Saul Solomon (25 May 1817 – 16 October 1892) was an influential liberal politician of the Cape Colony. A tireless defender of racial and religious equality, Saul Solomon was an important member of the movement for responsible government and an opponent of Lord Carnarvon's disastrous Confederation scheme.
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Saul Solomon was born on the Atlantic island of St Helena on 25 May 1817 (the nephew of the great St Helena businessman Saul Solomon senior). He had a rudimentary formal education in South Africa before beginning work as an apprentice in a printing business. He later acquired the business and built it into the largest printing business in the country, founding the Cape Argus newspaper. He entered the first Cape parliament as one of the representatives for Cape Town in 1854 and remained an MP until his retirement in 1883.[1]
Saul Solomon's original election promise had been "to give my decided opposition to all legislation tending to introduce distinctions either of class, colour or creed". Throughout his political career he strictly adhered to this manifesto - repeatedly turning down both cabinet and ministerial posts so as to be free to vote according to his beliefs.
Although he was from a Jewish background, Solomon was openly secular in outlook, declaring himself to be "a liberal in politics and a voluntary in religion". In the first Cape parliament in 1854, he presented his "Voluntary bill" (intended to end government subsidies to churches, and to ensure equal treatment of all beliefs) but it was turned down. He proceeded to put it to parliament every year, only for it to be repeatedly rejected, until it was finally passed by the Molteno government in 1875.
Solomon joined the movement for responsible government in the Cape and helped to institute it when it was established in 1872. The leader of the responsible government movement, Prime Minister John Molteno, became a friend and political ally of Saul Solomon. The two men were both businessmen from poor immigrant backgrounds, who had outlooks that were relatively liberal for the times, and saw eye-to-eye on a number of issues. Solomon went on to give his powerful support to the Molteno Ministry on many occasions in the future, though he characteristically refused all offers of cabinet positions so as to be able to oppose the government if his conscience required it.[2] [3]
The eastern part of the Cape Colony had a long-running separatist movement, consisting of a portion of white settlers, led by parliamentarian John Paterson of Port Elizabeth, who resented the rule of the Cape Town parliament and wanted stricter labour laws to encourage the Xhosa to leave their lands and work on the settlers’ farms.
In accordance with his stated policy that "natives should be allowed to sell their labour as they desired, and that no semblance of coercion should be employed to provide labour for the farmer" as well as for other reasons, Solomon took a strong stance against the separatist movement and for a united, multi-racial Cape.
In parliament he led the "Westerners", who backed the Molteno-Merriman government in successfully crushing the separatist movement. Separatist parliamentarians branded him a "negrophile" - an intended insult that he in fact accepted with considerable pride, and he went on to push even further for social reform (for example repealing the discriminatory Contagious Diseases act). [4]
Starting in 1874, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Carnarvon, having federated Canada, began an ill-fated plan to impose the same system of confederation on the very different states of southern Africa.[5]
Although earlier in his career Solomon had been in favour of a form of federated “United States of South Africa”, he shared with Molteno concerns about the form and timing of Carnarvon’s confederation project. Of particular concern to many in the Cape were the repressive “native policies” of Natal and the Boer republics (which would have affected the rights of many Cape citizens) and the fact that some neighbouring states, such as Zululand, would actually require invasion in order to be incorporated into the confederation. Consequently Solomon ended up vigorously opposing Carnarvon’s proposal. Over the next few years the disastrous confederation scheme unravelled as predicted, leaving a swath of destructive wars across southern Africa. [6]
Physically, Solomon was extraordinarily tiny. Childhood ill health, aggravated by a bout of rickets, had left him with badly stunted legs. In fact, he was so short that when addressing Parliament he needed to stand on a chair in order to be seen. His physical condition was particularly drawn attention to by the frequent presence by his side of his friend and political ally Molteno, who was unusually tall and powerfully built,[7] and the image of the two men together was a topic for caricature by the political cartoonists of the time. [8] However, he was a very eloquent and persuasive speaker, with an incredibly sharp mind and a skill for reasoned argument. His proposals were usually painstakingly researched and he characteristically spent long hours studying censuses and other government publications for the precise facts and figures that he believed should inform his opinions. Consequently he was typically always prepared with the necessary evidence to back up his opinions and this earned him considerable respect, even from his political opponents. [9]
His progressive views on equal rights extended to gender relations (for his marriage ceremony he famously asked that his wife should not have to vow to "obey" him) and religion (He never officially renounced his Judaism, but he abhorred sectarian attitudes and attended churches as often as synagogues).
He retired from public life in 1883 due to poor health, moved to Kilcreggan, Scotland in 1888, and died there in 1892.[10]