Blackstone Memorial

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The Blackstone Memorial (1891) was a petition written by William Eugene Blackstone, a Christian restorationist, and presented to the President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, in favor of the delivery of Palestine to the Jews, and signed by a number of leading American citizens.

The Memorial was motivated by concern over the plight of the Jews in Russia where they were being murdered in government-incited pogroms. It argued that it would be politically unwise to ask the Russian government to desist, "What shall be done for the Russian Jews? It is both unwise and useless to undertake to dictate to Russia concerning her internal affairs."^[1] But assumed that they would not be welcome in western countries, "Where shall 2,000,000 of such poor people go? Europe is crowded and has no room for more peasant population. Shall they come to America? This will be a tremendous expense, and require years." ^[1]

There was a solution:

"Why not give Palestine back to them again? According to God's distribution of nations it is their home, an inalienable possession from which they were expelled by force."^[1]

"Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews? These provinces, as well as Roumania, Montenegro and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to the Jews?"^[1]

The Memorial was signed by a long list of prominent citizens, all drawn from just five cities, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Chicago, and by a list of members of Congress. Signers included William McKinley, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, Melville Fuller, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the editor of all the major newspapers in the five cities where the petition was circulated, including several newspapers that still exist, The Boston Globe, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Washington Post, and a long list of university and seminary presidents, mayors, and leading businessmen.