The Forgotten Founding Father

Europeans don't understand us, and I can't blame them. America is strange, but beautiful and idealistic in a way few nations are.

It took the World Cup luring foreigners here for them to get it, at least a little. They praised the charm of a late-night Waffle House run and the well-earned reputation of Southern hospitality. They lauded the legendary Route 66 and the sprawling landscapes this land is blessed with. Even New York City's hot dog stands won some over.

It's nice to see them come around on our eccentricities, but those are ultimately secondary.

The one thing Europeans understand least is our total obsession with, and respect for, this nation's founding and the men who forged it.

I can't blame them for that. Not much like this exists in the modern world. Our founding fathers were some of the best-educated thinkers in human history, and they set out to build a new experimental society with God at the center.

Europeans had their own revolutions around the same time, with their epicenter in France, which likewise sought to oust inequality, but diverged in taking God down with it. It was destructive, not creative.

America's love of faith and tradition means honoring those who came before us — judging men by the times they lived in, not by today's popular standards.

Other nations, constantly rewriting their history books, do the opposite. It's not hard to see why; the last decade gave us The New York Times "1619 Project", which has tried to recast our founding fathers as villains. And tragically, it somewhat succeeded.

I spent a long time thinking about what to write for America's 250th, a nation I feel such immense gratitude for that even writing these words makes my eyes water.

It had to be timely, something we could draw a lesson from for this moment. It had to capture the essence of this nation, hopefully through a great American — and of course, there's no shortage of them to choose from.

So here's what I landed on: a man who did everything right, yet whose life ended in tragedy.

His family suffered because of his actions and idealism. I chose him partly out of personal bias: his ancestors and their path echo the struggles my own lineage faced in the old country. His journey mirrors the same idealism that brought us here.

He's been largely forgotten. But despite his lack of recognition (there isn't even enough information to write a full biography about him), there is little doubt America would exist today without him.

This is the story of Haym Salomon.

_AMERICA’S FORGOTTEN MAN_

On January 6, 1943, New York City's legendary mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, proclaimed that from then on, the city would recognize that day as "Haym Salomon Day."

Across the ocean, America was fighting World War II on moral grounds, as President Roosevelt explained, for Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. The Third Reich's gas chambers had been burning for several years already.

Other news from that day: the United Nations declared that property confiscated by the Nazis would be restored, and the US Army was making gains in the Solomon Islands against the Japanese.

Since the founding, there had been many petitions to honor Haym Salomon, some from presidents themselves, but none were realized. In the 1940s, with antisemitism growing in America, some activists decided it was time to try again.

Some days were proclaimed in his name, like La Guardia's, which, to my research, was only written about that day and never again since. A commemorative stamp was issued in the 1940s, and some statues were promised, but 250 years later, Salomon remains relatively unknown.

SALOMON’S RISE

Haym Salomon was born in Poland in 1740 to a family that had fled Spain almost exactly 250 years earlier during the Spanish Inquisition. His family had likely witnessed the Spanish autos-da-fé, or "acts of faith": the burning of Jews at the stake during public ceremonies.

Like many Jewish families, they fled toward Eastern Europe, entering Poland in its last years as a great European power, where immense poverty and vicious pogroms, amid political instability, were common afflictions.

Haym was born into a family that had overcome the drastic odds and accumulated wealth and status. But in those days, success wasn't enough to shield you from the perils of religious persecution, and a pogrom that struck his home when he was young led Haym to leave, heading west toward Holland, a global economic center that would later help the patriots in the American Revolution.

By that time, he was already fluent in multiple languages and knowledgeable in commerce, brokerage, and other financial tools of the time.

We can assume he was well-versed in the events of the time and the ills of the old world, such as political instability and violent religious persecution, which probably drove him to the colonies at a time when there were whispers of impending revolution.

He landed in New York City in 1772, finding himself in the middle of one of the greatest moments in human history: the crawl toward the founding of America.

With his skills, languages, and European connections, he quickly established himself as a successful financial broker, facilitating transactions tied to global trade. He aligned himself with the Patriot cause, joining the Sons of Liberty and participating in the anti-British agitation of the time.

In 1776, he was arrested by the British for espionage and for supporting the Revolution. Because of his knowledge of multiple languages, he was pardoned under the condition that he would serve the British military in translating and coordinating with the Hessian mercenaries — German soldiers who served the British in the Revolutionary War.

Extraordinarily, he used his access to the Hessians to convince hundreds, if not thousands of them to desert, and the British records of his arrest note that he was sowing anti-British sentiment among the Hessians to weaken them as a military unit. He also used his position to help American prisoners of war escape.

He was re-arrested for his actions and sentenced to death. However, he reportedly bribed the guards to escape death, then fled to Philadelphia, leaving his family and wealth behind, to venture out to the headquarters of the cause.

WINNING THE REVOLUTION

The American Revolution was always in peril and mostly broke, but survived because the French and Dutch had granted loans and funding. In those days, there was no fast way to send money across the ocean. The money existed as credit balances in Europe, but Congress had no way to turn that into cash in Philadelphia.

Robert Morris, as Superintendent of Finance, turned to Haym Salomon to solve this problem. Salomon sold bills of exchange, basically IOUs stating that whoever held the paper could collect a set amount from a specific person in Europe, at a discount, to American merchants willing to take on the risk and wait for eventual repayment.

In this way, Salomon brilliantly converted distant, illiquid European credit into usable cash for the revolutionary army right when it was needed. He was also the primary depositor in the bank Morris set up, taking on huge amounts of risk personally for the revolution.

Salomon even took steps to ensure that troops and suppliers got paid even amid the continental hyperinflation and credit collapse.

From 1781 to 1784, Salomon helped provide more than $600,000 (an enormous sum in those days, worth tens of millions in today's dollars) for George Washington's war effort. As the cause grew more desperate, he gave personal loans to many of the founding fathers to keep them afloat, including Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and even the Marquis de Lafayette, who helped broker loans with France. Madison later said the only reason he was able to retire with a pension was because of Haym Salomon.

Over time, Salomon kept lowering the interest on his services below the market rate, until eventually he charged none at all. The loans themselves were ultimately beside the point; Salomon never asked the founders for repayment.

When the Continental Army neared mutiny, lacking funds, clothes, and food, before the Battle of Yorktown, Washington, as the story goes, wrote, "Send for Haym Salomon." Notably, the Battle of Yorktown began on September 28, 1781, the same day as the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

The date has given rise to one of the most enduring stories in American Jewish history: It was written that Washington's emissaries came to Salomon for help on this very day, and Salomon, an observant, deeply religious Jew who also kept the Sabbath, organized the effort and his congregation despite the holiday, noting that this was a stark moment of life or death.

The Yorktown victory was the turning point of the war, and it is indisputable that Salomon's financial prowess and his ability to provide Washington with the funding he needed were critical to that success.

Without that victory, there was no America.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

It is a great privilege to live in America. She has overcome tremendous odds to become, still, the world's greatest hope for freedom. That freedom was never free. It was purchased at Yorktown, and in a thousand places since by men and women who gave everything and asked for nothing, most of whom we will never name.

On January 6, 1785, Haym Salomon died from an illness contracted while held prisoner by the British, at the age of 44.

He died penniless, in an unmarked grave, having loaned more than $600,000 in those dollars to the cause, by some estimates. For decades after, his son petitioned the federal government to repay some of what he was owed, to no avail.

He left his children no wealth. What he left them was freedom.

And in time, that freedom made this country wealthy beyond the founders’ imagining. And somewhere in our comfort, we let ourselves believe the wealth was the point. It never was. Wealth is only what freedom makes possible. And freedom has to be re-earned by every generation, which means to keep it, paid for again in vigilance and sacrifice, usually by people no one will ever thank.

When the revolution hung by a thread, Washington gave a single order: "Send for Haym Salomon."

250 years later, America is now calling for us. Most of us will answer in ways no one records, and be forgotten by history, like he was. Answer anyway. Because we inherited freedom, and the duty to pass it on.

That's what America needs. It needs you.