When the Wall Between Church and State Fell

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The Daily Beast has a fascinating post about a mostly forgotten moment in American history: the time General Ulysses S. Grant “wrote out an order banishing all Jews throughout his entire command.”

It involves contraband cotton, Grant’s conflict with his own father, and an apocryphal appeal to Abraham Lincoln. But there’s a twist happy ending!

Lauren O'Neal is an editorial assistant at the Rumpus and an MFA student at San Francisco State University. Her writing has appeared in publications like Slate, The Hairpin, and Corium Magazine. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal. More from this author →