Author: Wolf, Simon.
Title: The Presidents I Have Known from 1860-1918. By Simon Wolf, Author of "the American Jew As Patriot, Soldier and Citizen".
Description: Washington, D.C.: Press of Byron S. Adams, (1918). (1918). INSCRIBED & SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR SIMON WOLF - Octavo, burgundy red cloth titled in gilt on the front cover & the spine. The covers are bumped & rubbed with a few small stains and the spine is slightly faded. xiv & 464 pages, illustrated with a full-page portrait following the title page and a few full-page plates. A discreet bookseller's name is stamped in blind at the bottom of the front endpaper. Very good.

Second edition.

Inscribed, signed and dated by Simon Wolf on the front endpaper: "To Rev. Dr. W.B. Hill Whose genial friendship is an inspiration. Sincerely, Simon Wolf, Washington, D.C. Sept. 2/19".

A spokesman for the Jewish Community, Simon Wolf had the ears of several presidents beginning with Abraham Lincoln and continuing through Woodrow Wilson. A lawyer and member of the Washington Hebrew Congregation and B'nai B'rith, Wolf pleaded a Jewish soldier's case directly to President Lincoln. The Civil War soldier, who was meant to be executed the following morning for having deserted his unit to travel to his mother's deathbed, was pardoned by Lincoln following Wolf's impassioned plea: ".. would you have been a deserter to her who gave you birth, rather than deserter in law but not in fact to the flag to which you had sworn allegiance?" Serving as attorney for Southern Jews charged with espionage, not to mention his membership in B'nai B'rith, led to his arrest as a traitor by Colonel Lafayette Baker of the War Department. When he learned of it, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton called the action an outrage and had Wolf immediately released. His book, "The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen" was his response to charges that Jews had evaded military service. Debunking the charges, Wolf listed more than 8,000 Jewish soldiers who served in the Civil War. President Grant appointed him Recorder of Deeds and and he served as Consul General to Egypt under President Garfield. He served as chairman of the Board of Delegates of Civil and Religious Rights and as President of the International Order of B'nai B'rith. "In 1869, he appealed to President Grant urging the United States to protest the expulsion of thousands of Russian Jews from their homes. In 1903, he helped organize a national petition protesting the Russian government's actions in the Kishinev massacre". -- [Paraphrased with a quote from the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington's essay "Men with the President's Ear". Very good .

Keywords: AMERICANA; CIVIL WAR; JUDAICA; HEBRAICA; SIMON WOLF; THE PRESIDENTS I HAVE KNOWN 1860-1918; AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN JEW AS PATRIOT, SOLDIER AND CITIZEN; ILLUSTRATIONS; ILLUSTRATED; INSCRIBED; INSCRIPTION; SIGNED; DATED; SIGNATURE; AUTOGRAPH; ABRAHAM LINCOL

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