Sold – Just a Few Years After Ordering Jews Expelled From Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Is Himself Using the Services of a Jewish Merchant
It shows a rapid evolution of his thinking away from prejudice.
In 1862, in the heat of the Civil War, Grant initiated one of the most blatant official episodes of anti-Semitism in American history. It started in November 1862, when convinced that the raging black market in cotton was organized “mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders,” Grant ordered that “No Jews are...
In 1862, in the heat of the Civil War, Grant initiated one of the most blatant official episodes of anti-Semitism in American history. It started in November 1862, when convinced that the raging black market in cotton was organized “mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders,” Grant ordered that “No Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railroad southward [into the Department of the Tennessee] from any point,” nor were they to be granted trade licenses. When illegal trading continued, Grant issued Order No. 11 on December 17, 1862. It expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, reading: "The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order. Post commanders will see to it that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement.." Jews around the country protested this as an “enormous outrage on all laws and humanity…the grossest violation of the Constitution and our rights as good citizens under it.” They also made application to President Lincoln, who remarking that there were many Jews serving in our army, responded by ordering it rescinded in rather sharp language: "A paper purporting to be General Orders, No. 11, issued by you December 17, has been presented here. By its terms, it expels all Jews from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked." It was.
After the war, Grant transcended this anti-Semitism. He named several Jews to high office and invited Joseph Seligman to become the first Jewish cabinet member, though Seligman declined. This was an extraordinary outreach at the time, and it was almost another 40 years before a Jew joined a president's cabinet.
The name Tachau is a very unusual one, and the 1860 U.S. Census shows that the only family to bear it settled in the Louisville, Kentucky area. There were two brothers: Henry and Louis. The name is Germanic, and although the census records indicate the native land as Denmark, in 1864 the Danish provinces of Schleswig and Holstein were seized by Prussia, so it is likely the family originated in what is Germany today. The family was Jewish, and proved a very prominent one. Louis married Mattie Ochs, cousin of Adolph Ochs, founder of the New York Times. In the next generation, Charles G. Tachau married the sister of Justice Louis D. Brandeis. Since there was just one H. Tachau in the Census, and he is the Henry Tachau mentioned above, it seems safe to assume that Henry Tachau and H.G. Tachau are one and the same person. H.G. Tachau shows up as a trader providing goods to the military in the Civil War and post-war periods.
This fascinating letter illustrates that not more than a few years had gone by after Order No. 11 before Grant was himself using the services of a Jewish merchant from Kentucky, one of the very people he had ordered out in 1862.
Autograph letter signed, on his Headquarters Armies of the United States letterhead, Washington, October 1, 1867, to Gen. George Thomas. "Will you please direct your Quarter Master to receive from the bearer, H.G. Tachau, a pony which he will deliver and take care of him until such time as he can be forwarded here to me." Any letter directly illustrating Grant's relationship with Jewish traders, the subject of his ban, is extremely uncommon. This is also only the second letter of Grant to Gen. Thomas we have ever carried, Thomas being the principal Union commander in the west after Sherman marched east to the sea.
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