Haym Salomon
1740 - 1785
United States Revolutionary War Financier
Haym Salomon (1740–1785) was a financier of the American Revolutionary War. Born in Lissa, Prussia-Poland around 1745, he passed away in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1785. After fleeing Poland due to the collapse of its independence movements, Salomon established himself in New York in 1772, where he quickly became a fervent supporter of American independence. During the British occupation of New York, Salomon was twice arrested for espionage but managed to escape to Philadelphia by bribing a jailor. There, he founded a brokerage firm that soon thrived.
Salomon amassed a considerable fortune, much of which he devoted to the American government during the War for Independence. He was instrumental in negotiating war subsidies from France and Holland, endorsing and selling bills to American merchants on credit, secured by his personal wealth. His commission for these efforts was a modest one-quarter of one percent.
It was also reported that in 1780, a man named Joe, described as a Black runaway, fled from Salomon, indicating his ownership of enslaved individuals.
In addition to his financial contributions, Salomon served as paymaster general for the French forces in the United States and lent money to foreign agents and ministers when their own resources were depleted. It is claimed that over $100,000 advanced to these agents was never repaid. To the U.S. government alone, Salomon lent approximately $600,000 in specie, of which around $400,000 remained unpaid at his death. His descendants have repeatedly petitioned for compensation, and congressional committees have often supported their claims.
Was Delaware, Virginia, or New Hampshire the first US State?
Salomon was an active member of Congregation Mikveh Israel, now known as the "Synagogue of the American Revolution," which is the fourth-oldest continuous synagogue in the United States, founded in 1740. A significant benefactor to the synagogue, he contributed to the construction of its main building in 1782 and served as treasurer of the Society for the Relief of Destitute Strangers, the first Jewish charitable organization in Philadelphia.
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| Haym Salomon Advertisement in the THE PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL & WEEKLY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia, published on April 9, 1783. |
In 1783, when the population of Philadelphia was estimated at 40,000 with about 350 Jewish residents, Salomon, inspired by his friend Robert Morris, successfully lobbied the Pennsylvania Council of Censors to remove the religious test oath for office-holding in the state’s constitution.
Petition of the Philadelphia Synagogue to Council of Censors of Pennsylvania
To the honourable the COUNCIL of CENSORS, assembled agreeable to the Constitution of the State of Pennsylvania. The Memorial of Rabbi Ger. Seixas of the Synagogue of the Jews at Philadelphia, Simon Nathan their Parnass or President, Asher Myers, Bernard Gratz and Haym Salomon the Mahamad, or Associates of their council in behalf of themselves and their brethren Jews, residing in Pennsylvania,
Most respectfully showeth,
That by the tenth section of the Frame of Government of this Commonwealth, it is ordered that each member of the general assembly of representatives of the freemen of Pennsylvania, before he takes his seat, shall make and subscribe a declaration, which ends in these words, "I do acknowledge the Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be given by divine inspiration," to which is added an assurance, that "no further or other religious test shall ever hereafter be required of any civil officer or magistrate in this state."
Your memorialists beg leave to observe, that this clause seems to limit the civil rights of your citizens to one very special article of the creed; whereas by the second paragraph of the declaration of the rights of the inhabitants, it is asserted without any other limitation than the professing the existence of God, in plain words, "that no man who acknowledges the being of a God can be justly deprived or abridged of any civil rights as a citizen on account of his religious sentiments." But certainly this religious test deprives the Jews of the most eminent rights of freemen, solemnly ascertained to all men who are not professed Atheists.
May it please your Honors,
Although the Jews in Pennsylvania are but few in number, yet liberty of the people in one country, and the declaration of the government thereof, that these liberties are the rights of the people, may prove a powerful attractive to men, who live under restraints in another country. Holland and England have made valuable acquisitions of men, who for their religious sentiments, were distressed in their own countries.--And if Jews in Europe or elsewhere, should incline to transport themselves to America, and would, for reason of some certain advantage of the soil, climate, or the trade of Pennsylvania, rather become inhabitants thereof, than of any other State; yet the disability of Jews to take seat among the representatives of the people, as worded by the said religious test, might determine their free choice to go to New York, or to any other of the United States of America, where there is no such like restraint laid upon the nation and religion of the Jews, as in Pennsylvania.--Your memorialists cannot say that the Jews are particularly fond of being representatives of the people in assembly or civil officers and magistrates in the State; but with great submission they apprehend that a clause in the constitution, which disables them to be elected by their fellow citizens to represent them in assembly, is a stigma upon their nation and religion, and it is inconsonant with the second paragraph of the said bill of rights; otherwise Jews are as fond of liberty as their religious societies can be, and it must create in them a displeasure, when they perceive that for their professed dissent to doctrine, which is inconsistent with their religious sentiments, they should be excluded from the most important and honourable part of the rights of a free citizen.
Your memorialists beg further leave to represent, that in the religious books of the Jews, which are or may be in every man's hands, there are no such doctrines or principles established as are inconsistent with the safety and happiness of the people of Pennsylvania, and that the conduct and behaviour of the Jews in this and the neighbouring States, has always tallied with the great design of the Revolution; that the Jews of Charlestown, New York, New-Port and other posts, occupied by the British troops, have distinguishedly suffered for their attachment to the Revolution principles; and their brethren at St. Eustatius, for the same cause, experienced the most severe resentments of the British commanders. The Jews of Pennsylvania in proportion to the number of their members, can count with any religious society whatsoever, the Whigs among either of them; they have served some of them in the Continental army; some went out in the militia to fight the common enemy; all of them have cheerfully contributed to the support of the militia, and of the government of this State; they have no inconsiderable property in lands and tenements, but particularly in the way of trade, some more, some less, for which they pay taxes; they have, upon every plan formed for public utility, been forward to contribute as much as their circumstances would admit of; and as a nation or a religious society, they stand unimpeached of any matter whatsoever, against the safety and happiness of the people.
And your memorialists humbly pray, that if your honours, from any consideration than the subject of this address, should think proper to call a convention for revising the constitution, you would be pleased to recommend this to the notice of that convention.
23 Dec. 1783
In 1784, in response to anti-Semitic slander in the press, Salomon publicly declared:
I am a Jew; it is my own nation; I do not despair that we shall obtain every other privilege that we aspire to enjoy along with our fellow-citizens.
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| Haym Salomon Advertising in The Freeman's Journal or the North-American Intelligencer, Philadelphia, PA dated July 31, 1782 |
Thursday, last, expired, after a lingering illness, Mr. Haym Salomon, an eminent broker of this city, was a native of Poland, and of the Hebrew nation. He was remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession, and for his generous and humane deportment. His remains were yesterday deposited in the burial ground of the synagogue of this city.
Haym Salomon: The Financier of the Revolution
By: Madison Clinton Peters
By: Madison Clinton Peters
Edited by Stan Klos
Salomon's family were highly
respectable and learned people. He enjoyed the friendships of Kosciuszko and
Pulaski, the noble patriots who unsheathed their swords for human liberty.
With his own unhappy country's
history and with his hatred of despotic Russia, Salomon imbibed a love of
liberty which extensive travel in Europe intensified, and, as might have been
expected, the outbreak of the Revolution found him an ardent supporter of the
Colonial cause.
He settled in New York and there
married Rachel, daughter of Moses B. Franks, of London, who, as well as his
brother, the distinguished Jacob Franks of the Revolutionary War, died in New
York while it was yet a colony. Rachel Franks was the sister of Colonel Isaac
Franks, a Revolutionary officer of distinction, and of Mayer Isaac Franks, a
judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
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| Haym Salomon's [1740-1785] Hand-colored Ketubah [Jewish marriage certificate] dated July 6, 1777 in New York - image Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society,New York and Newton Centre, Massachusetts |
Moses and Jacob Franks were the sons
of Adam Franks, of Germany, the friend of King George of Hanover and who loaned
that monarch the most valuable jewels in his crown at the coronation.
Jacob Franks was the British King's
sole agent for the Northern Colonies at New York, and his son David was the
British King's agent for Pennsylvania.
When the Revolutionary War began,
Salomon identified himself with the American cause and was arrested and
imprisoned as a spy soon after the occupation of New York by the British in
1776. Salomon was closely confined for a long time in the prison known as "the Provost," which stood on
the spot now occupied by the old Hall of Records in the City Hall Park. So
closely were the prisoners packed there that when they "laid down at night to rest, when their bones ached, on the hard
oak planks, and they wished to turn, it was altogether by command,
'right—left,' being so wedged as to form almost a solid mass of solid
bodies."
When Salomon's linguistic proficiency
became known (he knew Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Italian), he
was turned over to the Hessian general, Heister, who gave him an appointment in
the commissariat department, where his greater liberty enabled him to render
much service to the French and American prisoners, many of whom he helped to
escape. He created dissension among the Hessian officers, prompting many to
resign from the service.
In 1778, he was taken by the British
general, Sir Henry Clinton, on charges that he had received orders from Washington
to burn fleets and destroy their warehouses, "which he had attempted to execute to their great damage and
injury."
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| Haym Salomon First Day Issue 1975 |
He was imprisoned, tortured, and
condemned to a military death, but on August 11, 1778, he managed to escape, by
bribing his jailer leaving behind him in New York six thousand pounds
sterling, a distressed wife, and child one month old. It seems likely that his
intimate friend, the brave General McDougall, who then commanded the American
army in the neighborhood of New York, was in co-operation with him. Fourteen
days later Salomon addressed a petition to the Continental Congress, setting forth
his services and asking for some employment; but, characteristic of the man, he
asked not for himself alone, at the same time he entered a plea for the
exchange of Samuel Demezes, a fellow prisoner.
Congress turned a deaf ear to his
plea and the denial worked for the ultimate good both of Salomon and the young
country.
The tide in his affairs, and as the
story shows, the tide in the affairs of the young Republic, turned upon his
escape to Philadelphia, and it was not long until he succeeded in establishing
himself in business, and there becoming one of the greatest financiers of his
adopted city.
Salomon's matchless enterprise,
eminent respectability, remarkable intelligence, irreproachable integrity, his
delicate sense of mercantile honor, his unbounded benevolence for all mankind,
and, above all, his undying hatred of English tyranny, soon led to his
recognition by the leading men of his time, and the uncompromising, implacable
foe to British dominion was brought into intimate relationships with the
Revolutionary patriots.
Early in 1781, he made known through
the newspapers that he was a dealer in bills of exchange on France and Holland.
For the most part the money advanced by Louis XVI and the proceeds of the loans
negotiated in Holland passed through his hands. He was entrusted with the
negotiation of all the war subsidies of France and Holland on his own personal
integrity, which were sold to the resident merchants in America without any
loss, at a credit of two and three months, for which he received the small
commission of one fourth of one per cent. Several European financial houses did
business through him. A few days after the foregoing announcement, Robert
Morris became Superintendent of Finance. Morris' diary records not less than
seventy-five financial transactions with Salomon, between August 1781, and
April 1784.
Alexander Hamilton, writing during
the dark days of the war to Robert Morris, says: It is by restoring public credit, not by gaining battles, that we are
finally to gain our object. Haym Salomon brought not only all his wealth to
the aid of his adopted country, but a financial insight which, for clearness
and depth, was not surpassed by Alexander Hamilton nor equaled by Robert
Morris. America found in Haym Salomon a champion equaled by few, his fertility
in resource and soundness of financial views made him, through Robert Morris,
Superintendent of Finance, the real financier of the Revolution and judged by
Alexander Hamilton's standard of patriotism, surpassed by none, for Haym
Salomon was practically the sole agent employed by Morris for negotiating bills
of exchange, by which means the credit of the Government was so largely
maintained during this period. We do not wish to detract from the glory of
Robert Morris, but we do insist that the success Morris obtained in his
financial schemes was due to the skill, ability and sacrifice of Haym Solomon.
On July 12, 1782, he requested
Morris' permission to publish the fact that he was broker to the Office of
Finance. In reference to this Morris entered into his diary:
This broker has been useful to the public interests. ... I have consented, as I do not see that any disadvantage can possibly arise to the public service, but the reverse.
He was appointed broker to the French
consul and the treasurer of the French army and fiscal agent of the French
Minister to the United States, Chevalier de la Luzerne, enormous sums passing
through his hands. He was the principal depositor of the Bank of North America,
an institution founded through the instrumentality of Robert Morris, to serve
as a means of obtaining funds to carry on the Government, the first and only
bank chartered by the Revolutionary Congress.
The accounts of fifteen other
merchants who commenced with the opening of the bank occupied, in all, fifteen
pages, up to the period of Salomon's death, while Salomon's account occupied in
all fifteen pages, double columns, of the same ledger. Salomon's one account
was as large as their entire account in the aggregate. The balances at the
various times of settlement in his bank book show special balances of from
$15,000 to $50,000 at each period. The amount charged by the bank to his
account as paid to Robert Morris was over $200,000, while Robert Morris' own
account during the same period had a deposit of less than $10,000. A further
interesting fact is that on a day when Robert Morris deposited $10,000 in the
bank, he received exactly the same amount from Haym Salomon.
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| 1781 Haym Salomon payment of 3000 L in French with endorsement signed by Salomon |
Morris' diary, August 26, 1782,
records: I sent for Salomon and desired him to try every way he could to raise
money. Two days later he wrote: Salomon,
the broker, came and I urged him to leave no stone unturned to find out money
and the means by which I can obtain it.
Not only did Salomon advance large
sums to the Government for which he received no return, but the services of
James Madison, Edmund Randolph, Generals Mifflin, St. Clair and others were
retained in the cause through his bounty. In Madison's letter to Virginia, in
1781, he writes: My wants are so urgent that it is impossible to suppress them. The case
of my brethren is equally alarming. Later he declares: The
kindness of our friend in Front Street (Mr. Salomon) is a fund that will
preserve me from extreme necessities, but I never resort to it without great
mortification, as he obstinately rejects all recompense. To necessitous
delegates he gratuitously spares from his private stock.
Henry Wheaton says: Judge
Wilson, so distinguished for his labors in the Convention that framed the
Federal Constitution, would have retired from public service had he not been
sustained by the timely aid of Haym Salomon, as delicately as it was generously
administered.
When Salomon was called on to advance
the entire pay for the ensuing year to Jones, Randolph, and Madison, as members
of the Revolutionary Congress, they had in writing allotted that Madison should
get fifty pounds less than the other two, but Salomon, seeing in young Madison,
then only twenty-nine years old, those great talents for which he became
distinguished in after years, presented him, from his own private purse, the
fifty pounds, thus equalizing the pay of the whole delegation.
Jared Sparks in his life of
Gouverneur Morris, a member of Congress in 1780, publishes a letter written by
Mr. Morris, in which he declares that the person who did loan cash to a member to
relieve his distress in that day, was in no expectation of ever getting repaid.
James Madison, twice President of the
United States, the most learned and patriotic member of the Revolutionary
Congress, thus paid his tribute to Salomon's devotion and bounty: When any
member was in need, all that was necessary was to call upon Salomon.
Again and again he refers to his little
friend in Front Street, acknowledged
not only his indebtedness to the little
Jew on whose bounty he had pensioned, but again and again refers to his
integrity and disinterestedness.
It is true that there were merchants
who subscribed to make up army supplies in 1780, ostensibly without security,
but Madison's journal shows that they had a contingent security of the best
Sterling Exchange to the amount of 150,000 pounds in excess of their
subscription.
Not only did Salomon aid his home
government, but he was the confidential friend and adviser of agents, consuls,
and representatives of foreign powers in sympathy with the Revolutionary
movement. He had confidential relations with all the foreign representatives at
one time or another. He was the confidential friend of that ardent adherent to
the American cause, Count de la Luzerne, Ambassador for France. With this
appointment, Salomon was made banker for that Government. He was appointed by
Monsieur Roquebrune, treasurer of the forces of France in America and made
paymaster-general, which office he filled free of charge. A letter from Count
Vergennes, Minister of Spain, to De la Luzerne, states that in two years
150,000 livres (equal to present-day francs) were distributed through Salomon.
Salomon for two years, up to the time
of his death, out of his own private purse maintained Don Francisco Rendon,
Ambassador from Spain. Writing to the Spanish Governor of Cuba, Rendon says: Mr.
Salomon has obtained money for his Most Catholic Majesty and I am indebted to
his friendship in this particular for the support of my character, as his Most
Catholic Majesty's agent here, with any degree of credit and reputation, and
without it I would not have been able to give that protection and assistance to
His Majesty's subjects which His Majesty enjoins and my duty requires. More than $10,000 was thus advanced which was
never repaid.
The secret support of Charles III of
Spain is said to have been due to Salomon's efforts.
Although Salomon endorsed a great
portion of the bills of exchange for the amount of loans and subsidies our
Government obtained in Europe, of which he negotiated the entire sums and the
execution of which duty required a great deal of his valuable time, from 1781
to 1783, still there was only charged a fractional percentage to the United
States. He never caused the loss to the Government one cent of the many
millions of his negotiations, either by his own management or from the credit
he gave to others on the sale he made of those immense sums of foreign drafts
on account of the United States.
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| Haym Salomon advertisement in THE PENNSYLVANIA EVENING POST & PUBLIC ADVERTISER, Philadelphia, dated April 9, 1782 |
After the peace of 1783, when foreign
commerce could again float unmolested, Salomon engaged as a trading merchant to
European ports. He had several ships upon the sea, but through the failure of
merchants in whom he had confidence, he suffered great losses.
Always eager to help his fellowmen,
he gave every assistance possible to those who commenced trading after the war.
To the president of the National Bank, whose partner was the Superintendent of
Finance, he gave two loans of $40,000 and $24,000, and without interest. The
firm was known as Willing, Morris & Swanick. It is doubtful if he ever got
any of his money back.
So successful had Salomon become that
he opened up an establishment in New York. In the Pennsylvania and Weekly
Advertiser, January 1, 1785, appeared the following announcement:
Haym Salomon, broker to the Office of Finance, having provided a license of exercising the employment of an auctioneer in the City of New York, has now opened for the reception of every species of merchandise, his house, No. 22 Wall Street, and every branch of business, which in the smallest degree appertains to the profession—factor, auctioneer and broker, will be transacted in it, with that fidelity, dispatch and punctuality which has hitherto characterized his dealings. The house, in point of convenience and situation, is exceedingly well calculated for the different kinds of business above mentioned, and he thinks it is almost unnecessary to assure those who favor him with their orders that the strictest attention shall be paid to them and the utmost care and solicitation employed to promote their interests. The nature of his business enables him to make remittances to any part of the world with peculiar facility, and this he hopes will operate considerably in his favor with those who live at a distance. A desire of being more extensively useful and of giving universal satisfaction to the public are among his principal motives for opening the house and shall be the great leading principles of his transactions. By being broker to the Office of Finance and honored with its confidence, all those sums have passed through his hands, which the generosity of the French Monarch, and the affection of the merchants of the United Provinces, prompted them to furnish us with, to enable us to support the expenses of the war and which have so much contributed to its success and happy termination. This is a circumstance which has established his credit and reputation, and procured him the confidence of the public, a confidence which it shall be his study and ambition to merit and increase, by sacredly performing all his engagements. The business will be conducted upon the most liberal and extensive plan, under the firm name of Haym Salomon and Jacob Morde.
Salomon died suddenly in
Philadelphia, January 6, 1785, at 45 years of age. He left a widow and four
small children, to use the language of the Congressional report: "to
hazard and neglect." Here is his obituary notice taken from the
Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser, of January 8, 1785: On
Thursday, died Haym Salomon, a broker. That is all, not a word about his princely
fortune to the new Republic, nothing about his self-denying gifts whereby the
great geniuses of Revolutionary days could give the service that constructed
the greatest Nation on the globe, nothing about his leadership in the first
charitable organization among the Jews of Philadelphia, a society for the
relief of destitute strangers, nothing about his loyalty to the ancient faith,
his eminent character as a business man and high standing as a citizen. But—he
was a Jew! That tells the story.
The following is a copy of an
authentic certificate from the Register's office in Philadelphia, showing the
amount of public securities and Revolutionary papers left by Haym Salomon and
from which personal estate not a cent has been received by any of his heirs:
58 Loan office certificates $110,233.65
19 Treasury certificates 18,259.50
2 Virginia State certificates. . .
8,166.48
70 Commissioners' certificates. .
17,870.37
Continental liquidate 199,214.45
$353.744.45
Besides he left evidences of advances
to Robert Morris in the sum of $211,000, a claim of $92,000 on the United
States for additional loans, an unpaid balance of $10,000 to the Spanish
Ambassador, and innumerable loans to Madison, St. Clair, Steuben, Wilson, and
many others.
The condition of the Government's
finances as well as those of individuals during and immediately after the
Revolutionary War was almost as chaotic, and his affairs were necessarily much
involved and his family were almost without resources. The widow's
unfamiliarity with business, together with the monetary situation prevailing at
the time, prevented her ever securing a dollar of the $658,007.13 advanced, as
shown from documentary evidence afterwards submitted to Congress—an enormous
sum at that period for a private individual, when all commerce and business
were prostrated. Madison, in 1827, urged that the memorialists might be
indemnified and reports in their favor have been frequently made, but not a
dollar has been repaid —not a medal granted in lieu of the claim— a fact which
affords support to the oft-repeated observation of the ingratitude of
republics.
The descendants of Salomon have been
deprived of their valued inheritance by the reason of their vouchers being lost
while in the custody of the Government, and in consequence of the destruction by
the British of many of the public archives of that period, during the invasion
of Washington in 1814.
During the first session of the
Twenty-ninth Congress the Senate Committee of Claims unanimously agreed upon a
report similar to that adopted by the House Committee of the Thirtieth
Congress, but too late for presentation.
At the second session of the
Fifty-second Congress (February 24, 1893), a bill presented to the House
ordered that a gold medal be struck off in recognition of services rendered by
Haym Ezekiel, the elder son of Haym Salomon, was for some time purser in the
United States Navy, and died in 1822 while cashier of New Orleans branch of the
United States Bank.
Haym M., the younger son, established
himself in the mercantile business in New York City, where he married Ella, the
daughter of Jacob Hart, a German Jew who came to America in 1775, became a
prominent merchant of Baltimore and is mentioned in the secret journals of
Continental Congress as having headed a subscription of the Baltimore merchants
for the relief of a detachment of the American Army, under command of
Lafayette, then passing through that city.
In 1844, Haym M. Salomon abandoned
business, gathered the evidence proving his father's claim against the
Government and devoted all his energies to recovering the fortune of which his
family had so long been deprived.
Salomon, in consideration of which
the Salomon heirs waived their claims upon the United States for indemnity. The
measure was reported favorably by the House Committee on the Library, but too
late for consideration.
He enjoyed the confidence of Webster,
Clay, Calhoun and other great Americans of his time, and though his claims were
frequently reported favorably by committees of both Houses of Congress, a
united action taking the form of legislation was never secured by him.
Colonel David Salomon, grandson of
Haym, was a man of mark, and after having made a great name as a merchant in
Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Railroad created for him the office of financial
agent in New York. His son, William, great-grandson of Haym Salomon, one of the
famous bankers of New York, as the direct descendant, makes no monetary claim
upon the Government.
For the justice of the Haym Salomon
claim we have the highest possible authority. In the report filed in the Senate
during the twenty-ninth Congress it was said:
From the evidence in the possession of the committee, the patriotic devotion of Haym Salomon to the cause of the American Independence cannot in their judgment be questioned. The proof of his eminent character and standing as a citizen and merchant is very clear and abundant." Further in the report, the committee found Mr. Salomon to have been "the negotiator of all the war subsidies obtained from France and Holland, which he indorsed and sold in bills to the merchants in America, at the credit of two or three months on his own personal security.
In the same report it was also
stated:
The committee from the evidence before them are induced to consider Haym Salomon as one of the truest and most efficient friends of the country in a very critical period of its history and when its pecuniary resources were few and its difficulties many and pressing. He seems to have trusted implicitly to the National honor; and the committee are of the opinion that, as in the case of Lafayette and others, the Nation ought to be liberal in their indemnity to a son of any early benefactor in the day of its prosperity. France, in the most pressing times during the Revolutionary struggle, redeemed her paper obligations by means of the public domain; and generation after generation of Revolutionary claimants in this country have been rewarded by a grateful people; nor ought the memorialist to bear exception. His claim, in the opinion of the committee, to the amount which the United States owed to his father when he suddenly died, and which has been clearly established by documents referred to in this report, is a just one, and the recompense he seeks ought not to be longer delayed. "Abundant proof is presented that Haym Salomon rendered very essential aid to the cause of the Revolution, and that he did so, judging by so many of his acts, disinterestedly and from a sincere and ardent love for human freedom.
In the report submitted by the
Committee on Revolutionary Claims in the Senate, under date July 2, 1865, the
justice of the claim was again affirmed, and a further attestation of the
remarkable public spirit of Haym Salomon was made, in these words, viz.:
It is also proven by the vouchers before your committee that Haym Salomon provided the means to support the ambassador of the King of Spain, Don Francisco Rendon, who was in secret alliance with the Revolutionary Government, and whose supplies were cut off by the British cruisers. This fact was acknowledged in an official letter from that minister to the Governor-General of Cuba, and the original orders, uncancelled, to the amount of ten thousand Spanish dollars, are before your committee, showing that the amount was never paid. But the memorialist does not nor never has asked this Government to pay that sum. All the former reports from the committees of both houses show that Haym Salomon supported from his private means many of the principal men of the Revolution, who otherwise, as stated by themselves, could not have attended to their public duties, among whom are mentioned Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Steuben, Mifflin, St. Clair, Blond, Jones, Monroe^ Wilson and others.
The unsecured loans of Haym Salomon
in the Nation's supreme crisis, like Washington's advance of $64,000, at an
earlier period, out of his own purse, with no other security but his own faith
in the cause, to pay his daily expenses, while he was leading their armies,
inspired the confidence that made men rally 'round the flag. Even so Jeremiah
purchased a field in Anathoth, in the days when Judah was captive under Babylon,
paying down seventeen shekels of silver as a token of his faith that the land
would someday be delivered from the enemy and restored to peaceful habitation.
Washington's pledge of property to liberty was repaid by a grateful people —but
for his services, not a dollar.
The men who stood with Washington
were recklessly rash in the pursuit of their ideals. John Dickinson said:
It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children, but it is our duty to leave liberty to them. We have counted the cost of this contest and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.
Samuel Adams, hungry and poorly clad,
rejected with scorn the offer of a profitable office, wealth, a title even, to
turn him from his allegiance to America.
John Adams wrote to his wife:
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin and to the ruin of our children. She replied: I am willing, in this cause, to run all the risks with you and be ruined with you if you are ruined.
Benjamin Franklin, past seventy, then
the most celebrated man in all America, accepted the dangerous mission to
France, saying: I am old and good for
nothing, but as the storekeepers say of the remnants of cloth, 'I am but a fag
end and you may have me for what you please.'
America has honored these patriotic
men and justly so, by high places in her history, and as we sing their praises
we are inspired with the invincible determination to give our country to our
children as we got it from our fathers, a free and independent Nation, but this
man, Haym Salomon, who, renouncing the maxim of worldly wisdom which says, Get all you can and keep all you get,
gave all he had to the cause of America, gave it in a crucial moment, when
money alone saved the day, and when, had he kept it, he could have made
millions, and it is only just to ask that future writers of American history
acknowledge the little Jew, the real
financier of the American Revolution. Shall not the people of this peerless,
unrivalled, unapproached and unapproachable Republic, now in the days of their
prosperity, erect to this early benefactor a monument at Washington, a memorial
to this ardent lover of human freedom, who did in his little office in Front Street,
Philadelphia, for the Nation's credit, what Washington did on the field of
battle for the people's freedom?
Bibliography
A. U. S. Government Reports On Haym
Salomon Claim
Rep. F. A. Talmadge, April 26, 1848,
House Reports, No. 504, 3Oth Congress, 1st sess., Vol. III.
Report of Senator J. D. Bright, July
28, 1848. Senate Reports No. 219, 3Oth Congress, 1st sess.
Report of Senator I. P. Walker,
August 9, 1850. Senate Reports, No. 177, 3 1st Congress, 1st sess., Vol. I.
Report of Senator Charles Durkee,
March 9, 1860. Senate Reports, No. 127, 36th Congress, 1st sess., Vol. I.
Report of Senator M. S. Wilkinson,
July 2, 1862. Senate Reports, No. 65, 37th Congress, 2d sess.
Senate Reports, June 24, 1864, No.
93, 37th Congress, 2d sess.
Senate Report to 31st Congress.
Papers of the Continental Congress,
No. 41, Vol. IX, p. 58.
The House Report (No. 2,556 to
accompany H. R. 7,896) summarizes the efforts made in previous Congresses and
reprints in full the Senate Report to the 37th Congress.
B. Books And Articles
Adams, Herbert B., Haym Salomon:
Publication, American Jewish
Historical Society, No. 2, pp. 15-19.
Daly, Judge Charles Patrick:
Settlement of the Jews in North
America. Edited by Max J. Kohler, New York, 1893; pp. 58-60.
Hollander, Jacob H.:
Some further references relating to
Haym Salomon. Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Vol. Ill
(1895) ; pp.
7-1.
Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. X (1905) ;
pp.
653-655.
Magnus, Lady Kate:
Outlines of Jewish History,
Philadelphia, 1890; p. 350.
Madison, James:
Writings (Hunt), 228-242.
Markens, Isaac:
The Hebrews in America, New York,
1888; pp. 66-70.
Morris, Robert:
Diary (in Mss.), in Library of
Congress, Washington.
Salomon, Haym M.:
Two letters relating to Haym Salomon.
Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 16 (1907), pp.
189-192.
 |
| Haym Salomon Sons of Liberty 1956 Cartoon Page |
II. Other Jewish Patriots of the Revolution
HAYM SALOMON was not the only Jew who
sacrificed his fortune for Independence, for we find that among the signers of
the bills of credit for the Continental Congress, in 1776, were Benjamin Levy,
of Philadelphia, and Benjamin Jacobs, of New York. Samuel Lyon, of New York,
was among the signers of similar bills in 1779. Isaac Moses, of Philadelphia,
contributed $15,000 to the Colonial Treasury, and Herman Levy, another
Philadelphian, repeatedly advanced considerable sums for the support of the
army in the field. Manuel Mordecai Noah, of South Carolina, not only served in
the army, as an officer on Washington's staff, and likewise with General
Marion, but gave $100,000 to further the cause in which he was enlisted.
Among the patriots of the South none
worked more unselfishly than Mordecai Sheftall, Chairman of the Rebel Parochial Committee, organized to regulate
the internal affairs of Savannah and composed of patriots, opposed to the royal
government, and who, after active hostilities were begun in the South, was
appointed Commissary-General to the troops of Georgia in July, 1777, and soon
thereafter was also appointed Commissary to the Continental troops; and when
the British attacked Savannah in December, 1778, Sheftall's name appears not
only foremost among the patriot-defenders of that city and as one who advanced
considerable money to the cause, but as one who was placed on board the prison
ship because of his refusal to flock to the royal standard. In 1780, when the
British authorities passed the disqualifying act, we find the name of Mordecai
Sheftall near the head of the list with the most prominent patriot names of
Georgia, among the 600 Jews of Charleston, S. C., then the largest Jewish city
in America, there was not one Tory.
The Jews in New York were not on a
footing of political equality with Christians until the adoption of the first
constitution of the State of New York, in 1777, New York having been the first
State actually granting full religious liberty to the Jews. Even in Maryland,
to which Bancroft has referred as among the first colonies which " adopted
religious freedom as the basis of the State," religious freedom was limited
to those who believed in Jesus Christ, and accompanied by a proviso, which
declared that any person who denied the Trinity should be punished with death.
Even after the Revolution, though under the Constitution of the United States a
Jew was eligible to any office, no one could hold any office under the
government of Maryland without signing a declaration that he believed in the
Christian religion. These intolerant provisions were not repealed in Maryland
until February 26, 1825.
Though subjected to civil disabilities
and unreasonable demands in most of the States, where they had settled prior to
the Revolution, yet the Colonial cause found among the Jews its staunchest
friends. Freely they gave their lives for Independence and aided with their
money, to equip and maintain the armies of the Revolution.
The Non-Importation Resolution in
1765, the first organized movement in the agitation for separation from the
mother country—a document still preserved in Carpenter's Hall,
Philadelphia—contains the following Jewish names: Benjamin Levy, Samson Levy,
Joseph Jacobs, Hayman Levy, Jr., David Franks, Mathias Bush, Michael Gratz,
Bernard Gratz and Moses Mordecai.
The decision reached in New York, in
1770, to make more stringent the Non-Importation Agreement, which Colonists had
adopted to bring England to terms on the taxation question, had among its
signers, Samuel Judah, Hayman Levy, Jacob Moses, Jacob Meyers, Jonas Phillips
and Isaac Seixas.
Cyrus Adler recently called attention
to the following incident, based on the unpublished letter of Jared Sparks:
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, a Mr. Gomez, of New York, proposed to a member of the Continental Congress that he form a company of soldiers for service. The member of Congress remonstrated with Mr. Gomez on the score of age, he being then sixty-eight, to which Mr. Gomez replied that he ' could stop a bullet as well as a younger man.'
Colonel Isaac Franks became
aide-de-camp to Washington, holding the rank of Colonel on his staff and served
with distinction throughout the war.
 |
| Issac Franks Advertisement in the THE PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL & WEEKLY ADVERTISER, Philadelphia, dated April 5, 1783 |
Major Benjamin Nones, a native of
Bordeaux, France, who came to America in 1777, served on the staffs of both
Lafayette and Washington. He entered service under Pulaski, as a private, and
as he writes: fought in almost every
action which took place in Carolina, and in the disastrous affair of Savannah
shared the hardships of that sanguinary day. He became Major of a legion of four
hundred men, attached to Baron de Kalb's command and composed in part of
Hebrews.
Colonel David S. Franks, of Montreal,
openly sympathized with and aided the Americans under Generals Montgomery and
Arnold during their invasion of Canada, and was forced to flee from Canada in
1776, when the American forces abandoned the country. The name of David S.
Franks appeared on Governor Carleton's list of twenty-nine persons, sent to the
British Ministry early in 1777, being the principal persons who settled in
the province who very zealously served the rebels in the winter of 1775-1776, and
fled upon their leaving it. Franks,
who left Canada with the intention of joining the American Army, although his
course in this matter resulted in heavy pecuniary losses in his business
affairs and also alienated him from his father, became aide-de-camp to Arnold,
intrepid, zealous, and able soldier that he was, until jealousy, extravagance
and spite led him to take up the traitor's role. Franks gave testimony to Mrs.
Arnold's innocence of all complicity in her husband's treason. Suspicions were
aroused against Franks on account of Arnold's treason, but after a searching
inquiry into his conduct, he wras not only acquitted, but was sent to Europe
with important dispatches to Jay and Franklin, with instructions to await their
orders. In a letter from Robert Morris to Franklin, dated Philadelphia, July
13, 1781, we read: The bearer of the letter, Major Franks, formerly aide-de-camp to
General Arnold, and honorably acquitted of all connection with him, after a
full and impartial inquiry, will be able to give you our public news more particularly
than I could relate them.
Philip Moses Russell, in the spring
of 1775, enlisted as a surgeon's mate under command of General Lee. After the
British occupation of Philadelphia in September, 1777, he became surgeon's mate
to Surgeon Norman of the' Second Virginia Regiment. Russell-went into the
winter quarters with the army at Valley Forge, 1777-1778.
Sickness forced him to resign in
August, 1780. He received a letter of commendation from General Washington for his assiduous and faithful attentions to
the sick and wounded.
Solomon Bush, Emanuel de la Motta,
Benjamin Ezekiel, Jason Sampson, Ascher Levy, Nathaniel Levy, David Hays and
his son Jacob, Reuben Etting, Jacob I. Cohen, Major Lewis Bush, Aaron Benjamin,
Moses Bloomfield, Isaac Israel and Benjamin Moses are the names of a few of the
other Jews who distinguished themselves upon the battlefields of the
Revolution.
A pretty good record is it not, when
we remember that there were only 3,000 Jews —men, women and children, in the
Colonies at the time of the Revolution?
The commemoration of the first
battlefield of the Revolutionary War was made possible through a Jew. Upon
learning that Amos Lawrence, of Boston, had pledged himself to give $10,000 to
complete the Bunker Hill monument, if any other person could be found to give a
like amount, Judah Touro, of New Orleans, who came to the aid of Andrew Jackson
during the memorable defense of that city, immediately sent a check for the
amount. In the History of Bunker Hill Monument, which was published by George
Washington Warren, appears the following tribute to Judah Touro:
He was one of that smallest of all classes into which mankind can be divided —of men who accumulate wealth without ever doing a wrong, taking an advantage, or making an enemy; who become rich without being avaricious; who deny themselves the comforts of life that they may acquire the means of promoting the comfort and elevating the condition of their fellowmen.
Dad, why are you a Republican?
Amos and Judah, venerated names, Patriarch and Prophet press their equal claims; Like generous coursers running neck and neck, Each aids the work by giving it a check. Christian and Jew, they carry out one plan, For, though of different faiths, each is in heart a man.
The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America
Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents
Continental Congress of the United States Presidents
July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781
202-239-1774 | Office
202-239-0037 | FAX
Dr. Naomi and Stanley Yavneh Klos, Principals
Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents
Sept. 5, 1774 to July 1, 1776
September 5, 1774 | October 22, 1774 | |
October 22, 1774 | October 26, 1774 | |
May 20, 1775 | May 24, 1775 | |
May 25, 1775 | July 1, 1776 |
Commander-in-Chief United Colonies & States of America
George Washington: June 15, 1775 - December 23, 1783
Continental Congress of the United States Presidents
July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781
July 2, 1776 | October 29, 1777 | |
November 1, 1777 | December 9, 1778 | |
December 10, 1778 | September 28, 1779 | |
September 29, 1779 | February 28, 1781 |
Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789
March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789
March 1, 1781 | July 6, 1781 | |
July 10, 1781 | Declined Office | |
July 10, 1781 | November 4, 1781 | |
November 5, 1781 | November 3, 1782 | |
November 4, 1782 | November 2, 1783 | |
November 3, 1783 | June 3, 1784 | |
November 30, 1784 | November 22, 1785 | |
November 23, 1785 | June 5, 1786 | |
June 6, 1786 | February 1, 1787 | |
February 2, 1787 | January 21, 1788 | |
January 22, 1788 | January 21, 1789 |
Presidents of the United States of America
D-Democratic Party, F-Federalist Party, I-Independent, R-Republican Party,
R* Republican Party of Jefferson & W-Whig Party
R* Republican Party of Jefferson & W-Whig Party
(1789-1797) | 1861-1865 | (1933-1945) |
(1797-1801) | (1865-1869) | (1945-1953) |
(1801-1809) | (1869-1877) | (1953-1961) |
(1809-1817) | (1877-1881) | (1961-1963) |
(1817-1825) | (1881 - 1881) | (1963-1969) |
(1825-1829) | (1881-1885) | (1969-1974) |
(1829-1837) | (1885-1889) | (1973-1974) |
(1837-1841) | (1889-1893) | (1977-1981) |
(1841-1841) | (1893-1897) | (1981-1989) |
(1841-1845) | (1897-1901) | (1989-1993) |
(1845-1849) | (1901-1909) | (1993-2001) |
(1849-1850) | (1909-1913) | (2001-2009) |
(1850-1853) | (1913-1921) | (2009-2017) |
(1853-1857) | (1921-1923) | (2017-2021) |
Joseph Biden (D) | ||
(1857-1861) | (1923-1929) | 2021-Present |
*Confederate States of America | ||
(1861-1865) | (1929-1933) |
United Colonies Continental Congress | President | 18th Century Term | Age |
Elizabeth "Betty" Harrison Randolph (1745-1783) | 09/05/74 – 10/22/74 | 29 | |
Mary Williams Middleton (1741- 1761) Deceased | Henry Middleton | 10/22–26/74 | n/a |
Elizabeth "Betty" Harrison Randolph (1745–1783) | 05/20/ 75 - 05/24/75 | 30 | |
Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (1747-1830) | 05/25/75 – 07/01/76 | 28 | |
United States Continental Congress | President | Term | Age |
Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (1747-1830) | 07/02/76 – 10/29/77 | 29 | |
Eleanor Ball Laurens (1731- 1770) Deceased | Henry Laurens | 11/01/77 – 12/09/78 | n/a |
Sarah Livingston Jay (1756-1802) | 12/ 10/78 – 09/28/78 | 21 | |
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794) | 09/29/79 – 02/28/81 | 41 | |
United States in Congress Assembled | President | Term | Age |
Martha Huntington (1738/39–1794) | 03/01/81 – 07/06/81 | 42 | |
Sarah Armitage McKean (1756-1820) | 07/10/81 – 11/04/81 | 25 | |
Jane Contee Hanson (1726-1812) | 11/05/81 - 11/03/82 | 55 | |
Hannah Stockton Boudinot (1736-1808) | 11/03/82 - 11/02/83 | 46 | |
Sarah Morris Mifflin (1747-1790) | 11/03/83 - 11/02/84 | 36 | |
Anne Gaskins Pinkard Lee (1738-1796) | 11/20/84 - 11/19/85 | 46 | |
Dorothy Quincy Hancock Scott (1747-1830) | 11/23/85 – 06/06/86 | 38 | |
Rebecca Call Gorham (1744-1812) | 06/06/86 - 02/01/87 | 42 | |
Phoebe Bayard St. Clair (1743-1818) | 02/02/87 - 01/21/88 | 43 | |
Christina Stuart Griffin (1751-1807) | 01/22/88 - 01/29/89 | 36 |
Constitution of 1787 First Ladies | President | Term | Age |
April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797 | 57 | ||
March 4, 1797 – March 4, 1801 | 52 | ||
Martha Wayles Jefferson Deceased | September 6, 1782 (Aged 33) | n/a | |
March 4, 1809 – March 4, 1817 | 40 | ||
March 4, 1817 – March 4, 1825 | 48 | ||
March 4, 1825 – March 4, 1829 | 50 | ||
December 22, 1828 (aged 61) | n/a | ||
February 5, 1819 (aged 35) | n/a | ||
March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841 | 65 | ||
April 4, 1841 – September 10, 1842 | 50 | ||
June 26, 1844 – March 4, 1845 | 23 | ||
March 4, 1845 – March 4, 1849 | 41 | ||
March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850 | 60 | ||
July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853 | 52 | ||
March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1857 | 46 | ||
n/a | n/a | ||
March 4, 1861 – April 15, 1865 | 42 | ||
February 22, 1862 – May 10, 1865 | |||
April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869 | 54 | ||
March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877 | 43 | ||
March 4, 1877 – March 4, 1881 | 45 | ||
March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881 | 48 | ||
January 12, 1880 (Aged 43) | n/a | ||
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889 | 21 | ||
March 4, 1889 – October 25, 1892 | 56 | ||
June 2, 1886 – March 4, 1889 | 28 | ||
March 4, 1897 – September 14, 1901 | 49 | ||
September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909 | 40 | ||
March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913 | 47 | ||
March 4, 1913 – August 6, 1914 | 52 | ||
December 18, 1915 – March 4, 1921 | 43 | ||
March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923 | 60 | ||
August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929 | 44 | ||
March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933 | 54 | ||
March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945 | 48 | ||
April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953 | 60 | ||
January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961 | 56 | ||
January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963 | 31 | ||
November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969 | 50 | ||
January 20, 1969 – August 9, 1974 | 56 | ||
August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977 | 56 | ||
January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981 | 49 | ||
January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989 | 59 | ||
January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 | 63 | ||
January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001 | 45 | ||
January 20, 2001 – January 20, 2009 | 54 | ||
Donald J. Trump Joseph R. Biden Jr. | January 20, 2009 - January 20, 2017 January 20, 2017 - January 20, 2021 January 20, 2021 - Present | 45 46 47 |
Capitals of the United Colonies and States of America
Philadelphia | Sept. 5, 1774 to Oct. 24, 1774 | |
Philadelphia | May 10, 1775 to Dec. 12, 1776 | |
Baltimore | Dec. 20, 1776 to Feb. 27, 1777 | |
Philadelphia | March 4, 1777 to Sept. 18, 1777 | |
Lancaster | September 27, 1777 | |
York | Sept. 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778 | |
Philadelphia | July 2, 1778 to June 21, 1783 | |
Princeton | June 30, 1783 to Nov. 4, 1783 | |
Annapolis | Nov. 26, 1783 to Aug. 19, 1784 | |
Trenton | Nov. 1, 1784 to Dec. 24, 1784 | |
New York City | Jan. 11, 1785 to Nov. 13, 1788 | |
New York City | October 6, 1788 to March 3,1789 | |
New York City | March 3,1789 to August 12, 1790 | |
Philadelphia | Dec. 6,1790 to May 14, 1800 | |
Washington DC | November 17,1800 to Present |
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