Tuesday, 18 September 2012


Haym Solomon

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Haym Solomon

Haym Solomon, financier of the American Revolution.
BornApril 7, 1740
Leszno, Poland
DiedJanuary 6, 1785
Philadelphia, United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupationbroker, auctioneer
Known forPrime financier of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
ReligionJewish
Haym Solomon (or Salomon) (April 7, 1740 – January 6, 1785) was a Spanish and Portuguese Jew who immigrated to New York from Poland during the period of theAmerican Revolution, he was a broker and helped convert the French loans into ready cash by selling bills of exchange for Robert Morris, the Superintendent of Finance. In this way he aided the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain.[1]

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[edit]Biography

Haym Solomon was born in Leszno, Poland to a Sephardi Jewish family from Portugal. In his youth, he studied Hebrew.[2] During his travels in western Europe, he acquired a knowledge of finance as well as fluency in several other languages. He returned to Poland in 1770 but left for England two years later in the wake of the Polish partition. In 1775, he immigrated to New York City, where he established himself as a financial broker for merchants engaged in overseas trade.[3][4]
When he first came to the colonies, he became friends with Alexander MacDougall. In July 1777, Solomon married Rachael Franks, the daughter of Moses Franks, of a prominent colonial period Jewish family that included loyalist and revolutionary sympathizers. Moses Franks was also of one of the largest slave dealers in the city at the time.[5] Their first child, a boy named Ezekiel, was born in New York in the summer of 1778; later, in Philadelphia, they had two daughters, Sarah and Deborah. Rachel Solomon gave birth to her fourth child three months after her husband's death and named the baby Haym M. Salomon.

[edit]Revolutionary activity

Haym Solomon commemorative stamp
Sympathizing with the Patriot cause, Solomon joined the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty. In September 1776, he was arrested as a spy but the British pardoned him, only after serving 18 months of his sentence and claims of torture on a British boat, in order to use his abilities as an interpreter for their Hessian mercenaries. Solomon used his position to help prisoners of the British escape and encouraged the Hessians to desert the war effort. In 1778 Solomon was arrested again and sentenced to death, but he managed to escape, whereupon he made his way with his family to the rebel capital in Philadelphia.[6]

[edit]Financial career

Once resettled, Solomon resumed his activities as a broker. He became the agent to the French consul, as well as the paymaster for the French forces in North America. In 1781, he began working extensively with Robert Morris, the newly appointed Superintendent for Finance for the Thirteen Colonies.[7]
In August 1781, the Continental Army had trapped Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis in the little Virginia coastal town of Yorktown.George Washington and the main army and the Count de Rochambeau with his French army decided to march from the Hudson Highlands to Yorktown and deliver the final blow. But Washington's war chest was completely empty, as was that of Congress. Washington determined that he needed at least $20,000 to finance the campaign. When Morris told him there were no funds and no credit available, Washington gave him a simple but eloquent order: "Send for Haym Solomon". Solomon raised $20,000, through the sale of bills of exchange, and Washington conducted the Yorktown campaign, which proved to be the final battle of the Revolution.[8]
Solomon negotiated the sale of a majority of the war aid from France and Holland, selling bills of exchange to American merchants. Solomon also personally supported various members of the Continental Congress during their stay in Philadelphia, including James Madison and James Wilson. Acting as the patriot he was, he requested below market interest rates, and he never asked for repayment.[9]
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the Revolutionary War but not the financial problems of the newly established nation. America's war debt to France was never properly repaid, which started the cascade of events leading to the French Revolution.

[edit]Activity in Jewish community

Solomon was involved in Jewish community affairs, being a member of Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, and in 1782 made the largest individual contribution towards the construction of its main building. In 1783, Solomon was among the prominent Jews involved in the successful effort to have the Pennsylvania Council of Censors remove the religious test oath required for office-holding under the State Constitution. These test laws were originally written to disenfranchise the Quaker majority, but many were caught up in this anti-democratic ploy. It was Solomon's old friend Robert Morris, who actually introduced legislation to end the test laws in Pennsylvania. In 1784, Solomon answered anti-Semitic slander in the press by stating: "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."

[edit]Death

Haym Solomon marker, Mikveh Israel Cemetery, Philadelphia
Haym Solomon died on January 6, 1785, in Philadelphia, PA.
His obituary in the Independent Gazetteer read, "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."[10][11]
The gravesite of Haym Salomon, Mikveh Israel Cemetery is located in the 800-block of Spruce Street in Philadelphia. Though unmarked, there are two plaque memorials. The east wall has a marble tablet that was installed by his great-grandson, William Salomon, and a granite memorial is set inside the cemetery gate. In 1980, the Haym Solomon Lodge #663 of the fraternal organization B'rith Sholom sponsored a memorial in the Mikveh Israel Cemetery on the north side of Spruce Street between 8th and 9th Streets in Philadelphia. A blue ribbon panel and committee, including Robert S. Whitman, Sidney Bruskin and Marvin Abrams, all lodge past presidents, arranged for the renovation of the walls and walkways of the cemetery. They then arranged for and oversaw the installation of a large, engraved memorial marker of Barre Granite just inside the cemetery gates, inscribed "An American Patriot".[12]

[edit]Commemoration

In 1893, a bill was presented before the 52nd United States Congress ordering a gold medal be struck in recognition of Solomon's contributions to the United States.
In 1941, the writer Howard Fast wrote a book Haym Solomon, Son of Liberty. That same year the George Washington-Robert Morris-Haym Solomon Memorial by Lorado Taft was erected along Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago.
In 1946, a memorial statue was erected to Solomon at Hollenbeck Park in Los Angeles. The statue was rededicated in 2008 at Pan-Pacific Park in the Fairfax District, where it can be found on the corner of Gardner and Third Street.[13]
In 1975 the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Haym Soloman for his contributions to the cause of the American Revolution. This stamp, like others in the "Contributors to the Cause" series, was printed on the front and the back. On the glue side of the stamp, the following words were printed in pale green ink: "Financial Hero—Businessman and broker Haym Solomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse".
The Congressional Record of March 25, 1975 reads:
“When Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finance, he turned to Solomon for help in raising the money needed to carry on the war and later to save the emerging nation from financial collapse. Solomon advanced direct loans to the government and also gave generously of his own resources to pay the salaries of government officials and army officers. With frequent entries of "I sent for Haym Solomon", Morris' diary for the years 1781–84 records some 75 transactions between the two men.”
In 1939, Warner Brothers released Sons of Liberty, a short film starring Claude Rains as Solomon.
In World War II, the United States liberty ship SS Haym Salomon was named in his honor.[14]
The Haym Solomon Nursing Home in Brooklyn, NY is named in his honor.

[edit]References

  1. ^ Buescher, John. "Jewish Immigration During the Revolutionary War." Teachinghistory.org, accessed 25 September 2011.
  2. ^ Amler, p.6
  3. ^ Milgram, Shirley. "Mikveh Israel Cemetery.". USHistory.org. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  4. ^ Moran, Donald N.. "Haym Salomon -The Revolution's Indispensable Financial Genius". Revolutionary War Historical Article. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
  5. ^ The Transatlantic Slave Trade A database on CD-ROM, David Eltis, Stephen D Behrendt, David Richardson, and Herbert, S Klein © 1999 Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521 62910 1 CD-ROM
  6. ^ "Haym Solomon". National Park Service, US Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  7. ^ Wiernik, Peter. History of the Jews in America. New York: The Jewish Press Publishing Company, 1912. p. 96. Solomon is mentioned nearly 75 times in Morris's personal correspondence relating to selling bills of exchange to raise cash for the Revolution.
  8. ^ cited in http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/salomon.html)
  9. ^ Wiernik, Peter. History of the Jews in America. New York: The Jewish Press Publishing Company, 1912. p. 95.
  10. ^ Mikveh Israel at USHistory.com
  11. ^ Solomon at MyCountryOnline.com
  12. ^ On June 17, 1980 the Philadelphia public was advised of this fact in the Philadelphia Morning Inquirer, complete with a background story and photograph of the event.
  13. ^ "Haym Salomon Statue Re-Dedication". Tom LaBonge. Retrieved 13 March 2011.
  14. ^ The SS Haym Solomon is MC Hull #987 and was launched May 17, 1943. It was sold for private use in 1947 and scrapped in 1971.

[edit]Further reading

  • Amler, Jane Frances. Haym Solomon: Patriot Banker of the American Revolution. ISBN 0-8239-6629-1
  • Hart, Charles Spencer. General Washington's Son of Israel and Other Forgotten Heroes of History. ISBN 0-8369-1296-9
  • Moran, Donald M. "Haym Solomon - The Revolution's Indispensable Financial Genius." Revolutionary War Archives, Sons of Liberty Chapter.
  • Peters, Madison C. Haym Solomon. The Financier of the Revolution. New York: The Trow Press, 1911.
  • Russell, Charles Edward. Haym Solomon and the Revolution. ISBN 0-7812-5827-8.
  • Schwartz, Laurens R. Jews and the American Revolution: Haym Solomon and Others, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1987.
  • Wiernik, Peter. History of the Jews in America. New York: The Jewish Press Publishing Company, 1912.

[edit]External links

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Posted by Britannia Radio at 21:42