Ladies and gentlemen, let me take you back to December 17, 1862—a simpler time when men were men, and apparently, orders to expel entire ethnic groups were issued faster than you can say, “That’s unconstitutional!” Enter General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union war hero who decided the best way to deal with black-market cotton smuggling was… drumroll, please… blaming all the Jews.
The Expulsion Order No One Asked For
Yes, you heard that right. Grant issued General Order No. 11, a real masterpiece in bad ideas. This wasn’t just a gentle suggestion. Nope! It was an expulsion order. The Jews of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky had 24 hours to pack their bags and skedaddle. You can almost picture it: “Martha, grab the menorah, it’s time to hit the road!”
Now, why did he do this? Was it because Jews were actually masterminding some massive black-market operation? No. It was because the Mississippi Valley—hotbed of cotton smuggling—was a chaotic mess, and Grant thought, “Hey, let’s just pick an entire group of people to blame. That’ll solve everything!” I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that plan?
Here’s the kicker: the order actually said, and I quote, “The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade… are hereby expelled.” That’s right, folks—he literally blamed an entire class of people. It’s like if someone lost their keys and immediately decided it was the fault of…, I don’t know, all the redheads in the neighborhood. It’s absurd. It’s offensive. It’s… historical!
Lincoln Saves the Day (Again)
The fallout? Oh, it was bad. Jewish families, many of whom had lived there for years, were thrown out in the middle of winter. They were harassed, detained, and treated like criminals. And all for what? Smuggling? Most of them were just trying to survive, not running some underground cotton cartel.
Enter Abraham Lincoln. Good ol’ Honest Abe took one look at this mess and said, “Yeah, no.” He rescinded the order on January 4, 1863. And you know Lincoln had to be thinking, “Ulysses, what were you even doing here?” Grant later claimed it was just a moment of frustration. A moment of frustration? Buddy, that’s what punching a pillow is for, not expelling entire populations.
History’s Favorite Rerun: Scapegoating 101
But here’s the thing—this wasn’t just a one-off historical oopsie. No, this is a textbook case of how prejudice and scapegoating can get baked into policy. And, spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well. General Order No. 11 set a dangerous precedent: blame a minority group, punish them collectively, and hope no one notices the lack of logic. Sound familiar? Let’s dive into some parallels.
Fast forward to World War II. Remember Japanese American internment? The U.S. government rounded up tens of thousands of innocent citizens and threw them into camps. Why? Fear and prejudice. Then there’s Nazi Germany. And while Grant’s order was nowhere near that level of evil, the underlying idea—scapegoating a minority group for society’s problems—was disturbingly similar.
Enter Trump, Stage Right
Now let’s bring it back to today… or, well, the near future. The Trump administration is gearing up to take office next year, and they’re already talking about mass deportations. Millions of undocumented immigrants could be targeted, ripped away from their families, and sent packing. The excuse? “Law and order.” The reality? It’s the same old story of collective blame and fearmongering. Immigrants are being cast as threats to jobs and safety—just like Jews were accused of wrecking the cotton trade in 1862.
Learn or Repeat: The Choice Is Ours
You see, history loves a good rerun. The playbook is the same: pick a vulnerable group, blame them for a complex problem, and call it “justice.” But here’s the thing—it’s not justice. It’s lazy, it’s cruel, and it’s unconstitutional. And we, as Americans, have a choice. Do we learn from history, or do we let it repeat itself with different names and faces?
General Order No. 11 is a cautionary tale, folks. Even leaders who end up on currency—Grant’s on the fifty, by the way—can make colossal mistakes when they let prejudice guide their actions. And if we’re not careful, we’ll be writing about another chapter of collective blame and state-sponsored injustice decades from now. So let’s cut the scapegoating and start addressing problems with solutions that don’t involve punishing entire communities.
Because if we don’t? Well, history’s got a funny way of showing us just how not-funny it can be.
