Caroline Slidell Perry Belmont

Caroline Slidell Perry was the daughter of Jane Slidell and MatthewPerry, commodore of the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American War andthe War of 1812. Her father also played a leading role at theConvention of Kanagawa, which opened Japan to the West and helpeddevelop the curriculum at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

In 1849 Caroline married August Belmont, a German Jewish immigrantwho managed to work his way up from rather humble beginnings in theRhenish Palatinate village of Alzey, through an escalating series ofpositions with Rothschilds, before coming to New York in 1837 toserve as their agent. When the Rothschilds sustained major lossesduring the Panic of 1837, Belmont established his own financial firm,August Belmont & Company, and accrued a fortune over the nextdecades. Naturalized in 1844, the following year, a New Yorknewspaper estimated his wealth at $100,000. When August marriedCaroline, whom he called “beautiful and well-bred,” on November7, 1849, it was widely regarded as the most fashionable wedding thatyear in New York.

Beginning in 1852,August undertook a political apprenticeship to Caroline’s uncle,Louisiana congressman John Slidell. He would be deeply engaged innational politics for the rest of his life, later serving for yearsas the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In 1853,Franklin Pierce named him to a diplomatic post in Holland. Carolinewas rather miserable the whole time, complaining that the Hague wasboring, lacked the comforts of New York, and that the weather was toosevere.

Caroline and Augusthad six children. They lived an opulent life in New York City, with acountry house in upper Manhattan, a farm on Long Island, and amansion at Fifth Avenue and Eighteenth Street, where they entertainedfrequently, hosting masquerades, elegant dinners, and privateperformances.

Caroline Slidell Perry Belmont

c. 1860