Benjamin Franklin Peixotto was an American diplomat, publicist, journalist. He was also a lawyer.
Background
Benjamin Franklin Peixotto was born on November 13, 1834 in New York, Manhattan, New York, United States. He was a son of Daniel L. M. Peixotto and Rachel Seixas. His father was a physician, for some time president of the New York Medical Society. After the death of his father, the thirteen-year-old boy went to Cleveland, Ohio, where the elder Peixotto had at one time served as president of Willoughly Medical College. He eventually became one of the editors of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and a strong supporter of Stephen A. Douglas.
Career
At an early age Benjamin Franklin Peixotto became deeply interested in the Independent Order B'nai B'rith, a national Jewish fraternal organization. He was elected grand master of the order in 1863, serving till 1866, and was active in founding the Cleveland Orphan Home connected with it. During the Civil War he served for a time with the de Villiers Zouaves in an Ohio infantry regiment. In 1867 he moved to San Francisco. He was gaining recognition there as a lawyer, when in June 1870 he was appointed by President Grant United States consul to Bucharest. The appointment was made in the hope that the alarming persecutions of the Jews in Rumania might be abated. Thus Peixotto's rôle was described in a personal letter handed to him by President Grant just before his departure for his post, which concluded with the words: "Mr. Peixotto has undertaken the duties of his present office more as a missionary work for the benefit of the people he represents, than for any benefit to accrue to himself. The United States, knowing no distinction of her own citizens on account of religion or nativity, naturally believes in a civilization the world over which will secure the same universal laws. "
Both through official channels and in a German newspaper which he founded at Bucharest, Benjamin Franklin Peixotto denounced Rumanian anti-Semitism and aroused public opinion against Rumanian persecution of the Jews. He induced the Rumanian Jews to undertake the important innovation of organizing modern schools for instruction in the Rumanian language and in other modern, as well as Jewish, subjects. During the six years of his consulship, the anti-Semitic movement there was greatly weakened. Largely as a result of his efforts, followed up by denouncements of Rumanian atrocities in Congress and in the parliaments of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, important religious minority protective clauses were inserted in the Treaty of Berlin of 1878. Returning to the United States in 1876, Peixotto took an active part in the presidential campaign of that year.
In 1877 Benjamin Franklin Peixotto was appointed United States consul to Lyons, France, where he rendered valuable service to American commerce. After his return to the United States, he founded in 1886 The Menorah, A Monthly Magazine, an important Jewish periodical, which he edited up to the time of his death. It was the only English Jewish monthly in existence for many years. He died on September 18, 1890.
Achievements
Connections
In 1858 Benjamin Franklin Peixotto was married to Hannah Strauss of Louisville, Kenntucky. He was the father of nine children, five daughters and four sons, all of whom survived him. His offspring included a diplomat, two actresses, a singer, a soldier, and two artists.