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This quaint document was referred to the Board of War, and although it is to be found in the papers or the Continental Congress, No. 41, Vol. IX, p. 58, there is no record of action taken upon it. But it is remarkable for two things * * * Salomon’s effort to aid a fellow prisoner * * * and the frankness of his statement to the Congress, whose members thereafter accepted his benefactions without hesitation–or repayment.

The most important of Salomon’s services to the American cause were yet to come. For the benefit of the Art Commission, these may be stated in the words of United States Senator Walker, the first page of whose report accompanies this article in facsimile:

“Having escaped from prison, Mr. Salomon is next heard of as the negotiator of ‘all the war subsidies obtained from France and Holland,’ which he indorsed and sold in bilis to the merchants in America, at a credit of two or three months, on his own personal security, without the loss of a cent to the country, and receiving only a quarter per centum; while, as appears from an account now in the archives of the Department of State, relating to the twenty million livres subsidy, $60,000 were deducted in France as the cost of negotiation. It is also seen by the archives that Robert Morris charges 100,000 livres to the United States, as having been given to one John Chaloner, 3th September, 1782, in the form of douceur, to induce him to use his efforts to keep up the rates of exchange on Paris: also, 10,000 livres, as paid to one Jones–‘whereas Mr. Salomon had kept up the prices by the sales of many millions on the French Government,’ before and after the giving of those douceurs by Morris. ‘for which Mr. Salomon did not charge or receive one cent.'”

The quotes are as in the original of the report, the plain intimation being that, after serutiny, the Senator believed the real financier of the American Revolution to have been not Morris, but Salomon.

There were other activities of a confidential financial nature during the same period. The friendship of the Spanish Government was considered extremely desirable, and so Salomon advanced from his private nurse to his Excellency the Minister Plenipotentiary of King Charles III. some $10,000 for which he was never repaid.

The Delegates from Virginia and elsewhere were unable to obtain their pay. Haym Salomon paid them, and never was repaid. His services were gratefully acknowledged by James Madison, who said he was reluctant to apply to Salomon, because he would never accept payment for the accommodations he so freely dispensed. References to Salomon in the diary of James Madison, photographer in the Library of Congress, where the manuscripts are preserved, are reproduced with this article for the further edification of the Art Commission.

Among the men to whom Salomon advanced money which the Government of the United States never repaid were Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Lee; John Randolph. Baron von Steuben, Gen. Mifflin of Pennsylvania, Gen. St. Clair, Col. Bland. J. F. Mercer of Virginia, and James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Robert Morris, Superintendent of Finance to the Continental Congress, found him a never failing help in time of need. The amount advanced to individuals and never repaid, owing not from them but from the Government, was estimated by his executors at $300,000. No claim for this money was ever made. But in 1850, a Senate committee concurred in the House resolution providing for the repayment to the heirs of Salomon the moneys actually advanced to the Government itself. Messrs. Pennypacker of Pennsylvania; Morehead of Kentucky; Clayton of Delaware; Johnson of Maryland; Dickinson of New York, who constituted the Senate Committee on Claims, unanimously agreed to report similar to that already adopted in the House, but too late for presentation.

During the second session of the 29th Congress another report was drawn up by Senator Bradbury, which gives the indebtedness of the Government to the Salomon heirs as follows:

“That it appears from documentary evidence submitted by the memorialist, that Haym Salomon, his father, contributed largely of his pecuniary means towards carrying on the war of the Revolution, aiding the public treasury by frequent loans of moneys, and advancing liberally of his means to sustain many of the public men engaged in the struggle for independence, at a time when the sinews of war were essential to success. It further appears to be satisfactorily established, that the confidence of Mr. Salomon was so great in the good faith of the government, that he parted with his money, relying on that good faith for its return.

“He died suddenly after the conclusion of peace, and the inventory of the estate contains a list treasury and other evidences of indebtedness of the government of a very large

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