- Person
- Haym Salomon
- Lived
- 1740–1785
- Field
- Finance
- From
- Polish-American
The story
Haym Salomon, a Jewish broker born in 1740 in Leszno in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, had settled in New York by the time the American Revolution began. Soon after the British occupied the city in September 1776, he was arrested on suspicion of spying.
Because Salomon spoke several languages, he was handed over to the Hessian general Leopold Heister, the commander of German troops fighting for Britain, and put to work in the commissariat department as an interpreter. The post gave him more freedom than an ordinary prisoner, and he used it to help others. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, he aided French and American prisoners in escaping, and other accounts say he gave money to prisoners and encouraged Hessian soldiers to change sides.
In August 1778 he was arrested again as a suspect in a plot against the British fleet and stores, and could have faced a death sentence. He escaped on 11 August 1778, reportedly by bribing a jailer with gold he had hidden, and made his way to Philadelphia, leaving behind his property, his wife and their infant child.
In Philadelphia he became the leading broker for the government's finance office. He also used his own money to support members of the Continental Congress who were short of money while serving. James Madison, then a delegate from Virginia, wrote in an August 1782 letter that he had for some time been a pensioner on the favor of Haym Salomon. Salomon also helped James Wilson and, by some accounts, James Monroe. It is not clear whether these loans were ever fully repaid.
Salomon died in Philadelphia in January 1785. His family later spent decades asking Congress to repay what he had advanced, and several committees reported in their favour, but no money was ever appropriated. He is remembered not only as a financier but as someone who used his position, at real personal risk, to help others.
Why it matters
Salomon's quiet support helped free prisoners of war and allowed the men drafting the foundations of American government, including Madison, to keep working when the young nation could not pay them.
About Haym Salomon
Polish-born Jewish broker who sold the bills of exchange that kept the Revolution’s Office of Finance afloat, quietly supported members of Congress and died nearly penniless.
More about Haym Salomon
Sources
- Salomon, Haym Jewish Encyclopedia
- Haym Salomon Encyclopedia.com
- Haym Salomon Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.