The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen - Simon Wolf

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when the loan was paid or the order itself was discharged and the coin returned to the depositor. The proposition of Mr. Adams was satisfactory to the gentleman, but he said that to prevent the disclosure of his name the deposit should be made in coupon and not in registered bonds. The coupons were payable to bearer; the registered were required to be inscribed on the books of the Treasury in the owner's name.

      Mr. Adams then volunteered the assurance that these bonds, to the amount of $10,000,000, should be transmitted to London by the first steamer which left New York after his despatch concerning the transaction was received at the State Department at Washington.

      It was this assurance of Mr. Adams which the President and both of the Secretaries desired should be made good. They regarded the faith of the government as pledged for its performance, and that faith they proposed should not be violated.

      All the details of this transaction were not then disclosed. They reached the government in private, confidential despatches from Mr. Adams, some of them long afterwards. The despatch in question was understood to be confidential; certainly that part of it which related to the deposit and security proposed. It was necessarily brief, for in order to reach the steamer the special messenger had to leave London within a very few hours after the proposition of the deposit was made. There was enough in it to show that an inestimable service had been rendered to the country by some one to whom Mr. Adams had pledged the faith of the nation for the transmission of these bonds by the next steamer which left New York. There was no dissent from the conclusion that the pledge of Mr. Adams, if it were in the power of the government, must be performed.

      Since the publication of the foregoing facts in Harper's Magazine for May, 1890, I have been solicited by many correspondents to give the name of the gentleman who offered to perform such a signal service to our country. It must be obvious that nothing could give greater pleasure than to publish his name, and to secure for him the enduring gratitude of the American people. I have, however, a special reason for my present determination not to disclose it, nor to permit myself to speculate upon the consequences of the disclosure. When we were informed that the emergency had passed, it became necessary to make a change in the entries of this large amount upon the books of the register. This was found to be a difficult matter, unless a plain statement of the issue, to the gentleman in question, and its purpose was made with its subsequent cancellation. This course I proposed to Secretary Chase. He was decided in his opinion that the value of the service would not have been enhanced if an actual deposit of the money had been required, and that, as the gentleman himself had imposed the obligation, he was the only authority who could possibly release it. While I regarded his conclusion as incontrovertible, I did suggest that our first duty was the official one, to our own obligation to conceal nothing, and to make our official records strictly conform to the fact.

      "We should have thought of that at the time," said the Secretary. "We might have declined his offer, coupled as it was with the obligation to conceal his name, but I do not remember that we considered that question. Do you?"

      "No," I said. "Nothing was discussed in my presence except the possibility of compliance with his conditions to the letter."

      "Then, I think, we must continue to keep his secret whatever the consequences may be, until he releases us from the obligation," was the final conclusion of the Secretary.

      I am, I believe, the only survivor of those to whom this gentleman's name was known. I have hitherto declined to discuss the question of his name or its disclosure. I depart from my practice far enough to say that I do not believe he was interested in the price of cotton, or that he was moved in the slightest degree by pecuniary motives in making his offer. More than this, at present, I do not think I have the moral right to say. If I should at any time hereafter see my way clear to a different conclusion, I shall leave his name to be communicated to the Secretary of Treasury, who will determine for himself the propriety of its disclosure.

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      The unquestionably large proportion of Jewish soldiers in both the Union and Confederate armies is vouched for by such statistics as have been thoroughly verified and by the statement of many individual observers. In this connection the following communications to the author may well be quoted as having a definite bearing on this subject, and as coming from sources whose authority is beyond question:

      120 Broadway, New York,

       December 30th, '91.

      My Dear Judge:

      I have your favor of the 22nd instant, asking for some expression of opinion from me regarding the bravery and faithfulness of Hebrew soldiers in the War of the Rebellion. There were many Hebrews under me while serving as Brigade and Division Commander; and, while the great lapse of time renders it impossible for me to recall names or recount specific acts of gallantry, I take pleasure in saying that I always found the soldiers of Jewish faith as firm in their devotion to the cause of the country they were serving as any others, and ever ready to perform any duty to which they might be assigned.

      

      Yours very truly,

       J. Stahel.

      To Hon. Simon Wolf,

       Washington, D. C.

      Headquarters Department of the East,

       Governor's Island, New York.

      January 2d, 1892.

      Dear Mr. Wolf:

      It is impossible for me to do justice to those who served with me under my command who are known to be of Hebrew extraction. I would hardly be justified without their permission to give their names. I had a Jewish Aide-de-Camp, one of the bravest and best, in the first battle of Bull Run; he is now a distinguished officer of the army, a man of high scientific attainment. I had another aide who was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, a true friend and a brave officer. Two of my brigade commanders, who answer to the above description, one of whom you have mentioned, served ably and faithfully at Gettysburg and in other great battles of the war. So many of the German officers and men, the Poles and the Hungarians, were of Jewish lineage that I am unable to designate them. I can assure you, my dear sir, that, intrinsically, there are no more patriotic men to be found in the country than those who claim to be of Hebrew descent, and who served with me in parallel commands or more directly under my instructions. I have always greatly esteemed the Jewish people, and in fact, the highest hopes I have in the great future are derived from him whom I think justly claimed to be the spiritual king of the Jews. So far as bravery is concerned, bravery often carries to rashness. History affords no example superior to those of the Maccabees and other leaders of the Jews, back to the time of Jacob, the prince, who prevailed with God.

      Very truly yours.

       Oliver O. Howard,

       Major General U. S. Army.

      Simon Wolf, Esq.,

       Washington, D. C.

      

      Further testimony of a like character with reference to the Jews in the Union Army might be adduced from numerous sources if space limits would permit, but the following citations regarding the Jewish soldiers in the Southern Armies are not only warranted by the occasion but by the exceptionally interesting data which they contain.

      [From the Nashville American, May 25, 1894.]

      "Among

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