The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992, 1939-08-18

ish community of Miami should
join with the Jewish War Veterans
in honoring the memory of Sena-
tor Yulee, pioneer Floridian Jew
whose career is one of the most
distinguished in the annals of the
state. A delegate to the United
States House of Representatives
from 1841 to 1845 and the first
United Senator from the State, he
was the leader in the fight for
Florida's statehood. His ringing
speeches in the Senate often OPP
posed those of eX-president John
Quincy Adams, then representa-
tive, and we find Yulee mentioned
many times in Adams diary.
"Yulee's family was one of the
real pioneer families in the Florida
territory Che changed his name
from David Levy to David Levy
Yulee when in 1845 he married
the daughter of ex-governor Wick
life of Kentucky, a member of
President Tyler's cabinet), his
father having come to this country
from Havana in 1920 where he was
a government contractor. At
tracted by the free institutions
of America, Moses Elias Levy,
born in Morocco in 1882, purchas-
ed $4,000 acre plantation in East
Florida in 1920 ana in 1921 went
to Philadelphia to appear before
the U. S. Circuit Court to declare
his intention Of becoming a citi-
zen of the United States. He be-
came citizen at st. Augustine
in 1928 when Andrew Jackson,
then Governor of the Florida Ter
ritory, ruled that all persons re-
siding in Florida at the time of
the change of flags could become
U. S. citizens by going through
certain formalities.
David Yulee, born in 1910, was
brought to America by his father
in 1920. He attended school at
Norfolk, Virginia, from 1919
through 1927. He studied law with
Judge Robert r. Reid and was ad-
mitted to the bar in 1882. He
then entered politics and made
rapid strides. He was successfully
clerk to the Territorial Legisla-
ture, a member of the Territorial
Legislative Council from St. Johns
County, member of the Legisla-
ture, and one of the delegates to
the convention that framed the
constitution of Florida. In 1910
he was sent to Washington as
territorial delegate to the House
of Representatives.
after Florida was granted
statehood in 1845, Yulee was
elected to the U. S. Senate and
became Florida's first Senator and
the first Jew ever elected to the
U. S. Senate (only five other Jews
have since achieved this honor)
He was defeated for reelection in
1851 but was elected for second
term to the Senate in 1855. A
: member Of the Senate when the
/ Civil War started, he resigned af-
ter being the first southern Sena-
tor to make speech announcing
secession. After the war, he was
imprisoned for a short time along
with Jefferson Davis and Henry
J Clay, leaders in the Confederacy
While in the Senate, Yulee was
chairman of the Naval Affairs
Committee where he led a fight
for iron vessels, one of which, the
Monitor, was later to crush the
naval hopes of the Confederacy.
Although Yulee changed his
name in 1845 at the insistence OF
, his wife-to-be, the state of Florida
I named one of it's counties Levy
County in which is the town
"Levyville." After the Civil War
Yulee returned to private life anC
strove to rebuild the railroad sys.
tenn Of Florida, a work in which
he had long been interested. He
retired in 1880 and moved tt
Washington. He died in 1886 al
the age of rs and was buried in
the Georgetown Cemetery. He