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Haym Salomon may not be the only Jew who helped to fund the
American Revolution, but his name is the one that is most likely to be familiar
to you. Honored with a commemorative stamp in 1975 for his contributions to American
independence, Salomon gave without limits to his country.
Wars, as everyone knows, are expensive, and when provisions are lacking and salaries aren’t paid, soldiers can easily be stirred to mutiny. Haym Salomon came through time and again with “loans” for the army to cover salaries for officials, and to pay for countless essentials. All told, Salomon contributed some $640,000 to the Revolution, an astronomical sum for those days. He never accepted repayment.
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| Haym Salomon |
Born in Lissa (Leszno), Poland in 1740, Haym Salomon came to
New York in 1775 and quickly established himself as a successful broker. New
York, in those days, was the British seat of government in the colonies.
Salomon joined the Sons of Liberty, a paramilitary organization much like the
Etzel. It was the Sons of Liberty who were responsible for the Boston Tea Party. They also popularized the use of tar and feathers
to shame and punish British government officials and loyalists. The Sons were
also not unknown to burn down a building (or two).
In a story reminiscent of Joseph, the prisoner who interpreted dreams, Haym Salomon was
arrested by the British in 1776 and imprisoned as a spy. Recognizing Salomon’s
talent for languages (he spoke ten), the Brits set him to work as an interpreter. After
his release, Salomon went back to work as a broker. His fortune grew and he gave generous aid to the colonists all the while.
The Polish immigrant remained within the sights of the British, and was once more arrested for his activities on behalf of the revolution. This time, Salomon was tortured and sentenced to be hanged, but friends helped him to escape. Salomon managed to make his way to Philadelphia. With no money left, Haym was forced to restart his business from the ground up. With whatever profits he made, he purchased food for the starving soldiers of the Continental Army. Among those who sought Salomon’s aid were such luminaries as Washington, Lafayette, and Von Steuben.
In the colonies, it was common knowledge that if you needed
money, you went to “the little Jew.” The diaries of Revolutionary leaders
attest to this. “When any member of the Revolutionary Congress was in
need,” wrote James Madison, “all that was necessary was to call on Salomon.”
Along those lines, in a letter to Edmond Randolph, who was to become the nation’s first attorney general, Madison wrote:
I cannot in any way make you more sensible of the importance of your kind attention in making pecuniary remittance for me than by informing you that I have for some time been a pensioner on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew broker. 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. The kindness of our little friend in S. 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 speculation. To a necessitous delegate he gratuitously spares a supply out of his private stock.
Eventually, colonial Secretary of the Treasury Robert Morris
appointed Haym Salomon as broker to the Office of Finance. Salomon was also paymaster
to the French troops in America. Beyond his own substantial “loans” to the
colonists—which were really gifts—Salomon negotiated numerous real loans for
the colonies from Holland and France, taking no commission for himself.
There’s an anecdote that one time, General Washington
appealed to Haym Salomon for funds to help sustain his tattered troops. This
would not have been unusual except that it happened to be Yom Kippur that day.
Though Salomon was devout, service to his country was for him, an integral part
of his religion. Turning to his fellow congregants for their help, Salomon
interrupted services long enough to secure pledges to cover the requested
funds. Only then were the Yom Kippur prayers resumed.
Haym Salomon died at the age of forty-five, penniless, his boundless patriotism limited at the last by the final obstacle, death.
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