 More recently however, scholars have asserted that no period in American Jewish history was free of antisemitism.The debate about the significance of antisemitism during different periods of American history has continued to the present day.The first governmental incident of anti-Jewish sentiment was recorded during the American Civil War, when General Ulysses S. Grant issued a General Order (quickly rescinded by President Abraham Lincoln) of expulsion against Jews from the portions of Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi that were under his control.