Money Man of the American Revolution was Haym Solomon

Money Man of the American Revolution was Haym Solomon

Thomas B. Horton

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Fighting a war with weapons and tactics is one matter; financing a war is a different business. Not only does an army travel on its stomach, but it also marches on shoe leather. Kings and dictators confiscate what their armies require. Lincoln used inflation and high-interest Yankee bonds to bankroll Hooker, Burnsides, Meade, and Grant. When Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, they paid for what they requisitioned with worthless Confederate dollars.
No American commander had a worse time financially than George Washington, and no American congress has ever dithered and dallied as did the Continental Congress when the topic of war funding was broached. As Washington waged a war of attrition against the well-funded British military, he had to fret over how to make his payroll and how to pay his army's creditors.
In defense of Congress, Robert Morris was the official financer of the Revolutionary Army; however, it was New York immigrant Haym Solomon, a Polish Jew, who produced the money miracles when General Washington was in dire straits.
Robert Morris was a native of Liverpool who came out to the colonies as a 13-year-old lad accompanying his tobacco merchant father. In time Morris became as shrewd a trader as any in Philadelphia and he caught the eye of newspaper "magnate-turned-revolutionary" Benjamin Franklin. Morris, Franklin, and George Washington were bound by the ideals of liberty and severance from British rule. Furthermore, the three men were members of the fraternal and secretive order of Free Masonry.
When George Washington won an unexpected victory over British forces at Princeton in January 1777, Parliament sanctioned more soldiers for British Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, but it also authorized covert financial shenanigans against the fledgling rebels--subterfuges such as counterfeiting colonial paper money and discrediting American envoys in Holland and France. Their plan was to cause Washington's army to mutiny from lack of pay and necessities.
Since Philadelphia was a city rife with Tory sentiment, the Continental Congress despaired of conducting any secret negotiations. A select committee of men known only within their own circle made the financial arrangements for the struggling American army. So perilous was the status of the army that often their existence was a day-to-day affair.
George Washington was almost as adept as a spymaster as he was at fighting the war of attrition. The great commander had a system for planting incorrect information on the status of his army to confuse his British pursuers. The Culper Ring in New York was one of many such disinformation ruses. Nathan Hale was a part of this ring, as was the mysterious Agent 355, believed to be a young woman who moved easily within the circle of British Major John Andre and other notables.
Because Robert Morris was constantly under surveillance, Washington resorted to someone of lower profile whom he could trust. One of Washington's youngest staff officers was Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Franks, a son of the senior partner of the import-export firm of Levy-Franks in Philadelphia. Isaac Franks was barely out of his teens, yet he was forage master for Washington's army that lay encamped about Long Island.
When Robert Morris found it nearly impossible to coerce financial contributions from the states for the war effort, Isaac Franks suggested that Washington contact his -- Franks' -- brother-in-law, the currency broker, Haym Solomon. In the hard war years that followed George Washington ordered his private couriers more than once to "Send for Haym Solomon."
Haym Solomon was a 36-year-old Polish Jew who'd immigrated to the colonies just one year prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1776. Before the year was out, Haym Solomon had established himself in the import-export trade along New York's waterfront and he'd become a part of the John Lamb Sons of Liberty circle in that city. Lamb was one of the most zealous anti-British men on the continent -- years earlier his father had been deported to the colonies from London as a common thief. However, John Lamb was the catalyst for revolution among the business elites of the colony's leading port. Lamb kept up an active correspondence with hard-core revolutionaries such as Samuel Adams, Aedanus Burke, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry "Highthorse Harry" Lee, and Charleston's Christopher Gadsden.
Solomon proved his worth as a spy for Washington as well as a finance man. On several occasions Solomon was captured by the British and he used his commanding knowledge of European languages to talk his way, or bribe his way out of prison. Reputedly, he persuaded over 500 Hessian soldiers to desert the British cause for the American side. There are so many legends circulating about Haym Solomon that it is difficult to discern the facts. He did have contact with the Dutch Jewish community on St. Eustatius in the Caribbean, and that settlement of traders was one of the main suppliers of French-made rifles and other war materiel to the patriots. When the British got too hot on Solomon's trail of colonial intrigue, he moved his operations to Philadelphia. Solomon was known to run a private bank and investment brokerage from the back room of Philadelphia's London Coffee House. Here he sold commercial paper, shares in trading ventures, and he made personal loans to the Declaration Signers from his accumulated fortune.
In 1781, George Washington received word that a large army under the command of the Count de Rochambeau would be able to coordinate one brief campaign with the patriot forces. That was when Washington determined to strike a desperate blow against Lord Cornwallis who was encamped close to the Chesapeake awaiting the British fleets of Admirals Graves and Rodney to evacuate his forces to New York.
Robert Morris and Haym Solomon went into overdrive to produce the finances to supply Washington and his allies in the costly venture of moving south toward Yorktown. Philadelphia had probably never seen such wheeling and dealing, and some fantastic schemes were devised to deceive the ever-present Tory spies that hung about the London Coffee House.
What's interesting to us in the Lowcountry is that Daniel deSaussure of Charleston was in 1781 a member of the financial cartel in Philadelphia that included Robert Morris and Haym Solomon. DeSaussure, a wealthy Carolina merchant, had studied in Switzerland, and so had Solomon. Some years later Daniel deSaussure became the president of the Charleston branch of the (1st) Bank of the United States located on the corner of Broad and Meeting Streets, now City Hall.
At one juncture in the 1781 Yorktown financing, Haym Solomon ran afoul of even the lax colonial codes of financial propriety and was implicated in a $50,000 securities fraud. It was a critical moment in the funding of the patriot forces, and, for a while, it looked as though Solomon would be imprisoned by his own people as a huckster. Robert Morris sprang to the rescue and somehow got the tables turned on Haym's accuser and had that man arrested instead. At that point, Solomon threw his own fortune into the army's fund plus he sold another $20,000 in securities -- enough to purchase the critical supplies for Washington's army to move 200 miles south.
Of course, Washington and Rochambeau trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown. One of the ironies for the British was the fact that British Admiral George B. Rodney was too late arriving on the scene. He took a detour to destroy the Jewish settlement at St. Eustatius that had been supplying the colonists with weapons. Rodney burned their settlement, destroyed their small synagogue, and separated families and dispersed the St. Eustatius Jews all over the Caribbean as retribution for their aiding the American rebels.
Regrettably, Haym Solomon died shortly after the Revolutionary War, probably of tuberculosis contracted while a prisoner of the British in New York. He died penniless, having donated everything that he owned to the patriot cause. Attempts to receive restitution from congress fell on deaf ears, partly because it was all that Congress could do to pay a token pension to the soldiers.
During the war there were antisemitic cries raised against Haym Solomon and some of the other Jewish patriots who assisted in the financing of the cause. Solomon's 1781 Philadelphia newspaper editorial "I am a Jew" became one of the most eloquent pleas for religious understanding ever printed. The words, "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," have been cited in numerous patriotic essays.
Some admirers claim that Haym Solomon helped pen a draft of the Constitution before he died. Others claim that he and Morris devised the dollar sign, a clever reduction of the two marble columns entwined in ivy that are found on the 18th century Spanish-milled silver dollar known as the real, or pieces of eight. Some conspiratorial theorists believe that Haym Solomon was part of the shadowy Illuminati group that sought the overthrow of kings and the subsequent establishment of a one-world-government.
No conspiracies have been pinned on the patriot Haym Solomon. Solomon is a true Son of Liberty, and in 1975 the U.S. Postal service issued a stamp in his honor.
(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant).

Haym Solomon - Historian David McCullough Laments

 

Historian David McCullough Laments

Historian David McCullough, author of the superb, "1776" has much to lament on this eve of another birthday for America. Many American's know little more of America's history than the drinking and fireworks. In the words of McCullough, American's are like "children" without a working knowledge of history. And in an interview this weekend McCullough lamented that most with a teaching degree, even from Harvard or Yale have little background in history to pass on to the students they will instruct. This is indeed a very sad legacy.

One history of America that is little known to most American's is that of Haym Solomon. George Washington's revolutionary army was poorly equipped and was losing major battles to the far better organized British invading soldiers who flowed onto American soil as warship after warship arrived at the American East coast.

Washington had leadership skills, but he had no money to finance an army or a government. There was no real way to ever expect a government independent of British rule by the King. Washington and the other patroits were far more likely to hang as traitors to the King, than to lead a free country with religious freedom.

In Europe, years of discrimination against Jews, sometimes even backed by the Vatican support greatly limited the ability of Jews to earn a living. Many laws restricted the ability of Jews to join trades, yet some were able to prosper and to offer help to their community. One Prussia/Poland born Jew who prospered in Europe, but yearned for religious freedom was Haym Solomon(1740-1785). Haym Solomon emigrated to the United States, and had become a very good friend to revolutionary army leader George Washington. Haym Solomon was greatly concerned with religious liberty for Jews. He wanted a nation where this religious and ethnic group could practice their faith without discrimination.

Haym Solomon saw the terrible defeats of Washington's army and asked Washington what he needed to win the war with the British. Washington's shopping list was for critical items such as shoes, winter coats, arms and trained soldiers who knew something of military skills. Haym Solomon promised support to Washington to establish a government built on religious liberty for Christians, Jews, or any religious group.

Haym Solomon loaned Washington about $600,000 interest free to hire a mercenary French army of thousands, far larger than the American forces to help defeat the organized British army. The funds also bought Washington's revolutionary army uniforms with boots, guns, and other vital military equipment. And with Solomon's friendship with the wealthy European Jewish banking families of Sassoon and Rothschild, an additional $3.5 million British pounds were loaned to America interest free. At the time of the death of Haym Solomon, about $400,000 was never repaid to Solomon by the American government.

In a funny story of how money buys influence, Haym Solomon was captured by the British and was scheduled to be hanged. But with his immense wealth, Solomon was able to bribe his British guards and escaped. Money buys freedom in the justice system, even in the early days of America. It's only the poor that hang in this country.

And it is a legend that the original draft of the U.S. Constitution was actually written by Haym Solomon. The "Founding Fathers", were merely signers of this Haym Solomon document. Nearly everyone gives the "Founding Fathers" credit for this document, yet few know that Haym Solomon was probably the original author.

On Monday, Americans will have picnics, wave the flag, drink alcohol and shoot off fireworks. Few will know that Haym Solomon and his friends with the Jewish banking families of Europe, the Sassoon and Rothschild families made America a place with a government independent of the King of England. Few will know that religious freedom for American Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others was bought by Haym Solomon and the Sassoon and Rothschild families for this country. This is why the Church of England is not the official state church of America. This is why strong prohibitions against a state church for America are written into Haym Solomon's U.S. Constitution and Bill Of Rights. Some in the religious right believe in a state church for America today. But this is not a foundation of freedom that Haym Solomon, George Washington, or any of the revolutionary leaders agreed with. Religious freedom was a guiding principle for Haym Solomon's support for America.

God bless Haym Solomon and America on the eve of her birthday.

Haym Solomon - Definition

Haym Solomon - Definition
Haym Solomon (or Salomon) (1740 - 1785) was a prime financier of the American side during the American War of Independence against Great Britain. A Jew born in Prussia/Poland, he died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Contents [showhide] 
1 Life and accomplishments
2 Historical legends about him
3 Jewish pride
4 Early death
5 Honors, testimonials, and memorials
6 1975 stamp issued by USPS: First day cover honoring Haym Salomon
7 External links

Life and accomplishments
He was an astute merchant and banker and succeeded in accumulating a huge fortune, which he subsequently devoted to the use of the American Government during the American Revolution. For example, he negotiated all the war aid from France and Holland, endorsing and selling bills to American merchants.
He was the paymaster-general of the French military forces in the early times of the United States. It is asserted that over $100,000 he advanced was never repaid. He lent the young United Sates government about $600,000, and at his death about $400,000 of this amount had not been repaid. This was irrespective of what he had lent to statesman and others while performing public duties and trusts.
He was a brilliant financier and one of George Washington's personal friends. At one point he was sentenced to death by the British, but he bribed his jailer and escaped. During the American Revolution, Solomon went to France and raised an additional 3.5 million British pounds from the Sassoon and Rothschild banking houses and families. He spoke eight languages. When Solomon was in France he passed himself off as a French diplomat.
Historical legends about him
Solomon supposedly wrote the first draft of the United States Constitution according to some historians. Some claim that he designed The Great Seal of the United States , which is why it has what some believe resembles a Jewish Star above the eagle's head design, and it is also on the back of every American one dollar bill. He believed the United States would become a world power. At war's end, many in the Continental Congress were desperately poor and ironically Solomon too died completely bankrupt.
Jewish pride
He was involved in Jewish community affairs, being a member of Mikveh Israel Congregation in Philadelphia, and in 1782 made the largest individual contribution towards the construction of its main building. In 1783 Haym Solomon and other prominent Jews appealed to the Pennsylvania Council of Censors urging them to remove the religious test oath required for office-holding under the State Constitution. In 1784, he 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."
Early death
The gravesite of Haym Solomon is at Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia , it is unmarked, and two plaques memorialize him. The following obituary was printed in the Independent Gazetteer: "Thursday, last, expired, after a lingering illness, Mr. Hyam Solomon, 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." He is commemorated by a marble tablet on its east wall installed by his great-grandson, William Salomon. A granite memorial is set inside the gate of the cemetery.
Honors, testimonials, and memorials
In 1893 a bill was presented before the 52nd United States Congress ordering a gold medal struck in recognition of Solomon's contributions to the United States. In 1941 the writer Howard Fast wrote a book "Haym Salomon Son of Liberty". In 1941, the George Washington-Robert Morris-Haym Salomon Memorial was erected along Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. 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 was uniquely 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 Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse."
Many Historians have said that without his contribution to the cause "there would be no America today".
1975 stamp issued by USPS: First day cover honoring Haym Salomon

External links
Haym Salomon story (http://www.jewishworldreview.com/jewish/salomon.asp)
US Dept. of Interior on Haym Salomon (http://www.nps.gov/revwar/about_the_revolution/haym_salomom.html)
Currency and Finance in the 18th Century : Bills of Exchange (http://www.continentalline.org/articles/9703/970301.htm)
Role of Jewish Freemasons in the American Revolution (http://www.freemason.org/cfo/july_august_2001/juda.htm)
Contributions of Sephardic Jews to the USA (http://www.sephardicstudies.org/1776.html)
Son of Liberty & 1973 Medal (http://www.americanrevolution.com/HaymSalomon.htm)

The Jew who saved the American Revolution – Haym Solomon and the History of the $1 Bill

The Jew who saved the American Revolution – Haym Solomon and the History of the $1 Bill

Hometown Hutchison – “On the rear of the One Dollar bill, you will see two circles. Together, they comprise the Great Seal of the United States. The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish this task and another two years to get it approved. If you look at the left-hand circle, you will see a Pyramid.
Notice the face is lighted, and the western side is dark. This country was just beginning. We had not begun to explore the west or decided what we could do for Western Civilization. The Pyramid is uncapped, again signifying that we were not even close to being finished. Inside the Capstone you have the all-seeing eye, an ancient symbol for divinity. It was Franklin’s belief that one man couldn't do it alone, but a group of men, with the help of God, could do anything.

‘IN GOD WE TRUST' is on this currency.

The Latin above the pyramid, ANNUIT COEPTIS, means, 'God has favored our undertaking.' The Latin below the pyramid, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, means, 'a new order has begun.' At the base of the pyramid is the Roman numeral for 1776. (MDCCLXXVI) If you look at the right-hand circle, and check it carefully, you will learn that it is on every National Cemetery in the United States. It is also on the Parade of Flags Walkway at the Bushnell, Florida National Cemetery, and is the centerpiece of most heroes’ monuments. Slightly modified, it is the seal of the President of the United States, and it is always visible whenever he speaks, yet very few people know what the symbols means.

Above the Eagle, you have the thirteen stars, representing the thirteen original colonies, and any clouds of misunderstanding rolling away. Again, we were coming together as one. Notice what the Eagle holds in his talons. He holds an olive branch and arrows. This country wants peace, but we will never be afraid to fight to preserve peace. The Eagle always wants to face the olive branch, but in time of war, his gaze turns toward the arrows.

They say that the number 13 is an unlucky number? This is almost a worldwide belief. You will usually never see a room numbered 13, or any hotels or motels with a 13th floor. But think about this:

· 13 original colonies,

· 13 signers of the Declaration of Independence,

· 13 stripes on our flag,

· 13 steps on the Pyramid,

· 13 letters in 'Annuit Coeptis,'

· 13 letters in 'E Pluribus Unum,'

· 13 stars above the Eagle,

· 13 bars on that shield,

· 13 leaves on the olive branch,

· 13 fruits, and if you look closely,

· 13 arrows. And finally, if you notice the arrangement of the 13 stars in the right-hand circle you will see that they are arranged as a Star of David. This was ordered by George Washington who, when he asked Haym Solomon, a wealthy Philadelphia Jew, what he would like as a personal reward for his services to the Continental Army, Solomon said he wanted nothing for himself but that he would like something for his people. The Star of David was the result. Few people know that it was a Philadelphian Jew, Haym Solomon who saved the Army through his financial contributions but died a pauper. Haym Solomon gave $25 million to the Continental Army, money that was extremely important to our independence from England.”

The United States of America is represented in Biblical Prophecy as the Thirteenth Tribe of Israel as the House of Manasseh.

BibleSearchers Reflections - There were Twelve Tribes of Israel, Ten were sent into Exile and became known as the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.  When Jacob was giving his Blessing to each of his sons in Genesis 27, he first blessed the sons of Joseph. 

In a movement of intent, the Patriarch Israel (Jacob) crossed his hands over and gave the Birthright Blessing to the youngest son, Ephraim.  The literal descendants of the Tribe of Ephraim are recognized as the English peoples in Great Britain. Ephraim would later represent collectively the Lost Tribes of Israel either as the House of Joseph or the Tribe of Ephraim called “Ephraimites”.  The oldest son of Joseph, Manasseh, was also given a blessing. He would be very great!  He was added to the House of Jacob as the Thirteenth Tribe, a number identity with the future United States of America. 

Many “Christian” expositors revile the early American Founding Fathers who gave us the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the American Bill of Rights.  They indict these American Patriots because many of them were members of the British or Scottish Masonic Rite Orders.  The Masonic Order just few years before the Declaration of Independence was infused with the idealism of Jewish Kabbalah.  

Flowing throughout this history was the corruption of the Jewish Kabbalah by the 17^th century Kabbalist Shabbatai Tzevi, who sent a large part of Judaism of his day into apostasy with such disastrous results for Judaism in Europe.  His protégé, Jacob Frank (Yakov ben Judah Leib Frankovich) already indoctrinated as an Islamic Qabalist with the Dolmeh Islamic Society would return to Europe and there lead thousands of Jews into Roman Jesuit Catholicism. 

It was Jacob Frank, who as the Baron of Offenbach, allied his international agents of Christians and Islamists with the Jesuit Jew called Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Bavarian Order of the Illuminati whose birthplace was Frankfurt, Germany.  Weishaupt with his conspiratorial alliances with the Roman Catholic Jesuit Order, with the financial resources of the Frankfurt based Rothschild Brother’s financial empire, now added the agents of Jacob Frank and together infiltrated the British and the Scottish Masonic Rite Lodges, where the initiatory rites were altered all the way up to the thirty-third degree. Soon anti-Torah Judaism with Roman Jesuit Cabala spread world-wide through the Masonic lodges of the later British Empire.

It would be the Chief Justice of the American Supreme Jewish Rabbinic Court, Rabbi Marvin Antelman, who would in his seminal studies, “To Eliminate the Opiate Books One and Two” would trace with great detail how from the loins of the Illuminate Shabbataists erupted the Reign of Terror and the French Revolution and later the American Masonic Rebellion against Great Britain.  From these same loins that originally corrupted the true Jewish Kabbalah with their motto; “that which was truth is now evil and that which was evil would now be truth” would also come the Jews, Karl Marx and Frederick Engel who established the framework of International Communism.

Later the Rothschild Frankists Sabbataeans, John Jowe Astor and Jacob Schiff would go to America, where their agents, the robber barons of America, John Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan created the foundation where financial empire of the Federal Reserve Bank would become established in the United States.  They would also establish the roots of globalism and the control of the government of the Zionist State of Israel with the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) who now also control America’s military adventures in the Middle East.

It is the perspective of BibleSearchers that the Sovereignty of the G-d of Israel is supreme and has been guiding the affairs of the nations, setting up the right agents to bring a closure to this era of genetic sin. What we are witnessing is the rise of Mystery Babylon, whose reign will be so despicable that the G-d of Israel will be forced and justified to bring His divine judgment upon evil and salvation upon those who have demonstrated that their lives are “safe to save”. 

The forces of darkness that have brought up us this corruption were also allowed by the Sovereign Power of G-d. What many have forgotten is wherever there is corruption there must always have been the source of truth that Satan is trying to hide under concepts of corruption of the true “ideal” and “identity” of the Divine.  The Jewish Kabbalah, the Christian Cabala, and the Islamic Qabala could not all have been fraudulent concepts of the truths about HaShem, the G-d of Israel.

The first conceptual understanding of the Jewish Kabbalah goes back as far as the 1^st century BCE to Menahem the Essene, the Bet Av Din (Vice-President) of the Great Sanhedrin under the Nasi (President) of the famed Hillel the Great. Since the days of the Jesus the Messiah (Yahshua HaMaschiah), a defender of the “offensive spiritual interpretation” of the halakhah of Hillel the Great against the Pharisees defending the “defensive literal interpretation” of the Torah law by the later Sanhedrin Nasi, Shammai the Great.

The forces of darkness under HaSatan, the great deceiver have been hard at work to corrupt every truth the G-d of Israel has given to mankind since that day. In fact, it was Jesus the Nazarene who brought the “Mission to the Gentiles” of Hillel the Great and Menahem the Essene to its fruition by Yahshua’s (Jesus’) divine mission, to “Find the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”.

It was stated by Rabbi Isaac Luria, Judaism’s greatest expositor of the Jewish Kabbalah that at the end of this age, with the revealing of the Messiah, that the Torah interpretations of the two great rabbinic schools, Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai will merge as the Torah interpretations for the Messianic Kingdom of the Messiah to come. May the days of deception soon be over!

Credit to Hometown Hutchison – “Who was Haym Solomon? History from a $1 Bill—Fascinating!” – November 17, 2009

You might be interested to read

« “We owe the Jews” – Sir Winston Churchill | Main | The Secret Life of King David: Humiliated, Disgraced and Reviled – a Biblical Model of the Future Messiah »

08/08/2010

The Bald Eagle was selected as a symbol for victory for two reasons: First, he is not afraid of a storm; he is strong, and he is smart enough to soar above it. Secondly, he wears no material crown. We had just broken from the King of England.

Also, notice the shield is unsupported. This country can now stand on its own. At the top of that shield you have a white bar signifying congress, a unifying factor. We were coming together as one nation. In the Eagle's beak you will read, 'E PLURIBUS UNUM’ meaning, 'from many - one.'

Haym Solomon, was a prime financier of the American side during Revolution

Haym Solomon Memorial

 

Haym Solomon

Haym Solomon (or Salomon) (1740–1785) was a prime financier of the American side during the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain. A Jew, he was born in Leszno (Lissa), Poland, the son of a rabbi. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contents 1 Life and accomplishments 2 Historical legends 3 Jewish pride 4 Early death 5 Honors, testimonials and memorials 6 Footnotes 7 References 8 External links

Life and accomplishments

Solomon came to New York from Poland in 1772 and joined the Sons of Liberty. In 1776 he was captured by the British, but he used his knowledge of German to convince his Hessian jailer to let him out. It was during this period of incarceration that he contracted tuberculosis. After this he left New York and joined up with the American forces who were evacuating New York at the time. Haym Salomon was a merchant. He traveled south with Washington's Army and eventually settled in Philadelphia. While in Philadelphia he married Rachael Franks, the daughter of loyalist merchant and slave trader David Franks, of Philadelphia. They kept one slave, a young woman who helped Mrs. Solomon in their home.

Salomon was an astute merchant and auctioneer who succeeded in accumulating a fortune, which he subsequently devoted to the use of the American government during the American Revolution. For example, he personally supported various members of the Continental Congress during their stay in Philadelphia, including James Madison. Acting as the patriot he was, he never asked for repayment. Solomon also negotiated the sale of a majority of the war aid from France and Holland, selling bills of exchange to American merchants.

He sold bills of exchange for the French, and those funds went to pay the French military during their stay in Philadelphia. That is why some mistakenly believe he was the paymaster-general of the French forces in the early years of the United States.

Often working out of the "London Coffee House" in Philadelphia, he acted as a broker for the Office of Finance. Solomon sold about $600,000 in Bills of Exchange to his clients, netting about 2.5% per sale. During this period he had to turn to his client in the Office of Finance, Robert Morris, when one sale of over $50,000 nearly sent him to prison. Morris used his position and influence to sue the defrauder and saved Solomon from default and disaster.

When Solomon died, it was discovered he had been speculating in various currencies and debt instruments. His family sold them at market rates, which had greatly depreciated because of the weakened state of the American economy in the 1780s. Subsequent generations misunderstood his truly patriotic actions and appealed to Congress for more money, but were turned down twice. A myth grew up that he had lent the young United States government about $600,000, and at his death about $400,000 of this amount had not been repaid. This sum was added to what he really had lent to statesmen and others while performing public duties and trusts. Jacob Bader Marcus wrote in Early American Jewry that the sum owed to Solomon was $800,000. That amount in 1785 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $39,264,947,368.42 (using relative share of GDP which indicates purchasing power) in 2005 US dollars.^[1]

It is said that during the American Revolution, Solomon went to France and raised an additional £3.5 million from the Sassoon and Rothschild banking houses and families. However, David Sassoon had not been born yet, and would later start up his counting house in Bombay, India, not France. Likewise, the Rothschild family had not set up a bank in France yet either. At the time of the Revolutionary war, the Rothschild's partriach, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the banking dynasty, was still in Hesse-Kassel, loyally serving its prince, Wilhelm IX, who aided the British against the Americans by supplying England with his Hessian mercenaries.

Solomon spoke eight languages.^{[citation needed]} Supposedly, when he was in France, he passed himself off as a French diplomat. Unfortunately, it does not conform to the known facts. It is true his co-religionist, David Franks, did help Adams negotiate loans from Holland. However, there is nothing in the record to show that Solomon himself went to Europe for this purpose.

After a solid career in Philadelphia, he saw opportunity in a different state. Former client Robert Morris tried to help him establish himself in New York. He died shortly after he had decided to move back to city and become an auctioneer there.

Historical legends

• Solomon supposedly wrote the first draft of the United States Constitution, but there is nothing to substantiate this claim. Since the Constitutional Convention occurred after his death this would have been a very difficult thing to accomplish.^{[citation needed]}

• Some claim that he designed The Great Seal of the United States, which is why it has what some believe resembles a Star of David above the eagle's head design. While there is reason to think that he did believe the United States would become a world power, there is no documentary evidence to support this claim. [2]

• At war's end, many in the Continental Congress were desperately poor, and Solomon too died completely bankrupt.{Fact|date=February 2007}}

• It is often said that Solomon loaned hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Revolutionary government, which never repaid him. In fact, the money merely passed through his bank accounts.^[2]

Jewish pride

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 and other prominent Jews appealed to the Pennsylvania Council of Censors urging them to remove the religious test oath required for office-holding under the State Constitution. In 1784, he 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."

Early death

The following obituary was printed in the Independent Gazetteer:

"Thursday, last, expired, after a lingering illness, Mr. Haym Solomon, 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 ."

The gravesite of Haym Solomon is at Mikveh Israel Cemetery, located on the 800-block of Spruce Street, in Philadelphia. It is unmarked, but he has two plaque memorials there. The east wall has a marble tablet that was installed by his great-grandson, William Solomon, and a granite memorial is set inside the gate of the cemetery.

Honors, testimonials and memorials

In 1893, a bill was presented before the 52nd United States Congress ordering a gold medal struck in recognition of Solomon's contributions to the United States. In 1941, the writer Howard Fast wrote a book Haym Salomon, Son of Liberty. In 1941, the George Washington-Robert Morris-Haym Solomon Memorial was erected along Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. In 1975 the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Haym Saloman 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. Hollywood film producer, John C. W. Shoop, under direction of MorningStar Pictures, is currently in production of a story of the life and times of Haym Salomon called On The Money.

In World War II the United States liberty ship SS Haym Solomon was named in his honor.

Footnotes

1. ^ [1] [Used 1790 - 2005 as the calculator only goes to 1790...]
2. ^ Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past, by Roy Ronsezweig, in The Journal of American History Volume 93, Number 1 (June, 2006): 117-46. The sentence is between note 30 and 31 (free available HTML version of the article doesn't report original article page numbers).

References

• Laurens R. Schwartz, Jews and the American Revolution: Haym Solomon and Others (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1987).
• Hart, Charles Spencer. General Washington's Son of Israel and Other Forgotten Heroes of History. ISBN 0-8369-1296-9.
• Russell, Charles Edward. Haym Solomon and the Revolution. ISBN 0-7812-5827-8.
• Amler, Jane Frances. Haym Solomon: Patriot Banker of the American Revolution. ISBN 0-8239-6629-1

External links

Philadelphia Portal

• Haym Salomon story
• National Park Service, US Dept. of Interior, on Haym Salomon
• Currency and Finance in the 18th Century : Bills of Exchange
• Role of Jewish Freemasons in the American Revolution
• Contributions of Sephardic Jews to the USA
• Son of Liberty & 1973 Medal
• Sons of the American Revolution

How the Jews Saved the American Revolution - 1776

How the Jews Saved the American Revolution - 1776

American Jewish History 1654 - 1770

By Jerry Klinger

"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.

The Colonial American Jewish experience 1654 - 1770 was characterized by sharp departures from historic European anti-Semitic patterns of isolation, social, economic, physical, legislative and religious discrimination. The American Colonial world was growing, changing and evolving so rapidly it did not have time to focus on historical Jewish scapegoat-ism. The demands of the frontier and the expanding new American economic power needed the best of all of its people.

Jews in Colonial America struggled and won rights that were inconceivable and nonexistent in Europe. Jews struggled for and won the rights to equal economic opportunity, to own land, to go to higher secular education, to serve in the armed militias, to vote and in some colonies to become members of the legislative bodies. In some colonies the struggle was easy, in others it was very hard.

The American experience was not an automatic entitlement to toleration and sufferance, rather the pre-revolutionary experience was one that permitted the old discriminations to be challenged and eventually to be put aside. Hatred of the Jew and imported anti-Semitism did exist but it could not flourish in the melting pot of common need and survival.

Patrick Henry, the revolutionary war governor of Virginia, rose in assembly and made his famous "Give me Liberty or Give me Death," speech. He did so with the belief in liberty for all except for Jews, Blacks and Indians.

Jews traced their earliest participation in Virginia's life from the 16^th century with Sir Walter Raleigh through Jamestown and the revolution. The first permanent synagogue community Kehilah ha Kadosh Beth Shalome, was founded in 1789 in Richmond, Va.. Beth Shalome built its first permanent building in 1820 in Richmond. The president of the congregation at the time of dedication was Jacob Mordecai, born in 1762 in Philadelphia. His mother Elizabeth (Esther) Whitlock had been a Christian convert to Judaism.

Who could do the best became more important than who was who's parentage in Colonial America. It was not until many years later that who were your parents and where did they come from became more important than what can you do to better yourself, your community and your country.
In 1753, the British Parliament, to legitimize and encourage economic development both in the colonies and in the mother country passed a Jewish Naturalization Bill. The purpose simply enough was to grant limited rights, such as land ownership, to foreign born Jews who wished to become British subjects. The bill had the opposite effect in England stirring intense violent anti-Semitic feeling and prejudices. The bill was repealed by Parliament in 1760. In Colonial America the legislation was generally ignored or circumspectly treated.

For almost a hundred years, if one colony refused to grant citizenship to a Jew the expedient thing was to go to another colony that would grant it or more simply ignore the issues of Naturalization entirely as most immigrants did. For the most part the tiny Jewish community was not affected by the machinations of the mother country's bigotry. Jews were generally free to develop economically, participate in colonial life and practice their faith.

Political equality was not a universal right but an evolving right in colonial America. Yet it left a lasting impression on Jews before the Revolution that the old world, if given the opportunity, would try to transfer it's bigotry to the new world. The repeal of the Naturalization act placed an awareness in the minds of much of colonial Jewry that America was different from Europe. It was the commonality of the challenge of America that was to shape American views and identity.

The colonies were different from each other, the North from the South, or the West. The British struggled to impose a central government on a frontier world that was rapidly developing far away from London. For the Jew, the Colonial experience was different in that there was no fully established homogenous world that they encountered. Rather they encountered a world that was being established and was not fully formed or mature. It was not until many years later, as the American frontier officially closed, (1890), that Nativism and the weak seeds of anti-Semitism would grow as Americans searched for identity.

The Jews tended to settle wherever doors were open; most frequently in the urban environments but also in rural and frontier areas. Jews did not come seeking freedom of religion as much as freedom of opportunity. Traditional Judaism weakened in the face of American freedom of choice only to be reborn later with an American voice.

The American Revolution, 1776-1783, did not start out intentionally as a revolution. The Colonial American world was an evolving, growing English world that demanded fair representation from the British Parliament. The British government saw the Americas as a source of money, power and natural resources to be delivered and ruled unquestioningly by the mother country.

The British government failed to realize that the Colonials saw themselves as British Americans with the right to a voice in their affairs, to influence their laws, their economy their frontiers and their taxation. The Revolutionary war was to be the longest war in American history prior to Vietnam. It was fought over a one thousand five hundred mile front on the developed farmlands of thirteen colonies, on the sea and on the frontier.

Oct. 25. 1765, a group of Philadelphia merchants gathered in the State House to sign the non-importation agreement to fight the hated Stamp Tax of the British government. The first man to step forward to sign his name was the president of Mikve Israel Congregation, Philadelphia's only synagogue, Mathias Bush.

As the tensions between Britain and the American Colonies increased and finally erupted into war the American Colonial population was split almost into thirds; one third supported the war, one third was neutral and one third was pro British. The small Jewish population of America was also divided – the choice though was very heavily and disproportionaly in favor and support of the American Revolution. Not only did the Jews pledge their fortunes and sacred honor for America but their very lives.

Compromise between Britain and its colonies could not be reached. The British blockaded Boston and sent an occupying army to take the city. The call to arms rang throughout the countryside. Volunteers rushed to defend the city at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1776. The famous order of the American commander during the battle was "do not fire until you see the whites of their (the advancing British Regular's) eyes."

In the front ranks of the smoke and fire of battle was Aaron Solomon standing shoulder to shoulder with his Christian comrades of the Gloucester volunteers. Eight hundred miles to the South the British were stirring up the Cherokee Indians to attack and kill settlers on the South Carolina/Georgia frontiers.

Francis Salvador, a Jew of Sephardic heritage, the first Jew to be elected to a Colonial constituent assembly rode out to carry the alarm and raise the volunteers to repel the impending Indians attacks. He returned at the head of a force of frontiersmen only to be ambushed, shot down and scalped, July 1, 1776. Salvador had the dubious honor of being the first American Jew to give his life for his adopted country.

A few days later in Philadelphia, July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was written. A copy was sent to Amsterdam via the small Dutch Caribbean Island of St. Eustatius. The Declaration was intercepted by the British at sea. An accompanying letter with the Declaration of Independence was also intercepted and sent to London as being a secret code about the document that needed to be deciphered - the letter was written in Yiddish.

The war was not going well at first for the young American army. Though facing hard times and even defeat, Jews stood and fought along with their neighbors. Into the terrible dark cold winter at Valley Forge, Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell stood their watch. Joseph Simon from his frontier forge at Lancaster, Pa. supplied the Army with the famous Henry Rifles. Jewish trading merchants, peaceful before the war, outfitted their ships to become privateers and ravage the British at sea. The cost to many was great, the great merchant traders of Newport, Rhode Island saw their fortunes lost.

Men such as Aaron Lopez were bankrupted supporting the Revolution when their ships were lost to the British. In the area of finance the young American government might have foundered too except for the financial genius and personal financial risk and support taken on by Hayim Solomon. Solomon was to die bankrupted by his total support of the American cause. Though small in number the Jews chose to caste their fate with America.

But how did the Jews save the American Revolution? As late as 1781 the war had not been won by the Americans nor was it lost by the British. Arms were being funneled into the Colonies by arms merchants running the British blockade primarily from the tiny free trading Island of Dutch St. Eustatius. Jewish merchants and arms traders were a major presence on the island.

In 1781, the British realized they had to cut off the open door of arms shipments to the rebels through St. Eustatius. Admiral Sir George Rodney was sent to capture the island. His goal was to destroy the supplies and destroy the island's commercial and merchant class so they could not provide any more aide to the rebels. Early in 1781 the lightly defended island fell to the heavy presence of the main British battle fleet. Rodney in his vehemence destroyed the warehouses and the supplies. He burnt every home. He paid particular venomous attention to the Jews of St. Eustatius. The British burnt their homes and the synagogue, Honen Dalim, "She Who is Charitable to the Poor" – built 1739. Jewish property was confiscated and the men imprisoned with particular cruelty. Rodney spent months directing half his fleet to convey much of the stolen treasure back to England.

While Rodney was engaged in St. Eustatius, Lord Cornwallis and his army of British regulars were forced out of the Carolinas and retreated to the small port of Yorktown, Virginia on the James Peninsula. He needed to await critical reprovisioning and fresh reinforcements being brought by the British fleet. The weakened British fleet, with Cornwallis's reinforcements, was intercepted at sea by the French fleet under Admiral DeGrasse and soundly defeated. Degrasse took up positions at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay blockading Yorktown from the Sea.

General George Washington saw his chance. Washington trapped and besieged Cornwallis. In short course Cornwallis surrendered. The war was over. The Americans had won with the help of the French.

But how did the Jews save the American Revolution? If the Jews had not helped turn St. Eustatius into a major arms center for the Revolution and if Admiral Rodney had not spent so much time destroying St. Eustatius and particularly the Jews, the war might have ended differently. There is little doubt that Admiral Rodney's anti-Semitism helped squander his time and played a role in delaying and weakening the British fleet. Ironically it was the Jews of St. Eustatius who helped win the American Revolution.