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As a fitting prelude to the record of Jewish activity in the War of the Rebellion, there may be cited here an episode in its history which has had no counterpart in the course of the world's affairs. Recondite and romantic incidents are present in the annals of all nations, and the history of the Jewish people especially is fraught with many striking instances of unhoped and unexpected deliverance from impending calamity, but they were largely the outcome of times and conditions widely at variance with those of the present day. The narrative of Haym Salomon's sacrifice in behalf of American freedom and the cause of human liberty forms a singular chapter in the annals of the American Revolution. But a yet more remarkable incident, one that appears wholly foreign to the laisser-faire spirit of our modern time, and which is likely in the future to centre a much greater degree of attention than it has yet received, is a transaction that has but lately become part of the history of the Civil War.

On October 2, 1863, the British Government seized in the shipyard of the Lairds, at Birkenhead, two armored vessels which had ostensibly been built for the government of China, but which, according to constantly reiterated reports, had been built for the Southern Confederacy in rebellion against the United States. The contemporary chronicles of the Civil War contain at most only such reports of that incident as became public in the course of the controversy over the subject, but the inner details of the occurrence, notable enough even in its most obvious features, remained for many years a diplomatic secret until revealed by the then Register of the Treasury, Mr. L. E. Chittenden, in his "Recollections of President Lincoln."

The two vessels had indeed been embargoed by the British Government, but under conditions which had been settled upon by the advisers of the Crown with the almost clearly manifest purpose of permitting the vessels to escape, while at the same time apparently complying with the requirements of international law and the representations of the American Minister. The sympathies of the ruling powers in Great Britain were strongly with the Southern cause; the fact that the success of that cause meant the perpetuation of negro slavery, against which the English people had constantly inveighed, was held by many of the leaders of the party in power to be of small moment in comparison with the advancement of British interests, which these leaders believed would result from the disruption of the American Republic. They were accordingly ready to take advantage of a virtual breach of international comity and law, under cover of a technical compliance with its provisions, and incur the risk of all the terrible outcome of a war between the two great Anglo-Saxon nations of the world. That such a war would surely have resulted if the two armored corsairs had eventually been let loose upon this country, no student of history can doubt. It was being busily fomented by that arch enemy, both of England and America, Napoleon III., who had assiduously been seeking an adequate pretext to recognize the independence of the Confederate States. He was actively conferring with British parliamentary leaders with the purpose of a joint intervention in our struggle, and if these ships were liberated to prey upon our commerce, lift the blockade of the Confederate ports, weaken the Federal power and strengthen that of the Rebellion, he would then assuredly be able to build up his empire in Mexico. That empire was already planted on the soil of the Mexican Republic, and the triumph of the Southern cause meant the success of the foolhardy and villainous undertaking which Napoleon III. had established under Maximilian. If the outcome of British co-operation for the disruption of the American Union were eventually to be a war between England and the United States, it would but be further grist for the mill of the French usurper.

From all of this procession of possible and unmeasured evils it appears that the world was saved through the timely and powerful interposition of a single will. It was the will of a man who was manifestly near enough to the mainspring of affairs to be aware of its primary movements, who was yet so hidden from public view that his action would remain as secret as he himself determined it to be; whose purpose was clearly in opposition to the motives of the ruling powers, and who possessed the means with which to effect his purpose.

Who was it that so signally changed the current of the world's affairs? Whose influence yet remains as mysterious as it was far-reaching? The question has been often asked and still remains unanswered. He still remains unnamed on the page of history. His position, his motive and his means of action appear to be defined, and it was clearly with these considerations in view that Mr. Chittenden wrote the letter which is here subjoined. The "process of exclusion" to which he so pointedly adverts leaves but very few among whom he is to be sought, and to the almost unerring indication which Mr. Chittenden has given is to be added a still nearer one which the author of the present work obtained from another source. Miss Kate Chase, daughter of Salmon P. Chase, the then Secretary of the Treasury, while assuring Mr. Wolf that the name of the mysterious personage was unknown to her, was yet able to inform him that the man was a Jew. That it was a Jew, one well known for his outspoken admiration and love for our country as the home of religious liberty, a man who was not of the unsympathetic government, nor of the hostile aristocracy, nor of the jealous manufacturing class, might well be surmised from all the circumstances of this remarkable occasion, and his identity can scarcely be misinterpreted in the light of Mr. Chittenden's indications.

The following is a copy of Mr. Chittenden's letter, which may well serve as an author's preface to the chapter of his "Recollections" to which it refers, in which the incident is narrated in detail, and which we shall quote in full:

11 Pine St., New York, May 7, 1892.

Dear Sir:—

It would give me great pleasure to answer your letter of April 26th and a large number of others on the same subject. You will readily see that the name may be reached by a process of exclusion as definitely as by its direct statement. The extraordinary character of the incident did not occur to me at the time, or I should have probably suppressed it. As it is I have no alternative but silence.

However, it gives me pleasure to say one thing. The experience of an active life now drawing to its close has taught me that race prejudices have no place in the heart of a true American, and I am certainly not conscious that I have ever entertained a shadow of them against any one of Hebrew origin. On the contrary I have found much in the history of that persecuted race to respect and admire. Illness has delayed this reply to your note.

Yours truly,

L. E. Chittenden.

Mr. Simon Wolf,

Washington, D. C.