OCR Text |
Show onancig0 of freedom V JrH r "JX 1 i$s hk t;;Va - -SA-S wii Umlm " v s in CX -- Lower Wall Stre et in 1 7 9 7 "5i?Sz gLl ' , .. .... . before a firing squad or at the end of ;f2&-ifc ByELMO SCOTT WATSON a rope tl,e Bl,tIsh had su8pected i ufflfl fZJLill J? IT f, al"""T what He was about. Then suddenly In , I '"X-Jvvf TH Kosciusko and Casimir August, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton re " MCM Pulaski, the two Polish ceived word that Washington wa plot J. J soldiers who fought in the tlng t0 burn thc cltyi nd Sulomon . Revolution, are familiar to was arreste( as the cnIef ageIlt ln the 3 most citizens of the Unit- plot and returned again to the Proo t t ed States, but It Is doubt- Detalls of tIl,g mprlSonment are lack 1 T - . y fu If the name of another Ing, but It is believed that he wa con EZ?- V ' lole- Unyra Salomon, deranecl to denth but manaffed to e rirI:-- means anything to more cape from the prlson shortly before --j ' than one out of a thousand Americans. the day of ,)ls executlon. How he m Tt his contribution to the cause of u la unUnown uut u ls beiieved that By ELMO SCOTT WATSON 'i i . ,1 Hit names of Thaddeus " IK Kosciusko and Casimir Pulaski, the two Polish soldiers who fought ln the Revolution, are familiar to most citizens of the, United Unit-ed States, but it Is doubt-' doubt-' ful If the name of another V. ! 1'ole, Haym Salomon, means anything to more than one out of a thousand Americans. Tt his contribution to the cause of Limerlcan liberty may ln some respects M considered Infinitely greater than those of the other two combined. The Invaluable services of this Polish Po-lish Jew, whose financial genius was o vital to the Revolution's success, have alwuys been known to the schol-rs schol-rs of that struggle, but the difficulties cf obtaining reliable Information have kept this Inspiring story from the public pub-lic and the efforts which have been biade to pay appropriate tribute to his memory have, for some unknown reason unless It can be attributed to the proverbial ingratitude of republics which so easily forget their debts to some who labored mightily in their cause been defeated for more than a century. Fortunately for the cause of Truth there has appeared recently a biography biog-raphy of this man which enables us to see him in his true stature as one of the really great figures of the Revolution. Rev-olution. It Is the book "Haym Salomon Salo-mon and the Revolution," written by Charles Edward Russell and published by the Cosmopolitan Book corporation. Salomon was born at Lissa In Poland Po-land In 1T40. At the age of thirty he Joined in the fight to resist Russian domination of Poland, was associated with Kosciusko and Pulaski in their heroic but futile effort and like those two, was forced to flee from the country. coun-try. He first made his way to England Eng-land but soon left there and came to America, arriving in New York in 1772. Ralom.cn ad had considerable training " la business before leaving Poland and lie Quickly established himself as a broker and commission merchant ln INew York city. The opportunity lay ot hand for him to make a great fortune for-tune but he hindered his chances for that by one act. For the freedom-loving Pole almost immediately allied himself ln the strongly Royalist colony of New York with a "disreputable "dis-reputable and discredited" organization, organiza-tion, called the Sons of Liberty, who as arly as 1734 had banded together to resist oppressive acts by the British crown. He was a worker ln their cause at the outbreak of the Revolution, and late ln 1776 he was one of a number of the Sons who were Imprisoned by the British, accused of having started the fire which swept New York soon after the defeat of Washington's army on Long Island led to the occupation of that city by Lord Howe. Salomon was lodged ln the Provost and to be held there meant certain death for many a patriot during the reign of Cunningham, the brutal master of the British prisons in New York. Among the British troops were tkou-ands tkou-ands of Hessian mercenaries who could not speak a word of English. ."When It became known that Salomon could speak German (he was also a master of French, Polish, Russian and Italian), he was put in better quarters quar-ters and used as an interpreter to the Hessians by the British. Eventually lie was released on parole. Even while a prisoner he was working in the patriots' cause for, uuknown to the British, in his talks with the Hessians Hes-sians he was urging them to desert and pointing out to them the boundless bound-less opportunities which lay in the new country for them when the war was over. More than that he was taking advantage of the fact that was regarded regard-ed as a "trusty" by the British, passing pass-ing by their sentries freely and goiug pretty nnrch where he pleased, to aid ln the escape of American prisoners. After his parole, he was able again to engage In business, using this as well as his interpreter duties for the Brit- lsh, as a cloak for his activity in be half of the patriots. ' For two years Salomon led a seemingly seem-ingly peaceful existence, although there was never a moment when his Jife wag not In danger of being ended before a firing squad or at the end of a rope If the British had suspected what he was about. Then suddenly in August, 1778, Sir Henry Clinton received re-ceived word that Washington was plotting plot-ting to burn the city, and Salomon was arrested as the chief agent in the plot and returned again to the Provost-Details Provost-Details of this imprisonment are lacking, lack-ing, but It ls believed that he was condemned con-demned to death but managed to escape es-cape from the prison shortly before the day of his execution. How he did it is unknown, but it is believed that he bought his way out of the prison and then used his familiarity with British posts and British guard methods meth-ods to escape from the city. At any rate he next appeared In Philadelphia and there the most Important Im-portant part of his career began. Although Al-though he was penniless, he still had his native energy and his knowledge of commerce and finance. So he immediately im-mediately opened an office and began to deal ln bills of exchange and other securities. By this time France had come into the war on the side of the Americans and French money was comiug into the country. Philadelphia was not only the capital of the newly-createtl newly-createtl United States but it became a prosperous business and shipping center. cen-ter. In its prosperity Salomon shared. But this prosperity was not shared by the infant government, for the financial finan-cial policy of the Continental congress had been a blundering one from the start. By 1779 It was having serious financial difficulties. By 1780 the situation sit-uation was even more critical. By 1781, with a treasury deficit of $1,600,-000, $1,600,-000, it was desperate. It was desperate desper-ate because the Revolution seemed near to collapse. On the first day of the new year the entire Pennsylvania line mutinied and started from Morris-town Morris-town for Philadelphia to force congress con-gress to relieve their distress. They had not been paid for months, they were ln rags and they were half starved. Two weeks later the New Jersey line also revolted. Congress managed to head off the revolt and soon afterwards took steps to salvage what seemed to be a lost 'cause. Robert Morris, whose financial genius Washington had discovered early and upon whom that leader had leaned heavily in more than one crisis, was called to lead congress out of the financial morass. It was a formidable task which faced Morris in his newly-created newly-created post of superintendent of finance and a part of our admiration for the men who faced the bullets and bayonets of the British on the battlefield battle-field ln the struggle for liberty should be reserved for this man who fought his fight far from the firing line and fought It with what must have seemed overwhelming odds against him. He was "beset with a thousand difficulties dif-ficulties and perils," writes Russell. "He used up all his own credit ; always he was at the end of his resources, often he was at the end of his wits. Help from abroad came in fragments and slowly. When it arrived it was in the form of bills on Paris, chiefly on the great French banking house of La Coulteulx and company. These reached Morris (sometimes) from various sources, and he must needs turn them Into current money before they could be ot use to him. In other words lie must sell these bills for what he could get for them, gather up depreciated state currency and try to keep go- , ing. . . . His position was virtually at the mercy of brokers and yet set against them. The government and the government's officers could never go huckstering the government's bills up and down the Coffee House. Brokers Brok-ers were indispensable, but they were reputed, probably not without reason, to be cormorants; all except one." That one was Haym Salomon. Morris' Mor-ris' unpublished Diary, upon which Salomon's biographer draws heavily for his information, is tilled with references ref-erences to his dealings with Salomon, and all of them reflect the highest credit cred-it upon him as a patriot and a man. "One thing is made by the Diary as plain as daylight," writes Russell. "Haym Salomon is the pivot of the whole business. He stands in the breach ; he keeps back the massed attacks at-tacks that make for bankruptcy; everything ev-erything depends upon him. It ls Haym Salomon this and Haym Salomon Salo-mon that. On some days he makes six or seven visits to consult with the su- Proposed Statue of Salomon in New York. perintendent. Forty times, according to the testimony of the cashier (of the Bank of North America, .which Morris established), between August 1, 1782, and the time Morris goes out of office, Haym Salomon comes to bat with his timely check. No matter where he gets the money ; he gets it and It is this money that saves the day. "He sells bills when no one else can sell them. More than that; he sells without gouging, without profit, even. Other brokers continue to harass the superintendent by underselling the market and hampering the sale of his bills. He has no trouble from Salomon. . . . One other great service he performs, per-forms, though to this day no one has noticed it, nor given the slightest credit cred-it for it. With a magnificent disregard disre-gard of his own interests, he endorses the paper of the broken-backed government. govern-ment. No one else will do this. The government's credit has ebbed and ebbed until it has sunk from sight. Everybody knows it is gone ; sagacious men believe it will never return. Salomon Salo-mon endorses its paper and Its officers' paper, and its Allies' paper, and makes himself personally liable for all. We have the evidence ; no need for speculation specu-lation or surmise." All of this was, of course, after Cornwallis' surrender. Contrary to popular belief the affair at Yorktown did not end the Revolution. Great as was that victory, the patriot cause was still in danger and none realized that more than Washington who immediately immediate-ly after receiving the surrender began making plans for the next season's campaign. He could not realize that his victory had dealt the British ministry min-istry a blow from which it could not recover and that it was paving the way to peace. That was still two years away, and before It could be realized there was still much yet to be done. And, of course, the doing of that had to be financed. So the burden bur-den of making good the victory of Yorktown fell upon Robert Morris and his friend and helper, Haym Salomon. It is impossible to estimate the full text of Salomon's contribution to the cause of liberty In terms of such intangibles in-tangibles as moral support and fostering foster-ing the will-to-win. But there is a definite defi-nite record of his tangible contribution, contribu-tion, great in itself but smaller in importance im-portance than the intangible. For the records show that Salomon advanced in specie to Morris at various times and in various sums a total of ?211,G7S, and although it can not be proved definitely defi-nitely that all of til is was his own money, it is probable that most of it was. But the main fact is that he placed that money in Morris' hands when it was most needed and when few others had sufficient faith in the cause to risk even a fraction of that sum. And his reward? He died January 6, 17Sj, when he was only forty-five years old. There is no doubt that the hardships he suffered in the British prisons and in his labors for the Continental Con-tinental government shortened his life. He was supposed to be rich, but after his death it was found that he was virtually a bankrupt. He left a widow and four children facing poverty. He had given his all to the cause of liberty. lib-erty. "He died without formulating any claims for reimbursement for the sums he had advanced," writes Russell. "In the opinion of later investigators he had entire confidence that when the government should be established, it would pay its obligations to him. As for his "entire confidence" that the government would pay its obligations obliga-tions to him, they were never realized. For more than SO years his heirs tried to get some recompense from congress but they never succeeded. ''A republic repub-lic soon forgets !" |