American Revolution Patriots > Haym Salomon

Haym Salomon

Background

SALOMON, Haym, financier, b. in Lissa, Prussian Poland, about 1740; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1785. He settled in Philadelphia some years before the Revolution as a merchant and banker, and succeeded in accumulating a large fortune, which he subsequently devoted to the use of the American government during the war for independence. He negotiated all the war subsidies obtained during that struggle from France and Holland, which he indorsed and sold in bills to American merchants at a credit of two and three months on his personal security, receiving for his commission one quarter of one per cent.

He also acted as paymaster-general of the French forces in the United States, and for some time lent money to the agents or ministers of several foreign states when their own sources of supply were cut off. It is asserted that over $100,000 thus advanced have never been repaid. To the U. S. government Mr. Salomon lent about $600,000 in specie, and at his death $400,000 of this amount had not been returned. This was irrespective of what he had lent to statesmen and others while in the discharge of public trusts. His descendants have frequently petitioned for remuneration, and their claims have several times been favorably reported upon by committees of congress.

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Sources

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900)