In the fall of 1857, August and Caroline Belmont sailed into New York harbor, his four-year assignment as United States ambassador to The Hague complete. As their boat passed the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, the steeples of Trinity Church appeared on the horizon, followed by the merchant houses of South Street and the banks just north of the Battery. On the calm waters before them, dozens of ships crisscrossed the port, ferry boats shuttling between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, canal sloops loaded with wheat arriving from Albany via the Erie Canal, ocean-going clippers unloading barrels stamped “Liverpool,” and coastal brigs lying low with their heavy load of cotton bales. As it unfolded before the Belmonts, New York radiated material bounty. Indeed, August himself had thrived in the city in the short twenty years after first setting foot on the North American continent as a representative of the banking house of Rothschild. Now, he was one of the richest and most powerful Americans. Within days of the Belmonts' return to their mansion on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, they had exhibited their exquisite art collection, “containing paintings of most of the first living masters,” and given lavish dinners that featured the delicacies of a chef brought back with them from Europe. By giving back to this nascent world capital some Old World culture, the Belmonts were reasserting their prominent position.