In this connection special mention should be made of a great American who was undoubtedly inspired by English Puritanism and displayed the same broad-mindedness as the Puritans in relation to the Jewish problem. This was John Adams (1735–1826), the second President of the United States of America (1797–1801), and one of the most distinguished patriots of the Revolution. He was one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Zionist idea. In a letter addressed to Major Mordecai Manuel Noah (1785–1851), he says: “I really wish the Jews again in Judea, an independent nation, for, as I believe, the most enlightened men of it have participated in the amelioration of the philosophy of the age; once restored to an independent government, and no longer persecuted, they would soon wear away some of the asperities and peculiarities of their character,...” But, anticipating that he might be wrongly supposed to desire the return of the Jews to Palestine for the purpose of getting them away from America or limiting their rights in that country, he continues: “I wish your nation may be admitted to all the privileges of citizens in every part of the world. This country (America) has done much; I wish it may do more, and annul every narrow idea in religion, government and commerce.”[¹]

[¹] Discourse on The Restoration of the Jews: Delivered at the Tabernacle, Oct. 28 and Dec. 2, 1844. By M. M. Noah. With a Map of the Land of Israel. New York: ... 1845. (8º. viii. + 55 pp. + folded map.) p. vi.: “I find similar and stronger sentiments in a letter from President John Adams, written to me when nearly in his ninetieth year, with all the fervour, sincerity and zeal he exhibited in the early scenes of our Revolution,” etc.

CHAPTER X.
PALESTINE

The Love and Knowledge of the Holy Land—The Land of the Bible—The Bible Societies and the Institutions for the Investigation of the Holy Land—The Palestine Exploration Fund—Colonel Conder—Sir Charles Wilson—Sir Charles Warren—Lord Kitchener.

The love and knowledge of the Holy Land were scarcely less valuable than the influence of the Bible and its language in paving the way for an understanding of Zionist aspirations. What is more natural than that the Land of Israel most strongly attracted the Christian Englishman by its past history and its present condition? He could not lay his hand upon his Bible without being reminded of the Jordan, of the Lebanon, of the Mount of Olives. Every Sunday called to his mind the ancient history and lost prosperity of the “glory of all lands,” while the existing ruin and desolation of the country gave testimony to the truth of the Bible and the certainty of the promised blessings.

While the familiar passages of Scripture concerning the Restoration were calculated to promote human effort in this great cause—for in many of these passages the spiritual application is not the most obvious, and all of them seem inspired by the vision of a real and natural return to the Land—the Biblical descriptions of the Holy Land contributed not less to the propaganda of what we may call the Zionist idea. There is no country whose geography is, if not better known, at any rate dearer to the heart of man than that of the land of which the Bible speaks.

Apart from the divine character of the Scriptures, they have handed down through the centuries the earliest history of which we have any records, and have preserved for all time records of the economic, domestic and political life of a people which inhabited one of the most important provinces of the ancient world. The people and the land are no allegory, no abstraction; they are realities. They still exist, and they can be brought together again as they were in their natural condition. They are both equally typical, almost unique. There is no other country whose geographical features are so strongly marked as those of Palestine, the character of whose inhabitants so strikingly depends on peculiarities of position, soil and climate. And there is no other people whose character, history and destinies are so peculiar as those of the Jewish people.

Two kinds of English organizations, without parallel in any other country—Bible Societies and Palestine Societies—have contributed particularly to the investigation of Palestine. Apart from their conversionist tendency, the Bible Societies were founded in order “to promote the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, both at home and in foreign lands.” This idea could take deep hold of the minds of the people only in England. The first Bible Society of Great Britain was founded in 1802 (Appendix xxxviii). Shortly afterwards—in 1805—a “Palestine Association”[¹] was established for the purpose of promoting the knowledge of its geography, natural history and antiquities, with a view to the illustration of the Holy Writings. The inquiries of the Society were directed in the first place to ascertaining the natural and political boundaries of the several districts within the limits of the Land of Israel, the topographical situation of the towns and villages, the courses of streams and rivers, the ranges of mountains, and the manners and customs of the inhabitants. They extended to the natural products of the Holy Land and adjacent countries, to peculiarities of soil, climate and minerals, and to the exploration for Jewish antiquities. This was, however, by no means the beginning of the study of Palestine: it was rather a new organization of the studies in question. But notwithstanding the learned and laborious compilations of Christianus Adrichomus (1533–1585), Petrus Ravanellus (ob. 1680), Christophorus Cellarius (1638–1707), Thomas Fuller (1608–1661), John Lightfoot (1602–1675), and the more recent work of Dom [Antoine] Augustin Calmet (1672–1757), Johann Heinrich Michaelis (1668–1738), Thomas Harmer (1715–1788), Willem Albert Bachiene (1712–1783), and Ijsbrand van Hamelsveld (1743–1812), many of the most important points were still left unexamined. “No country should be of so much interest to us as Palestine, and at the same time no country more urgently requires illustration.” With this motto the “Palestine Association” started its fruitful work, which it continued during the whole of the last century with growing skill and success.

[¹] Palestine Association. 1805. (Proposals.) p. 4. Saville Row, March 31, 1805. [B. M.]