Show fi 6 jf iSS 9 of ofFe bf fr ree dom edom 1 0 4 U 14 it lohrer 2797 1 7 by ELMO EIMO SCOTT WATSON y 1113 names of thaddeus thaddcus yaga ko kosciusko Kosc lusko and ca simar pulaski the two polish soldiers who fought in the revolution me are familiar to B most citizens citizen ot of the united bl states bu but t it Is doubty ful it the name of another pole kayin salomon means 1 anything to more than one out of a thousand americans yet his contribution to the cause of american liberty may in some respects be considered infinitely greater than those of the other two combined the invaluable services of this polish jew whose financial genius was me BO vital to the revolutions success have hae always been known to the scholars lars of that struggle but the difficulties of if obtaining reliable information have kept this inspiring story from the public and the efforts which have been made to pay appropriate tribute to chis memory have for some unknown reason unless it can be attributed to the proverbial ingratitude of republics which so easily forget their debts to aroe some who labored mightily in their cause bee been n defeated for more than a century fortunately for the cause of truth there has appeared recently a biography of this man which enables us to see him in his true stature as one of the really great figures of the rev ol ution it Is the book haym salomon and the revolution written by charles edward russell and published by the cosmopolitan book corporation salomon was born at in poland in 1740 at the age of thirty ho he joined in the fight to resist R russian domini domination tion of poland was vas associated with ft ath Kosc lubko and pulaski in their heroic but futile effort and like those two was forced to flee from the country he first made his way to england but soon left there and came to america ii riving arriving in new york in 1772 alamon had had considerable training in in business before leaving poland and ho he quickly established himself as a broker and commission merchant la in deiv york city atty the opportunity lay at hand for him to make a great fortune but he hindered his chances tor for that by one act for the freedom loving pole almost immediately allied himself in the strongly royalist colony of new york with a disreputable and discredited organization called the sons of liberty who as early as 1734 had handed banded together to resist oppressive acts by the british crown he was a worker in their cause at the outbreak of the revolution resolution and late in 1776 he was one of a number of th the a sons who were imprisoned by the he british accused of having started the fire which swept sept new york soon after the defeat of army on long island led to the occupation of that city by lord howe salomon was lodged in the provost and to be held there meant certain death tor for many a patriot during the reign of 0 cunningham the brutal master of the british prisons in new york among the british troops wore were thousands of hessian mercenaries who could not speak a word of english when it became known that salomon could speak german geiman he was also a master of french polish russian and yta llan lie he was put in better quarters and used us its an interpreter to the hessians by the british Biltl sh eventually he was released on parole even while a prisoner he was working la in the patriots cause for unknown to the british Biltl sh in his talks with the iles hes he was urging them to desert and pointing out to them the boundless opportunities which lay in the new country for them when the war was over more than that he was taking advantage of 0 the fact that was regarded as a trusty by the british pasa pas ins ing by their sentries freely and going pretty much where lie he pleased to aid in tho the escape of american prisoners after ins his parole he was able again to engage in business using this as 03 well el its as its interpreter duties for the british as a cloak for his activity in behalf of the patriots for two to years salomon led a seemingly peaceful existence although there was never a moment when his ufa was not la in danger ot of being ended before a firing filing 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 word that washington was plotting to burn the city and salomon was arrested as the chief agent in the plot and returned again to the provost details Detail of djlila abis imprisonment a are r ajack lacking but it la Is bolted believed that lie he was condemned to death but managed to escape from the prison shortly before bedfor a the day ct cf his execution how he did it Is unknown but it Is believed that he be bought his way out or of the prison and then used his familiarity with british posts and british guard methods to escape from the city at any rate he next appeared in philadelphia and there the most important in part of lila his career began although he was penniless lie still had his native energy and his knowledge of commerce and finance so he immediately ined lately opened an office a and 11 d began to deal to in bills of exchange and other securities by bj this time france had come into the war on the side of the americans and french money money was coming into the country philadelphia was not only the capital of the newly created united states but it became a prosperous business and shipping center in its prosperity salomon shared but this prosperity was not shared by the infant government for the financial 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 was even more critical by 1781 with a treasury deficit of 1 COO it was desperate it w was a s desperate because the 0 n seemed near to collapse on the first day ot of the new year tho the entire pennsylvania line mutinied mutinies muti nied and started from morristown for philadelphia to force congress to relieve their distress they had not been paid for months they were in rags and they were halt half starved two weeks later the new jersey line also revolted congress managed to head oft off the revolt and soon afterwards took steps to salvage what seemed to be a lost cause robert morris whose financial genius washington had bad 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 post of superintendent of finance and a part of our admiration tor for the alie men who faced the bullets and bayonets of the british on the battlefield in the struggle for liberty should be reserved for this man who fought lilg his fight tar far from the firing line and fought it with what must have seemed overwhelming odds against him helas he was beset with a thousand difficulties and perils writes russell ll he used up all ills his own credit I 1 ways ways lie he was at the end of his resources often lie 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 parts paris chiefly on the great french banking house of la Coult euls and company these reached morris soine sometimes times from various vailous sources sou ices and he must needs turn thera into current money before they could be of use to him in other words he must sell these bills for what he could get gei for them gather up depreciated state currency and try to keep going nis his position was virtually at the merey mercy of brokers and yet set against them the government and aad the governments officers could never go huckstering the governments bills up and down the coffee house brokers were indispensable but they were reputed probably not without reason tobe to be cormorants all except one that one was haym salomon mop als unpublished diary upon which alo mons biographer draws heavily for ills his information Is filled with references to his dealings with salomon and all of them reflect the highest credit upon upon him as a patriot and a man one thing Is made by the diary as plain as daylight da light writes wiltes russell ll salomon Is the pivot of the whole business ile he stands lu in tho the braack lie keeps back the mussed massed attacks that make for bankruptcy everything ery thing depends upon him it la Is salomon this and haym S salomon aloham that on some days d lys lie makes six or seven visits to consult with the su 61 im YM h AW J 14 7 I 1 e n j proposed statue of salomon in now new york perin forty times according to the testimony of tho the cashier of the bank of north america which morris a s between august 1 1782 and d the time morris goes out of office haym salomon comes to bat with his timely check no matter where hie ha gets the money he gets it and it Is if this money that saves the day ile he sells bills when ben no one else can sell them moro 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 ha performs though to th this liday day no one has noticed it nor given the slightest credit for it with a magnificent disregard of his own interests he endorses the paper of the broken backed government no one else will do this the governments credit lias has ebbed and ebbed until it has sunk from sight E everybody very body knows it Is gone sagacious men believe it will never return salomon 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 or surmise all of this was of course after cornwallis Cornwall ls surrender contrary to popular belief bellef 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 after receiving the surrender began making plans for the next seasons campaign he could not realize that his victory had dealt the british ministry 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 doin doing g of that had to be financed so the tha burden of making good the victory of yorktown fell upon robert morris and his friend and helper liel per chayra salomon it is impossible to estimate the full text of contribution to the th cause of liberty in terms of such intangibles tangi bles as moral support and fostering the will to win but there is a definite record of his tangible contribution great in itself but smaller in importance than the intangible for the records show that salomon advanced in specie to morris at various times and in various sums a total of and although it can not be proved definitely that nil all of this was his own money it Is probable that most of it was but the main fact Is that he placed that money in morris hand when it was troit most needed and when few others had tent faith in tha cause to risk even a fraction of that sum and his reward ile he died january 6 1785 when lie bo was only forty five years old there Is no doubt that the hardships he be suffered in the british prisons and in his labors for the coutin continental tin thi government shortened his life lie he was wa supposed to be rich but after his death it was found that lie be was virtually a bankrupt ile he left a widow and four children facing poverty he ha had given his all to the cause of liberty ile he died without formulating any claims for reimbursement for the sums he had advanced writes russell in the opinion of later Investigator i he had entire confide nee that when tho the government should be established it would pay its obligations to him As for his entire confidence that the government would pay its obliga eions to him they were never realized zed for more than SO 80 years its ills heirs tried to get some recompense from froin congress but they never succeeded A JL reau lie ile soon for forgets easl I 1 |