Uriah P. Levy | |
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| Birth name | Uriah Phillips Levy |
| Born | (1792-04-22)April 22, 1792 |
| Died | March 22, 1862(1862-03-22) (aged 69) |
| Place of burial | Beth Olam Cemetery, Queens, New York |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Branch |  United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1812-1862 |
| Rank | Commodore |
| Commands | USS Vandalia USS Macedonian USS Franklin Mediterranean Fleet |
| Battles / wars | War of 1812 |
| Spouse | Virginia Lopez |
Uriah Phillips Levy (April 22, 1792 – March 22, 1862) was a naval officer, real estate investor, andphilanthropist. He was a veteran of theWar of 1812 and the first JewishCommodore of theUnited States Navy.[note 1] He was instrumental in helping to end the Navy's practice offlogging, and during his half-century-long service prevailed against theantisemitism he faced among some of his fellow naval officers.
An admirer ofThomas Jefferson, Levy purchased and began the restoration ofMonticello in the 1830s. He also commissioned and donated a statue of Jefferson that is now located in theCapitol Rotunda; it is the only privately commissioned artwork in the Capitol.
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Levy was born on April 22, 1792, inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania to Michael and Rachel Phillips Levy. He had two older siblings. Uriah Levy was close to his maternal grandfather,Jonas Phillips, who had emigrated to the United States in 1756 from Germany, and fought with the Philadelphia militia in theAmerican Revolution. His maternal great-great grandfather, Dr. Samuel Ribeiro Nunes, aPortuguese physician, was among a group of 42Sephardic Jews who escaped theSpanish Inquisition of the early 16th century and migrated to England, where they settled. Descendants of that group sailed from London in 1733 and helped found the city ofSavannah, Georgia, where they lived for generations.[1]
Levy's younger brother wasJonas Phillips Levy, who became a merchant and sea captain. He was the father of five, including the CongressmanJefferson Monroe Levy.
Levy ran away from home at the age of ten[2] and ended up serving on various vessels as acabin boy, and according to family stories, returned home to Philadelphia at age 13 for hisbar mitzvah.
In 1806, he apprenticed as a sailor and was a cabin boy. Later he became asailing master in the U.S. Navy,[3] and fought in theBarbary Wars.
At the age of 21, he volunteered for theWar of 1812 and was commissioned as a sailing master on October 21, 1812. He was asupernumerarysailing master on theArgus, whichinterdicted British ships in the English Channel. TheArgus seized more than 20 vessels before being captured by a British warship on August 14, 1813; her captain was killed, and the crew, including Levy, surrendered and were taken prisoner.[4] They were imprisoned inGreat Britain for sixteen months until the end of the war. During his imprisonment, Levy had difficulty obtaining a subsidy and parole because his status as a supernumerary was not recognised by the BritishTransport Board.[5]
Upon returning to the United States, Levy served aboard theFranklin assecond master. Levy was promoted to the rank oflieutenant in 1817. This commission was a rare feat, given that he started as a cabin boy and worked his way to being a sailing master.[3] He became amaster commandant in 1837, andcaptain in 1844.
During his service in the U.S. Navy, Levy faced considerableantisemitism.[3] He reacted to slights and wascourt-martialed six times, and once demoted from the rank ofCaptain.[3] Twice, he was dismissed from the Navy, but reinstated. He defended his conduct in his handling of naval affairs before a Court of Inquiry and in 1855 was restored to his former position.
Later,[specify] Levy commanded the Mediterranean Squadron. As a squadron commander he was given the title ofcommodore, then the highest position in the U.S. Navy.
Levy was instrumental in abolishingflogging in the U.S. Navy, although his position was considered controversial at the time. He also helped gain the support of theU.S. Congress in passing an anti-flogging bill in 1850.[6]
Levy spent only 16 years of his 49-year naval career in active service. The rest of time, he was listed as "waiting orders", meaning that he could be called to serve at any time. Although Levy served during the first year of theAmerican Civil War, he was not given an active assignment at that time.
Levy became wealthy by investing inNew York City's real estate market.[7]
Levy undertook variousphilanthropic endeavors, many of which were in support of Jewish-American life. In 1854 he sponsored the newJewish seminary of theB'nai Jeshurun Educational Institute in New York.
In 1833,New York City gave Levy theKey to the City after he presented the city with a patinated plaster statue of Thomas Jefferson, the one used to cast the bronze version he gave to the U.S. Congress.[8] Before the statue was set up inNew York City Hall, Levy installed it in a building on Broadway and charged admission to view it. The proceeds were used to buy bread for the city's poor.[8]
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Levy was a great admirer ofThomas Jefferson:[9]
I consider Thomas Jefferson to be one of the greatest men in history, the author of theDeclaration and an absolute democrat. He serves as an inspiration to millions of Americans. He did much to mould our Republic in a form in which a man's religion does not make him ineligible for political or governmental life.
Monticello was sold by Jefferson’s heirs (his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph and her son, Thomas Jefferson Randolph) to James Turner Barclay, a Charlottesville pharmacist, in 1831. In 1834, Levy bought it from Barclay for $2,700 218-acre (88 ha)Monticello—which is equivalent to $85,000 in today's dollars. Levy undertook to have the long-neglected home repaired, restored, and preserved. He bought hundreds of additional acres that had been part of the plantation, to add to what was left. He also purchased 12 enslaved people to work at Monticello, eventually owning about 20 during his tenure.
Levy used Monticello as a vacation home. From 1837 to 1839, his widowed mother Rachel Levy lived there until her death; she is buried along Mulberry Row, the main plantation street adjacent to the mansion.[10]
Upon his death in 1862, Levy left Monticello to the American people to be used as an agricultural school for the orphans of Navywarrant officers. Because of theAmerican Civil War, Congress refused to accept the donation. TheConfederate government seized and sold the property; lawyers for Levy's estate recovered the property after the war.
Following two lawsuits by family members over Levy's will, with 47 parties to the suit, in 1879 his nephewJefferson Monroe Levy bought out the other heirs for $10,050 (~$285,958 in 2024), and took control of Monticello.[11] He had it repaired and restored. He sold it in 1923 to theThomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, which has renovated and restored the property as a house museum.
The Levy family's role in preserving Monticello was downplayed by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation through much of the 20th century, which Urofsky suggests was due to antisemitic views among some of its board and members.[12]
In 1985, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation restored the gravesite of Rachel Levy and honored descendants of the family in a ceremony at Monticello.[13] The Foundation also celebrates the roles of Uriah P. Levy and Jefferson Monroe Levy in helping preserve and restore Monticello, including on-site information about their roles.
In another tribute to Jefferson, Levy commissioned a bronze statue of the President from the noted sculptorPierre-Jean David d’Angers in Paris. The statue depicts Jefferson holding a quill pen in his right hand and an etched copy of the Declaration of Independence in his left. Levy presented a black-painted plaster model of the Jefferson statue to the City of New York on February 6, 1833. The city gave him a gold snuff box in appreciation. That statue was placed on the second floor of the Rotunda at City Hall in Manhattan, and moved into the ornate City Council Chamber in the 1950s. It was moved from the Chamber on November 22, 2021, and loaned to The New-York Historical Society[1]. Levy had donated the bronze statue to Congress in 1834. The statue, which once stood on theWhite House North Lawn from 1834 to 1873 and currently stands in theCapitol Rotunda, is the only privately commissioned piece of artwork in theCapitol.
Levy's brother, Jonas Phillip Levy, served as the fifth president of theWashington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, DC from 1857 to 1858.[citation needed]
At the age of 61, Levy married his 18-year-old niece Virginia Lopez, whose father had recently died.[9][14][15] According to biographer Marc Leepson,[16] Levy "was following an ancient, if obscure, Jewish tradition that obligates the closest unmarried male relative of a recently orphaned or widowed woman in financial difficulties to marry her." (See alsoletter,levirate marriage)
Levy died on March 26, 1862, and was buried inBeth Olam Cemetery, Ridgewood (Queens), associated with theSpanish and Portuguese Synagogue.[9] He was one of the ranking officers of the Navy at the time of his death.[17]
The statue was given to "the people of New York" by Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy (1792–1862) at the end of 1833. It is the original plaster from which the bronze version, which he gave "to the people of the United States," was made....Before the statue was set up in City Hall, Levy charged admission to view it at 355 Broadway, using the proceeds to feed the city's poor....For his generous gift, Levy was given the Freedom of the City of New York award, symbolized by a large gold snuff box.
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