Major Gen. U.S. Grant 3rd, grandson of the 18th President of the United States, who disseminated an anti-Semitic article in connection with the U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission of which he is chairman, rejected a request from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith to repudiate the article, it was disclosed today.
The centennial commission of which he is chairman is sponsored by the U. S. Government. Maj. Gen. Grant, who is 78 years old, admitted that the article he distributed appeared previously in Father Coughlin’s anti-Semitic publication “Social Justice” and in the American Mercury which is known for publishing anti-Jewish articles. However, he continued to defend the article in which “Jew financiers” are charged with exploiting the Civil War.
Accusing the Anti-Defamation League of committing “a great disservice to historical truth and to contemporary goodwill among Americans,” Maj. Gen. Grant said that what “international bankers” did a century ago “cannot by any reasonable person be considered a reflection of the many, many good Americans who are Jews.” He justified recommending the anti-Semitic article to a group of descendants of Civil War veterans by saying that they “may not have known of the interest and participation of the international bankers.”
The article distributed by Gen. Grant, carrying the title “Abraham Lincoln and the Rothschilds,” alleged that the Rothschild family, together with Disraeli, plotted in London; Judah P. Benjamin, Confederate cabinet member, was termed their secret agent. An innuendo attempt was made to link Benjamin with the assassination of Lincoln. The ADL had charged Gen. Grant with using “the reprints furnished by Floyd Fleming, the local agents for the infamous John Kasper’s seaboard White Citizens Council.” Gen. Grant refused to identify “the member of the loyal legion” from whom he obtained his material.
Herman Adelsberg ADL director, replying today to Gen. Grant, said: “You have reached a venerable age and you bear a great name. Surely, you do not want to close your public career by bequeathing that name to the fabrications of the warped minds who operate in the anti-Semitic underworld.”
Mr. Edelsberg suggested that Gen. Grant consult the many reputable historians associated with the Civil War Centennial Commission. He expressed confidence that any of them” will declare the article “a tissue of lies maliciously concocted to foment prejudice against Jews.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
