RARE! "Belmont Stakes Founder" August Belmont Signed Letter JG Autographs /COA

Description

RARE! "Belmont Stakes Founder" August Belmont, Sr Signed Letter. This item is certified authentic by
JG Autographs
and comes with their Letter of Authenticity.
ES-3041
August Belmont Sr.
(born August Schönberg; December 8, 1813 – November 24, 1890) was a German-American financier, diplomat, politician and party chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
, and also a horse-breeder and racehorse owner. He was the founder and namesake of the
Belmont Stakes
, third leg of the
Triple Crown
series of American Thoroughbred horse racing. He was born to a
Jewish
family in the
Rhenish Hessian
town of
Alzey
on December 8, 1813. At that time, Alzey was in the
Mont-Tonnerre
department of the
French Empire
, but it is now part of Germany. His parents were Simon Belmont and his wife, Frederika Elsass. His family had Sephardic roots, tracing back to the town of
Belmonte, Portugal
. After his mother's death when he was seven years old, he lived with his uncle and grandmother in the German financial capital of
Frankfurt am Main
("Frankfurt on the
Main River
"). Belmont attended the
Philanthropin
, a
Jewish
school in Frankfurt, until he began his first job as an apprentice to the
Rothschild
banking firm in Frankfurt. He would sweep floors, polish furniture and run errands while studying English, arithmetic and writing. He was promoted to confidential clerk in 1832 and later traveled to
Naples
,
Paris
and
Rome
. In 1837, at the age of 24, Belmont set sail for the
Spanish
colony of
Cuba
and its capital city of
Havana
, charged with the Rothschilds' Cuban interests. On his way to Havana, Belmont stopped in
New York City
on a layover. He arrived in the previously prospering United States during the first waves of the financial/economic recession of the
Panic of 1837
, shortly after the end of the iconic two-term administration of
President
Andrew Jackson
, the nation's
first Democratic
administration. Instead of continuing on to Havana, however, Belmont remained in New York to supervise the jeopardized
Rothschild
financial interests in America, whose New York agent had filed for bankruptcy.
In the financial/economic recession and Panic of 1837, hundreds of American businesses, including the
Rothschild family
's American agent in New York City, collapsed. As a result, Belmont postponed his departure for Havana indefinitely and began a new firm, August Belmont & Company, believing that he could supplant the recently bankrupt firm, the American Agency. August Belmont & Company was an instant success, and Belmont restored health to the Rothschilds' U.S. interests over the next five years.
The company dealt with foreign exchange transactions, commercial and private loans, as well as corporate, railroad, and real estate transactions. Belmont owned a mansion in what is presently
North Babylon, Long Island, New York
. It is now owned by New York State and is known as
Belmont Lake State Park
.
[
In 1844, Belmont was appointed as Consul-General of the
Austrian Empire
at New York City, representing the Imperial Government's affairs in the major American financial and business capital. He resigned the consular post in 1850 in response to what he viewed as the Austrian government's policies towards
Hungary
, which had yet to gain equal status with Austria as part of the
Dual Monarchy
compromise of 1867. His interest in American domestic politics continued to grow.
John Slidell
, the uncle of Belmont's wife, was a
U.S. Senator
from
Louisiana
and later Southern secessionist who served the
Confederate States
government as a foreign diplomat and potential minister to
Great Britain
and French Emperor
Napoleon III
. He was controversially removed in late 1861 from the British trans-Atlantic steam packet ship
Trent
, off-shore from Havana, by the
Union Navy
warship
USS
San Jacinto
. Slidell made Belmont his protégé. Belmont's first task was to serve as campaign manager in New York for
James Buchanan
of
Wheatland, Pennsylvania
, then an American diplomat in Europe, who was running for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the
election of 1852
. In June 1851, Belmont wrote letters to the
New York Herald
and the
New York National-Democrat
, insisting that they do justice to Buchanan's run for the presidential nomination. But
Franklin Pierce
of
New Hampshire
, a "
dark horse
" candidate, unexpectedly won the
Democratic nomination
instead, and was elected
President
. He appointed Buchanan as his
Minister to the United Kingdom
, and Belmont made further large contributions to the
Democratic
cause, while weathering political attacks. In 1853, Pierce appointed Belmont
Chargé d'affaires
(equivalent to ambassador) to
The Hague
of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands
. Belmont held this post from October 11, 1853, until September 26, 1854, when the position's title was changed to Minister Resident. He continued as Minister Resident until September 22, 1857. While in the Netherlands, Belmont urged American annexation of Cuba as a new
slave state
in what became known as the
Ostend Manifesto
.
Although Belmont lobbied hard for it, newly elected President Buchanan denied him the ambassadorship to
Madrid
in the
Kingdom of Spain
after the
presidential election of 1856
, thanks to the
Ostend Manifesto
.
As a delegate to the pivotal, but soon violently-split
1860 Democratic National Convention
in
Charleston, South Carolina
, Belmont supported influential
U.S. Senator
Stephen A. Douglas
of
Illinois
, (who had triumphed in the famous 1858
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
over his long-time romantic and political rival, the newly recruited
Republican
candidate
Abraham Lincoln
, in their battle for Douglas's
Senate
seat).
[
Senator Douglas subsequently nominated Belmont as chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
. Belmont is attributed with single-handedly transforming the position of party chairman from a previously honorary office to one of great political and electoral importance, creating the modern American
political party
's national organization. He energetically supported the
Union
cause during the
Civil War
as a "
War Democrat
" (similar to former
Tennessee
Senator
Andrew Johnson
, later installed as war governor of the
Union Army
-occupied seceded state), conspicuously helping
U.S. Representative
from
Missouri
Francis P. Blair
raise and equip the
Union Army
's first predominantly German-American regiment.
Belmont also used his influence with European business and political leaders to support the Union cause in the Civil War, trying to dissuade the Rothschilds and other French bankers from lending funds or credit for military purchases to the Confederacy and meeting personally in
London
with the
British prime minister
,
Lord Palmerston
, and members of Emperor
Napoleon III
's French Imperial Government in Paris.
[8]
He helped organize the Democratic Vigilant Association, which sought to promote unity by promising Southerners that New York businessmen would protect the rights of the South and keep free-soil members out of office. Remaining chairman of the
Democratic National Committee
after the
War
, Belmont presided over what he called "the most disastrous epoch in the annals of the Democratic Party". As early as 1862, Belmont and
Samuel Tilden
bought stock in the
New York World
in order to mold it into a major Democratic press organ with the help of Manton M. Marble, its editor-in-chief. According to the
Chicago Tribune
in 1864, Belmont was buying up Southern bonds on behalf of the Rothschilds as their agent in New York because he backed the Southern cause. Seeking to capitalize on divisions in the
Republican Party
at the War's end, Belmont organized new party gatherings and promoted
Salmon Chase
(the former
United States Secretary of the Treasury
since 1861, and later
Chief Justice of the United States
in 1864) for president in
1868
, the candidate he viewed least vulnerable to charges of disloyalty to the Party during the Republican/Unionists Lincoln-Johnson Administrations, (1861–69).
Horatio Seymour
's electoral defeat in the 1868 election paled in comparison to the later nomination of
Liberal Republican
Horace Greeley
's disastrous
1872 presidential campaign
. In 1870, the Democratic Party faced a crisis when the Committee of Seventy emerged to cleanse the government of corruption. A riot at Tammany Hall led to the campaign to topple
William M. Tweed
. Belmont stood by his party. While the party chairman had originally promoted
Charles Francis Adams
for the nomination, Greeley's nomination implied Democratic endorsement of a candidate who as publisher of the famous nationally dominant newspaper, the
New York Tribune
, had often earlier referred to Democrats before, during and after the War as "slaveholders", "slave-whippers", "traitors", and "
Copperheads
" and accused them of "thievery, debauchery, corruption, and sin".Although the election of 1872 prompted Belmont to resign his chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, he nevertheless continued to dabble in politics as a champion of U.S. Senator
Thomas F. Bayard
of
Delaware
for the presidency, as a fierce critic of the
process
granting
Rutherford B. Hayes
the
presidency in the 1876 election
, and as an advocate of "
hard money
" financial policies.
[