Salomon de Rothschild's Visit to America

In the fall of 1859, Salomon de Rothschild, the son of Baron James de Rothschild of Paris, came to the United States as a tourist. His travels in the North and South were recorded in a series of letters to his cousin Nathaniel in London, which are stored in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress.

Although Rothschild's visit was as a private tourist and not a business trip for his family's banking firm, he met with prominent personalities and commented intelligently on the issues of the day. His views on the conflict between the North and the South were decidedly pro-Confederate and his letters urged his cousin to use all his family's influence to gain the recognition of the Confederacy by the European powers.