Perry Belmont

Belmont was born on December 28, 1851, in New York City, the son of Caroline Slidell (née Perry) and financier August Belmont. His maternal grandfather was Commodore Matthew C. Perry. His brothers were Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont and August Belmont Jr.

He attended Everest Military Academy in Hamden, Connecticut; and graduated from Harvard College in 1872; attended the law school in the University of Berlin;^[2] and graduated from the Columbia Law School in 1876. He was admitted to the bar that same year.

Through his mother, he was a descendant of Captain Christopher Raymond Perry who had served as a privateer during the American Revolution and was also the father of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew C. Perry. By virtue of his descent from Captain Perry, Belmont became a member of the Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the Revolution. In 1929 he was elected as a hereditary member of the Rhode Island Society of the Cincinnati. He was also a member of the Veteran Corps of Artillery.

Belmont practiced law in New York City for five years. Partnered with him in the law firm, Vinton, Belmont & Frelinghuysen, were his cousin, the writer Arthur Dudley Vinton, and George Frelinghuysen, future president of the Ballantine Brewing Company. He and his brother, August Belmont Jr., were also founding members of The Jockey Club.

Elected as a Democrat to the 47th Congress and reelected to the next three Congresses, Belmont served as the U.S. representative for the first district of New York from March 4, 1881, until his resignation on December 1, 1888.^[3] During his first term, he was a member of the committee on foreign affairs; noted for his cross-examination of James G. Blaine, the former secretary of state. The cross-examination concerned Blaine's relations with a syndicate of American capitalists interested in the development of certain guano deposits in Peru. An attempt was made to show that Blaine's efforts toward mediation between Chile and Peru were from interested motives.^[4] Belmont served from 1885 to 1887 as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs.

He was appointed United States Minister to Spain in November 1888 and served until May 1889.^[5]

On October 6, 1890, Belmont was invested as a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.

In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, Belmont served for six weeks in the Army as an Inspector General of the First Division, Second Army Corps, United States Volunteers, with the rank of major.

When the Consolidated National Bank of New York was organized on July 1, 1902, the fourteen directors included individuals such as Belmont, John W. Griggs, Henry C. Brewster, George Crocker, and Mortimer H. Wagar.^[6]

In 1906, Belmont became "permanent president" of the National Publicity Bill Organization, which fought for campaign finance disclosure.

During the First World War, despite being 65 years old, Belmont was commissioned as a captain in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps on May 5, 1917. He was assigned to the Remount Division in Washington, D.C., and was discharged on May 21, 1920.^[7]

In 1899, after 17 years of marriage, Jessie Ann Robbins (1858–1935) divorced Henry T. Sloane (son of William Sloane, the founder of W. & J. Sloane) to marry Perry Belmont. The marriage occurred only five hours after the divorce was decreed and, at the time, was considered scandalous.^[1]

Belmont died in Newport, Rhode Island, on May 25, 1947 (age 95 years, 148 days).^[1] He is interred along with his parents and his brother August Belmont Jr. in the Belmont family plot in the Island Cemetery in Newport.^[8] His former home in Washington, D.C., became the International Temple for the Order of the Eastern Star.

• Spanish War Service Medal
• World War I Victory Medal

• List of members of the American Legion

• Works by or about Perry Belmont at the Internet Archive
• United States Congress. "Perry Belmont (id: B000353)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Perry Belmont at Find a Grave
•   Homans, James E., ed. (1918). "Belmont, Perry" . The Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: The Press Association Compilers, Inc. (with portrait)