An American Forerunner of Dreyfus[1]

By James Morris Morgan

[Excerpted from The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. 58 (1899), pp. 796-800]

The man to whom this title has been applied is on record as having written these words:

My parents were Israelites, and I was nurtured in the faith of my ancestors. In deciding to adhere to it, I have but exercised a right guaranteed to me by the constitution of my native State and of the United States, a right given to all men by their Maker, a right more precious to each of us than life itself. But while claiming and exercising this freedom of conscience, I have never failed to acknowledge and respect the like freedom in others. I might safely defy the citation of a single act in the whole course of my official career injurious to the religious rights of any other person.

Remembering always that the great mass of my fellow-citizens were Christians, profoundly grateful to the Christian founders of our republic for their justice and liberality to my long-persecuted race, I have earnestly endeavored, in all places and circumstances, to act up to the wise and tolerant spirit of our political institutions. I have therefore been careful to treat every Christian under my command with exemplary justice and ungrudging liberality.... I have to complain- more in sorrow than in anger do I say it-that in my official experience I have met with little to encourage, though much to frustrate, these conciliatory efforts. At an early day, and especially from the time when it became known to the officers of my age and grade that I aspired to a lieutenancy, and still more after I had gained it, I was forced to encounter a large share of the prejudice and hostility by which, for so many ages, the Jew has been pursued. I need not speak to you of the incompatibility of these sentiments with the genius of Christianity or the precepts of its author....

Thus wrote an officer in the United States navy who, despite forty years of such persecution as rarely falls to the lot of man, never for a moment faltered in his love for and devotion to his government, nor allowed himself to doubt its disposition to do him justice.

This officer was Uriah P. Levy, who was born in Philadelphia about the year 1792. At the age of eleven he ran away from home and went to sea. Before he ·vas eighteen lie had saved sufficient money to buy an interest in a schooner, of which he was made master. His troubles began early. While ashore on the Isle of May, his mate and crew ran away with the vessel, twenty-five hundred Spanish dollars, and a cargo of Teneriffe wine. Levy, stranded among strangers, was seized by a British press-gang; but having succeeded in getting his case before Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, fie was released, and worked his way back to the United States, where he obtained means, wenttout to the West Indies, pursued the pirates who had stolen his ship, captured them, and took the ringleaders to Boston, Massachusetts, where they were most properly hanged.

This was in 1812. The war with Great Britain on account of press-gang outrages had begun, and Levy, now twenty years of age, received an appointment as sailing-master in the United States navy, a position not in the line of promotion. He was ordered to the famous brig Argus, which carried Mr. Crawford, the American envoy, to France. Mr. Crawford formed an attachment for Levy and furnished him with many letters to distinguished people, among them the Marquis de Lafayette. After landing the envoy, the Argus went on a cruise, destroying shipping to the value of five millions. Levy was placed in charge of a valuable prize, which was captured by a British frigate. He rejoined his shipmates in a prison, the Argus having been taken the day after he left her.

When peace came, Levy, in common with other officers, desired that his services should be recognized by promotion, under the rule that "masters of extraordinary merit and for extraordinary services may be promoted to lieutenants." His sponsors were Commodores David Porter, Stephen Decatur, John Rodgers, and Charles Stewart. To this a formidable opposition developed among the line officers, who claimed that Levy's advancement would be a wrong to older midshipmen, whose promotion it would retard. It is doubtful if ever an officer suffered so terribly from the effects of a gratified ambition. With his commission as a lieutenant he began a life of strife wherein undeserved punishment followed unmerited disgrace in almost ceaseless succession.

In 1816 the new lieutenant found himself on board the Franklin, 74 guns, Commodore Stewart, the same who commanded the Constitution when she captured the British ships Cyane and Levaylt. Levy was soon made to feel that the toleration which had been shown the sailing-master, not in the line of promotion, and in time of war, had suddenly changed to a feeling of hostility toward the lieutenant in time of peace. Ostracism, a favorite weapon with religious enthusiasts, was first tried for the purpose of forcing the Jew to resign. The old frigates and line-of-battle ships carried from four to eight hundred men, but Lieutenant Levy found himself always alone. Life aboard ship is at best a sort of voluntary imprisonment. Levy was always incomunicad.o.

The following extract from the testimony of Commodore Jones, given in one of Levy's many courts martial, will give an idea of the extent of the persecutions to which this officer was subjected:

On the arrival of the Franklin, 74 guns, at Syracuse in 1818, bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Charles Stewart, to relieve Commodore Chauncey, then in command of the Mediterranean Squadron, it was understood that Lieutenant Levy, a supernumerary on botard of the Franklin, was to be ordered to the frigate United States, then short of her complement of lieutenants. Whereupon the ward-room mess, without consulting me, determined to remonstrate against Levy's coming aboard. I was called on by a member of the mess to communicate their wishes to Captain Crane and ask his interference. Astonished at such a proposition, I inquired as to the cause, when I was answered that he was a Jew and not an agreeable person, and they did not want to be brought in contact with him in our then very pleasant and harmonious mess of some eight or nine persons, and, moreover, that he was an interloper, having entered the navy as master, to the prejudice of the older midshipmen, etc., etc. Such was the reply in substance to my inquiry. I then asked the relator if he or any member of our mess knew anything of his own knowledge derogatory to Lieutenant Levy, as an officer or as a gentleman. The answer was no, but they had heard thus and so, and so forth, and so forth.

I endeavored to point out the difficulties that might result from a procedure so much at varience with military subordination and the justice ...to sue to a brother officer against whom they had nothing but vague and ill-defined rumors. But my counsel did not prevail; the remonstrance was made directly to Captain Crane, and by Captain Crane to Commodore Stewart. Levy soon after reported on board the frigate United States for duty. When Lieutenant Levy came on board he asked for a private interview with me, wishing my advice as to the proper course he ought to pursue under such embarrassing circumstances. I gave it freely and simply: to this effect, viz.: a Do your duty as an officer and a gentleman, be civil to all, however reserved you may choose to be to any, and the first man who observes a different course toward you, call him to a strict and prompt account.

Our messmates were gentlemen, and having perceived their error before Lieutenant Levy got on board, had, in accordance with my previous advice, determined to receive Lieutenant Levy as; a gentleman and a brother officer, and to respect and treat him as such, till by his conduct he should prove himself unworthy. I continued a few months longer on board the frigate United States as her first lieutenant, during the whole of which time Lieutenant Levy's conduct and deportment was altogether unexceptionable, and I know that, perhaps with a single exception, those who opposed his joining our mess not only relented, but deeply regretted the false step they had incautiously taken.

So great was the prejudice against Levy that even the captain of the frigate protested against receiving him, and it required this second order from the commodore before he would do so:

UNITED STATES SHIP "FRANKLIN,"

SYRACUSE, February 4, 1818.

To William M. Crane, Commanding the Frigate " United States."

SIR: Lieutenant Uriah P. Levy will report to you for duty on board the frigate United Sttztes, under your command. vIt is not without regret that a second order is found necessary to change the position of one officer in this squadron. .

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHARLES STEWART.

Commodore Lavalette - testified that " when he joined a frigate in the Mediterranean to which Levy was attached the only officer on board who would speak to the latter was the doctor of the ship." On Lavalette's cross-examination the following question was asked him:

Q. What were the facts that made the favorable impression testified to by you?

A. It was an affair in which he [Levy] received six or seven shots in mortal combat without returning the fire, remonstrating at every fire with his antagonist.

Lavalette had also entered the navy as a sailing-master, but he testified that he had met with none of the persecution and ostracism which followed Levy wherever he went.

As a lieutenant Mr. Levy spent nearly the whole of his time either under arrest or under suspension. It is difficult for a man with four hundred pairs of eyes concentrated upon him to avoid displeasing somebody. Frequently his enemies were successful in having him sentenced to dismissal. They always had him in Coventry, but they never broke his dauntless spirit or impaired his patriotism.

In 1827, while serving on the Cyane in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Lieutenant Levy was the recipient of a compliment from the Emperor of Brazil. It seems that an American seaman, enjoying his liberty, was seized by a press-gang. The poor fellow, seeing Midshipman Moores, called for help. Moores attempted a rescue, when a Brazilian admiral rudely pushed him back, whereupon the American middy promptly knocked the admiral down. Another officer slashed at Moores with his saber, but Lieutenant Levy received the blow, while a soldier thrust a bayonet into Moores's side. The midshipman always said that in warding off the saber-cut Levy had saved his life.

The emperor, on a visit to the navy-yard, seeing Levy with his arm in a sling, complimented him on the manner in which he had gone to the rescue of his shipmates, " a rnidshipman and a common man." The emperor expressed the desire to have such zealous officers in his own service, and offered Levy the command of a new sisty-gun frigate. Levy thanked his Majesty, but declined the offer, saying that he " loved his own service so well that he would rather serve in it as a cabin-boy than as a captain in any other service in the world."

Another incident of an exciting nature illustrative of Levy's patriotism occurred in Paris on the Fourth of July, 1833, shortly after the Nullification movement. The lieutenant had been sent to France as a bearer of despatches, and was present at a dinner given on the national holiday. Mr. Ewing, the American minister, presided, and General Lafayette was the guest of honor. To the amazement of Levy, the toast "Andrew Jackson, President of the United States," was received with hisses and groans by some of the guests, whereupon Lieutenant Levy struck one of them in the face with his glove and challenged two others to duels; the offenders, however, preferred to apologize.

Lieutenant Maffitt testifies that in 1839, while the sloop of war V<ndalia was entering the harbor of Sacrificios. she collided with and carried away the flyingjib boom and foreroyalmast of a French sloop of war. Commander Levy at once sent his first lieutenant on board to apologize. The French commander received the apology discourteously, using most disrespectful language concerning Commander Levy, who, when it was reported to him, got into a boat, accompanied by two midshipmen who spoke French fluently, and rowing over to the French man-of-war, demanded and received, on her quarter-deck, an apology, both official and personal.

These incidents are cited because one of the charges brought against Levy by his persecutors was that of cowardice.

Six courts martial, one court of inquiry, a star-chamber known as the " Shubrick board," and the board which replaced his name upon the "Naval Register," form a part of the extraordinary official record of Post-Captain Levy. We stand aghast as we contemplate the triviality of the charges of which dignified Courts took cognizance.

The first court martial was brought about by a marine officer denying that Lieutenant Levy had the right to order a ward-room boy to clear off the table. Levy maintained that he did have the right, whereupon the marine officer grossly insulted him. The court inflicted the same punishment upon Levy that it administered to his assailant.

The second court tried Levy " for disobedience of orders, contempt of his superior officers, and unofficer-like conduct in that he had struck a petty officer." Doubtless the men before the mast, seeing how contemptuously Lieutenant Levy was treated by his, brother-officers, attempted to imitate them, and Levy, provoked beyond endurance, lost his temper. A lieutenant who ranked Mr. Levy attempted to reprimand him in the presence of the crew, when Levy very properly protested that he was " not to be called to account in that manner." The court found Lieutenant Levy guilty, and pronounced this remarkable-sentence, namely: " That he was to be dismissed, not from the navy, but from the frigate fitted States, and not to be allowed again to serve on board of her, and to be publicly reprimanded by the commander-in-chief." It is needless to add that, the commander-in-chief being the gallant Stewart, the sentence was disapproved.

The third court was on the charge that "the said Levy was addicted to the vice of lying." It appears from the record that Levy asked for a boat to go ashore in, and a wardroom boy reported that his boat was ready. Levy got into it, but was ordered out. He asserted that the boy had said the boat was for him. The boy, when brought before the deck-officer, became frightened and denied that he Lad ever told Mr. Levy anything. The sentence was: " That he, the said Levy, be cashiered out of the naval service of the United States, and that this sentence be carried into full and complete effect as soon as may be after the same be approved by the President of the United States." President Monroe not being a " Jesv-baiter," the sentence was disapproved.

The fourth court tried Lieutenant Levy for, first, scandalous conduct; second, using provoking and reproachful words, gestures, and menaces; third, ungentlemanly conduct; fourth, forgery and falsification. The court found him guilty on the first and second, but acquitted him on the other charges, and taking into consideration the great provocation given by the prosecutor, they only sentenced Levy to be publicly reprimanded.

Next came a court of inquiry. Lieutenant Levy being in command of a gunboat, the Revenge, engaged in the pursuit of Lafitte, the Barataria pirate, found himself suddenly attacked by a Spanish sloop of war, the Voluntario. The United States not being at war with Spain, and Lieutenant Levy appreciating the hopelessness of contending with his big adversary, he lowered a boat and sent an officer with his commission on board the Spaniard, as evidence to the lawfulness of his presence in West Indian waters. The Spaniard apologized verbally and permitted the Reven.ge to continue on her cruise. For this Levy was charged with cowardice. The President, in dismissing the matter, informed Lieutenant Levy through the Secretary of the Navy that "his forbearance on that occasion was greater than his duty required, and that he would have been justified in resenting the attack."

To the credit of the court be it said, they found that throughout the affair the conduct of Lieutenant Levy " was cool and collected, and in no respect Manifested a want of personal courage." Shortly after this the Re-venge, while in charge of a pilot, ran aground and was wrecked, Levy's enemies of course insisting that he should never have trusted the pilot; but, strange to say, he was exonerated from all blame.

We now come to the fifth court martial. tThe charges were: " That he offered to waive rank and fight a duel, and that in the presence of the officers and crew of the United States sloop of war Cyane he invited Lieutenant Ellery to fight a duel."

The court found " Levy guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer, but not of agentleman," and sentenced him to be reprimanded. " But the court," says the record, " felt it necessary to state that the sentence had been rendered thus mild in consequence of the extent of the provocation to be found in the highly improper conduct of Li eu te nants Spencer and Ellery, which the court could not consent to pass over without the marked expression of its disapprobation."

The sixth court martial was held in 1842; and the charge was: "Scandalous and cruel conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman." This was an omnibus charge covering three entirely separate acts not analogous and said to have been perpetrated at different times. The prosecutor was an officer against whom LevySwhen incommand of the Vand.alia, had preferred charges of insubordination. Three years after the occurrence of the alleged unlawful acts, this officer, Lieutenant Hooe, resurrected them and had his former captain tried. One of these imaginary crimes was that Commander Levy had allowed a man to pull his nose without resenting the insult. It was proved that his nose was not touched, that his assailant was accompanied by a gang of toughs, and that Levy, after warding off a blow, had continued on his way without further molestation. Another charge was that he had attested to the correctness of an official document, knowing the same to be false. In making his charges against Lieutenant Hooe he was required by the regulationstomake them in duplicateandsend both copies to the commander-in-chief, who forwarded one copy to the accused. It appears that two words were omitted from one copy, and the commander-in-chief unfortunately sent the incomplete one to Lieutenant Hooe. The third charge was cruelty. This seems extraordinary when we remember that the freedom of the city of New York was presented to Captain Levy in recognition of his services in having whipping abolished in the navy. The circumstances of the offense were these: Mr. Woodbury, when Secretary of the Navy, had issued the following order: "Flogging is recommended to be discontinued when practicable by courts as well as officers, and some badge of disgrace, fine, etc., substituted, when discretion exists." Levy took the secretary at his word, and when Midshipman (afterward Admiral) Ammen complained of one of the boys mimicking him, Commander Levy, instead of inflicting a dozen with the cat-o'-ninetails, had the youth seized to a gun and a lump of tar about the size of a dollar stuck to the small of his back, to which were attached a few feathers, saying that "as the boy was so fond of mocking people he would make a parrot of him.'' The punishment lasted five minutes, when the boy, with a little grease, removed his " badge of disgrace," laughing heartily and congratulating himself that he had escaped the cruel cats. The court, as usual, found Commander Levy guilty, and sentenced him to be dismissed from the service. President Tyler mitigated the sentence to suspension without pay for the period of twelve months.

In 1844 Commander Levy was promoted to a post-captaincy. Years passed, and his applications for a command were pigeonholed. When war with Mexico was declared he made piteous appeals to be allowed to serve his country. At last a famine occurring in Ireland and the government determining to send a ship-load of provisions to the sufferers, Captain Levy applied for the command of the vessel, offering to devote his pay to the charity. This request was also ignored. He busied himself in rehabilitating " Monticello," the home of Thomas Jefferson, which he had bought in 1828-a patriotic work which has been continued by his nephew, the Hon. Jefferson M. Levy, the present owner.

In 1855 the Shubrick board or commission of fifteen came into existence. Its meetings were held in secret. It listened to no defense, and dismissed whom it chose. It chose, among others, Levy.

In September, 1855, without premonition, the commodore received the following letter from the Secretary of the Navy:

NAVY DEPARTMENT, September 13, 1855.

SIR: The board of naval officers assembled under the act to promote the efficiency of the navy, approved February 28,1855, having reported you as one of the officers who should in their judgment be stricken from the rolls of the navy, and the finding of the board having been approved by the President, it becomes my duty to inform you that accordingly your name is stricken from the rolls of the navy.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. C. DOBBIN.

To Mr. Uriah P. Levy Late Captain United States Navv New York.

Yet despite all the great influence brought to bear against this Jew, the United States government ordered still another board, which restored him to his rank and emoluments. In 1858 he was aboard the Macedonian during a cruise in the Mediterranean as flag-officer of the squadron. He died in New York city, March 22, 1862, and was buried with full naval honors.

[1] A French Officer of Jewish background who was convicted on the false charge of Treason in the 1890's. His case was a noted example of anti-Semitism in the military.