senator benjamin wade called benjamin -- it's a wonderful line -- he called him an israelite with egyptian principles. [laughter] but the jewish confederates were by no means the only cause of prejudice. smuggling, speculating, price gouging, swindling, producing shoddy merchandise for the military, all were similarly laid at the doorstep of the jews. indeed, jews during the civil war came to personify wartime capitalism's ills. they bore disproportionate blame for badly-produced uniforms, poorly-firing weapons, inedible foodstuffs and other substandard merchandise that corrupt contractors supplied to the war effort and smugglers marketed to unsuspecting troops. in the eyes of many americans, including some in the military, all traitors and smugglers and sucklers and wartime profiteers were smug-nosed jews where they were actually jewish or not. the implication echoing a perennial anti-semitic canard was that jews preferred to benefit from war rather than fight in it. now, there is no doubt that some jews did illegally enrich themselves during the war. the famous jewish eternal organizatio