“s views, and when challenged by Beauregard, Davis backed Benjamin, advising the general to”
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Judah P. Benjamin
Judah Philip Benjamin was a lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Louisiana, a member of the Confederate States Cabinet and, after his escape to Britain at the end of the American Civil War, an English barrister. Benjamin was the first Jew to hold a Cabinet position in North America and the first to be elected to the United States Senate who had not renounced his faith.
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business · American politician and lawyer (1811–1884) · politician · barrister · diplomat · businessperson · writer · jurist · foreign minister · also Judah P. Benjamin, Judah Philip Benjamin, Benjamin
Born 6 August 1811 · Died 6 May 1884 · Q466115
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2026· 3 entries
“a most useful member of the official family, and thought him suited for almost any post in it.”
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“It was to me a curious spectacle, the steady approximation to a thorough friendliness of the President and his War Minister. It was a very gradual rapprochement, but all the more solid for that reason.”
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1988· 1 entry
That Benjamin "represent[ed] a significant dilemma [in] my years growing up as a Jew both proud of his people and with an intense commitment to the ideals of liberalism and human solidarity that I found embodied in the c
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1948· 1 entry
In Charlotte, North Carolina, commemorating Benjamin
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1936· 1 entry
Told Meade that "the fat Jew sitting at his desk" was to blame
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1901· 1 entry
His sole surviving classmate wrote that Benjamin had been expelled for gambling
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1884· 2 entries
Died 1884-05-06.
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And funeral services were held in a church prior to Judah Benjamin's interment at Père Lachaise Cemetery in the St
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1881· 1 entry
Benjamin represented Arthur Orton, the Tichborne claimant, before the House of Lords
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1880· 1 entry
Was badly injured in a fall from a tram in Paris
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1868· 2 entries
Benjamin published A Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property, With Reference to the American Decisions, to the French Code, and Civil Law
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Free on bail, and Benjamin advised him not to take legal action against the author of a book that had angered Davis, as it would only give the book publicity
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1867· 1 entry
Benjamin had been indicted in Richmond, along with Davis, Lee, and others, for waging war against the United States
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1866· 1 entry
Benjamin enrolled at Lincoln's Inn, and soon thereafter was admitted to read law under Charles Pollock, son of Chief Baron Charles Edward Pollock, who took him as a pupil at his father's direction
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1865· 1 entry
Judah Benjamin arrived at Southampton, in Britain
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1862· 2 entries
Career landmark: Confederate States Secretary of State (1862–1865).
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Britain was forced to import large quantities of wheat and flour from the United States
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1861· 6 entries
Nine days after their state declared secession
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When Louisiana left the Union and Benjamin resigned as a U
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Career landmark: Confederate States Attorney General (1861–1861).
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Career landmark: Confederate States Secretary of War (1861–1862).
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Benjamin resigned as senator and returned to New Orleans
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Deemed Benjamin "the greatest mind" in North America
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1860· 3 entries
To a packed gallery, desirous of hearing one of the South's most eloquent voices
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Another Louisiana periodical, the Delta, printed a letter from Benjamin dated December 8 stating that, as the people of the North were of unalterable hostility to their Southern brethren, the latter should depart from th
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Though whether this occurred is open to question as Wise was not there and it was not reported in the city's Jewish newspaper
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1859· 2 entries
Benjamin was elected to a second term, but allegations of involvement in land scandals and the fact that upstate legislators objected to both of Louisiana's senators being from New Orleans stretched the contest to 42 bal
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Career landmark: United States senator (1859–1861).
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1858· 1 entry
Davis, by then a Mississippi senator, was irritated by Benjamin's questioning him on a military bill and suggested that Benjamin was acting as a paid attorney, the Louisianan challenged him to a duel
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1857· 1 entry
Career landmark: United States senator (1857–1859).
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1856· 1 entry
That "dreadful will be the internecine war that must ensue"
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1855· 2 entries
An Ohioan, David Christy, published Cotton Is King: or Slavery in the Light of Political Economy
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Career landmark: United States senator (1855–1857).
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1853· 4 entries
At a brief meeting called just prior to President Pierce's inauguration
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That "if the President nominates Benjamin, the Democrats are determined to confirm him
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"let any great social or physical convulsion visit the United States, and England would feel the shock from Land's End to John O'Groats
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Career landmark: United States senator (1853–1855).
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1852· 2 entries
Benjamin spoke out against Harriet Beecher Stowe's portrayal
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“belongs to New Orleans. Its commerce makes empires of the countries to which it flows.”
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1850· 1 entry
Millard Fillmore, who succeeded Taylor after his death earlier that year, appointed Benjamin as judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
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1848· 1 entry
Benjamin was a Whig member of the Electoral College; he voted for fellow Louisiana planter, General Zachary Taylor, who was elected U
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1845· 1 entry
David Yulee, born David Levy, his second cousin, had been sworn in for Florida, but he renounced Judaism and eventually formally converted to Christianity
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1844· 1 entry
The legislature voted to hold a constitutional convention, and Benjamin was chosen as a delegate from New Orleans
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1842· 1 entry
Benjamin had a group of cases with international implications
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1841· 2 entries
Ran unsuccessfully for the New Orleans Board of Aldermen
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As they were being transported in the coastwise slave trade from Virginia to New Orleans
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1840· 1 entry
Did so alone, as Benjamin was too busy litigating cases to participate
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1834· 1 entry
Which required the analysis of 6,000 cases
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1828· 1 entry
With no visible assets other than the wit, charm, omnivorous mind and boundless energy with which he would find his place in the sun"
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1825· 1 entry
Benjamin entered Yale College, an institution popular among white Southerners; Vice President John C
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1813· 1 entry
The Benjamin family moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where they had relatives
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1811· 1 entry
Born 1811-08-06.
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