Revival of the Form of Oath. More Judaico

The Jewish Times (San Francisco) (September 4, 1890)

The Hon. Benjamin F. Peixotto, editor of the Menorah, author, publisher, statesman and philanthropist, quietly passed into eternal rest on last Thursday morning, September 18th, surrounded by his sons, relatives and friends.

Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, the scion of an illustrious family, was born in New York City, November 13th, 1834. His grandfather, Moses L. M. Peixotto, emigrated from Amsterdam, settled in New York and became the minister of the Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel. His father, Daniel L. M. Peixotto, was born in Amsterdam in the year 1800, became a distinguished physician and man of letters, receiving his degree of M. D. at the age of nineteen, but died at the age of 43, when young Benjamin was but nine years of age. In 1837 Dr. Peixotto removed to Willoughby, Ohio, where he remained until 1841, when he returned to New York. After the doctor's death Benjamin F. at the age of thirteen removed to Cleveland, Ohio. Originally intended for a commercial career, he devoted his leisure hours to a study of the classics and modern languages under the tutorship of Prof. Karl Ruger. The lad was fond of learning, but his father's early death changed many cherished plans, and he forsook the classics to study law. In that study he found an eminent and illustrious preceptor in the late Stephen A. Douglass, who loved the young Hebrew, and predicted a brilliant career for him. He partly repaid the partiality of Douglass by his enthusiastic advocacy of that statesman for President of the United States. He had then already become editor of the Cleveland Plaindealer, and developed that fondness for letters, and that enthusiastic pursuit of journalism that clung to him until his death. Among his associates on the Plaindealer were the late Artemus Ward, William E. McLaren, now Bishop of Illinois, and John B. Bouton, now of the New York Commercial Advertiser.

In 1866 he returned to New York, but in 69 sailed for California to make his home in San Francisco. He became a member of Ophir Lodge, I. O. B. B.. and, we believe, of Mount Moriah Lodge, F. & A. M., devoting himself to the practice of law, a profession for which his abilities eminently fitted him. But his destiny led him to far different, less lucrative, but more glorious things. Benjamin F. Peixotto was as little destined to remain a local practitioner in San Francisco, as his great friend and patron, U. S. Grant, was destined to remain a tanner. There is surely " a divinity that shapes our ends," and in its benign provisions Benjamin F. Peixotto was destined to sacrifice his fortune, career and prospects to the cause of his well-beloved Israel. In June, 1870, the persecution and massacre of the Jews of Roumania, the culmination of half a century of oppression, startled the civilized world out of its habitual unconcern with the affairs of the East, except in the time of political complications. Sir Moses Montifiore had, in preceding years, sought to allay the danger, but his protestations had been met with prevarication and deceit. "On July 14th," writes Dr. Loewy in his reminiscences of Sir Moses, " ten Israelites, after being brought to Galatz from Jassy a few days before, ill-treated, and employed at the vilest and most degrading labor, were, by order of the Prefect, together with an eleventh fellow-sufferer and co-religionists, carried to the opposite side of the Danube, and there abandoned in the swamps and morasses, exposed to the wind and weather, without food or shelter . . ." This is a specimen of the treatment the Jews of Roumania received. Somewhat after the degrading occurrences, the attention of the United States Government was called to the deplorable condition of the Roumanian Jews, and when General Grant determined upon nominating a representative to that country, his great heart and noble sentiment suggested the proffer of the position to a Hebrew, who, armed with the prestige of the American Government, might become the messenger of hope to his unfortunate brethren as well as the diplomatic representative of his country. In all the country no man was better fitted for that sacred and delicate mission than Benjamin F. Peixotto,

The six years spent by Peixotto in Roumania form a bright chapter of distinguished service and noble-hearted self-consecration. His courtly presence, an inheritance from his Spanish ancestors, his refined discourse, and his intelligent appreciation of the difficult dual position he held, created a profound impression in Bucharest, and he found no difficulty in compelling the courteous respect of the most rabid Jew-baiters. Protected by the flag of a powerful country, the most critical must justify his magnanimity in using his prestige to uplift his fallen kinsmen and to exact for them a certain degree of tolerance. In but a single instance he was unable to prevent assault upon the Jews, and then he exacted rigid punishment. His correspondence with the Government contains masterpieces of diction, and such powerful presentations of the persecution of the Jews in Cahul and Ismail, that Secretary Fish was induced to address letters to the various United States representatives in Europe "instructing them to use their diplomatic and moral power to put a stop to these brutal occurrences, which had become a scandal to civilization."

Peixotto's practised eye saw that to insure the perpetual peace of the Jews of Roumania, self-education and organization were highly necessary. A great deal of his time was spent in traveling from city to city, arousing his brethren and urging them to found schools and societies as means of self-education. In this part of his self-assigned task he met with eminent success. The Zion Society, now the Grand Lodge "Zion," District No. 8, I. O. B. B, is Benjamin F. Peixotto's monument. Nothing we can do at home to perpetuate his memory will be as enduring, as characteristic.

Returning to America in 1875, his mission fulfilled, his name blessed and revered by three hundred thousand Roumanian Jews, Benjamin F. Peixotto immediately became a conspicuous factor in the Tilden Hayes campaign. He "stumped" the State of Ohio in the Republican interest, and on March 4, 1876, witnessed the inauguration of the new president. His services were rewarded with the tender of the Consul-Generalship to St. Petersburg, but knowing he would not be persona grata at the court of the Czar, he prudently declined that appointment, and accepted the consulship to Lyons, France, where he resided for eight years.

It is difficult indeed to give in a synoptic sketch, either the full account of his useful and noble career, or to depict with proper emphasis the beautiful character of Benjamin F. Peixotto. Had he been more selfish, had he looked more to his own enrichment, Jewish history would have been robbed of a page glowing with the beauty of devotion and self-sacrifice. His was a life brimful with rich thoughts, noble deeds I and the purest devotion to a cause that gives no return but tears to any man. In the galaxy of the illustrious dead who preceded him, in the noble line, in which stand Montifiore, Cremieux, Loewy, Wertheimer, and others, Benjamin F. Peixotto will be no insignificant figure.

This is the simple story of a distinguished Hebrew - Hebrew above all things — a noble patriot, a just, generous man, a true, staunch friend of the oppressed. And this is written one who has cause to revere the memory of Benjamin F. Peixotto.

JACOB VOORSANGER.