Rare Antebellum Presidential Document Appointing a Prominent Jew to Military Office

Nones’s grandfather Benjamin Nones had been one of the highest ranking Jewish Officers in the Continental Army, and an aide to Generals Washington and Lafayette

 

This is the first appointment of one of the Nones family, or any of the great Jewish families of the Revolutionary era, that we can recall seeing

Benjamin Nones was one of the highest ranking Jews in the Revolutionary War, and his family one of the most prominent Jewish families in the United States. Born in Bordeaux, France in 1757. “When the hostile armies of Great Britain invaded the United States to lay waste the fair rights of Freemen,” Nones would write years later to Thomas Jefferson, recounting his journey to America, “I abandoned the place of my Nativity and arrived in Charleston, South Carolina in the Year 1776 and in the presence of the Legislature of that State took the Oath of Allegiance to that State and to the United States.” Nones proved himself devoted to the American cause and put himself at great danger to see it through. In Charleston he volunteered for the Militia of South Carolina under the Orders of General Benjamin Lincoln and subsequently volunteered for the cavalry legion founded and led by Count Casimir Pulaski when they arrived in Charleston in 1779. Nones fought with the Pulaski Legion in the Carolinas and in the Battle of Savannah under Captain Verdier, who said of Nones, “his behavior under fire in all the bloody actions we fought, have been marked by the bravery and courage which a military man is expected to show for the liberties of his country.” He was commissioned major, and served on the staffs of Washington, Lafayette, and De Kalb. Captured by the British at the Battle of Charleston in 1780, Nones remained a prisoner of war until the surrender of Lord Cornwallis on October 19, 1781, when he was released through a prisoner exchange.

The war over, Nones moved to Philadelphia and became active with Philadelphia’s Jewish community. He married Miriam Marks on May 2, 1782. Over the course of their marriage, the couple had a total of thirteen children, nine of whom survived. Nones earned a living as a dry goods merchant, notary public, and sworn interpreter of foreign languages for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an active member of Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel Congregation, serving as parnas for a total of 13 years over four different terms. He also served as an officer of the Society of Ezrath Orchim, the first organized Jewish charity in Philadelphia, and in an anti-slavery society. In fact, Nones was among the first to manumit slaves in Pennsylvania.

He became increasingly engaged in public life and a vocal Jeffersonian republican. Mocked for his accent and disparaged as a Jew, and a republican, Nones published an eloquent rebuttal in the Aurora, the city’s leading anti-Federalist paper, one of the earliest attempts to link the fate of the Jews with America’s destiny. “I am accused of being a Jew of being a Republican, and of being Poor. I am a Jew. I glory in belonging to that persuasion, which even its opponents, whether Christian, or Mahomedan, allow to be of divine origin—of that persuasion on which Christianity itself was originally founded, and must ultimately rest—which has preserved its faith secure and undefiled, for near three thousand years, whose votaries have never murdered each other in religious wars, or cherished the theological hatred so general, so inextinguishable among those who revile them…I am a Republican! Thank God, I have not been so heedless and so ignorant of what has passed, and is now passing in the political world. I have not been so proud or so prejudiced as to renounce the cause for which I have fought, as an American throughout the whole of the revolutionary war…”

Nones’ passion for politics and sense of service to his country passed on to his children and grandchildren: Solomon served as consul-general to Portugal, Abraham, as consul-general in Venezuela, Joseph served in the Navy during the Second Barbary War, while Henry achieved the rank of captain in the Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner to the Coast Guard. He was cited for bravery during the Mexican War and also served in the Civil War.

Henry’s son Jefferson H. Nones was appointed an officer by President Fillmore in 1850. He fought in the Mexican War and in time achieved the rank of Assistant Adjutant-General with rank of Captain. Document signed, with an eagle, drums, and flags, above and below the text, Washington, October 1, 1850, naming “Jefferson H. Nones…First Lieutenant in the Second Regiment of Artillery and to rank as such from the 10th day of September 1850.” It is signed by President Fillmore and countersigned by Secretary of War Charles Conrad.

This is our first ever Antebellum presidential document appointing a prominent Jew to military office. They are great rarities.