Isaac Quotes
Lopez and Elizer were Jews who had escaped the persecution in Portugal to come to America. They and other non-Christians could live and work in Rhode Island but could not vote or hold public office by a previous decision of the Rhode Island Assembly. See {619707}.The Jews had petitioned for their civil rights.
Lopez had come from Portugal and had been living in Rhode Island for 9 years and was active in shipping, whaling and candle making. He, and another Jew, Issac Elizer, petitioned the Rhode Island Superior Court for naturalization and citizenship rights. The court turned them down and they appealed to the Rhode Island Assembly—then not only the legislature but the highest court in the colony. The assembly came up with a compromise. The Jews were allowed to continue to live and work in Rhode Island but they could not hold public office or vote. They told the Superior Court to reconsider the case however as Lopez and Elizer were model citizens—but for religion just the kind the colony wanted. This case and many others were known to the founding fathers who were determined to put a stop to the practice of conditioning voting and office holding rights on adhering to the particular sect of the majority of the colony. Lopez and Elizer then appealed again to the Superior Court.
See {619709}. Ever since the Jews were ejected from their nation by the Romans, there have been some Jews and non-Jews who believed that the refusal of other nations to allow Jews citizenship inhibited their assimilation and was God’s way of maintaining the Jews as a distinct people so that they may fulfill Biblical prophesy and return to the Land of Israel. Stiles was a leading historian of his day and specialized in ancient Biblical history. Most people however, and most Jews, do not hold with this theory.
