 
 “They preached love of your neighbor, and cursed 
 from their doors the hoary-headed blind.” And yet 
 we are justified in claiming that from the earliest dawn 
 of Jewish history, the Jews of all the nations were the 
 pioneers of civilization, the progenitors of religion and 
 morals, for Herodotus and Strabo tell us that the 
 Egyptians and Syrians, and in fact all of the nations 
 surrounding the Jews, worshipped idols, and had 
 monthly and yearly festivals where prostitution and 
 bacchanalian rites formed the worship. So debasing and 
 vicious were their habits, that children of tender age 
 became as degraded as their elders ; and in spite of all 
 these surroundings, Israel remained firm in its faith, 
 worshipped the great Jehovah, and practiced those vir¬ 
 tues which to-day are its greatest pride. It is to them 
 the world owes religion in all its purity, morality in 
 all its elevation, and history in all its teachings. And 
 as the women of Israel in those degenerate days were 
 pious, true, and virtuous, so they have, with rare excep¬ 
 tions, remained, moulding and training their offspring, 
 and stimulated by sentiments of love and devotion for¬ 
 eign to the fashion of to-day. And what greater proof 
 can a people offer as to their influence and progress than 
 to remain stationary in the paths of virtue? America’s 
 greatest poet, Wm. Cullen Bryant, in criticising Booth’s 
 Shylock, thus depicts the Jews and their home-life (and 
 answers the accepted version of Shylock being a repre¬ 
 sentative Jew) : 
 
 “In terming Shylock ‘the Jew whom. Shakespeare 
 drew,’ there is a perfect logic, for Shylock is, of all 
 Shakespeare’s characters, the only one untrue to Na¬ 
 ture. He is not a Jew, but a fiend presented in the 
 form of one; and whereas he is made a ruling type, he 
 is but an exception, if even that, and the exception 
 is not to be met with either in the Ghettos of Venice or 
 of Rome. Shakespeare holds up the love of money that 
 

 marks the race, although he does not show that this 
 passion was but the effect of that persecution which, by 
 crowding the Jew out of every honorable pursuit, and 
 thus cutting off his nature from every sympathy with 
 the world around, sharpened and edged the keen corners 
 of his brain for the only pursuit left to him. 
 
 “ It is true that money-changers once spat on in the 
 Ghetto are now hugged in the palace. But we fear that 
 it is not so much that the prejudice against the Jews 
 has ceased, but that the love of money among the 
 Christians has increased. Shakespeare was not true in 
 the picture he has drawn of the Jews, cravings for re¬ 
 venge, and in the contempt with which he is treated 
 by his daughter. Revenge is not a characteristic of the 
 Jew. He is subject to sudden fits of passion, but that 
 intellect which always stands sentinel over the Hebrew 
 soon subdues the gust. However strong in Shylock’s 
 time might have been the hatred of the Jew to the 
 Christian, the lust of lucre was more strong, and 
 Shakespeare might have ransacked every Ghetto in 
 Christendom without finding a Jew who. would have 
 preferred a pound of flesh to a pound sterling (or Chris¬ 
 tian either); and Jews also shrink from, physical con¬ 
 tests. Their disposition is to triumph by intellect rather 
 than violence. It was this trait more than any other 
 which rendered them, in the Middle Ages, so repulsive 
 to the masses, who were all of the Morrissey and mus¬ 
 cular Christianity school. The contempt of a daughter 
 for her parent is equally uncharacteristic of the Jew. 
 The Jews are universally admired for the affections 
 which adorn their domestic life. The more they have 
 been pushed from the society of the family of man the 
 greater the intensity with which they have clung to 
 
 the love of their own family.. 
 
 “No one can ever have visited the houses of the Jews 
 without having been struck by the glowing affection 
 with which the daughter greets the father as he returns 
 from the day’s campaign and the slights and sneers his 
 Gaberdine and yellow cap provoke, and without observ¬ 
 ing how those small, restless ey es, that sparkle and gleam, 
 shine out in a softened, loving lustre as they tall upon 
 the face of Rebecca, or Jessica, or Sarah, and how he 
 stands no longer with crooked back, but erect and com- 
 
H 
 
 inanding, as he blesses his household Gods with an ex¬ 
 ultation as vehement as the prejudices which during the 
 day have galled and fretted his nature. To do justice 
 to the grandeurs of the Jewish race, and to brand with 
 infamy its infirmities, it is not enough to produce a 
 repulsive delineation of the latter. It would only be 
 just to give expression to the former, and to exhibit 
 that superiority of intellect which has survived all per¬ 
 secution, and which, soaring above the prejudices of the 
 hour, has filled us with reluctant admiration on finding 
 how many of the great events which mark the progress 
 of the age, or minister to its improvements, or elevate 
 its tastes, may be traced to the wonderful workings of 
 the soul of the Hebrew, and the supremacy of that 
 spiritual nature which gave to mankind its noblest 
 religion, its noblest laws, and some of its noblest poesy 
 and music.” 
 
 \ 
 
 To properly appreciate Jewish progress, one must read 
 of their persecutions, their indomitable courage; and 
 these, as told by Christian writers, fill volumes. I cite 
 a few only. At the conclusion of his history of the 
 Jews in England, prior to their final expulsion in 1290, 
 the Historian Blunt savs: 
 
 j 
 
 “In throwing back a glance over the facts that are 
 stated in the few pages of the preceding narrative, it 
 must be acknowledged that a spirit of relentless cruelty 
 pervades the whole, and we cannot but feel that the 
 exactions and barbarities which are there recorded mark 
 an indelible stain npon that period of our history; they 
 are blots in the characters of the successive monarchs, 
 and are painfully indicative of the cupidity, ferocity, 
 and ignorance of the people. O11 the other hand, we 
 must admit that the conduct of the Jews themselves 
 under their continuous sufferings and oppressions, while 
 it furnishes a fresh example of the characteristic perse- 
 verence with which they brave all dangers and diffi¬ 
 culties in the pursuit of wealth, it affords a further 
 proof of the resignation, fortitude, and self-devotion for 
 which their nation has ever been distinguished. 
 
 “It is worthy of remark that, notwithstanding the 
 
i5 
 
 bitter and vindictive animosity which the Christians of 
 the eleventh and twelfth centuries exhibited against the 
 Hebrew race, the expenses of the Crusade and the jour¬ 
 ney to the Holy Land were defrayed for the most part 
 by means of robbery and plunder of the wealthy Jews, 
 and the perpetration of the most cruel outrages upon 
 the people that ever stained the annals of the human 
 race at any period of the world. We are told by Sis- 
 mondi, in his ‘Comprehensive History of the Jews in 
 England,’ during the reign of Richard the First, that 
 the crusaders, being ill-provided with funds, and hav¬ 
 ing persuaded themselves that they should render good 
 service to God by resorting to any means, however 
 iniquitous, in order to secure the success of the Crusade 
 to Palestine, they commenced an indiscriminate plun¬ 
 der of the houses of the Jews, subjecting them to every 
 species of cruelty, and even to death, until the Jews, 
 driven to desperate resistance, and with a determination 
 to which it would be difficult to find many parallels in 
 history, every master of a family taking a knife, cut the 
 throats of his wife and children, and then of the other 
 members of his house, and then destroyed himself.. The 
 only parallel to this sublime act of self-sacrifice is fur¬ 
 nished in the History of the Jews themselves. It is 
 related by Millman, in his History of the Jews, that, 
 ‘after the taking of Jerusalem, some Jews fled to Mas- 
 sada, where they were besieged by the Romans. Find¬ 
 ing themselves unable to withstand their attack, they, 
 at the instance of Eleazar, their commander, destroyed 
 themselves, their wives and children, to the number of 
 960, A. C. 72. 
 
 It is proper to add that although in some instances a 
 few of the Jews saved themselves by professing to re¬ 
 nounce the Jewish faith, which in reality they never did, 
 they almost unanimously preferred death to purchas¬ 
 ing their lives by even the semblance of such an igno¬ 
 minious act of apostasy. “Notwithstanding all that 
 has been written by the fanatical Benco,” says De Castro 
 in his “History of the Jews of Spain,” to please the gen¬ 
 tlemen of the Inquisition, “when I reflect upon the 
 
i6 
 
 constancy of the Spanish Jews in not abandoning their 
 law, in spite of the wrath of the holy office, and the 
 courage with which they died when discovered and 
 brought to punishment, I call to mind the words of 
 Eopez De Aponta, who, when carried to the centre of 
 the theatre to hear his sentence, walked with a haughty 
 air and exclaimed: ‘Welcome, the raging billows and 
 violent whirlwinds to buffet me at thy bidding. We 
 shall continue always more and more immovable, and 
 far from foundering in the storm; the greater the dan¬ 
 gers that surround us, the more freely shall we breathe, 
 for the Hebrew does not easily yield to wickedness and 
 degrade himself by that weakness which follows its 
 commission. On the contrary, in proportion to the at¬ 
 tempts made by tyrants to debase him, does he manifest 
 the greatness of his soul. We are sensible to pain when 
 our bodies are tortured, but we also show by our ex¬ 
 ample that no violence can compel the wise man, in 
 violation of his honor, to recede from his opinion and 
 fixed determination. I care not-whether thou orderest 
 me to be tortured—the driving of a nail into my head, 
 impalest me alive, crucifiest me, roastest me by a slow 
 fire, casteth me down from a rock, or drownest me in 
 the depth of the sea—for in the end I shall find safety, 
 and appear unhurt in the presence of God.’ ” “ Multi¬ 
 
 tudes who witnessed the steadfastness and courage with 
 which these unfortunate men underwent the dreadful 
 punishment at the ‘bonefire,’” continues the same 
 writer, “were convinced that God had animated their 
 hearts in that bitter and critical moment, and that, inas¬ 
 much as they obtained such a blessing, as if from Heaven, 
 there could be no doubt whatever that they died in 
 defense of the truth.” 
 
 But not only in Spain and England, but also in Ger¬ 
 many, Austria, and Bohemia, was the Jew plundered, 
 tortured, and murdered, and all in the name of Chris- 
 
i7 
 
 tianity. In Frankfort, Worms, Mayence, Prague, and 
 Vienna their treatment was identical with that endured 
 by their brethren in other countries. They were cooped 
 up in a single street; had to wear a badge to denote 
 their race; could hold no office, practice no profession; 
 only amass riches, to be plundered and murdered. But, 
 as Schiller in his Tell says, so they hoped. 
 
 U A new era is near its dawn; the old, the unworthy, 
 departs; other days are approaching. There will live a 
 different-thin king people. ’’ 
 
 There is certainly no nation under the sun whose his¬ 
 tory can be more interesting than that of the Jews, par¬ 
 ticularly that portion of them who, after the destruction 
 of Jerusalem by Titus, emigrated to Spain, and for many 
 centuries lived in that land, where—in spite of the in¬ 
 sults, the hardships, and the persecutions which they 
 endured—they cultivated the arts and sciences, fed the 
 lamp of literature, and kept it continually burning for 
 a succession of ages. It is to them that Spain owes the 
 great advancement she made in medicine, philosophy, 
 mathematics, and navigation. They were in the habit 
 of being consulted by kings on the most difficult and 
 critical affairs of State, and it was by the aid of their 
 counsels and hard cash that the most difficult, the 
 grandest, and most hazardous enterprises were under¬ 
 taken. The voyage of Columbus could never have 
 been made had it not been for Jewish counsel, Jewish 
 ducats ; and strange it is, that that which partly caused 
 their misery, was to be the means of discovering a land 
 which was to prove to their descendants and to mankind 
 the Jerusalem of the Prophets. Irving, in his History 
 of Columbus, states, as a curious coincidence, that the 
 first Spanish soldier that stepped on American soil was 
 Bopez De Castro, a Jew. “ But the Jews never became 
 lessjewish for their residence in Spain,” says Bartolozzo, 
 
i8 
 
 in his “Biblotheca Magna Rabinnica,” “religion form¬ 
 ing an essential constituent in their individual and col¬ 
 lective existence. They combined rapidly by ties and 
 motives unknown to every other people. They had 
 their pride and privilege as the elected race, and 
 although under chastisement for a time, they had an 
 intensity of association depending upon a language and 
 a ritual they all but adored, and an honorable attach¬ 
 ment to each other in the time of suffering.” 
 
 To show how humane and hospitable the Jews were 
 in days when their neighbors were savages, the gieat and 
 celebrated Oriental geographer (Hankal) describes, with 
 great minuteness, under the application of “Mower- 
 al-narr,” the region in which these Jews are said to 
 have been discovered. He speaks of it generally as 
 one of the most flourishing and productive provinces 
 within the dominion of Islam, and describes the people 
 as distinguished for purity and virtue, as averse from 
 evil, and fond of peace. He says : “ Such is their lib¬ 
 erality that no one turns aside from the rights of hospi¬ 
 tality; so that a person contemplating them in the night 
 would imagine that all the families in the land were 
 but one household. When a traveller arrives there 
 every person endeavors to attract him to himself, that 
 he may have opportunities of performing kind offices 
 for the stranger.” The Arab conquerors of Spain, 
 having freed the Jews from the bondage and persecu¬ 
 tions of the Gothic kings, and allowed them full liberty 
 to live according to the Mosaic law, the latter, as stated 
 by De Castro in the work already quoted, “laid the 
 foundation of nurseries, synagogues, and some of the 
 most celebrated seats of learning that ever flourished 
 in Spain. The barbarous persecutions against the Jews 
 in the East by the Caliph Cadre, of the dynasty of the 
 Fraternities, found many of them in Spain to seek the 
 termination of their misfortunes; and as the Hebrews 
 
i9 
 
 who lived in the East were men of much learning, it 
 resulted that the greater part of the new comers to these 
 lands began to adorn them with their writings, and to 
 found academies, in order to diffuse among the people 
 their own remarkable knowledge in every branch of 
 art and science. The first, and undoubtedly the most 
 celebrated, of these academies was established in the 
 year of the world 4708, and of the Christian era 948, at 
 Cordova. Its founders and first masters were Rabbi 
 Moseh and his son Rabbi Honor, the most eminent of 
 the sages who came from Pambedita and Medasia, in 
 Persia. Several of the Jews of the Cordovese Academy 
 continued to enlighten Spain with their works on every 
 description of science. For example, those of Abraham 
 Haben Hezra, a philosopher, astronomer, physician, 
 poet, grammarian, cabalist the most learned of his 
 persuasion in the interpretation of the Sacred Book, 
 and, finally, the inventor of the method of dividing the 
 celestial globe into two equal parts by means of the 
 equator. ’ ’ 
 
 The Retrospective Review , in -an able and comprehen¬ 
 sive article on the condition of the early Jews, remarks : 
 
 ‘ ‘ This early and afterwards diversified cultivation of 
 literature and science raised them to a positive stand¬ 
 ing in the intelligence of Europe, so high that it has 
 been said we have never yet repaid our debt of grate¬ 
 ful acknowledgment to the illustrious Hebrew scholars 
 of Cordova, Seville, and Granada.” 
 
 I11 alluding to the “Masora,” a versification of every 
 “jot and title” of the Hebrew Scriptures in a diversity 
 of modes, for the finding of a full and exact text of the 
 holy record, the same erudite writer says : 
 
 “This prodigious effort of patient industry, this sin¬ 
 gle work, demands from the learned of every age that 
 the Jews be considered as eminently a literary people, 
 a character which they have not failed to uphold, ever 
 
20 
 
 since, those early ages—early to us; but the Jews were 
 already fathers in literature before one of the present 
 nations of Europe had its existence. To estimate their 
 value in this respect we must travel back by an astound¬ 
 ing climax through the Genlara and Mishna, the Hel¬ 
 lenic Jewish writings of Josephus, Philo, the Septuagist, 
 the Maccabees, through the minor prophets to Nehe- 
 miah, who wrote 140 years before Henophon, to Isaiah, 
 700 years before Virgil, to the Proverbs and Psalms, 1040 
 years before Horace, to Ruth, 1030 years before Theoc¬ 
 ritus, and to Moses, above 1,000 years the precursor of 
 Herodotus. ” 
 
 Among the eminent Jewish writers who achieved 
 distinction during the many centuries that the Hebrew 
 race exercised their salutary influence over the destinies 
 of Spain, was the famous historian Pedro Teixeira, 
 whose book, entitled “ De el Origen Descendenica,” 
 published in Antwerp in 1610, contains the best account 
 of Persia that has ever been written. It is based on Per¬ 
 sian manuscripts, and particularly the chronicle Terk- 
 and. (Teixeira is the only author who introduced 
 foreign names into the Castilian language as they 
 were written and pronounced in their own.) Another 
 remarkable writer of the same race and period was the 
 Portuguese Hebrew, Garcia Deostar, the first person who 
 wrote the medical history of the East Indies under the 
 following title : “Colloquies on the drugs, simples, and 
 medicinal things of India.” I11 this work he not only 
 gives his own observations and consulted all the Greek, 
 Latin, and Arabic authors who have written on the 
 subject, but in his wanderings through the Indies com¬ 
 municated upon it with the best and most distinguished 
 Arab, Persian, Turkish, Brahnimical, Chinese, and 
 Malay physicians. But it would fill volumes to mention 
 even the one tithe of the array of Hebrew poets, phi¬ 
 losophers, historians, metaphysicians, and medical com¬ 
 posers who flourished in the eleventh and twelfth centu- 
 
ries. Hebrew poetry in particular was cultivated to a 
 great extent; hymns and elegies in rhymes of that 
 period have been preserved by Buxtof, Plantitius, 
 Bartolomius, and others. Malzan, Draper, Becky, 
 Buckle, and Scherr have elaborately shown what a 
 debt the world owes to the Jews. During the reign of 
 Abdallah, king of Granada, Jewish learning was pur¬ 
 sued with unparalleled eagerness, the usual result of 
 peace, tolerance, and competence of wealth ; for, as Cow- 
 per expresses it— 
 
 “ Wisdom is a pearl with most success 
 Sought in still waters and beneath clear skies.” 
 
 “To such a pitch of misery,” observes the Portuguese 
 Historian Camoens, “were these kingdoms reduced by 
 the alarm of the Jews and the care taken by them to 
 bury their treasures in the bowels of the earth that the 
 circulation of gold and silver became very limited. The 
 stoppage of the traffic of the Jews caused the ruin of all 
 the commerce that formerly existed in the realms of 
 Castile. Agriculture was insufficiently carried on, the 
 Crown was without resources, for the coin of the land 
 was secreted in the coffers of the Hebrews. These evils, 
 as before stated, originated in the rash measures, em¬ 
 ployed against all reason and justice by the monarch 
 and people, for the conversion of the numerous Jews 
 who dwelt in these lands; they were forbidden to prac¬ 
 tice medicine and surgery ; to keep their houses open 
 for traffic with Christians, and finally to dispose of their 
 goods and persons in the way that was most conducive 
 to their own interests. The Christians reaped the fruits 
 of this barbarous policy during the reign of Henry the 
 Fourth in Castile, for to this policy must be ascribed 
 the abandonment of commerce by the Jews, who were 
 the only, or at any rate the principal, persons engaged 
 in it, and who kept it alive ; and as its destruction arose 
 
22 
 
 from the causes I have mentioned, the ruin of agricul¬ 
 ture followed in its rear, the kingdom being destitute 
 of these two principal resources which the body of state 
 together was ultimately reduced to the greatest weak¬ 
 ness and distress. This miserable policy was no less 
 injurious to literature and science by the expulsion of 
 the persecuted race from the land of their adoption, for, 
 as the learned Hebrews from the Bast and other parts of 
 the world had been mainly instrumental in advancing 
 the cause of learning and education in Spain, by the 
 introduction of literary and scientific institutions, so, 
 when forcibly driven out of the kingdom by the bar¬ 
 barities of the Inquisition and the cruel edicts formu¬ 
 lated at the instigation of that pernicious body, the pall 
 of ignorance and darkness fell again over the land. ’ ’ 
 
 One of the most remarkable events of the twelfth cen¬ 
 tury was the birth of Rabbi Moses Bar Maimon, whose 
 writings exercise a wise and salutary influence to-day. 
 He was the great reformer of those days, and the fore¬ 
 runner of the great Mendelssohn of the eighteenth and 
 of Abraham Geiger of the nineteenth century. 
 
 “When we look around us, and calmly contemplate 
 the present condition of the Hebrew race in those coun¬ 
 tries, where, as in the United States of America, and to 
 a considerable extent in England and in France, the 
 benign influences of modern civilization have been al¬ 
 lowed full sway, and compare that ameliorated and daily 
 improving condition with the state of social degrada¬ 
 tion which these persecuted people have had to endure 
 for centuries, in consequence of the barbarous, enact¬ 
 ments of wicked and oppressive rulers, we feel, indeed, 
 as if the fulfillment of the prophesy was not very far 
 distant. ’ ’ 
 
 Such is the language used by M. de Balzac in his 
 “Histoire,” a work lately published in France. In a 
 History of Jewish Physicians, translated from the 
 French of B. Carmoly by I. R. M. Dunbar, M. D., an 
 
American physician, late professor at Baltimore, he 
 says in his preface : 
 
 “It was believed that an acceptable service would 
 be rendered to the readers of the journal and the pro¬ 
 fession generally by translating Cannoly’s sketches 
 of men so distinguished among God’s ancient people 
 for their medical skill and personal character. It will 
 be seen that a debt of gratitude is due to them for 
 having preserved with a bright and steady flame the 
 torch of science through the gloomy period of the dark 
 ages of the world, and there is a peculiar pleasure de¬ 
 rived from doing an act of historical justice, long aftei 
 the dust of centuries has settled upon their memories, 
 by giving the due meed of fame to those who toiled and 
 died in the practice of a noble profession.” 
 
 And then he goes on and gives a list of the most emi¬ 
 nent physicians from the earliest days to the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries—showing conclusively that to 
 Jewish physicians the world owes the discovery of many 
 diseases and many of its cures, and the nobility and 
 courage that characterized them. The evidence of the 
 rapidly-increasing influence which the Hebrew race is 
 exercising not only in mercantile affairs, but in the 
 higher walks of mental activity in literature, in science, 
 and in the councils of nations, may be found in the fact 
 that the master spirits of Europe, who, if not Hebrews 
 in faith, are at least of Jewish parentage, are illustrations 
 of that wise policy which broke down the barriers of 
 disability which had so long hindered the children of 
 Israel from a fair participation in administering the 
 affairs of State. It appears, however, that the spirit of 
 intolerance is not yet quite extinct, however damaged 
 and disabled by its contact with the liberalism of the 
 nineteenth century, for the air is rife with rumors of 
 Jewish persecutions in certain parts of the continent of 
 Europe, which, to say the least, are greatly antagonistic 
 of the enlightenment of the age. Galicia in Poland, 
 
24 
 
 Bessarabia in Russia, and Roumania, are yet pursuing 
 the policy of the Middle Ages, and Germany is by no 
 means tolerant; and the renewal of these mediaeval pre¬ 
 judices has assumed such enormous proportions that 
 the Jews have been compelled to appeal to the Govern¬ 
 ments of Burope for protection, and even the United 
 States has ably seconded these efforts, and one of our 
 citizens—Hon. B. P>. Peixotto—ably represented us at 
 Bucharest, and whose efforts contributed to ameliorate 
 the condition of affairs leading to the Berlin treaty, but 
 only for a short time. Why do the imbecile rulers of 
 Burope not study Heine, who says: 
 
 “Judea ever appeared to me as a piece of the Occi¬ 
 dent lost in the Orient. Israel sat pious under her fig- 
 trees, sang the praise of their unseen God, and did 
 works of virtue and justice, while, on the other hand, 
 in the temples of Babel, Nineveh, Sidon, and Tyre 
 they performed orgies of a revolting character. When 
 we consider their surroundings, we cannot sufficiently 
 admire the greatness of Israel. 
 
 “The Greeks were only beautiful youths, but the 
 Jews were always men—powerful, uncringing men— 
 not only long ago, but to-day, in spite of eighteen hun¬ 
 dred years of persecution. 
 
 “ Yes, the State may rear high its head, the heart be 
 healthy and hopeful, but it will feel the pain of the toe 
 when afflicted, and the circumscribing of the Jews is 
 such an affliction from which the feet of nations suffer.” 
 
 To show how great is the influence of the Jews on 
 positive religion, how necessary they are to the civil¬ 
 ization of the age, hear Heine again (all this, too, after 
 baptism): “The conflict between positive religion and 
 science is growing daily. The Jews are, as the poet 
 has said, ‘ the Swiss Guard of Deity, ’ and instead of 
 persecuting them they ought to be fostered, for they at 
 least represent a history and believe in a spiritual power. 
 Beware of introducing baptism among the Jews; that is 
 
25 
 
 useless water, and dries easy. Emancipate them.” 
 The terrible influence of prejudice, how beautifully has 
 Boerne defined it. Boerne says: 
 
 “It is like a wonder; a thousand times I have expe¬ 
 rienced it, and yet it remains ever new. The one upbraids 
 me for having been a Jew, the other forgives me, the third 
 even praises me, but all think of it. They are charmed 
 within this magic Jewish circle, and none can escape, and 
 I know full well where the spell comes from. . The poor 
 Germans, living in the basements, seven stories of aris¬ 
 tocracy living over them, it gratifies them to know a more 
 degraded people—those who live in the cellar. No, 
 that I was born a Jew has never caused me pain. Yes, 
 because I was born a servant, I love liberty more than 
 you. Yes, because I learned slavery, I appreciate and 
 value liberty more than you. Yes, because I was born 
 to no country, I seek one more intensely than you, and 
 because my birthplace was no larger than the Ghetto, 
 and foreign country commenced outside of the Jewish 
 postern gate, is the reason that no city, no province, or 
 State is large enough but united Germany free. Alone 
 in my ambition, I beg of you do not despise my Jew; 
 if you were like them, you would be better; if there was 
 as many of them as of you, they would be better. You 
 are thirty millions of Germans, and only count thirty 
 in the world (happily changed by the great events since 
 1866 and 1871); give us thirty millions of Jews, and the 
 world counts for naught. 
 
 u You have taken the air from the Jews, but that has 
 preserved them from mildew. You have sown into their 
 hearts the salt of hate, but that has kept them fresh. 
 You have imprisoned them the whole long winter into 
 cellar vaults, stopping every crevice, while you, ex¬ 
 posed to the frost, nearly froze. When spring comes, 
 we will see who blooms first, the Jew or Christian.” 
 
 In no country, England not excepted, is Shakespeare 
 more admired than in Germany. Hence the following 
 criticisms on Shylock by Robert Benedix, the great 
 author, are not out of place, and I reproduce this, as 
 only last week Shylock was portrayed in this city, not 
 
26 
 
 in the spirit of education, but to foster prejudice. He 
 says: 
 
 “ Cet us look at this Shylock closer. Antonio calls 
 him an usurer; the proof he fails in. Shylock takes 
 high interest; so did all the merchants of Venice. Shy¬ 
 lock trades in monev; to-dav we call him a banker. 
 Why does he trade in money? Because it is the only one 
 permitted. He does not pursue a trade—no agricultural 
 pursuits, no official station—only trade. If the Jews— 
 under centuries of restriction, ostracised from social 
 life—did cling to money and its uses, whose fault? No 
 one can say anything dishonorable of Shylock. He is 
 stingy; in no law-book of the world is that denominated 
 as a crime. What is against this man ? Simply nothing 
 more than that he is a Jew. But for the poet, who, en¬ 
 throned on Olympian heights, there must only exist the 
 man , not the Jew. Shylock is revengeful. Well, who 
 has instigated it ? Only you who have despised him. 
 After persecuting, deriding him, they crown their in¬ 
 famy by asking him to turn Christian. That is the 
 summit of baseness. What is left to the poor Jew, whom 
 you have trodden under foot, when you rob him of his 
 faith ? It is the bond that binds him to his fathers, to 
 his home. It has been his solace in thousandfold per¬ 
 secutions. To this faith Israel clings with devoted 
 love, and from this faith Shylock shall turn to become 
 a Christian ! No wonder he turns with abhorrence from 
 those who torture him so cruelly. Christians they may 
 be. Men they are not. And is there no feeling for a 
 father ? To exalt a daughter who absconds and robs 
 him whom she should honor? Is that Jewish or Chris¬ 
 tian ? The grand speech, ‘ Has not a Jew eyes,’ &c., 
 is the martyr exclamation of a people who for centuries 
 had been the victims of debauched, bigotted priests. 
 
 “ It is hard to free Shakespeare from the prejudice of 
 his age. He has morally sinned; artistically erred. Con¬ 
 trast Cessing; and he wrote in an age of equal intoler¬ 
 ance. His “ Nathan the Wise ” is an embodiment of 
 morality and sublime virtues; his figures are apostles 
 of true humanity. Nathan is an Evangelist of true 
 worth; and Cessing, taking for his hero a Jew, made 
 thereby the u amende honorable” in the name of hu¬ 
 manity. 5 ’ 
 
27 
 
 And now for the truth of this Shylock play. Re¬ 
 verse the principal persons, Shylock and Antonio, 
 and you will have the truth of the story. The plot is 
 taken from the Italian—the Jew borrowed and the 
 Christian loaned. But the truckling spirit of the age 
 falsified fact to gratify the prejudices of the hour. Les¬ 
 sing, in his immortal “Nathan the Wise,” crowned 
 himself and earned eternal gratitude. How his great 
 heart speaks when the Dervise says to Nathan : 
 
 “What, is it not foolery to oppress one’s brother- 
 men by hundreds, thousands, to waste their strength, 
 to plunder, torture, kill them, yet wish to appear the 
 saviour of a few? Is it not foolery to try to ape the 
 mercy of the highest, who, impartial on evil and good, 
 on field and waste, spreadeth himself abroad in sun 
 and rain, yet not to have the overflowing hand of the 
 Almighty?” 
 
 What a rebuke to the money-making Jew when the 
 Templar said to Nathan: “To me the richest Jew was 
 never the best.” How grandly eloquent the words of 
 Nathan to the Templar: “We neither chose our people. 
 Are we our people? What does our people mean? Is 
 Jew or Christian rather Jew or Christian than man? 
 How the baleful fires of hate and bigotry glow in the 
 language of the Patriarch when the Templar asks: “But 
 if the child in misery had died unless the Jew had had 
 compassion on it?” It matters not; “ the Jew goes to 
 the stake. Better the child had died in misery heie 
 than thus be saved for everlasting ruin. Besides, why 
 need the Jew anticipate God’s providence? Without 
 him God can save, if save he will.” 
 
 Or, in other words, the Jew is incapable of a worthy 
 act, and must at all hazards be condemned; and that 
 reminds me of an anecdote in point: 
 
 In Wurtemburg, while a Jew was passing a house, a 
 stone thrown by some one came flying towards him; he 
 
28 
 
 dodged it, and it went crashing through the window. 
 The proprietor sued the man that threw the stone, and 
 the wise justice decided that, had the Jew not dodged, 
 no damage would have resulted; hence the Jew must 
 pay. This seems laughable, but is the type instance of 
 thousand similar decisions, but often resulting more 
 disastrously to the Jewish people. 
 
 But hear Lessing again. How every barrier falls in 
 the following utterances—lay brother to Nathan: “You 
 are a Christian; never was a better.” And Nathan’s 
 answer touches the key-note of the chord of humanity 
 when he says: “What makes of me a Christian in your 
 eyes makes you in mine a Jew—happy for both.” Nar¬ 
 rowness comes from ignorance. To purify men is to 
 educate them. How can they be educated without 
 dealing with each according to his own nature? Edu¬ 
 cation is the religion of the human race , and the less 
 men’s motives are aspersed, the more charitable we are 
 towards each other; and the fewer laws that are enacted, 
 the nearer we approach that standard of religion which 
 is cosmopolitan. 
 
 No matter how much the Jew may differ from your 
 ideas, do not forget that his home-life is a living exam¬ 
 ple of his influence and progress. Healthy and powerful, 
 pure and fresh, has ever gushed forth that fountain of Ju¬ 
 daism the pure family life which has kept Israel fresh and 
 strong. It was a pillar of strength in days of danger, it 
 will be so in days of prosperity, for, as Balaam said, so 
 we can ever say: “ How beautiful are thy tents, Jacob, 
 thy habitations, Israel.” Elegantly has Gutzkow ex¬ 
 pressed it when he lets Silva say to Uriel Acosta: “Deep- 
 rooted in our people is the magic of family and home; in 
 exile, when pursued, there was one solace in our misery, 
 that a father, a mother loved us, that a brother called us, 
 and that no term of years ever changes our affections.” 
 
29 
 
 In short, the words “old man and old woman” are 
 
 never heard in a Jewish home. 
 
 As I said in the commencement of my address, the 
 legend of the Wandering Jew, or, as the Germans have 
 it, “The Everlasting Jew,” has added considerable fuel 
 to the fires of fanaticism. Robert Hammerling says : 
 “It is true what has been said, that Ahasver is not 
 in my poem, as in the legend, ‘The Wfindering Jew, 
 but the eternal man. But I think with the Wander¬ 
 ing Jew, the drama can do but little, but the immortal 
 man it can use to a wise purpose. It is not altogether 
 unlikely or impossible that the Jew, who belongs to a 
 race of great longevity, will survive all other races. In 
 other words, in the mutation of change the perma¬ 
 nent. Among the mortals—the immortal. ” It is strange 
 that so absurd a story should have found any credence, 
 but nothing is too unnatural for bigots. Intelligently 
 construed, the legend is the highest tribute to the Jewish 
 race ; for he is eternal, everlasting—history proves it, 
 and daily experience confirms it. He is a wanderer in 
 every country, the selfsame oriental features as of old, 
 the same habits, faith, and aspirations; nothing has 
 shaken his fortitude, his firmness, his sublime faith in 
 a God of love and peace. He is truly “The Everlast¬ 
 ing Jew,” but not as a punishment for inhospitality, 
 but as a reward for that unshaken fidelity which has 
 characterized him. Beautifully, and no less truthfully, 
 has Dohme, the great German writer, depicted the Jew. 
 There was a time, and only recent, when Jews could 
 not sit in Parliament; the agitation was intense, and at 
 one time convulsed the whole kingdom. The best talent 
 of the English nation was enlisted for and against. In 
 the Edinburgh Review appeared a masterly article, 
 which was so thorough that it exhausted the subject. 
 It was from the pen of the gifted Eord Macauley. I 
 extract a few passages to show the general scope, and 
 
30 
 
 which are applicable to this country, considering that 
 we hear constantly “Christian Government,” and read 
 of the attempts to Christianize the Constitution of the 
 United States. Says Macauley : 
 
 “We hear of essentially Protestant Governments, 
 and essentially Christian Governments—words which 
 mean just as much as essentially Protestant cookery, 
 or essentially Christian horsemanship. Governments 
 exist for the purpose of keeping the peace ; for the pur¬ 
 pose of compelling us to settle our disputes by arbitra¬ 
 tion, instead of settling them by blows ; for the purpose 
 of supplying our wants by industry, instead of supply¬ 
 ing them by rapine. 
 
 “If there is any class of people who are not interested, 
 or who do not think themselves interested, in the se¬ 
 curity of property and the maintenance of order, that 
 class ought to have no share of the powers which 
 exist for the purpose of securing property and maintain¬ 
 ing order. But why a man should be less fit to exer¬ 
 cise those powers because he wears a beard, because 
 he does not eat ham, we cannot concede. The points 
 of difference between Christianity and Judaism have 
 very much to do with a man’s fitness to be a Bishop 
 or Rabbi. But they have no more to do with his fit¬ 
 ness to be a magistrate or legislator or a minister of 
 finance than with his fitness to be a cobbler. Nobody 
 has ever thought of compelling cobblers to make any 
 declaration of the true faith of a Christian ; any man 
 would rather have his shoes mended by a heretical 
 cobbler than by a person who had subscribed all the 
 thirty-nine articles, but had never handled an awl. 
 Men act thus not because they are indifferent to reli¬ 
 gion, but because they do not see what religion has to 
 do with the mending of their shoes. What power in 
 civilized society is so great as that of the creditor over 
 the debtor? If we take this from the Jew, we take 
 away from him the security of his property. If we 
 leave it to him, we leave to him a power more despotic 
 by far than that of the king and all his cabinet. * * * 
 
 “It would be impious to let a Jew sit in Parliament, 
 but a Jew may make money, and money may make 
 Members of Parliament. Sarum may be the property 
 
3 T 
 
 of a Hebrew. Ail elector will take ten pounds from 
 Shylock rather than nine pounds nineteen shillings 
 and seven pence three farthings from Antonio. To 
 this objection is made. That a Jew should possess 
 the substance of legislative power; that he should com¬ 
 mand eight votes on every division as if he was the great 
 Duke of New Castle—is exactly as it should be. But 
 that he should pass the bar, and sit down on those 
 mysterious cushions of green leather; that he should 
 say ‘hear’ and ‘order,’ and talk about being on his 
 legs and being for once free to say ‘this and to say that,’ 
 would be a profanation sufficient to bring ruin on the 
 country. That a Jew should be a privy-councillor to 
 a Christian king, would be an eternal disgrace to the 
 nation. But the Jew may govern the money market, 
 and the money market may govern the world. The 
 minister may be in doubt as to his scheme of finance 
 till he has been closeted with the Jew. A congress of 
 sovereigns may be forced to summon the Jew to their 
 assistance. The scrawl of the Jew on the back of a 
 piece of paper may be worth more than the royal word 
 of three kings or the national faith of three new Ameri¬ 
 can republics. But that he should put Right Honor¬ 
 able before his name would be the most frightful of 
 national calamities. If it is our duty as Christians to 
 exclude the Jews from political powei, it must be our 
 duty to treat them as our ancestors treated them to 
 murder them, and banish them, and rob them. 
 
 Where wealth is, there power must inevitably be.” 
 
 Beautifully expressed are his reasons for the want of 
 patriotism of the Jew in countries where oppressed, of 
 the senseless prejudice in countries where free: 
 
 “If the Jews have not felt towards England like chil¬ 
 dren, it is because she has treated them like a stepmother. 
 There is no feeling which more certainly develops 
 itself in the minds of men living under tolerable good 
 government than the feeling of patriotism. Since the 
 beginning of the world there never was any nation, or 
 any large & portion of any nation not cruelly oppressed, 
 which was wholly destitute of that feeling. To make it, 
 therefore, ground of accusation against a class of men 
 
32 
 
 that they are not patriotic, is the most vulgar legerde¬ 
 main of sophistry. It is logic which the wolf employs 
 against the lamb. It is to accuse the mouth of the 
 stream of poisoning the source. * 
 
 “But not only in monarchical England, but in the 
 republican United States, long after equality was won 
 at the point of the bayonet, did several of the States 
 deny it to the Jew (and it was only a few years ago that 
 even Switzerland accorded full equality, after boasting 
 of its six hundred years of liberty); and what was then 
 denied to the Jew is now attempted by a large number 
 of respectable American citizens; that is, to abridge 
 social, natural, and personal rights. Fanaticism is 
 never at peace, and the greatest danger of the American 
 Republic lies in the fostering of ‘isms.’ ” 
 
 The prejudice that deals in invective without reason, 
 that traduces without cause, has never been so pro¬ 
 nounced as exhibited by Mr. Moody in Philadelphia 
 recently. 
 
 Enlisted in the cause of evangelism, claiming to be a 
 spiritual guide, he wantonly attacks his Jewish fellow- 
 citizens in a set harangue of over an hour, thinking, 
 no doubt, as thousands of others have done before him, 
 that it is manly to attack a physical minority ; that it 
 is popular to deride the Jew, and that the victim will 
 bow his head in submission, thankful for life. 
 
 And there is where men like Mr. Moody commit a 
 folly ; for the victim does not bow his head ; he asserts 
 his manhood, his mental majority, and tells him and 
 others that the day has gone by when it was fashionable 
 to abuse any class of men differing in religious senti¬ 
 ment; and especially is this so in this country. 
 
 The folly consists not only in the utterance, but also 
 in those good Christian ladies and gentlemen who sat 
 at the feet of the evangelist, and failed to rebuke him. 
 
 But it requires heroism of a superior mould for men 
 to rise superior to the dictation of their spiritual guides ; 
 
33 
 
 and in that very essential the Jew of modern days 
 stands superior ; he knows no priest; their religious 
 teachers aim to instruct the reason, not to fetter it; seek 
 to elevate the moral character of their people, not to 
 circumscribe it. In short, the Jew believes in the uni¬ 
 versality of manhood. 
 
 I also quote from the speehes of Brackenridge and 
 Tyson, members of the Maryland Legislature in 1818. 
 Mr. Kennedy, of Washington county, had introduced 
 session after session his famous Jew Bill, and it took 
 seven years of debate before Maryland adopted a law 
 giving the Jew equal rights. The sentiments hold 
 good to-day. The same prejudice and ignorance exist, 
 and the demagogue has not changed his skin. It was 
 a question of politics in 1818; it is a question of fanat¬ 
 icism and church supremacy in 1888. 
 
 Says Brackenridge: 
 
 “Every American who aspires to the character of 
 liberality, as well as to a proper knowledge of the spirit 
 of our institutions, must subscribe to this proposition, 
 as the test of the progress of his attainments, that 
 religion is a matter between man and his God, that the 
 temporal arm should be interposed to direct the actions 
 of men, and not their thoughts. * * * I would 
 
 contend, in behalf of the citizen, that in requiring him 
 to subscribe to a religious test for any purpose, his just 
 constitutional rights are infringed and violated. * * * 
 A constitutional right is violated whenever the citizen 
 is made to feel the consequence of his opinions, either 
 by direct bodily infliction or by disqualifications. * * * 
 
 “If we look abroad, and even glance around on our 
 own country, we shall find that the practice of perse¬ 
 cution and the spirit of intolerance are not the insepa¬ 
 rable attendants on Catholicism; nor does history prove 
 that American Protestants cannot be intolerant. * * * 
 I proclaim it persecution when any one forcibly inter¬ 
 rupts the free enjoyment of my opinion in matters of 
 religion, politics, or science. * * 
 
 “ I hold my right unquestionable to differ from any 
 
34 
 
 other man. * * * I do firmly believe that it is an 
 
 insult to the Christian religion to suppose that it needs 
 the temporal arm for its support. But I am told this is 
 a Christian land. No, sir; the soil we inhabit yields 
 its fruit to the just and unjust; the sun, which gives us 
 life, sheds his glorious beams impartially on all. But 
 the great majority of the dwellers of this land are Chris¬ 
 tians; therefore is it a Christian land? For the same 
 reason it might be a Catholic, Episcopal, or Presbyterian 
 land. Our political compacts are not entered into as 
 brethren of the Christian faith, but as men, as members 
 of a civilized society. In looking back to pur struggle 
 for independence, I find that we engaged in that con¬ 
 flict for the rights of man, and not for the purpose of 
 enforcing or defending any particular religious creed. 
 
 * * * All persecution for the sake of opinion is 
 
 tyranny. ” * * * 
 
 Says Mr. Tyson (and that speech is truth to-day as to 
 the stupid bigotry with which the Jew is pursued 
 socially and denounced publicly): 
 
 u Why has the triumph of this cause been so long 
 delayed ? Because of the ignorance of some of the peo¬ 
 ple, the prejudice of others, the bigotry of one portion, 
 and the honest but mistaken zeal of another—an igno¬ 
 rance, prejudice, bigotry, and zeal fostered by political 
 demagogues, who, though in heart and soul they were 
 neither Christian, Jew, nor Turk, professed to be the 
 humble supporters of the religion of Jesus. 
 
 u The Jew has some of your advantages, and yet he 
 does no worse than you. Maybe he does better, for the 
 faithful Jew practices Christianity without professing it. 
 You profess it without practicing it. * * * Their de¬ 
 scendants, from generation to generation, for twenty cen¬ 
 turies, have been the victims of a persecution unparal¬ 
 leled in the history of any other people. In every period 
 of the world’s history, in every nation under Heaven, 
 by every sect, they have been imprisoned, tortured, and 
 massacred, sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and 
 thrown to the dogs in Asia; chained to the galling car 
 for life in Africa; burned to death in Spain; flayed alive 
 in Italy; fleeced and sentenced to banishment from time 
 
35 
 
 to time in England ; plunged into the catacombs in 
 France; knouted in Russia, or driven to perish in the 
 wilds of Siberia. Is not this enough ? ” * * * 
 
 And Mr. Tyson might have truthfully said, and all this 
 was done by professing Christians, chanting the hymns 
 and songs of Judea’s poets and singers, and under the 
 inspiration of their Saviour, who was himself a Jew. 
 It cannot be gainsaid that every word coined in the 
 crucible of pure aesthetic morality is adding so much 
 to the world’s progress, and the Jews have shown intel¬ 
 lectual capacity, genius for the higher walks of culture, 
 love of and for music, song, science, invention, art, 
 philosophy, poetry, journalism, commerce, banking, 
 and even in the art of war. To a certain extent I have 
 shown this. I will now do so more fully. Republics 
 rest on virtue ; the sobriety of the citizen, the moral 
 poise of the father, husband, brother, son, mother, wife, 
 daughter, and sister are the great safeguards of a free 
 nation. Where do yon find these to a greater extent 
 than among the Jews? Has their home-life not been 
 
 immortalized in song and story ? 
 
 The thrift of a people is the best preventive of vice 
 and immorality ; the patient industry, the sober, daily 
 life, form the bulwark of a nation’s greatness and per¬ 
 petuity. Who possess these to a greater degree than 
 
 the Jews? 
 
 Music and song are the twin sisters who have made 
 the world purer and better, assuaged sorrow, added to 
 onr stock of enjoyment, are a solace to the enslaved, a 
 recreation to the refined. All the opera-houses of the 
 world would be empty were it not for the liberal pat¬ 
 ronage of the Jew, and that is the reason Friday night 
 is always selected for benefits. But, aside from this, 
 they have given to the world composers, singers, and 
 painters, classed among the first—Mendelssohn, Mey¬ 
 erbeer, Halevy, Mosheles, Offenbach, Braham, Pattis, 
 
3 6 
 
 Strakosch, Wienawski, Rubenstein, Joachim, Ernst, 
 Rettelheim, Magnus, Constant, Mayer, Josef Hoffman, 
 Peixotto, Heilbrons, Wolfsolni, Adelaide Phillips, Toby, 
 Rosenthal, and Mosler. The stage, as is now generally 
 conceded by liberal minds, is a school doing as much to 
 elevate the character of man as the Church. What 
 actors greater than Talma, Rachel, Davison, Bandman, 
 Eechter, Bernhart? 
 
 Statesmen, lawyers, politicians are the triumvirate of 
 a State’s active life; the one forms, the other guides, 
 and the last interprets, public opinion. No country can 
 prosper without them; they are the controlling influence 
 of a nation’s greatness. And in this category we count 
 the stars of the first order—Fould, Cremieux, Disraeli, 
 Montefiore, Jules Simon, Goldsmith, Jessel, Lasker, 
 Euzzato, Jacoby, Benjamin, Phillips, Noah, Dr. Fried- 
 enthal, Simpson, Meissel, Riesser, Artom, and Easalle. 
 
 Authors delight and instruct mankind; and when they 
 are imbued with liberal ideas, they add vastly to the 
 happiness and welfare of humanity. The Jews are not 
 meanly represented among the modern. Auerbach, Mo- 
 senthal, Lemon, Mendelssohn, Heine, Borne, Disraeli, 
 LeFarjeon, Leeser, Aguiar, Spinoza, Geiger, Emma 
 Lazarus, Graetz, Raphael, Riesser, Krieznach, Phillips, 
 Saphir, Herzfield, Heilprin, Rev. Dr. I. M. Wise, Rev. 
 Dr. B. Szold, Munk; Kalish, the humorist; Abarbanel, 
 Goldsmith, Emanuel Deutsch; Kuh, the mathema¬ 
 tician ; Wietzenhausen, Stern, Beer; Sloninski, the 
 physiologist; Oppert; Valentine, anatomist; Hirshfield; 
 Bien, the lithographer; Berliner, the inventor. Com¬ 
 merce and finance are the two great motive powers of 
 the world’s prosperity. Without them, the wheels of 
 State would stand still; without them, we would sink 
 back into barbarism. They keep us active and ener¬ 
 getic, and add not only to a nation’s strength and great¬ 
 ness, but also give scope to the fertile brain of the 
 
37 
 
 individual. And well has it been said that this power 
 at least has been in the hands of the Jew; for while it 
 has been one of the principal causes of their oppression, 
 it at the same time has been one of the best, if not the. 
 best, weapons of defense. The Jews first made use of 
 letters of credit. We all know that the first bankers of 
 the world—Rothschilds—are Jews; we know they con¬ 
 trol not only the money market, but also the political 
 destiny of the European world; and one thing can be 
 truthfully said—they never mix their religion with 
 other people’s money. Even our loans were taken 
 principally by Jews; but mercantile enterprises owe a 
 vast debt to the Jew. You need but look at the streets 
 of the principal cities of the world on Jewish holidays, 
 and you will at once see that trade is in mourning; the 
 busy hum is hushed; everything is languid; the active 
 brain, the quick, nervous decision, the daring, yet cau¬ 
 tious, speculator is absent. Took at Spain and Ireland, 
 and then at England, France, Germany, and the United 
 States; and yet this very activity is made a weapon of 
 attack. 
 
 The Jewish merchant and banker is an honor to hu¬ 
 manity; and while here and there are found a few who 
 are not what they ought to be, yet on the whole they 
 are high-toned, enterprising, intelligent, and eminently 
 trustworthy. 
 
 The temperate character of the Jew in every relation 
 of life is beyond compare. For them no excise or restrict¬ 
 ive laws are necessary. A drunken, intemperate Jew is 
 almost impossible; they have too much love and respect, 
 not only for their home-circle, but also for their name 
 and character. Their forefathers looked upon dissipa¬ 
 tion with abhorrence; the sons have not degenerated; 
 and with them it is training , not restraining . The sani¬ 
 tary and hygienic laws of the Jews are to-day the best 
 ever framed, and the regulations for the health of the 
 
38 
 
 soldiers in camp and on the march have their origin in 
 the laws of Moses. The statistics of every city show that 
 in great epidemics the ratio of death between the Jew now 
 and others is as two to eight. Jewish-killed meats are 
 sought after and purchased by many Christians, as they 
 are conducive to health. And does not good digestion 
 form an important element in a nation’s welfare? Need 
 I speak of their charity? That has become proverbial. 
 Their poor are not outdoors, their orphans not outcasts, 
 their widows not dissolute, their old men not scoffed at. 
 Among themselves they differ as to forms, but in char¬ 
 ity and benevolence they are united. No one is turned 
 away. With them to give is to serve the Lord. I have 
 often been asked why are you Jews so restrictive in not 
 intermarrying with Christians? I answer, it would pro¬ 
 duce unhappiness, misery, if not crime. There can be 
 no perfect home unless both parents have the same faith; 
 the offspring must see the fruits of peace, not of strife, 
 there must be a unity of thought, not a division of the 
 Heaven aspired to. Imagine a home happy where the 
 father goes to one, the mother to another, church. Two- 
 thirds of our American divorces owe their origin to 
 religious differences and the want of true home, heart 
 education and the power of the priesthood over the 
 women of this land. There was a time in Berlin and 
 Vienna when the whole literary and artistic world 
 of Europe could be found in the parlors of Henrietta 
 Herz, Rahel Levin, and Countess Arnim, the greatest 
 statesmen recreating their weary brain. Discussion upon 
 every theme chased the hours away. Dynasties were 
 formed and destroyed; one philosophy created, another 
 criticised to death. “ Circle of Virtue,” as they called 
 themselves, became the central power around which 
 everything else had to revolve; they were a power for 
 good and evil; and overlooking all were these daughters 
 of Israel, who by a smile, nod, or wink controlled em- 
 
59 
 
 pires. To their own race they were aliens; they were 
 not proud of their birth; it was an era of intolerance. 
 Fashion opened its doors only to the hypocrite. Science 
 and art championed the baptizer and ostracised the 
 faithful, the ambitious, intellectual Jews, like Heine, 
 Boerne, Disraeli, and others had to embrace sectarian¬ 
 ism, so as to walk the avenues of literature as equals; 
 and yet, as I have shown, in all their writings and acts 
 they were like the painted leopard—the spots could not 
 be washed away. 
 
 How grand, noble, and sublime in comparison stand 
 the gifted Grace Aquilar and Hmrna Lazarus. Their 
 works have not only championed Judaism in its better 
 style, but they also command, by their simplicity of 
 style, the purity of their diction, and their high moral 
 tone, the respect and esteem of mankind. Such women 
 do more to advance the world’s progress, to instruct 
 and educate, than a million of Raliel Levins. The 
 one is eternal in her works, the other only remembered 
 as a brilliant, fashionable dreamer. 
 
 The Press of Europe is mostly controlled by Jews; 
 the leading editors are Jews. The different universities 
 of Europe contain dozens of professors in every walk 
 of science who are devout believers in Judaism, and the 
 leading newspaper in the United .-States is owned by 
 a Jew. 
 
 The revolutionary feeling in Europe owed its life and 
 stimulus to Jews; the German Government called every 
 patriot a Jew; and the liberal ideas slowly dawning in 
 Europe are mainly due to Jewish brains and money. 
 They are a liberty-loving people, and yet they cling to 
 the country of their adoption, be that despotic or free ; 
 they pray for Emperor and President, believe in law 
 and order, and ever counsel peace. In answer to the 
 charge of clannishness among the Jews and their want 
 of patriotism, Macauley says : 
 
40 
 
 “The English Jews are, as far as we can see, precisely 
 what our Government has made them. They are pre¬ 
 cisely what any sect, what any class of men, treated as 
 they have been treated, would have been. If all the 
 red-haired people in Europe had during centuries been 
 outraged and oppressed, banished from this place, im¬ 
 prisoned in that, deprived of their money, deprived of 
 their teeth, convicted of the most improbable crimes on 
 the feeblest evidence, dragged at horses’ tails, hanged, 
 tortured, burned alive; if, when manners became 
 milder, they had still been subject to debasing restric¬ 
 tions and exposed to vulgar insults, locked up in par¬ 
 ticular streets in some countries, pelted and ducked 
 by the rabble in others, excluded everywhere from 
 magistracies and honors,—what would be the patriot¬ 
 ism of gentlemen with red hair? 
 
 “And if under such circumstances a proposition were 
 made for admitting red-haired men to office, how strik¬ 
 ing a speech might an eloquent admirer of our old institu¬ 
 tion deliver against so revolutionary a measure? ‘These 
 men,’ he might say, ‘scarcely consider themselves as 
 Englishmen. They think a red-haired Frenchman or 
 a red-haired German more closely connected with them 
 than a man with brown hair born in their own par¬ 
 ish.’ ” * * * 
 
 To the charge of usury and sharp-dealing he answers 
 thus : 
 
 “A Christian is commanded, under the strongest 
 sanctions, to be just in all his dealings ; yet to how many 
 of the twenty-four millions of professing Christians in 
 these islands would any man in his senses lend a thou¬ 
 sand pounds without security? A man who should act, 
 for one day, on the supposition that all the people about 
 him were influenced by the religion which they pro¬ 
 fessed, would find himself ruined before night, and no 
 man ever does act on that supposition in the ordinary 
 concerns of life—in borrowing, lending, in buying, or 
 in selling. (But when any of our fellow-creatures are to 
 be oppressed, the case is different. Then we represent 
 those motives which we know to be as feeble for good 
 
4 1 
 
 as omnipotent for evil. Then we lay to the charge of 
 onr victims all the vices and follies to which their doc¬ 
 trines, however remotely, seem to tend.” 
 
 But you will say that is all very true of the past, of 
 Europe, but here in this country, where there are no 
 restrictions now, where every avenue to wealth and 
 position is open to you, how is it that you are so clan¬ 
 nish? Why are the majority merchants and bankers? 
 How is it that you are so loud at bathing-places—so 
 fond of display ? 
 
 I can only answer that this country is yet in its in¬ 
 fancy ; that the most of the Jews resident here were 
 born in Europe ; that they have the customs and habits 
 of home—a home which was a prison-house. The sons 
 and daughters, however, born here are in the highest 
 and best sense Americans; that they are carving hon¬ 
 orable names in every path of industry, the arts and 
 science. The evidence of the rising importance of the 
 Hebrew race in all that regards mental cultivation and 
 usefulness in public affairs is still stronger and more 
 widely diffused in this country, not only to the contri¬ 
 butions of Hebrew scholars who adorn American litera¬ 
 ture ; not only is the voice of Hebrew statesmen heard 
 in our legislative halls, but some of the most important 
 questions of the day, affecting the welfare and prosperity 
 of the American nation, have found their solution in 
 the genius and ingenuity of Hebrews. Not only the 
 philanthropic Judah Tourah, Jacob H. Schiff, Jesse 
 Seligman, and Michael Reese, who gave to all creeds 
 alike, are American Jews, but who can have forgotten 
 the large-hearted jurist and statesman, M. M. Noah, 
 that bright, particular star which shone with such re¬ 
 splendent light in the Israelitish firmament, and whose 
 stupendous schemes for the gathering together of the 
 children of Israel upon this continent partook of the 
 
42 
 
 character of inspiration. When the great Whig party 
 of the United States was in the ascendancy, and its 
 great apostles, Webster and Clay, in the full enjoyment 
 of their popularity and influence, who exercised a more 
 absolute control over the destinies of that party than 
 that paragon of earthly benevolence, the ever genial 
 and universally-esteemed Major Noah ; and no wonder 
 he was a Whig, for the letters W. H. I. G. mean “We 
 hope in God.” 
 
 His faith in the fulfillment of the prophecy consid¬ 
 ering the future destiny of the Jewish race was firm 
 and not to be shaken. It is on record that he once 
 stated in public that “ the past history and the present 
 condition of the Jewish people bear witness to the divine 
 inspiration of the Scriptures, and to the immediate per¬ 
 sonal agency of God.”* We are forgetting every shame 
 and obloquy of the past, and have, aside from a firm 
 belief in one Supreme Being, no higher ambition than 
 to be useful, enterprising, active, intelligent, patriotic 
 citizens. The Jew is becoming a property-holder in 
 every city of the country. Diamonds and precious 
 stones as a commodity, as a source of wealth when flee¬ 
 ing from danger, have no longer any charm—the erec¬ 
 tion and beautifying of homes, the building of marble 
 palaces and stores their aim and object. Their syna¬ 
 gogues, temples, hospitals, orphan asylums, and homes 
 for the aged are not only models of architecture, but 
 ample proof of the munificence of the Jew. They are 
 prosperous because they are thrifty; they economize 
 because waste is sinful; they cling together because in 
 unity lies strength. The mystic chord that binds them 
 together is centuries of torture and misfortune. The 
 
 * When he was running for sheriff of New York his opponents said : 
 “Think of it—if a Jew should hang a Christian.” Noah said: “A 
 nice Christian that has to be hung.” 
 
43 
 
 blood of kings, princes, and prophets flows as pure 
 to-day as in the days of David and Solomon in the 
 veins of the Jew. They might be a proud people; they 
 are only ambitious to be just and prosperous. 
 
 I concede that many Jews are loud, vain, fond of 
 display, but they are only the excrescence incident to 
 sudden wealth, based on the freaks of fortune, not on 
 education. Shoddy has no nationality, and is despi¬ 
 cable in whomsoever and wheresoever found. There is 
 a lack of judgment when persons intrude by virtue of 
 their wealth. Money can purchase commodities of life, 
 never good breeding; a gentleman and lady are born, 
 and by education refined, and that is not restricted to 
 any sect. 
 
 And while I concede this fully, do not lay it at the 
 doors of Judaism; do not use the word Jew as signifying 
 vulgarity, rudeness, and fraud, but speak of them as 
 you do of your own household when any one has fallen 
 by the wayside. Time and again the charge of cow¬ 
 ardice has been alleged against us. That we possess 
 moral courage in its highest sense, I have shown by 
 Christian writers. That we are physically brave (not 
 reckless, brutal, and bloodthirsty), can be as easily shown. 
 Our history proves it. Spanish Generals, the Maccabees, 
 the marshals of Napoleon—Soult, Ney, Massena—were 
 Jews. In all modern wars, in our own recent contest, 
 there were a large number of Jewish officers and privates, 
 and where we are free to act we are never recreant to the 
 call of country. We have fled from conscription in 
 Europe, and who would not do the same ? 
 
 One of the most interesting objects in a broker’s 
 office, near Wall street, is a small frame, conspicuously 
 hung, containing a square of paper discolored by time 
 and exposure. It has historic and mercantile interest, 
 as being one of the first bills of exchange ever drawn 
 in this country, and reveals the straits to which the 
 
44 
 
 Revolutionary officials were put for a purchasing me¬ 
 dium. It is as follows : 
 
 “ Philadelphia, 17 th March , 1772. 
 
 “Exchange for 12,000 cwt. of Inspected James River 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 “On or before the 10th day of April next pay this 
 my first of Exchange (second and third not paid) to Mr. 
 Jacob Cohen and Co., or order, Twelve Thousand Groce 
 cwt. of good and Inspected Janies River Tobacco, for 
 value received of 
 
 “ Your humble serv’t, 
 
 “Hoym Solomon. 
 
 “Edmund Randolph, Esq., 
 
 “ Richmond, Va. 
 
 “Accepted: Edmund Randolph.” 
 
 Eugene J. Jackson, the possessor of the bill, and the 
 grandson of Hoym Solomon, the drawer, thus recites the 
 history: At the time the bill was drawn the Americans 
 were receiving valuable but secret assistance from the 
 French Government, which was not then prepared to 
 embroil itself with the English. In order to carry out 
 operations successfully, it was essential that the French 
 and American Governments should be represented by 
 private agents, who should ostensibly transact this 
 business for themselves. 
 
 Beaumarchais, author of the “Marriage of Figaro,” 
 was the representative in France, and Hoym Solomon, 
 then an eminent banker in Philadelphia, the agent in 
 this country. Their operations were varied, but con¬ 
 sisted largely in evading the vigilance of the British, 
 and in smuggling through to the American lines large 
 quantities of the munitions of war. The bill above 
 noted was drawn up for the purpose of paying for those 
 goods. The Edmund Randolph referred to was the 
 famous Governor of Virginia, showing how active we 
 were to aid the Government in its straits. 
 
45 
 
 This is our home, our Palestine; we have no other 
 ambition than to prosper in this land of our adoption, 
 to whose growth—material, social, and intellectual 
 we have contributed our share. The Revolution saw 
 our race its warmest advocates, and it was Jewish money 
 then, as it is Jewish money now, that gave the sinews 
 of war. Were Robert Morris alive, he could tell you 
 how the Hoym Solomons, Cohens, Phillipses, and 
 Gratzes of those days aided and strengthened him. 
 No ! Jerusalem is an honorable past; it is the cradle of 
 Religion; it is no hope for the future, not the place 
 from which will spring a new, active life. A celebrated 
 diplomat said once, after an eventful, changing life, 
 when asked to take service again, “ My head is too full 
 of tradition; I cannot do justice to the present. The 
 same is true of the cities of the past which once served 
 high, noble purposes, but which have sunk into decay. 
 Hellenism no longer exists where born. Athens will 
 not again be the centre of culture. Rome shines yet from 
 the reflex of its grand churches and sculpture, but only 
 as in the Middle Ages; therefore, it will never be the 
 healthy capital of a new dynasty. The same is true of 
 Jerusalem. Honor we its past, but we no longer hope 
 that from thence is to flow new life. We do not want 
 to live in a city of special chosen grace; we want to live 
 in a city of active, human industry, under divine favor, 
 where we can work and watch. We do not wish to 
 wander among relics of the past, even if they are hon¬ 
 orable, but build anew for the glorious, fraternal future. 
 Honor to Jerusalem and its memories, as to any of our 
 great dead, but we have no desire to disturb its repose. 
 
 And now in conclusion let me say : 
 
 In a republic all are needful to the common weal, 
 particularly those citizens who practice charity, perform 
 benevolence, educate their children, lead a sober, in¬ 
 dustrious life, are moral and patriotic in their conduct, 
 
4 6 
 
 and do not fill the journals with domestic and church 
 scandal. The Jew has faults so far as he is human, but 
 his greatness of character, his virtues, his incisive tal¬ 
 ents should command universal respect. Pity the first, 
 but honor the last, for then we can with Schiller say : 
 
 The freest mother’s children free, 
 
 With steadfast countenance rise 
 To highest beauty’s radiancy, 
 
 And every other crown despise. 
 
 ***** * 
 
 High over your own course of time 
 Exalt yourselves with pinions bold, 
 
 And let your glass sublime 
 The coming century unfold. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Into one stream of light thus flow 
 One bond of truth that ne’er decays ! 
 
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