It may be said that the unification of the Semitic or Jewish race began with Moses, although Noah was in fact the father of the race. Their history is one of the wildest, most varied and romantic of that of any other race or nation.
After centuries of miserable bondage under the Babylonian kings, and in Egypt, they emerged under the leadership of Moses who married an Ethiopian, and began anew the struggle for national autonomy.
Prior to Moses the government was essentially patriarchal, but after Moses and in the course of time it became monarchical, with various petty kings and offshoots, always quarreling with one another, and meeting with defeats and slavery from other nations, until the Romans had acquired power to conquer the world, and included in their conquered territory the various sovereignties established by the Jews.
Although the political power was taken from them, the Jews were allowed to retain their religious authority, but in process of time, and at the coming of Christ, their chief priests and spiritual rulers generally, were sunk in corruption. In the 70th year of the Christian era, Jerusalem and the great temple of Solomon were utterly destroyed, and from that time until quite recent times, the Jews have been wanderers, obtaining a foothold here and there against fearful opposition and amazing suffering.
ADVANCEMENT OF THE JEWS
Bereft of political power and national autonomy, the Jews advanced along the line of racial unification, and became leaders in the arts and sciences, and have made themselves the financial and commercial masters of the world. A power they never could have reached had they maintained their national distinction under a monarchy or other form of government.
Their position in the United States is exactly that of the Colored Americans. They have all the political rights of freemen, and can rise to positions of high trust and honor. Like their Colored brothers, they are not a race within a race.
THE JEWS THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE
They are all intensely interested in education, and their children possess an insatiable thirst for knowledge. As a consequence they are always ready to seize upon opportunity when it comes their way, and they always profit by experience, and gather information from every source.
Many of the most distinguished scientists and statesmen in the world have been Jews, and although able to dictate financially to governments, and possessing political power, they have never yet attempted to seize upon the reins of any government, or take it out of the hands of those selected to govern.