The resemblance between the two paragraphs is so striking as to make it probable, despite the discrepancy in dates, that the same communication is referred to.
[10] The Report to the 31st Congress states: "On the accession of the Count de la Luzerne to the embassy from France, Mr. Salomon was made the banker of that government.... He was also appointed by Monsieur Roquebrune, treasurer of the forces of France in America, to the office of their paymaster-general, which he executed free of charge."
[11] Details of the assistance so rendered are given in the Report to the 31st Congress. Mr. Salomon, it is said, "maintained from his own private purse Don Francesco Rendon, the secret ambassador of that monarch for nearly two years, or up to the death of Mr. S., during which Rendon's supplies were cut off." A striking passage is quoted in the same Report from a letter said to have been written in 1783 by Rendon to the Governor-General of Cuba, Don José Marie de Navarra: "Mr. Salomon has advanced the money for the service of his most Catholic Majesty and I am indebted to his friendship in this particular, for the support of my character as his most Catholic Majesty's agent here, with any degree of credit and reputation; and without it, I would not have been able to render that protection and assistance to his Majesty's subjects which his Majesty enjoins and my duty requires." The statement is also made that: "Moneys thus advanced to the amount of about 10,000 Spanish dollars remained unpaid, when Mr. Salomon died shortly after."
[12] Mr. Henry S. Morais, in his history of "The Jews of Philadelphia," notes as follows: (p. 24.) "The amount has been variously given at as much as $600,000 and more. Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, D. C., in February, 1892, presented a complete and elaborate statement of this question, based upon official documents, in an article (entitled, "Are Republics Ungrateful?") published in the Reform Advocate, of Chicago."
In another note on the same subject Mr. Morais states: "Mr. Salomon's loan and its accruing interest would now (1893) amount to over $3,000,000." Haym M. Salomon, a son of the philanthropist, and who kept a store on Front street, vainly endeavored to obtain payment of his just claim, notwithstanding that it was favorably reported to the U. S. Senate in 1850. In this report it was said: "Haym Salomon gave great assistance to the government by loans of money and advancing liberally of his means to sustain the men engaged in the struggle for independence at a time when the sinews of war were essential to success."
[13] For a summary of the account see the certificate appended, infra. Some few further details of the inventory are given in the Committee Report to the 30th Congress.
[14] "Mr. McCrea," in the Report to the 31st Congress.
[15] Mr. Joseph Nourse, Register of the Treasury of the United States from 1777 to 1828, wrote from Washington in 1827, to Mr. H. M. Salomon: "I have cast back to those periods when your honored father was agent to Office of Finance; but the inroads of the British army in 1814 deprived us of every record in relation to the vouchers of the period to which I refer." See for details, Report to 31st Congress; also Bibliographical Note.
[16] For details, see Report to 31st Congress.
[17] Hon. Simon Wolf, of Washington, D. C., in an article in The Reform Advocate of Chicago (see Bibliographical Note), calls attention to the fact that Professor Sumner—the most recent biographer of Robert Morris—in his "The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution," makes no mention of the services of Haym Salomon. Mr. Wolf adds: "When I called Mr. Sumner's attention to it he answered in a letter which I received to-day, that, he had supposed that Mr. Salomon had been paid long since, and was surprised at the statement which I made."