There’s a lot of hate in politics today but it was ever thus. From Emerson’s racism to Ulysses Grant’s anti-Semitism, 16 surprising old-school American haters. Arthur Goldwag’s latest book is The New Hate.
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Second President of the United States
“I do not like the late resurrection of the Jesuits ... If ever any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell ... it is this company of Loyola. Our system, however, of religious liberty must afford them an asylum; but if they do not put the purity of our elections to a severe trial, it will be a wonder.”
Third President of the United States
“I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.”
Clergyman, geographer, father of Samuel F.B. Morse
“I have my brethren, an official, authenticated list of the names, ages, places of nativity, professions, etc. of the officers and members of a Society of Illuminati, (or as they are now more generally and properly styled Illuminees) consisting of one hundred members, instituted in Virginia ... we have in truth secret enemies, not a few, scattered throughout our country ... enemies whose professed design is to subvert and overturn our holy religion and our free and excellent government.”
Sixth President of the United States, son of John Adams
“Masonry ought forever to be abolished ... It is wrong—essentially wrong—a seed of evil, which can never produce any good. It may perish in the ground—it may never rise to bear fruit; but whatever fruit it does bear must be rank poison; it can never prove a blessing but by its barrenness.”
Painter, inventor of the telegraph
“The conspirators against our liberties, who have been admitted from abroad through the liberality of our institutions, are now organized in every part of the country … from the most abject dolt that obeys the commands of his priest, up to the great master-slave Metternich, who commands and obeys his illustrious Master, the Emperor [of Austria] … Continue for a few years the sort of emigration that is now daily pouring in its thousand from Europe, and our institutions, for ought that I can see, are at the mercy of a body of foreigners, officered by foreigners, and held completely under the control of a foreign power.”
Transcendentalist essayist, poet, and lecturer
“I think it cannot be maintained by any candid person that the African race have ever occupied or do promise ever to occupy any very high place in the human family. Their present condition is the strongest proof that they cannot. The Irish cannot; the American Indian cannot; the Chinese cannot. Before the energy of the Caucasian race all the other races have quailed and done obeisance.”
18th President of the United States
“I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into post commanders, the special regulations of the Treasury Department have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied have I been of this that I instructed the commanding officers at Columbus to refuse all permits to Jews to come South, and I have frequently had them expelled from the department, but they come in with their carpet-sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel anywhere. They will land at any woodyard on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy cotton themselves, they will act as agents for someone else, who will be at military post with a Treasury permit to receive cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying gold.”
Historian, novelist, grandson of John Quincy Adams
“I detest [the Jews] and everything connected with them, and I live only and solely with the hope of seeing their demise, with all their accursed Judaism. I want to see all the lenders at interest taken out and executed.”
26th President of the United States
“It is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black, and yellow aboriginal owners, and become the heritage of the dominant world races.”
28th president of the United States
“Segregation is not humiliating but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen. If your organization goes out and tells the colored people of the country that it is a humiliation, they will so regard it, but if you do not tell them so, and regard it rather as a benefit, they will regard it the same. The only harm that will come will be if you cause them to think it is a humiliation.”
Industrialist, publisher of the anti-Semitic Dearborn Independent
“Judaism is the most closely organized power on earth ... Having wreaked its revenge on Germany it will now go forth to conquer other nations. Britain it already has. Russia it is struggling for, but the chances are against it. The United States, with its good-natured tolerance of all races, offers a promising field. The scene of operations changes, but the Jew is the same throughout the centuries.”
30th President of the United States
“Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides. Quality of mind and body suggests that observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation as immigration law.
Author
“The menace to the Western world lies, not in the little brown man, but in the four hundred millions of yellow men should the little brown man undertake their management. The Chinese is not dead to new ideas; he is an efficient worker; makes a good soldier, and is wealthy in the essential materials of a machine age. Under a capable management he will go far. The Japanese is prepared and fit to undertake this management. Not only has he proved himself an apt imitator of Western material progress, a sturdy worker, and a capable organizer, but he is far more fit to manage the Chinese than are we. The baffling enigma of the Chinese character is no baffling enigma to him ... He takes the turning which we cannot perceive, twists around the obstacle, and, presto! is out of sight in the ramifications of the Chinese mind where we cannot follow.”
U.S. Senator (R–Ariz.)
“David Rockefeller’s newest international cabal [the Trilateral Commission] ... is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States ... What the Trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future.”
37th President of the United States
“I’ve just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits ... The Jews have certain traits ... The Irish have certain—for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish ... The Italians, of course, those people course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but ... The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.”
U.S. Senator (D–W.Va.)
I am a typical American, a Southerner, and 27 years of age, and never in this world will I be convinced that race mixing in any field is good. All the social ‘do-gooders,’ the philanthropic ‘greats’ of this day, the reds and the pinks … can never alter my convictions on this question. I am loyal to my country and I know but reverence to her flag. BUT I shall never submit to fight beneath that banner with a Negro by my side … Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
