CHAPTER LIV.AUGUST BELMONT.
The American Representative of the Rothschilds.—Begins Life in the Rothschilds’ House in Frankfort.—Consul General to Austria and Minister to the Hague.—A Great Financier and a Connoisseur in Art.
August Belmont has achieved the highest credit of any banker in the United States. His bills are always in demand and command a little more than those of any one else. He came to New York comparatively poor, but is now worth millions. As a representative of the Rothschilds in this country he has for many years held a high position in the financial world. He has managed the business of that historic house with prudence and exceptional acuteness and sagacity. Contrast his success in this country with the experience of Americans abroad. George Peabody, and J. S. Morgan, the successor of that philanthropist, may seem to be exceptions to the rule, but they did not win such social and business success as has been achieved by Mr. Belmont in this country, and the fact remains that no American could have been so successful abroad as he has been in the United States. Europe does not afford the opportunities that so often arise here. This is the country of great and frequent opportunities; there is a large and inviting field for enterprise and business skill, although, of course, all cannot win such a position in the financial world as that occupied by Mr. Belmont, who is reckoned among the wealthiest as well as the most honored of America’s adopted citizens.
He was born in the Rhenish Palatinate sixty-eight years ago. His father was a man in well-to-do circumstances, who sent him, when he was thirteen years old, to become an apprenticed clerk to the Rothschilds in their Frankforthouse. According to the German custom, he received no pay; he was compensated by the opportunity of learning the banking business. He made rapid progress. Before he was twenty-one he was selected to accompany one of the Rothschilds to Italy and France as his secretary. In 1837 the famous house, recognizing the promising field in this country for profitable investments, sent young Belmont to New York as their agent, a position which he held till 1858, when he became their American correspondent and general representative, and this responsible post he has held ever since. In 1844 he was appointed Consul-General for Austria, and held the position for five years, when he relinquished it because of his personal friendship for Louis Kossuth and his sympathy with Hungary in the quarrel with Austria. In 1849 Mr. Belmont married the niece of Commodore Perry, the hero of Lake Erie, a beautiful and accomplished lady, who did much to strengthen his social position. In 1853 he was appointed Minister to the Hague by President Pierce, and served four years. He has always been a staunch Democrat, and was for several years chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He has generally refused to accept public office, but his eldest son, Perry, has served several terms in Congress.
Mr. Belmont is under the medium height, rather stout, with iron-gray side whiskers, round German features and keen dark eyes, and among the strong characteristics of the man is his marked chivalric courtesy and knightly courage. As a financier he has few equals and no superior, and to his politic and conservative management, as well as his foresight and intimate knowledge of affairs, is due the American prestige and success of the Rothschilds. Mr. Belmont’s house on Fifth Avenue, with its splendid art treasures, is worth a large fortune in itself. He is a connoisseur in works of art, and has one of the finest private collections of pictures in the world. For many years he has also had a princely residence at Newport and a stock farm at Babylon,Long Island. Though not, strictly speaking, a club man, he was one of the founders of the Manhattan Club. His successful career is an illustration of the fact that this country affords a fine opportunity for the intelligence, thrift and industry not only of native Americans but of the Republic’s adopted citizens.