Читать книгу The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen - Simon Wolf - Страница 12

Table of Contents

[4] See Adams, Life and Writings of Jared Sparks, Vol. II., p. 564. From the general tenor of the letter, it seems probable that Mr. Sparks, during his extensive researches into the historical records, public and private, of the United States, had encountered other evidence of the services of Haym Salomon. This inference is partially corroborated by a passage in a letter written by Mr. Sparks from Cambridge on May 7, 1845, to Mr. Haym M. Salomon, apparently in connection with the first memorial to Congress: "Among the numerous papers that have passed under my eye I have seen evidences of his [Haym Salomon's] transactions, which convince me that he rendered important services to the United States in their pecuniary affairs." See Report on Claim of H. M. Salomon; Senate Reports, No. 177, 31st Cong., 1st Sess., Vol. I. It is not, however, impossible that only the present manuscript may be here referred to.

[5] It is probable that Haym Salomon's first encounter with the British Government took place several years before 1778. The Senate Report to the 31st Congress (supra) states that: "As early as 1775 he became obnoxious to the British Government, and was imprisoned in New York, sharing the privations and horrors of the sufferers confined in a loathsome prison called the Provost." Essentially the same fact is repeated in later Reports, and is specifically presented in certified form in a later part of the present paper.

The Memorial of Haym Salomon to the Continental Congress (see Bibliographical Note, infra) is of such immediate interest in connection with the circumstances of his escape from New York as to permit partial citation. It sets forth: "That your Memorialist was some time before the Entry of the British Troops at the said City of New York and soon after taken up as a Spy and by General Robertson committed to the Provost. That by the Interposition of Lieut-General Heister (who wanted him on account of his knowledge in the French, Polish, Russian, Italian &c. Languages) he was given over to the Hessian Commander who appointed him in the Commissary Way as purveyor chiefly for the Officers. That being at New York he has been of great Service to the French and American prisoners and has assisted them with Money and helped them off to make their Escape. That this and his close connexions with such of the Hessian Officers as were inclined to resign and with Monsieur Samuel Demezes has rendered him at last so obnoxious to the British Head Quarters that he was already pursued by the Guards and on Tuesday the 11th inst. he made his happy Escape from thence." The Memorial bears date of August 25, 1778, thus indicating the precise time of Salomon's departure from New York as August 11, 1778.

[6] For details see Report to 31st Congress. The exact location of this and other Congressional Reports is given in the Bibliographical Note appended to the paper.

[7] This is corroborated by a letter from the eminent jurist, Henry Wheaton, to Haym M. Salomon. Among "the patriots of the Revolution who were compelled to sacrifice their private pursuits to the public," Mr. Wheaton mentions Judge Wilson, "who must have retired from public service if he had not been sustained by the timely aid of your father, administered with equal generosity and delicacy." See Report to 31st Congress.

[8] Under date of August 27, 1782, Mr. Madison wrote from Philadelphia to Edmund Randolph: "I cannot in any way make you more sensible of the importance of your kind attention to pecuniary remittances for me than by informing you that I have for some time been a pensioner on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew Broker." See Gilpin, Madison Papers, I., 163. During the following month Mr. Madison's position seems to have grown more aggravated, for, on September 24, he declared: "I am relapsing fast into distress. The case of my brethren is equally alarming." Ibid, p. 176. Assistance in sufficient amount was still not forthcoming, and a week later, September 30, 1782, he acknowledged to Mr. Randolph the local source of his benefactions as follows: "I am almost ashamed to acknowledge my wants so incessantly to you, but they begin to be so urgent that it is impossible to suppress them. The kindness of our little friend in Front street, near the coffee-house, is a fund that will preserve me from extremities, but I never resort to it without great mortification, as he obstinately rejects all recompense. The price of money is so usurious that he thinks it ought to be extorted from none but those who aim at profitable speculations. To a necessitous delegate, he gratuitously spares a supply out of his private stock." Ibid, pp. 178–179.

There seems little doubt but that the "little friend in Front street" is meant to indicate Haym Salomon. This view is taken by the Congressional committees and by Madison's biographer; see Gay, Life of James Madison, p. 25. The fact that the first Philadelphia City Directory was issued in 1785, and that Haym Salomon died on January 6 of that year (vide infra), renders direct verification impracticable. Search among the Philadelphia newspapers of the period would probably determine the point once for all.

[9] The writer of the MS. is probably quoting from memory from a letter written by Mr. Madison from Montpelier, on February 6, 1830, to Mr. Haym M. Salomon, in connection with claims upon Congress for indemnity. The Senate Report to the 31st Congress preserves the following paragraph of this letter: "The transactions shown by the papers you enclosed were the means of effectuating remittances for the support of the delegates [to Congress], and the agency of your father therein was solicited, on account of the respectability and confidence he enjoyed among those best acquainted with him."

The Report to the 37th Congress mentions among the various letters received by Haym M. Salomon relative to the justice of his claim, one from James Madison, in 1827, who, among other things, stated: "The transactions shown by the papers you enclose were for the support of the delegates to Congress, and the agency of your father therein was solicited on account of the respect and confidence he enjoyed among those best acquainted with him,' etc., and concludes with the wish that the memorialist might be properly indemnified."

The resemblance between the two paragraphs is so striking as to make it probable, despite the discrepancy in dates, that the same communication is referred to.

[10] The Report to the 31st Congress states: "On the accession of the Count de la Luzerne to the embassy from France, Mr. Salomon was made the banker of that government. … He was also appointed by Monsieur Roquebrune, treasurer of the forces of France in America, to the office of their paymaster-general, which he executed free of charge."

[11] Details of the assistance so rendered are given in the Report to the 31st Congress. Mr. Salomon, it is said, "maintained from his own private purse Don Francesco Rendon, the secret ambassador of that monarch for nearly two years, or up to the death of Mr. S., during which Rendon's supplies were cut off." A striking passage is quoted in the same Report from a letter said to have been written in 1783 by Rendon to the Governor-General of Cuba, Don José Marie de Navarra: "Mr. Salomon has advanced the money for the service of 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 render that protection and assistance to his Majesty's subjects which his Majesty enjoins and my duty requires." The statement is also made that: "Moneys thus advanced to the amount of about 10,000 Spanish dollars remained unpaid, when Mr. Salomon died shortly after."

[12] Mr. Henry S. Morais, in his history of "The Jews of Philadelphia," notes as follows: (p. 24.) "The amount has been variously given at as much as $600,000 and more. Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, D. C., in February, 1892, presented a complete and elaborate statement of this question, based upon official documents, in an article (entitled, "Are Republics Ungrateful?") published in the Reform Advocate, of Chicago."

In another note on the same subject Mr. Morais states: "Mr. Salomon's loan and its accruing interest would now (1893) amount to over $3,000,000." Haym M. Salomon, a son of the philanthropist, and who kept a store on Front street, vainly endeavored to obtain payment of his just claim, notwithstanding that it was favorably reported to the U. S. Senate in 1850. In this report it was said: "Haym Salomon gave great assistance to the government by loans of money and advancing liberally of his means to sustain the men engaged in the struggle for independence at a time when the sinews of war were essential to success."

[13] For a summary of the account see the certificate appended, infra. Some few further details of the inventory are given in the Committee Report to the 30th Congress.

[14] "Mr. McCrea," in the Report to the 31st Congress.

[15] Mr. Joseph Nourse, Register of the Treasury of the United States from 1777 to 1828, wrote from Washington in 1827, to Mr. H. M. Salomon: "I have cast back to those periods when your honored father was agent to Office of Finance; but the inroads of the British army in 1814 deprived us of every record in relation to the vouchers of the period to which I refer." See for details, Report to 31st Congress; also Bibliographical Note.

[16] For details, see Report to 31st Congress.

[17] Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, D. C., in an article in The Reform Advocate of Chicago (see Bibliographical Note), calls attention to the fact that Professor Sumner—the most recent biographer of Robert Morris—in his "The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution," makes no mention of the services of Haym Salomon. Mr. Wolf adds: "When I called Mr. Sumner's attention to it he answered in a letter which I received to-day, that, he had supposed that Mr. Salomon had been paid long since, and was surprised at the statement which I made."

[18] Not a penny of the large sums represented by these securities has ever been repaid to the heirs of the philanthropist and patriot who so generously aided the Revolutionary cause, and the fact is but another instance of the ingratitude of republics. The remissness of the people's representatives in the adjustment of private claims has been but too often flagrantly demonstrated, but there is not to be found on the public records a more signal case of public injustice. When to pay a debt is everybody's business, then it is apparently forever nobody's business to do so, and thus it happens that popular governments fail utterly in cases of this nature, where a monarchy would hasten to do justice.

[19] Circa 1842.

[20] A third child of Haym Salomon was a daughter, Sallie Salomon, who married Joseph Andrews. Their son, Joseph I. Andrews, married Miriam Nones, of New York, a daughter of Major Benjamin Nones of Revolutionary fame. The daughter of this union, Louisa Andrews, is now Mrs. E. L. Goldbaum, of Memphis, Tenn. Mr. Goldbaum kindly writes me: "We have in our possession life-size oil paintings of Joseph Andrews, son-in-law of Haym Salomon, and of his wife Sallie Andrews, née Sallie Salomon."

[21] Poore, Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States (Washington, 1885), pp. 558, 565, 593, 762, 807, 828.