Haym Salomon died suddenly, at the age of forty-five, leaving a widow and two infant children, named Ezekiel and Haym M. The inventory of his estate showed that he had lent to the government more than $350,000, but although these certificates of indebtedness were almost all that was left of his wealth, they were never paid, and all efforts of his heirs in later times to recover from Congress payment on these claims, or even to obtain a token of recognition for his great services, have thus far proved unsuccessful.
Salomon also took an active part in Jewish communal affairs in Philadelphia and was one of the original members of the Congregation Mickweh Israel. In 1784 he was treasurer of what was probably the first Jewish charitable organization in that city.
His son, Haym M. Salomon, lived in New York and was a dealer in powder and shot, occupying a store in Front Street in the time of the great fire of 1835. William Salomon (b. in Mobile, Ala., Oct. 9, 1852) of New York is a great-grandson of Haym Salomon.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DECLINE OF NEWPORT; WASHINGTON AND THE JEWS.
England’s special enmity to Newport caused the dispersion of its Jewish congregation—The General Assembly of Rhode Island meets in the historic Newport Synagogue—Moses Seixas’ address to Washington on behalf of the Jews of Newport and the latter’s reply—Washington’s letters to the Hebrew Congregations of Savannah, Ga., and to the congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Richmond and Charleston.
The breaking out of the Revolution put an end to the commercial prosperity of Newport. Its situation upon the ocean, which made it before so favorable for commerce, had now an opposite effect, and left it more exposed to attacks from the enemy than any other place of equal importance, in North America. Its inhabitants had especially provoked the hostility of the mother country, as it was one of the first places to manifest a spirit of resistance to the British Government by burning an armed vessel of war that came to exact an odious tax. It could expect no mercy and received none, when 8,000 British and Hessian troops occupied it in 1776. Four hundred and eighty houses were destroyed, its commerce was ruined and its commercial interests never recovered from this blow, which fell with crushing effect upon the Jewish residents.
The congregation was dispersed, the Synagogue was closed, and Rabbi Isaac Touro went with his family to Jamaica, where he remained until his death in 1782. Aaron Lopez, who was a heavy sufferer, accompanied by a majority of the foremost Jews of Newport, removed to Leicester, Mass., and their stay in that town had a favorable effect on its development. Others went to Philadelphia and other places. When Newport was evacuated, in 1779, after the enemy destroyed its wharves and fortifications and carried off its library and records, some of the exiles began to return. When the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island convened for the first time after the evacuation, it met in the historic Synagogue (Sept., 1780). Aaron Lopez was one of a number of the Leicester colony who set out for their former home, but he was drowned on the way, and his body was later recovered and buried in the old cemetery.
But those who returned did not remain long. New York had become the great commercial center after the Revolution, and the important Newport merchants left one by one for that city; others went to Philadelphia, Charleston or Savannah. The congregation was, however, still in existence when President Washington visited Newport in August, 1790, and he was on that occasion formally addressed by Moses Seixas on behalf of the Jews of Newport as follows: