.... What a small matter was that night-riot made by men with blackened faces! I have lived through a pro-slavery riot. Doctor Fritz says it arose from the bitter opposition to the conscription. Many blacks were murdered, our friend Knopf's school was laid in ruins, and the negro orphan asylum burned to the ground, the poor black children rolling crying on the pavement. We have much to do. The world has much to make amends for.
[Eric to the Banker.]
.... I perfectly understand your sorrow over the fact that there are some Jews among the Secessionists. General Twiggs, commanding in Texas, who went over to the rebels with his army, fortress, and munitions of war, was a Jew.
And that speculators on change also lend assistance to the defenders of slavery! Why should they less than the professedly pious English?
Why do you require all the Jews, collectively and individually, to stand on the side of moral principle? They have the right of equality, even in ill-doing. They are, if one may be permitted to say so, equally justified in crime with other men. It must be shown, it is now being shown, that no religion has the monopoly of morality.
You complain that the passion for enjoyment has invaded even your innermost circle of friends.
That belongs under the heading above indicated. The more I think over your letter, the more surely I arrive at this conclusion; the Jews, so long and so cruelly excluded from participation in national affairs, and condemned to a sad cosmopolitism, will now, in their days of liberation, behave like natives of the different communities in which it is their lot to be, and will, above all, remain patriotic.
Moreover, I can assure you that many Jews are here among us, fighting with valor and self-sacrifice.
The young physician equipped by you is exceedingly able.
The money which you sent over is being conscientiously expended.