AUGUST BELMONT SR. - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 11/7 - HFSID 72793

AUGUST BELMONT, SR.
Banker, politician and patriarch of the Belmont family send an autograph letter accepting an invitation.
Autograph Letter Signed: "August Belmont", 1½p, 5x8. 50 Wall St. (New York), no year, November 7. Begins: "Dear Sir". In full: "I returned only this morning from a short visit in the Country, otherwise I should have replied sooner to your kind invitation for Tuesday next, which I accept with much pleasure. I am very sorry indeed that my involuntary delay caused you to take the trouble of coming to see me on this stormy day & still more that I was out when you were kind enough to call." Belmont opened his office on Wall Street as the New York agent for the Rothschild's banking house in 1837. His own firm, August Belmont & Company, started with practically no capital and grew into one of America's largest banking houses. Belmont also served as Consul General for Austria in the U.S. (1844-1850), U.S. Minister to the Netherlands (1853-1857) and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (1860-1872). He and his wife, Caroline Slidell Perry, the daughter of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, had three sons and a daughter. Upon Belmont's death in 1890, their second son, August, Jr., took control of the business, which later financed and helped build New York City's subway. Light ink transference in upper blank margin. Fine condition.