Joseph Seligman

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Joseph Seligman

Joseph Seligman (born November 22, 1819 in Baiersdorf ( Bavaria ), † April 25, 1880 in New Orleans , Louisiana ) was a well -known American banker and businessman of German origin. After emigrating to the USA at the age of 18, he founded Bank J. & W. Seligman & Co. with branches in New York , San Francisco , New Orleans, London , Paris and Frankfurt am Main .

During the post- American Civil War boom , J. & W. Seligman & Co. was heavily involved in railroad finance, specifically as broker of transactions operated by Jay Gould . Seligman issued securities for a number of companies and participated in the stock and bond issues of railroad, steel and cable companies. The investments reached as far as Russia and Peru , in addition Seligman was involved in the establishment of the Standard Oil Company as well as in shipyards, bridges, bicycle manufacturers, mining companies and a multitude of others.

In 1877, Seligman became the subject of the most widely publicized anti-Semitic incident in US history when he was denied access to the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs , New York . The case aroused national interest.

childhood

As a child, Seligman worked in his mother's haberdashery store . At that time Germany consisted of a large number of independent states with their own currency and Joseph earned his first money by running a kind of exchange office in his mother's shop for a small fee for travelers.

Joseph's father wanted him to start in the family's wool business, but the ongoing migration of the rural population into the cities shrank the Seligmans' customer base and worsened the economic situation in Baiersdorf in general. At fourteen, Seligman attended the University of Erlangen . At seventeen, he emigrated to the United States from Bremen on board a steamship .

Arrival in America

Seligman initially settled in Mauch Chunk , Pennsylvania , where he worked as a cashier for Asa Packer , who would later become a congressman . His annual earnings were $ 400 a year.

With his wages saved, Seligman began trading in rural Pennsylvania as a peddler of jewelry, knives, and other small goods. He made it possible for the farmers to go shopping without having to walk into town. After he had raised $ 500, he was able to bring his brothers William and James, who, like him, worked as peddlers.

The Seligmans received some anti-Semitic abuse but did not allow themselves to be restricted in their dealings.

J. & W. Seligman & Co. and the railroad

In 1846, the Seligman brothers founded an import company in New York that soon became one of the country's leading investment banks . Seligman's company invested in a number of railroads, including the Missouri Pacific , Atlantic and Pacific Railroad , South Pacific Coast Railroad, and Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad . Seligman was also among the financiers of the New York elevated railway.

The Seligmans also lost money on their railroad businesses. For example, they bought land in Arizona to be used as cattle pasture; the animals were then to be transported to consumers on the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad . However, the drought in Arizona thwarted the business venture.

American Civil War

During the American Civil War (1861-1865) Seligman supported the northern states by issuing war bonds worth $ 200 million. This act was viewed by Ambassador William Dodd as "hardly less important than the Battle of Gettysburg ".

Historians later relativized Seligman's role as a war financer through borrowing. Stephen Birmingham said Seligman had to accept war bonds from the Union government as payment for his uniform shipments. Defeats in the northern states and the suspiciously high interest rates diminished confidence in the bonds and made reselling them difficult.

Economic Conditions in the United States

US President Ulysses S. Grant , who had become friends with Joseph's brother Jesse Seligman when he was First Lieutenant at Watertown , New York, offered Joseph Seligman the post of US Treasury Secretary , which he declined - probably because of his shyness. George S. Boutwell was named instead and promptly came into conflict with the Seligmans.

In 1877, US President Rutherford B. Hayes Seligman asked August Belmont, and several other New York bankers, to discuss a plan to refinance the civil war debt. Each banker made a proposal, Treasury Secretary John Sherman chose Seligman's as the most practical solution. It included the issuance of bonds to conserve gold reserves.

Seligman-Hilton affair

In 1877, judge Henry Hilton, who was also the director of the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga , refused entry to Seligman and his family because they were Jews. This sparked a nationwide controversy. It was the first anti-Semitic incident of its kind in the United States and received widespread public interest.

background

Several incidents during the 1870s made Alexander Turney Stewart feel hostile towards Seligman, despite both serving on the board of the New York Railway Company , of which Judge Henry Hilton was president.

The first incident involved Seligman's refusal when he was offered the post of finance minister. Stewart, a friend of President Grant's, was next asked, but the Senate declined his appointment because he was affiliated with Henry Hilton, who was involved in dubious Democratic Party ( Tammany Hall society controlled immigrant vote buying Done in New York at will) has been linked.

Seligman was invited to the Committee of 70 , a group of New Yorkers who came together to oppose the mafia-like structures of the Democrats surrounding William Tweed (the so-called Tweed Ring ). Stewart's company severed all business relations with Seligman in retaliation.

Stewart died in 1876 and had entrusted Hilton with the administration of his legacy, the greatest fortune in the United States to date. Legacy included a $ 2 million stake in the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, as well as Stewart's department store on Astor Place . Hilton was also upset about Seligman because he had not invited him to the gala dinner for Grant after his election as US president.

The incident

After refinancing the war debt in Washington, Seligman and his family wanted to vacation at the 834-room Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, as they had before. Saratoga was a respected retreat for the New York upper class at the time, and the Grand Union Hotel was the premier property in its place.

Nonetheless, the hotel experienced a decline in business in 1877. Stewart, and after his death, his manager Hilton, believed this decline was related to the presence of " Israelites " (read: Jews) in the hotel; Christians, according to their theory, did not want to stay in a hotel that allowed Jews. Seligman was informed that he could not stay at the hotel.

Historians argue whether the Seligman family was really physically removed from the hotel, whether they were told they weren't allowed to come, or were told they could only stay one last time. It is clear, however, that it was made clear to the Seligmans that their presence at the hotel was undesirable and would not be tolerated for long, if at all.

Aftermath

The incident generated sharp controversy. The New York Times put a heading in all capital letters on June 19, 1877:

A SENSATION AT SARATOGA.
_____
NEW RULES FOR THE GRAND UNION.
NO JEWS TO BE ADMITTED - MR. SELIGMAN,
THE BANKER, AND HIS FAMILY SENT AWAY--
HIS LETTER TO MR. HILTON--
GATHERING OF MR. SELIGMAN'S FRIENDS
AN INDIGNATION MEETING TO BE HELD.

(German: "A sensation in Saratoga: New rules for the Grand Union. No Jews admitted. Mr. Seligman, the banker, and his family sent away. His letter to Mr. Hilton, meeting of Mr. Seligman's friends, an outrage meeting scheduled")

Judge Hilton published a letter stating, "Nor does the law ... permit one to use one's property as he sees fit, and I intend to exercise this blessed privilege regardless of the contradiction of Moses and all of his descendants."

The fall became a national event. Seligman and Hilton both received death threats. A group of Seligman's friends called for a boycott of AT Stewart's department store, ruining it; a sale to John Wanamaker followed. This prompted Hilton to pledge a thousand dollars to Jewish charities, a gesture that was derided by the satirical magazine Puck .

Hilton was also targeted by Henry Ward Beecher in a sermon entitled Gentile and Jew . As a result, open anti-Semitism grew in America, other hoteliers followed Hilton's example and explicitly excluded Jews by putting up signs: “Hebrews need not apply” and “Hebrews will knock vainly for admission ”(German:“ Hebrews will knock in vain for admission ”).

family

Joseph Seligman's siblings were (according to birth order): William (born Wolf), James (born Jacob), Jesse (born Isaias), Henry (born Hermann), Leopold (born Lippmann), Abraham, Isaac, Babette, Rosalie and Sarah .

He married his cousin Babet Steinhardt in Baiersdorf in 1848. They had five sons together: David, George Washington, Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman , Isaac Newton Seligman and Alfred Lincoln, and four daughters: Frances, Sophie and two others.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Korn, American Jewry and the Civil War . 2001, p. 161
  2. ↑ Birmingham, "Our Crowd": The Great Jewish Families of New York . 1996, p. 74
  3. ^ Silberman, A Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today . 1985, p. 47
  4. ↑ Birmingham, "Our Crowd": The Great Jewish Families of New York , 1996, p. 144
  5. ↑ Marcus, United States Jewry, 1776-1985: Volume III - The Germanic Period Part 2 . 1993, p. 157
  6. ↑ Birmingham, "Our Crowd": The Great Jewish Families of New York . 1996, p. 147

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Seligman, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American banker and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Baiersdorf , Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1880
Place of death New Orleans , Louisiana