1
HAYM
SALOMON
Polish,
Jewish, American patriot - financier of the American Revolution….
Jewish
Conflict and Identity
Haym Salomon
By Jerry Klinger
Myths are part fact.
Myths are part fantasy.
Myths are part fantasy.
A society creates what it needs
out of both and claims that as truth.
William Rabinowitz
No one knows what Haym Salomon
looked like. There was never a portrait, bust, sculpture or death mask
made of him. Any representations of Haym Salomon are wishful,
artistic expressions. Did he look Jewish? If he did, few portray him
with Jewish stereotypical racial characteristics. What is known about Salomon
is limited. There are few surviving primary historical documents. Most of what
is known about him is gleaned from indirect sources, secondary materials and
even rabid anti-Semitic canards perversely legitimized by the myth and
reality of his life.One central fact is incontrovertible. Salomon
was an American Revolutionary Patriot who personally suffered and
sacrificed much for the American cause.
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Haym Salomon, (or Solomon) was
born April 7, 1740 in
Leszno, a small town in Western
Poland . His family
was Sephardic Jews, probably of Portuguese background. Some say his
father was an orthodox Rabbi. Others claim his family was
revolutionaries in the failed struggle for Polish independence
and liberty.
Salomon left Leszno to travel
in France and Germany as a young man. When Leszno was
surrendered in the first Polish Partition (1772) to the Hapsburgs, Salomon was
in England . The timeline of his life becomes
murky. His associations in Europe were
never clarified. Salomon moved from country to country
developing an extraordinary skill in languages and understanding of finance.
Who financed his travels, who was
he introduced to or trained by was never established. Sources speculate exactly when, 1772 or in
1775, Salomon arrived in New York , allegedly penniless. He quickly established himself
as a factor, a financial broker, for merchants engaged in international
trade. Where Salomon obtained his initial financial backing or
how he obtained his introductions has never been explained. The assumption
is he was a self-made man. He rose by his own ingenuity, ability,
and financial acumen.
Alexander McDougal
Salomon, very astutely observed
the changing economic and political conditions in New York . He established a strong mutual
friendship with the wealthy and powerful Alexander McDougall. McDougall
was a Scottish firebrand. A self-made man, McDougall made his fortune as a
merchant seaman and a courageous able Captain of his own privateering ships in
the French and Indian Wars. Flamboyantly dressed, loud with a thick
Scottish accent, he had a distinct disdain for hereditary social ranking.
McDougal respected individual initiative, motivation and ability.
By 1775, McDougall’s reputation as
a fighter against British arbitrary rule was well established. He
was the street leader of the Sons of Liberty and willing to bash heads if
needed. He organized repeated protests against British capriciousness. McDougall
hated the British Stamp Act, organizing the New York equivalent of the Boston Tea Party. He was
a member of the Revolutionary Committees of Correspondence and
Safety. When New York established a Revolutionary Government in
1775, McDougall was elected to the New York Provincial Congress. McDougal
would serve as a major General in the Continental Army under George
Washington.
Perhaps it was beshert, perhaps it
was deliberate, perhaps it was coincidental, Salomon linked his
future with McDougall’s. He joined the New York branch of the Sons of Liberty. A relatively recent
immigrant,
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perhaps
because of his experiences in Poland , perhaps because of his experiences with the British
in England , Salomon became a revolutionary.
September
1776, Salomon was arrested as spy by the British. A mysterious fire in New York City had destroyed almost a fourth of all the housing that
could have been used by occupying British troops. General Washington
wanted New York burned. Congress overruled Washington .
Every member of the Sons of
Liberty that could be rounded up by the British was arrested. They all
were assumed, probably correctly, involved in the fire. Salomon was
sentenced to a long imprisonment for his association.
Political conditions in the
Colonies continued deteriorating. The British began building military forces
in New York . Hessian mercenaries were purchased by the British to
fight the Americans. Poorly coordinated, the German troops arrived without
anyone being able to act as a translator, or intermediary for them with the British. Salomon’s remarkable
linguistic ability, as a German/English translator, was discovered by the
British. Salomon had served 18 months of his sentence. He convinced the British
he was not a traitor or spy but could be useful to them. Salomon was retained
as a trusted interpreter and liaison to the German troops by the Hessian
under General Heister. Heister gave him an appointment in the commissariat
department. It was an extraordinary accomplishment of interpersonal relations for
a Jew to position himself, after arrest and imprisonment as a spy, and in spite
of the traditional anti-Semitism of the British and the Germans.
Salomon fulfilled his duties as a
translator with secure access to British military facilities. He did
much more. Using his position, Salomon worked to undermine German
support for the British. He promoted anti-British sentiment with the
Hessians. He encouraged and abetted desertions of German
troops. He aided the escape of British prisoners.
1778, the British arrested Salomon
again. He was sentenced to death. Salomon bribed a guard with gold
sovereigns sewn into his clothing and escaped. Salomon fled sending for his
wife, Rachel Franks and infant son, later. Franks was the poor
family member of a prominent, wealthy Jewish colonial family. The Franks
family, like many families in Revolutionary America, was split between
Loyalists and Revolutionaries. David Franks, for example,
served on the staff of George Washington; other members of the Franks
family served the British cause.
The Salomon's moved to Philadelphia . They arrived, again for Salomon, virtually penniless.
Without hesitation, Salomon plunged back into the financial world of mercantile
exchange and brokerage. Financially, he did very well, but was far from
rich.
Salomon reestablished himself with
American Revolutionary interests, even providing personal
financial support, primarily loans at no interest that were never repaid,
to James Monroe, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Wilson and Don
Francesco Rendon, the Spanish Court’s secret ambassador.1
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Three
years after having arrived in Philadelphia , 1781, Salomon’s extraordinary abilities and
multilingualism, positioned him near the center of the American Revolutionary
financial heart. He became the agent of the French consul and the
paymaster to the newly allied French military forces in North America .
The French, Dutch (through St.
Eustatius ) and the Spanish
governments used Salomon to broker their loans helping finance the
American Revolution.
Enormous loans passing through his
brokerage business was converted into desperately needed specie for the
American Revolutionary government and military. Paper money was almost never
worth hard gold and silver.
Salomon’s fees for his brokerage services to the struggling American government
were extremely modest, if there were any at all. Perversely, partly
because he was a Jew, the French, Dutch, Spanish and Americans alike viewed
Jews in anti-Semitic stereotypical roles. They saw Jews as Shylocks from
Shakespearian imagery. They saw Jews as medieval money lenders. Ironically
their bigotry greased the way for Salomon’s success.
Salomon’s
brokerage business became so big that he was the largest depositor in Robert
Morris’ Bank of North America.
Robert Morris
Three days after Salomon had taken
out large advertisements in the Philadelphia papers, announcing his burgeoning brokerage business;
Robert Morris was appointed Superintendent of Finance of the Revolutionary
government. Morris was responsible for managing the economy. He was
considered, though a civilian, second in power only to George Washington.
Robert Morris, Jr. was an American
merchant and signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and
the United
States Constitution. His
administration of the American
Revolutionary economy earned him
the title of “Financier of the American Revolution.” Morris kept a detailed
diary, as was quite common, of his life. In Morris’s diary, Haym
Salomon is mentioned more than 75 times.
Morris turned to Salomon
repeatedly for help as one financial crisis after another
arose. Morris knew and trusted Salomon beyond few others.
The military crisis that would end
in victory for the American cause hung in desperate balance during
the summer and early fall of 1781. British General Cornwallis
had retreated from the Southern Colonies after a series of major military
defeats. He secured his army near Yorktown , Va. James River , to
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await reinforcements and re-supply
by the British Navy. American forces opposite him were too
small and too weak to engage Cornwallis. They could only delay
him. George Washington saw his chance.
The French fleet positioned itself outside of theChesapeake Bay . They
had defeated the British Fleet in a quick naval battle.
The French fleet positioned itself outside of the
The British Battle Fleet was
weakened earlier. Admiral Rodney had attacked the arsenal of the Revolutionary forces on the Dutch Island St.
Eustatius . Ammunition, weapons,
supplies and much war material was being funneled through the “neutral” Dutch Island St. Eustatius .
Rodney
attacked and destroyed the vast stores of weaponry and supplies warehoused
on St. Eustatius . He looted and robbed the enormous wealth he found there
paying particular attention to the Jews, whom he detested with particular
anti-Semitic venom.
"They (the Jews of St.
Eustatius, Caribbean Antilles) cannot too soon be taken care of - they
are notorious in the cause of America and France ."
Admiral Sir George Rodney
commander of the British Fleet, February, 1781
Rodney was not a rich man. He
divided and diverted a large part of his fleet to send back to England the wealth he stole. Instead of following orders to
support the British army fighting in the Colonies, Rodney lined his own pocket
on Jewish and non-Jewish wealth. His personal greed and hate delayed
the British Fleet enough to lock General Cornwallis at Yorktown . However,
Cornwallis was not totally trapped. He still had the potential to
move on land. Cornwallis chose to wait for help from British forces
in New York . It was a fateful decision.
George
Washington saw his opportunity. If he could slip away from the North
and trap Cornwallis in by land with the French Fleet to their back, the war
might be won. It was a risky opportunity and might not have happened at all
except for Haym Salomon. Washington ’s army, an army of unpaid, underfed, undersupplied
soldiers lacked the funds to move. It was one thing to say you are
going to move your army to a new position but it was another thing to feed
them: that took money. Washington did not have the $20,000 he
needed. The Revolutionary treasury was empty.
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Legend crosses with fact, Robert
Morris sent a desperate call for help to Haym Salomon. It was
Yom Kippur, the holiest, the most solemn day of the Jewish religious
year. Dealing in anything other than repentance before God,
especially dealing with money on Yom Kippur, is considered a major sacrilege.
Salomon was at prayer with his synagogue community, Mikveh Israel , when the message arrived.
Salomon, an observant Jew and a pillar of the Jewish community, considered the situation. He left the Yom Kippur service and hurried out to aid Morris. Salomon felt that God had placed him in a particular position to aid the struggle forLiberty .
Salomon, an observant Jew and a pillar of the Jewish community, considered the situation. He left the Yom Kippur service and hurried out to aid Morris. Salomon felt that God had placed him in a particular position to aid the struggle for
Robert
Morris might have appealed to others to raise the money for Washington . Morris turned to Salomon. The Yom
Kippur story, though a good story, is considered Jewish fiction.
Within
a day, Salomon had brokered the loans and paper necessary. Morris
reported to Washington that
the general had his $20,000. The American and French army slipped
away and marched to Yorktown . A
siege began. Cornwallis completely trapped by overwhelming forces,
unable to obtain reinforcements or supplies, bitterly
surrendered. The war was over. The American Revolution
was won.
British surrender at Yorktown
The
next day, Washington accepted the surrender of Cornwallis’ army.
Cornwallis, mortified at whom he had to present himself to, refused to attend.
The British band played a tune during the surrender. The tune was “The
World Turned Upside Down.” The world had been in fact
turned upside down and for no people more than for the Jew and the American
Jewish story.
The
crisis of the future American Republic
Morris
again turned to Salomon. Morris wrote in diary:
“I sent
for Salomon and desired him to try every way he could devise to raise money,
and then went in quest of it myself. ‘Two days later he wrote:’ “Salomon the
broker came and I urged him to leave no stone unturned to find out money
and means by which I can obtain it.”
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Salomon came through again. The
crisis was averted.
Salomon’s generosity and financial
support, to the best of his abilities, was acknowledged by many.
“James Madison (a later U.S.
President) wrote in a letter (August 27, 1782 )
urging the forwarding of remittances from his state, which he represented
at Philadelphia , wrote: “I have for some time past been a pensioner
on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew broker.” On Sept. 30 of the same
year, when again appealing for remittances to relieve his embarrassments,
he wrote: “The kindness of our little friend in Front street, near the
coffee-house, is a fund which 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 speculations. To a necessitous delegate he
gratuitously spares a supply out of his private stock.”2
Salomon turned his energies back
to business after the war. His family grew. His health got
worse. It was believed he contracted tuberculosis while imprisoned
by the British. Financial reverses hit and Salomon died
bankrupted. No loan, advanced from much of his own fortune to
the United
States government
or numerous Revolutionary figures, was ever repaid.
Salomon died in Philadelphia , January 6, 1785 . His
obituary appeared in the Brotherly City 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.”
Haym Salomon was buried in the
Mikveh Israel synagogue cemetery on Spruce Street . His grave was unmarked. His family had no
funds for a tombstone. Neither the Mikveh Israel community nor
his Revolutionary War friends ever marked his gravesite. It is
lost today, the exact location unknown. He was 44 years old.
Salomon’s estate listed assets of
$353,000 consisting of Government bonds and Continental currency.
How the enormous Government debt had been accumulated and at what price was never determined.
The bonds were illiquid and of questionable value. When matched up against his debts of about
How the enormous Government debt had been accumulated and at what price was never determined.
The bonds were illiquid and of questionable value. When matched up against his debts of about
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$35,000 in real money, he was
broke. The bonds were turned over to Robert Morris’ bank of North America to help satisfy the estate.
At face value, the loans would
have made Haym Salomon one of the wealthiest men in North America .
If true, it was an incredible achievement for an immigrant of about ten years.
Years later, Salomon’s son, Haym
M. Salomon, and later his family, repeatedly petitioned the U.S. government for repayment of the
loans. Haym M. Salomon was seeking, with interest, in excess of $600,000, an immense amount of
money. Documentation Salomon turned over to the U.S. government supporting the
claims, disappeared. In future years, various United States
House and Senate Committees reviewed the Salomon financial claims. They
agreed with the appropriateness to pay back the family. The recommendations for
compensation never got much further. Something always came up
to deny any payment. The family offered to settle for $100,000 in the late
19th century. The offer was never accepted. In
1893, a Congressional recommendation that a gold medal be struck in honor
of Hyam Salomon also came to nothing.
The end of the 19th century
was the age of memorializations. It was the age to acknowledge history with
monuments about the American Civil War. It was the period that the
Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution organizations were founded.
A concerted effort was made to bring Haym Salomon, the Jew, forward as a part
of the Revolutionary narrative. In 1893, there was a
Congressional recommendation that a gold medal be struck in honor of Haym
Salomon. The recommendation made it past the House Committee on the
Library. It failed in the House of Representatives.
Haym Salomon was pushed aside,
possibly because of the family’s search for financial compensation without satisfactory
documentation. A suggested reason the family was denied compensation
was because of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism has never been shown or
demonstrated as a cause for nonpayment or honored recognition of Haym Salomon.
The
American Jewish landscape radically changed between the years, 1880-1920.
Millions of Jews, mostly
East-Europeans (Polish-Russian) immigrated, rushed would be a better term, to
the Goldene Medina - the United States . The old line Jewish leadership, German Jewry,
was hard pressed to aid the unwashed masses that were coming
in. Many German American Jews viewed the new immigrants with
disdain. German Jews were “uptown”. The other Jews were “Lower East Side types.”
The new Jewish immigration threatened the integrated social standings of the
old line Jews in Christian America. Efforts were made to send the new Jewish
overflow far into the American interior or the
Southwest. The famed, or infamous, Galveston resettlement project moved tens of thousands of fresh
Jewish immigrants away from the East and into the raw West.
Jewish immigrants, if given a
choice, remained in the East, New York in particular. Their voices were
the timid voices of the unassimilated. The timidity would
change as their children moved into society as Americans.
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sense of commonality, even if
one’s parents were not on the Mayflower. Everyone wanted to be an American and everyone wanted to
have their historical identity recognized from the Old Country and in the
New.
A 1910 edition of
the American Hebrew, a widely read Jewish newspaper, announced that an organization called the Haym
Salomon National Monument Committee wanted to erect a statue honoring him in Washington , D.C.3 At first the group achieved some notable
success. President Taft endorsed the idea.
Taft addressing a Washington , D.C.
Haym Salomon’s story became the
struggle for Jewish American identity. A major proponent for Salomon came
not from Jews but from a Christian minister.
Pastor Madison Peters, a
philo-semite, a Christian Minister of God, wrote a short biography of Haym Salomon
that was published in 1911, Haym Salomon, The Financier of the Revolution. The
biography was a glowing recounting of the many stories, some documented,
some not, but assembled into a flowing tale of the debt, moral, historical
and even economic, owed to Haym Salomon by America . It was followed a year later
by a general history of the Jews in America , published by the Jewish Publication Society. Peter
Wiernik’s, History of the Jews in America , 1912. Wiernik also recounted the significant,
but unrecognized and certainly not honored, contribution of Haym Salomon
to the American cause.
That same year, 1912,
the American Hebrew reported on a better organized effort to honor
Salomon.
The effort was “supposedly initiated by the Federation of Jewish Organizations, a lobbying group that represented a small contingent within the East European immigrant community. The newspaper carried an article announcing that the Federation had endorsed a campaign to collect on the financial claims of Salmon’s heirs and use the funds to build Haym Salomon National University Washington , D.C.
The effort was “supposedly initiated by the Federation of Jewish Organizations, a lobbying group that represented a small contingent within the East European immigrant community. The newspaper carried an article announcing that the Federation had endorsed a campaign to collect on the financial claims of Salmon’s heirs and use the funds to build H
The
project instantly set off controversy, both inside and outside the Jewish
community. Inside the Jewish world it was a point of
pride for some and anxiety for others. Outside the Jewish world it
was a question of legitimization. Non-Jewish historians joined the fray
denigrating and supporting honoring Haym Salomon for his efforts during
the American Revolution.
One distinguished non-Jewish
historian, a former chief of the manuscripts division of the Library of Congress, published an article in
the “The Nation” magazine. He argued that Salomon did not deserve recognition
nor did his family deserve any compensation. He was countered by
Harvard historian Albert Bushnell who argued the complete opposite position.
Bushnell demanded that Salomon deserved the honor of his nation for his
Patriotic service.
3 History Lesson, The
Creation of American Jewish Heritage, Beth S. Wenger, Princeton University
Press 2010, pg.
186
186
4 Op
cit pg. 186
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“For their part, leaders of the
Federation of Jewish Organizations quickly denounced the project and denied that they had ever endorsed
it. Louis Marshall, the prominent leader of the American Jewish Committee who had been listed in
the newspaper as a supporter of the project, vehemently condemned the plan and
sharply denied his own involvement in the affair. “It seems to me utterly
ridiculous and absurd,” ….While almost all parties agreed that Salomon had
played a role in the Revolution, individuals both inside and outside of the
Jewish community remained wary of elevating his public status, for fear that
the claims might be disproved and ultimately reflect poorly on America’s
Jews.” 5
The fears of establishment Jewry
reflected their insecurity about their American Jewish identity and security. They feared pushing
Jewish interests in America . It was the same fears that a bit over
twenty five years later, as Hitler pushed Jews into the gas chambers and
ovens, that prevented American Jewish leadership from publicly demanding that
Roosevelt do something to stop Holocaust. They feared if the war did
not turn out well, Jews would be accused of draining American blood and
resources for a purely foreign Jewish concern.
American organized Jewish
leadership attacked those who did demand that Roosevelt act
to save Europe ’s Jews. People like the Bergson Group screamed loudly and
publicly about the murder of Jews in the Holocaust. American Jewry,
neutered, meekly acquiesced to Roosevelt ’s demand they must first win the war to save
Jews. They knew of the slaughter but feared American anti-Semitism
more. Today, Hillel Kook and the Bergson group, if remembered at all, are still
viewed with disdain by establishment Jewry. Over 500,000 American Jews served
in the armed forces during WWII. By far, the vast majority were of Eastern
European Jewish immigrant backgrounds.
For decades German Jewry, having
arrived mostly in the pre-Civil War period, was the face and fact of organized
Jewish life. They had supplanted Sephardic Jewry for preeminence in the young
Republic. The arriving waves of East European Jews were assimilating
rapidly into American society. The children of the new immigrants
did not identify as Europeans, but Americans. The political and
economic Jewish American landscape was changing again. The old
German American elite being challenged by the new Eastern -Jewish Americans,
did not want to let go or make room at the top.
The new Jewish Americans wanted
legitimization as Americans. They wanted legitimization not just as
Americans who got off the boat yesterday but as Americans with a tie to the
foundation of America .
Haym Salomon was a Polish Jew. He arrived inAmerica over a century earlier. He had been an
intimate part of the Revolution.
Haym Salomon was a Polish Jew. He arrived in
For Eastern European Jews it was a
clear threat. Conditions for Jews in Russia and in Poland were sharply worsening, even worse than
the mini-Holocaust of WWI. By 1920 it looked like open American
5 Op
cit. pg. 187
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immigration would be
ending. Eastern European Jews needed legitimization. They needed to
be part of the narrative of America but not as recent immigrants. They needed
legitimization as long time Americans. Haym Salomon,
mythologized, became the symbol of legitimization for Eastern
European Jews as Americans.
In 1925, a new effort to
memorialize and honor Haym Salomon began in New York . The project was led by the Federation of
Polish Jews. Their campaign focused on Salomon’s Polish birth and
creatively amplified even further the mythologizing of
Salomon. The Federation of Polish Jews was engaged in a second fight
much more significant within the Jewish community. They were
directly challenging the old guard of German Jewish leadership that had
ruled for 50 years.
Zigmunt Tygel, secretary and chief
spokesperson of the Polish Jews wrote an “information biography” about
Salomon. The biography pushed mythologizing to new levels, complete
with fictionalized accounts. Tygel created a new version of the
Morris story seeking funds for Washington ’s army prior to the battle of Yorktown . Only
in Tygel’s account, it was Washington himself who wrote to Salomon
that fateful Yom Kippur day.
The Federation of Polish Jews
created the Haym Salomon Monument Committee. It was directed to raise $100,000 for a magnificent
monument to Polish Jewry’s greatest American patriot. A monument was
commissioned and submitted to the New York Municipal Art Commission for review
and possible placement near Madison Square Park
The Federation of Polish Jews
regrouped. Bitter feelings bubbled in the new
effort. Many felt they had been sabotaged by the old establishment
Jews who were against honoring Haym Salomon. The new committee
submitted a new monument to the Commission. Toned down was the historical
symbolism. They just referenced Salomon’s name and dates on the
statue. The new monument, to be located near Lincoln Square , was preliminarily approved by the Commission in 1928.
The
German Jewish leadership in New York protested the decision vehemently. Again,
they feared that Salomon’s Revolutionary accomplishments were much more modest
than were those being represented by the Polish Jewish
community. They feared, if future scholarship bore them out, the
entire Jewish community would suffer from ridicule and disgrace.
Max Kohler, the secretary of the
American Jewish Historical Society, researched and reviewed the history of Haym Salomon with an
eye to verifying or refuting the Polish Jewish claims. He was backed
by powerful men from the German Jewish community. Kohler
presented his report privately to the Polish Jews. It was a
negative evaluation of Haym Salomon as the financier of the American
Revolution.
Kohler verified that Salomon had
been a patriot, risked his life as a member of the Sons of Liberty,
and suffered severely financially. Salomon had been an intimate
with Robert Morris but as an extremely competent
broker. Salomon did not finance the American
Revolution. He was quite poor himself and
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could not even send money back to
his own needy family in Poland until very late in the War. He did not
have the resources. The mythologized stories of Salomon and
Washington never happened.
Salomon had in fact provided
financial support to a number of American Revolutionary fathers. His
aid to them was never repaid. Salomon did provide vital aid to
Morris, converting the foreign loans to the American government into usable
specie at little or no commission to him. But Kohler asserted
Salomon had acted in his capacity as a patriotic merchant and citizen not as
the principle player in the financing of the American Revolution. Salomon’s
efforts were extremely important but not rising to the level of the
Founding Fathers, in Kohler’s opinion.
Establishment German Jewry labeled
the effort for Salomon, in the vitriolic words of Louis Marshal,
a monument for “only a money-lender.”
The Polish Jews were
outraged. They publicly labeled Kohler and the American Jewish
Historical Society as
anti-Semites, using tactics worthy of the KKK, some of them
said. Kohler went public with his
information. Controversy raged in every American Jewish community
across the United
States .
The New York monument to Haym Salomon was effectively dead by
1931.
Seven hundred miles to the West of
the Hudson River , in the mid 1930’s, in Chicago , Ill.
Mass public acceptance of the Hyam
Salomon narrative was furthered by the movie industry. In 1939,
Warner Brothers put out a patriotic two reeler about Haym Salomon staring
Claude Rains. Warner Brothers Pictures was owned by four Jewish
brothers, Harry (Hirsz), Albert (Aaron), Sam (Szmul) and Jack (Itzhak)
Wonkolaser. The brothers changed their name to Warner for
assimilationist and business reasons. They and their parents
had immigrated to the United States from Poland .
The Patriotic Foundation of
Chicago under Hodes took a different tack to the previous Salomon monument issues. The
monument would not be to Salomon alone but to the great triumvirate of
the Revolution, George Washington, Robert Morris and Haym
Salomon. The monument would be a statement about the American
Democratic experiment. Haym Salomon was a part of it, not the focus.
Haym Salomon, George
Washington, Robert Morris
The
Great Triumvirate of Patriots Monument, designed by Lorado Taft, stands,
prominently sited today on Wacker Drive in Chicago . Haym Salomon stands on the right of
Washington, Morris on his left.
Inscribed on the front of the
monument is Washington ’s address to the Jewish congregation in Newport , R.I.
“The Government of the United
States which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,
requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves
as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
On the back of the monument is an
image of the Goddess of Liberty holding her torch with arms extended over
the multi-ethnic, peoples of America .
Poignantly, the monument
originally intended for Haym Salomon, became the metaphor for the United States . The monument was dedicated December 15, 1941 , one week after the Japanese attack on the American naval
base in Pearl Harbor , Hawaii America into World War II.
The Chicago monument, that included Salomon, was not to be the
only monument in his honor. January 7, 1944 , a monument to Haym Salomon alone was dedicated in Los Angeles . Sculpted by Robert Paine in 1943, the
memorial is 8’ in height. It depicts a stoic Salomon seated George Washington
like on a large chair atop a high platform. The front of the monument is
simply inscribed - Haym Salomon 1740-1785, American Patriot. On the rear of the
monument is inscribed two sections. The upper text; “The human
spirit has flowered only in freedom, the dynamic reality of our world culture
flowed from its first democracy.” The lower inscription is
emphatic about Salmon’s importance to the American cause. “Let all
American acclaim Haym Salomon, a Patriot, a Benefactor of his Country, an
inciter to Patriotism, to members of his race, to his countrymen and to
later generations. It looks as though his credit was better than that of the
whole thirteen United States of America - Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor Emeritus of History, Harvard University
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The memorial traveled about Los
Angeles Los
Angeles June 12, 2008 ” next
to the city seal of Los
Angeles Hollenbeck Park MacArthur
Park West Wilshire
Park Pan Pacific Park Griffith
Park
By 1944
and today, dedication of a monument to honor Salomon hardly raised a ripple of
opposition. During WWII a liberty ship was named the Haym Salomon.
Numerous
books were written about Salomon since the 1930’s, some popular culture, few of
deep scholarship,
almost all reflecting the mythologized Salomon. Many were geared to
Jewish youth to give them pride and roots in the American story.
During the Bi-centennial of
the United
States ,
1975, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp in honor of Haym
Salomon. It is an unusual stamp. On the glue side of the stamp is
printed in pale green letters, “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.”
Coincidental, to the issuance of
the Haym Salomon stamp, the state of Israel issued a stamp in 1975 honoring Harry Truman, the
first President to recognize the state of Israel .
“When Morris was appointed
Superintendent of Finance, he turned to Solomon for help in raising 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 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 1781-1784 records some 75
transactions between the two men.”
The internet is laced with
half-truths both for and against Salomon. Most of the articles are
shallow reflections of much deeper biases.
15
Anti-Semites have moved Salomon to
the pantheon of conspiracy hatred. They point to the symbolism of
the U.S. dollar bill. Anti-Semites and Black Helicopter anti-Masonic
conspiracy theorists argue that Washington came to Salomon and asked him what he wished for his
great services to America . Salomon asked to Washington to incorporate Judaic-Masonic imagery into the Great
Seal of America and any future currency. The conspiracy theorists
assert that Salomon was a servant of the secret Rothschild - Jewish -Masonic
cabal to create a one world government under Jewish control.
Though there are many images to be
pointed to that need explanation. One symbol is pointed out among all the
others. On the back of the dollar, on the right side above the
American eagle is a circle with 13 stars arranged into a
pattern. The pattern, if you connect the stars, forms a Star of
David.
The anti-Semites and conspiracy
theorists say this proves that the Jews are secretly involved in controlling American finance for
world domination. Salomon was a man of money. He
controlled Washington through money and the evidence in on the U.S. Dollar
Bill.
There are thirteen stars on the
Dollar Bill because there were thirteen Colonies in the
Revolutionary period. It has nothing to do with any Jewish
mystical numerology.
The second problem with the
conspiracist argument is that the U.S. Dollar Bill did not have its design
until it was first printed in 1937. George Washington and Haym
Salomon had long passed away. The stories of conspiracy and collusion
between Salomon and Rothschild for control of America are entirely fictions
that has passed into urban myth.6 A major concern is that even some
Jews repeat with pride some of the falsehoods. They think they are
honoring American freedom and universal Jewish toleration. Jews
too are guilty of advancing myth over fact.
6 http://www.snopes.com/business/money/solomon.asp
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Haym Salomon ground marker About 1980, a
marker was finally placed in the ground of the Mikveh Israel congregational
cemetery honoring Haym Salomon. It was placed with great
fanfare. 63 years earlier, a small wall plaque was placed
inside on the cemetery wall by Haym Salomon’s great grandson William Salomon,
in 1917. The text reads “To the memory of Haym Salomon, interred in this
cemetery, the location being of now unknown?”
Salomon’s bones rest somewhere in
the grounds, no one knows where. Perhaps he lies
quietly, undisturbed. Or perhaps, he lies under a walkway.
Aspects of Salomon’s life and
contributions to the American cause have been mythologized.
Other important parts of his life and service were grossly
under-recognized.
Haym Salomon was never
rich. He never was wealthy enough to finance the American
Revolution. His early history is vague. Much
documentation about him has long been lost by the U.S. Government. Many records
of Salomon’s financial affairs were burned by the British in the war of 1812.
Haym Salomon was an American
patriot and an observant, proud, practicing Jew. He offered all he
had for the American cause. He was imprisoned and even risked his life for
Revolutionary activities. Robert Morris understood and trusted
Salomon beyond anyone else. He drew upon Salomon’s financial ability, skill,
personal credit reputation and even personal guarantees when no one was willing
to accept American debt. Salomon did not raise most of the money needed
for the American Revolution. Salomon was able to broker the loans making money
available for the Revolutionary Government and young Republic when no one
else could or would.
Salmon’s crucial contribution to
the American cause was his ability to provide liquidity. Enormous
sums of money for the Revolutionary cause, passed through Salomon’s brokerage
house. He accepted little if any financial compensation.
To understand Salmon’s contribution
it is easiest to understand his actions in personal, modern, financial
terms.
The American government issued
checks drawn on its treasury. No one would cash the
checks. No one wanted the checks. No one trusted the
American government. Imagine going to the grocery store with a payroll check
and the grocer refuses your check because he suspects the check will bounce.
The grocer believes the check is bad. You go home with no food,
hungry. You can’t feed your family.
Imagine you are given a loan from
a foreign bank but you have no way to cash the loan. You cannot convert the loan papers into
useable money to pay your electric bill, your cell phone bill, your mortgage.
Your financial system would collapse. You would be homeless as well
as hungry.
Salomon, not only was he able to
cash the checks for the American government and give them the liquidity and hard currency, not paper money, to buy the groceries to feed the
army, provide for
17
supplies and give Washington the ability of carrying on the war, but he personally
put himself at risk to make money good.
When Salomon died, his estate held
a vast amount of government debt of questionable value. How the
money was held, was it pledged, was it collateral, was it Salomon’s accumulated
at face value or discount, is unknown. The central fact remains, Salomon
was the key keeping the Revolutionary
Government and economy viable at the pivotal point of survival.
Government and economy viable at the pivotal point of survival.
Haym Salomon personally provided
financial support to a whole range of Revolutionary leaders,
members of the military, and
political figures, keeping them “in the game” when they had no
alternative funding. He funded, from his own pocket, the
unofficial, secret Spanish Ambassador to the Revolutionary Government. The
Ambassador ultimately brought in Spanish support and loans for the war.
Salomon did what he did for
Patriotic reasons. He did what he did because he believed that the American cause and ideals were
different, unique and idealistic. He did it not just because it
would be good for the Jews. He did what he did because he believed,
if the American cause would be triumphant, there would be a better
tomorrow for everyone.
Jerry Klinger is president of the
Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation
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