Download PRINTER`S NO. 1588 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF

PRINTER'S NO.
1588
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE RESOLUTION
No. 227
Session of
2010
INTRODUCED BY STACK, STOUT, FONTANA, BROWNE, ERICKSON,
TARTAGLIONE, COSTA, GREENLEAF, ALLOWAY, RAFFERTY, PIPPY AND
HUGHES, JANUARY 5, 2010
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, JANUARY 5, 2010
A RESOLUTION
Designating the month of January 2010 as "Haym Salomon
Remembrance Month" in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, Patriotic financiers of the American Revolution are
rarely studied in high school history classes; and
WHEREAS, The financial support of these men during the
American Revolution was crucial to the success of the brave
troops who needed to be supplied in order to defeat the British;
and
WHEREAS, Financiers also brokered loans with European
countries such as France and the Netherlands to help the
colonial revolution; and
WHEREAS, A prominent financier of the American Revolution,
Haym Salomon, was born in Poland in 1740 and immigrated to New
York City, where, at the beginning of the war, he was a
financial broker; and
WHEREAS, Drawn to the Patriots' side early in the war, Mr.
Salomon served as an interpreter who encouraged German
mercenaries to desert, as well as a financial donor to the war
effort; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Salomon was arrested by the British as a spy in
1776, pardoned, arrested again in 1778, sentenced to death and
then escaped to Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, In Philadelphia, Mr. Salomon discovered the
Continental Congress was in financial disarray because it had no
power to tax the colonies to fund the war effort and he went on
to lend his financial support; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Salomon soon became broker to the French consul
and paymaster of the French troops in America; and
WHEREAS, Robert Morris was appointed superintendent of
finances in 1781 and relied on public spirited financiers like
Mr. Salomon to subscribe to the newly established Bank of North
America and to lend their own money to the government as it
struggled to gain financial footing; and
WHEREAS, These efforts financed the victorious Yorktown
campaign of Washington and Rochambeau; and
WHEREAS, Resuming his career as a private broker and
financier, Mr. Salomon was an influential member of
Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel congregation and helped lead the
fight to overturn restrictive Pennsylvania laws that barred nonChristians from holding public office; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Salomon married Rachel Franks in 1777, and they
had four children; and
WHEREAS, Mr. Salomon's family life was cut short by his
passing in 1785; and
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago, Illinois, recognized Mr.
Salomon's patriotic contributions by erecting a George
Washington-Robert Morris-Haym Salomon Memorial downtown on
Wacker Drive; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Senate designate the month of January 2010
as "Haym Salomon Remembrance Month" in Pennsylvania in
recognition of his role as a financier of the American
Revolution and his willingness to take financial risks to help
establish this nation.