August Belmont
Born	(1813-12-08)December 8, 1813 Alzey, Hesse
Died	November 24, 1890(1890-11-24) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Island Cemetery
Occupation	Financier, Racehorse owner/breeder
Net worth	USD $10 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/1313th of US GNP)[1]
Spouse	Caroline Slidell Perry
Children	Perry (12/28/1850-5/26/1947) m. Jessie Robbins Sloane August II (2/18/1853-12/10/1924) – m. 1st Bessie Hamilton Morgan / m. 2nd Eleanor Robson Oliver H. P. (11/12/1858-6/10/1908) m. 1st Sarah Swan Whiting / m. 2nd Alva Erskine Smith Raymond Rodgers (7/19/1863-1/30/1887) Jennie (died age 10) Fredericka (9/27/1854-5/31/1902) m. Samuel Shaw Howland
Parents	Simon & Frederika Elsass Schönberg

August Belmont, Sr. (December 8, 1813 – November 24, 1890) was an American politician.

Early life[link]

August Belmont was born in Alzey, Hesse, on December 8, 1813--some sources say 1816--to Simon and Frederika Elsass Schönberg, a Jewish family. After his mother's death, when he was seven, he lived with his uncle and grandmother in Frankfurt.^[2] He attended the Jewish Junior and Senior High School until he began his first job as an apprentice to the Rothschilds.^[2] He would sweep floors, polish furniture, and run errands while studying English, arithmetic, and writing.^[3] He was then given a confidential clerkship in 1832 and promoted to private secretary before travelling to Naples, Paris, and Rome.^[3] In 1837, Belmont set sail for Havana charged with the Rothschild's Cuban interests. On his way to Havana, however, Belmont stopped in New York. He arrived there during the Panic of 1837 and then remained to supervise jeopardised Rothschild interests there instead of continuing on to Havana.^[2] After he emigrated to the United States, he changed his surname, Schönberg (German for "beautiful mountain"), to Belmont (French for "beautiful mountain").

August Belmont and Company[link]

In the Panic of 1837, hundreds of American businesses, including the Rothschild's American agents, collapsed. As a result, Belmont postponed his departure for Havana indefinitely and began August Belmont & Company, believing that he could supplant the recently bankrupt firm, the American Agency.^[3] August Belmont and Company was an instant success, and Belmont restored health to the Rothschild's US interests over the next five years.^[2] In 1844, Belmont was named the Consul-General of Austria at New York. He resigned the post in 1850 in response to what he viewed as Austria's cruelty towards Hungary, even as his interest in politics grew.^[2]

Entry into politics[link]

Belmont married Caroline Slidell Perry, the daughter of Matthew Calbraith Perry, on November 7, 1849. Soon, John Slidell, his wife's uncle, made Belmont his protégé.^[2] Belmont's first task was to campaign for James Buchanan in New York. In June, 1851, Belmont wrote letters to the New York Herald and the New York National-Democrat, insisting that they do justice to Buchanan's presidential run.^[2] But Franklin Pierce won the nomination instead, and Belmont made large contributions to the Democratic cause, weathering political attack.^[3] After his victory, Pierce in 1853 appointed Belmont chargé d'affaires and minister to The Hague. While in Holland, Belmont urged American annexation of Cuba as a new slave state in what became known as the Ostend Manifesto.^[4]

Though Belmont lobbied hard for it, Buchanan denied him the ambassadorship to Spain after his election in 1856, thanks to the Ostend Manifesto.^[5] As a delegate to the Democratic Convention of 1860, Belmont supported Stephen A. Douglas, who subsequently named Belmont chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Belmont energetically supported the Union cause during the Civil War as a War Democrat, conspicuously helping Missouri congressman Francis P. Blair raise and equip the Union army's first predominantly German-American regiment.^[6] Belmont also used his influence with European business and political leaders to support the Union cause in the American civil war, dissuading the Rothschilds and other bankers from lending to the Confederacy and meeting personally with the British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, and members of Napoleon III’s French government.^[7]

Postwar political career[link]

Remaining chairman of the Democratic National Committee after the war, Belmont presided over what he called “‘the most disastrous epoch in the annals of the Democratic Party.’”^[8] As early as 1862, Belmont and Samuel Tilden bought stock in the New York World in order to mold it into a major Democratic organ with the help of Manton M. Marble, its editor-in-chief.^[9] Seeking to capitalize on divisions in the Republican party at the war’s end, Belmont organized new party gatherings and promoted Salmon Chase for president in 1868, the candidate he viewed least vulnerable to charges of disloyalty to the party during the Republican Lincoln-Johnson administrations.^[10] Horatio Seymour’s electoral defeat in that year paled in comparison to liberal Republican Horace Greeley's disastrous 1872 presidential campaign. While the party chairman had promoted Charles Francis Adams for the nomination, Greeley’s nomination implied Democratic endorsement of a candidate who often had referred to Democrats as “‘slaveholders,’ ‘slave-whippers,’ ‘traitors,’ and ‘Copperheads’ and accused them of thievery, debauchery, corruption, and sin.”^[11] Although the election of 1872 prompted Belmont to resign his chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, he nevertheless continued to dabble in politics as a champion of US Senator Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware for the presidency, as a fierce critic of the process granting Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in 1877, and as an advocate of “hard money.”^[12]

Death[link]

Belmont died in New York in 1890. The Letters, Speeches and Addresses of August Belmont was published at New York in 1890. Belmont left an estate valued at more than ten million dollars. He is buried in Newport, Rhode Island.^[3]

Belmont's sons were Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, Perry Belmont, and August Belmont, Jr..

In culture[link]

Belmont threw lavish balls and dinner parties, receiving mixed reviews from New York's high society. He was an avid sportsman and the famed Belmont Stakes thoroughbred horse race is named in his honor. It debuted at Jerome Park Racetrack, owned by Belmont's friend, Leonard Jerome. Today The Belmont Stakes is part of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown and takes place at Belmont Park, just outside New York City.

Also named in Belmont's honor is the town of Belmont, New Hampshire, an honor Mr. Belmont never acknowledged. Edith Wharton reputedly modeled the character of Julius Beaufort in The Age of Innocence on Belmont.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about August Belmont.

• Photograph of August Belmont's birth record, Zivilstandsregister Alzey, Germany, 1813
• Mr. Lincoln and New York: August Belmont
• Our Crowd by Stephen Birmingham (c) 1967 Harper and Row NY Pages 57–62
•  "Belmont, August". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 

Dub FX
Dub FX & Flower Fairy at the Download Open Air Festival Zvolen Slovakia 2009
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Stanford
Born	(1983-06-11) 11 June 1983 (age 29)
Origin	St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia
Genres	Beatboxing, dub, reggae, hip hop music, dubstep, pop music
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, vocalist, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, Beatbox, Loop Station, Effects Pedal
Years active	2005 – present
Labels	Convoyun.ltd
Associated acts	Flower Fairy, Mr. Woodnote, CAde, Kila mega giga tera, Sirius
Website	Official site

Dub FX (real name Benjamin Stanford) is a worldwide street performer and studio recording artist from St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia.^[1] After playing and singing in a band called Twitch, he set out solo when he moved to Europe. His trademark is creating rich live music using only his own performance aided by Live looping and effect pedals combined with his voice.^[2][3] He creates intricate hip hop, reggae and drum and bass rhythms.^[2]

Partner[link]

Stanford travels and performs with his fiancée, Flower Fairy.^[1][4] Dub FX first met her in Manchester, and she joined him in his travels around the globe to busk for the public. Flower Fairy can usually be seen selling CDs during Dub FX's performances and also performs a few songs alongside Stanford. She is featured singing in the songs on Everythinks A Ripple, Wandering Love, and Time Will Tell.

Two songs from Everythinks A Ripple, Flow and Wandering Love, feature a street saxophonist named Mr Woodnote, who also uses similar looping techniques as Dub FX using a saxophone.

In 2010 Dub FX collaborated with Melbourne based producer Sirius and released the album titled: Dub FX and Sirius -A crossworlds. A Crossworlds could be defined as dubstep because of the heavy emphasis on sub frequencies and the tempo's used ranging from 138 - 145Bpm. Dub FX does not beatbox on this album. Any information on how Dub Fx and Sirius came to collaborate or meet is unknown.^[5]

Dub FX is also part of the dubstep act Kila Mega Giga Tera, the other half being Glade Kettle (Distro)(aka Sirius) They have one song release to date on aquatic lab sessions volume 1. A CD and limited edition vinyl compilation released in 2009. Kila Mega Giga Tera also have a forthcoming album^[6] which is yet to surface.

Music[link]

Dub FX is completely independent using only: live performance, word of mouth, internet social networking and a number of easily accessible free samples. Dub FX is also the main founder of the label Convoyun.ltd which could be described as a co-op label for Dub FX's own work and other people's.^[2] To date artists that have released albums on Convoyunltd are: Flower Fairy, Sirius, Mr Woodnote, and Dub FX. With additional featured artists on separate songs of each album. Every album released through Convoy Un.Ltd has been produced by Dub FX with the exception for Dub FX & Sirius's release, A Crossworlds, a collaboration album released in 2010 which revealed a much darker and instrumental sound.^[7]

His lyrics both address generalized world events and contemporary angst while suggesting individual based revolution through self determination and engagement.

He also addresses issues of social importance, the most notable example being the song "Society's Gates", loosely based on the life of the philosopher Socrates.

Discography[link]

• Everythinks a Ripple is the first Dub FX studio album. The promotional material says "all sounds on the album were created with his voice using a Roland effects & loop pedal."^[8]
• 2007: Live in the Street is a collection of live street performances performed in various countries.

Featured in the song KMGT - Subsonic^[9] on Aquatic Lab Sessions Vol 1 Track 10^[10]

• 2010: A Crossworlds' is a collaboration album featuring 17 new tracks all produced, mixed and mastered by Dub FX and Sirius.^[5][2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Dub FX at MySpace
• Dub FX at Twitter
• Dub FX at Facebook