Here we find four Jews among five leaders of the German population of Chicago in a great political movement.
In another portion of the same article another of the old pioneers, William Vocke, Esq., referring to the record of the 24th Illinois regiment, is quoted as follows:
"Our regiment served three years and three months. With recruits taken in from time to time, fully 1200 men had joined it. Only 240 of us returned. One company of this regiment consisted exclusively of Hebrews. It was led by Captain Lasalle, who stuck it out with us to the last."
Another striking incident of the forcefulness of Jewish sentiment in the great agitation that preceded the outbreak of the war is recorded by Rear Admiral George Henry Preble, U. S. N., in his "History of the Flag of the United States of America," (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, fourth edition, 1894.) We quote as follows: (Page 406).
"On the 11th of February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln, the President-elect of the United States, left his home in Springfield, Illinois, for the seat of government, accompanied by a few friends. His fellow-citizens and neighbors gathered at the railway station to wish him God-speed. He was visibly affected by this kind attention, and addressed the assembly of his friends in a few words, requesting they would all pray that he might receive the Divine assistance in the responsibilities he was about to encounter, without which he could not succeed, but with which success was certain. Before leaving Springfield, he received from Abraham Kohn, city clerk of Chicago, a fine picture of the flag of the Union, bearing an inscription in Hebrew on its folds. The verses being the 4th to 9th verses of the first chapter of Joshua, in which Joshua was commanded to reign over a whole land, the last verse being: 'Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord, thy God, is with thee whithersoever thou goest.'"
In a recent speech at Ottawa, Kansas, on June 20, 1895, (quoted in the Reform Advocate, of Chicago, July 13, 1895,) Governor William McKinley, of Ohio, referred to this incident as follows:
"What more beautiful conception than that which prompted Abraham Kohn, of Chicago, in February, 1861, to send to Mr. Lincoln, on the eve of his starting to Washington, to assume the office of president, a flag of our country, bearing upon its silken folds these words from the first chapter of Joshua: 'Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord, thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses so shall I be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.'
"Could anything have given Mr. Lincoln more cheer, or been better calculated to sustain his courage or to strengthen his faith in the mighty work before him? Thus commanded, thus assured, Mr. Lincoln journeyed to the capital, where he took the oath of office and registered in heaven an oath to save the Union. And the Lord, our God, was with him, until every obligation of oath and duty was sacredly kept and honored. Not any man was able to stand before him. Liberty was the more firmly enthroned, the Union was saved, and the flag which he carried floated in triumph and glory from every flagstaff of the republic."