August Belmont - Entry Into Politics

Entry Into Politics

Belmont married Caroline Slidell Perry, the daughter of Matthew Calbraith Perry, on November 7, 1849. According to Jewish newspaper sources, he converted to Christianity at that time, taking his wife's Episcopalian faith. Soon, John Slidell, his wife's uncle, made Belmont his protégé. Belmont's first task was to campaign for James Buchanan in New York. In June, 1851, Belmont wrote letters to the New York Herald and the New York National-Democrat, insisting that they do justice to Buchanan's presidential run. But Franklin Pierce won the nomination instead, and Belmont made large contributions to the Democratic cause, weathering political attack. After his victory, Pierce in 1853 appointed Belmont chargé d'affaires and minister to The Hague. While in Holland, Belmont urged American annexation of Cuba as a new slave state in what became known as the Ostend Manifesto.

Though Belmont lobbied hard for it, Buchanan denied him the ambassadorship to Spain after his election in 1856, thanks to the Ostend Manifesto. As a delegate to the Democratic Convention of 1860, Belmont supported Stephen A. Douglas, who subsequently named Belmont chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Belmont energetically supported the Union cause during the Civil War as a War Democrat, conspicuously helping Missouri congressman Francis P. Blair raise and equip the Union army's first predominantly German-American regiment. Belmont also used his influence with European business and political leaders to support the Union cause in the American civil war, dissuading the Rothschilds and other bankers from lending to the Confederacy and meeting personally with the British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, and members of Napoleon III’s French government.