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October 20, 2007
Ulysses S. Grant, ethnic cleanser
Years ago, I was a History major. A long story would tell you how I ended up with a minor instead; but I'll skip all that and say that the what ultimately made the difference was a Civil War course in which a large research project was due, and in which a floppy disk failure (this was 1990-91) played a key role in a "major" letdown. I keep toying with the idea that I will someday finish that project, if only for my own private edification.
The topic I had chosen was grim: the long-ranging social impacts of crowded, disease-ridden encampments on the Mississippi River where former slaves were forced to live in squalor after being rounded up from Deep South plantations. The orders that led to such inhuman treatment came straight from the top — i.e., from General Ulysses S. Grant.
Now we learn that African-Americans weren't the only ethnic group toward which Grant directed sweeping, insensitive (to say the least) policy. From a website named Secrecy News (with thanks to Radley Balko):
In a remarkable episode from the Civil War that is not as widely known as it might be, General Ulysses S. Grant issued Order No. 11 on December 17, 1862 expelling all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, where his forces had taken the field.
The point of the linked post is that President Abraham Lincoln quickly rescinded Grant's order, according to a newly available 1909 book, Abraham Lincoln and the Jews.
The despicable legacy of slavery is by no means the only stain on this nation's history. The process of preserving the union has employed many less-than-noble personnel and has brought about abhorrent public acts. These instances are important to remember even in our most patriotic moments. (Readers will not infer that I "hate America" or some such nonsense. Naturally I feel that our principles of liberty and equality make us the best nation on Earth; but, as applied by human beings, they represent ideals toward which we continue to strive, with relative success.)
See also: Andrew Jackson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt; your examples?
Miscellaneous | By joe lance | 09:51 AM