August Belmont
August Belmont, Sr. (
December 8,
1816 –
November 24,
1890), was born in
Alzey,
Prussia to a
Jewish family. He immigrated to
New York City in 1837 after becoming the American representative of the
Rothschild family's banking house in
Frankfurt. On receiving his American citizenship, he married Caroline Perry, daughter of Commodore
Matthew Perry.
In 1844, Belmont was named the consul-general of
Austria at
New York. He resigned in 1850 in response to what he viewed as Austria's cruel treatment of
Hungary. In the years following, he served as chargé d'affaires for the
United States at
the Hague, as well as the American minister at the same place.
As a delegate to the
Democratic Convention in 1860, he supported
Stephen A. Douglas. He was named the Chairman of the
Democratic National Committee the same year in
Baltimore. He energetically supported the
Union cause during the
Civil War, and exerted a strong influence in favour of the North upon the merchants and financiers of
England and
France.
An avid sportsman, the famed
Belmont Stakes thoroughbred horse race is named in his honor. Also named in his honor is the town of
Belmont, New Hampshire - an honor Mr. Belmont never acknowledged.
His sons
Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and
August Belmont, Jr. both rose to prominence in their own right.
He died in New York in 1890 and a volume entitled
Letters, Speeches and Addresses of August Belmont (the elder) was published at New York in 1890.
It is probable that
Edith Wharton modelled her character of
Julius Beaufort in
Age of Innocence on August Belmont. (
link)
*
Mr. Lincoln and New York: August Belmont
