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From an Unpublished MS. in the Papers of Jared Sparks.

[Contributed by Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D., Professor in the Johns Hopkins University. With Notes by J. H. Hollander.]

In the fall of 1841, Jared Sparks, while professor of history in Harvard College, was delivering a course of lyceum lectures in New York City upon the American Revolution. His remarks upon the services of certain public men of the period excited deep interest in the mind of a Jewish hearer, Mr. Haym M. Salomon, who wrote to and afterwards called upon Mr. Sparks in reference to the patriotic activity of Haym Salomon, a contemporary and associate of Robert Morris, James Madison, Edmund Randolph and other distinguished publicists of the Revolutionary period. At the request of Mr. Sparks, Mr. Salomon prepared certain memoranda of the eminent services of his father, Haym Salomon, and this manuscript passed into the possession of Mr. Sparks.

The interview and the information thus obtained seem to have made a profound impression upon Mr. Sparks. He mentioned something of the above matter to Mr. Joshua I. Cohen, of Baltimore, and almost a quarter of a century after the original interview, under date of October 29, 1865, Mr. Cohen wrote to Mr. Sparks as follows:

"You may probably recollect a conversation I had with you many years ago during a visit to Cambridge, in which I mentioned that Judge Noah, of New York, was then engaged in gathering together the facts and memorials of the part which our people, the Israelites, took in our Revolutionary struggle, and you kindly offered to him through me the use of your biographical series for any memoirs he might prepare on the subject. The death of Judge Noah, not long after, put an end to the project. I mentioned to you a military company that was formed in Charleston, S. C., composed almost exclusively of Israelites, of which my uncle was a member, and which behaved well during the war. Major Frank, one of Arnold's aids, was spoken of, and also Haym Salomon and others. In connection with Mr. Salomon you expressed yourself very fully, and, in substance (if I recollect correctly), that his association with Robert Morris was very close and intimate, and that a great part of the success that Mr. Morris attained in his financial schemes was due to the skill and ability of Haym Salomon. I do not pretend to quote your language, but only the idea. The matter was brought up to my mind recently by the marriage of a great-grandson of Mr. Salomon to a niece of mine, one of the young ladies of our household."[4]

The original sketch of Haym Salomon thus prepared by his son was found in a somewhat mutilated condition by Professor Herbert B. Adams, of the Johns Hopkins University, among the Sparks Papers, which had been entrusted to his care during the preparation of "The Life and Writings of Jared Sparks," published in 1893 by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The manuscript was stitched to other papers and had been apparently cut down somewhat in order to make it more uniform in size with the smaller sheets. This fact will explain certain tantalizing, but apparently brief omissions in the text. The appended copy of the manuscript is furnished by Professor Adams with the full consent of the Sparks family.

Haym Salomon, who died in Philadelphia, then the metropolis of the United States, January, 1785, was the fellow-countryman and intimate associate of the Polish Generals Pulaski and Kosciuszko, and was first publicly known in 1778, when he was taken by the British General Sir H. Clinton in New York on charges that he had received orders from General Washington to burn their fleets and destroy their store-houses, which he had attempted to execute to their great injury and damage. He was accordingly imprisoned, treated inhumanly, and ordered to suffer military death. From the sacrifice of his life, with which he was threatened in consequence of the sentence, he escaped by means of a considerable bribe in gold. This is corroborated from his letter to his brother-in-law, Major Franks, dated soon after in Philadelphia, in which his intimacy is stated with the brave General McDougall, who then commanded the American army in the neighborhood of New York, and with whom it appears he must have been in co-operation in order to drive … away from the comfortable quarters, which the maritime and military positions of that city so happily promised them after its abandonment by the friends of the Revolution.[5]

A few days after his escape from the merciless enemy he safely arrived in Philadelphia, where he was welcomed and esteemed as one devoted to the principle … [MS. cut off.]

We then find him meriting the well-placed confidence and affection of the patriots who had been distinguished in the Revolutionary Congress of 1776; also the great men who were famous in those succeeding sessions, 1780, '81, '82, '83 and '84, as furnished us by such circumstantial testimony as yet remains of that immortal body of devoted patriots.

It is seen as soon as the generous monarch of France agreed to furnish the expiring government of that day with means to reanimate their exertions in the glorious cause. It was he who was charged with the negotiation of the entire amount of those munificent grants of pecuniary supplies from the government of France and Holland.[6]

In 1783–4, after the satisfactory close of these truly confidential services, he is found to have made considerable advances, moneys, loans, &c., to Robert Morris, of the Congress of the Declaration of '76. To General Miflin, to General St. Clair, to General Steuben, to Colonel Shee, to Colonel Morgan, Major McPherson, Major Franks, and many other officers such sums as they required. And as it regarded the deputies to the Continental Congress, [to] the amiable Judge Wilson (another member of the session of '76) considerable loans.[7]

To the immortal delegation from Virginia, namely, Arthur Lee, Theodore Bland, Joseph Jones, John F. Mercer and Edmund Randolph, liberal supplies of timely and pecuniary aid, and we find it declared by one of the most accomplished, most learned and patriotic members of the succeeding sessions of the Revolutionary legislature, James Madison, that when by the … [MS. cut off] pecuniary resources of the members of Congress, both public and private, were cut off, recourse was had to Mr. Salomon for means to answer their current expenses, and he was always found extending his friendly hand.[8]

The exalted and surviving delegate of the Revolutionary Congress above alluded to, who has since that period been promoted for two successive terms to the chief magistracy of these States, in his letter on the subject of the character of Mr. Haym Salomon, testifies fully as to the unquestionable uprightness of his transactions, as well as the disinterestedness of his "friendship," and also his "intelligence," and which no doubt from his confidential intercourse with the foreign ambassadors made his communications serviceable to the public safety.[9] That conferences were sought with him by the great men of the time is proved from the existence of a note in the handwriting of another member of the Congress of Declaration, the incorruptible President Reed.

His services to the cause of his country were not confined to aiding the native agents of our own government, but he was the most confidential friend and timely adviser to the agents, consuls, and ambassadors representing the interests of the kings of those countries then in our alliance, as it appears from the amount of specie granted for the service of the army and hospital of Rochambaud, and large sums appear to have been received from him by Chevalier De La Luzerne, Marbois, consul-general, De La Forest, John … [MS, cut off], recollected by the elders of the nation as the active agents of the good French king.[10]

As to the minister of the King of Spain, then the richest of the European monarchs. The amount granted him was expressly to relieve the wants, conveniences and necessities of this ambassador, whose king was then countenancing the Revolution in this country, but with whose European dominions all intercourse was stopped, and in regard to the monies so furnished, whether Mr. S. was ever repaid by Spain is a matter of as much uncertainty as that regarding the considerable sums advanced to other Revolutionary agents.[11]

It appears that the death of Mr. S. after a short and severe illness was quite as unexpected as calamitous to his family, leaving no will nor relatives in this country competent to take charge of his estate, at this difficult period of the unsettled state of the jurisprudence of the country, being four years prior to the formation of the Constitution of the United States.

A letter from him yet exists, dated in New York a few days previous to his return and death, directed to the agent of his house in Philadelphia, in which he speaks of the full competency of his fortune and his intention of retiring from business. An additional inducement no doubt was owing to the impaired state of his health from the great exertions he had made to promote the views of the Revolution, and which letter further declares that he had many claims uncollected due him,[12] and spoke of the quantities of public securities and government papers which … [MS. cut off]. Of this latter, on examination of a list deposited in the Probate Office, it appears there was upwards of $300,000, more than $160,000 of which were of certificates of the Loan Office of the Treasury and the army.[13]

At his decease the management of his estate passed into the hands of strangers, all of whom not very long after became either bankrupts or died, as well as Mr. Macrea,[14] his chief clerk, who had committed suicide about the same period. Consequently the books and papers have nearly been all lost, and the obscurity into which these matters are thrown is increased in consequence of the destruction by the British of many of the public archives of that period, during the invasion of the city of Washington by their army during the last war.[15] And such were the effects of those unfortunate circumstances to the heirs that when the youngest son became of age nothing was obtained from the personal estate of this munificent and patriotic individual in Philadelphia. And no other inheritance now survives to the offspring except the expectation of the grateful remembrance of a just and generous republic.

It ought not to be forgotten, that although he endorsed a great portion of those bills of exchange for the amount of the loans and subsidies our government obtained in Europe, of which he negotiated the entire sums, and the execution of which duty occupied a great portion of his valuable time from '81 to '83, still there was only charged scarcely a fractional percentage to the United States, although individuals were willing to pay him … [MS. cut off] for his other negotiations and guarantee. And it is known that he never caused the loss to the government of one cent of those many millions of his negotiations, either by his own mismanagement or from the credit he gave to others on the sales he made of those immense sums of foreign drafts on account of the United States.[16]

We find that immediately after the peace of '83, when foreign commerce could securely float again on the ocean, that he resumed his business as a merchant for the few remaining months of his life, trading to foreign countries, which may be collected from the few original letters (that are preserved) bearing date [of] London, Holland and Spain, and from the return of the large ship Sally from Spain to his consignment a few weeks succeeding his death, on which cargo and hull he was interested in the sum of 40,000 florins; his estate on the expedition sustained almost total loss, owing to the failures and disasters among merchants of those days, to whom the property had been consigned and by whose advice it had been undertaken.

He was most friendly in aiding those other commercial citizens and merchants who recommenced trading after the war had closed. One remarkable instance [that] may be noted among others was the case of Mr. Willing's house, the head of which was the president of the National Bank, and whose active partner was the Superintendent of Finance. The firm traded under the name of Willing, Morris & Swanick. To them he made a loan of his name to obtain 40,000 dollars in specie in one amount from the bank. A second loan of his name in addition of 24,000 specie dollars also, a few months preceding his death, for both of which considerable accommodations of credit at this eventful period of our commercial history he never changed them one cent of consideration.[17]

[Copy of an authentic certificate from the Register's Office in Philadelphia shewing the amount of public securities[18] and Revolutionary papers left by the deceased Haym Salomon at his death and from which personal estate mentioned in said certificate not a cent was ever received by any of his heirs.]

"58	Loan Office Certificates	$110,233.65.
19	Treasury "	18,259.50.
2	Virginia State "	8,166.48.
70	Commissioners "	17,870.37.
	Continental Liquidated	199,214.45.
		——————
		$353,744.45.

"Seal

"I certify that the above writing is a true extract from the original inventory and appraisement of the personal estate of Haym Salomon deceased filed in the register's office Philadelphia on the 15th February, 1785.

(Signed) John Geyer, Register.

Given under my hand and seal of office this 28th May, AD 1828."

[Extract from a Certificate.]

The father of Mr. Haym M. Salomon was the deceased Haym Salomon, Esq., who died in Philadelphia, January 6, 1785, and who is found to have exhibited the most ardent personal devotion to the cause of the Revolution.

On investigating such of the memoranda and papers regarding his civil services in that era of our history which have accidentally been preserved and now submitted, I find the following facts.

By an affidavit made in New York, January, 1778, before Alderman Matthews, certified on its back by William Claygen, military secretary to Major-General Horatio Gates, dated at the encampment White Plains, August 15, 1778, it appears that so early as the year 1775, Mr. S. was in controversy with the enemies of the projected Revolution.

New York, May 9, 1828.

(Signed) Wm. H. Bell.

The affidavit further states that it had been alleged against him in New York that he was charged by General Washington to execute an enterprise as hazardous to the safety of his person and life as it was most important to the interests of the Revolutionary army. Supposed to be the enterprise for which he was condemned to death by the British General Clinton, as mentioned in the first part of this memorandum.

The two infant sons which Mr. Salomon (at the age of 45) left at his death were Ezekiel and Haym. Ezekiel was he (the eldest) who in 1807, in charge of a large amount of American property, was (with many other American citizens whose cargoes as well as his own was sequestered at Leghorn by the French) placed in much perplexity, but through the spirited remonstrance which he made to the Tuscan and French Governments, succeeded in procuring its release. He subsequently was charged with the government of the U. S. Branch Bank at New Orleans, and while in the successful application of the duties of his office died in 1821.

Haym M., the youngest son and sole survivor of the male part of the family, has been engaged in commercial pursuits for many years past, for particulars of which see letter from Hon. Johnson, Esq., who for eight years was the representative in Congress from New York, the Empire City of the United States, and now[19] one of the chief officers in the Custom House of that city.[20]