August Belmont | |
|---|---|
 Belmontc. 1860–1872 | |
| Chair of theDemocratic National Committee | |
| In office June 23, 1860 – 1872 | |
| Preceded by | David Allen Smalley |
| Succeeded by | Augustus Schell |
| United States Minister to the Netherlands | |
| In office October 11, 1853 – September 22, 1857 | |
| Preceded by | George Folsom |
| Succeeded by | Henry C. Murphy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Aaron Schönberg[1] (1813-12-08)December 8, 1813 |
| Died | November 24, 1890(1890-11-24) (aged 76) |
| Resting place | Island Cemetery, Newport, Rhode Island |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6, includingPerry,August Jr.,Oliver,Raymond |
| Parents |
|
| Occupation | Financier, politician, diplomat, racehorse owner/breeder |
| Signature |  |
August Belmont Sr. (bornAron Belmont; December 8, 1813 – November 24, 1890) was a German-American financier, diplomat, andDemocratic Party politician. As chair of theDemocratic National Committee from 1860 to 1872, during a period of turmoil and reconciliation for the party following theAmerican Civil War, Belmont was one of the longest serving party leaders in American history. During his life, he was one of the wealthiest men in the United States. He was also a thoroughbred racehorse owner and the founder and namesake of theBelmont Stakes, the third leg of theTriple Crown of American Thoroughbred horse racing.[2]
Belmont was born in theGrand Duchy of Hesse in 1813 to a leading Jewish family. After attending thePhilanthropin, he joined the Rothschild banking house as an apprentice and clerk. In 1837, en route to Cuba to stabilize Rothschild holdings following theFirst Carlist War, Belmont stopped inNew York City during acatastrophic financial panic and learned that the Rothschilds' American agent had collapsed. Acting on his own judgment, he established himself as the house's American agent, a position which rapidly elevated him to the top of New York society.
Through his wife Caroline Slidell Perry and her uncle,John Slidell, Belmont became involved in the Democratic Party as a major donor and organizer in 1844, the same year he was naturalized as a United States citizen. In 1853, Belmont was appointed as United States minister to the Netherlands byFranklin Pierce. His diplomatic career was controversial for his roles in theOstend Manifesto, calling for the American acquisition of Cuba, and theWalter M. Gibson affair. Although Belmont was a leading supporter ofJames Buchanan in his presidential campaigns in both 1852 and 1856, Buchanan did not appoint Belmont to any position in his administration, and Belmont supportedStephen A. Douglas for the party's nomination in 1860.
When the Democratic Party split between its northern and southern wings in 1860, Belmont became chair of the northern (or national) wing, leading its campaign againstAbraham Lincoln. His plan to create anti-Lincoln fusion tickets in key swing states failed, and Lincoln was elected, leading to theAmerican Civil War.
He was born as Aron Belmont on December 8, 1813, to aJewish family in the village ofAlzey,[3][4] which was shortly annexed to theGrand Duchy of Hesse after theNapoleonic Wars. His father, Simon Belmont[a] was the owner of a freehold estate and leading citizen of Alzey, serving as president of the localsynagogue for many years. His paternal ancestors wereSpanish Jews who fled theIberian peninsula duringthe reign ofFerdinand andIsabella. At a young age, his parents began calling him August, the name he used throughout his life.[3] His mother, Frederika Elsass Belmont, died when August was seven.[6]
After his mother's death, he lived with his uncle and grandmother inFrankfurt, where he attended thePhilanthropin, a school founded byMayer Amschel Rothschild, designed to integrate the city's Jewish and Christian communities. When he was fifteen, he was forced to withdraw from the Philanthropin after his father failed to pay tuition. His relatives prevailed upon theRothschild family, who were relatives by marriage of his grandmother and already leading European financiers, to train him for business.[3][6] While training as an apprentice and running errands, he was tutored in French, English, composition, and arithmetic.[6] In 1832, his training was rewarded with an appointment as confidential clerk; two years later, he became secretary and traveling companion to one of the firm's partners, which led to his first trip outside Germany toParis,Naples, and theVatican City.[6]
In 1837, the Rothschild branches in Paris and London became concerned with their holdings in theSpanish Empire, which had been destabilized by theCarlist War. They sent Belmont to sail forCuba viaNew York City. Reaching New York amid thePanic of 1837, he learned that the Rothschilds' American agent, J.L. and S.I. Joseph & Co., had collapsed under liabilities of $7 million. As the situation called for a response from Europe more rapid than communications technology permitted, Belmont acted on his own judgment to postpone his trip to Cuba and superintend the Rothschild interests in New York, establishing August Belmont & Co. at 78 Wall Street. The Rothschilds eventually approved his decision, making him their permanent agent in theUnited States.[7]
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From 1837 to 1842, Belmont experienced instantaneous success, serving as disbursing agent, dividend collector, and newsgatherer for the Rothschilds and their customers. The new financial house also invested inforeign exchange markets, commercial and privateloans,commercial paper, and handleddeposits. Belmont's European connections attracted private investment from corporations, railroads, and state and local governments.[8] In the wake of thePanic of 1837, Belmont was able to use Rothschild credit to buy upwildcat bank notes, securities, commodities, and property at severely depressed rates, sometimes as low as ten cents to the dollar. Using early modernsecuritization techniques, he was a pioneer onWall Street, rapidly shifting money and commodities in complex international spirals of creditNew York City had not seen before.[9] He was also considered a skilledarbitrageur, earning him the nickname "King of the Money Changers." Within three years of his arrival in the city, he had amassed a personal fortune of $100,000 ($3,038,257 in 2024), making him one of the richest men in New York and one of the three most important private bankers in the United States. He was still only twenty-six.[10]
In the later half of the 1840s, Belmont's autonomy from the Rothschilds grew, and their relationship declined somewhat. In 1847, the United States government granted Belmont & Co. the right to transfer $3 million toMexico as part of an indemnity paid for land seized in theMexican-American War. He handled the transaction without taking acommission, hoping to generate goodwill with the government. However, when the government sought a $5 million loan soon after, Belmont won only half the amount he had bid insyndication withCorcoran & Riggs. When he further lent the newCalifornia Territory 5 million pesos, the Rothschilds hinted[how?] they might publicly dissociate the transaction and discredit Belmont, but ultimately did not.[11] When Belmont was tasked with mentoringAlphonse James de Rothschild on a visit to America in 1849, he privately told his sister he feared he was training his replacement; Alphonse ultimately returned to Europe to lead the family's Parisian holdings.[11]
During Belmont's time abroad as a diplomat in the Netherlands, the business was operated by Charles Christmas and Erhard A. Matthiessen under the name Christmas, Matthiessen & Company.[12]
Belmont was a lifelong member of theDemocratic Party who first engaged in political campaigning in 1844, the same year he was naturalized as a citizen, by supportingJames K. Polk for president in the hotly contestedpresidential election.[13][14] The same year, he became theconsul general of theAustrian Empire in New York City, representing theHabsburg family in diplomatic matters throughout theMid-Atlantic States. He resigned the position in 1850 over objections to the regime's policies towardsHungary, which had become a majorcause célèbre in the United States, and his growing interest in American politics.[8]
Around 1849, Belmont metJohn Slidell, a leading member of theDemocratic Party inLouisiana, through theUnion Club of the City of New York.[15] By 1850, Slidell encouraged Belmont to enter politics. Belmont had voted for Democratic candidates since his naturalization in 1844, although most of his business acquaintances were nominal or active Whigs.[16]
With Slidell, Belmont backed the nomination of formerUnited States Secretary of StateJames Buchanan for president in 1852, hoping to unite New York in a coalition withthe South. To avoid the appearance of Southern interference, Slidell chose Belmont to manage the New York campaign.[16] At the time, New York Democrats were deeply divided intovarious factions over slavery, with anti-slavery "Barnburners" having bolted in1848 to support theFree Soil Party candidacy ofMartin Van Buren.[16] Throughout 1851 and the spring of 1852, Belmont and Slidell worked to rally the factions to Buchanan, including by the purchase of theNew York Morning Star newspaper, but they failed to overcomefavorite sonWilliam L. Marcy orLewis Cass in the New York delegation. Efforts to unite behind Marcy orStephen A. Douglas at the1852 Democratic National Convention also failed;Franklin Pierce was nominated as an unexpecteddark horse.[16] Belmont lent financial and political support to Pierce's campaign, bringing sustained attack from the city's Whig newspapers, which accused Belmont of using "Jew gold" from abroad to buy votes and maintaining "dual allegiance" to theHabsburg andRothschild families.[16] Belmont demanded a retraction of at least oneTribune story, but after he was rebuffed byHorace Greeley, he enlisted the DemocraticHerald andEvening Post in his defense. The journalistic war of words became known within New York City as the "Belmont affair."[16]
Pierce won the1852 election easily and appointed Buchanan and Belmont to diplomatic posts in theUnited Kingdom andthe Netherlands, respectively. Belmont held the title of Chargé d'Affaires atThe Hague 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. In this role, Belmont successfully negotiated two treaties with the Dutch government: a new commercial treaty permitting American access to theDutch East Indies in 1855 and an extradition treaty in 1857.[17]
Shortly after Pierce's election, Belmont proposed to Buchanan a plan to purchase and annexCuba through military and diplomatic pressure on the unstableKingdom of Spain, along with financial pressure from the Rothschilds and other European banking houses which held Spanish government bonds and could threaten the government with bankruptcy.[how?] In the letter, Belmont proposed that President-elect Pierce could, through his ministers to London and the Bourbon monarchies in Paris andNaples, create a diplomatic climate favorable to Spanish capitulation. For Naples, he recommended himself; Buchanan endorsed the plan and proposed it to Pierce, omitting Belmont's name.[18] Belmont proposed the plan again to William Marcy upon learning that Marcy would become Secretary of State, adding that he was on good terms with the lover ofMaria Christina of the Two Sicilies.[18] He continued to lobby Buchanan, Marcy, and Pierce, directly and through friends, for the appointment to Naples, but it was ultimately given toRobert Dale Owen, and Belmont reluctantly accepted appointment toThe Hague.
En route to The Hague, Belmont visited Buchanan andLionel de Rothschild in London and "several gentlemen of influence" in Madrid. He reported to Washington that Spain was unstable and desperate for financial relief, but also proposed rebellion in Cuba as an alternative to a direct sale, if blocked by "Castilian pride."[19] In October 1853, Belmont requested from Marcy a "secret fund of $40,000 to $50,000"[19] to bribe Spanish officials to support Cuban independence, and he opened backchannel negotiations with the Spanish Minister to The Netherlands, a personal friend who favored the sale. However,Spain–United States relations soured quickly, driven by the bellicosity ofPierre Soulé, the United States Minister to Spain, and theSpanish Revolution of 1854, which installed a government less disposed to sell Cuba. Under sustained pressure from Belmont and other expansionists, President Pierce proposed that Buchanan, Soulé, andJohn Y. Mason (the three leading American diplomats in Europe) deliver a report on the Belmont plan. Though Slidell proposed that Belmont participate "on account of the Rothschild influence at Madrid and Paris,"[19] he was not present at their meeting inOstend,Belgium on October 9, 1854. Their report to Secretary Marcy, which favored an invasion of Cuba in the even that Spain refused to sell the island, became known as theOstend Manifesto. The Manifesto was swiftly doomed by its leak to theNew York Herald and the victory ofPierce's opponents in the1854 elections.[19]
As chargé d'affaires, Belmont was tasked with negotiating a trade agreement which would allow American shipping in theDutch East Indies; his efforts were diverted by aninternational incident over the arrest of American citizen and adventurerWalter M. Gibson forfomenting rebellion in the East Indies.[20] Gibson had been arrested in 1851 for conspiring with theSultan of Djambi to overthrow Dutch authority on the island ofSumatra. After he wasacquitted on a technicality, the Dutch Minister of Justice overturned the colonial court's decision and sentenced him to twelve years imprisonment. Gibson fled the East Indies forWashington, where he arrived in 1853 and appealed to the Pierce administration for protection. He also sought support in pursuing an indemnity claim against the Dutch government for his arrest and destruction of his ship.[20] Secretary Marcy and American public opinion backed Gibson.[20]
After initial resistance from the Dutch foreign ministry, the affair was inflamed in summer 1854 when Gibson, impatient with the State Department's handling of the case, arrived in The Hague personally to pursue his claims, falsely representing himself to Belmont as a special diplomatic agent appointed by Marcy.[20] Gibson's presence undermined Belmont's negotiating position and riled Dutch public opinion, which demanded he be arrested as a fugitive from justice. Belmont's position was further weakened when he left the city for the mineral baths inBohemia, citingrheumatism. While Belmont was on leave, Gibson stole his dossier on the case and left forParis, where he further told American ministerJohn Y. Mason that Belmont had appointed him special attaché. Gibson in turn represented himself around Paris as Mason's first secretary, leaking stories toHorace Greeley'sNew York Tribune which attacked Pierce's foreign policy by suggesting that Belmont utilized his diplomatic post as a banking house and was underwriting theRussian Empire in theCrimean War.[20]
Though Marcy thereafter dropped the issue and proceeded to ignore Gibson's claims, and both Marcy and President Pierce praised Belmont's handling of the affair, the entire incident did further damage to Belmont's public reputation in the United States. In addition to theTribune, the DemocraticNew York Herald (which had turned on the Pierce administration politically, as the result of a patronage dispute) joined in antisemitic and xenophobic attacks on Belmont for the remainder of his tenure.[20]
While at The Hague, Belmont strengthened his ties to James Buchanan, maintaining an active and flattering correspondence with his fellow diplomat. As President Pierce's domestic popularity waned over his handling of thecrisis in Kansas, Belmont expected Buchanan to be the next Democratic nominee and the likely President.[21] Stateside, John Slidell organized members of Congress and bankers behind Buchanan for the 1856 nomination and lobbied Buchanan to resign from his post to openly stand as a candidate. He did in March 1856 and, after a visit to Belmont at The Hague, sailed home, where he was nominated and elected president.[21] Belmont's role in the 1856 campaign was a matter of historical controversy; major accounts inaccurate imply he was in the United States, contributing thousands of dollars and planning campaign strategy. Biographer Irving Katz notes that Belmont did not return from Europe until November 1857 and, though he certainly committed money to the Buchanan campaign, no evidence exists as to an exact sum. Regardless of his exact role, he was again a subject of scrutiny and attack from the domestic press, who sought to tarnish Buchanan's image through connection to Belmont.[21]
Though Belmont hoped to receive a promotion within the diplomatic corps, Buchanan andLewis Cass, the new Secretary of State, offered him only another four years at The Hague; he declined and resigned his post. When he arrived in the United States, he found his party embroiled in a feud between President Buchanan and SenatorStephen Douglas, who denounced the proslaveryLecompton Constitution for theKansas Territory, which Buchanan supported. Belmont, who considered Douglas a personal friend and the likely Democratic nominee in 1860,[21] nevertheless publicly endorsed Buchanan's stance in 1858, circulating a petition which urged Congress to admit Kansas into the Union as a slave state and defending the administration against "'Black' Republicans and Know-Nothings" in an Independence Day speech atTammany Hall.[21]
In 1858, Belmont lobbied to succeedAugustus C. Dodge as Minister to Spain, but his request was ignored by the White House, in part because Buchanan hoped to appoint John Slidell as Minister to France and felt he could not appoint both men to prominent posts. The decision has also been attributed to Belmont's role in the Ostend Manifesto, which made him unsuitable for the sensitive post.[22] The snub agitated Belmont, who broke with the administration permanently, and then broke with his wife's uncle Slidell, after Slidell refused to relay an angry letter from Belmont to the President.[21] Belmont's switch from Buchanan to Douglas drew him into the more moderate "Softshell" faction of the New York party, which favoreda pluralist, democratic approach on the issue of slavery. In October 1859, he joined withSamuel J. Tilden and others to organize the Democratic Vigilant Association, a predominantly mercantile group (especially those engaged in trade with the South) to combat "atrocious disunion doctrines," including the abolition of slavery.[23]
Belmont was elected as a delegate to the1860 Democratic National Convention. As before, Belmont's presence in the Douglas coalition drew criticism, with placards claiming "the Rothschilds have sent countless millions" to buy the presidency.[24] Even some Douglas supporters opposed Belmont, withFernando Wood claiming that Belmont intended to betray the Senator, given his connections to Buchanan and Slidell. Belmont allayed any fears in a meeting with Douglas allies and ultimately became leader of the Douglas men in the New York delegation, a pivotal position at the convention.[24]
Belmont attended the April convention in Charleston with his family andSalomon James de Rothschild as his guest. The convention descended into chaos over the party's position on slavery, was disbanded, and was rescheduled for Baltimore six weeks later.[24] In the meantime, Belmont advised Douglas on campaign strategy and gained the candidate's support for a resolution to protectthe rights of slaveholders in the territories. Belmont also funded Douglas rallies in New York City, aiming to raise funds and keep the Northern party united behind Douglas. Douglas expressed gratitude and invited Belmont to meet in Washington in advance of the Baltimore convention, where Douglas was easily nominated without Southern participation. Belmont was selected as to represent New York on the Democratic National Committee and then elevated as the Committee's chairman; he would serve in the role for over a decade.[24] Douglas biographerGeorge F. Milton wrote, "the Committee hoped [Belmont] could smite the Manhattan rock and cause campaign funds to flow." Belmont biographer Irving Katz additionally cites Belmont's "organizing ability, his immense energy, his unswerving loyalty to the Douglas standard, and his efforts to diminish intraparty friction."[25]
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 Americanpolitical party's national organization.[citation needed]
Belmont energetically supported theUnion cause during theCivil War as a "War Democrat" (similar to formerTennesseeSenatorAndrew Johnson, later installed as war governor of theUnion Army-occupied seceded state), conspicuously helpingU.S. Representative fromMissouriFrancis P. Blair raise and equip theUnion Army's first predominantly German-American regiment.[26][b]
According to one version of events, 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 inLondon with theBritish prime minister,Lord Palmerston, and with members of EmperorNapoleon III's French Imperial Government in Paris.[27]
However, the evidence compiled by Mira Wilkins, inThe History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914 (Cambridge, Harvard, 1989) tells another story. She writes: “A Confederacy loan, issued in London in 1863 and marketed in London and Paris, was oversubscribed” (p. 103). Young Salomon de Rothschild was in the United States in 1859–1861 and was captivated by the American South. He wrote home on April 28, 1961, urging the Rothschilds to use their influence to have the Confederacy recognized. He saw the North as totally at fault” (p. 677 n. 90). The Confederacy loan “was also taken up in Liverpool, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Stanley Chapman calls the loan to the Confederacy ‘perhaps the most audaciously successful loan of the century.’... John Slidell (the uncle of August Belmont's wife) arranged the Confederacy loan. John Slidell's daughter, Mathilde, married Baron Frederic Emile d’Erlanger who was involved in that loan; their son, Baron Emile Beaumont d’Erlanger would become the senior partner in Emile Erlanger & Co., London (based on a family tree in the Belmont Family Papers, Columbia University)” (677 n. 94). In New York, Belmont 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.[28]
Remaining chairman of theDemocratic National Committee after theWar, Belmont presided over what he called "the most disastrous epoch in the annals of the Democratic Party".[29] As early as 1862, Belmont andSamuel Tilden bought stock in theNew York World in order to mold it into a major Democratic press organ with the help ofManton M. Marble, its editor-in-chief.[30]
According to theChicago 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 theRepublican Party at the War's end, Belmont organized new party gatherings and promotedSalmon Chase (the formerUnited States Secretary of the Treasury since 1861, and laterChief Justice of the United States in 1864) for president in1868, the candidate he viewed least vulnerable to charges of disloyalty to the Party during the Republican/Unionists Lincoln-Johnson Administrations, (1861–69).[31]
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Horatio Seymour's electoral defeat in the 1868 election paled in comparison to the later nomination ofLiberal RepublicanHorace Greeley's disastrous1872 presidential campaign. In 1870, the Democratic Party faced a crisis when the Committee of Seventy emerged to cleanse the government of corruption. A riot atTammany Hall led to the campaign to toppleWilliam M. Tweed. Belmont stood by his party.[32]
While the party chairman had originally promotedCharles Francis Adams for the nomination, Greeley's nomination implied Democratic endorsement of a candidate who as publisher of the famous nationally dominant newspaper, theNew 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".[33]
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. SenatorThomas F. Bayard ofDelaware for the presidency, as a fierce critic of theprocess grantingRutherford B. Hayes thepresidency in the 1876 election, and as an advocate of "hard money" financial policies.[34]
As a young Jewish foreigner in New York, Belmont had few initial avenues for social advancement. The existing "Knickerbocker" elite, composed of older English-Dutch Protestants, disapproved of his extravagant lifestyle and tastes, while the established Jewish community in the city was largelySephardic, and Belmont himself disfavored associations with the small, lower-classAshkenazi community. His social companions were largely young rebellious men from well-to-do families; with these connections, he gradually began to introduce European cosmopolitan society to the United States.[35] Belmont's early romantic and social life in the United States also drew controversy and opprobrium. In 1840, he unsuccessfully courted the ballerinaFanny Elssler during her sensational tour of the United States; Elssler's known reputation for promiscuity and her illegitimate child drew disapproval. In 1841, he was publicly accused of an affair with a married woman and responded by challenging the accuser to a duel, in which Belmont was shot in the hip.[36]
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On November 7, 1849, Belmont married Caroline Slidell Perry (1829–1892),[37] whom he met that summer through her uncleJohn Slidell while vacationing atSaratoga Springs.[15] She was the daughter of naval officerMatthew Calbraith Perry, captain andcommodore in theU.S. Navy, later famous for his expedition to open the trading ports ofJapan in 1853.[37] The two were married in an Episcopal ceremony, and he henceforth no longer acknowledged his Jewish upbringing, though he did not convert, being ambivalent toward religion.[38]
Together, they were the parents of six children, with three of his sons becoming involved in politics:[39]
Belmont died inManhattan, New York City on November 24, 1890, from pneumonia.[2] His funeral was held at theChurch of the Ascension in New York City.
TheLetters, Speeches and Addresses of August Belmont was published at New York in 1890. Belmont left an estate valued at more than ten million dollars (equivalent to $318 million in 2024). He is buried in an ornatesarcophagus in the Belmont family plot (along with other Belmonts, Perrys and Tiffanys) in theIsland Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island.[50] His widow died in 1892.[51]
His home,By-the-Sea inNewport, Rhode Island, was demolished in 1946.[52]
He was an avid sportsman, and the famedBelmont Stakes thoroughbred horse race is named in his honor. It debuted atJerome Park Racetrack, owned by Belmont's friend,Leonard Jerome (the maternal grandfather ofWinston Churchill). The Belmont Stakes is part of thoroughbred horse racing's Triple Crown and takes place atBelmont Park racetrack, just outside New York City. Belmont was heavily involved inThoroughbred horse racing. He served as the president of theNational Jockey Club from 1866 to 1887 and owned the Nursery Stud (ahorse-breeding farm nearBabylon, New York, onLong Island), which in 1885 was replaced by a stud farm of the same name nearLexington, Kentucky.[2]
TheLiberty shipSS August Belmont and Belmont Playground inBrooklyn, New York[53] were named in his honor.
Belmont, New Hampshire, is named in his honor, one he never acknowledged.[citation needed]
In 1910, sculptorJohn Quincy Adams Ward completed a bronze statue of a seated Belmont. The statue was originally installed in front of a small chapel adjacent to the Belmont burial plot in the Island Cemetery. It was later moved to a park between Washington Square and Touro Street in Newport. It was replaced by a marker dedicating the park as Eisenhower Park in 1960, to honor PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower. The statue was loaned by the city of Newport to theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1985. It was eventually installed, about 1995, in front of the headquarters building for thePreservation Society of Newport County at the corner of Bellevue and Narragansett Avenues in Newport.[citation needed]
AuthorEdith Wharton reputedly modeled the character of Julius Beaufort in her novelThe Age of Innocence on Belmont.[54]
InThe Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln byStephen L. Carter, August Belmont appears as a character.
August Belmont, the famous banker and turfman, died yesterday morning at 3 o'clock at his residence, 109 Fifth Avenue. The cause of Mr. Belmont's death was pneumonia, from which he had been suffering only three days. The beginning of the malady was a cold contracted at the recent horse show in Madison Square Garden. ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Perry Belmont, former representative and diplomat, who was a grandson of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, died this morning in the Newport Hospital, where he had been a patient since August. He was in his ninety-seventh year. ...
August Belmont, financier and sportsman, died at 6:30 o'clock last evening in his apartment at 550 Park Avenue, less than thirty-six hours after he had been taken ill in his office. ...
August Belmont and Miss Eleanor Robson, the actress who crosed her stage career with the fall of the curtain on "The Dawn of a To-Morrow" at the Majestic Theatre, Brooklyn, on Feb. 12, were married yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock at, the home of the bride, 302 West Seventy-seventh Street, Mgr. Lavelle. assisted by Father Byrnes of St. Patrick's Cathedral, officiating.
The death of Oliver H.P. Belmont occurred soon after 6:30 o'clock this morning at Brookholt, his Long Island country seat. ...[permanent dead link]
Shock Suffered Last Spring. Complicated by Bronchial and Heart Ailments. Society Leader was 80. Former Wife of W. K. Vanderbilt. Long Held Sway in New York and in Newport Colony
Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, leader of New York's '400' for a period of many years before and after the turn of the century, died today at her residence here. She was 80 years old. ...
Mrs. August Belmont died yesterday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock. An hour before death she became unconscious, and did not again rally. She passed away peacefully. At her bedside at her death was her son Perry Belmont, August Belmont Jr. and wife, S.S. Howland and wife, Oliver H.P. Belmont, and Dr. Barrows. She was attended in her illness by Drs. Barrows, Polk, and Hanlen.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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| Preceded by | U.S. Minister to the Netherlands 1853–1857 | Succeeded by |
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