The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-19
PERRY BELMONT, of Nev York
By Sauoyard.

1 ed an excellent education, and when
 very young man entered the banking house of the Rothschilds at Frankfort | So ready was he to master the science that ere he was twenty he was ap- | pointed as the head of the Rothschilds | bank at Naples. Italy. At the age of | twenty-one he went to New York ana | there opened the house of August Bel mont Co.,, which became the cores pondent of the Rothschilds in the Uni- l ted States. Not long after he began business he became an American citi- | zen, joined the Democratic party. ana was active in behalf of Polk and Dal- | las in the campaign of 1s44.
 There were two factions of the New York Democracy At the head of one Wright and Samuel J. Tilden for lieu Wright and Samuel J. Tilden 10 rheu- tenants These became the farD | burners" The other faction was headed by William l.. Marcy, then, ana for years later, the best-fitted man Tn the entire country for the ohce or President of the United States, Bei- mont became a partisan or Marcy, anu when the latter was appointed Secre tary of State he selected Belmont ior minister to The Hague. While James Buchanan, minister to England: Pierre  Mason. minister to France, were writ- ing the ostend Manifesto, Belmont was entering into conventions with Hol- land that opened the Dutch East ln- dies to our trade and resulted in incal- culable advantage to American com merce that began to grow about tila' time He also participated in the aip- lomatic congress at Paris ana ms ui' cussions of the practice of prlva'eel inc in time of war commanded the at tention and extorted the admiration of every European chancellery.
 When Marcy ceased to be Secretary of State. Belmont returned to Amerl- ca. He was now active in politics
 not for office, but for Ideas. lie might have been Governor or senator had his ambition been in that direc- tion. He had gone to The Hague only with the view to serve the country Tn A diplomatic capacity. for which he was splendidly equipped. When Bucn- anan and Douglas parted company Belmont followed the latter. and sup ported him in the Charleston conven- ton to the end, and later was active in his behalf at Baltimore. No man in the country had clearer vislon O. the situation when secession came than August Belmont. His letters
 
 of strong, terse. convincing logic ex- | pressed in perfect English that any one born to that tongue might well envy. In the light of subsequent his tory they read like prophecy. No | man at the North was a better friend | of the South. Few men of the North | saw the inevitable result as clearly as l he. But. his warning fell on deaf ears
 and at Appomattox the South was | crushed.
 About 1882 the government sent | Archbishop Hughes and Henry Ward Beecher to England to make public | opinion for the North. At that time Lord Palmerston was prime minister . He was a Southern sympathizer. A typical beef-eating Englishman. he
 was to statesmanshfp what Tom Sayres was to pugilism. He hoped the South would win, and believed it would win.
 Two sentimentalists like Hughes and Beecher were only calculated to irrf- tate such a man as Palmerston. but the cool heads at Washington request ed August Belmont. a man of as much common sense as Palmerston himself to talk the thing over with the Brit ish foreign office. He soon convinced | them that the cause of the South wat | hopeless as long as the North was de | termined and it was manifest to al | that the North was determined. Nc man did more to prevent English in 1 terposition. and no other man did SC | much to place the United States gov l ernment loans with European bank | CTS. Had he been Secretary of the | Treasury the war would have cost , about 40 per cent of what it did cost | so far as was shown in the nationa, | debt statement. There would have 1 been no greenbacks.
 | Mir. Belmont supported Mcclellan ir | 1S64 and Seymour in 1888. Wher
 Greeley was nominated. he resigned
 from the Craftsmanship of the Nation | al Committee. He was a delegate tt
 every national convention from 1s6
 to 1884 both inclusive. He died il
 1890. after having been leader Of hi
 party and a conspicuous citizen of tn
 United States for fifty years.
 Edmund Perry of Devonshire, Eng
 land. was a direct descendant in tn
 sixth generation from Sir Williar
 Wallace, hero of Scotland. He cam
 to America in 1880 and settled |
 Massachusetts descendant of hi
 Christopher Ray Perry, a naval office
 of the United States, was the fathe
 of five sons. all officers of the Unite
 States navy-Oliver Hazard, Raymon - M "A @ N WN A NA