The Washington times., 1895-06-30
Jews Who Help8d
To Save This NafiOn
Stories of Prominent American Hebrews of Former
Days Who Stood by the Country in
Hours of Peril and Need.

'In Statuary Hall at the Capitol" OBJ
served one of the oldest workers on News
paper Row, stands q beautiful statue in
bronze of Thomas jefferson. 1t was the
gift of Commodore Levy, an American
Jew. He was gallant naval commander
of the war of 1912 He was vaIorous and
successful. He took many English ships
and founded fortune on prize money won
by his cutlass. First and last he fought
four dueIs and killed three men. One was
an English officer for an insult done
Americans at Havana He killed him at
fifteen PAGES Just outside the walls OF
Mora castle This Commodore Levy was
the first to agitate and insist Oh the
abolition OF flogging in the American navy.
For years he fought this brutality with
voice and pen. At last, some year in the
sos, the custom was abolished. On Levy's
tomb at Montecello one can read OF him
rs the man who abolished the cat-o-nine-
tails in the navy marine. Strange as il
sounds, he was desperately hated for il
by his ow-offiCers. 1t was the cause Cf
a duel with Major Hoe, an officer in the
army Hoe inSulted Levy because of his
humanity, and Levy, in defense of senti-
ment of the region and the time, invited
him to field of honor" Hoe was killed
at the first fire The last heard publicly
of Commodore Levy was at the breaking
out of the civil war. Levy was then very
old. He was worth several millions, owned
q brigade OF slaves. and lived at Monte
cello, Jefferson's old home-Levy having
purchased the estate. Levy came to Wash
ington and offered Lincoln every dollar
of his millions, saying he was wifeless,
chiidless, old and soon to die, and that
being too decrepit to fight, he could not
better devote his fortune than to the de
fense of a country which had honored and
enriched him. Levy's estate was confis-
Gated by the Confederates, but the close of
the war witnessed its return TO the family.
Levy died in 1868.
1T Will not be news to even the half
student of American history when told that
the Jews have as naturally their portion of
this country as any people VINO, even in
this or past centuries, have sought homes
in the West. The Jew was as early as any
to seek these shores II civilization has
here outstripped itself, if freedom has found
a temple and a priesthood, the Jew has
earned his share of glory With the rest
OF all who tempted an ocean and its
storm, in an earlier hour long ago, to seek
Westward a freedom and justice which
Europe never offered since or prior 10
the Spanish MooTs, none found these shores
more grateful than the Jews.
How far the Jew has carved at the
fortunes of America is neither hidden
nor q guess Neither the Jew nor his treas
ures We're lacking or tagging in the hour
of our revolution. Full one-half OF the
money-a scant treaSure-chest at best
which sustained American arms In the
the field for the seven blood-stained years
of the revolution was the free-will, eager,
generous offering of the Jews. The giverS
could be named, and in a thousand instances
their arms, which withstood English op-
preston and wrought freedom for the colo
nies. One instance is within easy reach
and general kno Wedge. Old Hyman Solo,
mons, of Philadelphia, supplied treasure
into the millions to Morris and to Washing
ton. He was of immense wealth for that
stinted day, and he gave every dollar he
possessed On his poor bed OF death old
Hyman Solomons said: I gave all, but l
die rich beyond measure in the kno wledge
that have lived to see civil and religious
liberty founded beyond all power and over
throw in this land
washington knew the worth of Byman
Solomons and the debt tue nation owed
him and his people.
IN the family of a Phillips, of Philadel-
phia, o fthe pureSt Jewish stock preserved
as it's dearest treasure, is the marriage GER
tificate of a patriarch of the house, long
dead, signed by Washington as the first
witness at the wedding, whereat he was
first and honored guest. Hyman Solomons
was not the only man of his tribe who poured
his treasures on the altar of Independence.
There We're scores, having less, giving less.
Col. Manuel Mordicai Noah, of New York,
gave 500, 600, all he had, TO the cause,
and then fought through the war TO the end.
"There lived in 1912 in New York city
Gen. Mordacai Noah, son of the Col. Noah
named above. BE was of the purest Jewish
blood of Spain, of the tribe of Judah and
the house of David. He was a lawyer, an
an editor, diplomat He was the Horace
Greeley of his day; one may read of him
in the encyclopedias. While the sordid
merchants OF Boston, of New York, of
Philadelphia, of Baltimore, OF Charleston
were inveighing against the war with
England, which might injure the unclean
profits of their commerce, and taking
England's side against their own, this
Mordacai Noah was the great war editor
To him more than any other is due the
credit in that hour of English insolence of
being undauntedly American. His words
more than all others strengthened the
popular resolve to resistance of English
aggression, and brought Congress to the
point of declaring war. The leading paper
of Charleston was for war One following
the other in rapid procession three of its
editors were drawn to the duelling ground
and wounded or killed by the plots and the