In
the early 1770s, at the time of the partition of Poland, Haym Salomon
left his family and arrived in New York on the eve of the Revolution.
His command of German made him welcome to the Hessian forces, which he
served as a supplier of goods. When the British suspected him of
spying, Salomon was arrested and confined to prison for a time.
Salomon's
command of several languages enabled him to serve as a broker to the
French officials in Philadelphia. In the diary of Robert Morris,
Superintendent of Finance for the new American government, Salomon's
name appears frequently in the period 1781-84. Morris wrote:
"This broker has been useful to the public interests ..."
Salomon prospered and was able to be financially helpful to a number
of public figures, such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. In
1782, Madison acknowledged the "kindness of our little friend in
Front Street, whose assistance will preserve me from extremities but I
never resort to it without great mortification as he obstinately
rejects all recompense."
When Haym
Salomon died prematurely in January 1785, he held $353,000, largely in
depreciated certificates of indebtedness and continental currency ...
all virtually worthless. The Pennsylvania Packet wrote "He was
remarkable for his skill and integrity in his profession and for his
generous and humane deportment."
Jewish
Affairs
Haym Salomon
was actively involved in Jewish community affairs. He was a member of
Mikveh Israel Congregation in Philadelphia, and made the largest
single contribution to the erection of its first building in 1782. The
following year, Salomon joined with other prominent Jews in an address
to the Pennsylvania Council of Censors urging them to remove the
religious test oath required for office-holding under the State
Constitution. And in 1784, he answered a personal slander in the press
by proclaiming boldly: "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."
