The New International Encyclopaedia

BELMONT, AUGUST (1816-90). An American financier. He was born in Alzey, Germany; was for several years employed in the banking house of the Rothschilds at Frankfort and Naples, and removed to New York as their representative in 1837. He was consul-general for Austria from 1844-50, and in 1853 was appointed by President Pierce chargé d'affaires at The Hague, where he afterwards became Minister Resident, resigning in 1858. He was interested in politics, and was chairman of the National Democratic Committee from 1860 to 1872. He was prominent on the turf, and as a patron of art, and owned a fine collection of paintings.

BELL, HENRY HAYWOOD (1807-68). An American naval officer, born in North Carolina. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1823; was for many years connected with the East India Squadron, and in 1856 commanded a vessel of the squadron which destroyed the barrier forts, near Canton, China. In 1862 he was appointed fleet-captain of the West Gulf Squadron, and took a prominent part in the passage of Forts Saint Philip and Jackson, and the capture of New Orleans. He was, for a time in 1863, in command of the West Gulf Squadron. In 1865 he was assigned to the command of the East India Squadron, and in 1866 was promoted to be rear-admiral. He was drowned at the mouth of the Osaka River, Japan.

MOTT, LUCRETIA (COFFIN) (1793-1880). An American abolitionist and woman's rights advocate, born on Nantucket Island. She was educated in the Friends' School at Nine Partners, near Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where she met James Mott (q.v.), whom in 1818 she married. She became prominent as a preacher in the Society of Friends and was chosen a minister. As a result of a visit to Virginia in 1818 she became an ardent advocate of emancipation. At the 'Separation' of 1827 which divided the Society of Friends into two hostile factions, she and her husband adhered to the liberal or Hicksite party. In 1833 she attended as an invited guest the first convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which her husband was a member. Soon afterwards she helped to organize the Female Anti-Slavery Society, of which she continued one of the leaders until 1839, when it was merged in the men's organization. As the feeling against abolitionists grew in intensity, many of the more timid Quakers began to deprecate any discussion of slavery by one of their ministers, and even in her own meeting she was regarded with
suspicion and dislike. In 1840, at the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, to which both James and Lucretia Mott had been chosen delegates, the question of the equal participation of women in the proceedings of the convention came up, and after some discussion all women were excluded. It was then that Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton first discussed the woman's rights movement, which they launched eight years later at a convention in Seneca Falls, N. Y. But these two movements, abolition and woman's rights, while they received the greater share of her attention, were not the only ones in which Mrs. Mott was interested, for all that promised to uplift humanity or to break the fetters of ignorance and tradition received her warmest support. Almost to the end of her life she made frequent journeys to visit distant meetings or to attend conventions called to consider the elevation of woman, the promotion of temperance, and the establishment of universal peace. Consult Hallowell, The Life and Letters of James and Lucretia Mott (Boston, 1884).

An American merchant, distinguished as a philanthropist and reformer. He was born in Upper Darby, Pa., of Quaker parentage; learned the trade of a cutler and scythe-maker, and in 1820 removed to Wilmington, Del., where he became an iron and hardware merchant. Here, also, he avowed his anti-slavery opinions without reserve, and became widely known as the friend of the slaves and of negroes generally. His name was familiar to the slaves of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia; and during a period of forty years there was a constant procession of fugitives seeking his protection and aid. It is said that not less than 3000 of them were indebted to him for their freedom. He was compelled to resort to many ingenious devices in his work, but he made no secret of the fact that he was engaged in it, and such was his reputation for success that few slaveholders thought it worth while to pursue their runaways any farther after learning that they had fallen into his hands. In 1848 he was prosecuted by James Bayard (q.v. ) before Judge Taney (q.v.); was finally convicted on what appears to have been insufficient evidence of having abducted two slave children; and was fined so heavily as to render him penniless. His business would have been utterly broken up at this time if his fellow-citizens of Wilmington had not volunteered to furnish him all the capital he needed. At the time of his death he was universally beloved by the whites as well as the blacks.